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.

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.

The bid to transform West Smethwick Park with a £5million restoration scheme has come a step closer. The council has confirmed a £550,000 contribution towards the makeover, which will see the park get a new community pavilion, events area and refurbished toilets - plus improvements to sports pitches and new gym equipment. The council’s cabinet approved the funding at a meeting last week.