Council workers have asked their boss for a free “duvet day” as well as a bonus sick day for a year’s perfect attendance.

Striking council staff and teachers forfeited £2 million in wages by going on strike for a day, it can be revealed.

Twenty SureStart centres across the region are to be privatised in a bid to safeguard 138 jobs and keep the “lifeline” service open to families.

Up to 300 firefighters face the axe and stations could close if Government cutbacks at West Midlands Fire service hit the £21 million mark, the chairman of the region’s fire and rescue authority has warned.

Around 750 jobs will be axed at Sandwell Council over the next three years, it has been revealed, as cost-cutting plans were approved by council bosses.

Around £1.4 million worth of restoration work will be carried out on West Bromwich’s historic Oak House barns in moves which bosses hope will attract thousands of extra visitors.

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.

The Public art gallery will be the centrepiece of the sweeping regeneration of West Bromwich, as these new artist’s impressions show.

Council tax is set to be frozen in Sandwell next year, in return for a government grant. The council says that it wants the “best deal” for residents.

Vets could be called in to sedate horses found roaming in Tipton in a bid to clear them from the streets.