Shefali Oza
BBC Midlands Today

A dry, sunny end to the day - here's how Wednesday night and tomorrow's weather is looking for the West Midlands:

You can get a latest forecast for your part of the West Midlands at any other time by heading to the BBC Weather website.

Sophie Calvert
Political Reporter, BBC Radio Stoke

A council is planning to save an extra £250,000 in the next financial year, over and above its actual budget "gap", in a bid to build up reserves for potential future projects.

Image source, Newcastle-Under-Lyme Council

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council has published its budget proposals for 2019-20 and says it needs to save just over £2m. , external

Among its proposals are to put up council tax by 2.99%, leave jobs that aren't currently filled empty and restructure the management team.

If all its plans are approved, the council says they would result in an extra £248,000 which could be invested in "key priorities" in the future.

High court judges quash the open verdict returned in 1976 over Helen Bailey's death.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

Hereford's planned super-surgery has been promised £3m by the government.

The Hereford Medical Group, which includes five of the city's current GP surgeries, wants to build the new centre next to the railway station.

Image source, Thinkstock

It will be three storeys high and include the Greyfriars, Moorfield House, Aylestone Hill, Sarum House and King Street GP surgeries.

Two boys aged 14 and 15 remain in hospital in a stable condition following the attack.

Three dead foxes found at a nature reserve in a bag may have been poisoned, the RSPCA says.

Image source, Google

A member of the public made the discovery on Saturday at Chinbrook Receational Ground, Birmingham.

The RSPCA says their injuries suggested the foxes may have been poisoned before they were dumped.

Allen Cook
BBC News

More than a dozen drivers have been caught this week exceeding a 40mph speed limit on a stretch of road in Birmingham where six people died in a horrific crash last December.

Image source, West Midlands Police

A taxi driver and two passengers and three people in an Audi all died in the three-car collision.

West Midlands Police has been carrying out regular speed checks on Belgrave Middleway, Edgbaston, over the past few months, catching more than 100 speeding since the middle of October. , external

In this latest case, the force says 15 drivers were caught speeding with the highest speed recorded being 68mph., external

If you use Facebook Messenger and are interested in news from the West Midlands, you cansign up for daily updates direct to your phone, external.

West Brom boss Darren Moore is calling on football to unite to stamp out the "ugly" spectre of racism.

BBC Politics

Staffordshire MP Andrew Griffiths has had the Conservative whip restored and says he will be voting for Theresa May in the no confidence vote.

The former minister for small business resigned in July after a newspaper reported how he sent hundreds of lewd text messages to two women, and he was then suspended by the party.

Image source, UK Parliament

The Burton MP said in a statement: “Theresa May has shown huge determination and bravery in negotiating and arguing for her deal.

"I believe she remains the best person to deliver the Brexit people in Burton and Uttoxeter voted for, and I will be supporting her in tonight’s ballot."

It now means 316 MPs can take part in the ballot, and so the PM will need 159 for a majority.

Hereford FC striker Harry White has left the club to go travelling with his girlfriend.

The club said his opportunities had been limited recently and they had mutually agreed to end his deal.

Image source, Getty Images

The independent chair of Shropshire's Safeguarding Board has rejected the suggestion that warning signs were missed in the case of Archie Spriggs - the seven-year-old boy from Wall-under-Heywood who was murdered by his mother.

A serious case review detailed a number of occasions where information could or should have been acted on differently, but Ivan Powell said "I'm not particularly sure that several warning signs were missed is a fair assessment".

Instead, he said the main theme he took from the report was that in cases like this, where two parents are in conflict, the views of both need to be taken into account.

The report said there appeared to have been an "unconscious bias" against concerns raised by Archie's father and Mr Powell said "on occasion their judgements were made in consideration of the fact that the parents were in conflict rather than thinking through what they were being told by those parents".

The report, external said anger expressed to social workers was often interpreted as a "feature of parental conflict".

The council said it was currently reviewing the referral system and training opportunities.

A jury has retired for the night in the trial of a 16-year-old boy charged with the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in a park.

Image source, Family handout

The boy, who cannot be named, denies murdering Viktorija Sokolova at West Park, Wolverhampton, in April.

He also denies rape and sexual penetration of a corpse at the park where her body was found by a dog walker on 12 April.

Archie Spriggs was murdered by his mother last September.

A van driver has been airlifted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham with serious injuries after his vehicle was involved in a crash with a lorry.

The collision happened this morning just after 10:00 on the Holyhead Road in Wellington.

The van ended up in a ditch and ambulance crews spent half an hour trying to free the driver.

A serious case review following the murder of a seven-year-old boy at the hands of his mother has found children's services missed opportunities to intervene.

Archie Spriggs was found strangled and smothered to death at his home in Wall-under-Heywood, Shropshire, in September 2017 - Lesley Speed was jailed for at least 18 years in March 2018.

Image source, Family handout

The serious case review published today, external said concerns raised by both a GP and the school were not appropriately acted on and in one case, the paperwork was found sitting on a desktop.

It reports an occasion two days before Archie's death when she said the "only way to end it all would be a shotgun and shovel".

The report also said three allegations "clearly" met the "threshold for statutory children's social care intervention".

The review also found children's services had an an "unconscious bias" against Archie's father, who raised concerns about his former partner on a number of occasions.

James Beresford said the postal worker's language towards his disabled daughter amounted to a "hate crime".

A fresh inquest has been ordered by High Court judges into the murder of an eight-year-old girl in Birmingham 43 years ago.

Helen Bailey's body was found by her father in woodland near the M6 on 11 August 1975 after she never returned from playing out the previous afternoon.

Dressed all in blue when she died, Helen became known as Little Girl Blue.

An inquest in 1976 returned an open verdict after hearing evidence she might have died due to an "accident or practical joke gone wrong".

But today judges said there was new evidence - including from a pathologist who concluded she had been strangled before her throat was cut - and they've overturned the previous inquest verdict.

A third arrest has been made today , externalby police investigating trouble at last week's derby game between Port Vale and Stoke City's Under-21s.

Image source, PA

Since the Checkatrade Trophy match on 4 December, 18 arrests have been made by the force - two of those people have been charged.

Today's arrests saw three men, all from Stoke-on-Trent, detained on suspicion of violent disorder and one of them has since been released on bail.

A charity that helps children with special educational needs in Birmingham says it's "heart-breaking" that it's been targeted by vandals.

Image source, Thrive

Doors, walls and windows at Thrive in King's Heath were painted with graffiti at some point over the weekend. , external

The council, which owns the building, has said that it'll help in cleaning it while the local police have launched an investigation.

Thrive uses gardening to improve the lives of people with disabilities.