Coventry Live

Here are three of the stories from today's Coventry Live:

• Range Rover drives itself around Coventry ring road, external
• Boy arrested after fast food van man attacked, external
• Oktoberfest coming to Coventry, external

Water from a canal had to be used to put out a large rubbish fire in Warwickshire earlier this week, the county's fire service has said.

And it said the fire, just off Birmingham Road at Bearley, took two hours to put out.

Image source, Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service

Image source, Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service

Six thousand sign the Guild of Students petition a day after a carjacking attempt in Selly Oak.

Local Democracy Reporting Service
Tom Dare

The Chief Constable of West Midlands Police says police services across the country are at "tipping point".

Image source, West Midlands Police

Writing for the National Police Chief’s Council, Dave Thompson says cuts to budgets have led to slower emergency responses, more crimes dealt with over the phone and fewer offenders brought to justice.

Mr Thompson says police budgets have seen a real-terms reduction of 19% since 2010 and calls for more funding from the government.

The Home Office says there's been a £460m increase in overall police funding in 2018/19.

BBC Business News

Shares in Patisserie Valerie have been suspended after the cafe chain discovered "significant, potentially fraudulent, accounting irregularities".

Image source, Getty Images

The Birmingham-based company said these could cause a "potential material" mis-statement in its accounts.

Finance Director Chris Marsh has been suspended, the firm said.

HMRC has launched an insolvency process at the High Court to try to recover £1.14m in taxes from the firm's principal subsidiary, Stonebeach.

The owner of the Patisserie Valerie chain said it had only just become aware of a winding-up petition filed on 14 September by HMRC and was engaging with the tax office to address it.

Carl Russell, who was shot in Liverpool, was serving a sentence at HMP Thorn Cross at the time of his death.

Sophie Calvert
Political Reporter, BBC Radio Stoke

Electric taxis and ways to cut bus emissions are two ideas being considered to reduce air pollution in Newcastle-under-Lyme and Stoke-on-Trent.

Image source, Getty Images

The government's told councils in both areas to improve levels, especially along the A53 which runs between the town and city.

The authorities are now drawing up a study into the route with ministers saying sufficient funding will be in place for their plans., external

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council's also asking residents for their views on their action plan., external

BBC Sport

Tickets for the revamped BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2018 will go on sale on Friday 12 October at 09:00 BST.

This year's awards will be hosted at Birmingham's Genting Arena - which holds over 15,000 people - on Sunday 16 December.

For the first time this year, nominees will be revealed live on the night.

Viewers can also now vote for the Greatest Sporting Moment of the Year while people outside the UK can vote for their World Sport Star of the Year.

Sophie Calvert
Political Reporter, BBC Radio Stoke

Plans to turn a former bank into a cafe bar , externalhave been approved.

Image source, Google

The building on the corner of Longton Road, in Trentham, Stoke-on-Trent, started life as a police station in the 1800s and was recently a NatWest.

Concerns had been raised by local residents about parking at the site, although others had praised the scheme for bringing a landmark building back into use.

City council planners gave it approval today and it will now be taken on by Titanic Brewery, subject to an alcohol licence.

Plans to bulldoze five ageing tower blocks in Druids Heath, Birmingham, have been approved.

Allen Cook
BBC News

More than 5,000 pieces of Cadbury memorabilia's going on show in Birmingham in the new year after being donated by an avid fan.

Image source, PA

Gill Cocks, from Gloucestershire, says she started collecting in the late 1970s and had items donated by her father after his death eight years ago.

Her hoard includes a milk churn and mini-Cadbury vehicles.

She told the Press Association she's giving them to the company's archives as the collection's grown "quite enormous" and she struggles to keep them in good condition.

The Cadbury archive's now dating and cataloguing her memorabilia before going on display and the Cadbury Foundation's thanked her with a donation to a charity of her choice.

Shefali Oza
BBC Midlands Today

It's been a fine day for many of us, but it's not going to last sadly.

Here's your forecast.

Local Democracy Reporting Service
Joe Sweeney

A petition's been handed in by people living near a former pub in Wolverhampton, after it applied for a licence to reopen.

Image source, Google

The Harp Inn, in Eastfield, closed in 2014 after a knife attack, reopened under a different name in 2016, and closed again because of repeated cases of violence.

Now, a new application for a licence has been made , externalbut people living nearby say they worry about noise and anti-social behaviour coming from the venue.

The applicant says it will train staff to be "vigilant" for bad behaviour, underage drinking and illegal drugs and make use of CCTV.

The city council's licensing sub-committee's due to discuss the plans next week.

Anne James, 74, was attacked after returning from a shopping trip, a court hears.

Crewe Chronicle

The Crewe Chronicle's covering these stories on its website:

• Asthmatic who was 'seconds from death' praises hospital staff who saved his life, external
• Owner of eyesore house in Crewe ordered to pay £1,500, external
• South Cheshire Chamber: HS2 pivotal to Crewe's regeneration, external

Thomas Jones was found to be 30 times the legal limit for a metabolite of cocaine.

One of the men who set up the alliance between Warwickshire and West Mercia Police says the decision to end it is "disrespectful" and "embarrassing".

Ron Ball served as the Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner from 2012 until 2015 and said the collaboration had been "incredibly successful".

Mr Ball said he was "shocked and disappointed" when West Mercia Police announced yesterday it would be pulling out, saying the news "came out of the blue".

Local Democracy Reporting Service
Aran Dhillon

Job vacancies are going to be left empty for longer as Cheshire East Council looks to take action to try to prevent an overspend of £5.3m.

The local authority's latest review of how it's performing against its budget for this financial year has revealed the current forecast.

The authority's report puts the overspend down to issues including delays with achieving efficiency savings and soaring social care costs.

As a result, it says it's going to look at whether it can make more savings and extend the vacancy periods for jobs, external, as long as it doesn't have a "serious impact" on staff.

Autonomous cars are being tested on roads in Coventry as part of a government-backed trial.

The Telford Steam Railway has set out its expansion plans for the coming years, including a possible line taking passengers to Ironbridge.

It says the income generated by its Polar Express events at Christmas has taken its annual turnover from below £100,000 to over £1m and it will be spending the money to more than double the length of its track from 1km to 2.25km.

Image source, Google

It is looking to upgrade its line from Horsehay to Doseley next year and then take it on to Lightmoor and eventually have 17km of track.

And it says the possibility of taking passengers to the tourist sites in the Ironbridge Gorge "unlocks huge potential".