Gloucester scrum-half Ben Vellacott is to join Wasps at the end of the season to replace Kingsholm-bound Joe Simpson.

June Jones was found dead at her home in West Bromwich on New Year's Eve.

The MP for Telford has complained there is a "shocking lack of urgency" in the town's inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation.

Speaking in Westminster Hall this morning, Lucy Allan said that one year after announcing the inquiry, "rather than getting to the bottom of a history of sexual exploitation in the town", Telford and Wrekin Council was "creating a tangled bureaucracy that benefits no-one".

Image source, Parliament Live

Responding, the junior communities and local government minister Rishi Sunak praised the work being done by the authority to support victims, but added: "They need to properly and expeditiously deliver on it and provide answers and justice for the survivors."

Telford and Wrekin Council says the organisation of the inquiry is now in the hands of an independent organisation, which is about to start recruiting an independent chair.

Earlier this week, it reported the Survivors’ Group had welcomed the time frame, external, saying it was more important to take time to ensure the inquiry "isn’t rushed and that everyone takes the time to ensure it provides the answers survivors and their families are looking for”.

A community is "overwhelmed" by offers of help after four young children are killed in a house fire.

BBC News Travel

Trains between Birmingham New Street and Wolverhampton are being disrupted by a signalling system fault.

National Rail Enquiries says services could be cancelled, delayed or revised and it's expected to last until at least 15:00., external

BBC Politics

The government says it'll wait and see if "any more lessons can be learned" from the house fire in Stafford which killed four children yesterday morning.

Image source, Getty Images

In the House of Commons this afternoon, Stoke-on-Trent Conservative MP Jack Brereton highlighted the fatal blaze, saying he wanted to note his appreciation for the emergency services.

In response, Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington said the "ghastly" news yesterday had left the country in "horror".

He said all colleagues would feel "the most deeply felt sense of sympathy with the family and with the friends of the children and parents involved".

"I think for any of us that are thinking through what that family has had to live through and must face living through in future, it strikes one it must be almost unendurable."

As well as organising an online appeal, neighbours in Stafford are donating clothes and toys.

BBC Radio Stoke Sport

Former Stoke midfielder Liam Lawrence says he's expecting a big clear out at the club this summer.

Six players left Stoke last week, but he thinks new manager Nathan Jones would probably have liked "more out and more in, if he could".

Image source, Getty Images

And Lawrence explained "January is a tough time and there's only so much time to get business done".

Shropshire Star

Here are three headlines from the Shropshire Star today:

• Emergency services rescue woman missing for hours, external
• Broken rail causes rush hour delays, external
• Gusts of up to 70mph to hit Shropshire, external

BBC Entertainment and Arts

A professor of black studies in Birmingham has told the BBC that comments by the actor Liam Neeson - which have sparked a racism row - were "completely inappropriate and offensive".

Image source, PA

Neeson has denied he is racist after saying in an interview that he once wanted to kill a random black man after a friend was raped.

They were published by The Independent, external on Monday and sparked an outcry.

The actor said he had wanted to start a wider conversation about racism.

Kehinde Andrews, a professor of black studies at Birmingham City University, added that for Neeson to make the comments as he promoted a film was "distasteful".

Telford MP Lucy Allan has urged the Health Secretary to call in the decision to downgrade some health services in the town.

Under reorganisation plans, approved by local health commissioners last month, emergency care and women and children's services will be centralised at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, with planned care, including surgery based at Telford's Princes Royal.

Image source, Parliament Live

Speaking during Prime Minster's Questions, Conservative MP Ms Allan urged the government to review the decision "because the needs and health outcomes of people in both Telford and Wrekin have not been considered".

In response, Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington, sitting in for Theresa May, said he was sure Health Secretary Matthew Hancock would be "reflecting carefully" on Ms Allan's request following a meeting between the two earlier this week.

The Labour-led Telford and Wrekin Council has also called on the government to intervene.

Fracking firm Cuadrilla wants to raise the current limit for the size of tremors that can be felt as a result of its drilling operations.

Image source, Getty Images

Cuadrilla resumed operations at its Preston New Road site in Little Plumpton, near Blackpool, Lancashire, last year for the first time since the process was halted in 2011 over earth tremor fears.

Under current rules, drilling must be stopped for 18 hours if it triggers earth tremors above a 0.5 magnitude.

But other industries enjoy "higher thresholds" when it comes to tremors, the company says.

Environmental group Greenpeace said the government should focus on cleaner energy to tackle climate change.

Ineos, which has licences for a site in Cheshire, said earlier this week that the government was insisting on "absurd seismic thresholds" which were too low.

A steam locomotive will be travelling on the railway line, external through Shropshire and Staffordshire today, while engineers carry out tests after an overhaul.

The No.45231 The Sherwood Forester is heading down the line from Crewe, passing through Shrewsbury, Wellington, Telford, Shifnal, Cosford and Albrighton and then down the line to Codsall.

It'll then return via Wolverhampton, Stafford and Whitmore.

BBC News Health

A woman from Herefordshire says she wishes she'd known earlier about the key risk factors for dementia, as a study says half of UK adults cannot identify any of them.

Image source, Alex Wallace

Alzheimer's Research UK surveyed 2,361 people and found that only 1% were able to name the known risk or protective factors for dementia.

The six risk factors are heavy drinking, genetics, smoking, high blood pressure, depression and diabetes, while physical exercise is a protective factor against the disease.

Sue Strachan, 63, lives in Staunton on Wye, Herefordshire, and was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2014.

Image source, Alex Wallace

Last year, she ran the London Marathon for the charity to help raise awareness, saying she was advised by her GP to take up exercise to manage her condition.

She adds: "I do wish I'd started earlier, because good heart health can have such a positive impact on the brain."

West Bromwich Albion's players will pay for supporters' coaches for their away game at Leeds United next month.

A man in his 30s has been attacked at his home in Atherstone by two men, including one carrying a hammer.

Warwickshire Police said two men entered the house on Royal Meadow Drive at 15:20 yesterday and also hit him over the head with a wooden ornament.

Image source, Google

Officers say they think he knew his attackers, who took his car keys and then drove off in his car.

Local Democracy Reporting Service
Carl Jackson

An attempt to look into "privatising" the bin service in Birmingham has been defeated.

It was made just a day after the Unite union announced its bin workers were to take further strike action in a row over payments given to GMB members.

Image source, Getty Images

The Liberal Democrat group on Birmingham City Council tabled a full council motion yesterday, proposing the authority look at "hard market-testing to outsource the waste department".

They argued it would cut the risk of equal pay problems and the council would "no longer be held hostage" by the unions.

However, the ruling Labour group passed an amendment to the motion which removed any reference to outsourcing.

The councillor in charge of bins, Brett O’Reilly, said the Liberal Democrat proposal "will do nothing to help industrial relations".

People in Herefordshire are being urged to hand back NHS equipment like crutches and wheelchairs which they are no longer using.

The Wye Valley NHS Trust and Herefordshire Council say thousands of items have been loaned out to the community and some ends up being sold or thrown away.

Image source, Herefordshire Council

They say that if people can't return the equipment themselves, they can arrange to have them collected.

Phil McCann
Cheshire Political Reporter, BBC News

Councillors have rubber-stamped budget cuts at Cheshire East Council, despite criticism from NHS officials.

Image source, Google

The authority has an £18.5m funding gap so wants to cut the budgets that pay for stop smoking services and healthy living schemes as well as for equipment for vulnerable people.

NHS commissioners have written to the council warning that the moves could lead to people needing more expensive treatment in hospital.

The council's cabinet approved the plans,, external saying the authority wants to protect front-line services, but make sure they're efficient.

Birmingham Live

A few of the headlines from the Birmingham Live website this morning:

• Ambulance worker's emotional note to Stafford house fire children, external
• Community trust ordered to explain paying £100k-plus salaries to staff, external
• Mum and three kids flee midnight fire which tears through supermarket, external