Community News

St Giles Hospice is celebrating after this month's TreeCycle campaign became the most successful yet, collecting even more trees than last year's record-breaking collection.

The environmentally-friendly recycling campaign saw more than 5,000 Christmas trees picked up by volunteers in return for a small donation to St Giles, raising over £69,000 for the hospice. Last year’s collection picked up 4,428 trees.

Government plans to claim £4bn from property developers to fix cladding issues are ‘light on detail’ and ‘important questions remain unanswered’, says Peter McHugh.

Peter, a partner at national law firm Clarke Willmott LLP, says with the threat of legal action hanging over developers the government should be providing clarity as a matter of urgency.

Plans for a £500,000 upgrade to a community sports facility in Perry Barr, to further strengthen the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Legacy have been confirmed.

A new Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) will be developed at Holford Drive Community Sports Hub (HDCSH) in the months following the Games through the project – jointly funded by Sport England and the Birmingham City Council capital contribution towards Birmingham 2022. The MUGA will be located at the front of the premises on what is currently an unused piece of grassland.

A young man calling for a change in the law to prevent abusive partners from inheriting victims’ estates is a casualty in the trade-off between “certainty and fairness” in law.

Paul Davies, partner at national law firm Clarke Willmott LLP, says the case of a son whose stepfather inherited his mother’s estate despite an inquest linking her suicide to domestic violence, has no legal recourse.

Homeless charities and professional bodies across the country have paid tribute to the life and legacy of Jack Dromey MP after his sad passing on the 7^th January.

The tribute talks about the importance of Jacks contribution to the foundations of youth homeless parliament and how he helped ensure that young people who have experienced homelessness have their voices heard. 

Every new year provides a chance to reflect, and for many, getting a healthier balance between work and life is a priority resolution. There's no wrong time to start, so January being well underway shouldn't prevent anyone from planning a few moments of creativity to boost their wellbeing and help beat the January blues!

St Giles Hospice is calling for people to help make a real difference for a great local cause in 2022 by volunteering at one of its charity shops. Every sale made at the hospice’s 21 shops across the area helps to fund the charity’s support for local people and their families who are living with a terminal illness, and volunteers play a vital role in helping St Giles to reach the £850,000 total it needs to raise each month to run its services.

Stoke-on-Trent offers tenants the most affordable rent costs for an apartment new data can reveal, while London takes the top spot for being the most expensive city.   

The research by Eachnight.com analysed the most populated cities in the UK and used data from Numbeo to find where tenants can rent an apartment at the lowest cost.

Six charities based in the West Midlands have received a £1,000 Christmas gift thanks to Ecclesiastical Insurance. The charities were nominated to win a share of £120,000 by members of the public as part of the specialist insurer’s annual 12 days of giving Christmas campaign. 

Midlands Film and Media CIC is a newly launched Community Interest Company, set up to help grassroots micro budget independent film makers and other creatives, working with small/no budgets, in the Midlands.

The CICs aim is to build confidence, develop ambition and enable individuals and businesses to grow through media.

Local authorities from across the West Midlands have joined to help rough sleepers as they battle the harsh winter weather and ongoing challenges caused by the pandemic.

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), the Homelessness Taskforce, and partners from the public, private and voluntary sectors, have set out a joint winter plan with the aim of protecting people sleeping rough across the region.

After two years of uncertainty and social isolation, new research from the Jo Cox Foundation (conducted by ICM Unlimited) shows the vast majority of people in the West Midlands (77%) still think there is a stigma around talking about loneliness, rising to a worrying 91% among young people in the UK.

Kicking off on Blue Monday (17 January) and running until 30 January, the Great Winter Get Together is the Jo Cox Foundation’s annual campaign to bring people together and reduce the stigma associated with loneliness - including the discomfort people feel talking about it.

One of the founding fathers of The Phoenix Newspaper. Mr Donaldson has contributed positive support in the community and grass roots connections, and distributed the paper. We are all so sad at such a loss. Known to us lovingly as Glady the Prime-Minister.

The cross-party Lords Built Environment Committee has published its report, ‘Meeting housing demand’. The report concludes that the Government must address the many barriers that exist to building much needed new homes.

Too many people currently live in expensive, unsuitable, and poor-quality homes and housing supply needs to be increased now to tackle the housing crisis.

Reacting to the death of Jack Dromey MP, Lee Barron, TUC Midlands Regional Secretary, said: “Both myself personally and all unions from across our region are shocked and devastated by the appalling news of Jack’s untimely passing.

“Jack was a towering figure who spent a lifetime campaigning for social justice, dignity and the advancement of working people.  

Veteran Labour politician Jack Dromey has died, his family has confirmed. The shadow minister, who had held the seat of Birmingham Erdington since 2010, is understood to have passed away in his constituency on Friday morning.

He is survived by his wife, fellow Labour MP Harriet Harman, and his three children. His family said he was a much loved husband, father and grandfather who would be greatly missed.