08/02/2014 Midlands Today

a slight slip off the rails. Much more throughout the evening on

the BBC News channel. We Good evening. Heavy rain and high

winds have battered the region, causing travel disruption and

damage. Roads have been blocked by fallen trees and trains cancelled

due to damaged power lines. There's an increasing risk of flooding in

rural areas. A woman and three dogs had to be rescued from their home in

Kemsey, near Worcester, last night. Homes and businesses are also under

threat in nearby Severn Stoke where a makeshift flood barrier has been

erected around the village pub. The heavy rain is further bad news for

farmers in Shropshire whose land has been under floodwater for weeks, as

Lindsay Doyle reports. Hayes Farm at Melverley on the

Shropshire`Welsh border. Fields flooded, winter wheat already washed

away and plans for planting spring crops being pushed later and later.

The last two years, it has got a lot worse. We lost a lot of spring

planting last spring and then we had to replant it and lost it again due

to the flooding. As you can see, we have planted autumn crops and that

has also flooded. Not good, really. Water which has been cascading over

the dam at Lake Vyrnwy Reservoir in Mid Wales has sparked fears that

more rain will cause more flooding as it feeds into the River Vyrnwy

joining the River Severn near Melverley. Unfortunately for the

farmers, it has been time after time over the last four to six days that

they have had so much water and it is now starting to interfere with

their farming. This farm has brought its capital in for the winter as

floods become more common. That again is just another cost to the

farmer. Elsewhere in Shropshire, the flood barriers are up in Ironbridge.

The Environment Agency is stressing in spite of high river levels, the

barriers are ensuring that it's business as usual today in the

historic town. Hundreds of people have taken part

in a protest march in Shrewsbury against the culling of badgers.

Protestors are calling on the Government not to approve any

further culls. Last year over 2,000 badgers were killed in a pilot

project in Gloucestershire and Somerset. Activists claim farmers

can reduce TB in cattle without killing badgers. We want to find

alternatives. We can vaccinate badgers and cows and farmers can

take measures to control the movements of cattle and better TV

testing. You combine those things, you can reduce TB in cattle

significantly without killing battles. `` without killing badgers.

Onto today's football now. In the Premier League, Aston Villa suffered

their eighth home defeat of the season, losing 2`0 to West Ham. West

Bromwich Albion slipped into the relegation zone, beaten 3`1 by

Crystal Palace. And Stoke drew 2`2 with Southampton.

In the Championship, Birmingham City won 2`0 at Charlton to move nine

points above the bottom three. It was a bad day for our League One

clubs. Coventry City suffered a disappointing 3`0 defeat at Notts

County, Port Vale lost 3`2 at home to Swindon, Shrewsbury were beaten

2`0 by Sheffield United and Walsall lost 3`0 to MK Dons. Wolves' match

at Stevenage was postponed. Finally, in League Two, Burton

Albion won 1`0 at Morecambe, while Cheltenham drew 0`0 at York City.

At the Winter Olympics, the Coventry`born army corporal Amanda

Lightfoot will be the first Midlands athlete to compete when she takes

part in tomorrow's biathlon sprint. Amanda who now lives in the North

East says she's looking forward to the start of competition. I hope to

achieve my best ever result while I am in Sochi and that would be a

fantastic achievement for me. It would be great to be within the top

30 of the field. That would be me reaching my goal. The pursuit race,

it is achievable. So, as yet more storms and bad

weather move across the region, let's get the very latest forecast

now with Mel Coles. Strong winds and showers continue to

work in this evening. Yellow warning in force across Warwickshire,

Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Some of the showers

will be lively. The risk of hail and thunder. Temperatures overnight will

drop to around four or five degrees. Further showers on the cards first

thing tomorrow. The winds will be fairly strong. They will ease

slightly but Sunday remains a breezy dray. `` day. Showers sporadic. We

should see some brightness. Karma on Monday. Wet and windy on Tuesday.

Our next bulletin is that 5:50pm tomorrow. Have a good Saturday

night. Good evening. Unfortunately I don't

have much good news in this forecast. There may be a brief

respite later tomorrow with the wind and the rain but it will not be long

enough and we have today's storm withers, pounding many coastlines in

the south and west, hence the Amber wind warning from the Met Office. It

is a windy day across the board and it is not just the wind that is a

concern. It is causing high waves, damaging winds, but there is more

shower activity, hail, thunder and snow in the north and the potential

for another 10-20 millimetres of rain in parts of Wales, the

south-west, perhaps some persistent showers in the south-east, coupled

with those rather lively wins. They hold the temp Richard tonight but

there could be ice in Scotland, given that we have wintry showers

Wash they hold the temperatures up to. Here is the respite. The shower

frequency edges down in