Author: Admin

A day of Norfolk church history talks
Saturday 22 July 2023 (10.20 to 5.15)
Thomas Paine Lecture Theatre : University of East Anglia

Bressingham Church is having a Coffee Morning on Friday June 23^rd 10.00 – 12.00 at: Burrowood, Wilney Green, Bressingham IP22 2AJ

Everyone is Welcome

We are Better Housing Better Health – BHBH – a free service run by the National Energy Foundation which is a charity working to help residents living in or at risk of living in fuel poverty to access free advice and support. 

We have been delivering this service for over ten years now and have recently secured funding from the Redress Scheme which enables us to support even more residents across the whole of Norfolk and the East of England.

We’re a service that’s free of charge and open to all residents experiencing issues with their home energy. As part of our service, we have a helpline that’s free to call where our team can give valuable tips on how to stay warm at home, provide free home energy visits, sign up those in need of additional support to the Priority Services Register and access grants for energy efficiency measures.  

If you think this service would be of help to any of your clients you may refer them to BHBH online at www.bhbh.org.uk/make-a-referral/or call our free helpline number 0800 107 0044.

If you would like to discuss our service further and how it may help your residents, then please give us a call on our helpline or simply reply to this email.

We look forward to hearing from you

The BHBH Team

Voluntary Norfolk would like to work closely with the local Town and Parish Councils to inspire residents to get involved with some new volunteering opportunities.

Last year they launched an exciting new volunteer platform Get Involved Norfolk. This has become the go-to place for Norfolk charities and organisations to advertise a huge variety of opportunities, from Craft Workshop Volunteers, Hedgehog Carers, Trustees, Events Volunteers, Digital Champions, Board Game Club Leaders and a huge amount more – there are currently over 400 roles and something to peek everyone’s interest!

It has also become the go-to place to search for a volunteering role. One of the charities advertising here has reported doubling their volunteers since advertising on this free platform.

So this may not be ‘New News’ …but what is new is the Corporate Volunteering page – LIVE THIS WEEK!

Voluntary Norfolk are hoping there may be opportunities within our local area suitable for teams. Maybe a community garden that needs clearing? This is the ideal place to advertise a ‘project’ that could take a team maybe a day or 2 to complete or at least make a significant impact. Many organisations now offer their staff Employer-supported volunteering (ESV) – paid time during their working hours to volunteer. To meet the need for enquiries, they’ve created this addition to the Get Involved Norfolk site. Maybe have a chat with your teams or local community groups to identify an area that could benefit from ESV support.

The other new page is The Big Help Out. We want to take this opportunity to encourage residents to think about coming together as a community, meet like-minded people and make meaningful connections.

If you have events arranged for The Big Help out, they would like to support you in advertising these via our social channels. You can either tag them in or send the details to news@voluntarynorfolk.org.uk

Hopefully together we can promote the many opportunities and benefits volunteering can have within our communities.

Norfolk County Council Deputy Leader Graham Plant’s letter to Simon Pepper, National Grid

Below are the notices for the Broadland and South Norfolk District Council Elections and the Town and Parish Elections taking place on the 4th May 2023. Three documents are presented:

Town and Parish Council Briefing

Notice of Elections for Town/Parish Councillors

Notice of Elections for District Councillors

Overview

Norfolk County Council and the Government have agreed, in principle, a new County Deal, to transfer funding and powers to Norfolk – a process known as devolution. This provides a unique and exciting opportunity to unlock significant funding and for decisions currently made in Whitehall to be made in Norfolk, for Norfolk.

Under a County Deal, Norfolk would benefit from a new Government investment fund including £20m per year over the next 30 years, and an additional £12.9m during the current Spending Review period (2024-25). In addition to the investment fund, Norfolk would also get control of the Adult Education Budget (just over £10m in 2022/23) and an un-ringfenced Transport and Maintenance Budget (approximately £40m per year). There would also be a county council leader, directly elected by the public and with no additional bureaucracy or changes to councils.

This Deal represents a real opportunity to unlock Norfolk’s potential, for the county take control of its own destiny and shape its own future, and to have a stronger voice nationally. If our Deal went ahead, we would have powers and finance to invest in areas such as better transport, skills, job opportunities, housing, and regeneration.

This could be just the start of further powers being devolved to Norfolk. Some examples of additional powers and responsibilities devolved in other areas of the country include greater powers over the NHS and social care and controls over the number of holiday homes in coastal areas.  Therefore, it is important to hear your views about this Deal and your ideas about priorities for Norfolk.

Discussion events are being held around the county from February 16th.

Norfolk County Deal event: Diss Library (Daytime Session)

From 10 Mar 2023 at 10:00 to 10 Mar 2023 at 12:00

Norfolk County Deal event: Diss Library (Evening Session)

From 10 Mar 2023 at 16:00 to 10 Mar 2023 at 18:00

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