Community News

Rhianna famously offered the chance to “stand under my umbrella, now that it’s raining more than ever,” well if you are sheltering under a brolly in the UK there is every chance it has been stolen.  New research from Churchill Insurance reveals that 11 per cent of people admit to having stolen an umbrella from a colleague, friend or stranger in the last year, with one-in-twenty admitting to stealing two or more!

When our pets are ill or in pain we naturally want to help them as quickly as possible. However, instead of immediately seeking professional help by way of a visit to the vets, an estimated 1.4 million cat and dog owners in the UK take matters into their own hands and actually give their pets potentially toxic medicines designed for humans.

Oldbury school Principal Gordon Phillips will be undertaking his tenth and final fundraising run in a bid to raise money for new playground equipment for the Meadows Sports College. Gordon, aged 63, will be racing in the Carterton 10km run on Sunday 10 April and hopes to raise £4,000 in total. All money raised will go straight to the school.

In Selly Oak, national deafblind charity, Sense, held a ground-breaking ceremony to celebrate the launch of construction of a new major centre for disabled people. The TouchBase Pears centre, which is due to launch in summer 2017, will provide vital services to help disabled people in the West Midlands lead more independent lives.

Dog owners across Birmingham are being encouraged to get their pets microchipped before a new change in the law comes into effect next month. As people prepare to bring their dogs to Crufts (10-13 March), Birmingham City Council is reminding owners that from 6 April all dogs must be microchipped and have their details registered on an authorised database.

Pupils at Whiteheath Education Centre are preparing to become space biologists and embark on a voyage of discovery by growing seeds that have been into space. In September, 2kg of rocket seeds were flown to the International Space Station (ISS) on Soyuz 44S where they will spend several months in microgravity before returning to Earth in March 2016.

City of Wolverhampton Council is offering a special Fairtrade breakfast menu at its catering facility on the Civic Centre ground floor in support of Fairtrade Fortnight until 13 March 2016. Fairtrade Fortnight is the Fairtrade Foundation’s campaign to highlight the severe lack of food security for farmers around the world.

Wolverhampton will be flying a special flag to mark International Women’s Week and Day on Tuesday. The handmade flag was created by the voluntary sector organisation Women of Wolverhampton (WOW) and local textile artist Sue Chand. She helped WOW members design the flag using the internationally recognised colours of the women’s movement.

This Mother’s Day, the mum of an army patient who has been at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham since September 2015 is calling for people to help Fisher House, QEHB Charity’s ‘home away from home’ for military families. Christina Carter, who lives in West Yorkshire, has been staying at the house for almost six months, after her daughter Abby was injured in August last year.

TV’s Paul O’Grady’s real life ‘Love of Dogs’ has been reflected by the British public in a new poll naming his dog Olga as their favourite celebrity dog for 2016. Dog lovers in the Midlands voted EastEnders’ ‘Princess Di’ as their second favourite pooch and Simon Cowell’s Squiddly and Diddly as their third favourite.

Give it a go! That’s the message from WV Active @ Bert Williams Leisure Centre, where a morning of free activities is being held on Tuesday, March 15 as part of Residents’ Week. There is something to suit everyone between 9am and 12.30pm on the day, with a range of exercise activities available, including aqua aerobics, a mini-circuits taster, gym inductions, lane swimming, and a group walk in partnership with the brilliant ‘Beat the Street’ team.

Tesco customers will decide which of three local community projects in their area will receive the lion's share of the money donated through the Government's 5p plastic bag charge. Through the scheme, called 'Bags of Help', grants of £8,000, £10,000 and £12,000 will be awarded to charities and groups across the UK for spending on environmental improvement projects.

The drive by the Electoral Commission and the National Union of Students asking people to use social media to inspire their friends to register to vote ahead of the elections which are taking place on Thursday 5 May has begun. Utilising the power of social media, they are asking young people across the UK to encourage their friends to register to vote by sharing photos of their ‘voter cross’ and using the hashtag #RegAFriend.

The most deserved of people in our life is to be celebrated and honoured as Mother's Day, approaches us. A day to heap the world of praise and prayers, on mothers and other mother figures, such as grandmothers, stepmothers and mothers-in-law, this Sunday, March 6, will see gifts bought in abundance, cakes, flowers, chocolates, jewelry, and luxurious clothing flying off the racks – some on Sunday morning first thing.

The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Youth Summit took place last week with hate crime, knife crime and personal safety high on the agenda. As the previous eight Youth Commissioners step down, Commissioner David Jamieson welcomed the six new Youth Commissioners to the role