BBC Hereford and Worcester

A family is set to lose £1,000 after deciding to cancel their holiday to Spain next month.

Image source, PA Media

With people arriving back in the UK from Spain having to self-isolate for 14 days, Sarah Hepworth, from Bromsgrove, said they couldn't go on the trip.

She told BBC Hereford and Worcester they had been due to go on 8 August but coming back with the added quarantine would have overlapped with her children returning to school.

"It's hard because the children were looking forward to it after having to stay in for such a long time and then have this very last minute, it's a real pain."

Mrs Hepworth added their holiday insurance wouldn't cover the cancellation so their only hope would be if the airline cancelled the flights.

Worcester News

These stories are from the Worcester News today:

• Driver who abandoned family after car crash arrested in Worcester, external
• Worcester stalker in love triangle with nurse and her new man, external
• Driver of stolen car attempted to 'ram' police cars during escape, external

BBC Hereford and Worcester

A quarantine on people arriving in the UK from Spain should have been more targeted to specific parts of the mainland, a holidaymaker in Majorca's told the BBC.

Image source, Reuters

The new coronavirus travel rule was announced on Saturday evening following a spike in the number of new cases in Spain this week.

Fran Thomas, from Ledbury, Herefordshire, is currently on holiday with her family in the Balearic Island of Majorca and is due home tomorrow.

"I completely accept we took a risk, we came on holiday during a pandemic, I completely understand that, I accept it."

But she added: "They've had very few cases here compared with other areas of mainline Spain so it seems very unfair they've included the Balearics and the Canary Islands."

The 22-year-old victim was found at a house in Redditch.

Local Democracy Reporting Service
Christian Barnett

The River Severn could be used to heat buildings in Worcester after the city council agreed to investigate the idea.

Councillors backed plans to spend up to £7,000 on studying whether a heat network could be created in the city and at ways the river could be used for energy.

The proposal would see water drawn through a network of pipes from either the river or the ground and pumped around many of the buildings.

A report to the city council's environment committee on 21 July said the heat produced by the river would be the equivalent of 10,000 gas boilers.

Workers have been asked to self-isolate at AS Green and Co in Mathon since the outbreak began.

Worcester News

A few of the headlines from the Worcester News today:

• Man injured trying to protect his dog from attack, external
• Council faces 'serious questions' over spending £180,000 on land, external
• Farm says it has identified source of coronavirus outbreak and it is 'business as usual', external

A Covid-19 outbreak at an Evesham food packaging firm is being linked to another in Sandwell.

BBC Hereford and Worcester

Health officials say they are happy with the protective measures at a food packaging site where 14 staff tested positive for Covid-19.

Hundreds of workers at Evesham Vale Growers Limited in Worcestershire will now be tested today after the outbreak.

The county council and Public Health England said they would get the results over the weekend and then decide on their next course of action.

But Kathryn Cobain, Worcestershire's director for public health, said the firm had installed good precautionary measures including screens and extra handwashing.

"We are taking the precautionary steps, jointly with the business who have been really supportive of taking these steps, to make sure their workforce is protected and to make sure we're protecting this vital food chain."

The number of people testing positive for coronavirus in Sandwell has risen again, according to new figures.

The data from Public Health England shows there were 86 new cases in the week up to 20 July. Figures for the seven days to 19 July showed 76 cases.

That means 26.3 people tested positive for every for every 100,000 population (up to 20 July), up from 12.2 a week earlier.

Dr Lisa McNally, the Director of Public Health for Sandwell, said on Monday it hadn't yet reached the stage where a local lockdown was needed, but she was monitoring the rise.

Image source, Reuters

Here are the rate of infections (per 100,000 people) for all local authorities in the West Midlands - for the seven days up to 20 July, compared with the previous week.

• Birmingham up to 12.9 from from 7.0
• Bromsgrove up to 5.1 from 4.1
• Cheshire East down to 3.9 from 4.2
• Coventry up to 7.4 from 2.5
• Dudley down to 0.9 from 2.2
• East Staffordshire down to 15.2 from 29.5
• Herefordshire down to 16.1 from 43.7
• Lichfield up to 4.8 from 3.8

• Newcastle-under-Lyme down to 2.3 from 5.4
• North Warwickshire is up to 9.3 from 1.5
• Nuneaton and Bedworth up to 10.9 from 10.1
• Redditch up to 3.5 from 0.0
• Rugby down to 3.7 from 10.3
• Sandwell up to 26.3 from 12.1
• Shropshire down to 0.9 from 3.4
• Solihull down to 5.1 from 7.9
• South Staffordshire stays the same at 2.7

• Staffordshire Moorlands down to 0.0 from 4.1
• Stoke-on-Trent down to 2.7 from 9.0
• Stratford-on-Avon down to 0.0 from 5.5
• Tamworth down to 2.6 from 3.9
• Telford and Wrekin stays the same at 7.3
• Walsall down to 8.8 from 11.3
• Warwick up to 2.1 from 1.4

• Wolverhampton up to 5.7 from 4.2
• Worcester up to 4.9 from 2.9
• Wychavon down from 1.6 from 4.7

All staff at Evesham Vale Growers Limited will be tested after 14 confirmed cases.

BBC Hereford and Worcester

The 14th Century Booth Hall in Hereford is set for a new lease of life after being bought by the owners of a restaurant in the city.

Rich and James Manning from the Shack Revolution have taken over the building which was damaged in a fire in 2010 and has been empty for the past three years.

Image source, Google

The timber-framed building has been renovated into a restaurant with eight hotel rooms.

BBC Hereford and Worcester

A packaging company that wants to take on 90 more staff has said it's "exasperated" by the lack of interest.

Modern Packaging in Pershore makes packaging for supermarket food and the pharmaceutical industry and has been under new management since February.

The jobs on offer over the next five years range in pay from £10 an hour to £50,000 a year.

A woman has been the victim of a "brutal and brazen" sexual attack in Worcester, police have said., external

Image source, Google

West Mercia Police said the assault was on Grosmont Avenue last night and was seen by a member of the public who came to the victim's aid, forcing the attacker to flee.

Shortly afterwards, officers arrested a man in his 40s, from Worcester, on suspicion of attempted rape.

Once in custody, they further arrested him on suspicion of trespass to commit a sexual offence relating to a case on 15 July at a house in Blakefield Road in the city.

Worcester City Council has earmarked £7,000, to see if city centre buildings could be heated using the River Severn, external.

Water would be drawn through a network of pipes from either the river or the ground and pumped around many of the buildings.

Image source, Google

A report to the city council's environment committee on 21 July said the heat produced by the river would be the equivalent of 10,000 gas boilers.

If the scheme is viable, it could help reduce emissions in the city.

People can use Hereford's Beryl Bikes cycle hire scheme for free during the summer holidays.

From next week until the end of August, the first 30 minutes of all journeys ending in a Beryl Bay will be free.

Image source, Beryl Bikes

It's been a year since the bikes were introduced in the city and in that time cyclists have pedaled more than 130,000 km in 50,000 trips.

There are now 200 of the green bikes in Hereford.

An 18-year-old man from Worcester has been arrested following reports of a man with an axe.

Officers were called to Gresham Road at around 11:30 after several people with weapons were reported to be in a dispute.

Image source, Google

The man was arrested on suspicion of possessing a bladed article and is in custody at Worcester Police Station.

Fresh proposals to tackle Worcester’s growing gull population will be brought forward in October.

Last night city councillors discussed the findings of a survey of breeding pairs in the city, which found there are now more than 2,000 birds.

Image source, Getty Images

The survey also found many existing tactics used to deter gulls, such as plastic owls and eagles, or spikes on roof edges, have proved ineffective.

Hereford Times

Here are three stories from the Hereford Times today:

• Armed police attend empty property, external
• Man missing from Hereford found, external
• Shopping centre's attempt to improve lives, external

It's thought four trailers full of rubbish abandoned in the Bromsgrove area in the last fortnight were all dumped in lay-bys by the same person.

The Environment Agency said the first load was reported on 12 July and then three more appeared within five miles of the first, all containing household, commercial or industrial waste.

Image source, Environment Agency

The Environment Agency said the trailers were all similar and asked people to check waste removal companies were registered before using them.