Local Democracy Reporting Service

Birmingham is bidding to host the World Athletics Road Running Championships in 2023.

City councillors agreed today to set aside £1.5m for the event, which would include mass participation runs and races for elite athletes.

It's a newly-created event and the council believes it could bring economic benefits of £4,2m to the city.

Image source, Getty Images

Council leader, Ian Ward, said it was important Birmingham doesn't "fall off a cliff" once the Commonwealth Games are held in the city next year.

He welcomed a suggestion from the Liberal Democrats that more running and jogging routes could be created.

Ralph Russell has been trading his wares in Birmingham's pubs for more than six decades.

Fast bowler Craig Miles signs a new deal which will keep him at Warwickshire until at least the end of the 2023 season.

The River Teme in Shropshire and the River Leam in Warwickshire will be cleaned up, to make the water clean enough to swim in.

Severn Trent is planning to spend £78m on the work and aims to reduce the amount of waste getting in to the rivers.

The money will be spent on a number of projects, which will focus on reducing the amount of discharge from storm overflows, installing disinfection processes at three water treatment works, more river quality monitoring and more work to advise farmers on run-off from fields.

The work has been welcomed by the MP for Ludlow, Philip Dunne, who introduced a Private Members Bill last year, calling for action on sewage pollution.

He said: "I am hopeful that these £78m pilots will show not only an improvement in water quality for wild swimming, which is becoming increasingly popular, but also wider ecological benefit to the Teme.”

West Midlands Ambulance staff who work directly with patients will be given an iPad to give them greater access to medical records and other information.

This is part of a government-funded roll-out of the tablets across the country and thousands of iPads will be issued.

Image source, West Midlands Ambulance Serrvice

WMAS Chief Executive Anthony Marsh said it should mean patients getting more appropriate treatment, instead of going to accident and emergency departments as a first stop.

And the iPads will also be used by staff for online training.

A takeaway hut at a rural farm shop in Alcester has become a popular meeting place for residents, say its owners.

Sally Haines, who runs Hillers Farm Shop with her sister Emma Taylor, said the "weather has been against us" but the Warwickshire hut had still been popular since opening last month.

Image source, Hillers Farm Shop

"It's a strong community and people want to come and meet their friends and have been coming in their waterproofs," she said.

The sisters were shocked when the county was put into tier three in December and the restaurant part of the business had to close.

However, the firm, which has adapted to change since its beginnings in the 1920s,, external has used lockdown to refurbish and extend, creating a garden cafe which opens on 7 June.

BBC Radio WM Sport

Wolves striker Raul Jimenez is due to see a specialist latger to gauge how close he to a playing return.

The Mexican international has been recovering from a fractured skull suffered during a game at Arsenal in November.

Image source, Getty Images

Head coach Nuno Espirito Santo said despite his recovery "we have to be really patient on the way we decide to put him back on the pitch, you cannot afford any kind of mistake."

The Assembly Rooms, in Tamworth, are preparing to open for performances again next month after being closed for more than a year because of coronavirus.

Work has been carried out to install plastic screens at the Staffordshire venue and visitors will be asked to use an app to order drinks at the bar when it reopens.

Image source, Tamworth Borough Council

To start with, capacity will be reduced to 75% and the D-Day Darlings have been booked get things started on 27 June.

Shropshire Star

Here are three of the stories from the Shropshire Star today:

• Man in 20s dies in crash, external near Ludlow
• Waiting list for 'routine' hospital treatment at highest point ever, external
• Shrewsbury's new mayor outlines vision, external

Lucy Letby is accused of killing eight babies while working on a hospital neonatal unit.

A hit-and-run driver who admitted causing the death of a grandmother by dangerous driving has had his jail term increased.

Krishna Devi Droch, 62, was struck by a Vauxhall Zafira travelling on the wrong side of the road in Handsworth, Birmingham, on 9 November 2017.

In March, Mohammed Ishfaq, 34, from Leonard Road, Lozells, was jailed for six years and three months and disqualified from driving for 10 years.

But Court of Appeal judges have ruled Ishfaq had been given an unduly lenient sentence.

Image source, West Midlands Police

His jail sentence was increased to eight years.

Image source, Family handout

BBC Radio Stoke

A hotel in Stafford which housed NHS staff and other key workers has announced its closure, blaming the impact of Covid restrictions.

Tillington Hall Hotel, which has 91 beds, said it had fought to stay open but had been "greatly affected" by those restrictions and would shut this weekend.

Image source, Google

The Shropshire County Show will go ahead this year but it will be limited in its scale because of coronavirus concerns.

Ian Bebbington, chief executive of the Shropshire West Midlands Agricultural Society, said there would be no marquees or entertainment in the main ring when the event returned to the West Mid Showground on 17 July.

Mr Bebbington said it was being scaled down to reduce the show's financial risk and added: "If we have to cancel the show at very short notice then our expenses are limited."

There will also be fewer trade stalls this year and he said: "It's the Shropshire County Show, Covid-style."

Another service is being set up in Birmingham to pass on surplus food to people who struggle to afford to buy their own.

The West Heath Community Centre will be the third location used by the FoodCycle charity, which cooked 74,073 hot dishes for the community in 2020.

Image source, FoodCycle

The initiative begins on Sunday and free takeaway meals will be served every Sunday from 13:00 to 14:00.

FoodCycle is also looking to recruit volunteers to collect the food, cook and serve it.

Image source, FoodCycle

Image source, FoodCycle

FoodCycle said 75% of the people who visited were also lonely and it aimed to be a place where they could go for a chat.

A man died after his car hit a tree in south Shropshire.

West Mercia Police said the crash had happened at about 21:00 BST on Saturday.

The vehicle was travelling towards Ludlow on the A4113 when it left the carriageway, mounted a verge and struck the tree.

The driver, a man in his 20s, was seriously injured and died at the scene, the force said.

Image source, Google

Police are appealing for witnesses to come forward to help determine the circumstances of the crash.

BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester

The Conservatives on Worcester City Council are making changes to the way the authority is run after taking overall control by a slender majority.

They plan to have all committees chaired by Conservative and are changing the rules to allow both the leader and the deputy leader to be from the same party.

Image source, Google

After four years of cross-party working, the Conservatives now have a majority of one, and that includes the Warndon ward which they took by just 12 votes.

And postal votes may have been key to that, because a sweep of post boxes in the city on polling day recovered more than 1,000 ballots which were quickly sent to the counting centre.

That sweep was carried out after concerns some postal ballots may have been sent out to voters late.

About 2,000 Stoke City fans turned out for an under-23s match on Monday evening, making it one of the biggest gatherings in the city in the past year.

Image source, Getty Images

It's the first time fans have been allowed in the stadium for 14 months and Stoke were playing Sunderland in a Premier League Two play-off match.

They lost the game 2-0.

Hereford Times

Here are three of the stories from the Hereford Times today:

• Controversial bird farm on Herefordshire border before planners, external
• Former chef banned from the roads after taking drugs, external
• Crisp manufacturers' sustainability drive, external

Plans to re-develop the Ironbridge Power Station site will go before Telford and Wrekin councillors later.

The recommendation is to approve and grant outline planning permission for up to 1,000 homes, businesses and a school.

Shropshire Council also has to vote on the matter.

People living in Newcastle-under-Lyme are being warned about callers posing as workers for the Environment Agency (EA).

The EA said it was aware of an incident where an individual was claiming to work for it.

It says staff will always carry ID and never ask to enter your home.

The agency has been carrying out checks in the area over continuing concerns about the odour surrounding Walleys Quarry, in Silverdale.