News in Atherstone

Councillors in Atherstone and district are being sent back to their political roots to play a determining role in an "electoral code" lottery handing out tens of thousands of pounds to projects of specific local importance.

North Warwickshire Borough Council is planning to establish a new £300,000 fund that targets schemes of "lasting benefit" to the community as one-off applications.

Outside consultants are set to advise on the future direction of leisure as Atherstone's ageing showpiece facility is reaching the end of its working life with recurring plant breakdowns "almost inevitable", a new report reveals.

Councillors are being urged to splash out more than £50,000 on an external expert to work with North Warwickshire Borough Council to "clear the path" in finding the best and most cost-effective means of meeting demand for indoor provision.

Hundreds of pupils from Atherstone and surrounding villages are being taught in some of the "worst conditions" in the country, government ministers are to be told.

Head teacher Maura Favell made an impassioned plea to town planners to approve pulling down five existing buildings to make way for a new teaching block at North Warwickshire's biggest school.

Fast food lovers from Atherstone have been served up a glimmer of hope for a 'click and collect' version of McDonald's at today's opening of a new drive-thru restaurant less than 10 minutes from the town.

Hundreds of diners tucked straight into their favourite Double Quarter Pounder mains and a Flake McFlurry for afters at the launch of the 160-seat eatery just off the A5 at Dodwells Island where the Warwickshire and Leicestershire boundaries cross over.

Civic leaders in Atherstone have been sent the strongest possible message yet on where the town sits on the Goldie Bench saga.

The majority of comments on where the next resting places should be for the popular town-centre benches show residents stand emphatically in favour of "putting them back where they belong".

A town's generosity has helped break through the £5,000 barrier of a support fund for critically-ill Atherstone Ball Game steward Martyn Kellegher-Burton.

Atherstone woke this morning to the news the JustGiving page is now showing £5,015 – thanks to a £20 donation from Lynn Jacob tipping it over its revised target.

Residents have failed to stop "urbanisation" of their village in what they believe to be the only four-storey housing development in Atherstone and district.

Town planners approved a 'high-rise' scheme for 27 new homes for Mancetter – despite objections over the "out-of-keeping" proposals for flats that "are not needed".

Architectural features of a planned HS2 interchange station have been designed "more as a statement" than for ease of use for rail passengers, town planners in Atherstone heard last night.

Digital impressions of the high speed rail development – not due to be operational until 2035 – reminded North Warwickshire Borough Council's planning overlord of a scene from H G Wells's The Time Machine.

Political parties found themselves in at the deep end of recriminations over the fate of a "crumbling" iconic swimming pool built for the benefit of Atherstone and surrounding villages.

Labour and Tory councillors blamed each other for lacking vision and the courage to invest over the last five years in facilities that needed "more than TLC to paper over the cracks".

Atherstone and district will get its "fair share" of an 8,000 uplift of Tasers on the streets of England and Wales as part of a £6.5 million Home Office investment in the stun guns.

Some 41 forces, including Warwickshire, "got what they asked for", according to Police Federation chairman John Apter.