Hannah Richardson
BBC News education and social affairs reporter

Families, including one from Birmingham, are mounting a High Court challenge to the government's funding of support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).

Their lawyers will argue the government is leaving councils in England unable to fulfil their legal duties to give these children the support they need.

Judges will have to decide whether Send funding decisions have been lawful and may order a government rethink.

The government said it was investing significantly into high needs budgets.

Express and Star

From the Express and Star:

• New training centre could give lifeline to Stourbridge College students, external
• Fresh talks over transformation of M6 gas tanks site, external
• Big rise in attacks on West Midlands ambulance workers, external

BBC News England

When the lights go down and curtain goes up, the eyes of the theatre audience are trained on the actors treading the boards.

But behind the scenes, a small army of rarely-seen people are central to bringing a production to life.

Image source, Fraser McGee/Birmingham Rep

Birmingham photographer Fraser McGee spent two months at the Rep theatre capturing their efforts, gathering more than 1,000 images in the process.

Of those, he picked 100 black and white photographs for a new exhibition which opens this week.

You can see more of his photos here on the BBC website.

Image source, Fraser McGee/Birmingham Rep

BBC News England

A proposal for £2bn of improvements to the rail network between the West and East Midlands has been submitted to the government.

Midlands Connect said it would mean direct services between Coventry, Leicester and Nottingham for the first time since 2004.

It said it would also reduce the time it took to travel across the Midlands.

If the plans go ahead they will be completed in phases between 2024 and 2033.

After submitting the initial plan to the Department of Transport, Midlands Connect is now asking for £25m to create an outline business case, which would detail the specifics of developing the scheme.

Alex Hamilton
BBC Weather

Starting off grey with a chance of some patches of drizzle.

Here's the full forecast:

You can stay up-to-date with the latest forecast for your area by heading to the BBC Weather website.

Allen Cook
BBC News

Welcome to our live service for Wednesday.

We'll be bringing you all the news, sport, travel and weather for the West Midlands.

We love to hear from you and you can get in touch via email,Twitter, external and Facebook, external.

An exhibition of 100 images takes theatre fans behind the scenes at Birmingham's Rep theatre.

Darren Cumberbatch died nine days after being Tasered and punched by Warwickshire Police officers.

A clearly emotional Angela Eagle urges fellow MPs to take action over protests outside a Birmingham school at LGBT teaching.

Roger Godsiff is speaking in Parliament over the teaching of LGBT rights in primary schools.

Warwickshire seamer Craig Miles takes 5-91 before the Bears make a solid start chasing 290 to win against Surrey at The Oval.

Andy Giddings
BBC News

We'll be back with the news, sport, travel and weather from 07:00 on Wednesday.

Mel Coles
BBC Weather presenter

It should be a largely dry night with some cloud and mist and lows of 12C (54F).

BBC Shropshire

Campaigners have won their fight to prevent a Victorian building in Whitchurch from being demolished to make way for 74 homes for the over-55s.

The Wrekin Housing Trust had also applied to build a medical centre, pharmacy and cafe on the Pauls Moss site, but some people living in the town wanted the old building to remain and be incorporated into the plans.

Image source, Google

A report prepared for Shropshire councillors said the building was in a "poor state of repair", but members of the planning committee voted to reject the proposal.

BBC Business News

Aldi has extended its market share among Britain's supermarkets after attracting 883,000 more shoppers into its stores over the last quarter, according to data from analysts Nielsen.

The budget chain, which has its UK headquarters in Atherstone, Warwickshire, now has a market share of 7.9% - a rise of 0.5 percentage points on last year.

Image source, PA

Its rival Lidl saw its sales go up by 7.5% and its market share reach 5.7% in the same period.

Online grocer Ocado was the UK's fastest growing supermarket, with sales growth of 11.3%, despite only 3% of British shoppers currently using it.

A liver cancer patient at St Michael's Hospice in Hereford is learning to fly a helicopter to raise funds for the charity.

Bob Purvis, who is 85, is aiming to fly 3,500 feet above the hospice site to mark its 35th anniversary in September.

He has been having lessons at Tiger helicopters in Shobdon airfield.

Six people have been jailed in connection with the supply of heroin and crack cocaine in Shropshire, police say.

According to the West Mercia force, the drugs were sent from Liverpool for dealing in Shrewsbury in a so-called county lines operation.

Officers believe the group - five men and a woman - made more than £500,000 from their activity.

They were sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Tuesday for a range of drugs offences, with one man sentenced to 10.5 years in prison, police said.

Image source, West Midlands Police

BBC Weather Watchers

The wet weather seems to be bringing out the snails and the BBC Weather Watchers have been sharing their photos of them, creeping about in the puddles.

These pictures were taken in Knowle and Telford.

Image source, Silverlady

Image source, Liam Ball

Stoke City's chief executive Tony Scholes says the club is finding it difficult to offload some of its players this summer.

Image source, Getty Images

He has promised a number of new signings this week, but explained "with players coming in, you tend to be the proactive one; you're the ones out there doing the chasing".

With regard to departing players, however, Mr Scholes said it could be an "uncomfortable feeling because you're less in control" and admitted the club was having to wait while potential buyers considered their transfer moves.

BBC Coventry & Warwickshire

Police officers' restraint of a man contributed to his death, an inquest has found.

Darren Cumberbatch died in hospital nine days after police tasered, punched and hit him with a baton at a bail hostel in Nuneaton in July 2017.

Police were called to the site following reports Mr Cumberbatch was behaving irrationally there.

He was restrained after being punched by officers between 10 and 15 times, the proceedings were told.

Image source, Family photo

The jury at Warwickshire Justice Centre found some of the restraints used by the officers were excessive and may have been avoidable.

Jurors also found police attempts to de-escalate the situation were inadequate and offices failed to have a plan for dealing with Mr Cumberbatch before approaching him.