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A ten year-old girl from Sheldon has come to the rescue and chosen names for two of West Midlands Police's new recruits. Emma Hanson, a pupil at Lyndon Green Primary School in Sheldon, entered the competition to name the police puppies after reading about in it the force’s first ‘Safe Street’ newspaper for kids.

The newspaper, which is aimed at 5-11 year olds, encourages children to stay safe and act responsibly. It also steers the youngsters to the force’s new interactive website-www.safestreet.info. The paper featured an appeal from chief dog breeder Dave Raymond. Dave, who is in charge of breeding dogs for West Midlands Police, had run out of names due to a larger than usual number of puppy births recently.

Dave said: “We usually breed eight litters a year, with an average of six puppies in each litter. However, at the moment we are working with 88 puppies because recent births have involved between 10 and 12 puppies each. I named most of the new puppies but I needed some suggestions for the two remaining ‘B’ litter pups. We decided to appeal for names for two of the youngest boy puppies and asked the children of the West Midlands for their help.”

Dave received a flood of ideas from kids across the region, but chose Emma Hanson’s suggestions of ‘Boss’ and ‘Bingo’ to name the eight week old German Shepherd pups. To thank Emma, Dave arranged a special visit to Lyndon Green School. Boss and Bingo surprised Emma and her fellow Year 5 pupils during their ‘Star of the Week’ assembly.

Emma said: “When my name was called out in assembly I was really shocked. We used to have a dog called Boss and I wanted one of these puppies to be named after him. I just thought that Bingo was a cute name too. I loved the surprise visit and so did my friends.”

The Safe Street website, which is a first of its kind for a UK police force, has received over 6,000 visitors since it was launched on 30 April 2010. It underlines West Midlands Police’s commitment to using new media to engage with different audiences.

This article has been written by Shabbir Kaderbhai of Ellis Opticians

If you’re aged over 40 and are starting to have difficulty with reading, then you are probably suffering from presbyopia. This condition is caused by the natural aging process of your eyes, which affects their ability to focus easily on close objects. The result isblurred vision or tired eyes, especially when reading in poor light.

Presbyopia affects nearly everyone by their mid 40’s, but fortunately there are effective solutions for this condition. For example, if you have not needed vision correction before, you may now just require reading glasses for close up work.

But if you already wear spectacles, then you have several choices. You may decide to have different glasses for distance and reading, although this can be inconvenient. Or you may choose a pair that performs both functions, such as bifocals or varifocals(progressive) spectacles. Varifocals cost a bit more, but are increasingly popular because they enable you to focus at all distances and they don’t have any obvious dividing line across the lens like bifocals.

Presbyopia may not be a problem even if you wear contact lenses. There are now progressive contact lenses available for presbyopia, while some people find they can see well with a distance vision contact lens in one eye and a reading lens in their other eye. Others successfully use reading glasses over their contact lenses for close up.

The best option will depend on your optical prescription and lifestyle. Your optician will discuss these with you when advising on the most suitable lenses for presbyopia.

For further information on presbyopia, call Ellis Opticians on 0121 747 2115

Ellis Opticians is your local independent Opticians at 350 Bradford Rd., Castle Bromwich,Birmingham. B36 9AD Tel. 0121 747 2115

A dad who smashed a dinner plate in his partner’s face, scarring her for life, has been jailed for more than three years.

David Gorrie hurled the plate at girlfriend Catherine Bird – who he’d been dating for18 months and is the mother of his baby son – with such force it shattered into dozens of pieces. The crockery shards left deep cuts in the 28-year-old’s forehead, cheek and chin, whilst fragments narrowly missed her left eye. She required more than 20 stitches.

And at Warwick Crown Courton Wednesday (June 30) Gorrie, who admitted GBH, was sentenced to serve three years and three months in prison. The court heard how the pair had been “generally bickering” at their home in Auckland Drive, Smiths Wood, on Saturday November 21 last year when 28-year-oldGorrie flipped and threw the plate. At first Gorrie claimed he only intended to throw his dinner over Miss Bird and that the plate had accidentally slipped out of his hand – but he later admitted deliberately using it as a weapon.

Investigating Officer, Detective Constable Craig Munro from Solihull Police, said: “They’d been arguing throughout the day, nothing too excessive, just the kind of squabbles that no doubt go on in households across the country every day. For some reason Gorrie snapped and hurled the plate. It was a big, thick, heavy plate and yet it smashed into dozens of pieces; it must have been thrown at full force to shatter in such a way.”

After the attack Gorrie went on the run for four days before officers tracked him down in Northfield, Birmingham, where he’s originally from. A restraining order was also imposed by the Judge which prohibits Gorrie ever trying to make contact Miss Bird again, unless supervised to visit his child.

Judge Orme, said: “The conclusion I have come to – which of course is one of the crucial reasons why I passed the sentence – is that at the moment he (Gorrie)…is a violent young man with an uncontrollable temper.” 

Miss Bird said she was pleased with the sentence and hoped that it would encourage other victims of domestic violence to report abusive partners. She added: “I want to reassure any women suffering at the hands of partners that the support is there – and if they’re strong, and report abuse to the police, they can put a stop to the violence. There are agencies who can offer expert support and advice, and counsellors to help you through the process. I’m pleased with the sentence that he (Gorrie) received and that he’s forbidden to come anywhere near me in future.”

DC Munro, added: “We have specialist teams dedicated to tackling domestic violence– no women should suffer in silence. We will actively pursue offenders through the courts and seek sentences that will improve the lives of victims.”

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A DRUGS den believed to have been visited more than 50 times a day by addicts has been shut down by Solihull Police.

Flat 21 in Chelmsley Wood’s Bangor House was raided by officers in March and, at Solihull Magistrates on June 22, a district judge agreed a closure order was justified due to “overwhelming evidence” the property had been used to deal Class A drugs.

PC Nicole Cummins from the Smiths Wood neighbourhood police team, who helped build the case to have the flat closed,said: “We’re really pleased with this result. It means Bangor House residents no longer have to deal with the nuisance and disorder they were previously experiencing.

“On a typical day more than 50 visitors would call at the flat throughout the day and night and would often be abusive and intimidating to residents in the lifts.

“It wasn’t uncommon to find used syringes in the stairwells, glass doors and bottles would be broken in the communal areas,and sometimes residents would see people injecting themselves with drugs.

“This closure order sends out a clear message that drugs will not be tolerated in Solihull and we will do our best to make innocent people’s lives better.”

The flat has now been boarded up and the order means it’s a criminal offence for anyone to enter the property.

The tenant has been asked to register as homeless and during the next three months Solihull Community Housing will pursue possession proceedings in order to remove him permanently from the flat and prevent him becoming a tenant of any other council premises in the area.

A BURGLAR who came face-to-face with a girl after breaking into a home he thoughtwas empty has been handed a three-year jail term.

Adam Farley stumbled across the 13-year-old, who was off school sick, hiding in her bedroom during the May 6 raid on a house in Solihull.

But on encountering the teen Farley, from Kingshurst, had a guilt attack and fled –even returning to the bedroom seconds later to try and apologise.

Unbeknown to Farley the astute girl, whose mum had nipped out to a nearby shop, dialled 999 when she heard banging on the front door and spotted a strange van on the driveway.

Local police units were given a description of the vehicle and minutes later Farley was arrested nearby.

The 28-year-old, who had no previous convictions for burglary, admitted the offence and on Friday (June 18) at Warwick Crown Court was sentenced to three years imprisonment.   

Detective Constable Dave Hollies, said: “I can’t praise the young girl enough; the second she knew something wasn’t right she phoned the police. It meant we were able to get officers on the scene quickly to apprehend the offender.

“In fairness to Farley he admitted the break-in at the first possible opportunity and co-operated throughout. I’ve never seen an offender show much remorse; as a father himself he was genuinely sorry for what he’d done and that he’d upset a young girl.

“During interview he told how he ran back upstairs to try and apologise to her, but that he just couldn’t get the words out.”

Farley had been cruising local streets looking for empty properties and, after picking his target, knocked several times to try and establish whether it was occupied.However, the girl had been told not to answer the door to anyone.

DC Dave Hollies, added: “Believing the home to be unoccupied Farley broke open the front door and headed to the bedrooms hoping to find jewellery. The moment hesaw the girl he froze and forgot about stealing anything.

“Given that this was his first offence, he’s been given a very firm sentence.

“Once you break into a property you never know what you might find. Farley took that risk and is now paying a heavy price – both in terms of his jail term and the guilt he undoubtedly feels.”

Police have arrested two men in connection with a number of vehicle break-ins – and are asking for anyone who’s had a sat nav stolen recently to come forward.

The two suspects – aged 23 and 24 – are believed to have targeted insecure cars in Knowle, Dorridge and Balsall Common earlier this month.

Several gadgets have been recovered and matched to reported thefts but one sat nav – a TomTom One 3rd Edition in a grey case – has yet to be reunited with its owner.

Officers believe the TomTom may have been taken in the early hours of Tuesday June 15.

Detective Constable Dave Hollies, said: “We believe the men were active in Longdon Road, Lady Byron Lane and Kenilworth Road in Knowle. I’d like to hear from anyone in this area, or the surrounding region, to contact us if they’ve suffered a theft, especially a sat nav matching the description.

“We’d also like any local residents with CCTV cameras to check footage overnight from 14 to 15 June and contact us if they see anything of note.”

DC Dave Hollies can be contacted at Solihull Police Station on 0345 113 5000

With England's first World Cup Game taking place today, football fans in Castle Bromwich are gearing up for the biggest football event in four years and more and more St George's flags can be seen around Castle Bromwich and Solihull as a result, and it's not just houses and cars that they are adorning. More photos can be seen in the  photo gallery album - Castle Bromwich and Solihull flying the flag for England.

Elsewhere, works at Castle Bromwich's Jaguar factory were said by The Sun to be furious that their Bosses would not allow them to wear Three Lions Shirts, display the flag, listen to the game or rejig shifts so that as many workers as possible could see the game. A spokesman for the company said, "We do not allow our employees to wear their own cloothes, wear personal stereos, listen to the radio or bring merchandise such as flags onto the production line for heallth and safety reasons."