Local Democracy Reporting Service

The policing of badger culling in Cheshire has cost taxpayers more than £1.3m in the past two years.

Cheshire Police's cull operation was the second most expensive in the country last year, topped only by Devon and Cornwall, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The force spent £484,892 last year, following a spend of £831,093 in 2017. Figures show 472 badgers were killed.

The government has allowed culling in 32 areas across 10 counties in England to tackle Bovine tuberculosis.

Police forces are paid for the work by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

A spokesman for Defra said the "average cost" of policing has "declined significantly", adding:

Allen Cook
BBC News

Nearly a third of the workforce at the Fox's Biscuits factory in Staffordshire are at risk of losing their jobs, the owners have confirmed this afternoon.

Image source, Google

The 2 Sisters Good Group, which owns Fox's Biscuits, , externalsays it's a loss-making site at the moment and it needs to revamp the production lines to try and make sure it has a long-term future.

That means, it says, starting a consultation on the proposals with 250 out of 780 roles at risk of redundancy.

As well as the main factory, it's also consulting on outsourcing distribution centres in Uttoxeter and Wakefield, putting another 50 jobs also at risk.

The 2 Sisters Group got into hot water early last year for sending Fox's Biscuits as a Christmas gift to MPs on a committee investigating alleged food safety breaches at the 2 Sisters plant in West Bromwich.

The owner of Coventry City says the latest bid to buy the club, by a local consortium "seems to be little more than an effort to undermine and distract from the club's on-pitch performance".

Sisu also said the offer was "an extremely low bid" and has "little credibility" and "provides no proof of funds" - a claim disputed by the consortium

Image source, Getty Images

Earlier this afternoon, the consortium led by former Coventry City board members Gary Hoffman and Joe Elliott said the deal was "very generous" and reflected the club's current circumstances.

The football club itself said it won't be commenting, because it is a matter for the owners.

BBC Sport

Stoke City defender Ashley Williams says he'll reassess his future in the summer.

Williams, who is on loan from Everton, hasn't started a match for Stoke in the last six weeks.

Image source, Reuters

He's set to play for Wales in their friendly against Trinidad and Tobago and, if he does, he will equal Gary Speed as Wales's third-most-capped player with 85 appearances.

However, in terms of Stoke, the 34-year-old says he hasn't decided yet what's going to happen and "I'll sort out my own future at the end of this season".

Witness Norman Catton tried to alert police he feared the men planned a bombing, an inquest hears.

Shropshire Star

These stories are among the headlines in the Shropshire Star today:

• Driver killed and pedestrians seriously injured in two cashes, external
• River Severn flood waters dropping, external
• Burst water main affects hundreds of properties, external

Here's something you don't see every day - a hedgehog having a bath.

Bear the hedgehog is being cared for by staff at Cuan Wildlife Rescue in Much Wenlock, who are helping him regrow his spines after they fell out earlier this year, leaving him bald.

Image source, Cuan Wildlife Rescue

The charity said it thought stress caused by a nasty mite-infection had caused the spine-loss and the occasional moisturising baths were helping his skin recover.

Two Herefordshire bridges will close this summer for what the local authority is calling "significant maintenance work".

Hereford Council says the bridge at Stoke Lacy, on the A465 at the bottom of Stoke Lacy Hill, will close for between eight and 10 weeks and the Holme Lacy bridge on the B4399 will close for several days at a time with the rest of the work being completed under temporary traffic lights.

Image source, Google

The work is due to begin in July or August.

Ian Perry
BBC Radio Shropshire

Drones are being used by researchers at Harper Adams University near Newport to round up sheep.

They have been working with a Shropshire farmer to see if they can train sheep to associate a drone with food.

It's still early days for the trial, but so far the sheep appear to be happy to follow the drone around.

Two pedestrians have been seriously injured after they were hit by a van in Gobowen this morning.

Image source, Google

West Midlands Ambulance Service said it was called to the junction of St Martins Road and West Place at 09:30 and the man and the woman flown to the Royal Stoke University Hospital for further trauma care.

It said the van driver didn't need hospital treatment.

Ade Goodchild, a factory worker from Hereford, scoops £71m in the EuroMillions lottery.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

County councillors in Warwickshire could be getting healthier snacks to nibble at meetings in future.

Members voted in favour of the idea of having a wider range of food, including carrot sticks and fresh fruit, alongside old favourites like biscuits.

Councillor Helen Adkins, who put forward the motion, said it was "in the interest of promoting healthier lifestyles for councillors and visitors".

Worcester News

Three headlines from the Worcester News today:

• Brawl mars Worcester Raiders win, external
• Event to encourage employers to take on staff with autism, external
• Easement plan rejected by Malvern Hills Trust, external

A consortium led by former Coventry City board members Gary Hoffman and Joe Elliott says it's had an improved offer for Coventry City rejected by current owners Sisu Capital.

The consortium said it wouldn't reveal the exact details of the offer, but that the cash being offered up front was more than the £7m it had previously offered and added it thought the deal was "very generous".

Image source, Getty Images

It says it is confident that it can agree a deal to stay at the Ricoh stadium and that the alternatives, another ground share or the possible expulsion from the Football League would be "terrible".

The group said the latest offer was turned down without any discussion and urged Sisu "to explore those alternatives in constructive dialogue with the consortium".

In a statement, Coventry City said: "The ownership of the Football Club is a matter for the owners Sisu, and as such we will not be providing any comment.”

A gang who raided a man's home "got what they came for and stabbed him", a court hears.

The news that just under a third of 440 staff employed by Wedgwood in the UK could lose their jobs has been described as "gravely concerning" by a trade union.

With a consultation of 45 days now under way, the firm confirmed the 145 proposed job losses would include 130 of the current 190 manufacturing jobs on site.

The company says it hopes the move will "strengthen" Wedgwood's competitive position.

Wendy Grieveson, of GMB, said: "This news is gravely concerning and members are today understandably concerned for their future.

"GMB will be entering urgent discussions with the company to seek the clarity and reassurance Wedgwood's proud workforce need and deserve."

The Wedgwood family said: "Losing two thirds of the potters at Wedgwood's only production site in the UK is a devastating blow for Staffordshire and for the proud potters of Stoke on Trent."

Plans for a revamp, external of St Andrew's Gardens in Rugby have been drawn up by the borough council, and they involve moving or laying flat the remaining gravestones and creating a small Japanese rock garden to remember the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The gardens were created in the grounds of the former Holy Trinity Church and the council took over the maintenance of the site in 1975, after the church closed.

Image source, Rugby Borough Council

The plans also involve landscaping the area by removing some bushes and the planting of flowers and meadow grass.

Consultation on the plans closes on Friday 26 April.

Allen Cook
BBC News

The first of 40 flat-pack or modular homes has been craned into position as part of the start of a 1,150-property development in Birmingham., external

Image source, Homes England

Government agency Homes England is working with developers, the city council and the Canal and Rivers Trust on the Icknield Port Loop scheme.

They say the first phase will see 77 homes built around shared gardens including 40 modular homes which were built in a factory and then transported on to site.

The website for the development says prices for Port Loop will start from £349,000., external

Jeetan Patel will captain Birmingham Bears in this season's T20 Blast following Grant Elliott's retirement.

A third ward at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital has been forced to close to new patients because of a norovirus outbreak.

The hospital said visitors would not be allowed into wards 24, 27, 28 unless there was a clinical need or there was a patient receiving end-of-life care.

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust said five cases of the bug have been identified so far.