05/07/2014 Midlands Today

Campaigners fighting to stop Birmingham Airport introduchng new

flight paths over their villages are to take their battle to Westminster

Residents in Balsall Comon `nd Hampton`in`Arden say trials taking

place at the moment have blhghted their homes and their lives.

It's work on the ground that aims to change what's happening in the air.

The past two months have sedn a change in the flight paths

It's just a trial, but it hasn't gone down well.

The maps that they have used our Ordnance Survey maps and ard out of

date. It does not even show the development. In the house whth the

doors close, you know when one has gone past. When I am in bed, I can

hear them and I can't get to sleep. Campaigners want

the government to stop the trials. They say they have another option to

fly over open countryside Residents say that these new flight

paths are putting them on edge. They will fight for their peace `nd

quiet. A ?35 million runway opened

by the Prime Minister becomds fully operational at the end of this month

and Birmingham Airport says it's trying to find the best way of

managing the new traffic whhch they say will create thousands of jobs

in the future. But with new flight paths above and a plan to rtn HS2 `

the High speed rail link ` through, This place could be horribld. You

could have HS2 on one side `nd the airport on the other. We ard being

squeezed by noise. The petition goes to Parlialent next

week to stop the trials but as the airport grows,

so will the number of flights. Warwickshire Police are warning the

public to be on their guard about unsolicited phone calls aftdr an

89`year`old woman from Atherstone Scammers posed as police

and officials from her bank, telling her there was

a problem with her account. They then tricked into transferring

her money to another account. Despite budget cuts,

Coventry City Council says ht has no intention of cancelling the

Godiva Festival in future ydars The annual event got underw`y last

night and organisers are hoping to attract more than

a 125,000 people through thd gates It's a free event with more than 150

acts taking to the stage ovdr Last night despite

the rain, 12,000 packed in to watch local band The Selecter perform some

of their greatest hits. It's always wonderful to be asked to

do something in Coventry and it is a free festival, one of the vdry few

in the country. Staging the event costs the Council

?300,000 at a time when thex're But they estimate it brings in

?4.5 million to the local economy. We see it as a promotion for

Coventry and the surrounding areas. The way I see it is that if we were

to invest in an advertising campaign for the area we would properly spend

a lot more than that. He also dismissed the idea

of charging for entry ` but plenty of people told us they'd

be more than happy to pay. Who would go to Glastonbury when you

have this? I would come to something locally because you could go home

quickly. The minute you makd people start to pay, it would not have the

same attraction as it does now. And with the sunshine making

an appearance today too, organisers are hoping to top last year's

record attendance of 125,000. On Ladies' Final day at Wimbledon,

one of the most famous tennhs dresses in the world has sold

for ?15,500 at an auction. It was made by a 12`year`old

Stourbridge schoolgirl, Carol Knotts, and

featured on one of the best`selling The dress, along with two posters

and a tennis racquet, was bought Now the Midlands weather,

with Charlie Slater. Not a bad evening. We should see

some sunshine before the sun goes down. It is mainly dry, quite clear.

When we go through into Sunday, lots of sunshine around in the fhrst part

of the day. In the afternoon, there will be a few showers. But there are

few and far between. Then they go back into the new working wdek, it

should be mainly dry. Midlands Today is back at 6pm

tomorrow. Bye`bye. Good evening. It looks like for most

of us the weather will be fairly similar to what we saw today. The

broad themes throughout this weekend, sunny spells and scattering

of showers, but