Community News

In September 1821, Marie-Louise Christophe, Haiti’s first and only queen, arrived in Britain with her two daughters.

Only a year after her husband’s death by suicide and the assassination of her only surviving son following a military coup in the northern Kingdom of Hayti, Marie-Louise leaned on the support of abolitionist friends, including Thomas Clarkson (with whom she stayed for several months upon her arrival), to remake her life in exile.

Birmingham 2022 is searching for the sport presenters of the future to be part of the biggest multi-sport event to be staged in the country since the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The organisers of the Games are looking for around 20 talented local people to be In Venue Hosts and Announcers, roles that will involve them engaging with the thousands of spectators expected to fill each of the official competition venues this summer.

The Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove has released initial blueprints for the long-awaited Levelling Up White Paper. Victoria Hills, Chief Executive of RTPI, has put together the following statement in response:

“The Royal Town Planning Institute is reservedly optimistic of the Secretary of State’s initial briefing. There is clear recognition of the built environment’s vital role in addressing economic inequality and shifting power closer to communities.

You have a chance to treat your special Maman to homemade, beautifully fragrant, beauty essentials for a spa-at-home experience by upcycling  your empty Bonne Maman jars.

A gift set containing luxurious 'Pomegranate Rose Sugar Body Scrub', 'Eucalyptus Fresh Mint Foot Soak' and 'Coconut Lemongrass lip balm' that are simple to make and housed in Bonne Maman Compote, Conserve and Mini jars.

The Chinese New Year 2022 celebrations are set to start today, kicking-off a week to mark the ‘Year of the Tiger’. Also called Spring Festival, it marks the start of a new lunar year, with festivities traditionally lasting up to two weeks including fireworks, gifts, dragon and lion dances.

With the Covid pandemic meaning that there was no official events in the city since 20219, the first 50 people watching this year’s event will be given a free £3 voucher to enjoy a breakfast to start the day off.

Wolverhampton has been chosen as the first places to benefit from government regeneration funding. It follows ministers declaring that they want to help transform derelict areas of 20 towns and cities in England, with new housing and jobs.

Some government figures, though, do not think the plans are ambitious enough, with concerns the proposals repackage certain policies that have already been announced.

The flagship centre, named after the borough’s most famous sporting son, was officially open its doors on January 24.

Work has been continuing at pace, despite the pandemic, and is now almost complete with visitors to the new centre, in Constitution Hill, getting a 25 metre, eight-lane swimming pool, and a teaching pool with spectator area.

Wasps’ player Malakai Fekitoa has launched a fundraiser for home island crisis relief in tsunami-hit Tonga. In support of Fekitoa’s efforts, Wasps will donate 20% of all match ticket revenue from our Gallagher Premiership match vs Saracens on Sunday 30 January to the cause.

An underwater volcano eruption 40 miles north of the capital Nuku'alofa on Saturday (January 15) caused tsunami waves to hit the Pacific Island nation that has also been blanketed in volcanic ash.

In the 1980s Labour politicians did an excellent job in exposing Conservative Council Leader Dame Shirley Porter’s infamous ‘homes for votes scandal.’ And after many years of neglect, social housing is back on the agenda today.

Michael Gove, the new Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, is attempting to move the government on from the cladding scandal that surrounded the Grenfell Tower fire. He is trying to address the issue once and for all, following his predecessor, Robert Jenrick’s perceived failure to tackle the issue.

The first two successful applicants to the City Ideas Fund have been announced by City of Wolverhampton Council. The fund offers a one-off grant of between £500 and £10,000, for city employers, partners, voluntary organisations, community groups and individuals to develop ideas and projects which help young people into jobs and learning.

The first round of funding closed last month with ideas coming forward to address some of the key challenges connected with reducing the number of unemployed 18 to 24-year-olds in the city from 2,660.

There’s said to be no celebrations quite like it, as Burns Night – which will be widely celebrated across Scotland – as natives, some wearing traditional Scottish attire and listening to fabled music, it promises to be yet another colourful night to mark the life and death of the poet Rabbie Burns. The 18th century poet was best known for composing poems such as Auld Lang Syne, Tam o’Shanter and Ae Fond Kiss, with his distinctive, witty voice woven into the very fabric of Scottish culture.

The City of Wolverhampton Council, and other local authorities, has scored an important legal victory at the Court of Appeal about injunctions served against ‘persons unknown’.

The outcome of the hearing paves the way for the council to apply for the reintroduction of a ground-breaking injunction banning street racing in the Black Country.

Birmingham’s annual civic commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day will be hosted at Millennium Point. The Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Councillor Muhammad Afzal, will lead the event on Sunday (30 January 2022) which this year has the theme of One Day. The event is free, open to all and starts at 2pm.

Holocaust Memorial Day commemorates the victims and survivors of the Holocaust and Nazi persecutions, as well as other genocides around the world.

St Giles Hospice is celebrating after this month's TreeCycle campaign became the most successful yet, collecting even more trees than last year's record-breaking collection.

The environmentally-friendly recycling campaign saw more than 5,000 Christmas trees picked up by volunteers in return for a small donation to St Giles, raising over £69,000 for the hospice. Last year’s collection picked up 4,428 trees.

Government plans to claim £4bn from property developers to fix cladding issues are ‘light on detail’ and ‘important questions remain unanswered’, says Peter McHugh.

Peter, a partner at national law firm Clarke Willmott LLP, says with the threat of legal action hanging over developers the government should be providing clarity as a matter of urgency.

Plans for a £500,000 upgrade to a community sports facility in Perry Barr, to further strengthen the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Legacy have been confirmed.

A new Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) will be developed at Holford Drive Community Sports Hub (HDCSH) in the months following the Games through the project – jointly funded by Sport England and the Birmingham City Council capital contribution towards Birmingham 2022. The MUGA will be located at the front of the premises on what is currently an unused piece of grassland.