Mental health patients 'feel abandoned'
New university set to buy council sites
'World Cup' number plate sells for more than £4,000
Updates from Friday 22 July 2016
Water restrictions are not on the cards during the hot weather, say Severn Trent, but the company is encouraging customers to be careful with consumption.
Severn Trent say they've been able to balance out supplies by moving water across the region, helped by last month's rainfall, which filled local reservoirs back up to healthy levels.
Image source, GoogleHere are some of the top stories on BBC Hereford & Worcester this afternoon:
- The South Herefordshire Hunt suspends all activities while an investigation continues into allegations of cruelty to fox cubs at its Wormelow kennels
- Police in Worcester launch an investigation after a family were believed to have been racially harassed in the city centre
- A Herefordshire schoolgirl has raised nearly £15,000 for a charity set up in her brother's name after paddling 100 miles in a kayak
It looks like it's going to be a difficult night for sleeping - warm and muggy.
What are your tips for sleeping in a heatwave? If you want, check out this article from a couple of years ago when our colleagues looked at tips to tackle the issue.
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A warning of a road closure in Bromsgrove today.
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Traders in Upton-upon-Severn are counting their takings after another hugely successful Blues Festival.
It's thought some 20,000 people came to the Worcestershire town over the weekend with the event estimated to have brought in an extra £800,000 to the local economy last year.
Festival organiser Oliver Carpenter told BBC Hereford & Worcester the festival has been "a huge boost to the town".
Nicola Goodwin
Reporter, BBC Hereford & Worcester
All activities of the South Herefordshire Hunt have been suspended while an inquiry continues into allegations fox cubs were killed at the kennels at Wormelow.
The Masters of Foxhounds Association says it's in the interest of the hunting community while its investigation continues.
A video, secretly filmed by activists, appears to show cubs being taken into a shed where hounds were kept and brought out dead.
A 37-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman from Herefordshire and a 37-year-old man, from Abergavenny, were arrested on suspicion of animal cruelty.
The Met Office says hot weather could bring severe thunderstorms to the West Midlands on Tuesday and Wednesday., external
It says there's a risk of flash flooding, frequent lightning, hail and strong winds, with disruption to power also possible.
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Redditch MP Karen Lumley and council leader Bill Hartnett will hold a public meeting to discuss the future of the Alexandra Hospital, external.
The parents of a baby girl from the West Midlands who died from an infection contracted during birth want all mothers to be tested for the bug.
Image source, KAYLEIGH & COLIN GRIFFITHSPippa Griffiths was just a day old when she fell ill with a Group B Strep infection - the biggest cause of meningitis in newborns.
The NHS currently doesn't offer routine testing for the bacteria - we'll have more on BBC One from 13:30 in Midlands Today.
The MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire Jesse Norman has been appointed as business minister in Theresa May's new-look cabinet.
The announcement of Mr Norman's new job as junior minister in the new Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy completes a set of appointments which began within hours of Mrs May becoming Prime Minister last Wednesday.
Known in Parliament as a modernising Tory, Mr Norman was educated at Eton and Oxford University and worked as a banker before entering Parliament as MP in 2010.
Carson Wishart
Journalist, BBC Hereford and Worcester
Herefordshire Council has today opened a three-month consultation with bus passengers as it looks to cut a further £890,000 from its transport budget by 2020.
It has already reduced transport spending by £1m since 2014 and now admits it may have to cut some services and subsidies because of government funding reductions.
Councillor Paul Rone, the council's cabinet member transport and roads, said: "It's likely that further savings will only be achieved by withdrawing subsidies from services, which may lead to services being withdrawn."
You can read the background to the review, external here and take part in the consultation.
It was too good to last.
The Met Office says we're due a couple of days of July weather, before the rain returns.
Enjoy it while you can.
Image source, The Met Office
Claudia Berry
Newsreader, BBC Hereford & Worcester
Here are some of the top stories on BBC Hereford & Worcester this afternoon:
- The MP for West Worcestershire and newly appointed Defence Minister Harriet Baldwin expects cross-party support on Trident vote
- Hereford steel firm Painter Brothers blames drop in demand and greater competition for cutting 16 jobs
- Traders in Upton-upon-Severn counting bumper takings after another successful Blues Festival weekend
A man has been arrested in Worcester on suspicion of affray.
A police van and three police cars were called to Foregate Street just before 08:00. West Mercia Police confirm a 36-year-old man was detained at the scene.
Charlie Slater
BBC Weather presenter
Here's how the rest of today's looking - to get a forecast at any other time, head to the BBC Weather website.
What's the weather got in store?
The West Worcestershire MP and newly appointed Defence Minister Harriet Baldwin is confident the bill to renew Britain's nuclear capability will get through Parliament today.
MPs will vote tonight on the plan with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn opposing renewal, but has given his party a free vote.
In her first Commons statement as Prime Minister, Theresa May will warn against abandoning Trident.
Mrs Baldwin told BBC Hereford & Worcester she expects cross-party support in the Commons.
A woman was ordered to pay £155 after turning up drunk and swearing inside the premises of a Hereford dentist surgery, external.
Nicola Goodwin
Reporter, BBC Hereford & Worcester
Sixteen jobs are to go at one of Hereford's most established firms, Painter Brothers.
The company, which is now part of the Balfour Beatty group, was founded in the city in the 1920s and built the famous 300-ft Skylon - the centrepiece of the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Image source, painterbrothers.comBalfour Beatty says it has to make the cuts due to "a reduction in demand in the overhead line market and an increase in competition".
A 30-day consultation has now finished with 16 employees leaving, of which, 13 are redundancies.
Alice Porter
Reporter, BBC Hereford & Worcester
People with disabilities in Herefordshire and Worcestershire have joined calls for better public transport after a wheelchair user claimed local taxi drivers often refused to take him.
Jordan Powell, from Worcester, is highly critical of the treatment he's faced on public transport in the city.
"80 percent of the time, they just refuse to take me saying they just haven't got a ramp - despite them having a disabled symbol in their window which indicates they do," the 24-year-old told BBC Hereford & Worcester.
"There was one incident on a night out when the taxi driver asked me if I had my own ramp!"
A great photo of Hollybush in Worcestershire this morning, courtesy of Weather Watcher Bez.
If you want to show us how it's looking where you are, you can sign up to be a BBC Weather Watcher here.
Image source, Bez
