Community News

After safely getting tens of millions of trains to where they need to be over 57 years, the Network Rail team at Birmingham New Street’s iconic railway signal box moved its last service on Christmas Eve. And while its ‘Brutalist’ external appearance has divided opinion over those seven decades, what’s less well-known is how integral its insides have been to run Britain’s railway.

A new partnership between Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) and community transport operators across the region is helping to connect people experiencing loneliness and social isolation with new friends and vital support services. Over three million people across Britain have described themselves as chronically lonely in 2022* – equal to the population of the West Midlands.

The cost-of-living crisis is set to cause heartbreak for UK families as more than one in three (39%) Brits plan to stay home rather than visiting family or friends in order to save money on fuel.

Leasing.com has revealed that the UK is curbing costs wherever possible. A quarter (25%) are spending less on fuel with fuel prices increasing by more than 25% in the past year (Oct 21 to Oct 22), adding £28 to the cost of an average tank.

A taxi driver will be working on Christmas Day to drive families to their desired destination and donating his fares to St Giles Hospice.

Mark Dewar, from Tamworth, in Staffordshire, works for his local taxi firm, Acorns Taxis. In 2020, St Giles Hospice began caring for his wife at the end of her life after she was diagnosed with lung and spine cancer.

Major sections of barriers have come down in time for Christmas and New Year as city centre transformation works enter the final leg. City of Wolverhampton Council has listened to traders’ concerns and reduced the barriers to only small areas of Victoria Street, making pedestrian access to businesses easier.

Birmingham’s biggest taxi and private hire vehicle operator, A2B Radio Cars, has donated £1000 to Free Radio’s Mission Christmas campaign, supporting Cash for Kids Midlands.

Cash for Kids Midlands is a grant-giving charity that helps improve the lives of disadvantaged children and young people affected by poverty, illness, neglect or have additional needs.

The City of Wolverhampton Council has pledged that it will do all it can to help the city's adult social care sector as it deals with rising inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.

The council has already invested nearly £5m more in the sector this year – and says it will seek to further increase payments to social care providers as much as it possibly can in 2023.

Councillor John Cotton, Cabinet Member for Social Justice, Community Safety and Equalities, writes about the work being done to support residents during the cost-of-living crisis...

‘As part of our response to the cost of living crisis – which has included the development of warm welcome spaces and financial support for food banks amongst many other things – we began providing extended opening hours at our Advice and Information Centres in Erdington and Northfield at the start of November.

As scores of children prepare to look to the skies this Christmas Eve, they will be relieved to know scientists are helping to clear a path for Santa in space. 

Space is becoming crowded as more and more satellites are launched into the Earth’s orbit. We have a space traffic problem – with junk from satellites, rocket bodies and other debris accumulating in the skies. Determined to tackle this problem, scientists at the University of Warwick are researching these growing threats to the spacecraft we rely on. 

Regulated rail fares in England will rise by up to 5.9% from next March, the Department for Transport has announced. The rise is being capped at a level well below inflation, "to help reduce the impact on passengers", the transport secretary said.

"This is a fair balance between the passengers who use our trains and the taxpayers who help pay for them," Mark Harper said. Fares will officially rise on 5 March 2023.

As Christmas approaches and people across the country look for hiding places for their Christmas presents, NFU Mutual warns motorists to beware of thieves breaking into vehicles in search of newly purchased goods. For those with limited space or curious family members, the car can often seem like the only place to hide gifts, but this also presents an opportunity for thieves.

Charlie donned his own named hi-vis gilet and headphones before taking his seat on the top deck of the Birmingham Airport (BHX) air traffic control tower to line up aircraft for take-off and landing.  

The pint-sized aviation fanatic, from Walsall, West Midlands, loves nothing more than going to the end of the BHX runway to watch the planes when his parents, Kat and Darren, are able to take him.  

People have been thanked for taking the time to complete an important survey about the safety of women and girls in Wolverhampton. More than 2,000 people engaged with the survey, conducted by West Midlands Police and the Safer Wolverhampton Partnership, and their responses will be analysed over the coming weeks.

The survey asked women and girls how safe they feel when they are out and about, and to share details of any issues they may have either witnessed or experienced anywhere in Wolverhampton, along with locations that are of concern to them.

B:Music, the charity responsible for Symphony Hall and Town Hall in Birmingham, is calling on the public to support its festive fundraising campaign to help enrich the lives of young and vulnerable people in and around the West Midlands through music. The donations raised will enable the charity to create 10,000 musical memories by supporting talent development, providing rehearsal and performance spaces, facilitating workshops, and making music accessible to all.

The Digbeth Estate (Oval Real Estate) is set to re-launch The Bond on Fazeley Street, Digbeth, as a home for the best creative talent in the West Midlands.

Oval, working with Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) and Create Central, has partnered with some of Birmingham’s best designers and architects to reimagine The Bond for the next generation.