Spring is nearly upon us (despite the rather wintry forecast for next week!) and this will be marked as usual by the Great British Spring Clean. This excellent initiative has been running for a number of years now, and you can participate as an individual, organisation, or school. We should all take pride in our communities, and the nudge to do so provided by the Spring Clean leads to hundreds of thousands of bags of litter being collected each year and taken off our streets, and out of our parks, hedgerows, and playgrounds. If you can, then get involved from 17 March to 2 April. More details can be found by clicking the link.
Solihull Council is organising a careers fair with Solihull College and University Centre’s Health and Social Care department on Tuesday 7 March to connect local care providers with people looking to pursue a career in care. It’s been a year since the Council launched its ‘Great Care, Great Careers’ workforce strategy for adult social care. Recruitment support is one of the priorities and with an estimated 600 vacancies in Solihull, there is high demand for people to join the care workforce. If you’re interested in a career in care or know someone who might be, please sign up and attend next week. You can find more information here.
This week the Council announced some changes to waste and recycling collections, but don’t worry, they’ll still be just as frequent and there’s no change to what’s being collected. By changing some of our routes and services we will be able to make the service much more efficient whilst reducing carbon emissions and improving air quality. Every affected resident will receive a postcard through the door informing them of the changes. Some people will need to put their bins out on a different day or as part of a different cycle, but if this applies to you, you’ll be informed. You can read more about it here.
Just about the most important thing we do as a council is help those who really need it, whether through our own services or by providing them with access to local, regional, or national support schemes. The figures for rough sleepers were announced this week, and my colleague Councillor Karen Grinsell, the deputy leader of the Council, has given a detailed response outlining ‘Why no one needs to sleep rough in Solihull’. The piece also contains links to all the support available to anyone at risk of rough sleeping.
And finally, I’d like to congratulate Jack, a Year 5 pupil at Balsall Common Primary School for his victorious design in this year’s flowerbed design competition. Love Solihull, Solihull Council’s environmental initiative, launched the competition in September as part of ‘Great Big Green Week’.
They challenged school children from across the borough to design a flowerbed inspired by ‘Your Future Solihull’ – the Council’s recently launched climate change and sustainability campaign. You can read all about it here.
Have a good weekend,
Councillor Ian Courts, Leader of Solihull Council