Many children, young adults and adults alike will have played the video game Minecraft before, or perhaps watched the Jack Black film at the cinema over the summer. So I know a lot of people will be excited to hear the news this week that Malvern and Brueton Parks have been brough to life in Minecraft. It’s a brilliant online replica which features everything from the park’s tennis courts, lake, and an ice cream van. There are also over 50 interactive characters, wandering animals and a guided treasure hunt.
We’ve launched this as part of a project to improve accessibility and inclusivity across our parks and open spaces. By bringing the parks to the world’s best-selling video game, we can open them up to even more people, particularly those who cannot access them in person – for instance, if they have issues getting to a physical location, or if they have social difficulties within open environments.
I would like to thank the talented young adults at Newlands Bishop Farm who spent six months designing our first ‘digital parks’ for us. They’ve done a fantastic job. Anybody with access to Minecraft and an internet connection can enjoy them in a safe and vibrant environment, at any time of day or night.
There’s more details about how to access them on our webpage and our media release. Please do take a look and share the links if you know of anyone who may benefit from the Minecraft project.
Our annual report is out, it shows how we’re doing in terms of delivering our Council Plan. There’s a lot of detail in there, but I’m proud of so much of the work this Council is doing. We’re not hiding from the challenges we face, and you can see in the report just what we’re doing to provide good quality, good value services for the people of Solihull.
I mentioned the Solihull Moors Foundation dinner in my column last week, and I can’t let this week’s edition pass without saying what a fantastic night it was. What a wonderful celebration of some great people who give so much to our community. I can’t list all the winners here, but I just want to congratulate them all on their well-deserved rewards for the incredible contribution they make to Solihull.
Our friends at Jaguar Land Rover are doing all they can to get their production line up and running again after a devastating cyber-attack. What happened to them is appalling and the knock-on effects are so far-reaching, given the scale of the JLR supply chain. I know they have great people working round the clock to make sure they can get back to building brilliant cars as soon as possible and I wish them all the best. If this goes on longer the government needs to look at what can be done to keep those businesses in the supply chain going, we can’t afford to lose those jobs and those skills that have been built up over so many years.
Finally, it’s a big weekend of sport so I just want to wish the Red Roses well in their Rugby World Cup Final against Canada tomorrow. They’ve been brilliant all the way through the tournament and winning the trophy at a sold-out Twickenham would be a just reward. I’m sure many of you will be glued to the Ryder Cup as well this weekend, let’s hope Europe can upset the odds and take the glory across the pond.
Thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend,
Karen.