Central Ludlow

Stretton ward at Ludlow Community Hospital is to close today because of a lack of trained nurses. It is merging with Dinham ward on the ground floor of the hospital.

More than 2,600 people signed a petition over the decision.

Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust says it will still be providing the same number of beds and access for patients.

In a statement, the trust said:

Police are appealing for the public's help to trace a missing man from Ludlow.

Peter Duce, aged 34, was last seen on Wednesday 15 April.

He is a white man, around 5 foot 10, of a medium build with sandy coloured short hair. He was last seen wearing dark blue jeans and a grey hooded top.

Police and his family are growing increasingly concerned for his welfare and wish to confirm that he is safe and well.

A49 in both directions closed due to accident, lorry and a bus involved between B4370 Ludlow Road and B4371 Sandford Avenue.

The accident is just south of Church Stretton. Affecting traffic on the stretch between Shrewsbury and Craven arms

A part-time game keeper from Herefordshire has been caught and fined for setting an illegal trap designed to harm birds of prey.

Wayne Edward Priday was ordered to pay more than £500 for using a pole trap - a device with a powerful spring placed on top of a post or pole where birds of prey are likely to perch.

When RSPB officers discovered the trap in Ludlow they set up surveillance cameras which caught Priday visiting it.

Police say they think the trap was intended to catch a goshawk, a very rare bird with perhaps only 500 pairs in the UK.

A cyclist has been airlifted to hospital after being hit by a van in Shropshire.

The man was seriously injured in the crash, which happened at the junction of the A49 and the B4365 in Bromfield, Ludlow, yesterday afternoon.

Paramedics found the cyclist lying in the road with multiple serious injuries, and gave him pain relief before taking him to the major trauma centre at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

Whether you love or hate bees, there is no denying that we all need them. But with the wet summers and harsh winters we've had, the bee population is shrinking rapidly.

At one farming estate in the Midlands, they've lost 102 of their 150 hives. So they've taken drastic action by importing £10,000 worth of bees, from Italy - to try to boost numbers. Kate Fisher reports.