BBC Midlands Today

Thousands of lower-income families in Staffordshire are being offered financial support during half-term.

The county council said, external it would give a £15 voucher to the families of 18,000 children to spend in supermarkets on food or essential supplies.

The scheme will be available to those who are entitled to free school meals during term time.

Zobaidah Salangy's husband has been charged with her murder.

Health secretary Matt Hancock said coronavirus "cases are doubling around every fortnight".

Local Democracy Reporting Service

The Local Democracy Reporting Service has been covering these stories in the West Midlands this week:

• Calls for speed bumps to be put on a busy road have been ruled out by Sandwell Council over fears the noise could keep residents awake at night. Residents had petitioned the authority over part of Oakham Road, Tividale, and wanted steps to improve safety and visibility.

Image source, Google

• Transport concerns have been raised over plans to double the number of pupils at a Solihull school. The council wants to expand Cheswick Green Primary (pictured) to 420 places to meet demand from the area's expanding population. But opposition councillors said they are concerned some children could face a walk of more than two miles and officer pledged to look at transport options.
• A derelict pub in Bilston could be demolished to make way for more than 30 new apartments if plans are approved. Bilston Property Solutions has submitted plans to City of Wolverhampton Council to knock down The Happy Wanderer in Green Lanes and place it with three buildings.

BBC Weather Watchers

Our local BBC Weather Watchers have been sending back photos today from some of the many waterways across the West Midlands.

These three are from users Jon in Barlaston, Staffordshire, Beks Walker Runner X in Sutton Coldfield and DaveA in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.

Image source, Jon

Image source, Beks Walker Runner X

Image source, DaveA

BBC Radio CWR

Plans have been approved for a new training ground for Wasps rugby club, despite more than 700 objections.

Image source, PA Media

Stratford District Council approved the proposals, external for the club to build their new complex at Henley-in-Arden Sports Club.

The objections had centred around the loss of community access to the sports pitches.

Wasps said , externalgetting the permission was a "landmark moment" for the club.

However the decision will be reviewed by the government as Sport England objected to the loss of community sports facilities.

BBC Radio Shropshire

Railway tracks from a disused line are going to save a heritage railway £200,000.

Image source, John Titlow

The tracks have been removed as part of the ongoing Midland Metro tram-line extension works from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill.

Instead of being scrapped, Transport for West Midlands has donated them to the Severn Valley Railway which said they'll be stockpiled for future replacement track work.

General Manager Helen Smith said: "Every year we try and replace about half a mile worth of track. That costs us in the region of £100,000.

"This is a mile worth of track so it will save us a lot of money and it just makes such a difference."

Eleven Wasps players are unavailable for selection for Saturday's Premiership final, head coach Lee Blackett confirms.

Six shops have been raided in just over two hours including one which saw a car rammed through shutters.

Image source, Google

The break-ins happened on Wednesday morning across Walsall and Dudley and West Midlands Police said officers believe they are two sets of linked crimes. , external

One of the groups of offenders used a silver VW Passat which in one case was used to ram open shutters at RS News, Willenhall.

Officers said cash, alcohol and cigarettes were taken in two of the raids.

A 20-year-old man has been arrested over the burglaries and released under investigation.

Services across northern England and the Midlands will receive up to £68m from the government.

BBC Radio Stoke

Plans to rebuild a retirement complex that was destroyed in a huge fire are due to be examined next week.

Image source, Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service

About 150 people lost everything when homes at Beechmere residential site, in Crewe, were ravaged by the blaze in August 2019.

Advantage, which ran the old site, wants to replace it with a new building made of 132 apartments.

It say in the application it will have block and brick walls for better fire protection, external.

Councillors are due to make a decision on Wednesday.

Cordelia Farrell stabbed Wayne Coventry with a kitchen knife at his brother's home in Bromsgrove.

Shop staff have been threatened with a sword or large machete during a robbery in Solihull.

Image source, West Midlands Police

It happeend on 12 October at the One Stop store on Prospect Lane, West Midlands Police said. , external

They have released CCTV footage of two people they want to speak to in connection with the robbery.

Stoke-on-Trent Live

The Stoke-on-Trent Live website's headlines today include:

• Ninety-four Covid patients being treated at Royal Stoke as infection rate soars, external
• Oil spill wreaks traffic havoc as main road into Hanley could be closed for days, external
• Police patrols as 'disrespectful idiots' wake up families with booming fireworks, external

BBC Radio Stoke

The UK's last working Victorian pottery factory is facing "an uncertain winter" unless it manages to raise £12,000 to cover the impact of Covid-19.

Bosses a Middleport Pottery in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, said, external coronavirus restrictions had forced them to cancel events like factory tours, school visits and their Christmas lights switch-on.

While they have received £26,000 from the government's Culture Recovery Fund, they said it hasn't covered the income lost from the cancelled events.

Middleport owners Re-Form Heritage said the £12,000 is for essential maintenance on the Grade II listed buildings which have hosted the TV show The Great Pottery Throw Down.

Director Clare Wood said "we still have a wonderful site, but our wonderful site costs us an awful lot to keep running and maintaining".

Trams lines hidden for decades have been unearthed during resurfacing work.

Image source, Stoke-on-Trent City Council

The rails were discovered on High Street, Tunstall, this week as the route was repaired, Stoke-on-Trent City Council said. , external

The local authority said the last tram to use the lines ran in 1928 as part of the Potteries Electric Traction Company.

Caroline Gall
BBC News

Supporters of an ancient ceremony say they are "extremely sorry" it has been cancelled for the first time in a century due to coronavirus.

Image source, David Eadon Collection

David Eadon, 82, has not missed the The Wroth Silver ceremony in Warwickshire since 1938, but said he reluctantly accepted it could not go ahead.

The event is derived from the annual tax paid to the lord of the manor, and features in the Domesday Book of 1086.

The ceremony sees volunteers put 46p in the hollowed-out base of an Anglo-Saxon cross.

Couples who postponed weddings during the pandemic tell of their battles to get their deposits back.

Kathryn Stanczyszyn
Political Reporter, BBC WM

More Covid financial support is needed in Birmingham, to prevent the city facing a "pandemic of poverty", local politicians have said.

Birmingham, along with much of the West Midlands, is in tier two meaning pubs and restaurants must close at 22:00 and there is no household mixing indoors.

The Labour-run city council's leader Ian Ward, deputy leader Brigid Jones and Hodge Hill Labour MP Liam Byrne held a joint press conference on Thursday morning.

They described current measures as wholly inadequate and said the furlough scheme should be extended beyond October to pay 80% of workers' pay along with a better package of support.

Mr Byrne said: "Nobody now wants to see the Covid pandemic trigger a pandemic of poverty."

"If the prime minister is serious about doing whatever it takes to get through this crisis, then we ask him to listen and reflect and learn from the proposals we are tabling today."

Image source, EPA

The government's Job Support Scheme replaces the Job Retention Scheme (better known as furlough) from the beginning of November and is expected to cost the treasury hundreds of millions of pounds a month.

In September, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said it was designed to support jobs as far as possible, but added: "We obviously can't sustain the same level of things that we were doing at the beginning of this crisis."

He's expected to unveil new support for workers in parts of the UK under tier two restrictions in the Commons on Thursday.

Anna Bailey
BBC Radio 4 reporter

Acclaimed Cuban ballet star Carlos Acosta says "it feels great" to be venturing back to staging indoor performances for a live audience in the UK after months of being prohibited from doing so because of the pandemic.

Image source, Tyrone Singleton

"It feels great because we've been in lockdown for far too long and it's a kind of career where if you don't exercise your body for a week you go back and pay for it," says Acosta, who is now the director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

"We were given Zoom classes at home but it doesn't stress your body to the level you want because you can't jump and use the space, so it's great to be back in the studio."

Acosta and the Birmingham Royal Ballet are following in the footsteps of The Royal Ballet in London which recently performed in front of a live audience in a reduced-capacity auditorium, external.