The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) has approved the donation of about 700 decommissioned police laptops to help young people without access to a computer.

Laptops have been offered to schools in areas with the greatest need.

West Midlands PCC David Jamieson said: "I know only too well, having been a head teacher in inner-city schools, the difficulties that young people can face.

"The pandemic has presented a new level of challenge for pupils and teachers and for those without access to technology this may have had a severe impact on their learning."

All devices will undergo a thorough process of wiping all data from them and ensuring that they are 'clean' before they are delivered to schools.

Laptops will be rolled out to schools in the region over the next few months to allow pupils to catch up over the summer.

Coventry Live

Here are some of the stories on the Coventry Live website:

• Hundreds of hospital staff applaud much-loved colleague as funeral cortege passes by, external
• Further 20 Covid deaths over past week in Coventry, Warwickshire and Solihull, external
• Drivers in Coventry are now swapping their old cars for £3,000, external

BBC Sport

"Significant institutional failings" by the Football Association meant it "did not do enough to keep children safe" - according to the findings of an independent review into historical child sexual abuse in the game.

It found the FA was "too slow" to have sufficient protection measures in place between October 1995 and May 2000.

It said there was no evidence the FA knew of a problem before summer 1995.

The report focused on the abuse of children between 1970 and 2005.

Offenders include Barry Bennell (pictured), the former Crewe Alexandra and Manchester City coach who is serving a 34-year sentence, and Ted Langford, the former Aston Villa and Leicester City part-time scout who was jailed in 2007.

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

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.

Image 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.

Shropshire Star

Here are some of the stories on the Shropshire Star website:

• Shropshire tourist attractions in rallying call to get visitors back, external
• Half of Shropshire hospital staff felt ill due to stress as pandemic took hold, external
• Shropshire hospitals boss: Covid risks mean unnecessary time at acute hospitals should be avoided, external

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.

Image 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."

About 350 plants have been found at a cannabis factory in Staffordshire.

Image source, Staffordshire Police

Police uncovered the set-up at a property on Cheadle Road, Cheddleton, on Tuesday morning.

The Staffordshire force has thanked the community for raising concerns over suspicious activity in the area which led to the operation being shut down.

Officers found the plants growing in various rooms where the electricity to the residential property had also been bypassed.

The property has since been emptied and made safe. No arrests have been made and inquiries are ongoing.

A road closure has been reported in Worcestershire, following a water main burst.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

Taxi drivers will face more regular criminal record checks and have to declare new offences sooner under updated rules.

Image source, LDRS

Telford and Wrekin’s licensing committee approved an updated policy requiring drivers and operators to inform the council of arrests, charges, convictions or fixed penalties within 48 hours, replacing previous rules which gave them a week.

The new measures, coming into force next month, also call for annual Disclosure and Barring Service checks for taxi and private hire operators and six-monthly checks for drivers.

Deputy council leader Richard Overton told the committee the updated policy was based on standards published by the Department for Transport last summer.

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".

BBC Midlands Today

It's the first anniversary of the BBC’s Make a Difference campaign, which launched the Give a Laptop scheme in the first lockdown to help schoolchildren learn from home.

So far it's received offers of more than 116,000 devices, with 2,000 old BBC laptops being included in that total.

Pool Hayes Primary School in Willenhall has received some of those, but says it still needs more donations.

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

BBC CWR

A petition has been started to try to keep Leamington Spa's Parade car free.

It was done last year in order to allow people to social distance more easily, but it was only meant to be a temporary measure.

A petition has been launched to keep vehicles out permanently.

Image source, John Bray

Leamington resident Hafeez Ahmed, who started it, said: "Before the closure with the cars going up and down it, it felt like a go-through town. Since the closure, it feels more like a go-to destination and that go-to destination makes it feel like a European holiday."

The local chamber of trade said it welcomed the idea of creating more space to move around and be socially distanced by closing it to traffic, but it needed to ensure any long-term changes balance the needs of a viable economic high street, transport routes and look at such changes holistically as part of a broader strategy for the town's future.

Warwick District Council said the current scheme was only temporary and implemented solely for the purpose of generating additional space for pedestrians to adhere to social-distancing rules. Warwickshire County Council, in discussion with the district council, was considering long-term proposals for the Parade, which may include full pedestrianisation, but many options would need to be considered.

Image source, John Bray

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

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.

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.

Worcester News

Here are some of the stories on the Worcester News website:

• Council moves to buy several Worcester city centre buildings as part of major regeneration work, external
• A damning report on Long Lartin prison revealed an array of problems aside from sanitary conditions, external
• Car crash involving lamppost and parked cars in Worcester, external

Hereford County Hospital has opened a new clinical area which will provide care for patients who can be sent home the same day.

The Wye Valley NHS Trust said it will be to take referrals from GP's, NHS 111, or the emergency department and should reduce the number of patients needing to stay at the hospital.

Image source, Wye Valley NHS Trust

The new facility has five extra clinic rooms and three cubical spaces.

It was created with the help of a £2m government grant which was aimed at reducing the growing numbers going to the emergency department.

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