It stands to reason in the digital age that people would prefer to read on a Kindle, smartphone or tablet when on holiday, saving space in their suitcase and taking advantage of cut-price deals on books. But a survey undertaken by RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) has revealed that almost half (46 per cent) of Birmingham residents prefer to stick to the old-fashioned way, choosing to read paperbacks or hardbacks on holiday.

It is not too late for rural communities across the UK to apply to have reliable, indoor 3G mobile coverage and internet access from Vodafone installed at their local community centre. Whether it is for an independent or community run pub and shop, village hall, scout hut, doctor’s surgeries or visitor centre, mobile coverage is provided through Vodafone’s Community Indoor Sure Signal (CISS) programme and is open to up to 100 rural community hubs.

British dogs are increasingly well travelled, with one-in-10 (10 per cent) owners taking their pet abroad, according to new research from Direct Line Pet Insurance.  Over a third (38 per cent) of British vets have reported an increase in demand for pet passports over the last 12 months, handing out an average 26 dog passports and an average six cat passports in the last 12 months.

Hundreds of vulnerable Telecare users have been helped and supported by firefighters who are responding to non-emergency calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The City of Wolverhampton Council commissioned West Midlands Fire Service to provide its mobile Telecare response service in April this year. It sees trauma-trained firefighters responding quickly to non-emergency calls – such as minor falls – from Telecare users across the city.

Over one hundred giant bear sculptures will be leaving their paw prints all over Birmingham next summer, as the city gets set to be known as Bear-mingham in 2017. Following the flying success of The Big Hoot, Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity and creative producers Wild in Art have announced that a second trail is planned for summer 2017, but this time the colourful characters will be sun bears instead of owls.

A unique project capturing people’s memories of food using images and artefacts from Wolverhampton Art Gallery is being published. For the past two years older people have been meeting once a month at the Lichfield Street gallery as part of a reminiscence group to talk about food. The end result is a thought-provoking online book, which captures the city’s past as well as lots of happy shared memories about cooking, eating and drinking.