Community News

City of Wolverhampton Council has revealed at MIPIM a stunning new artist’s impression showcasing Urban & Civic’s £55 million Westside development.

Enabling works are currently underway on the leisure-led mixed use scheme at the heart of the city centre, and strong demand from occupiers means construction on the first phase remains on track to start in early 2018.

The MIPIM presentation in Cannes also highlighted a 100-plus bed opportunity for a hotel investor to be part of the scheme, which sits across 6.4 acres on three adjacent parcels of land.

Westside will also bring to the city a multiplex 12-screen cinema, 50,000 square feet of additional leisure space, new restaurants covering 40,000 square feet, and a multi-storey car park in phase one.

Phase two will deliver more than 300 new city centre homes and 50,000 square feet of retail and leisure space.

Councillor John Reynolds, Cabinet Member for City Economy, said: “Plans are progressing well for Westside and it is a fantastic city centre scheme, as this latest image shows.

“It has already attracted unprecedented demand from occupiers and will gain added profile at this week’s MIPIM event.

“Urban & Civic possess an excellent track record in delivering comparable high-quality schemes in the UK and have the financial support in place.

“There is a general enthusiasm around the Westside opportunity, and optimism concerning the groundswell of regeneration activity across the city, where £3.7 billion of investment is on site or in the pipeline.

“The outstanding proposals put forward by Urban & Civic perfectly meet our expectations of a regenerated Wolverhampton.”

Construction on phase one of the project is expected to be complete by early 2020. It encompasses land between Penn Road Island and Salop Street, including the current School Street and Peel Street car parks and the area around Market Square.

Phase two incorporates parts of land between Salop Street and Darlington Street, including the Fold Street car park. Works on this section of the development are likely to be completed in 2022.

Urban & Civic Property Director, Philip Leech, added: "We are proud to be the developers of this prestigious city centre leisure scheme which for the City of Wolverhampton will become a game changer both culturally and economically.

“Leisure-based urban regeneration is a specialism of Urban & Civic and we are looking forward to completing a destination which will serve the city for generations to come"

Shocking statistics revealed by blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan reveal that one in five (20%) young men from the West Midlands could not be encouraged to sign up to a blood stem cell or bone marrow register for any reason – despite the possibility of saving a life being a reason to do so.

"Hot from the desk of the Superkart Charity Challenge we’re proud to introduce our fantastic Premier Sponsor and official media partner “The Phoenix Newspaper”." Known and respected as the newspaper from the community for the community, the “Phoenix” have taken up the challenge and will be whole heartedly supporting our charity challenge as an on-going project to connect and promote the business’s involved, our local communities who are competing, and the 7 nominated charities who we are raising funds for.

Include Me TOO, a national (United Kingdom-based) charity, joined hands with the Commonwealth Youth Council, an international youth-led NGO, to advance mutual objectives. Include Me TOO an award winning charity has led on disabled children and young people, and their families, from a diverse range of backgrounds participation and inclusion for over a decade, with innovative and creative approaches. The charity is committed in promoting and supporting social justice, equality, inclusion and the rights of disabled children and young people.

People with disabilities are being invited to one of Birmingham’s leading art galleries as part of the national award-winning Disabled Access Day campaign. The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA), in the Jewellery Quarter, is one of a handful of organisations in the city that is participating in the initiative over three days from Friday, March 10. RBSA has organised a host of activities on March 10, including free talks by artists, for Disabled Access Day, whose theme this year is ‘You and Somewhere New’ and encourages disabled people, their friends and families to try something different and visit places they’ve never been to before.

City of Wolverhampton Council has joined forces with a local allotment association and community group to breathe new life into Goldthorn Assembly Hall. The Himley Crescent hall, which was built in the 1950s to serve the Goldthorn Park residents, has been vacant for four years. Himley Crescent Allotment Association has now secured a seven-year lease with the council and formed a management group with Wolverhampton Vocational Training Centre (WVTC) to put it back into use.

Commute-hating Brits would be willing to travel for no more than 1 hour 14 minutes, even for their dream job. A survey found that Londoners are willing to endure the longest commute at an hour and a half, meanwhile Manchester residents would be willing to commute just 23 minutes each day. When quizzed on the things that made commuting frustrating or annoying, Brits admitted that getting stuck in traffic infuriated them the most (63%).

A relieved pigeon posed for a selfie with the RSPCA officer who rescued her after spending FIVE DAYS trapped in a chimney. The RSPCA were called to Milton Street, Walsall, by the homeowner who said the bird could be heard flapping around and trying to escape. RSPCA animal collection officer (ACO) Catherine Strawford (pictured) said: “The man who lived there said he’d heard the bird flying around for a number of days.

Fisher House, a ‘home away from home’ for military patients and their families, has received a fantastic donation from the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity (RNRMC). Fisher House was built on-site of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, which is home to the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, in June 2013. Its mission is to provide free, comfortable accommodation for the families of wounded and ill troops and veterans.

John Taylor Hospice is asking people to pop the kettle on and host their own fundraising event in support of local families. During Coffee Morning Month in April the hospice is asking supporters to get together for a cuppa and a piece of cake to raise funds for people living with a terminal illness and their families. Sian Averill, Community Fundraising Manager at John Taylor Hospice, said: “Inviting friends and family to join you for a cuppa, cake and a chat is an enjoyable way to raise money for a great cause.

People are being invited to have their say about an ambitious strategy to modernise Wolverhampton's library service and further improve provision in the City. The City of Wolverhampton Council's draft Libraries Strategy for 2017-27 was presented to Cabinet, with councillors approving a 12-week period of consultation. The 10-year strategy seeks to maintain Wolverhampton’s 16-strong network of libraries while improving the services they offer to people who live, work, visit or study in Wolverhampton.

Time is running out for talented older people in the West Midlands to share their skills at the Royal Voluntary Service’s GrandFest event, with the deadline of Friday 10 March fast approaching for accomplished craftspeople to apply to be a ‘GrandMaker’. As part of its 40^th year celebrations, the UK’s leading retirement housebuilder, McCarthy and Stone, has joined forces with the Royal Voluntary Service to support the charity’s annual GrandFest event; and both parties have issued a final call for potential GrandMakers to apply to be part of the one-day festival, which will take place in central London on Sunday 18^th June.

Sandwell’s ever-popular Big Spring Clean campaign is back for 2017 – and local people and organisations are invited to get involved with litter picking, graffiti removal, planting and painting. The campaign will launch with a community litter-picking event at Victoria Park, Smethwick, on Friday 3 March. Sandwell Council has teamed up again with waste partner Serco and local charity Litter Watch to recruit volunteers for the 11th annual Sandwell Big Spring Clean.

In aiming to provide a facility where local people can get together to socialise, support and contribute to the building of a safer community, the Sheldon Community Initiative is looking to run a range of  weekly and monthly activities for local children, young people, the elderly, single parents and others groups. And in order to aid much-needed fundraising for the centre - which houses a local food bank as well as other annual events - they have set up a special Sheldon Outreach Family Centre Open Day/Launch at their Sheldon Heath Road venue in Birmingham.

To mark the 20th anniversary of World Book Day on 2nd March 2017 new research from VisitEngland shows that more than half of British holidaymakers would visit a literary attraction on holiday in England. Findings also show that one in four Brits visited a literary location in England during a holiday break in the last year. The same amount had read literature relating to a place they had visited in the country.