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Level 2 Heat Health Alert next week for the South East
A Level 2 Heat Health Alert has been issued for the South East from midday on Tuesday 9 August until 9am on Friday 12 August.
The
Level 2 yellow alert is triggered by the Met Office when there’s a 60%+
risk for threshold temperatures being reached in one or more regions on
at least two consecutive days and the intervening night. For the South East, the threshold is 31 degrees daytime and 16 degrees at night.
Hot weather can be dangerous, especially for the very young, very old, or those with chronic conditions.
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Waste and recycling collections to start earlier due to hot weather
Due to the expected high temperatures next week, our bin crews will be starting their collections earlier.
Please ensure your bin is out from 6am Monday to Friday next week for the earlier collections.
Our crews do a very active outdoor role so starting one hour earlier means they finish before the worst of the heat. Thank you.
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Supporting young carers in the Royal Borough
Growing
up poses pressures and challenges in itself, but there are some
children who for a range of reasons also have care responsibilities
within their family.
A
young carer is someone who provides care, assistance or
physical/emotional support to another family member – often a parent or
sibling – and carries out significant or substantial caring tasks,
assuming a level of responsibility which would usually be associated
with an adult.
Often the young person doesn’t recognise themselves as a young carer as it’s just part of the family dynamic. The
Royal Borough is committed to making sure that caring is a positive and
manageable experience for all young carers. While they continue to
provide their important care, young carers should be able to lead
healthy and fulfilling lives.
Our Young Carers Service, provided through the charity Family Action, helps to reduce
this burden of care for children and young people, aged 5 to 18, who
are referred for support. Through one-to-one sessions and group
workshops, the service supported 85 young carers and their
families during last year alone, helping to reduce caring roles and
responsibilities where possible and improving young carers’ wellbeing
and development.
The
service offers young carers the opportunity to have respite from their
caring role by attending regular fun activities, meeting other young
carers and taking part in small group work around specific common issues
that young carers face, alongside tailored one-to-one support on how to
cope better.
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Cathryne and Charlie’s story
Among the people helped by the Young Carers Service is Charlie, aged 11, and his mother Cathryne, who live in Windsor.
Cathryne unfortunately has long-term mobility challenges that fluctuate
from day to day, so Charlie and his older brother Anthony, assist with
tasks around the house when their mum isn’t able. As a young carer,
Charlie has attended the service for about two years. Watch our video for more about their story.
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Could you become a foster carer?
Providing a safe and caring home for a child through fostering is a valuable and rewarding role.
We
need foster carers from all walks of life to look after children of
differing ages, from babies to teenagers up to the age of 18. Fostering
is a way of providing a short-term home for a child until a permanent
solution is found.
Many
different kinds of people can provide a secure and caring environment
for children and young people who for whatever reason cannot live with
their families.
Age,
income, gender, sexuality, marital status and culture do not affect a
person’s ability to be a good carer. It is your personal qualities that
matter.
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Ami’s story
Ami, of Maidenhead, has been a foster carer for four years.
Hi,
I’m Ami. My and my family's fostering adventures actually began as we
considered options to have another child. We started the journey and
soon realised how exciting it could be if we could instead have not one
child, in fact not even two - but instead an infinite number of diverse
children and teenagers who need a caring home during a tricky time for
them and their family.
We
are now four years into this and we can honestly say it’s been the most
incredible adventure; each and every child and young person who has
joined our family and then moved on has stayed with us in one way or
another. Their stories become our stories and their incredible
personalities, struggles, strengths, challenges, smiles and joys shape
our lives and the lives of our birth children in the most wonderful
way.
To
get to know these young people and children and get to play such a
privileged role in their lives at such a tricky time in their stories,
is the best and most exciting and fulfilling adventure we could ever
have hoped for. Fostering has been such a positive influence on our
birth children’s experience and they are growing into better people for
it, for knowing and caring for our foster loves.
The
training aspect is also a huge plus and has allowed me to explore
professional development in areas I hadn’t considered before. The
practical learning and theoretical study combined with working as part
of a team and interacting cooperatively with such a wide range of
professionals has been excellent for me and has positively impacted both
my home life (in parenting my birth children) and my ‘other’
professional field as a teacher.
I
would encourage anyone to consider fostering – really consider it. Full
disclosure, it’s hard work. There are days you want to run screaming to
your support network and drink ALL the coffee. There are tears and
difficult goodbyes and frustrations. But the professional support
network is there to guide you through each stage. All of that pales in
comparison to the joy of the work. Best Adventure. Ever.
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Reminder: Make sure you’ve claimed your energy rebate if you don’t pay Council Tax by Direct Debit
If
you live in a Band A to D household and do not pay your Council Tax by
Direct Debit, please remember to complete the online form on
the Grant Approval website with
your bank account and other details, to claim your £150 energy
rebate from Government to help with increased energy costs. In
recent weeks, we have sent letters to those we think are eligible, but
have not yet claimed, to invite them to apply by Wednesday 31 August 2022.
If you need help making an application online, you can drop into your local library and ask for assistance, and we have also set up specific help sessions during August when we will have more staff available to assist you. Please ensure you bring your latest Council Tax bill with you and details of your bank account – your address, account number and sort code.
Please
remain vigilant to scams related to the energy rebate. Only use the
above website to make claims and remember that the council will
never cold call you to collect your bank account details in order
to pay the energy rebate. More information on the energy rebate
scheme, including the national eligibility criteria, can be found on
our energy rebate webpage.
For further information about cost of living support if you’re struggling financially, please visit our Here to Help webpages.
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Help your local trees beat the heat
We
have experienced the driest July on record, and the dry conditions are
expected to continue with no rain in the five-day forecast and
temperatures set to increase next week.
Young trees on the verges of your street can suffer during a heatwave or drought.
We
water saplings for a number of years to help them establish, but when
the temperature is higher than usual and particularly for prolonged
periods, some of our young trees might enjoy a little more water.
You
can help them to thrive by watering them with rainwater, such as from a
water butt, or grey water, which is relatively clean wastewater from
washing up bowls, bathwater or paddling pools. Thank you.
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Energy efficiency upgrades in schools will help meet borough’s carbon reduction target
Five
schools in the borough will benefit from energy efficiency upgrades to
lower their carbon emissions and help meet the borough’s carbon
reduction target.
We have been successful in securing £1.5m in funding from the Government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme
for the work at Boyne Hill Infant School and Courthouse Junior School
in Maidenhead, as well as Oakfield First School in Windsor and Alexander
First School and Braywood First School in Oakley Green, Windsor.
All these schools use oil-fired boilers which are both carbon intensive and more expensive to run.
The project supports our Environment
and Climate Strategy, which sets out an ambitious carbon reduction
target for operational emissions. Between 2018/19 and 2025/26, we have
committed to reducing our own emissions as a council by 50%, as part of a
longer-term plan to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050 at the latest.
This will be achieved through a mix of operational changes, building improvements and grid decarbonisation.
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Show your local park some love
It’s Love Parks Week, so we're celebrating our fantastic local parks and open spaces as part of this national campaign by Keep Britain Tidy.
We’re
highlighting a different local park each day on our social media
channels, encouraging everyone to explore local green spaces and
promoting responsible behaviours.
These
are great places to enjoy nature, have a picnic and walk the dog - but
we're also asking people to remember to always respect our parks by:
- Disposing of your waste responsibly and taking litter home if the bin is full
- Not using barbeques or starting fires in any of our parks or open spaces
- Bagging and binning your dog’s mess to help keep parks clean, safe and attractive for everyone.
Visit our website to discover our local parks and outdoor spaces or check out our Twitter and Facebook accounts to learn more about Love Parks Week.
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Thank you for taking part in our A308 consultation
Thank you to everyone who took part in our consultation on options to improve key sections of the A308.
We received more than 330 responses on
how 21 sections of this key transport link, from the Bisham roundabout
junction in the west, to the M25 in the east, could be improved over the
coming years.
This will help decide the best options to create safer, more user-friendly routes for all and your
feedback is now being analysed. This will enable us to prioritise
projects and progress these to the detailed design and costing stage.
A consultation on options to improve a further 21 sections of the road will take place in due course.
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Visit Horton's new pop-up library
In partnership with Horton Parish Council and our Library Service, a new pop-up library will open at Champney Hall in Horton on Monday 8 August.
It will be open 10am to 1pm every Monday, and will include a small but varied
collection
of books and a trained member of staff will also be available to assist
with any council or other information enquiries.
You
can order any book to be delivered to the pop-up library from one of
our larger libraries in the borough, just ask a member of staff, or reserve online.
On Monday 8 August, Peppa Pig will also be visiting, so come along and say hello.
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Royal Borough community spotlight
Here are just some of the upcoming community events in the Royal Borough:
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Upcoming Summer Reading Challenge events
- This summer, your local libraries are hosting loads of great events
as part of the Gadgeteers Summer Reading Challenge. There are robotics
workshops, coding Wednesdays, and clock making among other events. To
learn more, visit our library events webpage
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Fifield Fun Day Sunday (Sunday 7 August, 1pm to 5pm) Deep Meadows, Fifield. Come and join Oakley
Green, Fifield and District Community Association for a great day out
including a full-size steam train, dog show, gun dog display, craft
stalls and BBQ. Parking is free, and all proceeds will go to the
Holyport Children’s Playground and Berkshire Air Ambulance
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Soulful summer sing-songs on the Farm (Until Tuesday 16 August) – Norden Farm, Maidenhead. Inspired
by the Pitch Perfect movies, you’ll experience how good it feels to use
the voice you’ve got and create goose bumpy harmonies with others.
We’ll also explore rhythms and body beats to really feel the groove.
Totally inclusive singing sessions open to all who want to give a bit of
‘a cappella’ singing a go. Learn one song per session so either
come to one or come to all of them. Learn more and book on the Norden Farm website
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Spitfire Simulator Experience (Summer holidays) – Maidenhead Heritage Centre. Throughout
the school holidays, you can make a Same Day Booking for the Spitfire
Simulator Experience and get a third off the normal price. Just
call 01628 780555 after 10am (Tuesday to Saturday) and book any
available slot. Then turn up and take to the skies. It has been
called "the best fun in town". More information is available on the Maidenhead Heritage Centre website
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Crafty Workshops.
Craft Coop Windsor is offering a range of crafty workshops over the
summer in their Windsor Yards workshop space. The sessions include
introduction to screen printing, fused glass for children, recycled
glass painting, Celtic knitting, and crochet. There is also a summer
camp programme for seven- to 12-year-olds and teens. Visit their Eventbrite page for more information
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Annual Old Windsor Handicraft, Produce and Horticulture Show (Saturday 3 September) – A
local show of art, craft, flower arranging, produce, cookery and
baking, and photography. Entries are welcome by all age groups and in
all categories. For more information, visit the Facebook Event page. Stall holders are also welcome, please contact rebeccaomara@hotmail.co.uk
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River Thames Cruise
(Tuesday 6 September, 10am to 3pm) – Departing from Riverside Gardens,
Maidenhead. Enjoy a relaxing day as you enjoy the sights and beauty of
the River Thames between Maidenhead and Temple in Henley. En-route
a live commentary will tell you all about the river, the boats, the
locks and the buildings you will pass - not to mention the people, the
gossip and the scandals. Only 70 tickets are available, so please book on the Maidenhead Heritage Centre website
If
you have an upcoming not-for-profit community event or activity you’d
like to promote in this newsletter, simply send basic information about
your event to communications@rbwm.gov.uk and it could be shared with over 20,000 local residents.
You
just need to include a brief description, when and where it takes
place, and a link to a website/social media page/contact where people
can find out more.
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Have your say
We regularly hold consultations to get your views on proposals within the Royal Borough.
Responding to our consultations and giving your feedback is the best way to ensure your views are heard.
Our current consultations are:
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Local travel updates
Planned rail strikes are expected to lead to various levels of disruption on Saturday 13, Thursday 18, Friday 19, Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 August.
The M4 westbound will also be closed overnight between junctions 3 (Hayes) and 4b (M25 interchange) tomorrow (Saturday 6) and Sunday 7 August.
This
will include the associated slip roads and M25 clockwise and
anticlockwise link roads. Clearly signed diversions will be in place
utilising the A312, A40 and M25.
There are also planned M4 slip road closures including:
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M4 junction 8/9 (Maidenhead) westbound exit slip road - closed overnight today (Friday 5 August)
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M4 junction 4 (M25 interchange) westbound entry slip road - closed overnight tomorrow (Saturday 6) and Sunday 7 August
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M4 junction 3 (Hayes) westbound entry slip road - closed overnight tomorrow (Saturday 6) and Sunday 7 August
For details of council works on highways, visit our website. For full local roadwork details, including work by utility firms, please visit the One Network
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Keep in touch
Other accounts you may be interested in:
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