Community News

The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games has unveiled the highly-anticipated route that the Queen’s Baton Relay will take through England this summer.

Travelling via land, air and sea, more than 180 communities in England will experience the Queen’s Baton on a route spanning 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometres).

Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) has been awarded a £17 million Government grant to boost active travel and make it safer for people to cycle, walk and wheel. It will fund the delivery of 12 schemes which will form part of the Starley Network, including protected cycleways, school streets and safer crossings.

Residents in Stirchley and Moseley are from today being given the opportunity to have their say on names for their new railway stations. Construction work on three new stations on the Camp Hill line in south Birmingham is due to start later this year – but only the name of Kings Heath Station is agreed.

A Jamaican national was awaiting the outcome of his application to remain in the UK when he was unexpectedly swooped upon by seven immigration enforcement officers.

James Matthews, who says he has been wrongly detained ahead of a deportation flight, is launching legal action against the Home Office.

A new study of Brummies aged 65 plus has revealed a list of interior trends for retirees that are IN and the ones that are well and truly OUT. The study, by leading developer of retirement communities, McCarthy Stone, has found that today’s over 65s in Birmingham are after top spec home security systems (a must for 55 percent), electric vehicle charging points (43 percent), Alexa (41 percent) and hive heating (29 percent).

Almost three quarters (71%) of SME businesses are not currently acting to reduce their carbon emissions, as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance is downgraded and digitalisation, employee wellbeing, cost inflation, and recruitment take priority.

The latest Azets SME Barometer Spring 2022, which surveyed 1,093 SMEs from all sectors in the UK, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, reveals ESG is on most company radars but specific action lacks urgency, with sharper focus on people, technology, and cost amid economic turbulence.

Residents and businesses in Wolverhampton are encouraged to attend engagement sessions to find out more about the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games event happening in the city.

On Thursday 4 August 2022, the City of Wolverhampton will proudly host the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Cycling Time Trial with the race starting and finishing at our spectacular West Park.

Proposals for a monument to honour Caribbean men and women who have served in Britain's armed forces have been submitted. The National Caribbean Monument Memorial is planned for Staffordshire's National Memorial Arboretum.

The proposals have been drawn up by the National Caribbean Monument Charity. Its application said that the aim was to strengthen the bonds with the UK's Caribbean community, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The Queen's Baton Relay will travel by coracle, barge and on a steam engine around the West Midlands ahead of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. The full route around the UK has been revealed as the baton reaches the region on 18 July.

Other highlights in the West Midlands include a journey on the canal and arriving by helicopter in Shrewsbury. The tour will end at Birmingham's Aston Hall on the day of the opening ceremony, 28 July.

The unhappiness of people living in big cities such as London must be addressed for the Government to deliver on its “levelling up” promises, new research shows. The Social Market Foundation think-tank found that relatively affluent London boroughs such as Islington, Hackney and Camden are falling well below the national average in terms of their residents’ happiness, anxiety, and life satisfaction.

Birmingham’s status a Proud Host City for the 2022 Commonwealth Games is celebrated in the city council’s entry for this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. A mixture of flowers grown at the council’s own nurseries and sporting-themed features make up the eye-catching display, which has an interpretation of the official Games logo as its centrepiece.

Projects, plans and people representing the best of public and private sector town planning from around the West Midlands have been shortlisted in the Royal Town Planning Institute Awards for Planning Excellence. Regional winners will be announced on 30 June at the RTPI West Midlands Summer Ball and Awards. 

A talented artist has scooped £150 after winning a competition to brighten up office space. The Open College Network West Midlands has recently redecorated its offices and training rooms, and while they look clean and smart, they were sorely lacking artwork on the walls.

People on low incomes are pawning household goods to pay for food and rent as the cost of living rises, new research shows. The Social Market Foundation said that pawnbroking is an essential source of credit for some customers, who feel they have no alternative ways to borrow.

The importance of pawnbroking to people on low incomes is likely to grow as the cost of living rises, the SMF said in a report based on extensive interviews with pawnbroking customers.

It has been announced that an aerial acrobatics display will be held as part of celebrations to mark Coventry's final month as the UK City of Culture.

French company Gratte Ciel will be performing its show The Awakening on Broadgate on May 13 and 14. The 40-minute display will feature aerial stunts with performers hanging from a giant dream catcher.

The hedgehog population in the UK is declining at a worrying rate. Wildlife charities People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and The British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) recently published a report which revealed that hedgehog populations have plummeted by between 30% to 75% in rural areas since 2000, with the largest declines in eastern England.