BBC Local Live latest from Beds, Herts & Bucks

If you are just logging on to catch up with news of the day, here are today's top stories from the three counties:

• Rail firm Govia 'apologises sincerely' after criticism by local councils of its 'appalling' service 
• Ware in Hertfordshire to benefit from pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKlein investment in UK 
• Girl, 11, from Bedford prepares to be British team dragon boat drummer at European championships in Rome

Take a scroll down the page for all of the other stories we've featured today.

Dry with clear spells overnight, but cloudy with outbreaks of rain tomorrow.

BBCCopyright: BBC

It'll turn heavy at times, but will quickly clear eastwards to leave a brighter end to the day but still with the risk of some showers in light winds.

Maximum temperature: 21C (72F)

Get the latest local forecast where you live from BBC Weather.

A transport operator working with several online retail sites is planning to create 400 new jobs at a warehouse in Dunstable.

Chris Radburn/PA WireCopyright: Chris Radburn/PA Wire

Chinese-owned 4PX will be using the site as a major distribution centre for retailers including eBay, Amazon and Alibaba, and is hoping to have the Dunstable operation running in time for Christmas. 

The warehouse, on the Woodside Industrial Estate, will be used as an import, storage and distribution centre for its UK and European operations. 

The majority of the 400 jobs should be filled by the beginning of next year, the company said.

A grant of £3,872,900 has been awarded to St Albans Cathedral by the Heritage Lottery Fund for its development project - Alban, Britain's First Saint: Telling the Whole Story. 

A further £3m has been raised from more than 1,000 donors. 

St Albans CathedralCopyright: St Albans Cathedral

Dean of St Albans, the Very Revered Dr Jeffrey John, said: "We shall create a beautiful new welcome centre, a new centre for school children, a new exhibition area, and a new adult study centre and library. 

"We shall be able to present the cathedral's treasures in a much more attractive way, which includes illuminating the medieval wall paintings and rebuilding the ruined medieval shrine of St Amphibalus." 

Watford supporter Nic Cruwys is holding a charity football evening this weekend.

The Hornets fan wants to give back to the organisations which helped him recover from his injuries following the unprovoked attack after Watford's game at Wolves in March 2015.

A lorry and a car have crashed on the A421 at Monkston, near Milton Keynes, partially blocking the road in both directions and causing long tailbacks between the M1 at J13 and the A5130 for Newport Road.

More details from BBC Travel.

MK South MP Iain Stewart has joined members of the Bank of England team in Parliament today to learn more about the new £5 note before it's issued on 13 September.

Iain StewartCopyright: Iain Stewart

The new note features former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill and will be made of a thin flexible plastic which allows for new security features which make it even harder to counterfeit.

The MP said: "Paper £5 notes will be gradually withdrawn once the new fiver enters circulation and will cease to be legal tender in May 2017."

BBC Three Counties political reporter Paul Scoins said the new note "looks remarkably impractical"... we know, we know - it's not actually this large!

This morning's news that GlaxoSmithKline is to invest £275m to expand its UK manufacturing sites, including the one in Ware, has brought reaction from politicians.

Conservative MEP for the East of England Vicky Ford has tweeted that the £74m going to the Hertfordshire site which makes the Ellipta inhalers was "good news".

Mark Prisk, the Conservative MP for Hertford & Stortford has said it is a "vote of confidence in the local workforce".

An 11-year-old girl from Bedford is preparing to be the British team's dragon boat drummer at the European championships in Rome this weekend.

Izzy Gallon caught the eye of the selectors after the GB Premier Team visited her club - the Cambridgeshire Royals Dragon Boat - to train. She will be the youngest member of the GB team. 

As drummer she has to stand at the end of the boat, drumming out the beat of the rowing and shouting instructions - very loudly.

Squad manager Tim Smith said: "You may say 'give a child a drum and ask them to shout' is all you need, but the role of the drummer is crucial and we need the right individual to understand the race, read situations, motivate the team and bring out the best when competitors are under pressure."

This afternoon looks set to be brighter than this morning with sunny spells, light winds and just the chance of an isolated heavy shower.

Maximum temperature: 22C (71F).

BBCCopyright: BBC

Patient care improvements will be the focus of the annual general meeting of the East of England Ambulance Service, taking place this afternoon at Great Notley, near Braintree, Essex.

EEASTCopyright: EEAST

The trust's board members have already met this morning to discuss its performance and working with other agencies - and the service has been live tweeting from the meeting.

The latest annual accounts, clinical priorities and future plans are due to be unveiled during the public meeting.

The girlfriend of one of the two Luton men charged with the murder of Atul Shah has told a jury her boyfriend went to the dead man's flat to get "weed" and it was there that his co-accused got into a fight with the victim and struck Mr Shah with a dumbbell.

Bedfordshire PoliceCopyright: Bedfordshire Police

Luke West, 23, of Abbots Wood Road and Kyle Pitchford-Price, 23, of Dovehouse Hill are on trial for the murder of Mr Shah, 47, who was pronounced dead at his flat in Crescent Road, Luton, on 6 January after being beaten.

It's alleged the pair bludgeoned Mr Shah to death after going to his flat to rob him of cannabis and money.     

Emmeileen Bradbury told Luton Crown Court her boyfriend, Mr West, told her Mr Pitchford-Price had fought with Mr Shah at the flat and was "seeing red, losing it" and using a dumbbell to strike the victim to try to get "information" out of him.

They both plead not guilty of murder, but Mr West has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

The trial continues.

The Hatfield-based University of Hertfordshire has reminded us today is an important anniversary in the history of aviation - especially for the Hertfordshire town.

In the late 1940s the DeHavilland company designed the Comet - the world's first ever jet airliner.

The prototype made its first flight in Hatfield on this day in 1949 - flown by the renowned company test pilot John Cunningham with the inventor of the jet engine, Frank Whittle, there to see it.

The first jet service carrying fare paying passengers was in May 1952.

A cyclist is critically ill in a London hospital after a collision in Hertfordshire on Monday night, Hertfordshire Police said.

The 49-year-old man from Welwyn Garden City was in collision with a Vauxhall Corsa driven by an 18-year-old woman on the A414 near Holwell just after 22:30. He suffered serious head injuries.

Officers are appealing for witnesses.

Our local clubs have been kept apart in the draw for the group stages of the Football League Trophy, (formerly the Johnstone's Paint Trophy) which now includes Premier League and Championship academy sides.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

The Dons are grouped with Norwich academy, Peterborough and Barnet while Luton face West Brom academy, Millwall and Gillingham.

Stevenage are with Brighton academy, Southend and Leyton Orient while Wycombe are with West Ham academy, Coventry and Northampton.

Teams will play each other once, but where each game will be played is still to be confirmed. The group stages start in the last week of August.

Turning to sport and Milton Keynes Dons lost 3-1 to Everton in last night's friendly at Stadium MK in front of a crowd of more than 10,000.

Georgio Rasulo scored for the Dons, but they lost Ben Reeves to injury after just 20 minutes.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Stevenage drew 0-0 at Borehamwood and the Chairboys new signing Will De Havilland scored a late goal as Wycombe lost 2-1 at Aldershot.

As it emerges the number of armed police officers in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire is to rise by 50%, the Police Federation has raised concerns the joint firearms unit will focus on Luton and Luton airport.

BBCCopyright: BBC

But Cambridgeshire's Chief Constable Alec Wood has said this will not be the case.

"I am confident that when we do need those resources in any part of the counties that we'll get them as quickly as we possibly can," he said.

"But of course across the three counties we need to make sure that those areas that do have the greatest risk, that carry the greatest threat, get the response as quickly as it possibly can and in this case, more incidents occur in say Luton than in Fenland, Cambridgeshire."

The Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire joint firearms unit says an increase of 50% in the number of armed police officers in the three counties is a response to current threat levels.  

Assistant Chief Constable Dan Vasovitch, who runs the joint service, said deploying officers with their weapons already happens on "a daily basis, two or three times a day, every day".

He said: "We felt it was appropriate to put in some additional capability that would be there in the event of something really terrible happening.

"On a routine basis we won't be seeing those officers out and about in an armed capacity, but they are there as a surge of capability to support our colleagues across the country."     

The number of armed police officers is to rise by 50% in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, according to figures obtained by BBC Look East.

The joint firearms unit says the increase comes after they "reviewed capability and capacity in the light of current threat levels".

Police have said training for these roles has already started.

BBCCopyright: BBC