Local Democracy Reporting Service

A Staffordshire road is being dug up to lay underground power cables, just days after it was resurfaced by the county council.

The electricity company, Western Power Distribution, said it submitted notices to dig up Mill Hayes Road in Knypersley in December and was not told about the resurfacing work.

The company has promised to replace the road surface when it is finished.

Image source, Google

Helen Fisher, the council's cabinet member responsible for roads, said it had not been able to coordinate the works.

She added: "Keeping a rural county the size of Staffordshire on the move can be a challenge at times, especially when you have to factor in highways maintenance, major developments, utility and telecom projects and emergency work – sometimes all at once."

Shrewsbury's mayor is going to remain in office for another six months because coronavirus has delayed the handover.

Phil Gillam was due to be replaced today by Gwen Burgess, but she will now take over in November.

UK towns and cities must be made cycle-friendly if a change to commuting habits is to succeed, campaigners say.

Additional cycle lanes are planned in Birmingham and Leicester, while Sheffield and Bristol city councils are fast-tracking plans to reduce car use.

Birmingham City Council has launched an Emergency Transport Plan , externalthat prioritises and accelerates some of the measures outlined in the draft transport plan consulted on earlier in the year.

During lockdown, cycling and walking are being backed as alternatives to public transport as people who are not able to work from home are encouraged back to work.

The latest government survey data before lockdown, however, showed three in five people thought cycling on the road was too dangerous.

You can read more on the story here.

Birmingham Live

From Birmingham Live:

• 'Police officer of year' sacked for sending explicit photo to woman , external
• 'Beautiful' Kings Heath care home worker mum-of-two dies from coronavirus, external
• Bull on the loose brings bedlam to Stratford Road and damages police car, external

A woman is due in court charged with murder following the discovery of human remains in two suitcases.

The remains were found close to a quarry near Coleford in the Forest of Dean on 12 May.

Gareeca Conita Gordon, 27, from Birmingham, is set to appear at Gloucester Crown Court later.

Mahesh Sorathiya, 38, of Denmore Gardens, Wolverhampton, is set to appear charged with assisting an offender.

Derwen College in Shropshire has been given permission to set up a new campus at the site of a former business in Telford.

The special needs college, which teaches students aged between 16 and 25, aims to open its doors at Nationwide House on Stafford Park in the autumn.

Image source, Google

Derwen's main campus is at Gobowen in Shropshire and it has two other satellite sites in the county at Craven Arms and Walford near Baschurch.

Four men believed to be involved in a county lines drug operation have been arrested in Scarborough, police say.

Image source, Getty Images

On Sunday an 18-year-old man from the West Midlands was arrested at a residential address in Alma Square, on suspicion of being involved in the supply of class A drugs.

Two more men, a 19-year-old man from Birmingham and a 48-year-old man from Scarborough, were also arrested at a property on Victoria Road, on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs with intent to supply.

Yesterday officers arrested a 36-year-old Scarborough man in connection with the investigation on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs.

All four have been released on bail.

County lines is the term given to a form of organised crime in which drug dealers from urban areas exploit vulnerable people and force them to deal drugs in smaller towns and cities.

BBC CWR

The University of Warwick says it could face a 50% drop in the number of overseas students at the campus next year.

Image source, University of Warwick

Like all Universities across the country, Warwick has been in lockdown since March and there are fears about what the new academic year might look like.

A spokesperson said Warwick was expecting to lose about £105m due to lockdown.

"It's going to be significant, two of our biggest income streams - overseas students and the conference trade - both of those have essentially have evaporated," he said.

"But we are confident that 50% of those overseas students are going to come back to us next year, but that's still a significant hit."

Former Labour MP Bill Olner has died.

The 78-year-old represented Nuneaton from 1992 to 2010 and was also a former leader of Nuneaton District Council.

Before his election as MP he was an engineer for Rolls Royce and a supporter of trade unions.

Mike O'Brien, who represented the neighbouring constituency of North Warwickshire during the same period, paid tribute saying he was a "good decent man."

"Nuneaton has lost a champion for the town," he added.

BBC Weather

It will be a largely sunny day with just a few patches of cloud and light winds with highs of 20C (68F).

Image source, BBC Weather Watchers/triggy stardust

Allen Cook
BBC News

Lockdown restrictions may only just be starting to be lifted in England, but historians across the West Midlands have been hard at work gathering material to remember the pandemic in future years.

Image source, EPA

In Worcestershire, the county's museums and archives service has appealed, external for images, stories, documents and more to go into their collections to tell the story of "this extraordinary episode".

The city and county councils said people could email them if they had objects to donate such as homemade face masks, pots and spoons used to clap for carers or paintings of rainbows.

Image source, Nantwich Museum

Similar experiences are wanted by Nantwich Museum in Cheshire, external which said it hoped the shared experiences would "encourage connection, empathy and solidarity".

Two councils, Malvern Hills and Wychavon, also want people's experiences and memories to go into new Memory Banks for the future., external

Vanessa Pearce
BBC News

Welcome to the start of our live service for Tuesday.

We'll be bringing you all the latest updates for the West Midlands.

You can tell us your stories and send us pictures via email, Twitter, external and Facebook., external

A further nine residents at the specialist dementia care facility in Stafford have coronavirus.

Fashion designer Daniel Lismore has been living with his mum and going to shops "like Darth Vader".

Officers who appealed for information believe the man was a 65-year-old from Leamington Spa.

They are charged with helping a man dispose of a woman's body after he allegedly murdered her.

There have been huge queues since a recycling centre in Sutton Coldfield reopened.

About £27,000 is discovered in the safe during the raid on a house in Birmingham.

Victim Mark Byrne was made MBE for his work with children affected by the Chernobyl disaster.

We'll be back with the latest news and more for the West Midlands from 08:00 on Tuesday.