A new regional transport coordination centre will be used to help manage journeys and keep people moving in Birmingham as the city hosts matches during the Cricket World Cup.

Five international matches will be played at Edgbaston during June and July, with thousands of fans expected to add pressure to the road network during the morning rush hour.

Image source, Transport for West Midlands

The city's whole transport system will be monitored with live information being relayed to passengers, to help them plan their journeys.

Funding for the centre is set to be approved by the West Midlands Combined Authority board later this month which could lead to a new service monitoring the roads and public transport 15 hours a day, six days a week.

It could also help as the city prepares to host the Commonwealth Games in 2022.

Worcester News

The Worcester News is covering these stories today:

• Binmen allegedly keep damaging gas pipe raising fears of an explosion, external
• Taxi driver feared for his safety while being racially abused in Worcester, external
• Tourist office opens up in its new home, external

A driver escaped serious injury after their car came off the A38 carriageway in Staffordshire and flipped over.

Image source, Staffordshire Police

Highways England said it happened near Alrewas, between Lichfield and Burton-upon-Trent, before 07:00. , external

Police described the crash as "nasty" but said the driver wasn't badly hurt and the road reopened just before 09:00., external

A commissioner appointed by the government to oversee improvements to children's services in Stoke-on-Trent says changes are being made to provide more support for social workers and that she won't tolerate delays.

Eleanor Brazil is due report back on progress made in September, after an Ofsted report in February identified social workers' caseloads as one of four areas that were inadequate.

Image source, Getty Images

Ms Brazil said: "You always find people who haven’t been doing a good job because they haven’t been well managed and when you change those things they step up."

She also said the clock was ticking, adding, "I’m not very tolerant of delay and I’m very intolerant of people who say they’ll do something and then don’t actually do it."

Worcestershire recover from Chris Rushworth's burst of 5-28 to beat Durham by five wickets at New Road.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Town centres need to transform to survive, entrepreneur Sir John Timpson has told the BBC's Today programme.

He has been asked to come up with a plan by the government to regenerate struggling town centres.

A brief look around many high streets and shopping centres in the West Midlands reveals plenty of empty stores.

Image source, Getty im

According to PwC, 2,481 stores disappeared from top High Streets around the UK in 2018 alone.

Sir John said that was "not really surprising" given the number of out-of-town stores and the rise of online shopping.

The answer, he said, was to reduce the number of shops and increase both residential and leisure offerings.

BBC Weather Watchers

After a week when we've seen plenty of blue skies and sunshine, it's taken a turn for the grey today judging by the photos sent in by our local BBC Weather Watchers.

These three are from users Matthew in Stone, Staffordshire, Margrose in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire and Liam Ball in Dawley, Shropshire:

Image source, Matthew

Image source, Margrose

Image source, Liam Ball

Stoke-on-Trent Live

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

• Armed robbery gang raid 13 houses, bookies and off-licences in two-month reign of terror, external
• Picture released of car smashed up in Stoke-on-Trent road-rage attack, external
• Police reveal three men arrested on suspicion of murder after death of man, external

Lee Thomas
Newsreader, BBC Radio Stoke

A butcher who police say stabbed three men after a night out has been jailed for 12 years.

Image source, Cheshire Police

Marian Minu admitted carrying out the attacks outside a nightclub in Crewe, Cheshire, in March.

Cheshire Police said he went home to get a knife after arguing with another man on Nantwich Road., external

The victim was stabbed in the stomach and back. Officers said Minu then stabbed two men who tried to help their friend.

The 34-year-old, from Nantwich Road, pleaded guilty to wounding with intent, two charges of unlawful wounding and possession of a knife.

Local Democracy Reporting Service
Tom Davis

A Clean Air Zone will not work in Coventry as the city is simply too small, a leading council cabinet member has said, fearing the move would be “shutting off the city”.

The government has rejected Coventry City Council’s measures to reduce high levels of pollution and ordered it to implement a clean air zone “as soon as possible”.

Such a change would force the most polluting buses, coaches, taxis, PHVs, HGVs LGVs and cars to pay a daily pollution charge.

But Councillor Jim O’Boyle has accused the government of ruling “with an iron fist”, adding a clean air zone would not work in a city the size of Coventry – and said it would fail to reduce nitrogen dioxide (NO2) quicker than the council’s own plan.

The council has been told to revise its plan by 14 June.

A man has been charged with causing serious injury by dangerous driving after a woman was hit by a car in West Bromwich on Thursday.

Image source, Google

The 59-year-old remains in hospital with life-changing injuries after the incident on Great Bridge Street, yesterday morning.

The 28-year-old, of no fixed address, has also been charged with driving without insurance and driving without a licence.

He's due to appear at Dudley and Sandwell Magistrates' Court today.

Students at the £37,000-a-year Worcestershire school realised the mistake in an English literature exam.

Rail timetable changes are set to be introduced across the West Midlands from Sunday.

West Midlands Railway is bringing in a number of new services, external, including one extra train an hour between Shropshire and Birmingham on weekdays and Saturdays and more trains on Sundays, additional evening services from Worcester and Hereford to Birmingham and an extra evening service between Kidderminster and Worcester.

It is also adding more carriages to services between Coventry and London and new direct trains to destinations such as Liverpool, Stoke-on-Trent and Crewe.

Image source, West Midlands Railway

Chiltern Railways is creating a new direct service , externalfrom Stratford-upon-Avon to London, doubling the number of weekday trains it runs to the capital.

Cross Country trains, which stop in Birmingham, have also made some changes to their timetable., external

Shropshire Star

Here are three stories from the Shropshire Star today:

• Three arrested after stabbing in street, external
• Huge rise in cost of pavement permits, external
• Debt fears over relief road cost, external

The key dates, fixtures and 12 teams involved in this season's English Football League play-offs.

Two men and a boy have been arrested after a stabbing in Shrewsbury on Monday night.

West Mercia Police said the victim was attacked on Grey Friars Road just before midnight as he parked his vehicle.

Image source, Google

The man was taken to hospital for treatment, but his injuries aren't thought to be life-threatening.

The three are aged 21, 22 and 15.

David Stanley has been chosen as Dudley’s new mayor after a passionate debate where Labour councillors pleaded for Hilary Bills to be given the role.

The choosing of the largely ceremonial role overshadowed the election of Patrick Harley as leader of the council, giving Conservatives control of the authority.

The normally non-contentious selection became crucial because both Labour and Conservatives hold 36 wards on the 72 seat authority.

The position comes with a pivotal but rarely used casting vote that breaks political deadlocks.

Traditionally, the deputy mayor – this year, Labour Councillor Hilary Bills – is promoted to the role.

Labour argued since Ms Bills was retiring next year this was her last "once in a lifetime opportunity" to become mayor.

The Chief Constable of West Midlands Police says the £7m extra funding his force has been given by the government to tackle knife crime will help, but won't solve the problem.

Figures published by the police showed in the year up to September in the West Midlands force area there were 3,108 offences recorded, a rise of 19% on the year before and almost double the number recorded in 2013.

Dave Thompson said some offenders "didn't have anything to lose" and were "not thinking about the consequences" of their actions.

"There's got to be a dread of detection, a dread of the consequences, but you know I've looked at some of the cases we had, cases where really the likelihood of the offender being caught is obvious and yet, you know, the incident results in a murder.

"Perhaps because they don't think they have anything to lose and don't live a life where they think anymore further than the immediate."

BBC Shropshire

Bus users in Bishop's Castle are now blocking the middle of the main road to Shrewsbury, the A488, in protest at proposed cuts to bus services.

Shropshire Council has proposed cutting the five existing daily services to just one, as part of a package of county-wide measures to save nearly £500,000 a year.

Out of the 100 people fatally stabbed in the UK so far this year, eight were from the West Midlands.

Image source, Family handout

Nazir Azfal is a former chief prosecutor in Greater Manchester, whose nephew was fatally stabbed in Birmingham earlier this year.

In February Hazrat Umar, became the third teenager within 12 days to be stabbed to death in Birmingham.

The 18-year-old, who was a student at the South and City College in the city, suffered fatal stab injuries in Bordesley Green.

Mr Azfal said a "massive decline in youth services" had contributed to stabbings in some areas of the country.

"If young people haven't got places to go, if they're going to congregate in places where they're at risk, if they're going to find - as some of them do - that they join gangs for example as a protective measure, then they're sadly liable to being harmed."

A 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is due to stand trial charged with murder at Birmingham Crown Court on 10 June.