Community News

This weekend (4-5 Dec), the Widows Sons Masonic Bikers Association (West Kent) held its annual ‘Toy Run’, where members dressed-up as Father Christmas and elves to deliver more than 500 gifts to excited children via motorbike.

The children received toys, games and gifts purchased with donations received from local Freemasons throughout the month of November.

Providers have welcomed a package of support from the City of Wolverhampton Council and partners to help the health and social care sector through what promises to be another difficult winter.

Announced last week at the launch of the new Wolverhampton Cares campaign, it includes an increase in the hourly rate paid by the council to homecare providers and reablement providers, the creation of more 'step down' residential beds to support people who need reablement at home but have no care available, and a commitment to work even more closely with care providers to understand how the council and other organisations can support them.

A Royal Sutton Coldfield resident, and Army Reservist, has gone viral on social media after sharing news about receiving a special recognition medal from the military.

Captain Jay Singh-Sohal VR tweeted a photo in uniform holding up the Volunteer Reserve Service Medal (VRSM), and a message:

Severn Trent is encouraging customers to start wrapping… their pipes. With temperatures set to dip again this week, the water and waste company is advising customers to take steps to ensure their pipes don’t freeze this winter.

Cold weather can wreak havoc on water pipes – when water freezes it expands, putting more pressure on pipes and joints, which can cause pipes to split or joints to pull apart. But there are a few easy ways to prepare your home for winter:

Following the success of the Yo! Summer and October half-term events, the City of Wolverhampton Council is planning a festive treat for children and young people. It is lining up a packed programme of events and activities for youngsters and their families throughout the Christmas holidays, many of them free, with something for everyone from sports activities and festive arts and crafts, music and dance workshops.

Local campaigners are celebrating success at the rejection of a planning application to turn the Cross Keys Pub into a 15-bed hostel. The Council received 153 letters of objection including from Erdington Councillor Robert Alden, who led the campaign locally to stop the hostel application.

Residents raised the following objections to the Council about the application: - 

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and local councils across the region have launched a new winter campaign to help rough sleepers and those at risk of becoming homeless.

‘There’s a Better Way’ is the latest campaign for the alternative giving scheme, Change into Action, which is now in its fifth year. It asks West Midlands residents to look out for people in their local areas who might be sleeping rough or at risk of homelessness so that they can be connected to local support services.

Political leaders have come together to back the annual safeguarding campaign to Orange Wolverhampton and help end interpersonal violence.

Wolverhampton is once again supporting the United Nations' annual 16-day Orange the World campaign, which began last week, with businesses, community groups and individuals urged to "Orange Wolverhampton”. In doing so, they are helping to raise awareness of Wolverhampton’s drive to end gender-based violence, primarily committed against women and girls, including domestic abuse, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, so-called ‘honour-based’ violence and sexual violence – as well as the support available to victims in Wolverhampton.

With the festive season fast approaching, Manchester-based project management experts MOL reveal the top 12 seasonal skills every household needs to survive the celebrations and enjoy a peaceful festive period.

MOL’s recent OnePoll survey of 2,000 adults showed how most used project management skills to run a busy household, with eight in ten admitting to using tactics from their corporate lives to help manage their families.

Details of waste and recycling collections in Birmingham over the Christmas and new year period have been announced.

Bank Holiday Monday (27 December 2021)

There will be no collections of any type of waste on this day.

Those due general waste (grey lid bin) collections on this day have their next collection scheduled for Monday 3 January 2022.

Homes due a recycling (blue lid bin) collection on this day have their next collection scheduled for Monday 10 January 2022.

Bank Holiday Tuesday (28 December 2021)

There will be no collections of recycling on this day.

Homes due a recycling (blue lid bin) collection on this day have their next collection scheduled for Tuesday 11 January 2022.

General waste (grey lid bin) collections on this day are scheduled as normal.

Bank Holiday Monday (3 January 2022)

There will be no collections of recycling on this day.

Homes due a recycling (blue lid bin) collection on this day have their next collection scheduled for Monday 17 January 2022.

General waste (grey lid bin) collections on this day are scheduled as normal.

All other days over the festive period

Collections are scheduled as normal.

General advice

Reasonable amounts of “side waste” will be taken over the Christmas and new year period (2-3 sacks) and anyone with extra cardboard is asked to bundle the waste with string and place next to their recycling bin when they have their next scheduled collection – but the bundle must not be any taller or wider than the bin itself.

For those who do not wish to wait, the city’s network of four Household Recycling Centres will be open every day across the festive period, apart from Christmas Day and Boxing Day – but all visits must be booked in advance via the web.

If, for any reason, your bins are not collected (adverse weather, staff sickness, vehicle breakdown etc) please take the bins back onto your property and present them on the next scheduled collection day.

Councillor John O’Shea, Cabinet Member for Street Scene and Parks, said: “We always strive to strike the right balance between providing a service and ensuring that our hardworking crews get time with their families and loved ones over Christmas and new year.

“The plan put forward, following discussion with staff and their representatives, means there are some changes to business as usual – so we would urge everyone who normally has a collection on a Monday or a Tuesday to check out what is scheduled for them.”

The big Christmas light switch-on will take place on December 9 this year — two weeks later than in 2020, when people put their decorations up early during lockdown, according to new research by Uswitch.com, the comparison and switching service. 

However, a quarter (25%) of enthusiastic Brits have joined the likes of Joan Collins and Holly Willoughby by putting their decorations up in November, while 993,000 households even lit up their festive displays in October. 

Family-run Cornish business Trewithen Dairy are obsessed with nurturing the soil under their cows' hooves. Together with their farmers, they are on a mission to cultivate soil that holds as much water, air, nutrients and carbon as possible, while providing a home for the ecosystem inside. This way plants thrive and dairy cows thrive. 

Trewithen Dairy believe that with great dairy comes great responsibility, so they created the 'Trew Farming' standard - a code of their shared practices and beliefs between the dairy farms contracted to supply Trewithen Dairy.

For many adults, the happiest, most magical time of the year can also be one of the most stressful. The to-do list is long, and the calendar is full to the brim of social events, nativity plays and family days out.

The team at British stationery brand, Pukka Pads, have put together their top tips on how planning can help to stress-bust Christmas. With these 10 easy actions, you’ll be in for your most zen festive season yet! 

A major campaign which aims to help adults stay connected to nature post-pandemic and promote a love of life-long learning has been launched by a leading environmental education charity in Worcestershire. The Field Studies Council (FSC), which operates its FSC Bishops Wood field centre from Crossway Green near Stourport-on-Severn, has compiled an exciting programme of new introductory nature and biodiversity-related courses which will be delivered through a mix of online learning and unique place-based experiences.

A leading youth charity is appealing to people to give the gift of adventure to school children in the West Midlands this Christmas and help it ensure than no child misses out on a residential school trip. With the gap between rich and poor widening and more families falling into poverty, more children than ever are missing out because their parents cannot afford a school trip.

YHA (England & Wales) now wants to raise £50,000 in order to provide 600 children who can’t afford to take part in a residential school trip, with a fully-funded two night residential that includes outdoor activities and meals.

Thirteen-year-old Olivia Rudge, from Cradley Heath in the West Midlands, has been awarded ‘Young Person of the Year’ at the 2021 Sense Awards, which celebrate the achievements of people with complex disabilities.

Olivia, who is non-verbal and has multiple disabilities, is recognised for overcoming significant challenges since the outbreak of the pandemic.