BBC Midlands Today

At least one new drama series and one new entertainment series will come from the West Midlands under plans by the BBC.

Changes to the corporation will include relocating Radio 1's Newsbeat team to Birmingham, which will also be the base for the Asian Network.

The BBC is to move some of its key departments and staff outside London to make it more reflective of the UK as a whole.

BBC Radio Wolverhampton is to continue beyond its current temporary period and learning hubs are to be opened in the city and Birmingham to train young people for careers in digital media.

The corporation said its plans represent a "top-to-bottom change" and its biggest transformation in decades.

Chris Hopkins wants to try to prevent more children losing their mothers to cervical cancer.

Kyra King had rented her Cannock home for 16 years before she died of Covid-19 in February.

Shropshire Star

Here are some of the stories on the Shropshire Star website:

• Couples left waiting at the altar over wedding confusion, external
• West Mercia Police launches new improvement charter, external
• 'We're staying': Thorntons franchise in Bridgnorth will remain open, external

BBC Midlands Today

West Midlands Police says it is stepping up efforts to prevent knife crime ahead of the easing of lockdown.

There will be extra patrols on the streets in problem areas as restrictions change, the force said.

This week officers have used knife arches to scan members of the public and searched parks and green spaces.

It is the work of Project Guardian, the force's youth violence prevention team.

BBC Midlands Today

Firefighters in Shropshire have given almost 10,000 Covid-19 vaccinations to residents in just over a month.

It is to help support the government's target with the rollout of the vaccine.

Sixty staff at Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service have been trained and redeployed at three centres across the county.

Thomas Ball is jailed after pleading guilty to six "carefully planned" child sexual offences.

BBC Hereford and Worcester

Herefordshire families will be getting help to feed their children during the Easter holidays.

The local authority said it will use money from the government's winter Covid grant to pay for the scheme, which helped more than 3,600 children during the Christmas holidays and following half term.

Image source, Getty Images

Primary and secondary age children who are eligible for free school meals will get £80 each directly through their school.

BBC Weather

It is set to be a dull and cloudy day, but it should stay dry, with highs of 12°C (54°F).

The Brine Memories campaign hopes to collect stories relating to the Droitwich's spa heritage.

Families met with the Home Secretary as part of their campaign for a full account into the blasts.

All pupils at Henley-in-Arden School will return to home learning until 29 March.

A rapids ride at Drayton Manor had a history of failings before a child's death, a court is told.

Phoebe Dynevor will play Clarice Cliff, "a female pioneer who quite literally broke the mould".

Local Democracy Reporting Service

The number of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent residents receiving the Covid-19 vaccine is set to pass 500,000 this week, and a target to offer all adults their first dose by the end of July could be met several weeks early.

Image source, PA Media

The area has topped a national "league table" for vaccine administration, health bosses told a Staffordshire County Council meeting on Tuesday.

And there is capacity to give more than 150,000 jabs a week locally, through a combination of larger vaccination centres, hospital hubs, GP-led sites and venues run by pharmacies.

"What we’ve done literally is set up a medium-sized supermarket chain within a matter of four or five weeks to jab people," said Marcus Warnes, from Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Clinical Commissioning Groups.

"We have got the lowest stock levels of pretty much any system in the country – when we get it, we jab people with it."

Mr Warnes said he was "absolutely confident" the 15 April deadline to do priority groups one to nine would be delivered and it would "probably" be done by the end of March.

"We’re expecting around 80,000 doses of the vaccine this week – the highest week to date is 53,000."

Thirty more bleed kits will be installed across the West Midlands after funding was granted to The Daniel Baird Foundation.

Lynne Baird, whose son Daniel, 26, was killed in a dispute outside a pub in the city in 2017, set up for the foundation to provide kits to people involved in stabbings.

The bleed control cabinet is designed to prevent a catastrophic bleed while paramedics travel to the scene of a stabbing.

It contains a tourniquet, bandages, scissors and gloves which can be used by members of the public, accessed through a code provided by the ambulance service.

The digger manufacturer says it will employ an extra 450 agency staff at its three UK factories.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

The number of empty homes in Coventry has doubled to more than 3,000 in 18 months, figures reveal.

The city council, which has been taking action to address the problem, said the pandemic was partly to blame as many student properties had been “unoccupied since July last year”.

Councillor David Welsh said it was a problem in cities “across the country”.

Image source, Getty Images

In February, Coventry had 3,212 homes which had been empty for six months or longer, compared to 1,451 in October 2019, a Freedom of Information request to the council found.

“We are working hard to bring unused and empty properties into use as it’s such a key priority for the council – and a home where families can move into is absolutely vital,” Me Welsh said.

Police will be able to cross-reference data with crime reports to see if offenders were in the area.

Vinnie, aged four, has had three open heart surgeries but is now in heart failure, his family says.