Community News

Homes across the West Midlands will now enjoy life saving protection, thanks to new laws for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.

The new legislation means that in England all landlords now have to provide a Carbon Monoxide alarm in their properties. The legal changes follow years of campaigning from the All-Party Parliamentary Carbon Monoxide Group, which includes fourteen MPs and two members of the House of Lords, together representing five political parties. 

Birmingham Bach Choir return to St. Alban's Church, Birmingham, on Sunday 18 December for a traditional Christmas service, Nine Lessons And Carols.

The popular afternoon service, which is free, features a series of Bible readings with seasonal music performed by the choir, interspersed with congregational carols.

Marlbrook-based employees from global snack provider, Mondelēz International, have got in the festive spirit and added a touch of Christmas magic to local hospice, St Michael’s Hospice. A team of 11 employees from the Marlbrook site spent eight hours volunteering at St Michael’s Hospice to install Herefordshire’s most-loved Santa Grotto experience, which included setting up Santa’s giant sleigh, an animatronic reindeer, as well as installing more than 50,000 fairy lights.

A community group’s cycle club in Walsall has taken delivery of new bikes to replace ones stolen by thieves. The Agenda 21 group, based in Reedswood Park, Birchills provides free ‘Learn to Ride’ training sessions for local youngsters, hosts bikes maintenance classes and has scores of people of all ages attend its regular guided rides for all around the park and beyond.

Severn Trent have announces plans to help tackle the underlying causes of poverty across the Midlands in a landmark scheme designed to help up to 100,000 people find employment, while supporting them to reach their potential.

With households facing the most acute cost of living pressures in decades and the Midlands home to a large number of high deprivation postcodes in the UK, Severn Trent has launched a partnership programme to help address these challenges.

There is still time for voluntary groups working with children and young people in Wolverhampton to apply for funding to deliver activities, workshops and projects this Christmas. 

The Yo! Wolves programme will be offering a range of opportunities to children and young people over the festive break, and voluntary organisations and community amateur sports clubs can apply for Department for Education HAF (Holiday and Food) funding to deliver activities, but must do so by midday today (Wednesday 23 November, 2022).

As the football World Cup kicks off, Crimestoppers is asking people who live in the Midlands to be aware of the potential increase in domestic abuse cases, especially on days when England is playing. A recent study highlights that when England lose a game, domestic abuse increases by 38%, and even when England win, domestic abuse incidents rise by around 26%.

Further recognition for the council-led regeneration of Perry Barr was received at the Insider West Midlands Property Awards 2022. Landing top honours were the Alexander Stadium redevelopment (Construction Project of the Year) and the Perry Barr Residential Scheme (Regeneration Project of the Year) – both key parts of the ongoing transformation of north-west Birmingham, which is seeing more than £700million invested into new housing, transport links and other key infrastructure.

This year World Day of Remembrance (WDoR 2022) for road traffic victims will be held on November 20.

Since the first road death 125 years ago, more than 50 million persons have been killed. This has created a devastating economic impact on countries, communities and families.

West Midlands National Park (WMNP), the visionary long-term project to drive social, economic, and environmental transformation in the region, led by a Birmingham City University (BCU) academic, has announced twelve award winners and three new visiting professorships in a boost to its international profile.

The first six in a series of new Love Your Environment (LYE) events have seen 750 bags of litter collected, 500 graffiti tags removed and 100 dumped fridges and 50 tyres taken from city streets.

As an idea developed by Birmingham City Council, the LYE days see teams from various departments join forces with representatives from partner organisations to blitz locations that are known to be ‘hotspots’ for a range of environmental issues.

A trio from West Midlands have braved the shave and raised over £1,200 for charity Parkinson’s UK.

Elijah Chamberlain-Page, his girlfriend, Jess Howells, and twin Finn took to Brierley Hill Market to get their long locks shaved off. The headshave was inspired by Elijah and Finn’s grandad, Roger, who died earlier this year and had been living with the condition. 

A national two-minute silence led by His Majesty King Charles took place across the UK as the nation remembered all who have died in conflicts since the First World War. As 11am, wreaths were be laid by Members of the Royal Family, senior politicians and faith representatives during the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph, in London.

A new research study has set out the potential impacts of climate change on businesses, infrastructure and people’s health in the West Midlands in the decades ahead.

‘A Summary of Climate Change Impacts in the West Midlands Combined Authority Area’, uses the latest data to chart the predicted impact of increased cases of severe flooding, water scarcity and more intense and prolonged heatwaves.

A new study revealed that ‘Los Pollos Hermanos’ is the UK’s most popular fictional company, according to Google search data.   

The study, conducted by document management company SmallPDF analysed Google UK and worldwide data for the 19 most popular fake companies and ranked them according to the average monthly searches on Google in the UK.  So, if they were real – which business would be the most successful one? 

Birmingham’s Faith Covenant has been formally signed by Councillor John Cotton, Cabinet Member for Social Justice, Community Safety and Equalities and the city’s faith leaders. Sir Stephen Timms MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Faith and Daniel Singleton, National Executive Director, Faith Action plus city faith leaders also took part in the signing at the Council House.