Traders and MPs say they are baffled as Warwickshire faces the strictest restrictions post-lockdown.

BBC Sport

Shrewsbury Town will be opening up to 2,000 fans for their home game against Accrington Stanley on 2 December.

The club learnt yesterday that it would be in a tier two area, meaning 2,000 is the maximum allowed.

The fans will be allowed in the Roland Wycherley stand, the Family Stand, the West Stand and the Safe Standing area.

Fans will be asked to sit apart from each other, in their own bubbles.

The club said the fairest thing to do was to offer the tickets first to season ticket holders, sovereign members and box holders who did not get a ticket for the Northampton game, when the club ran a trial with 1,000 fans in the ground.

The fans are also being asked to wear face masks unless they have an exemption and are being asked not to sing "to reduce the risk of potentially passing on the infection".

The leaders of Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick district councils have written to the government to express their "shock and anger" at a decision to place the whole of Warwickshire in tier three.

Image source, RSC

The Conservative leader of Stratford-on-Avon District Council, Tony Jefferson, said the announcement had come as a "total shock" and there was "real anger" from residents and business owners in the area.

Warwickshire, where restrictions have jumped from tier one pre-lockdown to tier three is listed as part of a group with Coventry and Solihull, which were previously both in tier two.

Stratford currently has the second lowest rate of cases in the West Midlands, although the government's decision has also taken into account other factors.

"When you go through the numbers we’ve got being in tier three simply is incredible," Mr Jefferson said.

"We are lobbying the MPs and together with Warwick District we’ve put together a letter that this morning will go to both Robert Jenrick and Matt Hancock - so we are doing everything we can to try and get this position changed.

"This is going to wipe out a lot of businesses, the pre-Christmas trade is vital to an awful lot of businesses in rural retail and hospitality. This is an absolutely devastating blow. And it’s why people are very angry."

Rhys Reynolds has been ordered to be detained after killing Tony McCorry in his own home.

Coventry City sign goalkeeper Lee Camp as a free agent following the midweek fractured cheekbone suffered by Marko Marosi.

Wolves Former Players' Association say dementia research "is long overdue" with several of its members having had the illness before dying.

Local Democracy Reporting Service
Tom Davis

Up to 2,400 homes will be built on former green belt land at Eastern Green in Coventry after developers were given the go-ahead.

Image source, Hallam Land Management

Hallam Land Management’s scheme south of the A45 was given majority approval by Coventry City Council’s planning committee on Thursday.

Homes will be built across 61 hectares alongside employment land, a supermarket and a primary school.

The bid has proved highly divisive ever since the wider site was allocated for 2,250 homes in the Local Plan in 2017, with protesters in the meeting branding it “an invasion on the green belt”.

A loss-making golf course in Coventry is to close permanently, it has been announced.

Image source, Google

The Brandon Wood course, operated by Coventry Sports Trust on land owned by the city council, will not reopen once lockdown ends on 2 December.

A joint statement said: "Coventry City Council has in the past supported the trust with additional funding so that the facility could remain open.

"However, with well-documented financial pressure faced by the local authority, it cannot provide ongoing financial support – a position Coventry Sports Trust understands."

Staff at the facility are being consulted, it added.

A man is arrested by police after the 74-year-old's death in Coventry.

A cyclist has died in a crash with a car in the early hours of this morning.

He died at the scene on Midlands Road, Darlaston shortly after 01:00, said the ambulance service.

A woman who was a front-seat passenger was taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries.

Stoke City sign former Bristol City goalkeeper Niki Maenpaa on a short-term deal.

BBC Radio Shropshire

Shropshire and Telford could have been moved to tier three restrictions, if MPs and council leaders hadn't objected, the MP for the Wrekin has said.

Yesterday it was announced that both would be in tier two, but Mark Pritchard said there had been "temptation in some parts of government" to place the two authority areas in with the West Midlands Combined Authority.

Mr Pritchard also said: "Credit to all the MPs and indeed council leaders, for making the united case strongly together to say no we have much lower infection rates than the average in the West Midlands."

He described the return to tier two as a "half victory", but hoped it would allow businesses to operate and that restrictions would be further eased closer to Christmas.

BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester

Perdiswell Leisure Centre in Worcester is planning to mark the end of lockdown by opening a minute after midnight on 2 December.

There will be the usual coronavirus measures in place and it will only open for two hours, from 00:01 on Wednesday, before going back to its usual daytime hours.

Image source, Google

League One strugglers Shrewsbury Town appoint Steve Cotterill as their new manager.

Birmingham Live

Some of the Birmingham Live headlines today include:

• Harrowing moment teen gunned down in broad daylight as schoolboy guilty of murder, external
• Rhys Reynolds sentenced for killing man in his own home in Sutton Coldfield, external
• West Midlands Mayor says tier 3 lockdown will be 'short lived' if people stick to rules, external

William Henry and Brian McIntosh were found dead in a car park in Brierley Hill, Dudley, in September.

Jaeger in Birmingham's Great Western Arcade is one of 13 stores and concessions to close, it has been announced.

Image source, PA Media

Administrators for the retailer have announced the loss of 100 jobs at the affected stores.

The company continues to operate 63 stores and concessions, it added.

BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester

A bottle of whisky that originally cost £80 has sold for £57,700 at a Herefordshire auction house.

The Macallan 50-year-old anniversary malt was one of just 500 bottles distilled in 1928 and bottled in 1983, but most have since been drunk.

Image source, Brightwells

If you were to open it, each shot would be worth about £2,000.

It was sold at Brightwells auctioneers in Leominster.

The former Wolves captain Mike Bailey has been diagnosed with dementia, the club has revealed.

The 78-year-old made 436 appearances for the club including captaining the team to the 1974 league Cup Final win and 1972 UEFA Cup Final.

His family had made his diagnosis public "in a bid to highlight the ongoing issues and support investigations around the number of ex-footballers suffering from dementia," the club said in a statement.

John Richards, former Wolves striker and now vice-chairman of Wolves Former Players’ Association, said: "Mike Bailey was a magnificent player and inspirational leader."

Two women who were inspired to set up a support service during the coronavirus pandemic say they want it be the country's "most comprehensive and exhaustive resource".

Verity Hart, 44, and Louise Welsby, 43, from Bridgnorth, Shropshire, created After the Storm to provide a directory of help and support for a range of mental health issues.

The idea was inspired by Mrs Hart's own struggles, including helping a family member through addiction and coping with the loss of both her parents.

While going through those experiences she said she was struck by a lack of help.

Image source, Verity Hart

The pair wanted to create "one space" to connect people to services as well as it being a "platform to share stories".

Mrs Welsby said: "There is light at the end of the tunnel, a big light, but the Covid impact on society... we have a generation of young people that if we don't provide enough spirit and sense of hope, there's a real lost generation, we have to really look after them.

Image source, Louise Welsby

"Secondary school ages are impacted the worse, they don't know what the future is, the employment landscape is decimated, they don't have the resilience you learn through adult life."

Mrs Welsby added: "Hope can be in pretty short supply, but I hope this is a place that can deliver."

The platform, which goes live on Monday, external, will list charities, public services and private practitioners.