11/08/2014 North West Tonight

Welcome to North West Tonight with Beccy Meehan, and Roger Johnson.

The Government's accused of covering up the effects

Nobody wants to come and live near to a fracking site.

But it comes on a day when a poll shows more than half of

No cause for concern, claim nuclear bosses, after two

I've been talking to the married couple who, as the new owners of

Tranmere Rovers, have vowed to turn around the club 's fortunes. Nobody

wants a JP when she's 70. And the beak who ruffled some

feathers by singing in court. The Government is facing accusations

of covering up the facts about fracking after a report into

its impact was heavily redacted. 58 sections of a study called

"Shale Gas: Rural Economy Impacts",

have been blacked out. Ministers have defended

the decision, In a moment we'll talk to the Chief

Executive of fracking company IGas. First this from our environment

correspondent Judy Hobson. The report looks at the potential

impact of fracking on Burrell areas but some 58 sections have been

redacted. `` rural areas. The government says it is in the public

interest. The report looks at how drilling

sites could impact on property prices but three sections are

redacted. Today, environmental campaigners asked what the

government was hiding. I think the report is deeply worrying because of

the scale of the amount that has been blacked out, that has been

redacted. If we are to have a serious debate in this country about

the impacts of shale gas then we cannot have the government hiding

lots of the evidence from us. The report does mention a survey which

showed a drop of property prices need to age ruling well. It is a

subject being closely watched by those living near potential drilling

sites in the region. The retailer `` married Taylor lives in a house

where drillers want to start fracking 18 months ago. The sale

sell`through after agreeing a sale on the house. A week later, the

estate agent told me they were pulling out. They said it was

because of the fracking. She says she believes two sales have folded

because of fracking. This comes as another report today says there is

much support for shale gas exploration. 57% of those questioned

supported and 16% oppose it. But will the heavily redacted report

impact on how people view this industry?

We asked the Government for an interview

about the redacted report but they were unable to put anyone up.

But I did speak to Andrew Austin, who runs one of

I began by asking him about today's survey, which shows people are

And I asked him if he could understand people being

cynical about it, because it was commissioned

Well, I think that's why we used Populus to carry out the survey.

In fact on their website you'll find copies of

You will actually see, when you look through those questions, they

That is an important thing to add credibility to the report.

Do you think you're winning the argument, then?

At a national level, in terms of the need for gas

and domestically`sourced gas, I think we are winning the argument.

The industry is still working with local communities to give them

the comfort that this can be done safely and in an environmentally

responsible manner and with minimum disruption to the

When you are trying to reassure those communities, then,

how helpful or otherwise is it that the government releases a report

with more than 50 redactions under a Freedom of Information request?

That inevitably makes people think they are hiding something.

Well, I can't comment on the government report because

as you say, it was received under a Freedom of Information request

Obviously we like to be as frank and open as we possibly can be

but I'm sure there are reasons why those sections were redacted, and

we obviously spend a lot of time working with government and with

NGOs to make sure we have a sensible and honest debate about

what the implications of national gas from shale in the UK could be.

Will you be saying anything to the government to encourage them to

make these redacted parts available, to have that free and open debate

We will continue to work with the government to have a free

Will you ask them to make this report more freely available?

That's not my call, it is up to the government to make that decision.

I don't know what the redacted sections were, so I can't comment.

They are not hiding behind competitive advantage or any

kind of commercial reasons, they're are basically saying that

they don't want to strangle the debate at this stage

I think it's always best to have information out in public.

The debate is about giving local people comfort in

what can be done locally, to make sure that concerns are addressed.

Part of Heysham's nuclear power plant has been shut down

Two reactors will be closed for eight weeks as the power company

Crucially, they say the public has nothing to fear.

A defect at a nuclear power plant, an eight week shutdown. It sounds

alarming but EDF energy says we have nothing to fear and energy experts

agree. Let me talk you through the problem. This is a nuclear reactor.

Gas inside the reactor flows around the nuclear fuel, where it is heated

and then it travels to the boiler, where the water is heated. The water

turns to steam, the steam powers the turbines and the turbines create

electricity. Crucially the problem is not here in the nuclear core,

which might be alarming, but over there in the boiler.

So it's not in the nuclear part of the plant, it's in

That makes this potentially a commercial issue ` clearly,

while this is operating at less than full power it is costing money ` but

not a safety issue in nuclear terms because it is not actually close to

So, what is the impact of the shutdown? A shutdown which has

happened only once before at Heysham on this scale. The grid will lose

1000, 150 megawatts of power is. `` 1155. That can power around 1.5

million homes. Fortunately that is happening in the summer, when demand

is low, so there should not be an impact on our bills.

Well, it's not great to turn off your nuclear reactors, so there

But I guess over the next couple of months, it is not the worst time

It might be a different kettle of fish if it was the middle

So, an eight`week shutdown starts on Heysham one. Heysham two was not

affected but the regulator will only bring it back into service when it

is satisfied it is absolutely safe to do so.

A Greater Manchester policeman's been charged with voyeurism

The investigation into PC Kevin Dwyer ` who is currently

suspended from duty ` relates to the recovery of a number of videos

believed to have been filmed in Manchester, Warrington and Chester.

He'll appear before magistrates later this month.

A woman's been praised for forcing a knife`wielding robber

CCTV footage shows her pulling him away from

the counter where he was threatening the shopworker, eventually leading

A 21`year`old man's in hospital with head injuries after the car he was

driving crashed into the side of Hopwood Hall College in Rochdale.

The crash was captured in these dramatic CCTV pictures

Police want to speak to the two people who were nearly hit

People on the Isle of Man are being invited to have

It would prohibit discrimination on age, gender and sexual orientation.

It's considered one of the most important pieces of

social legislation to be progressed in the Isle of Man in recent times.

Now, this little four`year`old boy behind us will become the first

patient to undergo new treatment for a rare inherited disease in

Manchester later. Jack has a disease which is a fatal condition that

causes progressive dementia in children. He is taking part in a

trial at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital and our health

correspondent reports. Having a kickabout and a cuddle are just a

few of Jack's favourite things, but this little boy is also providing a

rare insight into a rare condition. The day he was born I knew there was

something wrong with him. I knew his stomach was always swollen, I knew

the way he slept, and I just kept taking him to the doctor. Jack was

born with San Felipe syndrome. As time goes by, he will forget the few

precious words he has learned and the validity to walk and play. It is

very hard, to communicate. `` and the ability to walk and play. We

just see him as our Jack, really. We don't know anyone else who has the

same as Jack. So we can't ask questions and stuff. The disease

affects just 100 children in the UK. Trials here will try to determined

whether a substance could slow down the build`up of chemicals in the

brain which causes the condition. Children often don't survive past

their early 20s, so we hope that the treatment will alter the course of

the disease so that we move away from that situation where we have

progressive decline and loss of skills. We hope to be able to try

and stabilise the disease. Jack and his family have travelled from

Sunderland because the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital is

world`renowned for research into red genetic disorders. `` rare genetic

disorders. It is inevitable that we will lose Jack but we will have him

for a bit longer if it does work and that is why we want to do it, to

make more memories. And Jack could help more children in the future.

Jack's condition is rare but his story is one that has touched many

people. This trial gives hope for potential for new treatments.

We wish the family all the best and all the best to little Jack. Still

to come tonight, a Rovers return for Mark Palios as the former FA chief

executive and his wife complete a takeover Tranmere Rovers. They like

their bit of justice from a younger bit of stuff. And the jailhouse

shock, a magistrate sings a protest song as she is forced to retire at

the age of 70. Next month, formerly in people will go to the polls to

decide the future of the United Kingdom. `` 4 million people.

Chances are you will not be one of them. The referendum on Scottish

independence is open only to voters living in Scotland, so you may think

it does not have anything to do with us. But a host of English

celebrities including Mick Jagger are begging Scotland to stay in the

UK. We went to meet one of them campaigning in Manchester.

You don't have to be a celebrity to sign...

Mick Jagger and Cliff Richard on the same bill.

Simon Cowell's name is there as well.

Their message to Scotland, according to TV historian Dan Snow,

You are in the wrong place, you should be in Scotland?

I'm not Scottish, it is not my decision, it is

What I am, though, is I'm from the rest of the UK.

The rest of the UK has been quite quiet about this and what we'd

like to say to Scottish people is, we hope you stay.

Nobody here has a vote, so you're not going to influence things?

No one here has a vote, all we're trying to do is let the Scottish

They didn't have time to sign, they weren't allowed to

If you sign this, we'll do a selfie for you.

..may have had an ulterior motive.

The owners of a shop selling Scotland's most famous export

It could certainly change the taxation, it could affect people's

Perhaps people would be a little bit negative towards it

There are great cities in Scotland, Glasgow and Edinburgh, that belong

The leader of Manchester council wants Scotland to stay too, but

could Scottish independence actually be good for the North of England?

As somebody who was born in England, I am an English Scot,

so I care for England as much as I care for Scotland.

At the moment everything seems to skew towards London.

After independence there will perhaps be a rebalancing in England

as they look towards the North as well little bit.

Scotland goes to the polls next month.

It's time for sport now and the football season got off to

But the excitement at one club went up a level today. Tranmere

And one of them is a familiar face in more ways than one.

Richard Askam has spent the day at Prenton Park

Mark Palios is the owner with his wife, is there much excitement about

his return to the club? Absolutely, many people will know Mark Palios as

a former chief executive of the football Association. He was also a

player here with almost 300 appearances. This is a sizeable

club, more than 6000 fans for the game on Saturday. It has fallen on

hard times but many fans do believe that the club has found the answer.

Mark has taken over, along with his wife, Nicola. The husband and wife

team Tranmere fans are pinning their hopes on to take their team forward.

I think it could be good for the club. Obviously there is money

coming into the club and the future is going to look brighter. Peter

Johnson has been really good for us over the last 25 years but it is

time to move on and I think he has probably found the right person to

take the club forward. Mark Palios knows Tranmere inside out. He

understands it as a player, administrator, is it an astute

executive of the Association, and businessman. `` this is him as chief

executive. The club clearly means a lot to him. This was the press

conference earlier today. We think we can leveraged the potential

around this array, nation of knowledge of sport, knowledge of

business and an awareness of doing things differently. `` through the

knowledge of sport. In recent years, the owner has wanted to sell but

only to the right people, as he made clear in an exclusive interview with

BBC late kick`off last season. What this club needs is someone like me,

27 years ago. I made a big difference here. So that wants to be

carried on but I think age is catching me up and I am ready to

move on. What about Nicola Palios? She is a highly successful

commercial lawyer and like her husband, a self`confessed sports

nut. How do they work together? We have a very different style of

working, but actually become meant each other quite well. Who the boss?

I couldn't possibly answer that question. That's you then. I will

let people draw their own conclusions on that one. Message

received loud and clear. Delighted to say I am joined by Mark Pangloss

now. At the end of that feature that we have just seen, with a twinkle in

her eye, your wife suggested that in the partnership she is the boss. ``

joined by Mark Palios. She was an Oxford blue, she did roaring in

Oxford and when you look at it, you realise she was the Cox, shouting

the orders are not doing the heavy lifting. So on that basis, yes. A

serious point, she did make this point as well, you bring very

different and confirmatory skills to the club. `` comp entry skills. What

is necessary at the club is to do a lot of stuff off the pitch. That

will go unseen. The business skills, the legal skills, and we both have

commercial backgrounds. That is what we will bring. If you like, I do

have the linking between the boot room and the board room as well. We

will have a pretty robust relationship, Rob and I, in terms of

what is going on on the pitch. But off the pitch, Nicola and I will

bring most help to the club. A unique, nation in many ways, fans

are fans and they want to see the best players that they can. `` a

unique combination. They will want you to buy the best players to get

back to League 1 as quickly as possible. Is it a more gradual

process? Not as simple as that at the moment. We finance the club and

we have two years, the breathing space to do the stuff off the park

which then starts to make the whole thing work here at Tranmere. That is

when you bring in what I call the secondary funding, to do that type

of thing. In the short term we have sufficient cash to supplement the

squad that Rob has but we will not be splashing the cash and buying a

lot of players. At the moment with what we have got, we think we can

make sure that Rob has the resources that he needs to ensure that we have

a good season in division two. Thanks very much indeed. And make

sure you listen to Nicola! It's been a mixed 24 hours

for Pemier League champions The good news first,

they've completed the ?32 million signing of French defender

Eliaquim Mangala from Porto. It's welcome news

for City who were second best throughout in yesterday's Community

Shield at Wembley where they went Now, there are few sides in world

football whose fortunes have changed A decade ago the club was

languishing in the depths of non`league, on Saturday came it's

first ever appearance in League One. Ian Haslam was there as the Cod Army

started the season with a 2`1 win A new season and a new division

for Fleetwood Town. They are well used to that after so

many promotions, only now they are Chairman Andy Pilley has

overseen the phenomenal rise. I've been looking forward to this

all summer, almost like a kid We intend to enjoy

our latest adventure. I always

like to have a cheeky look inside This is Fleetwood Town's changing

room, Including striker

Stephen Dobbie, who was at Blackpool He has had his shirt on

since two weeks ago. Ten years ago we were playing

in front of 30 men and a dog, Saturday's visitors were Crewe, who,

after two hugely successful years under Steve Davis,

struggled last season. Optimistic, happy with

a mid`table finish this year. We did it a couple of years ago with

youngsters so we might do it again. Here we are,

Fleetwood Town and Crewe Alexandra, We are about to get underway here,

glorious sunshine, Sizing up an opportunity,

inside the box and here is Vaughan, he has turned and swivelled

and tucked it in. Now it is on the left and side

with Proctor, who goes for goal. Right footed,

and he has put it in beautifully. It is our first game at this level

as a club, and I thought they We hit the bar a couple of times

and had two penalties and took one of them,

it could have been very different It is a good feeling to win

our first game of the season even Widnes Vikings say they'll work

with the Rugby Football League to investigate the violence that

followed their Challenge Cup semi The club's Chief Executive James

Rule has described the scenes as shameful and in a statement on the

Vikings website added that "It's imperative that everyone works

together to try and salvage what is Finally from me,

the National Football Museum in Manchester takes receipt

of a new exhibit tomorrow. The most famous locks

in football are the latest thing to go on display, former Blackburn

midfielder Robbie Savage has donated his famous or infamous blonde hair

after his recent cut. We'll have more on tomorrow's

North West Tonight. I did offer to donate mine. Let's

leave it there. You took the words right out of my mouth. Which one is

the question! Robbie Savage had more big blonde hair than I did, quite

jealous. Becky was among those taking part in the liveable

triathlon yesterday. How was it? Very windy and wet. A lot of

jellyfish as well. That's not me, by the way. That was the winner. Really

good fun. Really tough conditions. To me and the other people but

finished it, I think it was a good achievement just to get round in the

conditions. Well done to Liverpool as well, really good fun. I don't

feel worthy to be sitting on the sofa with you. Let's move on.

Sooner or later, we all have to retire.

Move on and let the next generation take over.

But when should that be and who should make that decision?

And now the rules say she has to step down.

But she doesn't want to and believes she still has a lot to

As Clare Fallon explains, she made a rather unusual protest about it.

SINGING: Nobody wants a JP when she's 70.

For 15 years she has been upholding the law but on her last day

in the job, Karen Henshaw took a stance against

rules and regulations, specifically the rules saying she is too old to

be a magistrate, by singing her opposition to the courtroom.

# When once your big brown eyes have lost their glitter...

Some people have said, go back in your box, you silly old bat,

But I think we should be given the option of carrying on

if we feel we have a lot to offer and we feel up to the job.

Most of us are being told we have to work longer

and there are some notable examples of people who have carried on past

Brucey kept on dancing into his 80s, the Queen, now 86, has only recently

And at 90, Sir Neville Mariner has this month become the oldest

Proof, according to Karen, that she's not too old.

As we are a much more ageing population, and people's health is

much better now, then I feel that eventually, the length of term

70 tomorrow, Karen insists she is not past it.

She hopes her protest song makes others realise that.

# No one wants a JP when she's old. #

She says new how to grab the attention, didn't she? Absolutely,

we wish her well. Now, we have had some unusual weather today in

certain parts? We have, we see it sometimes but not often in August.

Good evening, David Hewlett sent us these pictures of the coast, from

Blackpool to Fleetwood, very strong wind. It is a westerly wind,

straight from the Irish Sea, whipping up the phone, it looks like

it is snowing. Does not last very long but it is very impressive to

see. And I'm afraid as we go through this week, conditions are not going

to change much. Because we have got high tides and strong winds, I'm

afraid we do have a flood warning tonight. This is the Mersey stream

Warrington. Potential that there could be

flooding in the overnight period when we have high tide. The whole

week is unsettled, we have ex`hurricane Bertha out in the North

Sea, out across parts of Scotland. You can see the air circulating

around, coming from a north`westerly direction. Never great for us, much

fresher and cooler conditions and a north`westerly does tend to feed in

the showers. It has been the picture today, showers have lined up across

many places with thunder and lightning. They will continue

through the night. The wind has been gusty and continues to be gusty

through the night. It moves the showers through quickly but it makes

them very noticeable, though you could be woken up why them in the

night. Overnight temperatures 13 or 14 degrees. `` woken up by them. In

the more southern parts when you get up you could have some sunshine but

with the weather working through, showers will break out. The wind is

not quite as strong but still lively and adopter project of 17 degrees.

`` and a top temperature. It is falling rapidly. I have really

had enough of ex`hurricane Bertha. I wish she would not hang around. If

some are done? It will come around again hopefully. `` is some done?

Bags were watching and have a very good evening. `` thanks for

watching. 'Let's bring you...'

'..The latest headlines...' CHEERING

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