A crackdown on long-term sick leave has been launched by a Staffordshire council, with a new team expected to be appointed to assess workers’ health.

A Cannock couple who starved their pet dog to the point of death have been banned from keeping animals for 10 years and ordered to pay more than £2,000 costs.

Soaring numbers of shoppers are flocking to high streets in Staffordshire, town centre bosses said today.

A former coroner for South Staffordshire who was instrumental in improving the safety of trains has died aged 81.

Nurses and doctors at Cannock Chase Hospital are being forced to pay huge increases in staff parking charges, it emerged today.

Gary Walker opened his Town and Country Meat Megastore in the Black Country just last week – and welcomed more than 3,700 customers in his first two days.

Police community support officers throughout Staffordshire are now able to seize drugs and alcohol as well as detain suspects following the granting of new powers.

More patients than expected are dying at three out of five hospital trusts in the West Midlands and Staffordshire, latest NHS figures show.

A brewery will expand its capacity by more than 300 per cent after increasing beer production by more than a third in a year.

A plea by Cannock councillors for an audience with Health Secretary Andrew Lansley to discuss the overnight closure of Stafford Hospital’s A&E department has been snubbed by the minister, it was revealed today.