On Friday 11th April 2025, MP Liam Byrne visited the Community Plaza to meet UK Goodwill Youth & Community Ambassador and the Founder of Community Plaza CIC, Mohammed Zafran known as Zaf to talk about why knife crime is on a rise and why are more and more youths turning to crime. Zaf who is the Chair of West Midlands Crimestoppers told Liam that,” the youths are frustrated for many reasons such as lack of employment and even if they get interviews, a lot of them get turned down because of lack of experience. Unfortunately these rejections and pressure from…

Walsall Trading Standards, in partnership with West Midlands Police and a specialist search dog team, including sniffer dogs Griff, Bran and Cooper, searched seven retail premises and one associated vehicle. Illegal goods were found in the vehicle and all shops visited, including across storeroom floors, hidden concealments, and even inside a jigsaw puzzle box. The seizures removed more than 150,000 cigarettes, 20.5kg of illegal hand rolling tobacco, and 1543 illegal disposable vapes from Walsall’s streets. “ Our Trading Standards team really put the pieces together with this investigation, managing to find goods which pose a real danger to our residents…

Birmingham City Council is delighted to announce that three local schools have been granted the School-Based Nursery Capital Grant for the 2024-2025 academic year. Grestone Academy, Montgomery Primary Academy, and The Shirestone Academy will receive funding to expand and enhance nursery provision, creating more childcare opportunities for local families. This funding initiative is part of the government’s wider strategy to increase access to early years education, particularly in areas where demand for nursery places outstrips supply. The initiative aims to ensure that families across the country have better access to affordable, high-quality early years provision, supporting children’s development and preparing…

UK businesses and consumers could benefit from lower prices on imports of everyday essentials like spices and juices as the Government takes further action to make the UK the best place to do business and kickstart economic growth. In a further demonstration of the government’s commitment to free trade and responding to business need, the UK Global Tariff will be temporarily suspended on 89 products saving UK businesses up and down the country at least £17 million a year. The products include plywood and plastics, which are essential for construction – making life easier for chippies all over the country.…

Council homes in a Wednesbury neighbourhood have undergone a major refurbishment, with two new apartments also created to help provide much-needed housing. Sandwell Council and its contractor SWG Construction have completed the refurbishment and new-build project in Thorn Close, Wednesbury. SWG has revitalised 12 one-bedroom and 16 three-bedroom two-storey apartments, while also adding two brand new one-bedroom single-storey apartments within the original under-used underpasses. The project not only improves the quality of housing for residents but also enhances the surrounding environment with new landscaping, garden roofs, modernised communal spaces and upgraded facilities. Alongside the new apartments, SWG completed essential works…

The facility, located at Grenfell Allotments, had gone unused for 10 years prior to work. To deliver the work at no cost, a collaborative approach was pulled together through Walsall Council’s Corporate Social Responsibility Programme (CSR). Barhale and sister company BCS Group provided labour, tools, PPE and signage for the project. Travis Perkins provided all the materials free of charge while Flannery Plant Hire provided a heavy plant dumper and mini digger, including transport to and from site. For groundworks, Speedy Hire provided strimmers. For the work to be carried out, vegatation had to be removed, along with the dilapidated…

Young Driver®, the UK’s foremost under-17s driver-training school, has steered clear of leasing for the first time after taking delivery of its brand-new 170-strong Suzuki Swift fleet, which will provide 150,000 driving lessons for children each year. After 15 years, 1.5 million lessons, and multiple fleet changes, Young Driver has bucked the industry norm and purchased its new fleet outright, rather than leasing the cars. Due to a combination of strong residual values for the Suzukis, and the ability for Young Driver to only offset its loan interest and depreciation against profits – rather than the entire lease payment -…

The Royal Automobile Club Motoring Book of the Year Awards are now open for entries! These prestigious awards welcome submissions of all motoring and motor racing books published between 1 July 2024 and 30 June 2025. Now in their twelfth consecutive year, the Motoring Book of the Year Awards are widely regarded as the highest honours in automotive book publishing. “Our Awards have a simple yet important goal: to champion the very best in automotive literature – honouring outstanding books, authors and publishers,” said Jeremy Vaughan, Head of Motoring at the Royal Automobile Club. “Once again, we invite authors and…

After ten years, and with more than 100,000 young minds inspired, Nissan has announced that it will double its pioneering Skills Foundation STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) provision to 16,000 children annually. Officially launched in 2015 by King Charles, the then Prince of Wales, the Nissan Skills Foundation began as a single interactive workshop aiming for about 1,000 students. Fast forward ten years and the foundation has beaten that target 100-fold, expanding to 13 different STEM courses for students aged six to eighteen. To mark the double milestone, Nissan invited 200 children from across the North East onto the…

People can learn about activities taking place in their community and have their say about local issues at a series of regular drop in sessions held across Wolverhampton. The Love Your Community sessions give residents the chance to meet with representatives from Wolverhampton Police, the City of Wolverhampton Council, Wolverhampton’s Anti Social Behaviour team and more, and to share information about issues and activities in their neighbourhoods. Councillor Obaida Ahmed, the City of Wolverhampton Council’s Cabinet Member for Digital and Community, said: “These sessions are an important forum for residents to meet with organisations and discuss the priorities for their…