Updates from Monday 8 April to Sunday 14 April
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Yesterday started a bit hazy, but the photos we've seen from the BBC Weather Watchers today suggest it was a lot brighter this morning.
These were taken at Lydbury North, Worcester and Market Drayton.
Image source, Ken M
Image source, Janeyv
Image source, WubAnyone in need of a prom dress or a wedding dress could be helped by a newly set up charity.
Rita Krafczyk says she launched the Cinderella Project when she overheard a girl crying because she couldn't afford to go to a school prom. The Ludlow-based charity now has more than 200 dresses, all of them donated.
The Cinderella Project will be opening up a shop in the town on 27 April, but will only give the address to those who inquire to protect from embarrassment.
BBC News Travel
Disruption to train services between Tyseley, Birmingham and Whitlocks End should be easing now:
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Allen Cook
BBC News
Firefighters are scaling back the number of crews battling a factory fire.
The service says they were called to Phoenix Street, West Bromwich, just before 08:00 , externaland sent around 20 firefighters to the scene.
It broke out in a derelict factory unit.
Here are three headlines from the Shropshire Star today:
The National Education Union says it is unhappy with plans to change the way lessons are assessed.
Read MorePrincess Anne is officially opening the Cavalier Centre at Riding for the Disabled in Much Wenlock today.
The Princess Royal will then head to Broseley to meet pupils and staff at the Barrow 1618 Church of England Primary Free School and unveil a plaque while she's there.
BBC News Travel
All lanes have now reopened on the M6 near Walsall, external after the earlier tanker crash.
Highways England had been working with emergency services to clear a spillage of "hazardous" fertilizer at J10.
BBC News Travel
A wartime bomb discovery is disrupting rail services between Stourbridge and Whitlocks End.
National Rail Enquiries says it's been found near the railway between Tyseley, Birmingham, and Whitlocks End and services could be delayed or revised.
BBC News Travel
Train services between Stoke-on-Trent and Stockport are being disrupted after a vehicle hit a bridge in Macclesfield.
Rail operator Northern says services aren't running southbound and ones on the northbound side are having to run at a slower speed., external
Hospitals in Worcestershire are being given £5.6m to help improve their IT systems.
It follows a visit by Health Secretary Matt Hancock to the Worcestershire Royal Hospital last month.
Image source, GoogleIn a letter to the county's Conservative MPs Mr Hancock said the government cash was being released to help the trust deal with "high risk estates issues and improvements to critical clinical IT systems."
The trust also runs the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch and Kidderminster Hospital.
Local Democracy Reporting Service
Community groups in Shropshire will be getting free bin bags, brushes, shovels and high-visibility vests, to help them keep the streets clean.
They're being paid for by Shropshire Council, which has been awarded a £55,000 government grant to support cleaning projects in the county.
Under the terms of the funding, the cleaning has to be carried out by the end of May and the groups can also apply for "cleaning grants" of between £200 and £1,000.
BBC News Health
Private hospitals must do more to keep patients safe and prevent rogue surgeons like Ian Paterson from harming anyone again, the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) says.
Image source, SWNSPaterson was convicted of carrying out unnecessary breast surgery operations and jailed for 20 years in 2017.
He'd carried out treatment in the private sector at Little Aston and Parkway Hospitals, run by Spire Healthcare, in the West Midlands between 1997 and 2011.
Surgeons say the private sector must collect and publish the same level of patient safety data as the NHS.
The RCS also says information about consultants' performances should be shared better.
Local Democracy Reporting Service
Staffordshire County Council has been targeted by more than nine million cyber attacks since it started keeping records in 2017.
They were made up of 4,310,988 attempts to hack accounts through emails and 5,059,425 so-called Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDOS) attacks, which attempt to crash websites.
Despite this, the council said no data had been compromised and no attacks needed reporting to the police.
And it believes many of the attacks were random, because they were often sent to old or invalid email addresses.
Lee Thomas
Newsreader, BBC Radio Stoke
Virgin Trains will no longer run the West Coast Main Line from next year as its joint bid to run the franchise has been disqualified by the government.
Image source, AFPStagecoach, who were part of the bid, said the Department for Transport (DfT) had told it that its bid for the West Coast and two other franchises were "non-compliant".
The main issue centred on pension risks, Stagecoach said in a statement. , external
A DfT spokesman confirmed that other bidders had met its requirements.
Virgin Trains said it would lose the franchise from 1 April 2020 at the latest and it could even be from December as the new operator, to be announced in June, could start then.
The rail operator said, external it was "very disappointed" at the decision by the DfT and it's too early to say what impact it could have on jobs.
The West Coast Main Line connects London to Glasgow and runs through the West Midlands.
An MP says the decision to cut £250k from a £1m funding grant is "flawed".
Read More
BBC Midlands Today
A number of taxi drivers will be protesting in Birmingham this morning over plans to introduce a clean air zone in the city centre.
The drivers, who are members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, say the city council’s not listening to their concerns.
They claim their livelihoods could be affected by the zone, which is due to come be introduced in January.
Drivers of high-polluting vehicles will have to pay to drive through the city after the government approved plans last month.
The council says taxis must meet EU standards on emissions by December to have licences renewed.
Allen Cook
BBC News
A factory fire's being tackled this morning in the West Midlands.
The fire service says four engines have been called to the site in Great Bridge, West Bromwich., external
Allen Cook
BBC News
One lane's reopened on the M6 southbound near Walsall after the earlier crash involving a lorry and a tanker., external
Highways England says staff are still working to fully reopen the carriageway after fertiliser was spilled from the tanker in the collision.
Image source, Highways EnglandSean Coughlan
BBC News, education correspondent
The government has announced the locations of 12 "Institutes of Technology" in England, intended to provide high-quality skills training.
They include Dudley College of Technology and Solihull College and University Centre.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe aim is to offer young people a vocational alternative to universities.
Employers will support the institutes, most of which will be based around existing colleges and universities.
Prime Minister Theresa May said they would "end outdated perceptions" that were biased against vocational skills.
But Labour said the plans were too small-scale and would not help the "overwhelming majority" of students in technical education.
