One-day specialist Ed Pollock signs a new one-year contract with Warwickshire across all forms of the game.

Hereford Times

A few of the headlines from the Hereford Times:

• Search launched for milestone that disappeared during lockdown, external
• Meat thief was carrying iron bar for 'protection', court hears, external
• Testing finds more coronavirus cases in Herefordshire, external

A man has been badly hurt after his car ended up on its roof in a hedge.

The crash happened on Sheet Road, Ludlow, Shropshire, at 22:23 on Tuesday, West Midlands Ambulance Service said. , external

The driver was trapped and had to be cut free by firefighters before he was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.

The ambulance service said a man who had been a passenger in the car managed to get out of the vehicle himself and appeared to be unhurt, but was taken to hospital for checks.

Five flood alerts are in place in the West Midlands today, external as residents are warned there could be flooding in the next few days.

Image source, Environment Agency

They cover the Upper Teme, near Ludlow, in Shropshire, the rivers Wye and Lugg near Hereford and the River Severn near Kempsey, Worcestershire.

With the ground saturated and rivers full, the Environment Agency's Dave Throup warned the risk of flooding was increasing. , external

He said there could be minor impacts on the rivers Wye, Teme and lower Severn.

BBC News England

A 19th Century pub and a "tin tabernacle" church are among the sites to have been given extra protection in 2020.

Historic England has added or upgraded 423 National Heritage List sites.

Image source, Historic England

In the West Midlands they include the Grade II listed Horse and Jockey in Wednesbury which was built in 1899.

It has many original features including a ceramic-fronted bar counter which is one of only 12 known examples in England.

Image source, Historic England

Also added to the list is the Church of St Mary and Sunday School, Lyonshall, Herefordshire.

The Grade II listed tabernacle church was built in 1860 using a corrugated iron prefabricated design known as a "tin tabernacle" that has become increasingly rare as such churches were only meant to be temporary structures.

There are only 86 remaining corrugated iron churches - of all denominations - surviving in England, and fewer than 20 of these have been listed.

Allen Cook
BBC News

Hundreds of struggling families in Walsall are set to get food hampers for Christmas after a campaign inspired by footballer Marcus Rashford.

Image source, Help to Make Tummies Full

Lucie Dennis had the idea at the end of October during the Manchester United player's campaign over child food poverty.

She thought she might have been able to help up to 20 families, but the idea "snowballed massively" on Facebook.

Her volunteer group aims to deliver more than 350 hampers before Christmas.

BBC Politics

The West Midlands is set to get a slice of £67m in new funding for brownfield housing schemes under revised planning reforms in England.

Image source, Reuters

The changes have been made to the proposals after new targets prompted a backlash among many Conservative MPs.

A computer-based formula used to decide where houses should be located has been "updated" to focus more on cities and urban areas in the North and Midlands.

Ministers said cash for brownfield sites would be distributed more fairly outside London and the South East.

A taskforce has been set up to advise on inner-city regeneration, and how best to respond to the hollowing out of many areas by the pandemic and the fall in demand for office and retail spaces.

The West Midlands and Greater Manchester Mayoral Combined Authorities will receive £67m in new funding between them for brownfield developments.

The victim, a 26-year-old man, suffered head injuries and died later in hospital.

Express and Star

The Express and Star is covering these stories today:

• Council urges against festive get-togethers amid fears of Christmas Covid spike, external
• Lessons will be learned from care of children killed in house fire - council, external
• Animals safe as fire crews battle blaze at Drayton Manor theme park, external

BBC Sport

Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo said he was disappointed the club's fans could not celebrate their late winner to beat Chelsea.

Pedro Neto's 95th-minute strike gave the hosts a dramatic victory at Molineux after Daniel Podence had equalised in the second half after the Blues had moved ahead.

"It's a strange season. We miss our fans today. Too bad the fans are not here to celebrate with us," he said.

Elsewhere, West Brom boss Slaven Bilic praised his side for their defensive skills after their 1-1 draw at Manchester City.

Baggies goalkeeper Sam Johnstone made two point-blank stoppage-time saves to deny City victory in a backs-to-the-wall effort following their equaliser.

"We are defending for our lives, ready to die for each other on the pitch and that's all I can ask," he said.

But it seems the point may still not be enough to keep Bilic in the job, with the 52-year-old's exit potentially coming as early as Wednesday.

BBC Midlands Today

Getting the new Pfizer Covid vaccine to patients across a mainly rural county has been a huge challenge, according to GPs.

The roll-out of the vaccination programme has seen dozens of over-80s in south Shropshire travel to Bridgnorth for their jab.

Dr Jess Harvey said getting patients to the Northgate Health Centre had been difficult but staff have been "relishing" the challenge.

"Although some of them have travelled from quite far away, it is not quite as far as they would be travelling to other hubs that might be developed in the future so hopefully this is more of a local service that we can provide."

Brian Hill was among the people to be vaccinated at the clinic and said he hoped it would mean being able to see family members soon.

"I have two great-grandchildren, they are lovely little children and I would like to see them a bit longer before I pass away," he said.

BBC Radio WM

Fire crews faced "difficult conditions" battling a blaze at Drayton Manor theme park overnight.

Incident commander Stuart Ruckledge said the fire was in a changing block in the Thomas Land area.

"The whole building was involved but crews were able to stop the fire spreading to other areas of the park.

Image source, Tech-Mark

"The changing room block was 100% involved in the fire, that part of it has been [destroyed]," he told BBC Radio WM.

"There were difficult conditions because of flying embers and a lot of timber buildings around it."

He said a fire investigator was going out to meet with staff later.

Michelle Roberts
Health editor, BBC News online

Experts who identified the new variant of Covid that appears to be spreading fast in some parts of England say the infection is probably home-grown rather than imported.

Image source, PA Media

Prof Nick Loman, an expert in microbiology from the University of Birmingham and part of the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium, said it seemed to have appeared spontaneously "out of nowhere" in late September.

The small number of cases soon grew to many more and got the experts concerned.

Prof Loman said as well as the "striking growth" on a wide geographical scale the "sheer number of mutations" - 17 in total - that make up the variant is more than they expected to see and set alarm bells ringing.

BBC Weather

Mild and windy today with rain forecast.. High: 9C/48F.

Image source, BBC Weather Watcher Dammo

The rain will clear to the east later to be followed by clear spells overnight. Feeling mild for the time of year with a low of 4C/39F.

You can keep up-to-date by going to the BBC Weather website.

Monica Rimmer
BBC News

A "large fire" broke out overnight at Drayton Manor theme park.

Staffordshire Fire and Rescue said at 23:00 GMT on Tuesday it was tackling the blaze within the grounds of the Tamworth attraction.

The park later said the fire was under control but the damage was not yet known.

They added on Twitter that no one was injured and all of the animals at the park are safe.

Fire crews told nearby residents to keep windows and doors closed.

Allen Cook
BBC News

Welcome to our live service for Wednesday.

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

The man in his 60s was found in the vehicle in a village in the Malvern Hills.

The England and Aston Villa player has also been hit with an £80,000 fine.

Live updates have now ended for the West Midlands.

We'll be back with you on Wednesday with the usual mix of news, sport, weather and travel.

All English trusts have been ordered to implement changes by Monday amid a baby deaths scandal.