Garden waste fees will increase and arts funding reduced in a budget which will see cuts of £46m.

Local Democracy Reporting Service
George Makin

The bus station in Dudley is set to be demolished to make way for a new multimillion-pound link-up between buses and Metro trams.

Image source, Google

The planning application , externalwill be considered next week to bulldoze the Fisher Street site to make way for a new interchange.

The scheme would be funded with £10m from the West Midlands Combined Authority and cash from Dudley Council and the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership.

It's part of a seven-mile (11km) extension of the Metro line from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill and would also see several surrounding shops and businesses demolished.

Birmingham City are under threat of a points penalty but on-loan winger Connor Mahoney says the players are totally unified.

Staffordshire officer Zoe Cullen had been sacked, after pleading guilty at court.

Kelda Wood took 76 days to complete 3,000-mile crossing to show "anything is possible".

Warwickshire Police says the cyclist who died in a crash on the A444 at Bedworth earlier this week was a 53-year-old grandfather, who lived in the town.

Antony Bolton was hit by a lorry on Newtown Road at 13:30 on Monday.

Image source, Warwickshire Police

Shropshire Star

Here's a look at the headlines in the Shropshire Star today:

• Shrewsbury rower completes record-breaking Atlantic trip, external
• Council 'has Brexit financial plan in place', external
• Midwifery department sees second high profile departure, external

A PE teacher who slapped a four-year-old pupil on the legs after he misbehaved has been given a conditional discharge after a trial at Birmingham Magistrates' Court.

District Judge David Robinson concluded Ian Webber, who is 54 and from Polesworth in Warwickshire, was not entitled to "smack him in those circumstances", but went on to say he "only got involved to try and help" when the boy had a tantrum during an after-school football class.

Image source, Google

Mr Webber's barrister, Alexander Barbour, had earlier told the trial he was likely to face summary dismissal for gross misconduct after his conviction for the assault.

Lee Thomas
Newsreader, BBC Radio Stoke

Hundreds of cows have been saved from becoming dehydrated thanks to local firefighters., external

Image source, Staffordshire Fire Service

Staffordshire Fire Service says the water supply at the farm on Three Mile Lane, Whitmore, near Newcastle-under-Lyme, failed yesterday.

The farm was struggling to find an alternative for the herd of 400 cows and called the fire service "in desperation".

A fire engine and a water carrier was sent over with 8,500 litres and now the service says the farmer's managed to reconnect the supply.

People in Bewdley are being told not to worry if they see smoke rising from the railway embankment near Northwood Lane today - it's been started deliberately by firefighters.

Hereford and Worcester Fire Service says teams are reducing the number of plants there by burning them.

Image source, Hereford and Worcester Fire Service

Image source, Hereford and Worcester Fire Service

BBC Shropshire

The inquest in to the death of a woman after a stay at a Shropshire hotel has begun this morning.

Elaine Brown, who was 69 and from Liverpool, died from a stroke after contacting Legionnaire's disease shortly after a visit to The Feathers in Ludlow in 2017.

Image source, Irwin Mitchell

Her husband Graham died a month before the inquest started and a statement from him was read to the jury, saying his life had fallen apart, he no longer went out, he had lost interest in everything and he was signed off from work with depression.

The inquest is expected to last for two days.

BBC Weather Watchers

Today, you can't move for blue skies in the photos pouring in from our local BBC Weather Watchers.

These three came form users Margrose in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, Bingoswestry in Oswestry, Shropshire and Chris n Ginny in Bodymoor Heath, Warwickshire:

Image source, Margrose

Image source, Bingoswestry

Image source, Chris n Ginny

Some staff at Shrewsbury College have started two days of strike action, in a dispute over the way lessons are internally observed and graded.

Since the Shrewsbury Sixth Form and Shrewsbury College merged, the group has been trying to combine policies on grading and observing lessons.

Previously one gave advance notice and the other didn't and used a grading system of one to four, while the other rated lessons good outstanding, requires improvement or inadequate.

Image source, Google

The colleges decided to give all teachers notice in advance and use the one-to-four grading system, but this has been resisted by some members of the the National Education Union, who are planning four more days of strike action next month.

They say they want conversations over their performance, rather than grades.

Students have been told to turn up as normal, with three other unions not taking action, but around a third of the teachers are expected to be on strike.

A canal footbridge in Birmingham city centre has reopened, following concerns its closure was damaging trade.

The bridge taking pedestrians from the Mailbox and The Cube towards Brindley Place had been shut for six weeks.

It reopened on Tuesday after maintenance works were completed.

Bar and restaurant owners told BBC WM blamed a drop in trade on the bridge's closure.

The Cube management apologised for the "disruption and inconvenience".

The former Coventry City FC chairman Bryan Richardson has said moving from Highfield Road to a new stadium was "exactly the right thing to do at the right time", but he added "I regret how it was handled".

"The fact of the matter is that everybody on the board of Coventry City at that time was 100% in support of building the new stadium, there was not one doubter on our board," Mr Richardson told BBC Coventry & Warwickshire.

Image source, Getty Images

Mr Richardson also said he regretted getting the council involved in the ownership of the new stadium, and that ultimately "it was always intended that it would be 100% owned by Coventry City football club" and not for the benefit of others.

He said that if he could do things over again, he would insist that the council only became involved as the local planning authority.

It will now take "a lot of time and a lot of hard work" to resolve the disputes over the Ricoh stadium and to find the club a long-term home, he added.

Stoke-on-Trent Live

The Stoke-on-Trent Live website's covering these stories today:

• 'He can put one foot in front of the other' - DWP tells family of disabled boy, external
• Busker finds new job after up to 30 'professional beggars' take up his town centre pitches, external
• Playtime ban for children who break uniform rules at this school, external

Allen Cook
BBC News

A life-sized model of the Slade frontman Noddy Holder, made out of 42,000 Lego bricks, has been installed at a theatre in Birmingham., external

Image source, Retail BID Birmingham

Originally placed at New Street station over Christmas, it was commissioned by the city's Retail Business Improvement District (BID).

Organisers say, while at the station, it raised more than £4,600 for the Birmingham Children's Hospital Charity.

Now, it's been moved to the Alexandra Theatre's main foyer where the BID says it'll still be used to fundraise for the charity.

BBC WM

A union representing Birmingham bin workers says today is the last chance for its dispute with the city council to be resolved.

Unite has put its latest planned walkout on hold in order to have more talks with the local authority.

More than 300 workers started a series of walkouts over claims of "secret payments" made to non-striking GMB staff after a dispute in 2017 - claims strenuously denied by both the council and GMB.

Unite assistant general secretary Howard Beckett urged the council to "do the right thing by this workforce and do the right thing by the people of Birmingham".

Councillor Brett O'Reilly says he thinks talks with the union "have gone well to some degree" and welcomed the suspension of industrial action.

BBC Midlands Today

More than 200 places across the West Midlands are breaching air pollution limits, according to new data from Friends of the Earth.

Image source, Google

The campaign group says Holyhead Road in Coventry recorded the worst nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels in the region.

Coventry City Council says it's working on a Local Air Quality Action Plan to submit soon to the government to cut pollution levels.

Friends of the Earth says these are the top 10 areas in the West Midlands which recorded the worst NO2 levels:

• Holyhead Road, Coventry
• Halesowen Road, Netherton, Dudley
• Watery Lane, Birmingham
• Priory Queensway, Birmingham
• Moor Street, Birmingham
• Etruria Road, Stoke-on-Trent
• A50, Uttoxeter
• Moor Street Quarter, Birmingham
• Islington Row, Birmingham
• Lawley Middleway, Birmingham

Allen Cook
BBC News

Worcestershire’s Moeen Ali will miss England’s T20 series against West Indies after it was confirmed he’s to return home after the final one-day international to take a rest from international cricket.

Image source, AFP/Getty Images

He was in the squad for the final three fixtures of the Caribbean tour but selectors have changed their mind as they look to manage the workload of their players.

Moeen will return after the game on 2 March having been granted two weeks off before joining the Indian Premier League.