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Quinton police station to extend opening hours

Police in Birmingham are turning back the clock to the days of Dixon of Dock Green. Read

Man continues ashes auction, despite eBay ban

A Warwickshire man who tried auctioning his dad’s ashes on the internet has been stopped by on-line auction site eBay. Read

Residents near M6 expansion offered screens

Black Country residents fighting plans to widen a motorway yards from their homes are to be offered screens and trees to block noise and pollution. Read

Sacked West Bromwich vicar loses appeal to stay in vicarage

A clergyman who refused to leave his vicarage in West Bromwich after being barred from office for having an affair has been given 28 days to leave the property. Read

History neglected in the West Midlands

English Heritage warns many of the region’s conservation areas are at risk, Catherine Lillington reports Read

Yardley MP John Hemming joins campaign to amend smoking ban

Birmingham Yardley MP John Hemming has joined celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson to bolster a campaign aimed at amending the current smoking ban to help the pub and club industry. Read

Eleven bailed after pension fraud arrests

Eleven people arrested across the Midlands and North West as part of a probe into a £2.5 million fraud involving bogus pension schemes have been bailed. Read

Axe falls on nearly 200 jobs at Birmingham old people's homes

Almost 200 men and women running Birmingham City Council’s old people’s homes are to be made redundant. Read

Khyra trial: Hungry boy tried to eat toy food

A child living at the home of a Birmingham couple accused of starving a seven-year-old girl to death was so hungry he tried to eat toy plastic sandwiches. Read

Iconic Midland hotel Chateau Impney offered at cut-price £17.5m

One of the most beautiful hotels in the Midlands is being sold at a cut price because its owner does not have an heir willing to run the business. Read

Birmingham a model for other authorities, says leader Mike Whitby

Local government officials from across the world are making a point of visiting Birmingham to discover how once-failing public services have been transformed, city council leader Mike Whitby has claimed. Read

Lord Mayor flies the flag for Armed Forces Day

A specially commissioned flag has been hoisted in front of the Council House in Birmingham to mark forthcoming Armed Forces Day. Read

West Midland police forces want old, minor offences kept on data base

Old criminal records of minor offences are a valuable tool in the fight against crime and must not be deleted from the national computer database, two West Midlands police forces have told the Court of Appeal. Read

Cut rents or Birmingham shopping arcade closes, tenants warn

Businesses in Birmingham’s Great Western Arcade fear the shopping centre will be empty within two years unless landlords can cut rents. Read

Midland shoppers home in on local produce

Consumers want to see more local produce in supermarkets and an extension of popular farmers’ markets, research by Heart of England Fine Foods (HEFF) has found. Read

Birmingham given its own online musical archive

A dedicated university lecturer has devoted himself to preserving the city’s musical history by creating an exhaustive online archive. Read

MP John Hemming earns £200k for work with three businesses

A Birmingham MP has revealed he earns £200,000 a year from running a business – on top of his £64,700 Commons salary. Read

Jobs boost in city’s fight to be Ministry of Justice headquarters

The number of jobs likely to be created if a new regional headquarters for the Ministry of Justice is built in Birmingham has increased to 6,000. Read

World must work together on health, Ban Ki-Moon tells Rotary convention

The Secretary-General of the United Nations urged countries not to cut back on health care investment during the global economic downturn as he made a keynote speech to 20,000 Rotarians in Birmingham yesterday. Read

Top Birmingham tennis coach on child porn and sex offence charges

A TOP Midlands tennis coach has appeared in court charged with child porn and sex offences. Read