10/01/2017 Midlands Today

More than 40 years after 21 people were killed in the Birmingham pub

bombings, the victims have been honoured today by being given

The title's usually given to organisations or people

who've served the city in an exceptional way.

The victims' families were at the council house today

Here's our Special Correspondent Peter Wilson.

The families whose loved ones died 42 years ago gathered

Over the years, the pub bomb campaigners often felt

Inside the grand Council chamber of Birmingham's Council House

The City Council posthumously confers on the 21 victims...

The granting of honorary Freedom of the City is normally conferred

Since the Second World War, it's an honour which has usually

We thought it was an appropriate moment to start to do something

which says we will never in this city actually forget those 21

and that we stand with the families, the surviving families,

Nearly 200 people were injured, 21 lost their lives,

when two bombs exploded in crowded pubs in Birmingham in 1974.

Six Irish men were jailed, their wrongful convictions

Because of the controversy surrounding this case,

it has felt in the past as though the city wanted to forget

But today all of that is forgotten and everyone is describing

21 people were murdered 42 years ago and not only were they buried

but we believe the establishment has tried to keep their memories

and their names and their lives and deaths well and truly buried.

But today Birmingham City Council have confirmed that their names,

their lives and their deaths and their memories will be forever

embedded in the history of this city.

Birmingham now follows Liverpool who also bestowed

on those who died in the Hillsborough disaster.

It was quite emotional, just seeing the councillors

all together backing our campaign, it was really quite emotional.

It brought a tear to my eye, to be honest.

What we really need now is all the MPs in the West

We have only got about four at the moment.

That would make all the difference, if we got the MPs behind us.

Today was the first time the city has granted

A record number of patients have waited on trolleys in NHS hospitals

in the first week of the new year, according to data

485 patients waited more than 12 hours.

This time last year only 158 patients had waited that long.

But one of the worst affected for long trolley waits

was the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust.

Our reporter Ben Sidwell is outside the Royal Stoke University

hospital tonight - Ben why is the situation

Well, it has become pretty bad at the moment. Let me try and put it

into context, between April and September last year, at University

hospitals of North Midlands, there were 43 people who waited more than

12 hours on a trolley to have treatment at A If we go to this

January and the first week of this January last Tuesday, 38 out of the

138 cases anywhere in England happened here in Stoke-on-Trent. On

the Thursday they had 33 out of the 71 cases anywhere in England head

and just last Sunday 20 of the 29 cases anywhere in England were here,

so more than two thirds in the entire country happened here where

patients were waiting more than 12 hours. The chief executive of the

trust has said that is due to high levels of ambulance conveyances here

and patients who are medically fit but are unable to be discharged

because there is no waiting care package or anywhere for them to go.

What has been the reaction of patient groups? Well, I have been

speaking to health watch Staffordshire who are an

organisation who monitor health care in the county. They are obviously

very concerned about this and I asked them why they thought it was

happening. We have got a lot more frail,

elderly people in our communities What needs to happen

across the country but particularly here in North Staffordshire

is we have got to get the whole We desperately need more social care

places, we desperately need more people to be able to get home

with the right care and we've got a problem with GPs in Stoke,

there is a great shortage of GPs in Stoke and that means

getting access to those GP Well, the trust say they expect

these pressures to continue for the foreseeable future and the message

is as always if you do not need to come to A please don't, only if it

is a real emergency and a life-threatening emergency or

injury, otherwise get help elsewhere, please. Thank you.

A court's heard a mother of three was strangled by her ex-partner

after she started a relationship with another man.

The body of 26-year-old Wendy Mann was found on her kitchen floor

63-year-old Leroy Sterling denies murder and the attempted

Levels of violence at Hewell Prison in Worcestershire are "far

too high", according to its latest inspection report.

The prison has two parts, a closed jail which holds more

than 1000 male prisoners and an open section,

In the six months between February and August this year,

there were 49 fights involving prisoners and 47 assaults on staff.

In addition, four prisoners have taken their own lives since the jail

The prison is overcrowded and that's a big problem.

It puts a great strain on all the resources that

Certainly Hewell has seen the number of staff cut in

recent years and that has undoubtedly had an effect.

It means prisoners spend longer in their

cells and that can lead to rising tension.

Birmingham city councillor Brigid Jones has confirmed that none

of the witnesses who gave evidence to the council's inquiry

into the Trojan Horse allegations will have their names

Lawyers acting for teachers facing disciplinary action as a result

of allegations there was a hard line Islamic plot to take over city

schools have been pressing for the names of witnesses

in the Department of Education's inquiry to be made public.

A new scheme to get dairy farmers a better deal has been launched

"Black top" milk is the idea of the Free Range Milk Marketing Board.

They want to offer shoppers milk with a distinctive black cap,

which costs 25% more than a standard bottle with the extra money

The contracts are fair, it is a transparent situation,

which enables the farmers to invest in the best cows,

Temperatures in Moscow this week have plummeted to -25 Celsius.

Hard to imagine it being that cold perhaps, but 35 years

ago it was even colder than that in Shropshire.

In fact, it was colder than the South Pole.

Rebecca Wood has been looking into those record

The West Midlands was blanketed in snow.

Temperatures across the region widely fell to -20

And here at Harper Adams University in Shropshire, a record

It was this weather station where the mercury dropped to -26.1

Celsius and that's still the lowest recorded temperature in England.

Grounds manager Mark Wall remembers the moment

It was just another cold night and of course it wasn't until days

later when all the rest of the data was in from around the country that

actually here, Harper Adams, was the coldest spot in England

Although the official reading was made in Newport,

it was originally attributed to Shawbury, where at the RAF base,

That day, it was too cold to even go out

Everyone turned up for work and made their way to work

but they didn't go out in the aircraft that day.

The base has its own dedicated Met Office staff because not flying

Well, that's down to a series of circumstances.

A perfect storm, whereby you combine all the factors, you have cold air,

ideal cooling conditions, plenty of snow on the ground,

good local geography, so all those factors combined

with the period of cold weather leading up to that,

With heavy snow, travel across the region was virtually

impossible and even the river Avon froze.

There's snow forecast later this week and chilly northerly winds,

so we're in for a cold snap, but perhaps not as chilly as 1982.

Certainly not! Good evening to you. It was quite mild today,

temperatures were up to nine Celsius but there was a lot of cloud around

and plenty of dry weather. To round off the day we had this beautiful

sunset in Staffordshire. However, by Thursday we have got a warning in

place for the afternoon, from the morning actually, for snowfall

heritage, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire. There is a small

chance it could turn into something more substantial and it is being

caused by an area of rain crossing the south of the country, colliding

with colder air streaming down from the North. It is going to be

difficult to pin down the detail. The night, it was mild today and it

will be mild the night under that out. Temperatures will be six or

seven Celsius. Dry initially before we start to the patchy rain from the

West. That is how we start the day tomorrow. Clarity begin with, the

best of the temperatures in the morning then colder north-westerly

winds, which will drag the temperatures down. Then we have the

wind is coming down by Friday, producing a widespread frost in the

Saturday morning. The National forecast is next. With

of the week, and to start the weekend as well. For more on that

snow situation, over to Jay Wynne now.

Quite a lot going on over the next few days. The strong north-westerly

wind will drag some really cold Arctic air across our shores full

stop that will be with us for the next few days. And there will be

some wintry weather and it will be a cold end to the week. In the

short-term, the strong winds pushing the rain away from Scotland. The

winds really picking up in the north and west with frequent showers

following into Scotland and Northern Ireland, some of them wintry over

the higher ground. It will be particularly cold in the wind, which

will be a key feature of things