12/01/2017 Midlands Today

A yellow weather warning is in force across the West Midlands tonight,

with the potential of snow in high areas and ice forming on untreated

Strong winds, after freezing temperatures, will also add

to the possible hazards facing drivers and commuters

Our reporter Ben Sidwell is at Stoke-on-Trent for us now.

As you can see, it is pretty snowy. I'm just outside the city centre

here. A couple of inches have fallen here. I will tell you more about

what is happening around in a moment. But I have been looking at

the first day of winter here in the Midlands.

The first significant snowfall of winter and it was the A53

near Leek on the Staffordshire moorlands that felt it worst.

By mid-afternoon it was spreading further south.

This the scene on the eastern slopes of the Malvern Hills.

The fine dusting settled on the Lickey hills south

of Birmingham, no dramas, but still quite exciting for some.

Well, there is only a bit of it, but it's really nice.

It's the first time she has seen snow, so we brought to have a look!

No rest for the gritters as attention switches

The concern now is ice on untreated roads during tomorrow

Watching all this with more than a passing interest,

a self-styled entrepeteur and inventor.

In the back garden of his home in Kempsey near Worcester,

he designed and built a sledge come skiboard, he calls the Axi-ski.

It was intended as a one-off for his daughters but has gone

into commerical production and sold 27,000 over ths past five years,

It only needs a little bit of snow and it looks like he's got his wish.

We have waited six years for this moment and finally,

the Axi-ski is going to see some action in the UK and I'm so excited

and I know an awful lot of customers of mine are also excited.

In the end, for the rest of us, this much anticipated weather event

But with snow still forecast overnight, it could be a very

different picture in some parts of the Midlands when we wake

Many places in Staffordshire have got a scene like this. I was

travelling up the M6. Conditions are very difficult and gritters are out

across the West Midlands. John Fraser from Worcestershire County

Council told me that they are more worried about the ice and the snow.

That may well turn back to rain and wash away the salt

So we need to keep a very close eye and make sure we are out

and about putting some more salt down because we expect

The snow is falling again. If you don't need to come out and drive,

don't because we have seen a number of cars slipping and sliding

already. It is very icy out here. There will be problems in the

morning, maybe even some school closures. The best thing to do to

get the information is to tune into your local BBC radio station. Ben,

thank you very much. Tributes have been pouring

in to the kindness and talent of the former Aston Villa,

Wolves and England football Every club in the Football League

will hold a minute's applause before this weekend's fixtures,

after it was announced today that the 72-year-old

had died suddenly from Just a warning - Nick Clitheroe's

report contains flash photography. The playing side, and are not just

talking about on the field, I'm talking about it completely,

it's a shambles. What's the point of

saying anything else? Graham Taylor always told it

straight, but he got results too. Within nine months of his arrival

at newly relegated Aston Villa in 1987, he led them to promotion

back to the top flight. With a combination of outstanding

signings and brilliant coaching, he then took Villa agonisingly close

to winning the league title, before being snapped

up by England in 1990. I should never have let him go,

really, but they wanted He was one of the few that

I got on very well with. A well-educated man, articulate,

and always had a smile on his face. I think the key thing

with Graham is, and anybody that worked with him,

the staff at the football clubs, He treated the tea lady,

the man on the door, the same way as he would treat

his multi-million-pound striker. In 1994, Taylor returned to club

football with Wolves. There were only a handful

of clubs who I would have come back into football

for and Wolverhampton Wanderers In his one full season at Molineux

they made it to the promotion playoffs but that was as good

as it got. Behind the scenes, though,

Taylor's role was critical in sowing Graham was very instrumental

in how our academy and youth structure looks today and the plans

that were implemented at that time have meant that we have gone

on to have a strong academy structure, that is largely due

to the work Graham did in the 1990s. Wolves have lowered the flag over

Molineux to half mast and are preparing a special

programme for Saturday's Championship match,

which appropriately is against Both sets of fans will get

the chance to say goodbye to one of the region's best-loved and most

influential football managers. And thank you to all of you who've

been adding your own tributes to Graham Taylor on our Facebook

page at facebook.com/midlandstoday. 44 people have been made redundant

and more than 100 other jobs are still at risk,

after the Redditch firm AMS went AMS, which installs shop interiors,

was founded in 1919. But the administrators KPMG say

the company has faced significant challenges in recent times,

because of increasing competition, and the general pressures

within the retail sector. A pilot scheme to help ease

tensions between students at Coventry University and local

residents is being rolled Student Wardens have been carrying

out patrols since January last year, It follows complaints

about litter and noise nuisance It's thought the university's 30,000

students add ?100 million A charity in Leamington Spa

is appealing for people to donate their winter fuel

allowance, if they can afford it, to help the town's homeless -

and those struggling For the past six years, the Heart

of England Community Foundation has been supporting projects

like Helping Hands. It helped Kenny Crawford get a job

and move off the streets - he's now one of the charity's

volunteers. I was at the bottom of the ladder

and I thought there was no way out. But I can't imagine

what it is like for people worse off than me that aren't able to work

and have other addictions and things Warwickshire Wildlife Trust

is hoping to set up four new primary schools,

which would put nature The idea behind the Nature Schools

is that as much learning as possible And as our Environment

Correspondent David Gregory Kumar reports, the first one could be open

in the Midlands as Brandon Marsh nature

reserve near Coventry, home to some excited woodland

creatures, getting Brandon Marsh is also headquarters

for Warwickshire Wildlife Trust. And it's the trust that is

leading plans for nature Some of these children could be

amongst the very first pupils. Children at our schools will still

have to learn their times tables, learn to read and write,

but we are preparing an educational philosophy that will allow teachers

to achieve that learning outside, using the natural setting

as much as the classroom. Initially four nature-based primary

schools are planned, with two in the Midlands -

one in Smethwick, and the other one, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust,

which has been identified as possibly going into

Camp Hill in Nuneaton. They have already got their eyes

on a site and indeed a building. It's definitely an urban

area but it's the area that was identified by local

authorities as with greatest need for a new school

and we are going to make the most of any outdoor space there is there

and create new outdoor spaces A garden, an allotment,

wildlife areas. Parents visiting the reserve

today were excited. Some have already looked

into applying to the new school. She loves being outdoors

and we would like that The outside is an amazing place

to learn and I think you can have so many experiences that are not

traditional education that still give you the same knowledge

that you would have in a classroom, If all goes very well the UK's first

nature school could open Fancy becoming an otter

spotter in Birmingham? The Canal and River Trust charity

is recruiting volunteers to help it build up a picture

of where the animals Numbers are on the rise again

after efforts to improve the quality Let's find out how low

the temperatures are due to fall, I'll leave you with the forecast

from Rebecca Wood. It certainly has been

a wintry day today. There has been a wintry flavour

to some showers particularly across North Staffordshire

where we did see some snow. As we head through the night,

a change is on the way, The wind direction is turning

to a northerly and it is bringing down much colder air

and through the morning that could give us some

lively snow showers. We have a Met Office yellow

weather warning for ice. That is because where we have seen

all that rain and snow through the day today,

with those temperatures falling away, there is a risk

of plenty of icy stretches So, overnight tonight,

widespread frost. As we start tomorrow,

there is a risk of treacherous Do stay tuned to your BBC local

radio station through the morning. Still wintry showers around

for the morning rush hour. They will clear away

and we will be left with something There will be very

cold temperatures. The wind chill making it

feel more like minus 2C. More information in

the National forecast. I will leave you with the outlook

for the next two days. note. If that's not your sort of

thing, Sunday will be cloudier and milder.

Good evening. It was such a mild December, wasn't