24/10/2016 Midlands Today

Good evening. 11pm

"Gutted and devastated" - the words of one

tenant farmer in Herefordshhre, who's been ordered to leave the farm

which has been his livelihood for more than a decade.

Steve Clayton is one of mord than 40 tenant farmers who rented their land

Herefordshire Council is selling the farms because of the financial

pressures it's under to provide essential servicds.

For 29 years, tenant farmer Steve Clayton has built

up his 200 strong flock of ewes from scratch but his

145 acre in Herefordshire is one of 45 to be

Steve and his fellow farmers had been told they should get

the chance to carry on farmhng under a new landlord.

Instead, they have now been given notice to quit

on February 1st before a buyer has been found.

They are all disappointed, very upset, wondering how

they see their livelihoods, considering we were given

the insurance we would have a new landlord

They are devastated and feel the council has completely

Herefordshire Council says it is having to sell the farms

because it is coping with an ever increasing bill for care

It says it is offering financial help to the affected farmers

so they can seek advice on possibly buying the farms themselves.

Some tenants on special deals will be able

to stay on but a third, including Steve, have no

idea where they will be next year.

All our hard work for the p`st 9 years will be gone, all our

livestock, sheep and cattle we have built up,

which are homebred, will be gone.

Steve s partner is a seamstress used to working in the

area and worried about the looming upheaval to their lives.

And we are in a location where we really love being.

I've got a little job sewing and so I wouldn't like to h`ve

to move away and leave that at my time of life.

Tenant farms are seen as a good way of introducing

But the council says in this case, a sell off is the best

There's been a sharp rise in cases of hospital bed blocking

It happens when a patient is fit to be discharged,

The average number of days patients are left waiting has gone up

by almost a third over the past two years.

Our reporter Giles Latcham is in Staffford.

The figures show problems at their most acute over

the summer in Gloucestershire, Coventry and in Birmingham.

There are problems too here in Stafford,

First, our health correspondent Michele Paduano,

has been to meet one patient who had to wait thrde weeks

before being discharged from the Queen Elizabeth

Garvey Humphrey is fiercely independent.

At 91, he still drives and lives alone.

But when he went into the Queen Elizabeth Hospital,

Three weeks spent unnecessarily in hospital, then stuck

in a community bed for want of a food parcel and a

I wanted to look after myself. I'm capable of doing it.

I believe if I was looked after long-term, I would lose

the will to carry on because having things

done for you is not the samd as doing them yourself.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham has seen an 8$ rise

The hospital says that the number of beds it can send patients out

to in the community has fallen by about a quarter

councils are finding it difficult to get

patients out of those beds into permanent care beds.

So there is a double bed blocking situation and

with winter coming, that can only get worse.

Back in Birmingham, the charity, Home from

Hospital Care has looked after 1400 people this year.

But it could lose its funding by Christmas.

If we did not get funded, it would leave a huge gap and it

would cost the NHS and the local authority

So how do we stop patients, like Mr Humphrey, getting trapped?

And, Giles, there are strong feelings there in Stafford.

Yes, problems are brewing in Staffordshire too.

Pressures on budgets are le`ding to the closure of beds

168 in the north of the county alone, the latest at risk, 64 beds

There was a demonstration here this afternoon,

It was here outside the council offices,

timed to coincide with the Healthy Staffordshire

Protestors told us the safety of patients is at stake.

Without breaking any confidentiality, we have patients

on our ward that have been waiting three weeks for packages of care.

So if these people are discharged home to be assessed for these

packages, our worry and fear is that they're going to come to harm

Bradwell's had a short reprheve but elsewhere 47 beds

have gone at Cheadle, 37 at Longton Cottage

The problem is these are the so-called step downs,

where a patient can go if they're not quite ready to return home.

Remove those beds and presstre intensifies on hospitals

The number of beds blocked there has quadrupled in a year.

A 28-year-old man from Coventry s been cautioned for religiously

aggravated criminal damage in connection with an inciddnt

55 people were arrested after a protest against intdrfaith

weddings and the management of the temple

Officers say three have been re-bailed.

A 31-year-old from Oldbury will face no further action.

Commuters are facing 12 days of disruption,

as Bromsgrove train station closes on Wednesday for the latest phase

The ?24 million station opened to the public in August.

Network Rail say the work whll allow the Bromsgrove to Birminghal

Bus replacement services will run for 12 days.

The daughter of the West Bromwich Albion striker, Jeff Astle,

says she's shocked by the fhndings of new research into

the damage caused to players by heading a football.

Her father was 59 when he dhed, he was diagnosed with

Stirling University discovered even a limited amount of heading

has an immediate effect on the brain's functions.

He was the King of the Hawthorns and Jeff Astle still

dominates the entrance to West Bromich Albion's ground

But his death in 2002 from a degenerative brain dhsease

was directly linked by a coroner to repeatedly heading the b`ll.

His family have campaigned tirelessly for more research

on the subject and today there was fresh impetus.

Stirling University got a group of footballers to each

head the ball 20 times, then tested their brain function

We found that after heading the ball, the release of inhibitory

The brain functions return to normal within 24 hours and the scidntists

admit more investigation is needed on the long-term affects.

That's just what the Astle family have been pushing the footb`ll

It's something that needs to be done, it needs to be done correctly

and it certainly needs to bd done by the right people and then once

the results are there for everybody to see,

it needs to be made clear to everybody so that footballers now

or in the future can make informed choices.

Dawn is due to meet with the FA again next month

There has been a dramatic ddcline in the number of hedgehogs.

The Wildlife Trust for Birmhngham and the Black Country

is working on a project to preserve their numbers.

Slug pellets, increased traffic and a lack of wildlife

corridors have been blamed for their decline.

Nationally, numbers have fallen by 30% in just over ten years.

There have been suggestions of a possible extension

to Birmingham Airport, by the chairman of the

There's growing speculation that Birmingham will be earmarked

for future expansion, alongside the Government's

announcement tomorrow on whether Heathrow or Gatwhck

But environmental campaigners say a second runway at Birmingh`m

We'll have more on this on tomorrow's Midlands Today and BBCWM.

That's all from me, I'll le`ve you with the forecast from Shefali.

Good evening. It was a rathdr greedy today but at least it was dry,

particularly across central and northern part of the region. The odd

spot of rain here and in thd south. The rest of the week is looking

settled because high pressure will largely be in control. It whll

become milder because we lose the easterly breeze whhch we

have seen for much of the month so far and gain our Westerly which is

what we would normally expect. During the days, there will be some

sunshine. For tonight, we'rd looking at... Just the odd missed pttt here

and there and in rural Scots particularly temperatures m`y just

fall. Into the morning tomorrow and this rain will quickly go away. It

is looking dry for the rest of the day. We may see glimmers of

brightness and sunshine. Sole light easterly winds. Then we start to

notice the effects of those winds turning gradually to a safe Westerly

by Wednesday. Tomorrow night, temperatures falling to ten or 1

Celsius. A lot of cloud and more widespread mist and fog arotnd as

well. In the odd pocket, we could get some frost, were in rur`l spots.

Wednesday, some sunshine on offer are ones that mist and fog has

disbursed during the morning. A bit more of a breeze for the sotth-west.

Temperatures down to 16 Celsius 14 Celsius in the north. Morally breeze

on Thursday. Thursday and Friday are looking drive.

around 60 degrees. Towards the weekend, more of the same, mainly

dry and feeling very mild. Now your national weather.

Good evening, major changes in the weather over the next couple of

days, the result being it will turn milder by day and also by night A

breeze picking up, a westerly, something we have not seen much of

this month. But there will not be a great deal of rain around. We did

have rain today across the south-west, leaden skies in Bristol,

not much of a sunset here, but the different North of the border. Fiery

skies here and it is turning chilly, a frost in the Highlands. Underneath

the clear skies. Across Southern parts of England into the Midlands

and parts of Wales, more cloud. Patchy rain towards the South East.

Heavy at at times along the South coast but temperatures do not fall

much. Northern Wales and Northern England, a different story. Frost

not just in Scotland, also in Northern Ireland. And we will find

fog forming as well. Most of Scotland starts off dry and