BBC Shropshire

The drive-through coronavirus assessment centre at Shrewsbury Town Football Club is set to close on Friday due to a fall in cases.

The county's other centre in Telford shut at the end of May but the home visiting service is still operating.

Health commissioners are now discussing contingency plans, with partners, about a replacement site should there be a second wave later in the year.

Latest figures show the number of new cases in Telford and Wrekin has risen to 6.7 in every 100 thousand people.

In the Shropshire Council area - the figure has continued to fall to 3.7.

A shop worker has been assaulted during a robbery at an off licence in Nuneaton, police say.

Cash was stolen after the College Street store was targeted on Wednesday.

Image source, Google

Damage was also done to the shop, said Warwickshire Police.

Det Sgt Paul Sartoris from the force said:“This was undoubtedly an extremely frightening incident for staff at the shop."

He urged any witnesses to get in touch.

Two petitions calling for the statue's removal had 23,000 signatures between them.

Local Democracy Reporting Service
Gurdip Thandi

A planned £36m transformation of the accident and emergency facilities at Walsall hospital will be discussed by council planners next week.

Image source, Building Design Partnership

The proposal will see a new two-storey healthcare building erected and the existing A&E refurbished.

The aim is to provide much needed extra capacity to cope with increasing demand for services which is predicted to rise by 13% in the next two years.

Funding for the project was announced by the government at the end of 2018 and it is anticipated the work will take about 18 months to complete with the facility ready for use in April 2022.

Members of the committee are being recommended to grant delegated authority to planning officers, who will give the green light once several issues are resolved.

Councillors in Shropshire have voted to keep a statue in the wake of recent anti-racism protests.

Image source, Getty Images

People are split over the Clive of India monument which has stood in Shrewsbury's square since 1860.

Inspired by Black Lives Matter demonstrations, two petitions calling for the removal of the statue have gained 23,000 signatures between them. However a counter-petition is also attracting signatures.

At a meeting this morning 28 councillors voted in favour of the recommendation of no further action on the removal of the statue.

Seventeen voted against the proposal and one abstained.

Birmingham Live

Some of the Birmingham Live headlines include:

• Three die in three days sparking wave of murder investigations, external
• Redditch murder investigation launched after fatal stabbing , external
• Abandoned kittens nursed back from 'death's door' renamed after Peaky Blinders, external

The number of people testing positive for coronavirus across the West Midlands is rising in a few areas, but dropping on the whole, new figures show.

The data from Public Health England shows the number of positive tests (in hospitals and the wider community) for every 100,000 population in the week up to 12 July.

Herefordshire's figures are up from 2.1 to 37.0, with 71 new cases recorded in the week linked to an outbreak on a farm near Worcester.

Image source, Reuters

The local authority figures in alphabetical order are:

• Birmingham 6.5 up from 6.1
• Bromsgrove remains the same at 4.1
• Cheshire East down to 3.2 from 6.0
• Coventry 2.7 down from 4.1
• Dudley 1.9 down from 3.1
• East Staffordshire up to 28.7 from 7.6
• Herefordshire up to 37.0 from 2.1
• Lichfield remains the same at 3.8

• Newcastle-under-Lyme down to 6.2 from 11.6
• North Warwickshire is down to 0.0 from 3.1
• Nuneaton and Bedworth up to 12.4 from 8.5
• Redditch down to 0.0 from 3.5
• Rugby up to 11.2 from 8.4
• Sandwell up to 7.9 from 4.3
• Shropshire down to 3.7 from 7.2
• Solihull up to 4.7 from 3.7
• South Staffordshire up to 2.7 from 0.0

• Staffordshire Moorlands up to 6.1 from 5.1
• Stoke-on-Trent down to 10.9 from 12.1
• Stratford-on-Avon up to 4.7 from 3.9
• Tamworth down to 5.2 from 6.5
• Telford and Wrekin up to 6.7 from 3.4
• Walsall up to 8.8 from 4.2
• Warwick remains the same at 0.7

• Wolverhampton down to 3.4 from 5.3
• Worcester down to 2.9 from 4.9
• Wychavon up to 5.5 from 1.6

By comparison in Leicester, the rate has dropped from 127.2 in the seven days to July 5 to 104.4.

It was 143.6 in the seven days to June 28.

A man has been arrested in connection with a "cash for crash" insurance scam.

Image source, West Midlands Police

Officers raided a home in Bordesley Green, Birmingham on Thursday where the 33-year-old was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and fraud.

Detectives believe the suspect is part of an organised group behind dozens of deliberate crashes over a period of five months, earning them up to £100,000.

Several vehicles believed to have been used to commit the offences were also seized.

Three other men, previously arrested in connection with the investigation, have been released under investigation.

More than 100 tyres have been dumped at the back of a street in Stoke-on-Trent.

Image source, Stoke-on-Trent City Council

Image source, Stoke-on-Trent City Council

The council says it is searching for the culprits of "large-scale fly tipping" behind Avenue Road and Caludon Road in Shelton.

It was "incomprehensible" that nobody would have witnessed this happening, the council added.

A man is due in court charged with the murder of a woman found dead in a flat.

Image source, West Midlands Police

Kerry Woolley, 38, was discovered with fatal injuries to her neck at her home on Warwick Road, Solihull, on Sunday.

Ian Bennett, 37, from Moordown Avenue, Solihull, is due to appear before magistrates in Birmingham.

His mother, Lynda Bennett, 62, also of Moordown Avenue, is accused of perverting the course of justice and assisting an offender.

She is also due to appear.

BBC Weather

It will be a largely fine and dry day with lots of cloud around but also some hazy sunshine breaking through. Highs of 22°C (72°F).

Image source, BBC Weather Watchers/Les at Large

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

Charlton boss Lee Bowyer is focusing on keeping the club in the Championship amid rumours linking him with Birmingham.

Burnley score a dramatic stoppage-time penalty to draw with Wolves in a result that does little to further either side's European hopes.

Lukas Jutkiewicz grabs an injury-time equaliser as Birmingham stop fellow strugglers Charlton earning a vital victory.

Health officials are attempting to trace dozens of farm workers who came to the UK together.

Jonathan Bailey killed himself at home, a day after friends unsuccessfully tried to get him sectioned.

Danny Batth's second-half equaliser at managerless Bristol City moves Stoke City to the brink of safety in the Championship.

Kerry Woolley, 38, was found dead at her home in Solihull on Sunday after suffering neck injuries.

Andy Giddings
BBC News

We'll be back with the news, sport, travel and weather from 08:00 tomorrow.