Updates from Monday 21 October to Sunday 27 October
Coventry Live
Here are three of the stories from the Coventry Telegraph website today:
The photos from the BBC Weather Watchers today are full of lovely autumnal images.
Here we have apples in Bromyard, potatoes in Edgmond and a hedgehog on a hedgehog on a miniature train track in Oakengates.
At least we hope its a miniature train track, because if it's full-sized then that hedgehog is massive.
Image source, Postman Les
Image source, GrannyAnne
Image source, Ray"Don't buy a mattress from the back of a van".
The warning's from Staffordshire County Council , externalto people living in Newcastle-under-Lyme after reports of a trader trying to make sales in the area yesterday.
Image source, Staffordshire County CouncilThe local authority said some residents had been taken in by the scam, external and it appeared the mattresses had been imported without the right safety checks.
The man in his 70s is in hospital with serious injuries after his mobility scooter was hit by a van in Dudley this afternoon.
West Midlands Ambulance Service said he was found trapped underneath the van on Pedmore Road, along with his mobility scooter at around 13:00.
Firefighters used air cushions to raise the van so that he could be rescued and taken to Russells Hall Hospital.
The van driver was unhurt.
Alex Hamilton
BBC Weather
Still pretty cloudy this evening and tonight and, while most places will be mainly dry, there could be some showers around:
Alex Hamilton
Get a latest forecast for your area at any other time by going to the BBC Weather website.
Allen Cook
BBC News
A road in Stoke-on-Trent has been shut for at least six weeks as pipes are laid as part of a multimillion-pound geothermal heating scheme
Once complete, the scheme will used heat from underground to provide "low cost, greener" energy to local businesses and homes.
Image source, Stoke-on-Trent City CouncilWork began last month with pipes being installed by the city council.
It's now shut College Road between Cauldon Road and Avenue , externalso engineers can install more than a kilometre of piping.
A Shrewsbury hospital ward that was forced to close earlier this year because it didn't meet fire regulations is being reopened after the government handed over £1.6m to complete the necessary safety work.
Ward 35 will contain 13 beds and the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust (SaTh) said it would free up beds for seriously ill patients over the winter months.
The hospital originally spent £3m on the ward and opened it in February, with the aim of reducing pressure on bed-space over the winter.
It initially had 28 beds, but when the fire safety problems were identified, it was converted to a 12-bed discharge ward instead.
SaTh said the ward would now become a "therapy-led ward with an adjoining discharge lounge".
Temesgen Desta attacked two women in the space of a few hours, sparking a nationwide manhunt.
Read More
BBC Midlands Today
A recruitment drive is taking place across Shropshire to boost the number of carers in the county.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) says there are 1.62 million jobs in England in adult social care but that'll need to rise by 36% by 2035 to meet demand.
Shropshire Partners in Care is running a pilot scheme for the DHSC, external to increase recruitment and says nearly 8% of social care jobs aren't currently filled in Telford.
The group has been holding a jobs fair in Telford Shopping Centre today for people to talk to providers looking for staff.
Rob Mayor
Political reporter, BBC WM
A council is expecting its budget next year to be the biggest in a decade.
Image source, GoogleThe Conservative leader of Dudley Council, Patrick Harley, says it believes its government grant will rise by 4%, giving it an extra £7.5m. , external
The local authority's planning to spent the cash on areas such as new CCTV equipment, extra Police Community Support Officers and more bin collections.
Overall the budget will still be 20% smaller than in 2010 and council tax will also rise by 4%.
Quote MessageSome budgets have been cut too far hence why in this budget we are reinstating some of those budgets back to pre-2012 levels."
Patrick Harley, Conservative leader, Dudley Council
Local Democracy Reporting Service
A bid is being made to get one of the Royal Navy's new warships named after the city of Coventry.
The government announced last month it would spend £1.3bn to build at least five new Type 31 frigates, and Conservatives on the city council have suggested it would be good to see one named HMS Coventry as a legacy of the UK City of Culture year in 2021.
Image source, Getty ImagesThere have been six warships carrying the name Coventry, with the first a ship that was captured off the Spanish in 1658.
Another HMS Coventry was sunk during the Falklands War with the loss of 19 lives and the most recent one was launched in 1986, but sold to the Romanian navy in 2002.
Councillor Gary Ridley, who is leading the bid, set up an online petition, external and said: "The city of Coventry has been synonymous with the sea and the Royal Navy for centuries and I think it’s time to restore that link.”
Police are trying to trace a mother and her three young children who have gone missing from their home in Telford.
Emma Davies, who is 30 and from the Priorslee area was last seen on Saturday and the children are aged between one and 10.
Image source, West Mercia PoliceDet Insp Joanne Woods said the force has been carrying out "extensive enquiries" since they vanished, but it is now going public in the hope of getting more information.
Local Democracy Reporting Service
Gurdip Thandi
Councillors are being urged not to close two outdoor activity centres by campaigners who say the move will have a "serious negative impact" on the area's most vulnerable people.
Image source, GoogleWalsall Council's cabinet is being recommended in a report, external to close its outdoor pursuits service, shutting the Aldridge Airport and Sneyd Water activities centres in a bid to save £100,000 annually.
Councillors meet tonight to make a decision, but campaign group Walsall Against Cuts said a full consultation and equality impact assessment had not been carried out.
The group said it would be a "cynical and unsafe action" to shut the service but the council said it had been working with those who use the centres and would help them find alternatives if they close.
The two Conservative MPs who represent people in Telford can't seem to agree whether the accident and emergency department at the Princess Royal Hospital has been saved or not... and what that actually means.
The MP for the Wrekin, Mark Pritchard tweeted to say it "will remain open despite Labour's scare stories".
But the Telford MP, Lucy Allan, replied to say the so-called A&E Local that will replace it is "not 24/7" and that the "fight goes on".
The Future Fit plans to reorganise hospital services in Shropshire involve making Shrewsbury the county's centre for emergency medicine and giving Telford a downgraded A&E Local instead, but it's not yet been explained what that will involve.
Allow Twitter content?
This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.
Under the Future Fit plans released in 2016, which attracted considerable anger from politicians and campaigners in Telford, the town would get a 24-hour urgent care centre staffed by GPs and advanced care practitioners, but not consultants.
It is unclear if the proposed A&E Local differs from this model.
Leek & District Show says it became "unviable" to carry on after falls in attendance and revenues.
Read MoreMore than £50,000 was raised for residents who lost their homes in a fire but it has not been distributed.
Read MoreAn account of the Coalport Ferry Disaster, written in the Aberdeen Press and Journal in 1799, goes into a bit of detail about the possible cause.
It reported a "considerable number of work people" had crowded on to the boat, on their way home from a local china factory and then "some of the party very imprudently rocking the boat in a violent manner in order to intimidate the women."
Image source, Ironbridge Gorge Museum TrustThe result, it said was "too great a number crowded towards the head of the boat, which took the water and the greater part of the persons on board precipitated in the stream."
And it added: "This dreadful catastrophe has deprived the manufactory of some valuable hands" and created a number of widows and orphans.
A man's been jailed after admitting attacking a man who was waiting for a bus.
Image source, GoogleThe victim had been at a bus stop in Bordesley Green, Birmingham, in July, when he was approached by men demanding cash who then struck him.
Tayub Zaman 25, of Cherrywood Road, Bordesley Green, pleaded guilty at Birmingham Crown Court to assault with intent, possession of an offensive weapon, driving without a licence and driving without insurance.
He was jailed for a total of four years and six months and given eight points on his driving licence.
Here are three of the stories featured in the Shropshire Star today:
The number of migrants who die in transit has been recorded by the UN since 2014, external.
Since then, five bodies of suspected migrants have been found in lorries or containers in the UK:
Data was not collected in the same way before 2014, but such deaths are not new.
In 2000, 58 Chinese migrants were found suffocated to death in a lorry at Dover.
In 2015, the bodies of 71 people were found in an abandoned lorry on an Austrian motorway. Police suspected the vehicle was part of a human trafficking operation based in Bulgaria and Hungary.
