Bailiffs recovered more than £30 million after councils sent them into homes and businesses in the West Midlands – visiting 100 people daily, it can be revealed.

More than 400 workers at a Black Country council have applied to take voluntary redundancy over the next year – double the number that will actually leave.

A pub in Stourbridge is to be extended to create a coffee bar and bistro in a bid to boost town centre trade, new plans have revealed.

Around £3million will be spent by Dudley Council next year to cover workers leaving through redundancy.

More than 500 people have expressed an interest in taking redundancy at Dudley Council next year.

Undercover police officers are being dispatched to scrap metal dealers across the West Midlands to conduct a series of test purchases looking for stolen metal, it emerged today.

More than 200 new jobs will be created in Dudley as part of a £10million transformation of the Castle Hill district, it was revealed today.

Multi-million plans to revamp the historic market place in Dudley have been extended further into the town centre to create a new showpiece shopping area.

A total of 460 staff have been shed by Dudley Council as part of cost-cutting measures to make savings of more than £22 million in the present financial year, it has been revealed.

Jet-setting council staff in the Black Country clocked up tens of thousands of air miles on official business last year –with short-haul flights up more than 250 per cent on the previous year at one authority.