BBC News Shropshire

Here are three stories from the Shropshire Star today:

• Council sets up its own housing company
• Railway stations to be overhauled
• Huge blaze near Shrewsbury was deliberate

Shropshire Council has set up a private company to build and sell homes across the county.

Cornovii Developments has been funded by a multimillion-pound loan from the Conservative-run authority, which is due to be paid back.

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The first 90 homes will be built at the former Ifton Heath Primary in St Martin's and in Crowmoor in Shrewsbury.

The local authority hasn't yet said exactly how much it is loaning the company, on the grounds it is "commercially sensitive" information.

Here are some of the stories being covered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service in Telford:

• Lorries could be allowed to leave a recycling site in Ketley, Telford, as early as 06:00 if plans are approved later this month.
• The mayor of Wellington's switched from the Conservative Party to the Liberal Democrats and said it was time to “nail his colours to the mast” over Brexit.
• Plans for 21 houses on the site of a former paper mill in Tibberton are going to be examined by councillors next week, nearly two months after they were deferred to allow investigations into ground contamination and pedestrian access.

A sculpture is to be erected to commemorate the achievements of a pioneer from the Industrial Revolution.

Dudley Council has granted planning permission for the structure to celebrate the life of Abraham Darby I at the junction of Sedgley Road and Birmingham New Road.

Woodsetton Charitable Trust

Darby was born in Woodsetton in 1678 and developed a method of producing pig iron in a blast furnace in Shropshire, using coke instead of charcoal, which was in short supply at the time.

It paved the way for the mass production of iron and turned Coalbrookdale into the cradle of the Industrial Revolution.

Dudley residents and councillors, along with members of the Woodsetton Charitable Trust and Friends of Wrens Nest groups, have been working to secure funding to produce the permanent memorial to him.

The steel memorial will take the form of a cross section through his 1709 blast furnace and will also have figures of a silhouette of six pig iron workers in front and lettered cast iron ground plaques.

Plans to extend the M54 an extra 6.5 miles (10km), so that it reaches Shrewsbury, will be discussed by Shropshire councillors tomorrow.

At the moment it ends at junction seven, when it becomes the A5, although the road remains a dual carriageway.

A motion going before councillors says giving it motorway status would encourage foreign investors to look at the town.

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The motion has been put forward by the Shrewsbury councillor Peter Adams and is being supported by the council leader Peter Nutting, who also represents a ward in the town.

It suggests enlisting the help of local MPs to lobby for the extension, and to draw up a business plan to make it happen.