Parish council news round-up 362 - Friday, August 2nd, 2024

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Please note that our weekly updates will be suspended from Friday, August 2nd until Friday, September 6th for the summer break. Other forms of communication will continue as normal.

Council and district news

Help us celebrate our 50th anniversary!

Have you got a special memory of South Staffordshire? It could be of a particular place, view or building that you love and feel should be celebrated?

2024 marks the 50th anniversary of South Staffordshire Council and we're seeking memories, stories, thoughts and photographs from all Parish Council’s in the district.

We'd love to see your photographs of the district (past and present), community events, awards ceremonies, milestones or favourite areas in your particular Parish, which may be included as part of the celebration event.

Your contributions may be shared as part of a celebratory event and community awards ceremony which will be held in October.

As a thank you for completing the survey, you have the chance to be entered into a prize draw to win a £25.00 One4All shopping voucher.

Please complete the survey by Friday August 30th. If you have any photographs, please email them to comms@sstaffs.gov.uk by the same date.

Please click on the link to fill in our survey

👉 Parish Survey celebrating 50 years

Reminder: Free childcare application deadline – August 31st

The Department for Education (DfE) is reminding eligible working parents in England making childcare arrangements for September that they need to apply by 31 August for:

15 hours childcare for their child aged 9 months old until they turn 3 years old
30 hours childcare for their 3 or 4 year old

Parents should visit gov.uk to get their code for a place in September and then share it with their childcare provider. Parents are encouraged to speak to their provider to find out more about their arrangements.

They will have to renew their code every three months through their gov.uk childcare account to continue to receive the government support.

To find out more and check their eligibility, parents should visit the Childcare Choices website

DfE has provided key messaging and resources in the newly revised Childcare Choices toolkit

Vacancies

Leisure Assistant, Codsall Leisure Centre, closing August 11^th
Planning Solicitor, open closing date
Waste Management & Customer Support Officer, closing September 1^st
Waste Contracts Manager, closing September 1^st

All vacancies can be viewed in full and applied for on our recruitment site: https://www.sstaffs.gov.uk/vacancies.

STOP PRESS – Funding Update

South Staffordshire Council are excited to tell you about the success of the initial stage of awarding funding to a wide range of worthwhile projects here in South Staffordshire.

A wide range of project ideas have been funded and those that could demonstrate how their project could measure the achievable outcomes of making a significant difference to health equalities scored highly.

Some of the projects funded through the Health Inequalities Fund are:

Bee Well

At the heart of this project is to give young children the resilience to support them through the ups and downs of their young lives and beyond. The organisation will work with primary schools to deliver age-appropriate workshops to equip them for the future.

Elders and Explorers

There’s been a lot of research on the benefits of bringing together the older generation with young children. Codsall Community nursery have received funding to do just this. Over the course of the next year, this multi-generational project will be delivering workshops that will allow older people to interact with young children through arts, crafts, reading and just talking!

Ageing Well

This is a hot topic at the heart of so many of our communities and one that is relevant to all our residents. The organisation will work with community groups to identify bespoke workshops to ensure that residents are able to enjoy their later years healthily and prosperously.

Sound Mind

There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that following Covid and the lockdown, young people were very much affected and referrals to mental health services are at an all-time high. This organisation will work alongside family support services and schools to offer counselling services to young people.

Up-cycle

This organisation will be renovating donated bicycles which will then be offered to residents who need them to get to work, shopping and improve their health.

Through the West Midlands Interchange (WMI) fund. we have funded public benches, speed signs, village gateway signage and many more. This funding is restricted to the areas surrounding the WMI.

All the projects are in the initial stages of delivery – we can’t wait to see them in action!

In September and the following months, we will be bringing you more information on the progress of the projects.

Street Scene environmental maintenance work

Street Scene Landywood Before After pics

Elected Members have recently had the opportunity to request environmental maintenance enhancements for their wards, which are in addition to the regular grounds maintenance schedule.

This work will be carried out by our Street Scene team throughout the district over the next two years.

We'll be sharing regular updates and before and after photographs to show the work that's being carried out.

WATCH📹 : How we’re helping South Staffordshire communities enhance their areas

Our new video explains how we as a council divide the district into five localities and how our Locality Enablers work with our communities.

Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing further updates across our X, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts.

Watch the full video on YouTube here:

👉How we’re helping South Staffordshire communities enhance their areas).

Partnership updates

Discover South Staffordshire at Wild Zoo! 🦕

The Wild Zoological Park is located at Halfpenny Green Vineyards in Bobbington.

It offers a memorable, hands-on experience to educate guests about animals. You’ll find animals from around the world in its 5 themed lands: Reptiles Unleashed, Wild Australia, Amazon, Asia, and Africa.

After the success of the half term experience 'Jurassic Encounter’ Wild Zoo have launched a full length park show called 'Wild World of Dinosaurs!'

The new show follows the resident palaeontologist as he explores life through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

There are lots of impressive special effects and elements during the show as well as the The Flight Bird Show The Wild Wonder's Animal Show!

The dinosaur show runs on weekends and school holidays.

To find out more click here 👉Wild Zoological Park / Wild Destinations

Enjoy Staffordshire's #30under30pounds budget days out

Each of these suggested attractions are either free admission, or cost no more than £30 for a family of four to enter, so start planning your family summer days out in Staffordshire now!

Get ready for an unforgettable summer experience to explore Staffordshire's hidden treasures.

Find out more here 👉 https://bit.ly/3Wttie2.

Book now for Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme

The Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme enables local authorities in England to deliver inclusive, enriching activities including a hot meal over the school holidays. For the summer holidays, eligible children can book 16 free places, up to four hours a day.

It’s funded for children and young people aged 5 – 16 years who receive benefit related free school meals. For a full overview, please watch this video.

How to book?

All parents to eligible children should have received an email or a letter from Staffordshire County Council with their child’s individual HAF code. The schools will also be requested to share information and booking details with all eligible children.

Parents will see the ‘Book Now’ button on our HAF page on the county council website.
Parents/carers can register an account via our booking platform on our website
Parents will need their HAF code to hand to book the activities of their choice

To avoid disappointment, parents/carers should book as soon as possible at: www.staffordshire.gov.uk/holidayactivities.

Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent Tourism Awards 2025: Celebrating Excellence in Local Tourism

This years Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Tourism Awards are now open for applicants. The closing date is Monday, September 2nd.

This prestigious event aims to celebrate the best in local tourism, recognising the dedication and innovation of businesses and individuals who contribute to making this area a premier destination for visitors.

Categories for this years awards include Small and Large Visitor Attraction of the Year, Camping, Glamping and Holiday Park of the Year, Pub of the Year and many more! The gold winners in each category will also receive the prestigious opportunity to represent VisitEngland Awards for Excellence 2025.

With 19 categories and a free submission, don’t miss the chance to be a part of this exciting evening that promises to inspire and uplift.

For more information on how to apply here 👉click here.

Striving to improve local NHS emergency services

The NHS Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB) have been working closely with our hospital trust providers and other partners to review our current urgent and emergency care services against the nationally mandated principles and standards for urgent treatment centres (UTCs).

UTCs are designed to offer care to people with minor illnesses or injuries, whose needs are urgent (same day) but not life-or limb-threatening.

We want to tackle these challenges and help everyone get to the right place, first time for the right advice or treatment.

We want to hear from patients and the public across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent through an online survey about people’s experiences of using UEC, and we’ll be holding meetings from August to early October.

Get involved

For the survey, details of meetings, and information you can download, go to our NHS Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB webpage: https://staffsstoke.icb.nhs.uk/uec-get-involved

Get in touch

Phone: 0333 150 3069

Email: mlcsu.involvement@nhs.net

Event Management Safety

The Environmental Health and Licensing Team have been working with event organisers throughout the year to support them in delivering safe events across the district.

Last year an estimated 130,000 visitors to South Staffordshire who attended events within the district.

The team work in partnership with other responsible bodies as the police, fire and rescue service, highways and medical services alongside the event organiser to form a safety advisory group (SAG) to advise and guide good practice.

As a council we encourage event organisers to take ownership of their event by providing an event management plan to ensure a safe event is being delivered and key areas are addressed such as health and safety, food safety, traffic management, first aid, fire safety and welfare provision.

Over the past year the team have worked with a variety of events from smaller music festivals and bonfire nights and larger events such as Camp Bestival which attracts around 20,000 visitors.

The team will work with organisers and provide the necessary advice and guidance and have carried out meetings, onsite nighttime and weekend visits and undertake enforcement where necessary .

This year an abatement notice has been served in relation to a statutory nuisance and objections made to license conditions that had not being met. For two events the safety advisory group have advised the organisers that their plans were insufficient, or objections were made to licence applications on the grounds of safety, this has prevented two potentially unsafe events from going ahead.