Community News

Front gardens are the gateways to our lives. The places where we embrace loved ones, chat over the fence with neighbours and where more recently we’ve found ourselves celebrating special occasions, clapping for heroes, and enjoying socially distanced tea and cake as part of the VE day commemorations.

Birmingham’s new Lord Mayor, Councillor Maureen Cornish, exchanged keys with creator of Key to the City Paul Ramírez Jonas at Birmingham New Street Station.

They were joined by Mayor of MiniBrum Alicia Adeyanju who exchanged keys with local basketball star Kofi Josephs and Harry Warrender Senior Vice President and Head of UKI. ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions who exchanged keys with the company's longest serving employee Stewart Taylor.

A new lifestyle study released has revealed that Brummies are being pressured to fib about their weekend activities, in order to show a more interesting self-image.

Now that people have their freedom back after two years of regular lockdowns and a long Bank Holiday is coming up, the social pressure is heightened with 79% of Brummies admitting that they regularly tell a white lie on their social media channels to impress their family, friends and colleagues with made-up weekend activities. 

A Staffordshire mum and daughter will be enjoying front row seats at the Platinum Jubilee Pageant in London this Sunday (June 5) to thank them for their tireless fundraising for St Giles Hospice.

Amy Foster and her daughter Ellanor, aged nine, will be seated in the stand directly outside Buckingham Palace to watch the spectacular procession, featuring national treasures and iconic figures from music, film, sport and the arts, including Sir Cliff Richard, Jools Holland and Ed Sheeran.

A lawyer for Windrush victims says the government must publish a report which suggests institutional racism at the Home Office caused the scandal.

The report says UK immigration laws from 1950 to 1981 were designed in part to "reduce the number of Black or Brown people".

University of Birmingham experts joined their Canadian counterparts to lead a series of high-profile public events exploring how researchers can help to solve global challenges.

Organised in partnership with McMaster University, in Hamilton, the events covered research areas including healthy aging and air pollution and celebrated the arrival in Canada of the Birmingham 2022 Queen’s Baton Relay, of which the University of Birmingham is an official partner.

The new Perry Barr Railway Station is set to open its doors to passengers for the first time this Sunday having been taken just a year to completely rebuild. The modern accessible station stands at the heart of a rapidly changing Perry Barr and will be a key gateway for visitors to Alexander Stadium for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games this summer – something celebrated on the station’s sport themed frieze.

New measures have been set out yesterday to address the rising cost of living. In addition to the energy rebate scheme, which is currently being processed to all eligible households, a package of new measures has been announced by the Government to tackle soaring energy prices, including an energy bill discount of £400 for all UK households this October.

Millions of households across the UK will benefit from a new £15 billion package of targeted government support to help with the rising cost of living, the Chancellor announced on May 26. The significant intervention includes a new, one-off £650 payment to more than 8 million low-income households on Universal Credit, Tax Credits, Pension Credit and legacy benefits, with separate one-off payments of £300 to pensioner households and £150 to individuals receiving disability benefits – groups who are most vulnerable to rising prices.

A soldier from Telford is on standby for a major part in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Birthday Parade, Trooping the Colour, in London on 2nd June.

Major Stewart Halliday, 52, will be among 1,500 soldiers and 250 horses from the Household Division who will parade in front of thousands of spectators in London, and millions globally watching on television.

The end-of-life charity Marie Curie is calling on people across Birmingham & Solihull to throw a Blooming Great Tea Party in June and July to help fund vital care and support for those living with a terminal illness, and their families.  

The charity’s fundraising appeal is a piece​ of cake – simply set a date to host a tea party and invite family, friends, or colleagues to tuck into a delectable treat and catch-up over a cuppa. 

A display, celebrating Birmingham’s status a Proud Host City for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, has earned the city council its tenth consecutive Gold Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show. Flowers grown at the council’s own nurseries and features linked to the Birmingham 2022 sporting competition and venues made up the eye-catching display, which has an interpretation of the official Games logo as its centerpiece.

One of the world’s most famous road interchanges - Spaghetti Junction - turns 50 and tributes have been paid to the iconic highways landmark. It’s 50 years since the distinctive junction, which is officially called Gravelly Hill Interchange, first opened to traffic.

The junction carries more than 200,000 vehicles each day and forms part of the M6 travelling through the West Midlands.

Birmingham City University’s Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity is carrying out new research to provide evidence aimed at lobbying the UK Government to introduce tax breaks that will encourage film and TV companies to put diversity at the centre of new productions.

Sir Lenny - broadcaster, activist, author, and Chancellor of Birmingham City University - announced the news with guests at an event marking the second anniversary of the Centre.

The Midlands’ newest and longest railway bridge is now fully functional after carrying its first freight train. Tracks reopened on the Stechford to Aston freight line in Birmingham following the installation of a massive 2,600-tonne bridge built by Network Rail in partnership with HS2.

At 92 metres long, the steel and concrete structure becomes the longest single span railway bridge in the Midlands.

Together they've travelled further than the moon so now the entire fleet of passenger assistance buggies at London Euston station have been replaced after 18 years.

On average 87,000 passengers who need help getting to and from their train rely on the vehicles at the West Coast main line’s southern terminus each year – that’s around 240 passengers every day.