16/02/2014 Midlands Today

Good evening. The Environment Agency is warning

that river levels in Herefordshire and Worcestershire are still

unstable despite today's drier weather. They're predicted to

fluctuate across the two counties over the next 24 hours, but not to

the extent they did last week when record levels were reached. There

are still 41 flood warnings across the region but the numbers are

finally starting to fall, with teams of council workers and volunteers

now beginning to remove tonnes of debris trapped under Worcester

Bridge. Sarah Falkland was there. It was quite the Sunday morning

spectacle, pulling in crowds of onlookers. It is pretty amazing when

you see what it has brought down in what has gotten stuck.

A huge pile of debris, there was all sorts in here, 28 tonnes were

removed in the first hour. It is mainly wood, folks and jetsam but I

have seen a wheelie bin, a beer barrel, a life going, plastic

bottles, much debris. Do not be fooled into thinking this is some

kind of floating island of rubbish because this is the proverbial tip

of the iceberg. All of this degree is about three metres underwater.

The dredging machine operator can't see what he's picking up` he's

relying on guidance of the team and the pile is ever growing. In the

normal way you would let the river go down and take everything away by

a craft on the water but as the road is closed we have an opportunity to

reach down from the top so we thought we would get a deli is fast

as possible. The excavator can reach 18 metres in depth. That is the

perfect kit for getting rid of this. You might also see the difficulty we

have is the lights on the bridge, that is difficult for us to work

around so we need is All the wood will be chipped and made into mulch.

To be very careful. In all they're expecting to take out around 500

tonnes. Sarah Falkland, BBC Midlands Today in Worcester.

And you can get the latest on the flood situation, road closures and

river levels by tuning into your BBC local radio station.

A 20`year`old man from Stratford`on`Avon has been arrested

on suspicion of the murder of a teenager in Oxford. 17`year`old

Connor Tremble was stabbed in Fairacres Road in Oxford on Thursday

night. He was taken to hospital but died yesterday. A 21`year`old man

from Birmingham has also been arrested on suspicion of assisting

an offender. The Chief Executive of HS2 Limited

says Stoke`on`Trent "hasn't been ruled out" in a battle to get a

station on the new high speed rail line linking London, the Midlands

and the North. The city has just submitted its case to get a stop on

the line, but it's facing stiff competition from just 15 miles away,

as BBC Radio Stoke's Political Reporter Phil McCann reports.

It used to be one of Stoke`on`Trent's industrial

powerhouses. Thousands of people produced tonnes of steel at Shelton

Bar in its heyday, but 14 years after it closed, this is all that's

left. The hope now is that HS2 will fill the gap.

The derelict land here would be home to international arrivals, with high

speed trains thundering to London in less than an hour. Unlike councils

in Coventry, Warwickshire and rural Staffordshire, the city council here

is actually fighting for high speed rail. This will actually make

Stoke`on`Trent a core cities, the amount of growth that will happen is

unimaginable. And actually the amount of contribution that in any

links Stoke`on`Trent and Staffordshire can make to the

overall economy of the UK is huge. Local businesses say it'd give this

city the boost it's been waiting for for decades. It will create jobs, it

will bring investment, it will attract new businesses to this great

city. But 15 miles up the road, a

competitor in the shape of a true railway town. Crewe has already

appeared as a stop for some HS2 trains on the government's preferred

route. Stoke's plan would involve dragging the track away, launching

officials here into battle mod. The total connectivity argument that the

government talk about that their capacity argument is enhanced with

what you get from Crewe. It is a good bet, but the real deal is in

Crewe. Despite the initial preference for Crewe, the chief

executive told Sunday politics that they will look at what

Stoke`on`Trent has two offer. We have just completed a public

consultation and I'm sure still have submitted their views to that. The

Secretary of State will make a decision by the end of the year.

Stoke`on`Trent have high hopes they'll win, but it'd mean a

significant change in the government's HS2 strategy. Phil

McCann BBC Midlands Today, Staffordshire.

Onto sport now, and there are a couple of Rugby results for you, in

the Aviva Premiership Gloucester were beaten by Leicester eleven

points to eight. Meanwhile in the Championship

Moseley had a miserable trip to Yorkshire getting thrashed by Leeds

by 62 points to five. Well onto the forecast now and I

suspect there's more on the way, let's get the details now with Sara

Blizzard. It is all changed overnight, we will

see some wet weather and ahead of that weather front it is quite cold

initially, or three degrees the minimum temperature. As soon as the

clouds comes in the temperatures left and we see the first signs of

that weather front. It will be surely an Apache as the weather

works its way northwards and there could be heavy bursts across

Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Daytime temperatures tomorrow in the

region of nine degrees. Quite a murky day with low cloud associated

with this. Tuesday showery and the wind later. When 60s in. I am back

at quarter past 11 after the BAFTAs. Goodbye.

Whilst we are talking about wet and windy weather in the week ahead we

will lose the extremes of last week. The first glow of the week will

approach overnight. Clear skies will cause temperatures to fall awake,

and we are looking at a frost in eastern England and for northern

Scotland with Pitt -- patches of mist and fog. Temperatures will rise

through the night as the cloud comes in and the wind begins to lift and

the rain arrives. The far north of Scotland will get off to a frosty

start. Further south, outbreaks of rain for the rush hour. Rain from

Northern Ireland and across northern England. In the East, contending

with more stubborn patches of fog. Grey skies of East Anglia and the

far south-east of England but essentially