Express and Star

These are some of the headlines from the Express and Star this morning:

• Future of Wolverhampton's Tettenhall Pool under threat, external
• Anger at transport funding cuts at Walsall special school, external
• Serial Black Country thief jailed for stealing charity tins, external

BBC Sport

Wolves winger Diogo Jota (pictured) is ruled out of their match tonight at home to Liverpool, because of the hamstring problem that forced him off against Bournemouth.

Image source, Getty Images

Head coach Nuno Espirito Santo has no other new injury concerns.

Their visitors will be looking to guarantee being top of the Premier League on Christmas Day, while victory for Wolves would see them leapfrog Manchester United.

Work to resurface the area around a hole that opened up in a Smethwick street yesterday will be carried out later.

Image source, Sandwell Council

The two-foot-wide hole appeared on Wigorn Street, in Bearwood on Thursday morning.

The hole has been filled with foam, temporarily, said Sandwell Council, and work to permanently fix it will be carried out in the new year.

BBC News Travel

There's now three miles of queuing traffic on the M6 northbound in the West Midlands due to a medical incident.

Two lanes have been closed from J10 to J10A to allow emergency services access to the scene.

A jury will continue to consider their verdict in the trial of three men charged with killing five people in an explosion at a shop in Leicester.

A shop worker and four people in the flat above died when the blast ripped through a convenience store in Hinckley Road in February.

Hawkar Hassan, from Coventry, along with Arkan Ali, of Oldham and Arum Kurd of Leicester all deny murder and five alternative counts of manslaughter at Leicester Crown Court.

Today is expected to be the busiest day of the festive season across the region's roads.

The M6 and M42 are due to be two of the busiest roads in the country, with an extra three million journeys expected on the M6 alone.

Travel experts RAC and Inrix are encouraging drivers to try and avoid motorway journeys between 11:30 and 18:30 today.

Roadworks are being lifted today until 2 January to ease congestion.

However, some will remain and the two longest stretches in England will be on the M6 J13-15, near Stafford, and J16-19 near Crewe.

Alex Hamilton
BBC Weather

It will be a cloudy day with some patchy rain and some brighter spells later with highs of 9C (54F).

Vanessa Pearce
BBC News

Welcome to our live service for Friday.

We'll be bringing you all the news, sport, travel and weather for the West Midlands.

We love to hear from you so share your news, thoughts and photos of the area with us via email, Twitter, external and Facebook, external.

Conservative councillor David Brookes admitted the posts "could be considered to be offensive".

Staffordshire farmer Mark Kinver was ordered to pay fines and costs totalling more than £34,000

We'll be back with our usual mix of news, sport, travel and weather from 07:00 tomorrow, but keep an eye out here for more updates this evening and into the morning.

The owner of Birmingham’s Nightingale Club says that a decision to defer the building of 116 apartments in the heart of the gay village is “a victory for the LGBT community”.

Protesters gathered outside a planning meeting today to show their opposition to plans.

Speaking after the planning committee’s decision to conduct a site visit before making a final decision on the application, Lawrence Barton said that planners “must respect Birmingham’s LGBT community”.

He said that if the committee visits the area on a busy night, they would recognise that building residential flats 12 metres from the entrance of a night club is not a workable proposal.

A former tax official, who cheated the revenue out of £18,800, spending it on foreign holidays, has been handed a suspended jail sentence.

Tracey Griffiths, of Newbury Road, Wordsley, who worked for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) claimed to be single and on benefits - but she was pictured with her spouse in a Facebook post enjoying their first wedding anniversary.

She was handed a 12-month suspended prison sentence at Warwick Crown Court on Thursday after being convicted of fraud, at a trial last month.

Adrian De Ath, from HMRC said: "Griffiths exploited her position and used her detailed knowledge of the tax credits system to claim money she knew she was not entitled to."

Lee Thomas
Newsreader, BBC Radio Stoke

A man's appeared in court today charged with killing a man who died after an attack outside a pub.

Image source, Cheshire Police

Deli-owner Adam Lovatt, 45, died after being found with serious injuries outside the Bridge Inn, Shropshire Street, Audlem, Cheshire, in the early hours of 25 May.

Today, a 23-year-old man from Wynbunbury, near Nantwich, appeared before magistrates, charged with manslaughter, and was given bail to next appear in January at Chester Crown Court.

A second man, aged 35, from Audlem, also appeared today charged with assisting an offender and was given bail, to appear at the same court next month.

A 17th Century gatehouse and a churchyard gate in Shropshire are among the more unusual heritage places gaining listed status this year., external

Image source, Historic England

Historic England says 2018 saw 924 newly listed buildings and structures.

They include the gatehouse to the former Caynton Manor (pictured above), near Newport, which is the only thing that remains of the country house which was demolished by the 18th Century.

Image source, Historic England

The other, in Shropshire, is the Lych gate to the east of the Church of St John the Evangelist, Newcastle on Clun, which Historic England says is "one of only a handful in existence in England".

An independent review into the handling of the Birmingham bin strike, external has found that former council leader John Clancy acted beyond his authority.

An agreement made with the union Unite to end the strike last August did not have the prior approval from other senior councillors, and proper governance processes were not followed, the report states.

He resigned in September 2017 following criticism of his handling of industrial action by refuse workers.

The city council said it was "committed to learning from what happened during the summer of 2017".

It also said there was no merit in civil or criminal proceedings arising from this but the matter would be referred to the standards committee.

Councillor Clancy, who declined be interviewed by the governance review, described the report as a "whitewash" and "nonsense from start to finish", andvowed to publish his own findings in the new year, external.

A conservation group is calling for a suspension in the shooting of woodcock.

The Woodcock Trust, based near Ludlow, Shropshire, says numbers of the birds have fallen by about 30% to 55,000 over the past decade in Britain, external.

But it says it's worried that decline could continue due to a poor breeding season combined with them being shot for sport.

Allen Cook
BBC News

Part of a canal that collapsed earlier this year will reopen tomorrow after repairs totalling £3m.

Image source, Canal and River Trust

The breach in March on a section of the Shropshire Union Canal in Middlewich, Cheshire, caused water to drain into the River Wheelock and left up to 20 boats stranded.

The Canal and River Trust says more than 4,000 tonnes of stones have been used to rebuild the embankment so it can be refilled.

Image source, Canal and River Trust

The cost has been covered by the trust, with money from the People's Postcode Lottery and £30,000 in public donations., external

For those of us secretly dreaming of snow on Christmas Day this year... it's a no.

The Environment Agency's manager in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, Dave Throup, has tweeted the latest this afternoon:

Rebecca Wood
BBC Midlands Today

There will be a few showers around this evening before heavier rain moves in overnight with lows of 5C (41F).