Summary

  • Another loan for Birmingham Airport

  • Woman critically injured in taxi crash

  • Man charged with murder after woman's body found in river

  • Fire on 14th floor of tower block

  • Updates from Friday 12 February

  1. Hospital boss relieved at falling Covid numberspublished at 17:40 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    The chief executive of the Royal Stoke and County hospitals has said there is a sense of relieft as coronavirus patient numbers fall.

    Tracy Bullock said they're currently treating about 50 patients across both hospitals, with seven in critical care.

    Royal Stoke HospitalImage source, Google

    Ms Bullock said staff have "faced problems that have required all of us to think very differently" while they were "dealing with a highly infectious disease that none of us had ever encountered".

    And she said the trust had been forced to redesign the hospitals, to reduce the risk of infection.

  2. Teenager denies 20 terror-related chargespublished at 17:11 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    Nuh Raheel, 19, is accused of collecting terrorist information and will face trial in June.

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  3. Knife seized from 11-year-old boypublished at 16:32 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    Police in the Northfield area of Birmingham say they confiscated a knife from an 11-year-old boy on Wednesday.

    Safeguarding measures have been put in place, officers said.

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  4. Covid: Concern over Shard End infection ratepublished at 16:00 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    While infection rates across Birmingham are continuing to fall, the rapidly increasing rate in the Shard End area is being described as a "warning bell" by the city's head of public health.

    Across Birmingham the seven day case rate stands at 70.2 new cases per 100,000 people, but in Shard End it stands at 369.9, up from 238.4 the previous week.

    Shard EndImage source, Google

    Dr Justin Varney said "Some of this is about families, but some is also about social interaction outside of the house and between households."

    He asked people to continue to follow the guidelines while warning that enforcement may need to be ramped up.

  5. Murder accused denies deliberately mutilating bodypublished at 15:39 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    Azam Mangori, 24, tells the court "the only thing I have ever cut up in my life is chicken meat".

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  6. Shrewsbury baby deaths prompt plan for more midwivespublished at 15:31 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    The BBC understands as many as 1,000 more midwives and 80 obstetrics consultants will be hired in England.

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  7. Wolves v Giants moved for fans' returnpublished at 14:43 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    Warrington Wolves' Super League match with Huddersfield Giants has been moved to accommodate the return of fans on 17 May.

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  8. Grassroots music venue founder prepares for lockdown exitpublished at 14:15 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    BBC Midlands Today

    An independent grassroots music venue in Birmingham is putting on a new programme of experimental live music as it prepares to come out of lockdown.

    Alicja Kaczmareck

    Centrala, in Digbeth, will host a series of international live shows, installations and streamed performances.

    Organisers said they will explore responses from artists to the global pandemic, to mark a welcoming back of audiences after 12 months of closure.

    Founder and director Alicja Kaczmareck said: "People will finally have an opportunity to come into the space and experience art and music first-hand rather than from the screen of their computer."

  9. Jury discharged in farmhouse murder trialpublished at 14:01 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    Christopher Guest More Jr denies murdering Brian Waters who was tortured and killed in Cheshire.

    Read More
  10. Clean Air Zone car scrappage scheme launchedpublished at 13:37 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    Local Democracy Reporting Service

    People working within Birmingham's Clean Air Zone (CAZ) will be able to scrap their old car and receive £2,000 credit towards a compliant vehicle.

    Anyone working within the A4540 Middleway Ring Road and earning less than £30,000 a year, can put their non-compliant vehicle forward to be scrapped, in exchange for money off a car from Motorpoint, the city council says.

    Alternatively, drivers can opt to receive £2,000 of credit for public transport in the form of a Swift Travel Card.

    Drivers of high-polluting vehicles will be charged a daily fee of £8 for cars and £50 for buses and HGVs, with some exemptions.

    Birmingham trafficImage source, Getty Images

    The council has estimated the charges will apply to about 25% of vehicles on the city's roads.

    Applications for the scrappage scheme will open prior to the CAZ launch on 1 June, the council said.

    Stephen Arnold, Head of the Clean Air Zone, said the council was taking expressions of interest in the scheme through the Brum Breathes website and will accept full applications shortly.

    "In the meantime, we are encouraging city centre workers who may qualify for this scheme to also apply for a temporary exemption permit so that their existing vehicle will not be subject to the charge when the zone launches on 1 June this year," he added.

  11. Family appeal three years after double murderpublished at 12:57 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    Johnny Robbins went missing in 2018 and police say his death is linked to another murder in Coventry.

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  12. Tree saved as council redraws school expansion planpublished at 12:20 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    BBC Radio Shropshire

    Plans for the redevelopment of a Shrewsbury school are being redrawn, to protect a 150-year-old tree.

    The oak, next to Harlescott Junior School on Featherbed Lane, was due to be removed as part of its expansion plans.

    That was halted when a protestor scaled its branches and work was temporarily halted when a nest and eggs were found, which meant the tree couldn't legally be felled.

    Tree on Featherbed lane

    Shropshire Council said it is now "working on a revision to the scheme that would modify the school entrance in order to retain the tree."

    But it said that to improve the health of the tree, some branches might have to be removed and that work will be carried out when the birds aren't nesting.

  13. Hilltop Historiespublished at 11:43 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    Seren Griffiths uses a walk along a sandstone ridge in northern Cheshire to explore the way a landscape can hold multiple histories, and in doing so make it easier for us to contemplate distant futures.

    The landscape in question is bordered on the north by the M56 motorway. Commuters making their way into Manchester see it to their right for all of about a minute. But up on the ridge you can see that it stretches south towards Whitchurch in Shropshire. Seren starts her journey in a quarry used variously by the Romans, Iron Age settlers and latterly the Victorians. She makes her way up to one of the string of hill top forts that can be found along the sandstone escarpment, and then moves along to an old Cold War listening station, and not far away, the Frodsham Anti-Aircraft Operations Room. And all the while the vista shows the canal work of the industrial revolution, the chemical plants of the 20th century and the wind turbines of the last decade. The ancient landscape hums with history and archaeology that bring its past into focus in the present.

    For Seren, and many before her, this is a magical, mysterious place which draws out timelines like a strand, with artefacts from the past projecting forwards, enduring into the present.

    Producer: Tom Alban

  14. Santander to close some branches in the West Midlandspublished at 11:37 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    Santander is going to close five of its branches around the West Midlands by the end of August.

    They're among 111 to go around the country, with the bank saying it's because fewer people are visiting them.

    SantanderImage source, Getty Images

    Santander said the 840 staff affected will be found other jobs.

    These are the affected sites and their expected closure dates:

    • Dudley Merryhill - 24 June
    • Newcastle-under-Lyme - 15 July
    • Halesowen - 22 July
    • Birmingham Erdington - 29 July
    • Harborne High Street - 5 August
  15. Man who murdered daughter, 8, dies in jailpublished at 10:46 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    William Billingham was jailed in 2018 for murdering his eight-year-old daughter in a "revenge" attack.

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  16. Council halts elderly going to troubled care homespublished at 10:22 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    Infection control, evacuation procedures and medicine handling all caused concern in reports.

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  17. Vaccination vans offer jabs at mosquepublished at 09:40 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    Two mobile vaccination vans are returning to a mosque in Hall Green, Birmingham today.

    More than 40 people were vaccinated at the Masjid Eesa Ibn Maryam on Wednesday, with about 50 booked in today, said organisers.

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    The vans, supported by the Birmingham and Solihull Covid-19 vaccination team, will be making their way to other faith and community centres, such as churches, mosques and gurdwaras over the coming weeks.

  18. Careers and Covid: When the pandemic hit job ambitionspublished at 08:45 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    With young people under pressure for jobs, research shows career choices are shaped at a young age.

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  19. Coronavirus forces school closure in Birminghampublished at 08:28 Greenwich Mean Time 25 March 2021

    BBC Midlands Today

    A school in Birmingham has been forced to close to all pupils today following an outbreak of coronavirus.

    King Edward VI Five Ways School, in Bartley Green, says a "significant number" of staff and students tested positive for Covid-19.

    King Edward VI Five WaysImage source, Google

    A number of pupils are having to isolate and online lessons are being provided.