Community News

Refugees, Tim Peake, Star Wars, Shakespeare, and social media are just some of the events, people, and subjects that influence British children’s creativity and use of language, says a report published by Oxford University Press (OUP).
Following OUP’s analysis of the 123,436 entries for the 2016 BBC Radio 2 Chris Evans Breakfast Show’s 500 WORDS short story competition, a wealth of fascinating insights into the lives of British children and their imaginative use of English have emerged.

Young workers starting their careers in 2016 will have earned a total of £1 million by the time they are 46 years old, according to new analysis by Prudential. The results show that an 18 year old starting their career this year and earning the projected average salary for their age group throughout their career, will have amassed earnings of more than £1 million by 2044 –  at the age of 46 years and 1 month.

Popular traders at a historic street market in Tottenham have moved into temporary premises while the transformation of their old stalls into a modern and bustling shopping space gathers pace. Businesses at Holcombe Road Market, opposite Bruce Grove Station, have moved onto Tottenham High Road while huge improvements to a new, permanent market are made by Haringey Council as part of ambitious regeneration plans for Tottenham.

The UK’s largest dog welfare charity is appealing to MPs to support a call for the use of fireworks to be restricted in the interests of animal welfare. The subject was debated by Members of Parliament after a petition by the Firework Abatement Campaign attracted more than 100,000 signatures. The petition is calling for fireworks use by the general public to only be permitted on Bonfire Night, New Year’s Eve, Diwali and Chinese New Year.

Birmingham mums were told that parenting experts only provide the tools to help with child care issues, and the real magic comes from families themselves, when TV parenting guru Jo Frost crossed the Atlantic to drop in on mums and their children at The St Thomas’s Children’s Centre, Bell Barn Rd, yesterday.

Last Friday a team of insurance professionals from across the Midlands raisied funds for Fisher House by playing a charity football match against Lichfield Wolves at The Molineux. The insurance team, led by Mark Hands (LV= Broker) and John Court-Jones (Arthur J Gallagher), was made up of 17 keen footballers from local companies including LV= Broker, Arthur J Gallagher, Idex, Adler Insurance Brokers and Jelf.

I have just returned to the UK after a short trip to Calais, France - a journey thousands of British families will make this summer as they go on holiday. Yet I went to visit the children living all alone in the refugee camp that's become known as 'the jungle'.  The young boys I met had all made dangerous journeys to escape war and many are trying to reach family members who are waiting for them right here in the UK.

City of Wolverhampton Council is urging the public to have their say on a new masterplan to link up areas of Wolverhampton for walkers and cyclists. A series of ‘Connected Places’ consultations continue on Dudley Street and in the Mander Centre. The council is working with the university, Mander Centre and other city partners Wolverhampton Wanderers FC and Wolverhampton BID to develop the strategy.

The new Mayor of Wolverhampton will be going back to the future in his year in office. Councillor Barry Findlay, who was elected the 158th Mayor of Wolverhampton, says he wants to champion the history of the city – and look towards exciting times head. He said: "It is customary for the Mayor to choose a theme for their year in office, and I wish to continue that tradition by choosing the theme of Preserving the Past, Building the Future.

Anyone wishing to vote in the EU Referendum must be on the electoral register  – and the deadline for registration is 7 June 2016. After this date, people who have not registered will not be able to vote in the EU Referendum. Anyone who has not yet registered to vote can do so online at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote – it only takes a few minutes.

A Beekeeping course tomorrow at Martineau Gardens is aiming to encourage people to find out more about bees and take up the craft of beekeeping. The British Bee Keepers Association (BBKA) claims that ‘one in three mouthfuls of the food we eat is dependent on pollination’. By encouraging people to find out more about bees through this course, Martineau Gardens hopes to raise awareness of bees needs.

Spring has definitely sprung in the UK, and while we might love the longer days and spells of sunshine - the season comes with a list of cautions for looking after our pets. Vets Now, the leading provider of pet emergency care for small animals in the UK, notes a significant increase in the amount of cases brought to its out-of-hours clinics during spring time.

Almost half of parents in the West Midlands see a noticeable improvement in their children’s happiness after they walk to school, new research has found. National charity Living Streets conducted research with parents of primary school children and found that half of those living in the West Midlands see an improvement in their child’s mood and behaviour  after they’ve done physical activity.

An historic Victorian fountain in the centre of Wolverhampton is flowing again following repair work. The Horsman Fountain in St Peter's Gardens was erected in 1894 in memory of local contractor Philip Horsman, who built and funded the adjacent art gallery which had opened 10 years previously. Repairs to the fountain have been carried out over the last fortnight by the City of Wolverhampton Council, with engineers skimming and sealing the bowl to prevent leaks, and refurbishing the electrics and pumping system.

If you have a pampered pet named Bruno then you’d better beware – it’s just been crowned the unluckiest pet name in the UK! Hapless hounds and unfortunate felines named Bruno are nearly SIX times more likely to be the subject of pet insurance claims than pets named Luna – which is the nation’s luckiest name, according to research carried out by PDSA Petsurance.