Sophie Anderson's affection for Ironbridge power station led to her getting it tattooed on her ankle.

Shropshire Star

Here are three headlines from the Shropshire Star today:

• Pair deny attacking Telford taxi driver minutes before fatal crash, external
• Council should sue over Pride Hill revamp hold-ups, says MP, external
• Shrewsbury Toys R Us store sold as part of £30.5 million deal, external

Steam trains are returning to the Severn Valley Railway after being taken out of service over fire safety concerns.

The fire service was called out on 8 July to attend a number of small blazes which broke out along the line.

Today, the heritage railway said it had carried out a "detailed fire risk review" and concluded it was safe to run two of its locomotives.

They will go back into service from today and the railway said it would be "carrying out daily monitoring and fire risk assessments" to see if the rest of its fleet could return to the rails soon.

Sandy Lyle laments a spot of 'bunker trouble' after his opening round in his likely final Open unravels in Carnoustie's sand traps.

Police say budget cuts are making it more difficult to investigate. Find out how your force is doing.

The former Toys 'R' Us store in Shrewsbury has been sold to an unnamed retailer.

FI Real Estate Management said it was one of six properties belonging to the chain, sold off in a £30.5m deal.

Three of them - Shrewsbury, Cardiff and Liverpool - have been bought by one firm.

Image source, Google

The asset and property management company said "the six properties sold to date reflect the healthy appetite for prime sites".

The New Saints owner Mike Harris has taken to Twitter to call for an apology from Shropshire Council after it admitted mistakes were made in relation to a £80,000 grant made to the football club.

In a tweet, which has since been deleted from his personal account, he also insisted the money was not a loan and "not repayable if its terms are met".

Shropshire Council has said a condition of the "legacy grant" being issued was that TNS was, in return, "required to deliver a grant of £16,000 each year, over a five-year period" and that "TNS’ compliance with the terms of the grant is in dispute".

And the authority went on to say: "The council believes that the grant arrangements were legal and in compliance State Aid Rules."

Mr Harris also criticised the council investigation into the grant, saying it "never gained all the facts never came to our offices for copies of the council staffs emails that have possibly been left out".

And he went on to say "The damage to Oswestry in terms of attracting investment and jobs will be uncountable will think twice before creating any more business in area".

Andy Giddings
BBC News

Water is being pumped out of the River Severn into the pool at The Dingle in Shrewsbury, because low water levels are putting fish in danger.

It's being carried out by Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service, which says the operation could take several hours and it is working with Shrewsbury Town Council.

Over the past few weeks the Environment Agency has rescued hundreds of fish from rivers in Shropshire and Herefordshire and says it is also concerned about high water temperatures, which reduces the oxygen content.

A woman from Telford has had an image of the Ironbridge power station cooling towers tattooed on her ankle, because she was "heartbroken" over plans for the towers' demolition.

Image source, Sophie Anderson

The decommissioned power plant, in Buildwas, has been a feature of the Shropshire landscape since the 1960s, has been sold to a regeneration company, and is set to be demolished.

Sophie Anderson, from Ketley said when she heard of the plans "it broke my heart".

"When I was younger and I couldn't sleep, or if I'd been naughty I'd always ask my mum to go and see the chimneys, so it's always been a memory for me.

"It's going to be a childhood memory that's gone.

"At least when they're gone I can look at my leg and see they're still there."

A "lost" kitchen has been found at Stokesay Castle in Shropshire after the recent heatwave revealed its outline.

The long, dry spell caused grass immediately on top of the foundations to discolour more than the surrounding lawn.

Image source, English Heritage

Much of the 13th Centurty fortified manor is intact, with English Heritage describing it as "the finest and best-preserved fortified medieval manor house in England".

However, it's unclear why and when the kitchen disappeared.

Georgina Bishop, from English Heritage, said staff had always known there was a kitchen in the area thanks to a sketch by local woman Francis Stackhouse Acton in the 19th Century.

Rich Davis
BBC Weather presenter

After a misty start for some, it should be a fine day with plenty of sunshine and highs of 27C (81F).

A clock tower in Telford which was erected when the Priorslee estate was built in the early 1980s is going to be dismantled and replaced.

St Georges and Priorslee Parish Council said the work would be carried out next week and a "replacement clock feature" will take its place next spring.

Image source, Google

The council said the tower, which has been fenced off in February because of safety concerns, "was constructed out of low grade building materials that had a limited lifetime" and that it is now beyond repair.

Ben Godfrey
BBC Midlands Today

Lentils could be grown commercially in the UK for the first time, if a trial in Shropshire proves successful.

The pulse is traditionally grown in India and North Africa, but this long spell of very warm, humid weather has brought near-perfect conditions to develop the crop on farmland in Ellesmere.

Firefighters have removed the roof from a lorry to rescue a trapped horse.

They were called to Bicton, near Shrewsbury, at 08:43 and it took them nearly two hours to lift the animal out.

Image source, Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service

Image source, Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service

The latest news, sport, travel and weather across the West Midlands and south Cheshire.

An extra £600,000 will be spent on road safety schemes around 35 schools in Telford.

Telford and Wrekin Council says it will spend the money on projects including traffic-calming measures, 20-mile-an-hour zones and efforts to reduce the number of cars used to take children to school.

Image source, PA

The authority says it hopes to have the measures in place by the end of next summer.

It is also working on plans to take over parking-enforcement powers from the police next year, saying those new powers will help it target problem-parking around schools more effectively.

Faith Page
Reporter, BBC Shropshire

A south Shropshire councillor is calling on the local authority to abandon plans to charge for on-street parking in Ludlow until 20:00 in the evening.

Image source, Google

Liberal Democrat Andy Boddington says the market town's been "shafted".

Councillor Boddington wants the plans to be delayed until further talks happen.

Cannabis plants with a street value put at £150,000 have been found by police who raided a property in Wellington, Shropshire, this morning.

West Mercia Police said between 200 and 300 plants had been seized along with a "substantial amount of dried cannabis".

Image source, West Mercia Police

Image source, West Mercia Police

The first of four stone chambers is now complete at the site of a modern-day long barrow at Soulton Hall near Wem.

It has stone pillars, shelves and a domed roof, and will house people's cremated ashes as an alternative to modern memorials and cemeteries.

The chamber is aligned to be lit by sunrise on the summer solstice and the sunset on the winter solstice and the first chamber is already 40% reserved.

Derek Whyteside, 42, died after being assaulted in Telford on 18 June.