Today's the day that the BBC launches the annual search for local volunteers who help in grass-roots activity and sports.

Now in its 15th year, Unsung Hero is spreading its net wider in 2017 to include not only sporting volunteers but those in other fitness activities.

Here's last year's winner on why you should nominate someone....

...and you read more about Marcellus's experience since winning the award here.

Find out all about the award and how you can nominate someone at bbc.co.uk/unsunghero

Send in your nominations today!, external

The decision will save £700,000 per year, local health chiefs claim.

Here are some of the other stories being covered by local media today:

• The Cambridge News, external is reporting that a mum is appealing for help after her children's parrot escaped from a station platform
• It's also revealing that X Factor star, external Chris Maloney has been saved by a Cambridge woman after a spider bite stopped his heart twice
• The Peterborough Telegraph, external says a new petition calling on Peterborough City Council to call a halt to its plans for Rhubarb Bridge has been launched

Katy Lewis
BBC Local Live

Free bulky waste collections for residents will be trialled in Peterborough this autumn.

It's hoped the three-month trial will help the city council combat fly-tipping.

Evidence will be collected to assess the impact the free scheme has on the number of fly-tipping incidents, which will then be reviewed by councillors.

Households will get one collection during the trial period and residents will need to book a collection slot once the dates are announced.

Gavin Elsey, the cabinet member for waste at Peterborough City Council, said: "Currently the city council is having to deal with around 800 fly-tips in the city every month.

"Residents have asked us for free bulky waste collections, so we're going to run the trial to see if this reduces fly-tipping across the city."

Katy Lewis
BBC Local Live

Racist graffiti has been daubed across sites in Huntingdon and is being investigated by police.

Officers said a wall on Nene Road was spray-painted on Saturday, followed by a wall on Oak Drive on Monday.

Police are urging people who know who is responsible to call police.

Katy Lewis
BBC Local Live

IVF fertility treatment on the NHS has been suspended in Cambridgeshire until April 2019.

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group, external made the decision following a 20-week consultation and says it will save £700,000 a year.

Image source, Science Photo Library

Three free cycles of IVF treatment are recommended under official guidelines - but it's up to individual local NHS bosses what to spend on fertility services.

CCG chair Dr Gary Howsam said: "The response to the consultation showed that people feel strongly about this issue, and for that reason this was a very difficult decision for the governing body to make and we understand that people will be disappointed.

"The CCG has finite resources to fund a whole range of health services and treatments. We need to save £46.5m this financial year, and so we have had to review all areas of our spending and to make some difficult decisions.

"The decision to suspend routinely commissioning specialist fertility services is a financially necessary decision, following evaluation of the options available to us to reduce expenditure, and we have said that we will review this decision in April 2019."

BBC Weather

A north-westerly wind today will bring a cooler, fresher feel to things.

After a bright start there are due to be some good spells of sunshine during the morning. In the afternoon, a little bit more cloud will come in bringing the possibility of an isolated shower, but it will be mostly dry.

Maximum temperature: 18C (64F).

Katy Lewis
BBC Local Live

Good morning and welcome back to Local Live across Cambridgeshire.

We'll be here until 18:00 with the latest news, sport, weather and travel for your local area.

The full weather forecast will be with you shortly, and it's a rather chilly start this morning.

As always, if you want to get in touch you can by email, Facebook, external or Twitter, external.

A "sadistic" man who tortured a girl and abused a boy is jailed for 12 years.

The team here is signing off from our regular live updates today, and heading home to recharge our batteries ready to do it all again in the morning from 08:00.

If you're just joining us, scroll down to find out what's been happening across the county during the day. As ever, any breaking news overnight will still appear here.

Have a good evening - we look forward to your company again soon.

Alex Dolan
BBC Look East weather

Any showery rain will clear across the BBC East region, but there'll be some showers following behind, possibly heavy.

The bulk of the night will be dry with clear intervals and cooler temperatures than last night.

Lows of 9C (48F).

Wednesday will feel fresher than Tuesday, and be mainly dry with sunny spells.

There may be an isolated shower later as cloud builds, but many places will stay dry.

Top temperature: 19C (66F).

Get more on the forecast where you live, from BBC Weather.

A woman whose car crashed into a ditch on the A1307 on Wednesday, died two days later, Cambridgeshire Police have said.

A silver Hyundai Coupe went into the ditch between Linton and Horseheath at about 18:35.

The 48-year-old driver Aya Hamdi, formerly known as Tina Rowsell, of Edgecombe in Cambridge, was taken to Addenbrooke's, but passed away on Friday.

A man who was a passenger was not injured. The road was closed for about six hours on Wednesday evening.

Police are appealing for witnesses.

Highways England, external say heavy goods vehicles using South Cambridgeshire villages as unofficial diversion routes is a "real problem".

Major improvement works on the A14 between Cambridge and Godmanchester will mean some overnight closures over the next three years.

Residents in Swavesey say lorries are driving though their village at night, instead of following the official diversion route.

Mike Evans from Highways England says they'll work with Cambridgeshire County Council to find solutions

"We're going to have a meeting with the county council," he said.

"We've got to give further thought to addressing an issue which we thought we had solved, but clearly we haven't.

"It's important to do this so that when we have closures in the future, there is less possibility of the sort of situation that occurred last week.

"As we go into the next three years we've got to crack this problem."

Frontline police officers across Norfolk and Suffolk are being issued with tablets and mobile phones, to "revolutionise" the way in which they deal with incidents and the service they provide.

The move follows a three-month trial last year, which police say made it clear the devices offered officers what they needed - quick access to accurate information without the need to travel back to the station.

Ch Supt Mike Fawcett, project lead for Norfolk and Suffolk constabularies, said: "This is very much an ‘invest-to-save’ project – and I expect that the resource commitment we have made will bring us cost benefits in the long-term."

Cambridgeshire Police say their officers were given smartphones in 2006, followed by laptops/slates from 2013.

Essex Police officers have smart phones, not tablets. They were introduced to the force in October 2016 and 2,000 are currently on issue.

The mother of missing airman, Corrie Mckeague, has offered to walk people through her son's final known steps on the anniversary of his disappearance.

The gunner, who was based at RAF Honington, has not been seen since 24 September following a night out in Bury St Edmunds.

Suffolk Police believe he was taken to a landfill site after falling asleep in a bin, but have not found his body.

Speaking on Facebook, Nicola Urquhart said she hoped walking the route would jog someone's memory.

She said she wanted to do "something positive" to assist police in their search to find her son, after the 20-week trawl of rubbish at the landfill site in Milton, Cambridgeshire, ended with no trace of Corrie being found.

Sarah Jenkins
BBC Local Live

Cambridge has been ranked as the second best university in the world, just beaten to the top spot by its rival Oxford.

Cambridge has risen from fourth place last year in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, external.

Universities are ranked on their performance in five key areas: teaching, research, citations, international outlook and industry income.

Image source, PA

Out of the top 200 universities, 31 are UK institutions.

Phil Baty, editorial director of the THE global ranking, said: "One thing this new data makes absolutely clear is that the UK has many of the very best universities in the world and it has one of the world's strongest higher education systems.

"The data shows UK universities are consistently producing ground-breaking new research which is driving innovation, they are attracting international students and academic talent and are providing a world-class teaching environment."

Below is a list of the top 10 universities:

1. Oxford University (UK)

2. Cambridge University (UK)

=3. California Institute of Technology (USA)

=3. Stanford University (USA)

5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA)

6. Harvard University (USA)

7. Princeton University (USA)

8. Imperial College London (UK)

9. University of Chicago (USA)

=10. ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (SWZ)

=10. University of Pennsylvania (USA)

Brian Boggis, 75, is charged with gross indecency with a boy under the age of 14.

BBC Weather

Some brighter spells could develop during the afternoon leading to a warm and humid feel, but on the whole it will be breezy and cloudy with some rain.

Maximum temperature: 21C (70F).

For the full forecast where you are, visit BBC Weather.

A Cambridgeshire charity for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people is due to receive more than £193,000 from the government and lottery funding.

The Kite Trust, external, based in Cambridge, will use it to create four spaces for 600 young people to receive advice and support.

They're also planning a programme for schools and businesses in the region to promote equality and inclusion.

Image source, Google

Cambridge United striker Uche Ikpeazu is confident they have the firepower to make a big impression in League Two.