HERE'S your evening news round up for the Black Country and north Worcestershire.

Stourbridge MP Margot James has spoken of her delight at seeing Redhill School's headteacher and pupils invited on stage with Education Secretary Nicky Morgan at the Conservative Party Conference.

The minister invited headteacher Stephen Dunster and four pupils to accompany her on stage at the event after she made a recent visit to the newly-converted academy in Junction Road.

To read the full story and see videos from the conference click here.

Kinver and Stourton will not be joining Stourbridge as part of the new West Midlands Combined Authority, it was announced today.

Following a meeting of South Staffordshire Council last night (October 6), councillors decided against joining the emerging authority.

To read more click here.

An overwhelming 85 per cent of voters said in a News ballot they did NOT think the Dudley borough should rehome refugees from Syria.

A total of 444 people gave the thumbs down to Dudley Council’s gesture of good will to help in the international humanitarian crisis.

Just 15 per cent of people who took part in our online ballot (80 votes) said ‘yes’ - Dudley was doing the right thing by agreeing to welcome around 20 Syrian families to the borough.

To read more on this story click here.

It is an end of an era in Halesowen as Bethel Mission Free Church in Hasbury is closing for good next week.

The six-strong congregation, who have a combined age of nearly 500, have decided to call time on the Hagley Road church which was formed in 1920.

To read the full story click here.

The driver of a car which crashed through a fence and stopped just short of train tracks had a lucky escape as an oncoming train was able to stop - just in time.

The car crashed through a fence and travelled down a bank before stopping yards from the tracks, near to Wythall Railway Station on Lea Green Lane, the Redditch Advertiser reports.

Thankfully, the oncoming train was able to stop short of the incident and the driver of the car, a woman, was uninjured following the incident which happened last night (Tuesday) at around 10pm.

A 33-year-old Kidderminster man has been charged with manslaughter, the Kidderminster Shuttle reports.

Michael Davis, of Queen Elizabeth Road, pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Anthony Jordan when he appeared at Worcester Crown Court on October 6.

To read more click here.

Meanwhile - West Midlands Safari Park near Bewdley is gearing up to give visitors a frightfully good time in the run up to Halloween.

The Worcestershire attraction is staging its sixth annual Spooky Spectacular in the weeks running up to October 31 with sights and sounds to send shivers racing through the toughest of individuals.

There will be more than 100 scarecrows and 1,700 pumpkins setting the scene while new attractions for this year will include dinosaurs illuminated after dark and a spell writing competition.

To find out more click here.

And it has been announced that Hollywood action legend and former Mr Universe Arnold Schwarzenegger is heading to Birmingham for an exclusive black tie dinner event early next year.

Olexy Productions is hosting the event, An Experience with…Arnold Schwarzenegger, which will take place at the ICC on Thursday January 21.

Tickets go on sale on Friday (October 9).

To find out more click here.