25/01/2017 North West Today

And Theresa May has said she will publish her Brexit plan

The headlines this Wednesday lunchtime:

Bird flu found at farm in Lancashire.

Thousands of birds will have to be culled.

An investigation is launched after a 71-year-old man died

after waiting nearly an hour for an ambulance.

And Mourinho gets the seal of approval at Old Trafford

from United legend, Sir Alex Ferguson.

An investigation is underway this lunchtime into the source

of a bird flu outbreak at a farm in Lancashire.

Thousands of pheasants will have to be culled at the site

The Department for the Envivonment confirmed the virus

And come what is the latest there are? Hi. Gamer hatcheries Limited is

the farm in the distance behind as here. As you say, the Department of

the Environment confirmed the news last night that a strain of bird

flu, the age five and eight has been found in a flock of about 10,000

breeding sediments. There is no protection zone around the affected

area as well as a ten kilometres surveillance on to limit the risk of

disease spreading. What we know about the owner of the farm? Well,

he says he has been breeding birds for over half a century and is

understandably highly concerned about the effect this will have on

his business. He did not want to talk to us on camera but this

morning he spoke to BBC radio Lancashire. I've done it now for 54

years. Potentially, it could just wiped everything out. Just depends

how bad it is. I can't tell you at the moment but if it wipes

everything out, it would nearly bankrupt us because we would have

annual revenue of this year. Ian, this is the first outbreak in

Lancashire since 2015 but there have been a couple of other cases in the

UK recently. Yes. It's believed the disease has been spread by migratory

birds lost stop there have been cases in another of countries in

Europe. Bird flu has been found in Wales, North Yorkshire and Louth in

Lincolnshire in recent weeks. Restrictions have been in place as a

result with poultry keepers told to keep their birds indoors to protect

them or to take steps to separate them from wild birds. What happens

from here? I understand animal health officers are at the scene.

Some of the birds have died. The remaining pheasants are due to be

humanely culled following which I am told there will be eight primary and

secondary cleansing and disinfect. The investigation will obviously

examine the source of the bird flu outbreak your which is obviously an

ongoing concern. Public Health England says the risk is very low to

humans while the Food Standards Agency says bird flu is not a safety

risk for consumers. We will have more on this at Northwestern night

at 6:30pm. Thank you. A 63-year-old man has been killed

by a hit and run driver, as he was walking with his wife

after celebrating her birthday. It happened last night on Princes

Way in Fleetwood just after 8:30pm. The man who died has been named as

Michael Milken is from Fleetwood. A 22-year-old man came forward this

morning and has been held on suspicion of causing death by

dangerous driving. Thousands of pounds worth

of damage has been caused to Trafford Town Hall

after a man smashed windows It happened in the early hours

of Saturday morning. The main entrance to

the building won't be available Liverpool scientists have made

what's being described as a monumental step

forward in the treatment Clinical trials at

the Catterbridge Centre and the Royal Liverpool Hospital

found that pairing two drugs increased patients chances of living

at least five years. Pancreatic Cancer UK is calling

for the treatment to be made A nurse from Burnley

says her 71-year-old uncle died in her arms as they waited 55

minutes for an ambulance to arrive. Jack Skelly collapsed

at his home last December. The North West Ambulance

Service is investigating. They say delays may have been caused

by ambulance is backed up at AMD units.

Our health correspondent Gill Dummigan has been

Jack Skelly was a man who enjoyed life.

But on December 19th, he collapsed in the family bathroom,

When it hadn't arrived in approximately 15 minutes,

She immediately began to assess her uncle's condition

while the family rang the Ambulance Service again.

I just kept talking to him, reassuring him,

By now, Jo says it was coming up to 50 minutes since the first call.

At the very most, it should have been there within 20.

Finally, you could see that the colour was changing.

He was becoming more and more deteriorated, sorry.

Five minutes later, the ambulance crew arrived.

She says the family will never know whether he might have lived

Whenever anybody has a trauma, for example,

they talk about the golden hour and uncle Jack's golden hour

was waiting for that ambulance to arrive.

and that NWAS should be held accountable for that.

We don't think this should ever happen again to anybody.

In a statement, the Ambulance Service

offered their condolences to the family and said

they were carrying out a full investigation.

They added that at on that day, the trust was experiencing

a high demand, and a number of resources were waiting with patients

Sir Alex Ferguson says Manchester United are making

great strides under current boss Jose Mourinho.

Speaking exclusively to the BBC, Sir Alex said Mourinho's team

was now a reflection of the manager's winning mentality.

He also spoke about Wayne Rooney's record-breaking

Sir Alex said that even though he always knew Rooney was special,

I mean, that's way we bought him because we

could see that and I think Walter Smith's words were very apt.

He said, he's the best young player in Britain

But I couldn't think he was ever going to beat

I don't think I could ever think anybody could beat

Sir Alex also spoke about the current manager,

Jose Mourinho, and said he's done well to come through a tricky period

It's not easy to come to United and transform

There was a period earlier in the season when he

And he says the team now mirrors a manager who looks in control

of his players and his own emotions.

That's the obvious observation I am making of the team now.

It playing with great energy, determination,

will to win, which I think is really important.

As for the team's direction, very much on the up,

If they hadn't got all these draws,

You know, that's the unfortunate part.

He's going to have to live with that, but I think he'll be in...

He'll be inspired by the progress of the team.

A seal of approval that Jose Mourinho will

Now the weather for the rest of today with Charlie Slater.

Quite a pleasant afternoon in store as well.

A good deal of blue sky and sunshine around

as we make our way through the next few hours.

Still going to be quite breezy and that breeze will stir

the air around and make it feel quite cold.

Highs today of around seven or eight Celsius

will feel a little bit colder than that.

Overnight tonight and into the early hours of Thursday morning,

there will be quite a lot of cloud around but despite the cloud,

it will be quite a cold night as well so some frost and ice

are a possibility for first thing on Thursday.

This ahead of what is going to be one of the coldest days

Dull and cloudy, very cold air feeding in off the

nearby continent, so temperatures of around

one or two that then when you factor

in the wind chill, it's going to feel more like -4 or -5.

That's what those little blue squares there are indicating.

Thankfully, a little bit milder by Friday.

And that's all from us here on the lunchtime team. I'll be back with

Roger at 6:30pm for North West Roger at 6:30pm for North West

tonight. Hope you can join a stand. In the meantime, wrap up warm and we

will see with 6:30pm. Goodbye.