 Your last blue bin bags are coming
From Monday 12 February, we will start delivering the final roll of 20 blue general rubbish bags to most households in the borough. You can look up your blue bag delivery date on our website.
These bags are to cover the period from April until mid-August, when we will start collecting your rubbish from a 180-litre black wheeled bin every fortnight.
Until then, you should continue putting out your rubbish in a blue bag. Also, keep using an average of one blue bag per week, so they won't run out before the changes take effect.
A new leaflet will be delivered with the blue bags to explain the changes in detail and provide helpful tips on how to get ready and to recycle more.
Some households are not changing
Some households will not be moving to the new service, and their rubbish and recycling collections will continue to be weekly. They include:
- Flats with communal bin stores – can use any plastic bags, so won’t get any blue bags
- Properties with no space at all for wheeled bins – will get 54 blue bags delivered
- Properties on narrow lanes which regular waste collection vehicles cannot get to – will get 54 blue bags delivered
 Roots Community Store opens its doors
Wokingham Borough’s first community pantry opens its doors this week.
Roots Community Store has been set up to run from Norreys Church in Wokingham to help residents who can’t afford a full, healthy diet.
The membership-based store has been set up and is being jointly run by SHARE Wokingham, Wokingham Foodbank and First Days Children’s Charity.
The seed funding of £32,000 needed to set the store up was provided by us through our Hardship Fund.
Roots will offer low cost food, including fresh fruit and vegetables, to prevent customers from needing to access emergency food provision, support healthy food choices and keep people healthy more generally.
How affordable is the school day?
We’re working with First Days to support schools to ensure going to school in our borough is affordable for everyone.
Parents of primary and secondary school are being asked to take this short survey to help us with this work. It will take less than five minutes to fill in.
 Pharmacies able to help with minor conditions
Selected pharmacies across Wokingham Borough are now able to give medicine and help with more minor conditions as part of an NHS project.
Highly trained pharmacists can assess and treat patients, without the need for appointments or prescriptions, for:
- Sinusitis
- Sore throat
- Earache
- Infected insect bites
- Impetigo
- Shingles
- Uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women (under the age of 65)
A map showing the participating pharmacies is available online, allowing you to see where your nearest location is.
The move is part of the ‘Pharmacy First’ campaign and is designed to get people the help they need without having to contact a GP. This aims to free up 10 million GP appointments a year nationally.
 Youth politics event later this month
Get ready for an evening of politics, where you can come along and listen to local decision makers debating topics which matter to local young people.
This includes tackling knife crime, whether borough councillors are diverse and representative enough, local youth facilities, impacts of leaving the European Union and views on artificial intelligence.
If you know a young person who is passionate about current affairs or eager to learn more about what each party stands for, this event would be great for them.
It’s for young people aged 11 to 18 and will run from 5pm to 7pm on Tuesday 20 February at the council offices at Shute End in Wokingham. It is free to attend, but places must be reserved in advance.
Don’t forget tomorrow’s (Saturday 10 February) Volunteer Recruitment Fair at Wokingham Town Hall (RG40 1AS). It runs from 10am to 1pm, just drop in and find out more from lots of local charities and organisations.
What you might have missed
Here are all our newsletter updates from the last week:
You can sign up for email updates on our website.
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