Archived News - Community
Warm Homes, Healthy People
Cold homes, damp homes
Living in cold, damp homes is an unfortunate reality for some people in Central Bedfordshire. Rising energy costs have made it difficult for many households to heat their homes properly.
This can often mean that there are risks to health, particularly for older people, families with children and people with disabilities or serious health conditions.
Warm Homes Healthy People scheme
The Government has made available extra funding to help tackle the problem, of Fuel Poverty. The Central Bedfordshire Warm Homes Healthy People scheme aims to offer help and support for vulnerable people living in cold and damp homes.
If you are a homeowner, or a tenant in a privately rented home and your home is cold, damp or has an old inefficient heating system, you could be eligible for a range of help.
The scheme can offer advice and financial assistance to improve your home insulation and heating.
You do not have to be in receipt of benefits to receive help from the Warm Homes Healthy People scheme.
How the scheme can help you
The Warm Homes Healthy People scheme can:
- Help to find out how efficient your home is
- Give you ideas on how to keep your home warm
- Help to install measures for keeping your home warm
- Give advice on other support or benefits you may be entitled to
- Give advice on keeping warm and healthy.
More Information
- Phone 0300 300 8302. Please mention the Warm Homes scheme when you call.
- See the Warm Homes, Health People leaflet.
Let's Talk Together: Community Meeting
Date: Tuesday 6 December
Time: 7-9pm
Location: Eaton Bray Village Hall, Church Lane, Eaton Bray, LU6 2DJ
Visit the market stalls anytime between 7 - 7.45pm to talk to a range of public service providers, meet your local policing team and your Parish and Ward Councillors.
From 8pm join the conversation with other residents to decide the community safety priorities for the area, discuss local topical issues and what can be done together to make things work better.
The meeting will be chaired by a Council Executive Member.
For further information please visit www.centraltogether.org.uk
Source: Focus, October 2011
Do you live in Central Bedfordshire? Then Lets Talk Central!
Central Bedfordshire Council has set up a new website, www.letstalkcentral.com to hear directly from residents what they think about where they live and how it can be improved. You can read what other residents have to say and add your own views through comments, photos or videos.
In particular the Council is working on a new Transport Plan for Central Bedfordshire, so why not take a look at the transport page and share your thoughts and ideas on how public transport can be improved in the future.
You can also keep up to date with new questions on www.letstalkcentral.com and other Central Bedfordshire news including community news and events through facebook or twitter, so why not take a look and either "like" us on facebook, or "follow" us on twitter at to keep up to date.
Source: Central Bedfordshire Council
Let's Talk Central
Central Bedfordshire residents will have a new website from 8 June 2010 as Central Bedfordshire Council launches Let's Talk Central (www.letstalkcentral.com).
The site will be dedicated to giving local people a place to talk to each other, post comments, photos and videos about where they live.
Central Bedfordshire Council is keen to understand how residents feel and will be generating online discussions about:
- What's the best thing about where you live?
- What do you think is special about Central Bedfordshire?
- What do you want to see protected or developed for the future?
- What challenges do you think Central Bedfordshire will face in the future?
- What are your hopes for Central Bedfordshire in the future?
The council is launching the website to hear directly from the public about these and other issues, as only by listening to local people can the council take decisions that reflect our communities' priorities.
Existing social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will be used to promote Let's Talk Central, which will be free and easy to use for the council and their customers.
The website launches on 8th June - please check it out and spread the word as we get talking about Central Bedfordshire.
Source: Central Bedfordshire Council
Funkee website goes bananas
A website especially for young people in South Beds is going from strength to strength after its first year.
FunkeeMunkee.co.uk was set up to provide health and social information for youngsters, and it is fast become a crucial resource in the district.
As well as carrying information about events in the area, it is also packed with links to useful agencies which can help out with all kinds of problems and concerns.
The website is run by Alcohol Services for the Community and funded by the South Bedfordshire Local Strategic Partnership.
Rachel Keith from Alcohol Services for the Community said: "It's going very well, there's a growing amount of information on there. It's very colourful and it's growing in content all the time."
The website was set up so that youngsters all over the district don't miss out on important events and health information.
Rachel added: "South Beds is like any area, it's got a mixture of communities. The idea is that the website is for people who don't hear about things and who miss out on what's going on. Now they've got this place that gives them all the information they need."
So far Rachel said feedback from young people has been good.
One website user enthused: "I like the look of Funkee Munkee. It's interesting and eye-catching and the graphics are good too."
Another added: "Information, events, real people, competitions and a. really happy monkey - what more could you possibly want?"
As well as guest columns from a number of local organisations, the site also boasts book reviews and theatre listings.
And true to its name, the site also sponsors an African patas monkey called Chibber.
There has already been a FunkeeMunkee site running in Mid Beds for three years.
The website name was picked out by youngsters ahead of its launch.
To celebrate the big day in South Beds, members of the FunkeeMunkee team hit the streets of Dunstable and Houghton Regis to give out free bananas and goodies.
Website volunteers Robert Day, Timothy Day and Nick Porter, and co-ordinators Helen Reynolds-Smith and Alison Colver are pictured, above outside The Place in High Street North, Dunstable.
Source: Dave Burke, Dunstable Gazette, 15 August 2007