Danny Shaw
BBC Home Affairs Correspondent

A prisoner at Hewell Prison died after he accidentally set himself on fire while smoking drugs, a report has revealed.

The Prison and Probation Ombudsman said the 31-year-old man may not have reacted quickly enough because of the effects of smoking the psychoactive substance, formerly known as a legal high.

And it also concluded his life might have been saved if it wasn't for an “unacceptable” 16-minute delay in responding to his emergency bell in September 2018.

Image source, Google

When staff arrived and put out the fire they found him sitting in his bed with severe burns to most of his body and he died two days later.

The Ombudsman recommended disciplinary investigation and said the emergency bells should be answered in five minutes.

Police say it is too early to link the incidents on Tuesday and Wednesday evening in Smethwick.

Coventry Live

Some of the Coventry Live headlines today include:

• Parks could be transformed with outdoor gyms and free Wi-Fi, external
• Armistice Day Parade tradition saved in the 11th hour, external
• Search for missing Nuneaton woman widened, external

Two women, one 79 and one 80, are in a critical but stable condition in hospital, following a crash on Wrexham Road at Burland near Nantwich yesterday afternoon.

Their car was in collision with a lorry just after 15:00 and it took firefighters about two hours to free them, before they were taken to the Royal Stoke University Hospital.

Two men have been jailed after a crash on the A66 near Keswick that left a pedestrian dying as his friends battled to save his life.

Matthew Paul Leggett (above), 25, of Sonnets Way, Cockermouth, faced no charges for hitting Jimmy Greenwood, a visitor from Market Drayton, Shropshire, after a police expert said he had reacted the way a driver should.

But he then drove off, at speeds of more than 100mph, to a wood near Cockermouth where he abandoned his badly-damaged BMW and was collected by a friend, Finlay Lewis Davidson, 24, of Mabel Wood, Great Clifton.

Leggett admitted dangerous driving after the crash, failing to stop and failing to report an accident and was jailed for 16 months with a four year driving ban to follow.

Davidson admitted doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice and was jailed for 10 months.

A planning application has been submitted , externalfor the redevelopment of Birmingham's Alexander Stadium - transforming it for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Image source, Birmingham City Council

The venue in Perry Barr will host the opening and closing ceremonies as well as athletics events.

The £70m revamp will include a new stand, more tiered seating and extra parking.

Image source, Birmingham City Council

The stadium will increase its permanent seating capacity from 12,700 to 18,000 allowing more than 30,000 during the Games through additional temporary seating.

The application will now be considered by planners, said the city council, with a final decision expected early in 2020.

A tool Google offered in the US to help cities measure pollution and emissions levels is set to be used in the West Midlands.

Image source, Google

It compiles transport and building data from Google Maps with publicly available information about emissions

Google will initially offer the tool to Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Coventry along with Dublin, Manchester and Copenhagen.

It plans to add more cities on other continents in coming weeks and any city can nominate itself via an online form., external

BBC Shropshire

People living with Parkinson's disease are being let down in Shropshire, according to a charity.

Since June 2018, just one specialist nurse has employed by Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust to help care for more than 1,100 patients with the condition.

"People living with Parkinson's have been left without support for far, far too long," Parkinson's UK campaign manager Jack Grant said.

"All what we're asking now is for the trust to do the bare minimum."

Image source, Parkinson's UK

The charity funded the service for an initial two years, and said the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust made a commitment to continue paying for the second post when that ended.

Parkinson's UK says specialist nurses are "crucial" to supporting patients and their families, including monitoring and altering medication, and providing advice.

Shropshire's neurology service has been closed to new referrals since 2017, in part because a national shortage of neurologists.

In response, the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust says it's working closely with commissioners on a new service model and there's a meeting this month with a potential provider for Parkinson's services.

Shropshire's clinical commissioning groups says it pays for the neurology services and it's up to the hospital trust to provide the necessary staff to deliver it.

Worcester News

Here are three stories from the Worcester News today:

• Sisters jailed for attack on disabled homeless woman, external
• Landlord opposes plan for new Worcester brewery, external
• Catholic church looking to build flats to help with running costs, external

A man has been fined after admitting to verbally abusing staff at MP Jess Phillips' constituency office.

Staff at the constituency office in Birmingham had to be locked in during an attack last month.

The court heard Michael Roby shouted "Is this the fascist party offices?" and "Why are you blocking democracy?" before kicking a wooden front door of the Birmingham Yardley MP.

The 36-year-old, of Vimy Road, Billesley, has been fined £40 and ordered to pay £135 in costs after admitting a Public Order Act offence.

Emergency services are practising their response to a plane crash near Ironbridge power station today.

They're working with staff from RAF Cosford over the next two days and will also be putting blue dye in the nearby River Severn to simulate the impact of a fuel-leak on wildlife and water supplies.

Image source, RAF Cosford

Image source, RAF Cosford

A car has been damaged after shots were fired in Sandwell for the second time in 24 hours.

Officers were called to Newlands Close in Smethwick just before 21:30 where up to three shots were heard, police said.

There were no reported injuries, said West Midlands Police.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

Herefordshire Council will be asked to repay £3.8m it's already spent on the southern link road project, if it decides to scrap it.

The coalition-run local authority is reviewing the need for the road and also for the Hereford bypass - it has put both schemes on hold while that is carried out.

Image source, Google

The Marches Local Enterprise Partnership said it would seek to claim the money back if the roadworks don't go ahead and said the council has to provide an update on its review by 31 October.

The council said it hoped to make a decision before the end of the year.

Opener Dom Sibley signs a three-year contract extension with Warwickshire ahead of England's tour to New Zealand.

BBC Sport

Telford Tigers have signed the 21-year-old son of one of their players from the 1990s.

Canadian-born forward Brandon Whistle joins from Sheffield Steelers, where he has been playing with his brother Jackson.

Image source, Whistle Hockey/Sheffield Steelers

Their father Dave Whistle played for the Tigers in the 94/95 season and Brandon said: "He told me that it was a great place to play and live so that definitely helped my decision."

Brandon is registered as a British player, so he won't count as one of the team's imports.

Armed officers were called to reports of a person wielding a gun in Birmingham on Wednesday.

Police were called to the Jewellery Quarter at about 16:00, said West Midlands Police.

Despite a thorough search of the area "nothing of concern" was found, the force tweeted. , external

BBC Weather Watchers

It was a bright start for many of the BBC Weather Watchers including Ken M who captured this image in Lydbury North, Shropshire.

Image source, Ken M

This shot was taken in Leek, Staffordshire by Mr Twister.

Image source, Mr Twister

And this was the scene in Bromyard, Herefordshire as taken by Mrs Baggins.

Image source, Mrs Baggins

Birmingham Live

Some of the Birmingham Live headlines today include:

• Gang of 20 schoolkids involved in disorder before stabbing, witnesses claim, external
• Grieving dad who saw young son killed caused panic by 'firing gunshots', external
• 'Man with gun' sparks armed police alert in Jewellery Quarter, external

The 24/7 scheme run by a West Midlands-based charity will be available throughout the UK.

BBC Radio Stoke Sport

The Port Vale co-owner Carol Shanahan has said their start to the season has passed all her expectations.

The club is in 10th place after the first 12 games and three points off the play-off places and she said: "If you'd have offered me this at the beginning I'd have bit your hand off."

Carol and her husband Kevin took over the club in May and she said they'd expected the first few games to be difficult ones.

"You looked at those first matches and you were pretty sure that they were the teams that were going to be at the top of this league and they were tough matches," she said.