 Have your say - street cleaning and litter bins
The consultation to have your say on the future of street cleaning and litter bins across the borough is now open.
We're currently grappling with the ongoing triple threat of high inflation, which leads to vastly increased costs, as well as growing needs among the community and a long history of inadequate funding from the Government.
With this in mind we are launching a consultation on how we could make much- needed savings.
This impacts areas such as street cleaning, grass cutting, litter bins and other services which will help us keep our finances stable and continue looking after those who rely on us most.
 Get £100 to help with cost of living
Our Household Support Fund is still open for grant applications from any resident.
You can apply through Citizens Advice Wokingham or Age UK Berkshire to access funding to pay for food, energy bills or other costs.
There's also specific support for means-tested free school meal children from First Days Children's Charity
And our new guides set out options you can use if you’re struggling:
Feeding thousands, cutting waste
SHARE provides food to about 2,500 residents each week, for free, to help reduce food waste and support those struggling with the cost of living.
All the stock is surplus or end of day items from local supermarkets (Waitrose, M&S, Tesco, Morrisons and Lidl) and food suppliers which would otherwise go to waste.
View the food map to see locations and opening times. Sites in Woodley, Wokingham, Shinfield, Finchampstead, Arborfield and beyond.
 Volunteers needed to help run men’s support group
Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 45. One man died by suicide every two hours.
To end the stigma surrounding men’s mental health and help men through the power of conversation, Andy’s Man Club is coming to Wokingham Borough.
The talking group will launch in October or November and will meeting on Mondays (excluding bank holidays) from 7pm to 9pm at Radstock Lane Community Centre in Earley (RG6 5UL).
Andy’s Man Club is to help men who have either been through a storm, are currently going through a storm, have a storm brewing in life or just want to meet a good group of people with the aim of improving one another.
To get the group launched we’re helping to recruit men to run the sessions. Email Darren Edwards from Andy’s Man Club to volunteer.
We’ll promote the launch of the group later in the year but It will be free to attend, not require registration and become part of a network of more than 130 groups across the country.
 Have you heard of the Repair Café?
You can take your broken household items to the next Spencers Wood Repair Café at Lambs Lane Primary School (RG7 1PW) on Sunday (20 August).
Billie Bachra, who launched the initiative at Spencers Wood Village Hall last May, has recently moved it to the nearby primary school because it has more space.
The repair café at Lambs Lane Primary School will be run on the third Sunday of the month, from 10am to 1pm. Their expert volunteers will try their best to fix your broken items or offer advice on what can be done to get them up and running again.
The service is free, but donations are welcomed to cover repair costs and support initiatives to reduce waste and engagement with young people.
To find out more, email Billie at billie@spencerswoodrepaircafe.co.uk. If you want to take part as a volunteer, please get in touch with her.
Meanwhile, the repair café at Spencers Wood Village Hall will continue as normal on the first Sunday of every month. We're lucky to now have two in our borough and encourage you to visit to reduce your waste.
What you might have missed
- View our Adult Education Courses pages for latest educational opportunities available this month and into the autumn – courses free to certain groups
- The full resurfacing phase of our annual road maintenance programme is now complete. You can view the list of roads resurfaced on our website, as well as other planned road maintenance
-
A meet the guide dogs event between Wokingham Library and Guide Dogs for the Blind Association takes place at Wokingham Library today (15 August) from 10 am to 12 noon. No need to book and all ages are welcome, so just come along and meet some wonderful dogs and find out how they help their owners. A similar event takes place at the same time on Thursday 31 August
-
Check the jobs board for our latest vacancies – new jobs added in the last week include two new accountant roles, administration team leader, early years advisors and more
|
