03/12/2013 North West Tonight

BBC weather website. That is it all from the BBC's News at Six.

Good evening. Welcome to NorthWest Tonight with Annabel Tiffin and

Roger Johnson our top story: Millie's inquest hears she choked to

death at nursery ` and how efforts to save her might have made it

worse. The court was told she suffered an

uncommon complication which would have been difficult to diagnose.

Also tonight. Not such a bright idea. As it is

revealed children are used to smuggle flares into matches, Everton

lead football's fightback. Punching through. A new scheme is

launched to get more women to take part in sport. If you go down to the

Oxfam shop in Ambleside today you are sure of a big surprise. He there

are demands that has created a cash windfall for the charity.

Also in the programme, Judy Hobson is in Lancashire speaking to the

people directly affected by fracking.

I'm here in a pub in the village of Singleton. People here have been

telling me how they feel about fracking on their doorstep.

An inquest into the death of nine`month`old baby in Stockport has

heard attempts to resuscitate her could, inadvertently, have worsened

her condition. Today a Consultant Paediatrician told the jury

paramedics and nursery staff couldn't have known they were

trapping more air in her lungs. Naomi Cornwell reports.

Millie Thompson was just nine months old when she died in October last

year. She was on only her third full day at Ramillies Hall Nursery in

Cheadle Hulme when she began to choke and turn blue while being fed

a lunch of mashed shepherd's pie. Earlier in the inquest at Oldham,

staff from the nursery had described using back slaps to try to clear

Millie's airway as they waited for an ambulance to arrive. She was

pronounced dead at Stepping Hill hospital just over an hour after

falling ill. Millie's parents Joanne and Daniel were visibly upset in

court today as details were given of the attempts made by paramedics to

save their daughter. A pathologist Dr Melanie Newbould

described how food had partially blocked the airway into one of

Millie's lungs, acting as a one way valve so more and more air was going

in but none could get out. A consultant paediatrician, Dr Robert

Downes said resuscitation attempts could have worsened this condition

but it would have been difficult for medical staff to diagnose without

carrying out an X`ray. Asked if Millie's condition was advanced by

the time the first ambulance arrived, he told the court: "It's

not something where we could blame anyone". The inquest continues.

Six fire stations are to close in Merseyside with the loss of more

than 60 jobs. Under new plans three merged stations would replace them.

Fire stations in St Helens, Knowsley and Wirral are among those affected.

Merseyside Fire Service hopes it will help save ?6.5 million. A

consultation will now take place before any merges or closures go

ahead. The jury in the trial of two men

accused of the murder of Middleton Soldier Lee Rigby have been shown

mobile phone footage of one of the accused speaking immediately after

the attack. Fusilier Rigby was attacked outside his barracks in

Woolwich in May. Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale both deny

murder. The Merseyside drugs baron Curtis Warren faces a further ten

years in prison after failing to pay its confiscation order of ?10

million. The order was issued and believed to be the biggest in

Europe. He is serving a 15 year prison sentence for plotting to

smuggle cannabis into Jersey. Police have named a man found dead in the

Isle of Man on Sunday morning as Neil Edward Roberts. A postmortem

revealed the 60`year`old died as a result of injuries sustained during

a violent incident. The 45`year`old man and 47`year`old woman have been

arrested on suspicion of murder. More than 120 soldiers have marched

through Knowsley, marking their homecoming from Afghanistan. The

second Battalion the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment have already

had two similar parades elsewhere in the North West. Around 400 of the

battalion's soldiers were deployed to Afghanistan in April, the last

time such numbers from the regiment will have served in the country.

Children as young as eight are being used to smuggle flares into football

grounds. That's according to research, which also found many fans

now fear for their safety. The number of incidents involving

pyrotechnics has risen this season ` in fact a flare was thrown at

Burnley's game at Huddersfield on Saturday. David Ornstein reports.

They are the ten yearly's biggest concern when it comes to fans.

Flyers and smoke bombs are increasingly being smuggled into

football stadiums. In October this happened to an assistant referee

giving Aston Villa's match with Tottenham. Fortunately he was not

seriously injured. But the fear is that someone in the UK will be,

soon. There has been an incident in Bolivia and figured it where a child

died. They have been incidents across the world people have had bad

injuries died. We have seen fires break out in stadiums. We have been

lucky so far in the UK. This woman's regional son was hit by a

fire this year. You'll like the back of his neck you could see a big red

marks, ash still on the back of his neck. Burning on his skin. It is not

until you are in front of one of these, pyrotechnics, flares, smoke

bombs, seen for yourself that you actually appreciate the full damage

that can be done. We have seen them on cameras, they are having a laugh

before they set them off and toss them forward. The consequences are

very severe. When you put it into context of a criminal offence. With

punishments ranging from stadium bands to present terms, the message

from the authorities is that pyrotechnics have no place in

football. Fracking for shale gas is an issue

that really does divide opinion. that really does divide opinion

Opponents fear it will damage the environment, while supporters say it

will revolutionise the UK's energy industry. All this week we're

examining the issues. Tonight, what impact will fracking have on the

communities closest to it? Roger can explain more.

Just half a mile from the village of Singleton in Lancashire is the

Grange Hill site. If shale gas production is viable and permission

is given, fracking could take place there. The process involves pumping

fluid 6,000 feet into the Earth to release the gas. It's more than 99%

water and sand. The water cracks the rock, sand holds the cracks open so

the gas can flow. A small amount of a chemical, similar to contact lens

solution, reduces friction allow gas to flow more freely. But what would

it look like above ground? The site is about the size of a football

pitch. At its peak it could hold up to ten vertical wells, with four

lateral wells off each one. Cuadrilla would pipe water to the

site, but an additional six lorries a day could be used for the first

five years. Cuadrilla say the lorry route would not go through the

village. But what about jobs? The Institute of Directors thinks 1,100

Institute of Directors thinks 1 100 posts would be created per site,

including security staff, truck drivers, geologists, engineers and

construction workers. And energy, it's claimed it could produce enough

to heat 417,000 homes. The site could operate for between 30 and 50

year, after which it would be plugged with concrete and steel, and

the site returned to green field land. Well, what do people there

think? Let's go live to our Environment Correspondent Judy

Hobson, who's in Singleton for us tonight. Welcome to the Miller arms.

We are the few mail from Blackpool and if you remember the pain

minister David Cameron said he hoped this area would become the shale gas

capital of Britain. We are in walking distance from one site where

fracking could start in just a few years time. What should people round

here think? I have been talking to people, having tea in the pub. There

is mixed opinions here but I have to say the majority of people still

haven't made their minds up. I have been out and about in the region

asking people what they think about the potential of having the fracking

industry right here. Andrew Pemberton's family has been

farming in the area for more than a hundred years But he thinks fracking

could ruin his business. He's concerned about methane gas leaking.

If the grass is coated with any bad water, contaminated water, they will

eat the contaminated water as well as ingesting the gas. His main

concern isn't fracking itself, but the wells once the companies have

finished with them. Who that person? Who maintains them? What is going to

still come up? Where is the contaminant going? The industry says

their procedures are safe and wells will be constantly monitored when

fracking has finished. Down the road in Lytham Bob Dennitt has other

concerns. In April 2011 he felt an earthquake measuring 2.3 on the

ricter scale. It felt like a bus riding to my house, it frightens me

and I was getting ready to jump out of bed and get out of the house.

and I was getting ready to jump out of bed and get out of the house The

cause of that earthquake was fracking. The industry insists these

are rare. Bob isn't convinced But fracking has plenty of support on

the Fylde coast. I don't think it is safe. I don't think it will ever be

safe. Years now anti`fracking campaigner. I have eight beautiful

grandchildren. And that is why I am fighting it. They are the future.

Fracking has spread of support in the area. If it does go ahead in the

region, the industry says it would create thousands of jobs. Steve

Pye's runs a company which helps to promote local business. If we could

attract an industry whereby people are going to be coming here for the

great reasons, they want to move or create jobs within the sector here

it would solve many problems with unemployment, people with low

aspirations. We can turn that around. The new industry like this

would be fantastic for the area. Fantastic for the country. As well

as jobs, the fracking industry promises community grants. The idea

of community grants is not new to come here. This is Haverigg in

Cumbria ` just 20 miles from Sellafield. The nuclear industry

paid for most this community centre, the local head teacher says its

vital. One what we hear is, while. People come into the building and

that is what we wanted to hear. Her children use it daily. Monday to

Friday. Their younger children have nursery care, school children eat

their meals here and he did not have that before. The local community

have wanted here. Its one of a number of grants nuclear industry

has given out in the West Cumbria. Back in Singelton those opposed to

fracking say community money wont make a difference to them. Others

are still trying to make up their minds about an industry which could

be on their doorstep. Tino roughly is a resident in the area. You are

against fracking. We do need energy, isn't this a case of not in my

backyard? I have been resetting this for more than two years. It is a

case of not in anyone's backyard. The risks are too great, they should

not be impacting on anyone in this country or the world. We have seen

the harm done in America and Canada and Australia and we do not think it

should be inflicted on the United Kingdom as well. It will be much

better regulated here. BC Canada is the best declaration, they say

Australia is the best regulation. Here we just watched the environment

agency have their budget and staff cut. How will they regulate when

they are experiencing cuts? They are asking for thousands of Wells. How

will the environment agency get round to all those wells? Because we

know they want they cannot possibly do that with their manpower, they

will be asking the industry to self right, click the boxes and bought

back. The industry says there will not be that many wells. In order to

meet what they say they are going to be producing financially they would

have to be a vast mother of Wells, they are making promises about the

amount of energy and the amount of money that is going to come out of

this for the investors that they cannot possibly live up to it

without producing thousands of Wells. The Company with the safety,

quad villa, has been talking to the community. And he's spoken to them?

They say there is no legal and what will be infected and earthquakes are

rare. We have been to every public meeting and the company say that

fracking will not harm your ground water or aquifer. Potentially no.

But the process of extracting shale gas from start to finish will very

likely have an effect on our water. Because everything from wellhead

failure which happens to one in six Wells, two accidents at the surface

which we get to the ground water with chemicals and so on, how do you

propose we solve the power issue? There are few chances to be found in

renewables, we are just not investing. Where we are investing in

shale gas and giving huge tax breaks, if we instead had that money

coming back into the cough recently invested to decent energy solutions

from renewables we would not only creates jobs but we would keep

energy solutions. Thank you very much. This is fracking week can't

north`western it, tomorrow we have a special report from Peter Marshall.

Thank you very much. You can get in touch with us and tell us what you

think. Lots of people have been e`mailing and tweeting. You can find

us on Twitter and also on Facebook. Very diverse opinions.

Still to come on North West Tonight: Exercising their right to get fit `

but how do we get more women to take up sport?

And there's barely room for anything else, as nearly 500 teddy bears are

donated to a charity shop in Cumbria. Dave Guest has been putting

them on the spot. Over the last few years, we've seen

library hours reduced and even shut down as councils struggle with

budget cuts. On Thursday, Sefton Council will vote on whether or not

to cut the number of their libraries. Voluntary groups have

been encouraged to take over such facilities. But in Sefton two groups

which want to do so are unlikely to get the chance. Here's our political

editor Arif Ansari. Since 2011, 19 libraries plus 12

Since 2011, 19 libraries plus 1 mobile ones have closed. Community

groups have taken over twelve other facilities. But the pressure is far

from over. A further 18 libraries plus ten mobile ones are currently

threatened with closure. Now let's take a closer look at Sefton's 3

libraries. Two, Churchtown and Orrell, have already closed. Five

more are currently under review. A charitable group is likely to take

over Ainsdale. But for the libraries in Aintree and Crosby, the future

remains unclear. Crosby library has an uncertain future but a proud

past. It was opened in 1905, the American philanthropist Andrew

Carnegie provided most of the money. Crosby Borough Council gave the land

and the great Liverpool merchants prod the books. This game is the

obese or it has been recognised as being of significance

architecturally. Your local campaign group has offered to continue the

service at city have been knocked back. Sefton are taking this

approach, it is disappointing. They are not even prepared to give us a

chance of a short period of time to take this on. There are no risks

attached to this. Sefton Council is expected to vote on Thursday, but in

a statement they have said that the libraries that are closing have

existed for generations and it is extremely disappointing that the

government savings have forced them to consider closing any of them. We

have tried our very best to conduct a library review in the fairest

possible way. Devastated. He goes all the time. It is like a day out

for him. The facilities they offer for the pensioner and people in my

age bracket, they are 100%. Friends of mine, we used to take

tuition in using computers. Your local MP says it is difficult for

everyone. I am optimistic they make be able to reach an agreement with

the council but you must remember that the council still must put in

significant amounts of money to make these bids viable. And if that goes

wrong, the council will end up spending more money, not less.

Carnegie library looks likely to close after more than a century of

lending. In the end, charity was not enough.

Let's bring you some sports news. Wigan owner Dave Whelan says he

asked manager Owen Coyle to resign ` because of his poor team selections

and the players lack of fight. Coyle left the club yesterday following a

disappointing start to the club's Championship season. They'd lost

their last three games. Whelan said the new manager would be someone who

get the team to "graft and fight". Sporting memorabilia deviously owned

by the wisdom that the Alton footballer Nat Lofthouse has gone on

display at the ten's Museum. The collection of medals and trophies

and keepsakes Potterton auction by a local consortium. You might remember

be deported this north`western it. They wanted to keep it in Bolton.

Rugby League and some good news for St Helens fans. James Roby has

signed a new five`year contract with the club, effectively committing the

remainder of his playing career to the Saints. The England hooker had

attracted plenty of interest from Australia but has decided to stay

with his home town club. I bet they are all pleased.

The North West has its fair share of successful sportswomen, Victoria

Pendleton, Beth Tweddle and Dame Sarah Storey to name but a few. But

there are still far fewer women than men playing sport. And in Bury there

are attempts to change that. The town is halfway through a year`long

project to increase the amount of women exercising regularly. If it

works the idea will be used across the country.

Droplet! And take it back up. The push to get women taking up

exercise has been underway for six months. Let's change direction!

Sakina's getting her message across at this taster session but is the

schemes? `` is the scheme getting through? I have seen the campaign

advertised and I thought what a good thing it was and I thought I would

give it a go. It was my friend who mentioned it, and with women coming

on the one it is a bit so I was glad she encouraged me to come. Ex`mac I

hope I haven't scared them off because I get quite passionate. I am

passionate about what I do. I do hope they are seeing the fact that

they can have fun and exercise. Why is this experiment happening here?

Because 6.8 million women regularly exercise, much less than the 8.

billion men who do, so they are spending ?2 million in Billy to see

if it will make a difference. Bring yourself more in the middle. The

sports minister is keen to work up a sweat but not so keen to guarantee

future funding. You can spend ? million in every UK town? It is

about lessons learned and we will learn a lot about what happens here.

Will there be more funding? We will see what lessons are learned. The

lessons that very's most famous sports on one CD can to learn as

this. We need a bigger push to get more children and parents involved.

We need to create a family culture, a way of life for people. When we

step forward six months to the end of this pilot, will enough people

have changed their way of life to make this money well spent?

They are all enjoying themselves. It was hard for people to go to the

gym, especially women. But if you can.

Charity shops can be a great place to grab a bargain, he beckons

recently deleted designer gear. It was one in London.

The ration is the number of people who could call in at any one time.

If you are after a teddy bear for Christmas Oxfam in Ambleside could

be political. They can barely fit any more stop him.

That is because they have almost 500 teddies to sell facts on the

generosity of the local Lady who left her impressive collection to

them in her will. They are cute and cuddly and they

can be quite costly. These are not just teddy bears, these are safe

teddy bears, and if the name since the million that is because you had

here. Years from then in Germany, the radical in the teddy bear

auction he would make then in the region of between 3000 and ?4000.

auction he would make then in the region of between 3000 and ?400 . Of

course not every there is worth that sort of money. But at the Oxfam shop

in Ambleside they are awash with the things. A local woman left the

entire contents of her home to the Oxfam shop when she passed away.

When volunteers arrived to create out a bargain for a big surprise.

Every single room was full of teddy bears, one room was about 12 foot

square and it was four foot deep in teddy bears, from wall to wall. The

Oxfam volunteers spent many weeks carefully sorting, cleaning and

valuing the Bears. In all three have discovered round 180 toys. That

explains why the price tickets on some of these bears are rather more

than you would expect to find on the shelves of a charity shop.

Absolutely, we are hoping to make as much money as we can. People have

not really is the place? Your Mac and nobody has. They realise it is

for charity. In addition to these bears the friendly number of other

rare bears and the little toys. Since he put them on sale

undertakings have gone up by ?12,000. In case you're wondering,

all of the rare bears do not live permanently at the Oxfam shop, they

are being secured at secure locations across Cumbria.

Cute and cuddly. And the teddies! I was starting to feel left out

Good evening. We have had a lot of close around for the first couple of

days of December, plenty of close around and it looks as though it

will be all change tomorrow. Just for one day. You will see some

sunshine will stop then we get into Thursday, it will be quite windy on

Thursday and he could seek deals in places, particularly around the

coast. Then on Friday the territories will be shocking in one

or two places during the daytime. Possibly no higher than three or

four degrees. I will show you the breakdown at the end of the

forecast. Tonight is not looking too bad, you can see the start of cloud

and then the change begins. A weather front begins to slip sows

and brings with it some heavy rain by dawn. That reign as you can see

continues to move south. We will hang on to clear skies over Cumbria

had here, I think we're likely to see some frostbite. You can see

temperatures, at the Calder seven, the action of the Lancashire. I

think the Isle of Man temperatures will be colder than my graphic

suggests, so tomorrow morning a chilly start for all of us, the

cloud and rain continued to sink South and look at this rate sky

tomorrow. Plenty of sunshine on offer, the winds begin to pick up to

the afternoon. But that the wind arrow, they have disappeared, they

continue to rise until late afternoon saw plenty of sunshine,

isolated showers here there. Or eight degrees at best but really it

was you add in the wind chill and step out your front door as usual it

will feel Calder and suggested on paper. Tomorrow night still plenty

of clear skies to be had but look at the wind arrow they are beginning to

increase. We will see the winds pick`up tomorrow night as we head

into dawn, heading into Thursday we could seek deals start to pick up on

the coast. Another cold night but this time Cheshire is rarely keep

the clear skies and temperatures you will fall fairly close to freezing.

Then we have a yellow weather warning from the Met office for

Thursday, this is for wind. The strong wind on Thursday. As I have

suggested that the start of the forecast we could seek deals on high

ground and also adding the coast. Very cold as well, if you add on the

wind`chill 150 and it will be a cold day. This is the breakdown. Friday

will be three or four degrees. Very cold. I know you used to play

basketball securing the sport. We were looking Elliott at why fewer

women than men take part in sport regularly. We have some e`mails.

Christine Ross says probably because they are too busy looking after

their kids, cooking and the house. As you have a similar one. Sue says

because we are too busy doing the shopping, housework, taxis and is

meals. The couple of people made point but fracking, John Cannon says

wealth production is required. It is a fantastic opportunity for our kids

future. Meikle said if we had all of these

newbies in the late 18th century the Industrial Revolution said `` would

never have happened. Charles says everyone wants cheap

gas but no one wants fracking. It is illogical. Last night we heard from

one of the pro`factors, tonight it was from the other side of the

argument. We will view of the the States. Good night.

It has been grey once again today. There are big changes on