Year Review 2018: Redditch Standard stories of the year - The Redditch Standard

Year Review 2018: Redditch Standard stories of the year

Redditch Editorial 31st Dec, 2018 Updated: 2nd Jan, 2019   0

That was the year:

January – Rob and Sylvia Boyden were stunned when their 10-year-old grandson ran up a £400 bill playing the computer game ‘Fortnite’.

Wythall teenager CJ Evans scooped Young Poet Laureate of Worcestershire Award.

It will be Winyates Grey not Winyates Green warn residents as Redditch Eastern Gateway development gets the go-ahead.




February – M&S announces it is to close its Kingfisher Shopping Centre store.

Brilliant Redditch chippy The Golden Carp comes within a fish scale of scooping the Best in the Land award.


Redditch-based multinational firm GKN offers shareholders up to £2.6bn in a bid to ward of a takeover by Melrose.

March – The Care Quality Commission removes the licence to practice from Woodrow Medical Centre over safety concerns.

Popular Councillor Gay Hopkins announces she is to step down amidst rumours she has been de-selected by the Conservatives.

Anger grows at Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion’s bid to take over West Mercia’s two fire authorities.

April – Age UK Bromsgrove Redditch and Wyre Forest announces it is to pull out of town.

Top Redditch restaurant Redolence Spice, nominated by Redditch MP Rachel Maclean, wins the coveted Tiffin Cup as voted for by MPs.

There was dismay in Alcester as Warwickshire Police axe a PCSO even as the council tax precept was raised – to pay for more police officers.

May – Alcester’s ‘green lung’ along the River Arrow expands with a bridge connecting the new Abbey Fields site.

Labour lose control of the borough council in the local elections and the Conservatives appoint a new leader, Councillor Matt Dormer.

Redditch celebrates its Women of Achievement Awards night, marking 100 years since (some) women got the vote.

June – Plans to build a gas generator near Haselor outside Alcester spark outrage.

Princess Alexandra visits Redditch to meet dementia residents at Dorothy Terry House.

The Glastonbeoley Music Festival raises an incredible £10,000 for charity.

July – Brilliant Redditch charity Carers Careline celebrates its 30th anniversary with its founder, Jeff Dry, now 92, in attendance.

The borough council announces it is looking to find £3million to cover a funding gap in the Redditch Eastern Gateway project.

The chairman of Redditch Royal British Legion Philip Jarvis took part in GP90, a recreation of the Great Pilgrimage of 1928 to the battlefields of France and Flanders.

August – ‘The golden voice of radio’ – Redditch-born Millicent Phillips – passes away aged 94.

Super Studley fencer Sophie Potter scoops a clutch of medals at the Commonwealth Fencing Championships and is tipped as a future Olympian.

Plans for a public service ‘hub’ of council, police, NHS, fire and library services in Redditch gets the green light.

September – The borough council reveals ‘serious failings’ in the handling of housing contracts.

Later many of the staff accused say they will take the authority to industrial tribunal.

A re-think on housing need by the Office of National Statistics reveals the town might not now need the 3,400 homes earmarked by Webheath.

‘It beggars belief’ say campaigners.

October – Pupils at Mount Carmel RC Infants School are getting lessons inspired by the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland thanks to the Redditch-based Ogden Trust.

Redditch paralympian Leanna Horne is left stunned after Worcestershire County Council cuts thousands from her care budget.

There’s anger over the delayed payment by Persimmon Homes – money due for the development of the Brockhill estate.

November – Redditch mum Seirol Brookes is left in the dark after a series of blunders by electricity firm Boost, part of Ovo Energy.

Residents are told the long awaited urgent care centre at the Alex is ‘just a trial’.

Thousands take to the streets of Redditch, Alcester and Studley to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

December – Owners Whitbread announces that the Foxlydiate Arms is to be demolished and the land used for housing – for Bromsgrove District Council.

The BBC World Service comes to Redditch for a debate on Brexit. Standard Editor Ross Crawford takes part.

Plans to create a Business Improvement District in the town centre receive the blessing of the borough council.

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