Hayden, nine, will be Aston Villa's mascot for their Championship play-off final game on Saturday.

Stoke-on-Trent Live

These are a few of the stories being covered on the Stoke-on-Trent Live website today:

• Pervert left woman 'feeling dirty' after sexually touching her in town centre, external
• Angry tenants left without hot water: 'People keep saying we stink and need a wash', external
• Body of motorist lay undiscovered in field for 14 hours after car careered off road, external

A motorcyclist has died after a crash involving a car near Hereford.

The collision happened on Whitehall Road in Hampton Bishop at 16:15 yesterday and West Midlands Ambulance Service said she was in cardiac arrest when they arrived.

Paramedics were unable to save her and she died at the scene.

A man who was on another motorbike and a woman, who was the driver of the car, were assessed for the effects of shock.

Jack Dowling
Journalist, BBC Radio Stoke

More than £5m is going to be spent widening parts of a busy city road junction and installing a shared pedestrian and cycle footway., external

Image source, Google

Stoke-on-Trent City Council is asking for people's views on the proposals for where Cobridge Road and Waterloo Road meet.

The plans would also see road and pedestrian islands widened and traffic lights upgraded.

Their consultation runs until 4 June.

Warwickshire's Chris Woakes will find out later this morning if he's going to return to the England side to face Pakistan in the first Test at Lord's.

Image source, ALLSPORT/Getty Images

Play is due to start at 11:00 and the home side have a final decision to make on whether to go with Woakes or fellow pace bowler Mark Wood in the final place in their XI.

The Warwickshire all-rounder didn't play in the second Test against New Zealand in March, a game England drew.

Rail passengers face disruption as Northern staff stage a 24-hour strike, days after travel chaos when new timetables were introduced.

RMT union members at Northern are striking for 24 hours on Thursday in an ongoing a dispute about safety involving driver-only operated trains.

The union said Northern had declared "war on passengers".

Northern called for "meaningful" talks and said the majority of trains would run between 07:00 and 19:00.

BBC Weather Watchers

For the past week or so we've been able to share your photos of brilliant sunshine from around the region, but it's clouded over today and some parts of the West Midlands are seeing some rain.

The bad news is that it could get worse for some of us.

Here are some photos from the BBC Weather Watchers, taken at Ellesmere in Shropshire, Penkridge in Staffordshire and in Coventry.

Image source, Marguerite

Image source, WolgarstonSci

Image source, Kingfisher

Aston Villa and Shrewsbury Town are the underdogs going into their play-off final matches, according to the bookies.

Fulham and Rotherham are both rated as almost even favourites to win promotion with most betting companies after impressive runs in the league, while the two West Midlands sides are closer to 2-1.

Image source, Getty Images

But Coventry City are the favourites to win promotion from League Two, when they take on Exeter on Sunday.

And Shrewsbury Town certainly won't mind the underdog tag - they were tipped for relegation at the start of the season and finished third in League One.

Birmingham Live

These are some of the headlines from the Birmingham Live website today:

• 'Guns and Money' gangster Jerome Jones claims human rights infringed, external
• Police uncover loaded revolver, external
• Fulham fan Hugh Grant has trolled Aston Villa supporter Tom Hanks, external

Worcestershire will have all-rounder Moeen Ali back from IPL duty for Sunday's One-Day Cup home match with Lancashire.

Ambulance crews are going to be be asked to take people from Kidderminster to the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, instead of the Worcestershire Royal.

The measure is being introduced to stop ambulances arriving in Worcester and then having to be diverted because the accident and emergency department is too busy to cope.

The Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust says the aim is to improve patient flows.

Multimillion-pound work to display a refurbished Spitfire at the Potteries museum is expected to start early next year.

The £6m development will see a new gallery, visitor area and cafe in the glass extension to house the plane.

The plans have been given the go-ahead by the city council.

Villa boss Steve Bruce says his big players have got to show up in Saturday's Championship play-off final against Fulham.

He praised their performance in the games against Middlesbrough, saying, "we were magnificent in our approach in the two semi finals."

Image source, Getty Images

Fulham are the slight favourites with the bookies, but Bruce believes the experience he has in his squad can be invaluable.

Runners at RAF Cosford have claimed a world record for completing a 100 x 10km relay.

There were 100 military personnel taking part in the attempt, which was held as part of the celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the RAF.

Image source, RAF Cosford

The final runner Michael Kallenberg came home to stop the clock a little over 64 hours and 36 minutes, which is more than four hours quicker than the previous record, set in the USA.

Shropshire Star

These are three of the headlines in the Shropshire Star today:

• Woman jailed for false rape claims after appeal over lenient sentence, external
• Walker bitten by adder in countryside, external
• Shrewsbury Town fans warned to expect train delays, external

Plans have been submitted to build almost 500 homes and a retail area on a former industrial site in Stafford

St Modwen is proposing the development on the old General Electric site at Fairway near the town centre.

Image source, Google

The outline planning application is with Stafford Borough Council.

The life of legendary striker Jeff Astle, who died from a brain injury, is explored in a new play.

Network Rail is carrying out a major signalling project, affecting routes to London.

People in the West Midlands will have an extra week to hand over unwanted or illegal guns after West Midlands Police extended its gun surrender in the face of a series of violent crimes in the last month.

They include three murders and another dozen shootings and stabbings in Birmingham and Solihull.

Image source, West Midlands Police

So far, 72 weapons have been handed in as part of the firearms surrender, which will now end on 3 June.

Officers have also been carrying out searches, resulting in the discovery of the revolver pictured above and a large hunting knife.

Contentious plans to build 40 holiday lodges in woodland next to the Three Counties Showground have been approved.

Some residents complained the development would ruin a local beauty spot and harm wildlife in Langdale Woods.

The Three Counties Agricultural Society, which owns the wood, says it's a sustainable development which will bring tourism to Malvern as well helping to secure their long-term future.