CHARITY MOTOWN & NORTHERN SOUL NIGHT, Darwen

HELP FOR HEROES VALENTINE’S

CHARITY MOTOWN & NORTHERN SOUL NIGHT

Featuring DJ LESTER

Sat 11th February at Hollins Grove Con Club Blackburn Road Darwen

Tickets £5 each Starts @ 8pm

In Aid of HELP for HEROES

Pay on the Door or Contact Vince for details on 07970958275

Make a splash with charity swims

Keen swimmers are being offered two chances to take the plunge and raise charity cash – and you could get free entry before the end of January.

Daisyfield Pools, Blackburn is hosting its annual Swimathon which raises money for Marie Curie Cancer Care and the Sport Relief mile and offering free registration for the first 10,000 entries before the end of January.

Anyone wanting to take part in the Swimathon can set a personal challenge of completing the individual 2.5K or 5k or join up with family, friends and colleagues and take on the team 5k.

And for Sport Relief, you can swim an individual or team mile to raise funds for Comic Relief to help people living incredibly tough lives, both at home in the UK and across the world's poorest countries.

The event will be on Thursday, April 26 from 6.30pm until 10.30pm or Saturday April 28 from 3.30pm until 7.30pm.

For more information, contact Daisyfield Pools on (01254) 277300 or enter online at: www.swimathon.org

Save The Rovers - Online Petition Against The Demonstrations At Ewood Park

An online petition has been started by a Darwen resident called SAVE THE ROVERS.  


The lifelong Blackburn fan, 59, who wishes to remain anonymous started the petition because, like many, he believes the demonstrations aren't achieving anything other than damaging the vital home performances of the club. 


Yes, things need to change down at Ewood Park, but first and foremost he believes supporters should show their support for the players and encourage them to start picking up points at home.


Rovers surprised everyone by picking up rare points at Old Trafford and Anfield, however, they failed to pick any points up in the matches against Stoke and Bolton while playing in front of home fans.


"We all know that behinds the scenes at Rovers is a disaster, but it now clear that the demonstrations have failed miserably to bring about any change and are now damaging the club and affecting performances."


"Nothing is more important than avoiding relegation, if stopping the demonstrations will help Rovers to avoid relegation, however unlikely that may be, then people have to sign this petition." 


He hopes fans, players and staff can all pull together to achieve survival by making Ewood Park a feared place for opposition to come. At the moment, it seems that teams are looking forward to the fixture knowing that the home team will be nervous and under pressure from fans prior to Kick-Off to the final whistle.


Sign the petition at http://www.savetherovers.co.uk

Peppa Pig to visit children at Royal Blackburn Hospital

As part of her special visit to Blackburn tomorrow to flick the switch on the town’s Christmas lights, Peppa Pig will be stopping off to visit children at the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

Peppa will arrive at 2.30pm and along with Blackburn with Darwen Mayor, Councillor Karimeh Foster and The Bee Radio, will walk round the Children’s Ward.

Children will be given a Peppa Pig Advent Calendar as a memento of the visit.

Peppa will then make her way over to The Mall for her guest appearance at 4.30pm before arriving for the lights switch on from 5.30pm at King William Street.

New Blackburn with Darwen Urgent Care Pilot

An innovative new way of delivering urgent care is set to be piloted in East Lancashire.

The new way of working would find the GP out of hours service sharing a location with Urgent Care Centres at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT).

NHS Blackburn with Darwen Care Trust Plus and NHS East Lancashire have agreed to pilot the ‘one stop shop’ scheme where patients with even the most complex needs could be assessed and given the most appropriate care as quickly as possible.

The proposed pilot is currently being designed but could see patients who attend urgent care centres across East Lancashire for a variety of urgent conditions being seen by GPs as opposed to hospital based emergency department doctors.

It is hoped this way of working would reduce unnecessary waiting times and simplify access for people.

As part of the pilot, both primary care trusts have agreed not to tender the current Out of Hours services and will extend the contract of the current providers, East Lancashire Medical Services (ELMS).

The pcts were embarking on a tender process after advice from internal auditors which said that a locally led procurement would be better than one which may have been led by the new National Commissioning Board.

Graham Burgess, Chief Executive of Blackburn with Darwen Care Trust Plus, said: “We are delighted to work with ELMS on establishing this new model. We believe that the revised service will improve patient experience and deliver value for money.

“We have listened to the concerns of patients, GPs and other stakeholders about the original decision to tender the Out of Hours service and think we have come up with an acceptable solution that addresses all the issues.”

Russ McLean Chair of the Patient Voice Group said: “This is wonderful news. The patients of East Lancashire can be assured that their opinions have been listened to and the swell of support for their local service, in place since 1994, was recognised. This is a positive move for the health economy and we are delighted with the outcome. I would personally like to thank the many patients who have contacted me with messages of support.”

Dr Chris Clayton, chair of the Blackburn with Darwen Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “I feel this is a very important step forward. The new model, which is being designed with the help of local doctors should well improve patient care. We have been lobbying for this strongly and I am very pleased with the outcome. It gives us much faith and positivity in the process of clinically led commissioning."

Dr David White, lead GP for Burnley Clinical Commissioning Group and the PCT Clinical Lead for urgent care said: “This is an innovative approach, by co-locating and integrating urgent care services it will increase the range of clinical skills available to respond to the range of urgent care problems with which patients attend out of hours and the urgent care centre. It will also simplify and speed up access to urgent care which is something we know both patients and professionals have requested."

Blackburn with Darwen Council declares “We are ready” as temperatures start to plummet

Blackburn with Darwen Council is already planning ahead following two year’s unprecedented bad weather.

The first frost arrived today and many residents woke up to a blanket of white covering their cars.

The salt barn at the transport depot in Davyfield Road, Blackburn, is full in preparation for a potential third snowy winter.

The Council is also updating its facebook page BWD Winter throughout the season as usual.

It was launched last year and had 350,000 views throughout the winter period. The page is aimed at keeping residents and organisations informed if the weather turns bad again.

BWD Winter will be kept updated with all news and information relating to the weather including up to date forecasts, gritting, any school closures and bin collection arrangements throughout the winter months.

From October 1, the Council’s winter service continues 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until the last frosts of spring.

Dave Harling, Executive Member for Regeneration, said: “There is speculation as usual about whether we will have a third bad winter spell. We are ready if the snow returns.

“It is crucial that information is sent to residents as quickly as possible if the weather is as bad as last year and services are disrupted. We will be using all the normal channels including our facebook page which had 350,000 views during last year’s winter.

“It is the fastest way to get the information out to people and also a great opportunity for us to engage with our residents.”

Web relaunch for re:fresh

re:fresh has an exciting new website with a wealth of information including listings of leisure activities, community events and health and wellbeing information.

Since the launch of re:fresh in 2008, the scheme has been hugely successful across Blackburn with Darwen in encouraging people to get active and boost their health and wellbeing. 

The new site allows users to search by activity, venue, postcode and day so that you can easily find leisure activities to suit you. You can also register to receive regular e-newsletters to keep you updated on news, events and activities.

re:fresh offers access to a wide ranging programme of free leisure and physical activity. From high energy dance classes to gentle aerobics for the elderly and mums-to-be or team sports to bike rides in local parks, the new site lists them all.  

As well as all the latest news and activities from council run leisure services, the site will also show a whole host of activities taking place across the borough from other organisations, such as exercise classes held by charity groups and events hosted by independent sports clubs.

Local organisations and clubs that are holding health and wellbeing activities can also get in touch and promote their activities on the re:fresh website. 

Contact details and information on a wide range of other health and wellbeing services such as the falls prevention team, older people’s forum, health trainers and many more are available on the site. There are also tips on healthy eating and how to get active.

Councillor Damian Talbot, executive member for leisure and culture, said: “The new site is a brilliant one-stop-shop for leisure and health services and really shows the wealth of activities that we have in our borough. 

“We’re determined to get more people enjoying the benefits of physical activity and build on the successes we’ve already seen with re:fresh so far.”  

Visit the new site at: www.refreshbwd.com
To advertise your event, please contact: Beez.Information@blackburn.gov.uk .

Winter cemetery and crematorium closing times - Blackburn with Darwen

As of Sunday, October 16 cemeteries and crematoriums in Blackburn with Darwen will be closing earlier.

Darwen old and eastern cemetery will close at 4.30pm.

Blackburn cemetery on Whalley New Road will close at 5pm.

Pleasington crematorium, off Tower Road, will close at 5.30pm.