16 December 2022
Welcome to the Rotherham Round-up, your regular email update with news, video and events from Rotherham Council.
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Thousands of local families are receiving £30 supermarket vouchers this week to help with the cost of food over the Christmas school holiday.
Rotherham Council is funding the scheme for families with the near 12,000 local children entitled to benefits-related free school meals. The vouchers are being distributed by schools on behalf of the Council.
The Council has been funding food vouchers for children during every school holiday since October 2020 after the Government ended a national scheme it established during the pandemic.
Read the full story.
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The Council is also supporting foodbanks and local voluntary groups to combat food poverty. £115,000 has been provided to foodbanks across the borough to purchase essential food and non-food items which are low in stock. And £44,000 has been given to help local voluntary groups who are collating Christmas food hampers for around 500 vulnerable households.
A package of local support is available to people most severely affected by the cost of living crisis, including help towards energy costs. Further information on the support available, together with other money-saving advice and help is available on the Council's website www.rotherham.gov.uk/money-matters
Rotherham residents are reminded that Rotherham Council services will have different opening hours over the Christmas and New Year period.
Hopefully you won’t require them, but we are here to support you if you do, so we have listed our essential services on our website in case you need to access them.
Read full details of our services and how to contact us.
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 Work is now complete on the £44 million pound upgrade of the A630 Rotherham Gateway, which links Rotherham and Sheffield.
The Rotherham Gateway leads into the Sheffield Parkway and has undergone significant upgrades. It now benefits from an additional lane on both the eastbound and westbound carriageway.
Junction 33, on the intersecting M1, has also benefited from carriageway improvements and resurfacing.
Read more about the improvements.
Rotherham Council’s Cabinet is set to approve proposals for a new service to help prevent financial abuse and exploitation of Rotherham residents.
Plans for the new service include a dedicated specialist investigator who will investigate cases where abuse is suspected, as well as reviewing historic exploitation cases, and deliver financial exploitation and abuse awareness training for key staff and partners.
Read more about our plans.
On Monday 21 November, the Council’s Cabinet approved a refresh of the Thriving Neighbourhoods Strategy.
The Strategy illustrates how the Council will continue to put communities at the heart of everything they do to ensure Rotherham residents can feel happy, safe and proud.
You can view the refreshed strategy at: Neighbourhood Strategy – Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
 Our partners at Shiloh Rotherham recently shared this all too familiar story: It was -3 degrees on Monday and a known guest visited us. Sadly he was rough sleeping again and was wet through - he was freezing!
We washed and dried his clothes, gave him a hot shower, hot food and a clean set of clothing. Both we and Rotherham Council helped him access accommodation options but sadly due to his complex situation, nothing was in place by 5pm last night.
So we provided him with a basic mobile phone, paid for a taxi and an overnight stay in a hotel with a hot breakfast for this morning and gave him a bus pass to get back to us. We'll see what today brings - hopefully we'll find a longer-term solution.
The phone, hotel, breakfast, taxi and bus pass cost £86. We think it's money well spent - and possibly a life saved. If you are in a position to donate to our Christmas campaign, then this is one of the ways that we will use your donations.
The Council homeless team is working in partnership with Shiloh to help people like this man all the time.
Nobody should be sleeping outdoors in the bitterly cold temperatures we've suffered over the last few days. If you can, please support the work of Shiloh by donating to the appeal.
 Aged 16-to-25? Live, work or study in Rotherham? Love music? Want to win £2,500 and gain vital experience of working in the music industry? Then enter the Music Makers competition!
Rotherham Music and Children’s Capital of Culture are offering local young people the chance to work alongside industry professionals to put on gigs and events across Rotherham in 2023.
From January to March our Music Makers will work around 15-to-20 hours a week, on a flexible schedule that fits with their other commitments, to plan and run music-related projects. As well as benefitting from mentoring and gaining experience of working in the industry, they’ll also win a cash prize.
Love going to gigs and festivals? Or are you a music journalist-in-waiting? Do you have a passion for putting on events? Or are you a singer or musician? Then this competition is for you!
Read full details of the competition and how to enter.
VIDEO: Find out more about the Children’s Capital of Culture and how it came about.
Christmas Toy Appeal Parkgate Shopping is now acting as a collection & drop off point for gift donations If you’d like to make a local child’s Christmas this year, find out how to get involved.
Beauty and the Beast pantomime continues to provide family fun and the 'wow' factor for audiences at Rotherham Civic Theatre.
A beloved tale as old as time that will be sure to make you laugh, cry and fall in love with a host of hilarious and hairy characters. Join us for the enchanting journey of the free-spirited Beauty, who is taken prisoner by a Beast. Will Beauty be able to look beyond his beastly exterior and find the true Prince within? All will be revealed until the panto closes on Sunday 8 January 2023.
Read more about the panto' and what's on this December,
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