Foster Care Fortnight, running from 12 to 25 May, celebrates the dedication of East Riding foster carers, and raise awareness of the growing need for more people to consider fostering.

The Fostering Network’s annual campaign this year focuses on ‘the power of relationships’. Throughout the week East Riding Fostering is encouraging foster carers to take an hour to nurture relationships – from taking a walk, sharing a cake to hosting a family fun day!

700 low-income households in the East Riding will be provided with energy efficiency upgrades, due to East Riding of Yorkshire Council and government funding.

£1.6 million has been provided by the Warms Home Local Grant, from the Department for Energy and Net Zero (DESNZ), for free energy works to 103 private sector homes. Eligible properties across the region will receive wall insulation, loft top up, glazing improvements, and heating upgrades.

Los Angeles-based author Debbie Wastling will visit the East Riding, as part of East Riding Libraries’ author events, for a series of talks and meet and greets.

Debbie Wastling, born and raised in the East Riding, has written three novels, including her latest, The Sutherland Scandals. She will be presenting historical photos and reading from the novel, at local libraries in the East Riding.

The UK’s leading developer and manager of retirement communities, McCarthy Stone, has launched a new selection of apartments for rent, making the company one of the country’s largest and most experienced retirement rental providers. Brand new apartments are now available to rent at Westwood Manor in Beverley, East Riding. Responding to the growing trend to rent in later life these new apartments, exclusively available for over 70s, are expected to be popular with retirees.

McCarthy Stone is committed to making all the benefits of the retirement living lifestyle more accessible than ever before. The launch of additional rental apartments is in response to demand from older people currently living in homes that are becoming unsuitable for their needs, and wanting to move or downsize to a property that suits later life living.

The ever-popular free compost giveaways for East Riding residents will return in May. 

East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s waste and recycling team will once again be handing out 5,000 bags of compost – 60 tonnes – to local residents over the space of eight events, being held from May 3 to 17. 

An East Riding project aimed at cutting carbon and saving energy in street lights on major roads has been praised in a visit by a transport minister. 

Lillian Greenwood MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Minister for the Future of Roads at the Department for Transport, visited the village of Hayton, near Pocklington, for a guided tour of one of the sites of East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s innovative street lights trial. 

East Yorkshire Local Food & Rural Tourism Network held a launch for the latest edition of the ‘Enjoy Local Food and Drink Guide’, alongside a variety of talks, at their recent Spring Event at The Manor Rooms on The Drewton Estate, South Cave.

The Network includes a variety of businesses across the East Riding, benefits from a business-led steering group and is facilitated by East Riding of Yorkshire council’s rural policy and partnerships team. This year’s event and guide were funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

A new carbon-saving electric bike is being trialled by the porter team at Castle Hill Hospital thanks to a partnership with East Riding of Yorkshire Council. 

The council’s sustainable transport team is continuing its award-winning collaboration with NHS Humber Health Partnership at the Castle Hill site in Cottingham.

Building work will be taking place at Fir Trees Nursery School in Beverley – which recently received an Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ rating – to increase nursery places and provide an enhanced offering to children aged 0 – 4 years in the East Riding.

Plans include conversion of an outdoor barn – which is currently used for outdoor activities – into a warm and welcoming indoor space. The main nursery building will also be reconfigured to create three, new open plan spaces, with a free flow pathway connecting them all.