Charlie Slater
BBC Weather presenter

A generally dry day with some bright and sunny spells, with highs of around 10C (50F).

You can find the latest forecasts for your area from the BBC Weather website.    

Allen Cook
BBC Local Live

Morning everyone, it's a bright, sunny start to Thursday - this was Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent just before 07:30.

We'll have today's weather forecast for you shortly and there'll be updates on the day's news, sport, travel and more.

I'll also feature more of your pictures of Staffordshire and Cheshire so keep sending them in on email or, if you use Instagram, put them there with the tag #bbcstoke if you agree to share, external.

We'll be back with our usual mix of news, sport, travel and weather from 08:00 tomorrow, but keep an eye out here for more updates this evening and into the morning. 

Perry Spiller
Presenter, BBC Radio Stoke

One of the women involved with a trial that sees pregnant women given shopping vouchers to encourage them to stop smoking says it has given her an incentive to quit. 

Image source, Ian Hooton/Science Photo Library

The scheme in Stoke-on-Trent is running until the end of March and offers the vouchers if women, referred to the stop smoking service, opt into an incentive scheme and set a quit date. 

They can't be spent on alcohol or tobacco and Siobhan Brinnall, who is expecting a child in July, told BBC Radio Stoke she joined the trial after saying she would stop for a while.

Sian Grzeszczyk
Staffordshire Reporter, BBC Midlands Today

This evening on Midlands Today we'll have reaction to the jailing of a man for the 2001 abduction of a child, after his DNA came up on a police database over a drink-drive offence. 

Image source, Staffordshire Police

Sixteen years ago Arnold Baxter, 72, from Bath Street, Rugby kidnapped and indecently assaulted a six-year-old girl from a village in Staffordshire. 

I was in court and I'll have the full story plus reaction from 18:30 on BBC One.

Lee Thomas
Newsreader, BBC Radio Stoke

Police have been given until next Tuesday, external to question a Stoke-on-Trent man on suspicion of terrorism offences. 

The 39-year-old was arrested in the city yesterday on suspicion of funding terrorism and inviting support for a proscribed organisation. 

Detectives from the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit say they've had court permission for him to be detained for an extra five days, until 21 February.

They will be funded by Staffordshire's Police and Crime Commissioner and rolled out within weeks.

BBC Derby Sport

England manager Gareth Southgate opened the £1m all-weather community pitch and pavillion in Burton yesterday, next to the Pirelli Stadium.

Shefali Oza
BBC Midlands Today

There will be some outbreaks of rain this evening but then it will be a dry night for many. 

In sheltered areas we could see some patchy mist and frost though with lows of 2C (36F).

Tomorrow, there'll be some bright spells with the chance of the odd isolated shower in places.  

Sarah Bishop
BBC Midlands Today

Fatbergs are a massive problem, costing £20m a year. 

Clogged up grease and discarded wipes are a big headache for Severn Trent as they get stuck in the pipes and cause blockages.

Every year, congealed and compacted oil and grease accounts for three quarters of the 50,000 or so blockages in the Severn Trent area..

Today the water provider Severn Trent Water has been speaking to pupils at Water Mill primary school in Selly Oak about what to bin.... and what to flush

Burton's Ben Turner faces a five-game ban after being charged by the FA for alleged abuse, in racial terms, of a Brentford player.

BBC Radio Stoke

BBC Radio Stoke has announced that Liz Ellis will be their new breakfast show host from Monday 27 February. 

She has been covering the show for Pete Morgan since December and now, with Pete having left, she'll take over fully. 

Lucy King
News Editor, BBC Radio Stoke

Around 150 cannabis plants have been found at rented house, external in Stoke-on-Trent after the owner called police this morning.

Image source, Staffordshire Police

Staffordshire Police say they made the discovery on Heath Street, Goldenhill.

They said Western Power had to make the property safe before they could get in and they're now keen to trace the tenant.

BBC Weather Watchers

Image source, Davethebass

Our BBC Weather Watchers have kept us up to date with the local forecast for their area and they've uploaded photos too.

Here are a couple from Davethebass in Armitage and Thornhill Watch in Hednesford.

Image source, Thornhill Watch

Allen Cook
BBC Local Live

You've been having your say on the news that pregnant women in Stoke-on-Trent are being given shopping vouchers to encourage them to quit smoking.

The city council says the trial, which runs until the end of March, has worked in other areas and the vouchers can't be spent on alcohol or tobacco.

Image source, Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

On the BBC Radio Stoke Facebook page, Alison Moran wrote, external: "As an ex-smoker I know how hard it is to give up but shopping vouchers are more of an incentive than protecting your unborn child?? There is something seriously wrong with that." 

James Ellams added, external: "I smoked for 20+ years. Towards the end I was smoking 30-40 a day. I quit smoking because I found out I was going to be a dad. That was over two years ago. I haven't touched a fag since."

 And Michelle Parker posted, external: "If a woman wants to smoke whilst pregnant that's her right to choose!! Giving 'vouchers' to stop smoking is a waste of time."  

Sian Grzeszczyk
Staffordshire Reporter, BBC Midlands Today

The jailing of a man for the abduction and indecent assault of a child in 2001 has lifted a "shadow" from a community, police say.

At Stafford Crown Court today, Arnold Baxter, 72, of Bath Street, Rugby was jailed for nine years for the kidnap in Barton-under-Needwood.

Det Insp Glyn Pattinson said the crime had "cast a shadow" over the local area for some time and said it was "wonderful news".

He added that the investigation uncovered Baxter's true character, that he was a "sexual predator who put a great deal of effort and time into planning the abduction of the victim".

Daniel Wainwright
Data unit - English regions

One in three new build properties outside London were bought through a flagship scheme for first-time buyers, but just one in 10 in the capital, analysis by BBC News shows.

The Help to Buy Equity Loan was introduced to boost the housing market.

Image source, Getty Images

Since their introduction in 2013 1954 equity loans have been taken out in Staffordshire with the most in Stoke-on-Trent followed by east Staffordshire. 

Within the county, the highest number of loans taken per head of population was in Cannock Chase where the 293 loans was equivalent to 6.9 in every 1,000 households

BBC WM

Some residents in Lichfield say they are disappointed the government has decided to press ahead with a development of more than 700 new homes, despite the the local council turning it down. 

Image source, Google

They've told the BBC they believe the development on farmland off Watery Lane, Curborough was unsustainable and, in 2014, Lichfield District Council rejected the application., external

However the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government said, external the social and economic benefits of providing affordable and market housing are of such importance that they outweigh the environmental harm. 

A 72-year-old man has been jailed for nine years over the abduction of a six-year-old girl from Barton-under-Needwood, in Staffordshire, in 2001.

Customs officers have seized 1,580 litres of wine and 18,100 cans of beer after raiding properties in Birmingham, Dudley, Worcester, Telford, Stoke-on-Trent, Coventry and Wolverhampton.

HMRC says an estimated £20,000 in duty and VAT evaded on the illicit alcohol and they also seized a van, used to transport some of it.

Image source, Getty Images

Officers uncovered more than 10,638 litres of alcohol in the raids on 24 premises.