Summary

  • Updates from Monday 1 March to Sunday 7 March

  1. Brighton beat Villa to continue top formpublished at 21:44 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    Brighton make it four wins in a row with victory at lowly Aston Villa to move into the top half of the Women's Super League.

    Read More
  2. Man, 50, arrested over Barrymore party deathpublished at 21:02 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    The suspect is released on bail after being questioned about the death of Stuart Lubbock in 2001.

    Read More
  3. 'Inappropriate' to decide on pub bombings inquirypublished at 17:50 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    Families met with the Home Secretary as part of their campaign for a full account into the blasts.

    Read More
  4. Police 'must learn' from unarmed man's shootingpublished at 17:40 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    A watchdog looking into Anthony Grainger's death says forces must not use out-of-date intelligence.

    Read More
  5. School to close after Covid casespublished at 17:38 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    All pupils at Henley-in-Arden School will return to home learning until 29 March.

    Read More
  6. Airport support sealedpublished at 17:08 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    Local Democracy Reporting Service

    A £5.7m support package to help ease Birmingham airport through the coronavirus has been agreed by councillors in Coventry.

    Birmingham AirportImage source, Birmingham Airport

    Coventry City Council is one of seven local authorities in the West Midlands who are shareholders of the airport holding company BAH.

    Four of those, including Coventry, are providing loans totalling £32.8m. Birmingham City Council has confirmed a loan of up to £18.5m, £3.7m is being loaned from Solihull Council and up to £4.9m from Walsall Council.

    Coventry cabinet member for finance Richard Brown said the authority was "putting an arm around a key asset".

    The loan would be made available as and when needed by the airport to ensure it can have the maximum impact on recovery.

    Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan - 48.25% shareholders - will also provide a loan.

  7. Water park ride death exposed 'systemic failures'published at 16:36 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    A rapids ride at Drayton Manor had a history of failings before a child's death, a court is told.

    Read More
  8. Money to be spent on green corridorpublished at 16:33 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    Local Democracy Reporting Service

    More than £700,000 is to be spent on creating a green corridor between the centre of Birmingham and a rural park in Warwickshire - and that will include investment in Coleshill.

    North Warwickshire Borough Council has worked with the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust to secure the £705,000 from the government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund to help transform the Cole Valley.

    HandImage source, Getty Images/sarayut Thaneerat

    A report considered by this week’s community and environment board of the council said: "The valley itself is a haven for wildlife and the proposed works will involve tree planting, wildflower meadows and wetland habitat creation, as well as improvements to access paths and trails."

    It added the funding would "support local green jobs".

    Money will be spent on various locations along the route in Birmingham, Solihull and Cole End Park in Coleshill.

  9. Listen: Newcastle v Wasps in the Premiershippublished at 15:29 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    Listen to local BBC radio commentary as Newcastle Falcons host Wasps in the Premiership following a 55-19 victory for Ealing Trailfinders at Coventry in the Championship.

    Read More
  10. Young YouTuber on mission to save animalspublished at 14:18 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    Six-year-old conservationist Aneeshwar Kunchala is hoping his videos will help make a difference.

    Read More
  11. Two in hospital after being shot in carpublished at 13:55 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    Two men are in hospital after being shot in their car in the Kitts Green area of Birmingham on Wednesday.

    West Midlands Police said they were attacked at around 00:40 on Hurstcroft Road.

    Hurstcroft RoadImage source, Google

    The men, who are aged 43 and 29 were taken to hospital in a stable condition with injuries which aren’t thought to be life-threatening.

  12. Covid-19 vaccination figure set to pass 500,000 markpublished at 13:36 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    Local Democracy Reporting Service

    The number of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent residents receiving the Covid-19 vaccine is set to pass 500,000 this week, and a target to offer all adults their first dose by the end of July could be met several weeks early.

    Vaccine - genericImage source, PA Media

    The area has topped a national "league table" for vaccine administration, health bosses told a Staffordshire County Council meeting on Tuesday.

    And there is capacity to give more than 150,000 jabs a week locally, through a combination of larger vaccination centres, hospital hubs, GP-led sites and venues run by pharmacies.

    "What we’ve done literally is set up a medium-sized supermarket chain within a matter of four or five weeks to jab people," said Marcus Warnes, from Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Clinical Commissioning Groups.

    "We have got the lowest stock levels of pretty much any system in the country – when we get it, we jab people with it."

    Mr Warnes said he was "absolutely confident" the 15 April deadline to do priority groups one to nine would be delivered and it would "probably" be done by the end of March.

    "We’re expecting around 80,000 doses of the vaccine this week – the highest week to date is 53,000."

  13. Bridgerton star to play influential ceramic artistpublished at 13:01 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    Phoebe Dynevor will play Clarice Cliff, "a female pioneer who quite literally broke the mould".

    Read More
  14. Joe Lycett among TV awards winnerspublished at 12:10 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    Birmingham's Joe Lycett was the winner in the presenter category at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards for BBC One's The Great British Sewing Bee.

    The judges said: "This presenter showed all the qualities the audience loves to see right now: warm, approachable and kind, with tremendous enthusiasm for the subject matter."

    He also achieved success in another category, as Channel 4's Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back won the formatted popular factual section.

    Judges described the series as "distinctive in style yet broad in appeal, all wrapped in a highly original format".

    This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on Twitter
    The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
    Skip twitter post

    Allow Twitter content?

    This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

    The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
    End of twitter post
  15. Homes plan approved for Wolverhampton's former Beatties storepublished at 11:41 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    Plans have been approved for Wolverhampton's former Beatties department store to be turned into new homes.

    The store was sold to a private investor for £3m last year.

    The city council says planning approval has been given to build 300 new homes on the site and its car park.

    This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on Twitter
    The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
    Skip twitter post

    Allow Twitter content?

    This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

    The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
    End of twitter post
  16. Premiership Rugby Cup scrapped for 2021published at 11:24 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    This season's Premiership Rugby Cup is scrapped because of continuing concerns related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Read More
  17. Wasps sign Hougaard for next seasonpublished at 10:55 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    Wasps sign scrum-half Francois Hougaard from Premiership rivals Worcester Warriors on a deal which begins next season.

    Read More
  18. More bleed kits installed after funding green lightpublished at 10:44 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    Thirty more bleed kits will be installed across the West Midlands after funding was granted to The Daniel Baird Foundation.

    Lynne Baird, whose son Daniel, 26, was killed in a dispute outside a pub in the city in 2017, set up for the foundation to provide kits to people involved in stabbings.

    This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on Twitter
    The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
    Skip twitter post

    Allow Twitter content?

    This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

    The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
    End of twitter post

    The bleed control cabinet is designed to prevent a catastrophic bleed while paramedics travel to the scene of a stabbing.

    It contains a tourniquet, bandages, scissors and gloves which can be used by members of the public, accessed through a code provided by the ambulance service.

  19. Parish council opposes 'poor relations' mergerpublished at 10:30 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    Handforth Parish Council, which saw a rowdy meeting go viral, votes against a merger with Wilmslow.

    Read More
  20. JCB jobs boost as equipment demand 'soars'published at 09:41 Greenwich Mean Time 17 March 2021

    The digger manufacturer says it will employ an extra 450 agency staff at its three UK factories.

    Read More