Updates from Monday 6 January to Sunday 12 January
Vanessa Pearce
BBC News
Welcome to our live service for Thursday.
We'll be bringing you all the news, sport, travel and weather for the West Midlands.
We love to hear from you so share your news, thoughts and photos of the area with us via email, Twitter, external and Facebook., external
Substitute Kelechi Iheanacho scores a crucial second-half equaliser against Aston Villa to set up an intriguing EFL Cup semi-final second leg.
Read MoreNorthampton Saints winger Tom Collins receives a two-week ban for his aerial challenge on Wasps' Jacob Umaga.
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Andy Giddings
BBC News
We'll be back with the news, sport, travel and weather from 07:00 on Thursday.
BBC Radio Stoke Sport
The Crewe Alexandra manager David Artell wants to continue to improve his team in the January transfer window and says he's close to bringing someone in.
The team is third in League Two, with a game in hand on most of the teams around them, but he said: "We've got to improve the team, improve the squad and stay ahead of the curve."
Image source, Getty ImagesCrewe are away to league leaders Swindon Town on Saturday.
Here are three of the stories from the Worcester News website today:
Local Democracy Reporting Service
The public toilets in Evesham are going to be rebuilt at a cost of around £315,000.
The building, on Waterside, suffered flood damage when there was a water leakage last June and the new toilets are expected to be ready in early 2021, a Wychavon District Council report said.
The new toilets will be larger, have solar panels and CCTV cameras and a stronger floor, to prevent a repeat of the flooding.
Image source, GoogleThis rebuild will cost more than previous refurbishments because of the work on the floor and because of limited access to the site, the report added.
Work would be expected to start in September with a planning application submitted in April.
You'll want to watch this short video over and over.
It's the moment 10-month-old Arlo Clark from Worcester first heard his mother's voice, after being fitted with a hearing aid.
His parents, Sara and Adrian, noticed he was struggling to hear from birth and he had the device fitted on his left ear on 10 December.
The Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said he's due to have one fitted on his right ear soon and has already learnt some sign language.
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The move will make the telecommunications giant one of Birmingham's biggest employers.
Read MoreLocal Democracy Reporting Service
Tom Dare
A community motor sports park is facing closure for not paying £800,000 in rent and it's claimed the move will leave several companies homeless.
Image source, Motor Racing LiveBusinesses at Birmingham Wheels Raceway, Bordesley Green, have been given until 31 January to leave the site by the city council.
Every month, thousands of people visit the ground which has hosted sports including speed-skating, go-karting and stock car racing since 1979.
A petition to save the site's gained more than 5,000 signatures with several of the firms who use it saying they've kept up with their own rent payments.
The council said rent to lease the sports park's not been paid by the charity responsible, Birmingham Wheels Ltd, and it'll work with companies affected to relocate.
Two men from Oakengates have appeared before magistrates, charged with a series of charity shop burglaries in Shropshire last month.
The pair both denied the charges, which relate to raids on stores in Wellington, Bridgnorth and Shifnal.
One of the men also faces two charges of assaulting an emergency worker.
They have been released on conditional bail, to reappear before Shrewsbury Crown Court on 10 February.
BBC News Travel
A road's set to be shut for several hours in Staffordshire after a lorry's ended up in a ditch.
Image source, Staffordshire PoliceThe vehicle's come off the B5027 in Coton, near Milwich, Stafford, police said., external
They said just before 16:00 they expected the route to be shut for up to four hours to recover the lorry and didn't reveal if anyone was hurt.
Local Democracy Reporting Service
George Makin
Children's services in Sandwell are facing a bleak financial future unless they're given extra government cash, the council's warned.
Image source, GoogleA report going before councillors tomorrow, external says the number of children in care in the area has continued to rise instead of levelling off as the authority hoped.
The independent trust running the services has already been bailed out with £5m in June after the figure rocketed from 600 to 900 in two years.
Finance officers have said if that rate continues at the same rate or higher, "this will have a detrimental impact on the financial resilience of Sandwell Children’s Trust".
They blame a lack of a national solution to the issue but the government's said it's putting an extra £1bn towards adult and children's services across the country.
BBC Midlands Today
Treating violent crime in the West Midlands "as a disease" is helping cut the number of people killed in the region, the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) said.
BBC research has revealed the number of homicides across the UK fell in 2019 for the first time in five years.
In the West Midlands, the force said there were 51 people killed in 2018 compared to 39 last year.
Last month, the Home Office announced extra cash for so-called violence reduction units to 18 police forces including £3.3m for West Midlands Police., external
Quote MessageWe've put in place a health-related approach to this, actually treating violence if you like as a disease and something that's contagious - which clearly it is - and looking at some of the causes, working with schools and young people, particularly young boys, to actually avoid them getting into this type of violence."
David Jamieson, West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner
From the Dudley News:
Illegal body building and weight loss drugs are going to be destroyed after being found by Telford and Wrekin Council officers at a business.
They include substances which have only been tested on rats and mice and others shown to cause cancer or harm the eyesight of people taking them.
Image source, Telford and Wrekin CouncilThe council said the products found were all sold under the ‘Bodybuilt Labs’ label and included substances which aren't authorised for sale to the public, because they're still in clinical trials or because they've been declared unsafe since first going on sale.
It went to Shropshire magistrates to get permission to safely destroy them.
BBC Politics
Conservative MP Harriett Baldwin called on Boris Johnson to look at taking away the contract from West Midlands Trains.
PMQs: Johnson and Baldwin on West Midlands rail franchise
The MP for West Worcestershire said the firm, that operates across the Midlands and has services to London and Liverpool, had been "absolutely woeful".
He replied that the "bell is tolling for West Midlands Rail", in his second question on trains during PMQs, where he said other franchises were under review.
BBC Radio Stoke Sport
The Port Vale manager, John Askey, thinks last night's EFL Trophy defeat could show why some of his players need to go out on loan.
He made six changes for the match and fielded a number of fringe players.
Image source, Getty ImagesAskey admitted afterwards: "You can see, and I'm being a bit critical, but one or two have not played for a while and it's not easy when you haven't played."
Worcester Warriors sign Wasps fly-half Billy Searle on a two-year deal - their first new signing for the 2020-21 season.
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Allen Cook
BBC News
Divers have been brought in by police searching for a man in his 70s who was last seen fishing in Staffordshire.
Roger Wheat was reported missing yesterday afternoon after he was last seen near Ellastone Bridge on the River Dove, Ellastone, Staffordshire Police said. , external
They've continued to search and officers from Nottinghamshire Police’s Underwater Search Unit have joined the hunt.
