People in Telford are being warned about a conman who is pretending to be a police officer.

West Mercia Police said there have been three reports this week of the man claiming he is investigating fraud in bank accounts and asking his victims to withdraw large sums of money, to keep it safe.

The force said fraudsters like this "can be very convincing and give the victim no reason to believe they are not genuine".

But it went on to say a real police officer would never ask someone to do this.

Andy Giddings
BBC News

Solihull Barons have added a former Olympic speed skater to their line-up, in time for this weekend's league fixtures against Whitley Warriors and Billingham Stars.

Paul Stanley, 35, has been a top point scorer with the Nottingham Lions over recent years and joins for the remainder of the season.

Image source, Jenny & Keith Davies

Telford Tigers have two cup fixtures this weekend, against league-title rivals Sheffield Steeldogs and Blackburn Hawks.

Head coach Tom Watkins was very pleased with their performances last weekend, especially as it involved the long trip up to Scotland to play the Solway Sharks, saying: "We had a very late night home and turn up play with the commitment we did was first class."

Coventry Blaze have just one fixture this weekend, after their game in mid-week - it's at home to Belfast Giants.

Shropshire Star

Here are three headlines from the Shropshire Star today:

• Twelve arrests and £20,000 of cannabis seized, external
• Motion of no confidence in hospital leaders withdrawn, external
• Arson probe as three cars and van destroyed, external

Firefighters believe four vehicles on fire in Market Drayton last night had been targeted by arsonists.

They were called out to reports of three cars and a van alight on Bert Smith Way at 21:12 and it took around 20 minutes to put them out.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

Plans to build more than 2,000 homes on the site of the former Rugeley power station have been laid out by the site's owners Engie.

Permission has already been granted to demolish the cooling towers, and the company says it wants to power the homes with renewable energy generated on the 139-hectare site.

The coal fired power station closed in 2016 and Engie has said it is the first time a major UK energy company has led the repurposing of one of its own sites.

BBC Hereford and Worcester

The house builder Bovis has apologised to a Worcestershire family who say they've been forced to move out of their new build home, because of more than 350 faults.

Craig Wakeman and Tracey Bickford's property in Inkberrow is covered in scaffolding, after they reported faults with the roof, windows, kitchen and bathrooms.

The family are continuing to pay for the mortgage on the house, even though they can't live there.

Bovis Homes said its priority was to deliver the quality home that the family deserve and that a specialist engineer found no major structural issues.

Karl Glancey killed his mother's neighbour and hurt family members during a "mental health crisis".

A man who admitted assaulting a traffic warden who was kicked and stamped on in an "ugly and extreme" street attack, has been detained.

Image source, Google

The attack happened on Hartopp Road in the Alum Rock area of Birmingham on 14 September.

Danyal Bashir, 20, of Hartopp Road, admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm and was sentenced to nine months in a young offender's institution.

Birmingham Crown Court heard Bashir attempted to rip off the victim's motorcycle helmet as he was dragged off his bike by up to six men in a "sustained" attack.

BBC Radio Stoke Sport

Port Vale captain Tom Pope says he's trying not to think about the milestone of scoring 100 goals for the club.

He needs just four more to reach his century, but says he's happy with his ratio of goals to chances so far.

Image source, Getty Images

Pope is the leading scorer for the club so far this season, with eight.

Halesowen News

These are some of the stories on the Halesowen News website today:

• Jury out for second day in tax worker fraud trial, external
• Cycling supremo hits out over velodrome bid, external
• MP hopeful achieves burning ambition with firewalk, external

Police negotiators are speaking to a man at a Wolverhampton address, who's threatening to harm officers if they enter the property.

Officers went to the Laurel Grove home this morning to make a pre-planned arrest, West Midlands Police said.

On arrival the 38-year-old man refused entry and threatened to harm them.

No-one else is thought to be inside the property.

The road will remain sealed off while officers deal with the situation, the force said, with firearms officers at the scene as a "precaution".

Too few patients in mental health crisis get the help they need, says report.

A Twitter account starring Steve McFadden, Cilla Black and Fray Bentos pies has become a big hit.

The chief executive of the charity Combat Stress has promised an independent inquiry if more cases like the one involving Falklands veteran Gus Hales come to light.

The 62-year-old has been on a hunger strike outside the Newport offices, complaining mistakes were made when they discharged him in 2015 - mistakes the charity has previously admitted and apologised for.

Mr Hales previously told the BBC said he had heard from 150 other people who felt let down by the service.

He rejected the promise of an internal review and called for an independent inquiry into the charity.

Sue Freeth, from Combat Stress, however, said no further cases had been identified and was unsure what else it could do.

She also said the charity was in contact with the Care Quality Commission when his protest started and that it was "highly regulated" and "very transparent".

Giles Latcham
BBC Midlands Today

Armed police officers have surrounded a house in a cul-de-sac in Wolverhampton.

The incident began around 09:00 at an address off Oxbarn Avenue in the Merry Hill area.

At least five officers with semi-automatic weapons are stationed outside a property in Laurel Grove.

No details have been released, but it's thought trained negotiators are at the scene.

The best passenger figures for October, external have been recorded at Birmingham Airport.

Image source, Birmingham Airport

The airport had 1,141,865 passengers through its doors in October, a 6.1% increase on last year and the overall best October to date.

The destinations which experienced the highest passenger growth during the month were Venice, Krakow, Naples and Prague.

Earlier this month the airport announced an ambitious £500m expansion plan to grow passengers numbers by 40% over the next 15 years.

Local Democracy Reporting Service
Carl Jackson

A long-awaited Brexit impact assessment for Birmingham and the West Midlands has revealed five major problem areas.

The 92-page document, external states that trade, business, jobs, funding and the region’s public sector stand to be affected the most by Britain leaving the EU at the end of March.

The report states its analysis is as "comprehensive" as possible but warns it is not a "definitive assessment" given the level of uncertainty that surrounds Brexit, particularly around whether the prime minister can get Parliament to approve her controversial draft agreement.

The impact report is set to be discussed by Birmingham City Council’s cabinet bosses next month.

Coventry Observer

Some of the headlining stories on the Coventry Observer website today are:

• Lawyer fighting for women and children's human rights gets honorary doctorate, external
• Children at primary school too scared to play in park, city MP says, external
• Police warning to festive shoppers after theft of potentially dangerous toys, external

The ability to pay doctors more money was "probably influential" in keeping Telford's A&E department open at night, the head of Telford's health commissioning group has said.

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust had been considering a temporary closure because of staff shortages and it thanked NHS Improvement "for allowing the trust to be flexible with the pay cap".

CCG head David Evans said the leader of Telford and Wrekin Council, Shaun Davies and the Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard should also take some credit, for helping the hospitals find the extra staff they needed.

Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service has tweeted photos of the big food lorry fire at Church Lawton this morning.

It took six hours to deal with the fire.

Image source, Cheshire Fire and Rescue

Image source, Cheshire Fire and Rescue