Summary

  • Boy sentenced for stabbings near school

  • Birmingham bin dispute 'nearing an end'

  • Best friends killed in pub bombings found 'side by side'

  • Funeral date set for four children killed in fire

  • Attempted murder charge after man hit by van

  • School protests 'helping spread messages of division'

  • Updates from Friday 8 March 2019

  • Click Related Stories for updates from your area

Live Reporting

  1. Aston Villa 'lost £1m-a-week' in failed promotion bid

    Allen Cook
    BBC News

    Aston Villa lost more than a £1m a week last season as the club failed to regain their place in the Premier League.

    General view of Villa ParkAston Villa FC

    The latest accounts of their owners Recon confirm Villa experienced "significant liquidity problems" before a change in ownership.

    Before taking into account any player transfers, the figures show a loss of £54m in 2018.

    A report on the accounts says, while the club fully complied with the football league's financial regulations in the 2017-18 season, they'll continue to "provide a significant challenge" while Villa are in the Championship.

    In July, the club announced billionaire businessmen Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris would inject "significant investment" into Villa after they failed to get promoted back to the Premier League.

  3. Search for new damsel to be rescued from dragon

    A St George's Day parade is looking for a new damsel in distress, after the last one decided to call it a day after seven years.

    The annual event in Newport, Shropshire, is based on a traditional mummers' play and has been running for 10 years.

    Damsel and St GeorgeSt Georges's Day Newport

    The role involves being saved from the clutches of a dragon in front of about 1,000 spectators.

    The new damsel will be the third to hold the title and the only requirement is that she has to be female and aged between 15 and 25.

  4. How fast is the ambulance service where you live?

    BBC News Health

    Critically injured patients in rural areas are at risk due to the time it takes the ambulance service to reach them.

    Paramedic getting out of ambulanceGetty Images

    Some patients wait more than 20 minutes on average for help for cardiac arrests, seizures and life-threatening injuries, a BBC investigation found.

    A response is meant to arrive within an average of six to eight minutes, depending on where you live.

    You can check the urgent ambulance response times in your area here on the BBC News website.

    Ambulance services say they are expected to achieve the average target response times on a regional and national level only - not down to the super-local level looked at by BBC News.

  5. MP invites PM to collect son as school set to shut early

    A Birmingham Labour MP has invited the prime minister to pick her son up from school after it proposed closing early on Fridays to save money.

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    Jess Phillips, who represents Birmingham Yardley, tweeted a letter from an unnamed school which plans to close at 13:00 from September so it can cut the number of teachers it employs and hours for support staff.

    It added that the school was having to consider stopping providing for children with complex needs.

    In a series of tweets, Ms Phillips asked Theresa May to come and pick up her son and then added "in fact I think I'll leave him on the steps of 10 Downing Street".

    The government has previously said it had increased funding by an extra £1.3bn across this year and the next.

  6. Football club pulls out of deal to be run via a phone app

    BBC WM

    Hednesford Town Football Club have pulled out of a deal to be run via a new phone app.

    Hednesford Town FCGoogle

    The Pitmen had been in negotiations with OWNAFC to be taken over and run by people subscribing to the app.

    People paid for shares at £49 each to allow them to vote on all the club's boardroom decisions.

    If it had happened, the owners - who aren't connected except via the app - would have decided on everything from signings to hiring and firing staff.

    A club statement this morning says the sale will no longer go ahead and they won't add anything further.

  7. Cyclist 'seriously hurt' in crash with coach on A5

    Allen Cook
    BBC News

    A cyclist has been taken to hospital with serious injuries after colliding with a coach on the A5 this morning.

    Police say the crash happened at 07:15 on the road between Longford Island and Church Bridge Island, in Cannock.

    They say the man, aged in his early 20s, was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.

    The road's still shut and officers say drivers should find alternative routes.

  9. Worcester's Te'o 'fully fit and firing' for England return

    BBC Sport

    Worcester Warriors centre Ben Te'o says he can't wait to play for England again in the Six Nations.

    Ben Te'o in trainingReuters

    He's in line for a return to the matchday squad, which is named on Thursday morning, for the game against Italy at Twickenham on Saturday.

    Te'o has yet to feature this championship after picking up an injury in England's training camp in Portugal the end of January.

    "I'm fully fit, firing, and ready to go," Te'o told BBC Sport. "I've done a lot of training. It will be nice to be out there."

  10. Car tax evaders targeted in Birmingham

    BBC Midlands Today

    A new campaign is being launched targeting motorists in Birmingham who think they can get away without taxing their vehicles.

    Impounded vehicle

    The DVLA says the city has one of the highest rates of tax evasion in the country.

    Last year, the organisation says it carried out 55,000 enforcement actions, from fines to removal.

    Enforcement officers will be in the city this week clamping and impounding untaxed vehicles.

  11. Cash-strapped club charges £50 for trials

    Nuneaton Borough FC has been issued a winding up order by HMRC and is thought to owe about £140,000.

    Read More

  12. Treat knife crime like a disease - Javid

    Police forces have been asked how much money they need to tackle knife crime, a senior officer says.

    Read More

  13. 'Serious crash' shuts A5 near Cannock

    BBC News Travel

    The whole of the A5 southbound's been shut from J12 of the M6, near Gailey, and the Longford Island near Cannock.

    Highways England says there's been a serious crash.

  14. Family fears over £700k transport cut

    BBC Shropshire

    A £700,000 cut to school and college transport in Shropshire is expected to see families having to pay more towards services, while nursery services will be cut altogether.

    Shropshire Council building

    Fears have already been been raised by opposition councillors that the move by Shropshire Council will hit the county’s poorer families hardest.

    The local authority's ruling Conservative cabinet is expected to agree to sign off a consultation period into the proposals at a meeting this morning.

    It is one of a raft of savings identified when councillors signed off the budget for the next financial year last week.

  15. Morgan sale 'secures firm's long-term future'

    BBC Business News

    The sale of British sports car maker Morgan to an Italian venture capitalist firm will 'secure the long-term future' of the firm.

    That's according to the Morgan family, which has owned the company for 110 years, after announcing that InvestIndustrial will take a majority stake for an undisclosed amount.

    Morgan carsMorgan

    Morgan has something of a cult status among sports car collectors. Some 30,000 visitors make the trip to its Malvern factory every year.

    The cars are said to be the only modern automobiles with a wooden frame of ash.

    This new ownership structure and InvestIndustrial, have the pedigree and resources to secure the long-term future of Morgan. It was important for the family to retain a shareholding, and we are delighted that our loyal management team and workforce will now also have a share in the business going forward."

    Jill Price, Morgan family Director

  16. Car badly damaged in lorry crash

    Allen Cook
    BBC News

    A car was badly damaged in a crash involving a lorry on the A41 at Tern Hill, Shropshire, last night.

    No-one was hurt in the crash.

    Car after crashShropshire Fire Service

    They say it happened last night on the A41 at Tern Hill, near Market Drayton, Shropshire.

  18. Home secretary holds violent crime talks with police chiefs

    BBC News England

    Home Secretary Sajid Javid is to meet police chiefs from seven forces most affected by violent crime.

    Floral tributes to one of the Birmingham stab victims

    It follows a spate of fatal stabbings which has prompted a debate about falling police numbers.

    Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has said there is "obviously" a link between violent crime and falling police numbers.

    But Prime Minister Theresa May has insisted there is "no direct correlation".

    Senior officers from the West Midlands, Metropolitan Police, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, South Wales, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire will attend the meeting.

    In Birmingham in the past month, three teenage boys were stabbed to death in the city within days of each other.

  19. Trampoline injury man's life 'transformed' by mobility car

    Jennie Aitken
    Reporter, BBC Radio Stoke

    A man seriously injured in an accident at a trampoline park says getting a specially adapted car has transformed his life.

    Daniel Moseley before the accidentDaniel Moseley

    Daniel Moseley, 20, from Whitgreave, near Stafford, sustained a double neck fracture at Flip Out Stoke in January 2018.

    A spokesperson for the company said previously that an independent investigation confirmed their team followed "correct process" when giving Dan a safety briefing.

    Doctors said last year that he would need to be on a ventilator for the rest of his life but he says getting a car he can drive with hand controls has been a major boost.

    Driving a car is the biggest thing for me because it's just difficult to get out [to] places. When you're in a wheelchair, it really does limit you with the places you can go but I feel like now, especially with getting the wheelchair in, you just improve, strength and everything because it just means everything to go places."

    Dan Moseley, Farmer

  20. Families plead for drug to slow muscle-wasting disease

    BBC News England

    Parents with children who have a muscle-wasting disease are calling for a drug that can help maintain independence to be offered by the NHS in England.

    Families calling for Spinraza to be approved to treat people with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) are set to protest at a meeting later.

    Heidi Prescott-BoothKatie Prescott

    They include Katie Prescott, whose daughter Heidi, 11, has had the condition since birth, but was not diagnosed until she was three.

    "She can't walk on her own, she has to hold on to me and can only take a few steps," Mrs Prescott, from Wolverhampton, said.

    The drug has not been recommended so far because of uncertainties over its long-term effectiveness and high cost.

    Parents say the drug could be life-changing.