Phil Bowers
Journalist, BBC Radio Stoke

A Staffordshire firefighter who died in a motorcycle crash, external was "very valued" and will be "greatly missed", the fire service says.

Image source, Derbyshire Police

Tributes are being paid to Alex Taylor, 31, from Penkridge, Stafford, who was off duty when his bike was involved in a crash in the Peak District with two vehicles on Tuesday morning.

Staffordshire Fire Service's Chief Fire Officer said the whole fire service was mourning him.

BBC Shropshire

A former college is set to be bought by a local council which wants to turn it into a base for housing, officers and small businesses., external

Image source, Telford and Wrekin Council

Telford and Wrekin Council says it's going to go ahead with the purchase of New College and will spend £200,000 drawing up a detailed masterplan and to get planning approval.

The authority says it's making the move so it doesn't get snapped up by another developer.

It is also considering having a special school on the site.

Ex-firefighter John Frayne called on civilians to help him tend to the injured using doors as stretchers.

BBC Entertainment and Arts

Oscar winner Rachel Shenton has urged authors to feature more characters with disabilities in their stories.

Image source, Getty Images

Stoke-on-Trent-born Shenton - who won an Academy Award for her film The Silent Child, about a deaf girl - was speaking on World Book Day.

"I've learnt just how important it is for... children to see themselves in the programmes and movies they watch and in the books they read.

"Never seeing themselves can be so demoralising, and makes their experiences seem invisible."

Hereford Times

A few of the stories appearing on the Hereford Times website today:

• Primary school labelled inadequate, external
• Brexit blamed for Hereford factory's closure, external
• Man injured in country lane crash, external

The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) has branded the chancellor "out of touch" for suggesting police forces use their existing budgets to tackle knife crime.

Police forces across the country, including the West Midlands, have called for more money to pay for extra officers after a spate of fatal stabbings including three in Birmingham in 12 days.

Earlier today, West Midlands Police revealed plans for 200 extra officers, but the force has lost 2,000 officers since 2010.

Image source, PA

Philip Hammond said police must use money and officers from other parts of their forces to deal with the problem.

Earlier, he told LBC: "If your house is on fire, you stop painting it and you go and get a bucket and start pouring water on the fire."

In response, PCC David Jamieson said he wanted to know what police work Mr Hammond wanted the force to drop, suggesting it might be a choice between knife crime and child sexual abuse, domestic violence or terrorism., external

BBC Shropshire

The health secretary says he's not in a position to intervene at the moment in the row about the reorganisation of hospital services in Shropshire because he hasn't yet been formally asked to do so.

Image source, SATH

Health bosses want to downgrade Telford's A&E to an urgent care centre with all critical care cases being treated at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

Clinical commissioners approved the preferred option for the Future Fit reorganisation in January but Telford and Wrekin Council has said it wants government to review the decision

However, during a visit to the Telford hospital today, Matt Hancock says he's currently powerless to act.

Andy Giddings
BBC News

A crane has been used to install a new bridge across the River Leadon in Herefordshire.

It replaces a 110-year-old bridge which closed in January after faults were discovered.

The four parts of the bridge were manufactured in a factory and then assembled on-site. The Storesbrook Bridge takes traffic on the B4214 between Staplow and Ledbury.

Local Democracy Reporting Service
Tom Davis

Funding for women’s organisations tackling issues including prostitution, drug abuse and domestic violence is declining at a time of rising demand, a report has warned.

Image source, Women's Budget Group

The Women’s Budget Group’s Funding For the Women’s Sector report,, external which will be launched at a council meeting in Coventry, said council funding had fallen by over 50% between 2010-11 and 2015-16, dropping by a further 30.6% in 2017-18.

At the same time, 80% of organisations saw an increase in demand for their services, it said.

Concern was also raised about how funding lost from the EU after Brexit would be replaced.

MPs are debating International Women's Day, which is being celebrated tomorrow.

Image source, HoC

Today, Jess Phillips, as she has done in previous years, read out the names of the 130 women who have been killed by men in the past year, as recorded by the Counting Dead Women project.

The Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley says these women are no longer here because "they are hard to see, hard to hear and hard to believe".

After finishing reading out the list, which took nearly seven minutes, Ms Phillips tells MPs: "These women needs us, in this place, to hear their names and hear their stories."

Equipment worth £200,000 has been stolen after thieves cut their way into a demolition site, external.

Image source, Staffordshire Police

Staffordshire Police says metal fencing was brought down at Packington Hall on Tamworth Road, Lichfield, on Tuesday night.

Thieves then lifted seven pieces of plant equipment, weighing several tonnes, on to a flatbed lorry and made off with them.

The force has released a CCTV image of a lorry they're trying to trace over the theft.

Cerys Edwards died nine years after Antonio Boparan's Range Rover hit the car she was in head-on.

Kidderminster Shuttle

The Kidderminster Shuttle's covering these stories today:

• Sentence extended for death crash driver, external
• Reservoir 'spoilt' by serial fly tippers, external
• Council made £2.2m by selling land and property, external

Local Democracy Reporting Service
Gurdip Thandi

Council bosses in Walsall are exploring the possibility of changing the current process for electing councillors.

A report to the authority’s scrutiny committee, external, which meets next week, will discuss the impact of adopting "all out" elections which would result in ballots being held every four years.

A similar move was made in Birmingham last year following the Kerslake review.

The current system in Walsall sees people going to the polls for local elections in three years out of four with a third of the 60 seats up for grabs each time.

Nearly £500,000 is to be spent on a new CCTV system made up of more than 250 cameras in part of Shropshire., external

Telford and Wrekin Council and West Mercia Police are spending the cash and say it'll use a secure wireless network instead of cables.

They add that it'll go live later this year and will also see mobile cameras used that can be sent to crime and anti-social behaviour hot spots to gather evidence.

Former safeguarding adviser Paul Davies groomed the 17-year-old girl after meeting her on duty.

Thousands of dogs and their owners have descended on Birmingham for the prestigious show.

Vanessa Pearce
BBC News

Here are some more teachers dressed up for World Book Day.

These dalmatians and scarecrows are from Templars Primary School, in Coventry.

Image source, Templars Primary School

Image source, Templars Primary School

Image source, Templars Primary School

The jury in a murder trial has been played a video interview with an 87-year-old man who died after being attacked in his own home.

Image source, Family handout

Arthur Gumbley gave police an account of the attack from his hospital bed before he died.

He said he’d been punched and kicked by intruders at his home in Sutton Coldfield.

Mr Gumbley died about three weeks after the break-in in November 2017 as a result of his injuries, which included four rib fractures.

Jason Wilsher, 20, of Barlestone Road, Bagworth, Leicestershire, denies murder and conspiracy to rob.

Witnesses said Florin Ion used mother-of-two Julie Hunt as a "human punch bag".