Snapshot data shows Wolverhampton with among lowest rough sleepers
A council has said its low numbers of rough sleepers are a tribute to the work of its teams to support those in need.Snapshot data from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government showed there were just eight people sleeping on the streets in the city.The statistics, among the lowest in the West Midlands, were based on a count done on one night in October 2024."The low figures are a testament to work that goes into supporting our most vulnerable people all year round," City of Wolverhampton Councillor Steve Evans said.
"Our revised five-year Homelessness Prevention Strategy underpins our commitment, through a joined up approach, to ensuring no-one is left behind."Across England the number of people estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2024 was 4,667, the data showed.This is the third year in a row that the numbers have increased - since 2023 alone they have risen 20%. The West Midlands region saw a 35% jump in rough sleepers in 2024 compared with the previous year, according to the figures recorded on the night.Councillor Jasbir Jaspal said it was important to "help people improve" their health and social wellbeing, as well as "supporting them to find long-term solutions and break the cycle".
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5 days ago
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Push to keep reviving Wolverhampton's architectural history
A city's historic buildings are undergoing a revival and one local photographer, Ian Hughes, said: "We should be shouting about it from the rooftops."Talking about Wolverhampton, he admitted he was once "one of the naysayers who felt it was a dump" - but has found a love for the city's architectural history and said: "There's a lot to celebrate in Wolverhampton."Emma Purshouse, editor of the Black Countryman magazine, also believes the city has some amazing said: "If it was Stratford or the posh parts of London, they'd have been preserved and made part of a tourist trail." Mr Hughes started going on walks around the city two years ago, taking photos of the buildings as he has more than 10,000 images and said the city was now "definitely a phoenix rising from the ashes".One recent discovery which stuck in his mind was a large brick building near the canal."Nobody seemed to know what it was," he said - but he eventually found it had once been a butter and cheese Hughes said it was a "lovely building, totally overgrown and desperately in need of repair" and he felt it had an interesting story to tell. Mr Hughes said he did not know why Wolverhampton "chose to knock things down" but it was nothing new or unique to the said the Victorians "just swept everything away" to create the modern city centre and their buildings had in turn been replaced after World War Two."In the 1950s, councils up and down the country did exactly the same," he Mr Hughes is not angry about the city's lost history and said: "People made what they think were the right decisions at the time."These buildings were never built to last forever and be part of history, they were built with a purpose and those purposes are long, long gone." Ms Purshouse said she believed it was "easier to knock things down than preserve them" but there were many examples of interesting architecture still in said her favourites included the Great Western pub, with its cobbled street "because it feels like you've just stepped back in time into a little Victorian pocket of Wolverhampton" and the Lychgate Tavern off Queen's some old buildings were "hidden" behind modern shop fronts, with others it had been "easier to knock things down than preserve them", she added. Ms Purshouse was appointed Wolverhampton's first poet laureate during the coronavirus pandemic and, like Mr Hughes, spent a lot of time walking around the said while some buildings had been lost, there were also good examples of historic buildings being preserved, such as the Albion former corn mill has been turned into flats but its appearance has been also hoped the city's former eye infirmary would be treated sensitively when the old NHS site was is planning consent to turn it into flats, a special needs school and an eating disorder city council said the Victorian building and former nurses accommodation would be restored as part of that work and it was encouraging the owners to move the project Purshouse said she has happy to see buildings change their use if they can "keep the architecture and keep the feel of the things". Mr Hughes said there were also encouraging signs for the future of Wolverhampton, with projects such as the planned redevelopment of the former Beatties site will be turned into a mixture of apartments and shops and the city council said it was in "regular contact" with the owners of this building too, "to offer support and encourage action to move things forward". The councillor responsible for development in Wolverhampton, Chris Burden, said the city was "full of beautiful architecture" and the council took the preservation and restoration of heritage buildings "extremely seriously".The authority pointed to a number of other buildings which have been brought back into include the Grade II listed Civic Hall and Wulfrun Hall, now known simply as The Halls, which were refurbished at a cost of £ former Royal Hospital, which closed in 1997, has also been brought back into use as flats for people over the age of projects still in the works include turning the former Chubb Locks factory into a four-screen cinema and the restoration of the central council said it was also working with the owners of the city's other empty buildings to bring them back into use and improve how they look from the outside. While it might be romantic to think Wolverhampton's forgotten buildings could all be brought back into use, Mr Hughes believes people should be realistic about the future of town shopping habits changing, he said: "Towns as we knew them are gone, they're never coming back."But he said if developers were prepared to put in the money and the effort, the centre of Wolverhampton "could become what it used to be". Follow BBC Wolverhampton & Black Country on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
7 days ago
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Surrey men fined after Lincolnshire hare coursing incident
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BBC News
7 days ago
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Two arrests and birds seized in Bradford in cockfighting probe
Two men have been arrested and several cockerels seized from six properties in Bradford in connection with an investigation into animal man was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of causing an animal fight to take place and taking part in an animal fight, while another man was arrested on suspicion of being present at an animal fight, according to West Yorkshire RSPCA confirmed its officers had joined police as warrants were carried out at six addresses in Bradford and two addresses in Burton-upon-Trent and Warrington as part of the investigation.A "number" of cockerels were removed during those operations and placed into the care of the RSPCA, a spokesperson said. "The warrants are part of an ongoing investigation led by the police," they added. Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
