Flooding help

An emergency package of financial support has been launched to help communities to recover from the Feburary floods.

The Local Flood Relief Scheme is being run by Worcestershire County Council. Residents who had damage to the habitable areas of their home can apply for a £250 one-off goodwill payment.

Businesses affected by the flood waters can claim a one-off payment of £1,000.

You can apply until Friday 15 April.

Our Operational Services team was on hand to help with the clean-up operation. Their roles included sweeping roads so they could reopen safely and disinfecting play equipment at Riverside Meadow in Stourport.

We are offering free bulky waste collections for residents affected by flooding. More information is available on our flooding help webpage.

Council tax rates

You will soon be receiving your council tax bill for the year ahead.

You pay Council Tax to five different organisations – Worcestershire County Council, the Police and Crime Commissioner for West Mercia, Wyre Forest District Council, Hereford and Worcester Fire Authority and your Town/Parish Council. We collect the money and pass it on to these other organisations.

This year we have increased our portion of your bill by just 2.23% which means the average householder in a Band D property will pay £229.34 for the whole year of our services in 2022-23. The majority of homes in the district fall into Bands A-C and will pay even less than this.

How you can help the people of Ukraine

The UK’s Disasters Emergency Committee has launced an appeal to help the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing conflict.

We’re encouraging residents who wish to make financial donations to support the appeal.

Fifteen leading UK aid agencies - including the British Red Cross, Oxfam and Save the Children - are working together to help people who have fled Ukraine. They are also helping those who have been displaced to other parts of the country.

You can also help by donating essential items to a Ukrainian donations centre at the former Debenhams store in Weavers Wharf, Kidderminster.

Heritage Trail App

Bring history alive and take a trip around the district’s towns using the brand-new Wyre Forest Heritage Trail App.

It’s free to download and will bring the history of our three towns alive when you take a trip around the district.

It uses the latest augmented reality technology and taps into the lives of memorable characters from times gone by.

The app will go live on Thursday 31 March in time for the Easter holidays.

Energy bill rebate

The government’s announced support with rising energy bills including a one-off £150 energy rebate payment. This is for council tax payers in bands A-D.

We will be dealing with these payments separately to the council tax billing system. We will be using the council tax list to identify eligible households.

Please sign up to pay your council tax by direct debit, if you haven't already, as customers who are eligible for a rebate and pay using this method are like to receive their rebate in April.

We're considering ways to issue the rebate for residents who do not pay their council tax by direct debit. It may take longer for these residents to receive the rebate.

More details will be available on our website as soon as government guidance on how it will be administered is issued. Please do not ring or email us about the energy rebate at this time.

Garden waste service restarted

Our fortnightly collections have started again.

This week the crews will be collecting from garden waste customers who have their brown bins emptied the same week as their rubbish bin.

You can put grass cuttings, hedge and shrub clippings, leave, twigs, bark, small plants and weeds, windfall fruit and cut flowers in the brown bin.

Help our crews

Our bin crews empty around 50,000 bins every week and they do their very best to make sure everyone's bin is emptied on their collection day.

To help the crews, please make sure your bin is out on the kerbside and visible by 6am on your collection day. You can put it out the night before.

We know some people do struggle to move their bins and don’t have anyone to help, so we have an assisted collection service. If you need help you can apply for help with your bin out and have no-one in your house to help, you can apply for our assisted service.

Please only put things which can be recycled in your recycling bin! We have been finding a lot of textiles in recycling bins recently. Textiles should either be taken to charity shops, put in textile recycling banks or taken to the Household recycling centres.

If a recycling bin contains items which are not part of our kerbside recycling scheme, the crews will not empty them. We’ve got lots of information about what can and cannot go in you bin on our website.

Should our constituency be called Kidderminster?

The Boundary Commission for England is holding an independent review of all constituency boundaries in England, and you can have your say on its proposals.

In our area there is no change to the boundaries but it is suggesting the name is changed from Wyre Forest to Kidderminster. What do you think?  

Go to bcereviews.org.uk to view the proposed new constituencies for your area and share your views before the secondary consultation closes on Monday 4 April.

Bewdley Museum reopened its doors to visitors on Saturday (5 March).

The museum is open from 10am to 4.30pm daily and free to visit.

This year there is a new display highlighting Wyre Forest's Bronze Age which includes an insight into the first farmers and earliest metalworkers.

The museum is celebrating its 50^th anniversary this year. It has a packed programme of events in 2022!

From Saturday 26 March to Sunday 24 April, there is an exhibition of the Methodist Modern Art Collection.

It is one of Britain’s most important collections of modern religious art. The exhibition features 20 pieces from the collection. It includes work by eminent artists such as Graham Sutherland and Elizabeth Frink.

Fun for the family

Alice in Wonderland is making an appearance at Bewdley Museum on Sunday 17 April.

You can follow Alice down the rabbit hole as Same Difference Arts is presenting a new production of Alice in Wonderland. 

Alice encounters the unforgettable Mad Hatter, a fuzzy White Rabbit, the mean Queen of Hearts and many more fantastic characters.

The shows in the outdoor Green Theatre are an hour long. There are two performances, one at 12pm and the second at 2.30pm.

Tickets are £8 each. Booking is essential.

Children of all ages are invited to bring their own picnic chairs or blanket and join in our tea party in the garden. Refreshments are also available from the Garden Kitchen Cafe.