Community News

The City of Wolverhampton Council is embarking on a £1.7m scheme to deliver new build council housing on four small derelict sites across the city.

The works will be carried out by the council’s Strategic Construction Partnership (SCP) contractors, who are being given the opportunity to extend their portfolio from housing maintenance and repairs as part of a pilot project. The partnership – Wates Living Space and United Living – will deliver 12 homes by early 2016, at Redcotts Close, Fallings Park; Hughes Road, Bilston North; Welbury Gardens, St Peter’s; and Sunset Place, Spring Vale.

Homeowners today would rather hide their mess as new research from The Co-operative Insurance reveals that cleaning is dying out, with a quarter of modern households struggling to manage an hour of cleaning each week (25%). Today’s home-makers no longer see cleaning as a priority with those aged (45-54 years) most likely to keep abreast of their chores, cleaning for an average of five hours and four minutes per week compared to those aged 25-34, who only manage three hours and 58 minutes.

Britain is apparently a nation of dog lovers but, according to Birmingham’s dog wardens, more than 25 strays a week are being found on the city’s streets. Despite a 26 per cent drop in the number of stray dogs found in 2014/15 (1,375 compared to 1,874 in 2013/14), wardens were still on average having to deal with at least three strays per day.

With less than three weeks to go until The Color Run descends on the NEC, keen ‘Color Runners’ are being urged to sign-up to the event before it’s too late. With entries closing on Sunday 9^th August, hopeful participants should visit www.thecolorrun.co.uk/Birmingham as soon as possible to secure their place at the ‘Happiest 5k on the Planet’.

Plans to bring life back to the former Armitage Shanks Tap Works Factory site have been revealed as part of an ambitious scheme by Wolverhampton City Council to build more than 100 homes across three derelict sites in Low Hill. The council now hopes to appoint a development partner next year to build a mix of high-quality council homes for rent and private homes for sale on the site, as well as on land on Fifth Avenue and Broome Road.

Children's author and poet John Dougherty joined Divine Chocolate and Christian Aid to announce the winners of this year's national Divine Poetry Competition after selecting the poems from the hundreds of entries which best captured the theme “When I grow up I want to be a cocoa farmer”.  

The move of the nationally renowned language service to the Library of Birmingham is an exciting opportunity to bring together libraries, learning and languages, provide a world class home for Brasshouse and allowing us to extend the opening hours of Library of Birmingham again.

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Hundreds of people enjoyed guided regeneration tours, top-notch entertainment and a new-look market on Saturday as our celebration of local community groups packed out Tottenham Town Hall.

“We would never ask customers to hand over money or give a card payment on their doorstep. Never let anyone into your home without checking their identification first,” commented Grace Marren from Severn Trent Water. That was the advice from the water company, who has received reports from customers that conmen are trying new ways to get access to their homes and take money off them.  

Research from home improvements experts Synseal reveals Brits are feeling the squeeze when it comes to entertaining friends and family this summer. In a survey of 2,000 homeowners, four out of 10 said they didn’t have enough space for welcoming guests. Nearly a quarter said they planned to extend in the next five years with an orangery or conservatory, with a similar number opting for a brick built extension.

Anyone who uses roads in Birmingham is being invited to have their say during the development of a new Road Safety Strategy for the city. The invite has been issued by Cllr James McKay, Cabinet Member for Inclusion and Community Safety, whose portfolio includes road safety.

A rehabilitated loggerhead sea turtle that convalesced about four months at the Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital was fitted with a satellite-tracking transmitter and released Friday, 17 July 2015 off the Florida Keys. Named Aaron, the subadult reptile crawled into the Atlantic Ocean in front of several hundred cheering spectators at Marathon's Sombrero Beach.

Green fingered council tenants and leaseholders across the city are invited to battle it out in Birmingham City Council’s annual gardening competition. Birmingham in Bloom gives prizes for glorious gardens, best balconies and baskets, prettiest pots and voluminous veg.

Britain is nation of prolific tea drinkers, but we’re lagging in the global tea drinking league tables, according to a new survey by working animal charity, SPANA. West Midland tea drinkers get through more tea than any other region in Britain with over half (52%) drinking four or more cups a day, while over one in ten (11%) make their way through eight or more cups each day – equating to more than 2,900 cups per person each year.

A draftsman from Staffordshire has signed up for the Morrisons Great Birmingham Run in October after running 13 events in the last two years. Ian Rowlands, 29, from Burntwood, Staffordshire, was thirteen when a car accident left him in a coma for six weeks and in a wheelchair for a year. Two years ago, he decided to get fit so started taking part in running events around the country; eleven half-marathons and two marathons later he’s showing no sign of stopping!