This weekend, I have the honour of opening the Race for Life in Malvern Park. It’s a great event that raises so much money for an incredible cause, all while getting people out and about, encouraging them to be active and to enjoy the beautiful surroundings of one of our brilliant parks.
We are lucky here in Solihull to have so many incredible green spaces to walk, run, cycle or just sit and pass the time in. It’s more than just luck of course, a lot of hard work goes into managing and maintaining the parks, and our 17 green flag awards are a tribute to the excellent work of our staff and the many brilliant volunteers across the borough who help to keep them clean and tidy.
We do more than just maintain though, we’re always looking to enhance our natural spaces both with big things like our tree planting schemes, as well as some very small things, like the fairy door that was added to Jacey Park (also known as Palmers Rough) last week. It’s common knowledge that fairies like to live in woodland, but I’ve been asked a few times by some of our younger litter-picking volunteers exactly where their home is. Now we’ve been able to provide the fairies with a brand-new door, it’s clear for everyone to see where at least some of them live. I hope it brings a little joy to people of all ages as they walk through that brilliant corner of our borough.
This week is Carers Week, and at the Council we’ve marked it by renewing our commitment to carers across Solihull with our updated Carers’ Strategy. It’s a really important document which lays out what we offer for carers and how we make sure that we are delivering the right support. We think there are around 20,000 people with caring responsibilities in Solihull, including children and young people, and we are determined to help them as much as we can with things like respite services, but also just to make sure that they are recognised for the incredible care they provide for their loved ones.
It was Eid Al-Adha last weekend, congratulations to all who were celebrating. There’s a chance to continue the festivities at Touchwood on Sunday 22 June with live performances, interactive workshops, and special discounts at some of the food outlets in the shopping centre.
Just a little reminder that registration for our new garden waste subscription service opened last week (and a big thank you to the thousands of you who have already registered.) The early bird discount – which reduces the cost to £45 – runs until 11 July. You can register here - Garden waste.
There’s still time to give us your feedback on our draft Council Plan. It’s really important you tell us what you think so we can take it into consideration before we finalise our plans for the next five years. You can read more about it and find the survey here.
I want to give a shout out to Solihull Music and the children and young people who learn with them. News has reached me that 100% of their pupils who took music exams last month passed and over two-thirds got merit or distinction. It’s a fair reward for their hard work and all that practising, and thanks also to all the teachers for a job well done. Keep up the good work!
Our later life planning events are coming up soon (one is on Saturday), I talked about them a lot a couple of weeks ago, but they can help with financial, housing and care choices as well as support for carers (appropriate this week). Find out more here.
Finally, good luck from me and everyone at the Council to our care experienced young people representing Solihull in a football tournament against other teams from all over the country this weekend. It’s a great opportunity and I know they will do us all proud.
Thanks for reading,
Councillor Karen Grinsell, Leader of Solihull Council.