Local News

Bringing you news that matters to you from across the local area

07th Feb 2024

Head Into The Parks For Fun This February

If you need free and low-cost ways to keep the kids entertained in half-term, look no further than the city’s beautiful parkland. The Parks Trust, the self-financing charity that looks after more than 6,000 acres of parkland in Milton Keynes, has lots of family fun planned, including: FREE Howe Park Wood Open Mornings: Animals In Winter 20 – 22 February, 9:30am-12:30pm Learn all about the natural world and Animals in Winter by exploring nests, skulls, feathers and more that have been collected from local parks. There are also nature-themed challenges, self-guided trails and friendly volunteers to help you get the most from your visit. Howe Park Wood provides a safe home to many endangered animal and plant species and has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its wildlife value by Natural England. Open Mornings are completely free for everyone, simply drop-in anytime. Toddle Tots at Howe Park..

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07th Feb 2024

Milton Keynes Dons Football Club Open Gym at Thornton College

Milton Keynes Dons Football Club players Rhianne Rush and Stephen Wearne joined by the local community to officially open a brand-new gym at Thornton College. Student Voice is important at Thornton and the request for a gym was first made by students on the Senior School Council.  The sports department worked hard on the vision, plans and proposal for equipment and the project was generously funded by Friends of Thornton. The gym is now equipped with brand-new state of the art machines and senior students will have the opportunity to use the gym in curriculum time and co-curricular activities.  Senior students and staff are looking forward to using the gym facility. Thornton offers sports scholarships for..

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23rd Jan 2024

More Games and More Fun as Funstation MK expands at Xscape

Funstation Ltd has announced the official expansion of its Xscape Milton Keynes location due to popular demand, contributing to the company's nationwide growth. Leading the way in the family entertainment industry, Funstation provides great value and affordable fun for all ages. The concept is simple, load a fun card, play the games and win points to choose from high valued prizes such as iPads, Xbox consoles and much more! Unlike traditional arcades, Funstation takes pride in offering cashless technology to play on top-quality games, some of which you may not have seen elsewhere. The latest expansion at Funstation Milton Keynes has seen the attraction grown by a third, introducing more games, more value and more fun, featuring new additions like Step ManiaX, Toy Tower, Wrecking Ball, Over the Edge, and more. “We are thrilled to unveil Funstation’s expansion at Xscape Milton Keynes. Offering more space for families and friends of..

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23rd Jan 2024

Celebrating a year of community support and charitable initiatives at the heart of Milton Keynes

centre:mk has always prided itself on being at the heart of the Milton Keynes’ community and 2023 was no exception, with the centre delivering an array of world class arts projects, community-based initiatives and fundraising activations supporting the wider City and beyond. The top 10 rated shopping centre helped generate almost £500,000 in monetary and in-kind donations through various events and activities in the past year alone. What’s more centre:mk celebrated 275 days of hosting buskers throughout the mall - providing local artists with a unique platform to share their art forms - be it music, dance, or performance in a high-profile, high footfall environment. The real stand out for 2023 though, was the sheer number of community events and initiatives that the centre:mk hosted, totalling 784 – including the world class art installation ‘The Place Between’ as part of International Festival, and the ever-popular free kids club which runs..

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17th Jan 2024

Bedfordshire Chamber leads SME awards to spotlight local business achievements

The Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce now spearheads the SME Bedfordshire Business Awards, spotlighting local business success and offering enhanced PR and marketing exposure to celebrate regional innovation and achievements. This year's SME Bedfordshire Business Awards have taken on added importance for everyone at Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce. After several years as a major sponsor we are thrilled to be taking the lead in organising the Awards directly – a major milestone for the Chamber and a great addition to its already packed events calendar. Why did we do it? Because we believe we can provide local businesses a platform to have their successes recognised and achievements celebrated. We want to work more closely with the businesses who wish to enter and shine a stronger PR and marketing spotlight on entrants, sponsors and eventual winners. Chief Executive of the Chamber, Justin Richardson, said: “We have amazing and innovative companies throughout Bedfordshire,..

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17th Jan 2024

Bowel cancer survivor to walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats for Willen Hospice

Milton Keynes husband and wife, John and Wendy Cunningham, are taking on the incredible challenge of walking approximately 1000 miles from Land’s End to John O’Groats. A long-held retirement plan that they thought might not be possible. Whilst selling his business in 2020, John was diagnosed with Stage 3 - 4 Bowel Cancer. John went through 5-weeks of intense chemo, radiotherapy and a 15-hour, radical life-changing pelvic exenteration operation, resulting in the formation of two stomas. Following an intense recovery period, the couple are more determined than ever to take on the biggest walk of their lives. They even think John may be the only person with two stomas to do it. To spur the couple on, they have decided to use their challenge to try and raise £10,000 for both St Mark’s Hospital where John had his surgery, and Willen Hospice, a local charity the couple has supported for..

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11th Jan 2024

A very special charity in memory of Tom

The tragic loss of his son to knife crime devastated Kevin King, but now the Milton Keynes man is launching a new initiative in a bid to stop others having to suffer as he has. Kevin spoke with Pulse Magazine’s Sammy Jones about his plans for STAK... It is an incomprehensible horror; a dad finding out about the passing of his son through that most modern of ways, a Facebook post. And yet, in 2016 that was the awful reality for Kevin. “It was the worst possible way to find out,” he said, “I spent time panicking, trying to contact others, trying to find out if it was even real, or just some awful rumour.” Tom Webb was just 22 years old when he was attacked during a night out with friends in his adopted home of Derby. He was stabbed in the heart by 16-year-old Haris Mohammed. Father and..

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11th Jan 2024

Making Milton Keynes a better place to live for everyone

By Milton Keynes Council... Milton Keynes City Council wants to make Milton Keynes a thriving, progressive and sustainable city for everyone. Families living here should be able to lead heathy and happy lives. This year, as part of our work delivering hundreds of vital services, we hope to make progress on three major projects that will help us achieve that aim and I wanted to provide an update below. Regenerating the Lakes Estate A major regeneration programme of Serpentine Court in the Lakes Estate has been given the green light, following years of engagement with the local community. Since 2017, the City Council has been working with residents to determine the best approach for regeneration, and 93% of voters sought to demolish Serpentine Court and redevelop the estate. That is exactly what we seek to do, with plans to build almost 200 new council homes, a nursery, community centre and..

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09th Jan 2024

Finalists revealed for inaugural MK STEM Awards, championing individuals and businesses supporting...

The countdown to awards night for the inaugural MK STEM Awards continues and the judges have drawn up their shortlist of finalists in the 11 categories. The much-anticipated inaugural MK STEM Awards, has announced its finalists after a detailed judging process from a panel of STEM leaders and professionals. The MK STEM Awards will focus and connect the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths community across the city and surrounding areas, recognising, celebrating and promoting the region’s STEM specialists. The winners, chosen by a judging panel of leading STEM professionals and advocates, will be announced at a glittering gala ceremony taking place at Unity Place, the new home in central Milton Keynes of banking giant Santander, on February 29. Awards host Meena Chander, founder of events company Events Together, said: “Our panel of judges have reviewed each submission and selected finalists that are helping to shape a more diverse and inclusive..

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09th Jan 2024

Winners of Midsummer Place’s Christmas Tree Festival presented

The voting period for last year's Christmas Tree Festival concluded on Christmas Eve and the winners were awarded their prize this week. A total of 8,429 votes were collected since the 18 November and the winners of Midsummer Place’s Christmas Tree Festival 2023 are: 1st Place: Slimming World Milton Keynes with Jane, supporting Alzheimer's Research – 1603 Votes. £2,250 prize 2nd Place: Medical Detection Dogs – 1190 Votes. £1,350 prize 3rd Place: Two Flags Limited, supporting Emily's Star – 774 Votes. £900 prize. The winning charities received their prize on Monday 8 January, marking a fantastic way to kick off a new year, Kirsty McGiff, Marketing Manager at Midsummer Place said: “The Festival received an incredible response, with shoppers expressing numerous positive comments and kind words that we have both seen and heard.” “I would like to truly thank all of our local sponsors for their support and for our..

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03rd Jan 2024

Last week to book Willen Hospice Christmas Tree Collection

Willen Hospice are doing a final call ahead of their annual Christmas Tree Collection this weekend. The service is available for people living in postcodes MK1 to MK19, MK43, MK46, LU7 and NN12 with collections taking place between January 5 - 7 2024. All residents need to do is head to the Willen Hospice website and find ‘Christmas tree collection’. Then book a collection for a suggested donation of £12, then on 5 January they just need to leave their Christmas tree outside ready for it to be collected. The trees will be given a second life as wood chip to be used as mulch on public and farm land. The Willen Hospice Tree Collection service has been running for a number of years now, and last year it helped to raise over £20,000 for the charity. Nikki Poole, Willen Hospice Community Fundraising & Events Manager, said “It’s our pleasure..

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03rd Jan 2024

Milton Keynes charity calls for local people to ‘Rise to the Challenge’ in 2024

As part of their ‘Rise to the Challenge’ month, Willen Hospice is encouraging local people to take on a challenge in 2024 in a bid to raise vital funds for the charity. Challenges are a great way to raise money for charity while having incredible ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ experiences. To help people feel inspired, Willen Hospice are offering a range of incredible opportunities. These includes going overseas with an Iceland Trek (an information evening is being held at the Hospice on 7 February) and MK to Paris cycle challenge. Or for those after an adrenaline rush, take to skies with a Wing Walk, or a skydive! Fitness fanatics looking to reach new goals can apply for charity places in multiple running events from the Great North Run to the Berlin Marathon! Keen swimmers and social groups are also encouraged to sign up for the annual MK Rotary Swimathon which takes place on..

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27th Dec 2023

Get ready for the Olney Pancake Race...

Shrove Tuesday 13 February 2024 marks the next historic Olney Pancake Race as the women of the town prepare for the 415-yard course, from the Market Place, down the High Street, to the race finish outside St Peter and St Paul’s Church. The runners, dressed in a skirt and head scarf and clutching their frying pan and pancake, will be following a great tradition; the race is reputed to have taken place since 1445 and has certainly run every year since 1948, except for 2021. There is another cause for celebration – it’s 75 years since the race became an international event when the town of Liberal in Kansas, USA issued a challenge to Olney. In a spirit of international goodwill and friendship, the two towns now compete annually and prizes are exchanged. Both races are run on a timed basis and the winner is declared after times are compared..

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19th Dec 2023

National Winning Streak for Thornton College Students

Students at Thornton College have recently won a number of significant national and regional competitions across a range of subject areas and age groups - from winning the Music for Youth Nationals and singing at the Royal Albert Hall to winning the National Bebras Computational Challenge, Thornton students are definitely on a winning streak! Most recently, Molly a Year 5 student scored the highest score possible in the 8 – 10 years age group category and ranked 1st in the country out of 20,445 entrants in the Bebras Computational Challenge – a competition of computational thinking! On 2nd December, the Thornton Equestrian team took part in the NSEA event at Bury Farm and won making them school Regional Champions!  Charlotte, Year 11 student is also first in the country for the 90cm eventing category in terms of points accrued with the NSEA – an incredible achievement. On Friday 1st December..

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12th Dec 2023

centre:mk staff prepare to bring a little festive cheer to bereaved children and families this...

The staff at centre:mk have been busy collating items donated by staff and retailers for families of children who are facing their first Christmas following the bereavement of a parent or sibling. In addition to the 30 family visits to this years’ ‘The Snowman™’ themed grotto in Middleton Hall that have been gifted by the centre, some of the most recently bereaved families the charity are supporting, will also be getting special Christmas Hampers from staff who want to bring a little extra joy in what can be a particularly hard time of year for those that are grieving. Kevin Duffy, Director of centre:mk, commented: “Our staff and retailers have been incredibly generous with donations this year and we are so proud to be supporting the families at Harry’s Rainbow in this way with hampers and Grotto visits. "We know how nostalgic the centre:mk at Christmas is to so many..

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