More than 5,000 streetlights across Sandwell will get new LED bulbs, saving the council a further £140,000 a year on electricity bills. The new lights, which use 74% less energy than standard bulbs, will be installed between now and Christmas. More than 4,500 new LED streetlights have already been installed in neighbourhoods across Sandwell – saving £240,000 a year in energy costs.

The number of four and five-year-olds regularly borrowing books from Sandwell libraries has more than doubled, thanks to a council scheme that introduces them to reading early in life. The number of reception age children regularly borrowing books topped 3,280 in 2014/15, compared with just 1,620 the previous year. The government has now announced that it wants to roll out similar schemes across the whole country.

Gardeners in the West Midlands are losing their green fingers as nine in ten young people struggle to identify common garden plants, new research reveals. A study of 2,000 Brits aged 25-35 found that time pressures and lack of knowledge meant that the majority struggle when it comes to nurturing their gardens. Over three quarters of those living in the region couldn’t identify a tulip when shown a picture of one, while 88 per cent struggled with a geranium.

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The Oxford English dictionary has announced that the word Hangry, amongst others, has made the cut for this quarter. This announcement comes as new research reveals just how people can suffer from becoming bad tempered or irritable as a result of hunger. Research has shown that people who make decisions on an empty stomach are nearly twice as likely to make the wrong one compared to people who have eaten.

Out of seven billion world population, Six billion people have cell phones and it is projected that by the end of 2016 there will be 18.9 billion network connections; almost 2.5 connections per person on earth. This was revealed by Chief Information Security Officer, Central Depository Company of Pakistan Limited Syed Hassan Aslam while giving his presentation on “Current Trends in Information Technology” at a seminar organized by Computer Science Society of Mohammad Ali Jinnah University, Karachi.