The busy hall, originally built as a school and chapel, has been at risk of closure since regular church services ceased there in 2010. The Church of England Trust had considered selling the historic building, but an agreement has been reached with the local community to appoint new trustees to manage the hall. The red…

A holidaymaker who suffered a heart attack as he flew home to the Midlands has been reunited with the Birmingham Airport police officers who helped save his life. David Jackson collapsed as he waited for his luggage after arriving on a flight from Majorca last October. Officers from the airport policing unit raced to help…

The men were arrested as part of an on-going investigation into the activities of a West Midlands based building company in relation to allegations of fraud. In a joint exercise between the West Midlands Regional Fraud Team, The Central England Regional Trading Standards Scambuster Team, Birmingham City Trading Standards and Solihull Trading Standards, four warrants…

A woman has revealed how she had a rugby ball-sized cyst removed while battling a rare cancer that made her look nine months pregnant. Lyn Perrett, 53, from Shirley, was originally diagnosed as having irritable bowels when she went to her GP with chronic stomach pains in January last year. When the pain returned and…

Two disabled brothers threatened with eviction have won their fight to stay in their home of 34 years. Richard and Frank Smith signed a new tenancy deal with Solihull Council – two months after the authority threatened to kick them out of their home in Chelmsley Wood. The brothers were ordered out even though money…

After planning her mountaineering and charity challenge with military precision, the 16-year-old corporal in the school’s Combined Cadet Corps raised £1,300 to take part in Exercise Kenya Venturer after turning her home into a tea shop. More than 70 supporters, including the mayor of Solihull Coun Joe Tildesley and wife Joan, tucked into the full…

More than 160 objections and 180 submissions of support were sent to Solihull Council after the application for the village of Catherine-de-Barnes. It is understood the businessman behind the application felt planning conditions meant he could not afford to go through with the project. Read the full story here: http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-26524929.

The millionaire Italian said he remained open to doing a deal with Carson Yeung, who was convicted of five £57 million money laundering charges in Hong Kong. Paladini earlier fought a war of words with acting St Andrew’s chairman Peter Pannu over his bid to do a deal but this week he told of his…

Naomi Watson refused all offers of chemotherapy and radiotherapy and the 55-year-old, from Dorridge, also turned down a second operation at Solihull Hospital after the scandal over Paterson’s ‘cleavage-sparing’ mastectomies broke. “I didn’t want another operation after what had happened, even though the doctors recommended it,” she said. “I had already chosen to go down…

A knife-wielding man who went on a rampage in Sheldon, forcing his way into two houses and holding a terrified woman at knifepoint on New Year’s day, has avoided a jail sentence. Paranoid schizophrenic Miles Nunes was spotted by a pensioner, standing in his garden, holding a shovel. Andrew Jackson, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court…