12/01/2017 North West Tonight

The families of the 96 Liverpool football fans who died

in the Hillsborough disaster have welcomed today's decision to refer

23 individuals and organisations for possible prosecution.

The cases - which have been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service -

follow two investigations into the 1989 FA Cup semifinal.

15 of the alleged offences relate to the disaster itself,

eight to the cover-up which followed.

Together, they are the biggest probe into allegations of police

They follow the conclusions from last year's new inquest,

which found the fans were unlawfully killed and were not to blame.

I asked Elkan Abrahamson - a solicitor for some

of their families - for his clients' reaction

To an extent, there's some relief that at least

something's now happening, that the files are going to the CPS,

but also a great deal of disappointment at the low number

of files that the IPCC in particular are sending, eight,

in connection with what we've come to term the cover-up.

It seems an astonishingly low number, especially given the IPCC

concede there are over 250 altered statements.

As the Hillsborough families know better than anyone,

this story has taken an awful long time to unfold.

It took them a long time to get the truth at the inquest last year.

How concerned are they that the process still could be

protracted by lawyers acting on behalf of those

Concerned, but also acknowledging that the reality of the situation,

that we know this is going to be a long process, and a slow process.

But what the families want to see is justice,

and that includes due justice for any people who may

I appreciate you haven't probably seen these files,

but from your understanding, what level of evidence

is there in these cases that have been passed on?

There's clearly a wealth of paperwork.

We're hearing of hundreds of thousands of papers,

from millions of pages that we looked at originally.

There must be a lot of evidence available.

I've no idea how much of that is being considered pertinent.

We have, ourselves, put in submissions to the IPCC

and Operation Resolve to try and draw their attention

to what we consider to be the evidence that we know

But, again, we have no idea how much attention's being paid to that,

or how much of that is being fed through to the CPS.

And having heard the supporters, their loved ones, exonerated last

April at the end of the inquests, is the appetite of the families

as strong as ever to see this through now to the next stage?

We're moving from justice to accountability.

The families have always said that, and always pushed for that.

And also for changes in the law, to ensure at this sort of thing

And there is still an appetite for that, even though it's

Five people have been charged in connection with allegations

of physical abuse at a boarding school in Cumbria.

It follows a lengthy investigation into Underley Hall

in Kirkby Lonsdale, which closed some years ago.

Stuart Flinders has been following developments and joins me now.

What are police saying about the men who have been charged?

The five men are from Lancashire, Cumbria and Yorkshire. They have all

been charged with causing actual bodily harm. One of them, Errol

Mayer is also facing ten charges of child cruelty. He is 72 years old,

in fact, three of these men are in their 70s, the youngest is 57. This

investigation has been focusing on alleged events dating back to the

Investigation has been going on for Investigation has been going on for

some time? It has. It is called Operation

Tweed, and started in 2014. The focus of the investigation is a

school called Underley Hall. The police explained last year that the

recently investigation was taking so long to bring to conclusion is that

it was complex and involved people across the country and abroad. The

school itself closed in 2012, the men had been bailed to appear at

South Cumbria Magistrates' Court in February.

The body of a soldier from Greater Manchester -

who died on duty in Iraq - has been returned to the UK.

Lance Corporal Scott Hetherington from Middleton served

with 2nd Battalion - the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment.

He died as a result of a shooting accident.

Four of the five candidates to become Metro Mayor

of Greater Manchester have rejected controversial plans

to build thousands of new houses on green belt land.

Both the Liberal Democrats and Ukip says they would scrap

the proposals completely, but councils insist the homes

More protest marches against the plans will take

I think it needs a complete fresh start, frankly.

More important issues need to be taken into account,

I mean, the consultation process seems to be with developers rather

than what is actually needed within the communities.

New year and a new start - that was the intention

of Jeremy Corbyn and his team as they planned a people-friendly

But new starts don't always go to plan.

On Tuesday, he was criticised for delivering a mixed message

on immigration and for suggesting a salary cap.

Our political editor Nina Warhurst spoke to him,

and asked him why he thinks he's fairing so badly in the polls.

We've got to get our message out there, we've got to campaign,

The issues of inequality in Britain, the issues

of the National Health Service, of opportunities for young people

We're campaigning very hard to get our message

across about the kind of country we could be.

Our viewers who got in touch, I'll give you a couple of examples -

Eilidh, from Tameside, said, I agree with Jeremy on lots of things,

but he's out of touch with northern Labour voters

What I want to do is end the undercutting

of existing pay and conditions, the explotation of people in awful

But the northwest of England told you in the Brexit vote,

You're assuming that all those who voted Brexit voted on one issue.

There are many issues people voted on.

We need to have an economic relationship with Europe

in the future, that's what Labour's committed to.

That's why we're working with colleagues across Europe.

Paul Nuttall, who is the new leader of Ukip, he's a plain-speaking

northerner, and his message is clear on immigration -

Why shouldn't those voters in the North West turn to Ukip?

I think what we have to do is ensure that there is no more undercutting

No more people being brought in by agencies...

That will sound to our viewers like you're more worried

about the rights of immigrants than you are about their concerns,

about the impact of immigration on their communities.

It would have a big effect, because it would mean people that

have got agreed working conditions in this country wouldn't then be

We know you're not a supporter of it, it's already begun

If you were Prime Minister tomorrow, would you say, sorry,

Cuadrilla, put the brakes on, we need you to leave.

We have announced at party conference that we want to put

We're very concerned about the effects on the environment of it

and of the pollution of ground water supplies because of it.

You don't like fracking, you don't like Trident,

you don't like large pharmaceuticals - they're three

areas that generate enormous wealth in the North West.

What jobs would you give those families?

Well, I'm not against pharmaceutical industries,

what I'm against is some of the pricing systems operated

by big pharma companies, which isn't the same thing at all.

What we want to do is develop a diverse energy-generation

system in this country, there are many jobs to be created

through renewable energy products and energy development.

And we want to see a diverse energy production.

We want to see an NHS which is properly funded

We want a pharmaceutical industry that works

Football - Everton have completed the ?22 million signing

of midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin from Manchester United.

Elsewhere John Sheridan has become the Oldham Manager

for a third time after they sacked Steve Robinson.

There's been some snow across the region tonight.

Earlier, it settled on higher ground, making travelling

The routes over the Pennines from Cheshire to Derbyshire

While we've been on air, Lindsey has been in touch on Twitter saying

Blackburn has seen snow. And I been tweeted to say they have

seen snow in Lancashire. The routes from Cheshire into Derbyshire could

be badly affected. They certainly were this morning, and again

tomorrow morning, this line of whether will work its way through as

people are getting up. The rush hour could be badly affected. This is the

track, the showers will keep coming throughout the night. The Weather

Watchers have managed to catch the snow falling, this is straight from.

A light covering, this will be the case for many people. The showers

will not switch off at midnight, they come from many places. A

significant problem will be ice on Arnesen treated circumstance --

untreated surfaces in the morning. That could happen just about

anywhere. We seek showers coming through, Cheshire into Derbyshire,

that road could be badly affected tomorrow morning. An inky relation

of a couple of centimetres there. Most places are around zero in

temperature tomorrow, rural areas around minus three. Because the wind

changes direction tomorrow, it has to get over at the Scottish hills to

get a us. In it a success in doing that, they'll will take most of the

snow showers out. It will be bitterly cold tomorrow, particularly

in the morning, top temperature around four. I leave you with the

outlook for the note. If that's not your sort of

thing, Sunday will be cloudier and milder.

Good evening. It was such a mild December, wasn't it, but winter has

arrived. Tomorrow morning, again, could be prising the wipers off the

frozen windscreen. Yes, it's going to be cold tonight, whether it is

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