A dozen community groups in Sandwell have benefited from more than £50,000 worth of improved facilities between them thanks to the generosity of the four companies refurbishing thousands of council homes in Sandwell.

The Hands-on Help scheme has seen Sandwell Council’s four construction partners – Keepmoat, Lovell, Vinci Facilities, and Wates Living Space and their suppliers - working on three projects each over the last 12 months.

The firms donated 1,350 hours of free labour along with a host of materials and their building expertise to benefit the thousands of people who attend the hundreds of activities, clubs and social events hosted by the community groups every week.

Groups were invited to bid for help through the scheme and work carried out included repairing a leaky roof, redecorating tired community halls, refurbishing out-dated kitchens and replacing old toilets.

One of the successful bidders was The Church of the Good Shepherd with St John, in West Bromwich which benefited from a brand new kitchen in their church hall.

The transformation included taking out the old kitchen, upgrading electrics, painting the walls, ceiling and woodwork as well as pressure washing the floor. As well as supplying and fitting the new kitchen, Lovell, who carried out the work also donated a new electric cooker.

Hazel Bloxham, church warden, said: “Our church hall provides a venue for many local clubs and activity groups.

“The kitchen’s previously poor condition was making it difficult to prepare food safely and stopping the wider community from attending activities here.

“We are extremely grateful for everything that has been done and the new kitchen is so much more practical and attractive for people to use.”

Another beneficiary was the 291 Community Association at Wesley Methodist Church, also in West Bromwich which has benefited from new toilet facilities

Derek Percival of the association, said: “Our original building dates back to the 1930s and the toilets were last refurbished in 1972 – and you could tell.

“We are absolutely delighted with the installation of a disabled toilet and nappy-changing facility. We can now better serve our users and attract more bookings for the building."

City of Wolverhampton Council has been handed £478,000 government funding to help fulfil a long-term plan to grow the number of electric taxis in the city. The news was announced this morning by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) as part of its £20 million Taxi Scheme.

The funding means work can now start in the city on building the infrastructure to facilitate electric taxis as they become more readily available over the next decade. An initial 24 charging points will be installed over the next three years, with the aid of match funding from council capital and revenue budgets.

It fits in with wider work to promote low emission vehicles by the West Midlands Combined Authority. Cabinet Member for City Economy, Councillor John Reynolds, said: “We are working closely with the taxi drivers in the city on this project.

“Electric taxis bring many benefits. They improve air quality and public health, make the city more attractive, support the economy of the Midlands, and support innovation and transformation, as well as help reduce carbon emissions.”

Parminder Sekhon, Chair of Wolverhampton Taxi Owners Association, added: “This is great news and these new facilities will help protect the trade as our industry embraces new technologies. Whilst drivers would like to purchase low emission vehicles, it needs to be a viable business option, there are costs associated with these vehicles, any support available from central government and the licensing authority will help drivers make the change to newer cleaner vehicles.”

The council is aiming to convert 16% of both the Hackney and private hire fleets in the city to electric vehicles by 2020.The government will provide top up grants of £7,500 to purchasers of the least polluting category of new electric Hackney carriages.

A network of taxi charging points in and around the city centre will be developed over a three-year period.

Emily Addis, 25, from Sutton Coldfield, was crowned the winner of the 60 Seconds to Change Your Life competition yesterday at The Photography Show (The NEC, Birmingham), winning a package worth over £15,000 to help kick-start her career in photography, in association with Training byLUMIERE and Nikon.

The competition, which was launched earlier this year, required aspiring photographers to submit a 60-second-long video, describing why they hoped to be considered for the competition and how it would change their life. Following additional challenges, including the submission of a creative selfie and a task to capture an image yesterday around the NEC, the three chosen finalists, Emily Addis, Evie Lewis and Wayne Richards took to the Live Stage at The Photography Show to take part in a live photo shoot in front of a packed audience.

Emily Addis said: ‘I am over the moon to have been chosen as the winner and so grateful to have been selected from such an incredible bunch of creative photographers. I have recently quit my job in retail to follow my aspirations of becoming a professional photographer and taking part in the competition was a case of make or break; I am thrilled to be starting my career!’

The full prize package includes, six months’ training starting September 2017 (Training byLUMIERE), essential kit for business (Nikon D500 + AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-80 VR, Create Branding marketing package, 1 year unlimited subscription to 3XM Client Galleries plus a trip to the Loxley Colour lab along with an extensive range of branded product and marketing supplies and software from Light Blue Software), equipment and insurance (a Manfrotto tripod, LED light and bag, MagSphere and MagBounce from Magmod, a WD My Passport Wireless Pro 3TB, 12 months insurance from Towergate Camerasure) plus one-year subscriptions to the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan, including Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC and a subscription to Digital Camera magazine (Future publishing).

Brent Kirkman, owner of Training byLUMIERE and one of the four judges on the panel, said: ‘Emily shone through in all of the competition challenges and we are really looking forward to helping her towards building a successful business in the photography industry.’

Mike Hibbert, financial director of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce (GBCC), is to retire after 22 years in the role. When he was appointed in 1995 it was the organisation’s first full-time financial appointment at Board level, with the Chamber’s affairs having been looked after by honorary treasurers since its inception in 1813.

Since then the role has expanded into a broad brief and Mike, 60, has been at the forefront of managing the Chamber’s property affairs, its pension funds and also had spells in charge of the Chamber’s international division and work programme, which oversees start-up businesses.

“It was this wide diversity of the role which interested me so much,” says Mike. “I haven’t just been involved with the financial affairs of the Chamber but, of course, these have been central to what I have been doing.

“The possible development of the Chamber’s leasehold site in Edgbaston has been a huge responsibility in conjunction with colleagues and still very much at the forefront of the Chamber’s future.”

Paul Faulkner, chief executive of the GBCC, said: “Mike’s input at the Chamber has been invaluable. The job has required a broad area of expertise and he has been instrumental in guiding the Chamber’s fortunes, which at times have been challenging, over the past two decades.

“On a personal level, Mike has been a great support and source of counsel since I joined the Chamber. He has been a fantastic colleague and an important part of the Chamber's recent developments.”

Born in Oldham and educated at Aston University, Mike qualified with an administrative/management degree and joined the accountancy firm Whinney Murray, forerunners of what is now EY (Ernst and Young).

Originally, Mike joined the Chamber on a three-month secondment under the then chief executive Bob Moore.

“Since then I have worked with three other chief executives – Sue Battle, Jerry Blackett and Paul Faulkner. I have also worked with 22 different Presidents from many aspects of business life, including property, finance, law, education, engineering, television, entrepreneurship and marketing – and this has been one of the other appealing and diverse elements of the job.

“The other fascinating part has been involvement with so many business interests in the city through their membership of the Chamber.

“All of this has made the job an amazing experience and it has been an honour to work in an organisation that has such a magnificent and integral heritage as part of one of the most important cities in the world.”

Mike says that the most challenging period of his time at the Chamber came with the financial downturn at the same time as the Chamber’s Business Link contract ended following a re-organisation of business support by the government.

He says: “The Chamber had a turnover of £36 million when Business Link was with us and we had to cope with losing a large proportion of that as well as the impact of the biggest global financial downturn in living memory.

“Those were pretty challenging days and it has been particularly rewarding to come through them and establish a Chamber that is financially strong and making sustained surpluses for the benefit of our members.”

Mike and his wife Susan, who he met at Aston University, have a son and two daughters, and has recently become a granddad..

“That will keep me busy but I hope to have more time to pursue my other interests, including travel and walking” says Mike. Paul Faulkner added: “Mike will be a hard act to follow and we are starting a recruitment process for a Chief Financial Officer.

Birmingham City Council’s Birmingham in Bloom competition is on the lookout for green fingered council tenants and neighbourhood heroes.

The annual competition shines a light on council tenants and lease holders who green up their environment and take pride in their communities.  This year’s competition – which starts and closes earlier than previous years – is going a step further with three awards that recognise tenants and young people who improve their neighbourhoods and support people in their community.

Joan Goodwin, chair of the City Housing Liaison Board, said: “Birmingham in Bloom celebrates the work put in by tenants and leaseholders to bring colour and pride to their communities through their gardening skills.  This year we thought we would celebrate how people in our communities support each other too with some new awards and prizes for those people who really go out of their way to help their neighbours.”

Birmingham City Council’s cabinet member for housing and homes, Cllr Peter Griffiths, added: “Birmingham in Bloom never fails to impress with community gardens, vibrant flower displays and tasty produce.  This year I would really like to encourage people who haven’t entered before to get creative with their gardening skills and think about who makes a difference in their community.  I would also like to thank our sponsors for their continued support for this event which shows what we can achieve when we all work together.”

The deadline for entries is 30 June 2017. Entry forms are available at local libraries and leisure centres or online at https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/20006/housing/1134/birmingham_in_bloom_-_competition and there are lots of great prizes on offer for district and citywide winners in the following categories –

Best front garden – display with the most impact, variety of plants, special features, design and layout Best balcony – visible display of colour, creative with space, ie hanging baskets or window box Healthy Start Award – home grown produce, ie vegetable patch or allotments Community Garden – street or community garden Cleaner Greener Community Award – recognising tenants who have improved the appearance of their neighbourhood Young Person/Group Achievement Award – recognising how young people and young people’s groups have made a positive contribution to their neighbourhood Helping Hand Award – a tenant/leaseholder who has helped someone in their community ie with their garden, waste collection or grocery shop

District winners and their guests will be invited to the awards ceremony at the Banqueting Suite in the Council House on 27 September 2017.

Cash prizes, trophies and gardening tools are sponsored by: Fortem, Glendale, idverde, Keepmoat, The Conservation Volunteers and Wates.

A staggering 27,500 items which help people live safely and independently are loaned out to Sandwell residents every year. And adult social care services make sure that 93 per cent of people who need aids – like walking frames, high seated chairs, perching stools and toilet-related accessories – get them within seven days of being requested.

Now Sandwell Council's cabinet member social care, Councillor Ann Shackleton, is reminding people that wherever possible the council collects and recycles items when they are no longer needed.

The service, which integrates adult social care and health in a pooled budget, called the Better Care Fund, recycles more than half of items which are then suitable to be loaned out again.

The value of these recycled items in 2016/17 totalled a staggering £1.5m, enabling the service to significantly reduce spending on new equipment.

Figures released show more than 12,000 people are currently provided with equipment, to help keep them safe and living independently in their home, with another 2,500 active users of Telecare in Sandwell.

Councillor Shackleton said: "One of the major achievements of the past 12 months was to merge the ordering of equipment and Telecare onto the same system, which has allowed health and social care professionals access to a single ordering system and removed a lot of duplication.

"People who need equipment have it delivered within seven days of request and we are now aiming to increase the recycling rate of many of the items loaned out. I would urge anyone who has loaned items that are no longer needed to let us know so we can collect and recycle them for other people to use.

"The service has also introduced a dedicated occupational therapist role, which has led to greater knowledge of equipment and its suitability as well as realising significant year-on-year savings."

Prevention Stores is the council's in-house provider of equipment and Telecare in Sandwell and loans all kinds of household items to enable people to live safely and independently.

Telecare is the provision of a range of equipment and sensors that alert a carer or professional if something has or hasn’t happened in a property, for example, a person not returning to bed during the night after visiting the toilet. Other sensors include remote smoke detection, medication reminding devices as well as pagers to alert carers to any emergencies. Many items can also be linked to Sandwell’s Community Alarms service.