20/04/2017 Midlands Today

That's it from us. They will be continuing coverage throughout the

night on Firefighters will be working

throughout the night, At its height,

100 firefighters were needed on the

Blackpole East Trading estate. Around 150 people were at work,

when the alarm was raised - Sarah Bishop's been speaking

to some of those affected. The smoke was unreal,

thick, black smoke. Never seen that much

smoke in my whole life. A warehouse the size of four

football pitches up in smoke. When a fire crews arrived

at 8:30am, they knew they had The first challenge was getting

close to the building. We have had to rotate crews

working in these arduous conditions. A member of staff initially spotted

the beginnings of the fire and tried to put it out

with a fire extinguisher. 150 staff work here sorting

and delivering bulky furniture. The only thing that

matters is that there has Stock can be replaced.

Operations can resume. With the estate evacuated,

the fire was the talk of Worcester. Shortly after, I saw a gas bottle

explode and shoot into the sky. I wondered if we were going to get

close down temporarily There are no immediate clues

as to what caused the fire, A series of raids were carried out

across Staffordshire and Herefordshire today,

targeting people who've In the past twelve months,

there's been a steep increase in illegal dumping

across the West Midlands, leading to big clean up costs

and health hazards for locals. On an industrial estate

in Staffordshire months of investigation lead to a swoop

on a haulage yard. Police looking at the site,

it seems as though there We are forcing entry to get

in and seize evidence. This one of two raids

on the Moorlands, there was a third in Stoke-on-Trent and a fourth

in Ledbury in Herefordshire Today's raids are connected

to illegal dumping of waste at 20 sites, waste amounting to in excess

of 25,000 tonnes. Part of an operation

intended to protect people and the places where they live

from an increasingly common crime. We are working closely with other

agencies to limit it and manage ongoing sites to make sure any

risks are mitigated. I can understand how

the public feel, it is not We are working with the Environment

Agency to get on top of it Industrial waste on an industrial

scale. Bales of rubbish wrapped

in plastic lifted into place by unscrupulous gangs,

paid by individuals or businesses, simply to get rid -

no questions asked. Criminals can fill a warehouse just

like this in a matter of days, It's one of the biggest challenges

facing the environment agency, they've described waste crime

as the new narcotics and one they're urging all of us

to play a part in tackling. Any business that produces waste,

you need to know where it's going. Any landowner that is being

approached to rent land, if it seems too good to be true,

it almost certainly is. Take your responsibilities

seriously. Culprits face a jail

term of five years. Rewards can be lucrative

but investigators say they will follow the money

and where they can recover it. A jury's been sent out to consider

verdicts in the trial of a breast surgeon,

accused of carrying out "completely unnecessary" operations,

at hospitals in the West Midlands. Ian Paterson denies 20 counts

of wounding with intent - against nine women and one man -

between 1997 and 2011. The trial heard his alleged motive

might have been to make extra money. Gerard Coyne, who's challenging

Len McCluskey to lead Unite, has been suspended from his post

as the union's West Midlands It's understood an email was sent

to Unite members and staff in the region this afternoon,

informing them The move comes as counting

is about to get under way, Twelve awards have been given out

tonight, to members of the public who have shown courage,

care, compassion Among those taking

a Pride of Birmingham award home, is Moin Younis, who was born

with a rare skin condition - as an young ambassador

for Acorns Hospice. Our reporter Ben Godfrey has been

at the awards, and joins me now. So some incredible

stories being rewarded. The great Hall here is fizzing with

emotion here tonight. Amazing stories of courage and celebrities

in attendance, the likes of noddy Holder, Ross Kemp, the presenter

Katie Piper. This young lad has captured people's imaginations. He's

the only person in the world with this skin condition. He has been an

ambassador for the hospice and he got a round of applause.

I just hope to inspire other people out there by winning this award

and I feel great in myself and I just everyone else who wins

awards tonight to also feel good and enjoy the night.

I'm delighted to introduce the fundraiser of the year. A man you

might recognise Ben it's David Healy. This is the pride of

Birmingham, you've been nominated, I went, thank you very much. I'm told

you've raised ?3 million. You've done the equivalent of two laps

around the planet. What planet are you from? I keep asking myself the

same question. I'm on this planet and I hope I'm staying on this

planet. It's been an incredible few years. Really incredible. What have

you done next? We've just did our latest challenge which is to attempt

all the great runs. We kicked off in Edinburgh in January and the hope is

we will compete in 27 runs throughout the year finishing in

Ethiopia in November. I could talk to you all night. But we've got to

finish the news! Wonderful stuff. The largest hoard

of gold coins ever found, has now been declared treasure -

after it was discovered hidden The sovereigns could be worth up

to a quarter of a million pounds, with any reward being divided

between the man who found the coins, and the college

which owns the piano. A piano which was donated

to a college in Shropshire but just before Christmas this man discovered

hundreds of coins in dusty, hand-stitched packages

underneath its keyboard. I'd been called in

to tune and repair this piano, so I took out

a couple of the keys and opened the top

here and, hey presto! There were some

interesting packages. So, I quickly got my

penknife and bonded one of the ends and I thought,

"Oh, that's gold!" Experts say it's the largest

gold sovereign horde It consists of more than 900 coins,

most of which were made Out of all these coins,

this one is the This one, however,

was made in 1915 and that suggests the coins

were hidden around that time. We know that there is no

hundred and 13 gold coins there and that's more than six

kilos worth of gold. Back in the day when it was hidden,

in 1915, you could have bought a four bed town house

with that which is the equivalent of An inquest ruled it was unclear

who the treasure Now, any reward will go

to the college and the tuner. I was actually dancing up and down

so I do have emotions In a fortnight, two million

people living across parts of the West Midlands will have had

the chance to vote for the first All six candidates have been taking

part in a special TV debate. The new mayor will have extensive

powers over transport, housing and job creation

in the newly formed You can see the debate

straight after the weather. I'll leave you with

the forecast from Rebecca. There's plenty of cloud

around tonight and that cloud is going to stick with us

until tomorrow morning. Not a sunny day but plenty

of dry weather to come. At times, that cloud might be thick

enough to give the odd spot of rain and that will be as we head

through tonight as well. It is associated with a cold front

which will see tomorrow. For tonight, a cloudy

night and milder night Temperatures holding up

between eight and 10 Celsius. Into tomorrow, we have that cold

front working its way High pressure still in charge,

keeping it largely at bay but the cloud will thicken up

as we had through the overnight Tomorrow, a cloudy start to the day

and then we will at times seemed that cloud thick enough to give

the odd spot of rain but also some holes in that cloud which will make

things attach brighter in that brightness

we could push up to 16 Celsius. So, it will be a cloudy end

to the day that it is going to be a largely dry end to the day and dry

start to our weekend with temperatures, again,

overnight holding up between eight and 10 Celsius but,

as we head into Saturday we're going to keep that cloud,

keep that high-pressure, Helen Willetts will have

more information on that I'll leave you with an outlook

for the next few days. week for much of the UK and for more

about that and the UK outlook, Helen Willetts.

The sunshine make such a difference this time of year, only 12 or so

degrees under the cloud today but 19 in eastern Scotland not far away

from St Andrews. Also in north-east England, where we had the majority

of the decent sunshine. Even under cloud it was dry for the most part.

We have this week whether forgiving showers in the south. This weather