Ben Nye
BBC Three Counties Radio

"Look at pubs as a special case". 

That's what Stephen Bury, the chair of the South Herts Campaign for Real Ale says, after a petition was started to save St Albans' pubs ahead of an expected business rate increase. 

He said: "Things are pretty hard for people in the licence trade and if they [rates] go up, so will the price of beer and that means they could lose staff."

He added in recent years St Albans had lost seven pubs and warned more could follow.

Image source, Stephen McKay/Geograph

The government says although more than 500,000 businesses will see their rates increase, 1.34m will see a fall or no change.  

Ben Nye
BBC Three Counties Radio

A petition has started online to save St Albans' pubs.

The action has been started by pub landlord, Sean Hughes, after the government recalculated a new set of business rates for the first time in seven years. 

In just a few days it's gained more than 2,000 signatures. 

He says he's taken the action as his rates are set to increase by 280%, and he knows of "29 pubs that are also affected". 

He added it's "an extortionate amount of money" and it's just "not on, as we can't be attacking pubs like this". 

Image source, Ian Capper/Geograph

The Department for Communities and Local Government says: "Investment in the High Street is up by 30% and the national vacancy rate is at its lowest level since January 2010. 

"In the East of England, business rates will fall by 7%, saving almost £180m per year for local businesses. 

"To help the small minority who do face an increase, a £3.6bn transitional relief scheme will help make sure no business is unfairly penalised."  

Kate Kinsella
BBC Look East weather

Bright for some and damp for others.

Any brightness and sunshine for parts of East Anglia will cloud over later, with light rain and drizzle gradually spreading across all areas.

Another mild day, with temperatures reaching a high of 12C (54F).

Sarah Jenkins
BBC Local Live

Good morning and welcome back to regular updates from the Local Live team across Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

We'll bring you all your news, weather, travel and sport until 18:00 and in a moment we'll have the full weather forecast you.

As always if you want to get in touch, you can email, tweet, external or Facebook, external us.

Households may also experience discoloured water or low pressure as supply is restored.

Nic Rigby
BBC News

Thanks for joining us today.

Here are the key points of the day:

• Vauxhall takeover bid: Business secretary defends government
• Jobs set to go at badminton HQ in Milton Keynes after funding cut 
• Epic trek for lifesaving research 
• Helen Bailey: Summing up to continue tomorrow 

Scroll down to see more from the day. We'll be back with all the latest live updates for Beds, Herts and Bucks tomorrow from 08:00.

See you then.

Son Heung-min's stoppage-time winner sees Tottenham recover from being 2-0 and 3-2 down to win 4-3 against League Two Wycombe in the FA Cup fourth round.

Julie Reinger
BBC Look East weather

It will be a largely dry start to the night with outbreaks of rain and drizzle later. Light to moderate west to north-westerly winds and temperatures down to about 8C (46F).

Tuesday will be a fairly cloudy day with some rain or drizzle at times. In any brightness or sunshine temperatures could climb as high as 14C (57F), but it'll be several degrees cooler under cloudy skies.

There are more details on the BBC Weather website.

Nic Rigby
BBC News

Three police officers have been accused of misconduct after failing to shut an icy road before a fatal crash.

Image source, Thames Valley Police

Response officers PCs David Stamp, Hugh Flanagan and Caroline Irwin face a series of alleged professional standard breaches in relation to the incident in March 2014.

The trio attended the scene of a car crash caused by ice on the A413 in Buckinghamshire, but are accused of failing to take appropriate action.

The public hearing, taking place in Newbury, is set to run until 3 March.

Carol Abercrombie
BBC Three Counties Radio

Luton Borough Council will be setting its annual budget later this evening. 

The meeting will be streamed live on the internet for the first time...

Nic Rigby
BBC News

Labour MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston, Justin Madders, told the Commons Vauxhall is a "British success story" that must be protected.

Image source, Getty Images

He said: "If this takeover goes ahead we need to get the message out that risking the closure of either facility would be a retrograde step, not just for the UK economy but also for the new owners."

Mr Madders said while the proposed takeover cannot be seen as purely down to Brexit, Britain's pending departure from the EU has created an atmosphere of uncertainty for businesses.

Vauxhall employs abut 4,500 workers in the UK, making cars in Ellesmere Port and vans in Luton.  

Last week General Motors, Vauxhall's owner, revealed a takeover of its European operations was among "numerous strategic initiatives" being considered.  

Nic Rigby
BBC News

A Labour MP who grew up in Luton has told the House of Commons about the devastating effect the closure of the Vauxhall plant would have on the town.

PSA, which includes Peugeot, wants to buy General Motors' loss-making European arm, which includes Vauxhall plants at Luton and Ellesmere Port.

Kerry McCarthy (pictured), MP for Bristol East, said the closure of the Luton plant would "rip the heart out of the town".

Nic Rigby
BBC News

Continuing his response in the Commons, the business secretary pledged the government's "unbounded commitment" to protect jobs at Vauxhall.

Responding to an urgent question by Labour MP Justin Madders, whose constituency includes the Vauxhall plant at Ellesmere Port, Mr Clark said Vauxhall's British factories had been highly successful.

"Every part of Britain has a stake in Vauxhall," he said.

"My personal commitment and the commitment of this government will be unbounded to make sure the future - building on the success of the plant in his constituency - of the workforce will be maintained.

"I will of course work with all of the groups, including the trade unions, including the workforce, to make that case. If new owners there are to be, to those new owners."  

Nic Rigby
BBC News

Business Secretary Greg Clark has defended the work of the government in backing UK jobs as it talks to France's PSA Group, which plans to take over Vauxhall.

PSA, which includes Peugeot, wants to buy General Motors' loss-making European arm, which includes Vauxhall plants at Luton and Ellesmere Port.

There are fears the deal could lead to job losses.

In Parliament, Labour MPs hit out at the "haphazard" negotiations going on to protect jobs, but Business Secretary Greg Clark (pictured) told the House of Commons the government was committed to supporting British jobs.

"No-one is more prepared than I am to actively support [the car industry in the UK]. The two plants [in the UK] are among the most efficient in Europe. This is due to their workforce," he said.

"The Vauxhall brand is also very successful in this country."

Alex Pope
BBC Local Live

Just over a week ago, US TV host John Oliver put his home town of Bedford on the map when he highlighted the town's amusing half-term events on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, external.

One of the highlights was "badgers in a box" at the Forest of Marston Vale. 

We can confirm that despite Oliver's concerns that parents would have "lost a pair of shoes, but gained an angry badger", no badgers (or indeed children) were "harmed" at the event. 

Phew! 

Caroline Kingdon
BBC Local Live

A man who had a heart transplant eight years ago is on a mission to raise money for research into heart disease.

Kieran Sandwell, 45, who was born with congenital heart disease, is walking the coast of Norfolk as part of a 5,000 mile trek around Britain, external to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.

Image source, BHF

Kieran, who's from Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire, set off on his "Trail of Two Hearts" on 1 February. He's carrying everything he needs for his marathon trek in a rucksack, and says the first two weeks were "really hard work", but he's now in his stride and enjoying the Norfolk coast.

"Essex and Suffolk were hard to navigate - you were in and out of the inlets - I've had a lovely few days on the beaches from Great Yarmouth to Cromer," he said.

Kieran's heart started failing when he was in his 30s. The only option was for him to have a heart transplant, and he donated his for medical research.

Badminton Olympic silver medallist Gail Emms says she's "devastated" the sport has lost all its UK Sport funding for the next Olympics. 

The Milton Keynes-based athlete, who's a member of GB Badminton's board and helped with the appeal, said: "We put all the facts out there, we truly believe in all our players and it's just gutting right now.

"Funding is so important as a player to help you get in that best shape and get in contention to go for a medal, so when someone makes a decision that they don't believe it, it really is horrible." 

Image source, Getty Images

Archery, goalball, fencing, table tennis, weightlifting and wheelchair rugby will also receive no funding.

However, powerlifting was successful in its appeal.

Liz Nicholl, UK Sport chief executive, said: "This is the first time we've been unable to support every sport that has athletes with the potential to deliver medals at the next Games. 

"We don't take these decisions lightly as we're acutely aware of the impact they have on sports, athletes and support personnel."

Jonathan Park
BBC Look East sport

Feelings are running high at Badminton England's headquarters right now in Milton Keynes. 

Their chief executive, Adrian Christy, was too emotional to talk to me on camera, but did tell me the sport is already losing good people to other sports.

I've spoken to plenty of recreational players here and unsurprisingly they are all furious with UK Sport, which stood by its decision to withdraw full funding for the Tokyo Games.

It now means some behind-the-scenes staff are already considering their future and some have been put on notice of redundancy.

The sport needs to get money from somewhere because if players want to compete they will now have to pay for their own training, travel and everything else that comes with playing at such a high level.   

They have one possible appeal left, going to the Sports Resolution Panel. The organisation is now deciding whether that is a route it wants to take or not.

Rod Carr, chair of UK Sport, has been responding on BBC Radio live to criticism after seven sports lost appeals against funding cuts.

Q. Why was Badminton’s funding cut? (Sport hit its last medal tragets thanks to to a bronze medal in the Olympic men's doubles)  

A. They didn’t bring any evidence at the board that would convince us to move them from a possible medal in Tokyo to a probable medal in Tokyo. Unfortunately with the resources (i.e. money) that we have we are not able to invest in possible medalling sport, only those that are probable and they didn’t fulfil that criteria, in our opinion.

Image source, Getty Images

Q. What’s the point of having targets if they meet them and still lose funding?

A. Every cycle is new, with new athletes and new competition and so on. I think the reality is that yes they did meet their targets but our view of their performance over the whole cycle last time and looking forward to whom they regularly beat and lose to doesn’t convince us that they’ll probably win a medal in Tokyo.