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

Alex Gilliead heads the winner as Shrewsbury beat 10-man Accrington 1-0 to register a second League One victory of the season.

A former nurse says there was no culture of learning at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.

Rebecca Wood
BBC Midlands Today

It's expected to be a cloudy night with patchy light rain and drizzle, with lows of 9C (48F).

The man in charge of Shropshire's two main hospitals has warned that putting them into special measures could harm front-line services.

Local Conservative MPs Lucy Allan and Mark Pritchard have both called for the NHS to take the action, following the decision to close Telford's accident and emergency department overnight.

Simon Wright says the decision was made in the interests of patient safety, because the trust didn't have enough staff to man two A&E departments 24-hours a day.

And he said that while he'd welcome any help, he was guarded against any increased regulation.

BBC Sport

Telford Tigers fans welcome back their giant Canadian forward Doug Clarkson this weekend, a year after he announced he was retiring and moving back to Canada.

He had been training to become a firefighter in Ontario, but said he wanted to give ice hockey in the UK one more try.

The 6ft 5in Clarkson scored 50 goals in his last season for the team and he believes the Tigers have "a team to win a lot of trophies this year".

He said he's "very excited to be back" and is enjoying being back with the team again, adding: "They're just all a good group of guys and like to have a laugh and it should be fun."

A mini "beach" has been created in Bishops Castle today to highlight the problems caused by the use of plastic.

It will have plastic items hidden in the sand pit, for local school children to fish out during the day.

The town is bidding to become the first inland town to gain "plastic free community status" and today's event is all part of raising awareness.

Communities must hit a number of targets to be considered plastic-free, including getting local businesses to avoid single-use plastics.

The head of nursing at Shropshire's two main hospitals says her team is under "enormous pressure" because of staffing shortages.

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust says it needs at least 15 more nurses as well as extra doctors to adequately staff its two accident and emergency departments and last week decided to close the Telford A&E overnight, in the interests of patient safety.

Image source, SATH

Deirdre Fowler said the trust was doing everything it could to support the nursing staff it has and that they remain "dedicated and committed to patient safety".

The chief executive of Shropshire's two main hospitals says taking the decision to close Telford's accident and emergency department overnight has probably been the "hardest decision" of his career.

But Simon Wright repeated the argument that the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust was forced into the move because a shortage of doctors and nurses had made it unsafe to run two A&E departments 24 hours a day.

The Telford MP, Lucy Allan, says she will ask Health Education England and NHS Improvement to transfer staff from neighbouring hospital trusts.

But Mr Wright said they'd already tried this, adding: "I'm afraid the difficulty is that at the moment almost every A&E in the land is short of these middle-grade doctors."

Earlier this week, the trust said it needed an "absolute minimum" of seven extra middle-grade doctors and 15 more nurses to keep the A&E open 24 hours a day.

Shropshire Star

Here are some of the stories featuring on the Shropshire Star this morning:

• 'Chaos' warning as Shrewsbury road to close for a week for latest work, external
• Badger cull has crossed over into Shropshire, campaigners say, external
• Former Whitchurch care home could be turned into flats, external

The leader of City of Wolverhampton Council has voiced serious concern about the impact on the city's main hospital when Telford's emergency unit closes overnight.

Last week the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust board ruled the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford would suspend services overnight because of staff shortages.

New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton has already taken on extra patients after Stafford closed its A&E from 22:00.

Roger Lawrence said the extra burden wasn't fair on staff and could impact on patient care.

Rich Davis
BBC Weather presenter

Any early areas of mist and fog will clear leaving a dry and fine day, with highs of 19C (66F).

Avian malaria means there is a penguin enclosure at the attraction but no real birds to go in it.

Shefali Oza
BBC Midlands Today

It should be a mainly dry night, with some mist and shallow fog patches towards tomorrow morning with lows of 13C (55F).

More than 1,000 people have signed a council petition, external, calling on the government to intervene to keep Telford's A&E department open overnight.

The Labour-run local authority says the government has the power to solve the staffing-crisis which has led to the closure plan, but claims "Telford and Shropshire appears to have been ignored".

Image source, SATH

The petition, which was launched this afternoon, is on the government's own website and if more than 10,000 people sign it, the government will have to respond.

If 100,000 people sign it, the issue will have to be debated in Parliament.

The campaign to raise £500,000 for a Broseley boy with a rare form of leukaemia is approaching the half-way mark, his supporters say.

The family of four-year-old Zac Oliver want the money to pay for pioneering treatment in the USA after being told he can't have it on the NHS.

Last week thousands of people wore red in support of Zac and more fundraising events are planned.

Supporters include Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits.

The Telford MP says Shropshire's hospitals have approached NHS England, to ask if it had the powers to post doctors at hospitals in need - and keep the Telford A&E open overnight.

Lucy Allan and a number of councillors from the town have met hospital leaders today, to express their concern about the planned overnight closure of Telford's accident and emergency department.

Mrs Allan said the representatives from the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust "listened carefully to all the concerns" raised by Labour, Conservative and Independent representatives.

And she said she would follow up the suggestion about emergency postings up with health ministers.

Shropshire Star

Here are three headlines from today's Shropshire Star:

• Cyclist killed as crash closes Shrewsbury road, external
• Emergency summit over Shropshire hospital concerns, external
• Raiders caused £27,000 damage in Newport school burglary, external

A cyclist has died in a crash involving a car last night.

Emergency services were called to Wenlock Road, Shrewsbury, shortly after 21:00.

Despite the best efforts of paramedics the man died at the scene, said the ambulance service.

A road running through the centre of a village near Newport, in Shropshire, has been closed, after a large hole appeared.

The hole in Church Aston, started out just three inches wide, villager Colin Thacker said, but is now more than five feet wide.

Local councillor Andrew Eade said it was a mystery, but a local historian believed it may have been caused by a culvert dug into the sandstone in the 1780s or 1790s, although it does not appear on any maps.

"It's something nobody knew was there and has been there for probably 230 years," he said.

He added that he was "staggered" that it had been undetected for so many years and that there may be "huge safety issues" with gas mains and other building work running over it.