More than £85,000 has been given to projects and activities over the past three months to benefit communities across the borough.

These include seasonal events, play facilities for children and community centre refurbishments.

The funding has come from Dudley Council’s community forums and now means a total of £160,000 has been now been awarded to community projects since the start of this financial year (April 2018).

Community forums are organised by Dudley Council with West Midlands Police and take place four times a year.  They are an opportunity for local people to meet with councillors and the police to talk about how they can work together to improve the local area and share information on local community activities.

Each community forum also has a pot of money that it can grant to community groups Picture of Councillor Qadar Zadawho have ideas and projects to improve the local area 

Grants of up to £5,000 are available and applications for funding must be submitted three weeks before the relevant community forum. More details are available on the council’s website. Any applications that miss this deadline will be considered as part of the next round of community forums in the spring. Councillor Qadar Zada, leader of Dudley Council, said:

"From the outset our community forum grants have been about helping local people to help others and make a real difference in their communities. It’s really positive to know that local people care about the borough as much as we do and are taking an active approach in supporting us to improve the lives of our residents.

"The grants play a big part in the work of our community forums but we also want people to come along to the meetings to meet with us and the police to discuss ideas moving forward.

"By working together in a positive and proactive way, we can achieve more for the benefit of everyone in the borough.”

The next round of community forums will begin on January 7 with the Kingswinford North and Wall Heath, Kingswinford South and Wordsley forum at The Wordsley School.

On January 9 forums will be held for people living in the Castle and Priory, St James’s and St Thomas’s wards at Priory Primary School, the Norton, Pedmore and Stourbridge East, Wollaston and Stourbridge town wards at Ham Dingle Primary School and for people in Coseley East and Sedgley at Christchurch C of E Primary School.

The forum for Brierley Hill, Brockmoor and Pensett will be on January 14 at Brockmoor Primary School. The same evening, the forum for Netherton, Woodside and St Andrews, Quarry Bank and Dudley Wood will take place at the Savoy Centre.

On January 17, the community forum for Gornal, Upper Gornal and Woodsetton will be held at The Royal British Legion on Ruiton Street as well as the forum for Amblecote, Cradley, Wollescote, Lye and Stourbridge North at Thorns Primary School.

The final forums in this round will take place on January 21 and include the Halesowen North and South meeting at Hurst Green Primary School and the Belle Vale, Hayley Green and Cradley South forum at Lutley Community Centre.

All community forums start at 6.30pm.

For more information on community forums including the application process for funding email community.forums@dudley.gov.uk.