Community News

Joseph Coelho, Waterstones Children’s Laureate for 2022-2024, will visit Central Library in Wolverhampton next week as part of his nationwide ‘Library Marathon’, championing local libraries inspiring a love of reading in young people. The award-winning performance poet, playwright, and children’s author visit is visiting a library in every local authority in the UK – more than 200 libraries in total – with the aim of encouraging people, young and old, to join their local library.

Ruth Wilson, 79, was at an all-time low in life. She had six amazing grandchildren she loved more than anything in the world.

It was the highlight or her day to spend time with them. But something was stopping her from ever getting to see them.

Ruth was sitting on the couch on an average Sunday waiting for her daughter and grandchildren to visit any minute. Instead, the phone rang. Her daughter said they wouldn’t be able to come today or anytime soon.

An animal lover from Norfolk has recently taken on the Blickling Spring Half Marathon to support her chosen charity, RSPCA Mid Norfolk and North Suffolk Branch.

Jessica Groome, who works as a Planner for a Norwich-based housebuilder, successfully completed the half marathon on Sunday 19th March, raising a total of £1,929 for the charity.

A group of Nepalese security guards who worked at the British embassy in Kabul have been told their threatened removal from the UK has been paused.

The Gurkhas have been in the UK since being rescued from the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021. Papers had been issued ordering their removal to Nepal and India, with some of the men being detained following a raid at their hotel.

A Construction Director in Nottingham has set off on a trip of more than 837 miles to support his chosen charity, PSP Association (PSPA).

Rob Hutchings (51), who works at Barratt and David Wilson Homes’ divisional office in Nottingham, was recently seen off by his team to kickstart his trip from John O’Groats to Land’s End. He has spent the last couple of years restoring ‘Lenny’, his Classic Land Rover Series 3, to help guide him across the UK and raise funds for PSPA.

Science fiction fans are in for a real treat next week when award-winning British author Alastair Reynolds comes to Birmingham for a special evening hosted by Birmingham Science Fiction Group and Millennium Point.

The writer behind Revelation Space, Revenger, Chasm City and Everson appears on Friday April 14th at 7.45pm - a unique opportunity to hear him discuss his incredible career, which also includes the short stories, Zima Blue and Beyond the Aquila Rift, which were adapted as part of Netflix’s animated anthology, Love, Death and Robots.

Passengers travelling between London Euston and Scotland and through the Midlands over the Easter bank holiday are being reminded that the best time to travel is either side of the long weekend.

Between Good Friday (7 April) and Easter Monday (10 April), Euston station will be shut to main line train services for the final phase of upgrades to track and signalling at Watford junction. As this work needs the entire railway to be closed over the four-day long weekend, trains will start and finish at Milton Keynes instead.

The Isles of Scilly is the local authority with the least energy efficient homes in England and Wales, with a median score of 49, reveals analysis of 23 million EPC certificates by Uswitch.com, the comparison service.

Uswitch’s ranking of 331 local authorities revealed that Wales makes up five of the ten of the local authorities with the least efficient homes. All of the areas with the hardest to heat homes have scores of 62 or below.

One million eligible claimant families receiving tax credits, and no other means-tested benefits, will get the first 2023-24 Cost of Living Payment from Tuesday 2 May 2023, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has confirmed.

The £301 government payment will be paid automatically into most customers’ bank accounts between Tuesday 2 and Tuesday 9 May 2023 across the United Kingdom. Only eligible families who receive tax credits and no other means-tested benefits will receive the payment from HMRC.

Birmingham residents fighting plans by developers to concrete over their playing fields have released a new video showcasing their concerns. Persimmon Homes has put forward renewed proposals to build a total of 87 homes on the land on Barrows Lane in Yardley, which is currently managed by Sport for Life International on behalf of Central England Co-operative Ltd.

The housebuilder put forward similar proposals to Birmingham City Council last year but withdrew them at the last minute in response to a campaign by Yardley residents that began when the Co-op put the fields up for sale in 2013.

The Otr Elkalam show, one of the initiatives of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority, witnessed the completion of the list of the semi-finalists in the international Quran and adhan competition. In the Quran track, Moroccan Abdullah Al-Daghri qualified, and in the Adhan track, Emirati contestant Hamid Al-Raisi qualified. The total number of semi-finalists is 16 contestants from 13 countries: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Britain, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Niger, Germany, and Spain.

As animal welfare organisations across the country face greater demand on services than ever before, Dogs Trust, the UK’s largest canine welfare charity, has taken a unique approach to staffing its contact centre.

The Dogs Trust team has identified a number of dogs with a talent for communication and, from Monday, these skilled pooches will be answering calls in the charity’s contact centre. With record numbers of calls and emails being received by Dogs Trust, it is hoped that these talented pooches can add to the support already provided by the dedicated team of human call handlers.

Ramadan is a significant month for Muslims worldwide, including those in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia. Expats, visitors, and locals join together to experience the special atmosphere one can experience during this holy month.

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Tourism worked hard to raise pilgrim capacity in Makkah and Madinah to meet the growing demand for accommodation during the Ramadan holy month. Leading to the Ramadan season, the Kingdom’s Tourism Minister, His Excellency Ahmed Al-Khatib, on his Twitter page, said that the ministry is planning to operate an additional 9,000 hotel rooms in Madinah before Ramadan.

After being absent from his mosque since the beginning of Ramadan, Mohammed Hafez al-Rahman joined the worshipers of the largest mosque in the British capital, the East London Mosque, through the Otr Elkalam show, one of the initiatives of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority, which has allowed distinguished talents in recitation and adhan to participate in the largest Quran and adhan competition in the world.

Pope Francis joked that he was still alive as he left hospital in Rome following a three-day stay - after being admitted to Gemelli Hospital with breathing difficulties, and later diagnosed with bronchitis. The Vatican said that he was responding to antibiotics and would be released, depending on test results.

Residents across the West Midlands are being offered the opportunity to put forward their ideas and solutions to help improve the natural environment, tackle climate change, and reach net zero.

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) is setting up the Greener Together Citizens’ Panel to examine key environmental challenges such as how to continue to improve the quality of the air we breathe and our green spaces.