05/04/2017 Midlands Today

Her death was "preventable" - that's the conclusion

of the Shropshire coroner at the inquest of a newborn

baby who died from an infection caught at birth.

Pippa Griffiths was born in April last year but less than 24 hours

later she was seriously ill with a Group B Strep infection

Our health correspondent Michele Paduano reports.

Baby Pippa was born perfectly healthy in April last year

but she had a Streptococcus B infection and wouldn't feed.

Her mum, Kayleigh Griffiths, phoned the hospital twice

at 6.30pm and 2.55am, worried about her,

We have fought for the truth and ultimately

We've gone through hell and for people not to be honest

with us is just another kick when you are down, really.

At the inquest, Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital accepted it had

failed give the mother literature after Pippa's birth to identify

ill-health, failed to arrange a follow-up midwife visit within 24

hours, and to do a proper inquiry during phone calls and check

Midwife Claire Robinson, seen here with red hair,

denied she had been told about brown mucus in the 2.55am call,

but it was the earlier call that would have saved Pippa's life.

The coroner, John Ellery, said the case was uncontroversial -

baby Pippa's death was preventable if Mrs Griffiths had been given

the right information and if a systematic inquiry had

taken place when Mrs Griffiths phoned.

Offering the family condolences, he said it may be of no comfort

The trust did not declare this as a serious incident

Today it said on information originally received,

the death did not appear to meet the criteria.

Sarah Jamieson, seen here on the left, apologised

for the trust not providing appropriate care but said

If I didn't know the NHS processes for recording of serious incidents,

Mrs Griffiths is expecting again but she is terrified and hopes this

Staff at BMW's engine plant at Hams Hall in Warwickshire

are to stage a number of 24-hour strikes in a dispute over pensions.

The workers say they stand to lose thousands of pounds under plans

to stop their final salary pension scheme at the end of May.

Our reporter Laura May McMullan is at the plant for us now.

Yes, we now know that workers are going to stage

five 24-hour strikes, starting two weeks today.

Last month they staged a protest here over plans to end their final

salary pension scheme at the end of May and now It'll be the first

time staff at the company's UK operations have actually staged

a walk-out and that's because there's a lot at stake.

Well, Unite the union claims some of the employees could lose

a retirement income of more than ?150,000 and they're urging

the company to stand back from it's May deadline to find some

In response BMW says it's disappointed but does remain

A brother and sister from Birmingham have been charged

21-year-old Ummariyat Mirza has been charged with a purchasing a knife

and other items to help carry out an attack in the UK.

His sister Zainub, who's 23, has been charged with distributing

The arrests were made in the Alum Rock area

Police say the charges aren't connected to

Six branches of Lloyds Bank and one branch of the Halifax

are to close in the Midlands between July and October.

They're among a programme of 400 branch closures

Lloyds said the closures are the result of fewer

A teaching assistant has won an unfair dismissal case

after being sacked for complaining about children being shown

Suriyah Bi was sent home from an academy in Birmingham

after raising concerns about the video showing the 9/11

After 18 months of turmoil, Suriyah Bi at last feels vindicated.

In September 2015, she was a classroom assistant

Despite a clear age warning, a teacher played a video to a group

of 11 and 12-year-olds, some of them with

Have you ever seen anything like this?

I have seen at least ten people fall to their death.

It was about the 9/11 terror attacks and showed people

jumping from windows - a video she complained

was inappropriate and a breach of safeguarding policy.

They said there would be an investigation.

They said I did the right thing raising the concern but 40 minutes

later they called me from my lesson and they told me the school

was no longer a suitable place for me to work

at because I was uncomfortable with the curriculum.

Suriyah Bi's complaint led to her sacking and she brought

As a student herself, she was head girl at Saltley School -

a school later linked to the so-called Trojan Horse affair

and allegations that conservative-minded Muslims

were seeking to exert undue influence.

She thinks her complaint about the video was construed

by the school as a complaint that they were anti-Muslim.

Although the tribunal agreed Suriyah Bi was unfairly dismissed,

they rejected her claim that she was discriminated

In a statement, the chain running the school, E-Act,

said they were disappointed by the tribunal's main finding,

telling us, "Heartlands is an outstanding academy

which prides itself on cultural inclusiveness and providing

Three years ago, E-Act lost control of ten academies

after inspectors raised concerns about their performance.

Suriyah's MP has supported her claim for unfair dismissal.

The Secretary of State has got involved with this academy chain

before but now the Secretary of State, I think, has got to get

stuck in again to get to the bottom of what went wrong and to assure us

and to assure parents that there's not a systemic problem with this

academy chain that is looking after so many of our children.

An Oxford graduate, Suriyah Bi represented herself at the tribunal

and is writing a book about her journey from

The showjumper Nick Skelton, who was Britain's oldest Olympic

gold medallist at the Rio games last year, is to retire.

He was competing at his seventh Games.

Katie Gornall went to meet Nick and his Olympic

winning horse Big Star at his Warwickshire stables.

If ever there was someone for whom age is just a number,

Last summer in Rio, the showjumper became Britain's second oldest

Olympic gold medallist, but now, with his 60th

birthday on the horizon, Skelton and his famous horse,

Big Star, will be taking things a little easier.

I think any sportsman will tell you, you think

You never want to stop, but you have to at some point.

And I don't think it is a better time to stop knowing

Skelton has spent more than four decades at the top of his sport.

He still holds the British record for jumping the highest fence,

clearing over seven foot seven on Lastic in 1978.

Ten years later, he competed in the first of his seven Olympics

in Seoul, but the big prize eluded him until 2012 when he won

team gold in London, an achievement all the more

remarkable as just 12 years earlier he had suffered a broken neck.

Back then, he thought his career was over.

They said I shouldn't ride again and I didn't ride for a couple

of years and I got back going again because I think I had a great

horse at the time that I really looked forward to,

thought he was going to be really good, and he was,

and then I thought, when I finished with him, that would be it and then

Big Star came along and so I had to do it all over again.

His is a story that has certainly captured people's attention.

Last year he finished third in Sports Personality of the Year.

I think it is the age factor, I think.

Some old guy doing what I did, winning gold.

I think it is inspirational for elder folks.

Skelton has always said it is as much about the horse as him.

In Big Star, he found one worthy of his name and together

Two football results to tell you about this evening.

In the Championship, Burton went down 1-0

Burton are four points above the relegation places.

In League Two, it was back down to earth after their Wembley

extravaganza for Coventry, I'm afraid.

They lost 2-0 at Sheffield United and remain firmly rooted

at the bottom of the table, 13 points from safety.

I'll leave you with the weather from Rebecca.

And what was a quite cloudy start, things brightened up. Temperatures

up to 14 Celsius in some parts. Quite a pleasant end to the day.

This was the seen before the sun went down. Tonight, we keep a

blanket of cloud. Last night was chilly, with a touch of frost in

some spots. Tonight, the cloud will help to lift temperatures. But

across parts of Herefordshire, perhaps a touch of frost in

sheltered spots. High pressure dominates at the moment. Very little

wind tomorrow so little to break up the cloud. It will sit across us for

much of the day. Quite high cloud, so it will be a bright day, and at

times it will break, and then temperatures will get better. And

then we reset for Friday, more of the same, high-pressure still

keeping is settled. Perhaps a little more brightness coming from the

north. The weekend looks spectacular with temperatures back up into

or 15. It is sunny towards the weekend and we could see the low 20s

by Sunday. Here is Darren with the national weather.

Hello. The weather has been a big news in North America across the

Masters in Augusta, for the first time the par-3 competition was

abandoned, the storms moving away and sunshine windy for a while.

Temperatures about 17, which is on a par with what we had today in the

south-east of Wales, blue skies around here. That's from one of our

weather watchers. More sunshine over the next few days. Little or no rain

once again, it's looking dry and as we get more sunshine, especially in

England and Wales this weekend, it will be warming up. In stark

contrast with what we are seeing at the moment, dhil chilly out there

where we have clearer skies across the West Country, eastern