15/03/2012 North West Tonight

Good evening. Welcome to NorthWest Tonight with Ranvir Singh and Roger

Johnson. Our top story: Leaked Cabinet papers show a senior

Merseyside police officer blamed drunken fans for the Hillsborough

disaster. We'll be live at Anfield for reaction to those documents.

Also tonight: Hit by a car and hurled 70 feet - the teenager who

survived an accident in which two drivers were racing with each other.

�35 million of cuts over the next year - how the Isle of Man is

hoping to balance the books. the knickers aimed at putting

British manufacturing back in The BBC has seen government papers

in which a senior Merseyside Police officer blames what he describes as

drunken Liverpool fans for the Hillsborough disaster. The Cabinet

documents date from April 20th, 1989, five days after the tragedy

which claimed the lives of 96 people. The claim was part of a

briefing sent to the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. The

official Hillsborough inquiry blamed the police for losing

control. Our Merseyside reporter These comments are from a police

force 23 years ago, in one case from a former chief constable, who

is now dead. Nevertheless, the fact that the families's home police

force made these comments has angered the Hillsborough families,

especially in light of what the report found. And the information

has been leaked out bit by bit, which is something that the

families did not want at this stage in the proceedings either.

Mrs Thatcher visited Hillsborough the day after it happened. Debate

about what her government was told and how it responded has

intensified in recent years. Now cabinet papers seen by the BBC show

what senior Merseyside Police officers thought. One blamed the

tragedy on drunken Liverpool fans. Anne Williams lost her 15 year old

son Kevin in the tragedy. He worked hard. He was not a drunken

Liverpool fan. A lot of these young kids that died, it just makes your

blood boil, because they went to a football match and never came home.

The papers come from a meeting a member of the Prime Ministers's

policy unit had with the then Merseyside Chief Constable Sir

Kenneth Oxford and other officers. The letter to Mrs Thatcher about

that meeting quotes Sir Kenneth as saying: "A key factor in causing

the disaster was the fact that large numbers of Liverpool fans had

turned up without tickets. This was getting lost sight of in attempts

to blame the police, the football authorities etc." The letter says

another officer, born and bred in Liverpool, said that he was deeply

ashamed to say that it was drunken Liverpool fans who had caused this

disaster, just as they had caused the deaths at Heysel. The official

report into Hillsborough did not blame ticketless fans. It did not

blame drunken fans. It blamed a failure of police control. That was

a very upsetting thing to here what was said by our Merseyside police

within days of the disaster, and before any inquiry was set up or

anything. It was a disgrace. disaster happened in Sheffield not

Liverpool but these papers show for the first time what some police

officers from the home force of those who died thought. It causes

the same pain again because it is the same old lies that have been

propagated for 23 years about what Liverpool fans were up to that date.

It is nonsense. It's not clear where the officers got their

information from. And the papers do not reveal any comments made by

South Yorkshire Police to the government. Those comments may come

out when the Hillsborough Panel reports in the autumn.

The Hillsborough panel says they do not comment on leaked reports and

the police say it would not be appropriate to comment. I am joined

by a Liverpool MP. You have campaigned on this. What do you

make of the latest leaks? I don't think it will come as a surprise

that Mr Oxford sided with the Government of the day. He did not

support the people that paid his salary. He always seemed to be at

odds with the people of Merseyside and this is just one example of him

corresponding with Mrs Thatcher and taking an arbitrary decision

without any of the facts and the evidence, certainly without an

inquiry having taken place. Why do you think is particular information

has come out now? That is the big question, really. Why now? Who

leaked the information? You have to be a very senior civil servant or

politician to have access to information and documentation that

is retained under the 30 year rule. There are lots of questions that

need to be answered and myself and Andy Burnham will be asking

questions on Monday when we returned to the House of Commons.

Given that the official inquiry blamed the police for what happened

at Hillsborough, and that Merseyside was not the police force

responsible, how important is this information that Merseyside police

thought, wrongly, that it was ticketless fans and drunken fans?

think the 23 years only now the families have been saying that they

believe there was a cover-up and it went to the very highest levels.

This one seems to have gone to the very highest levels of Merseyside

Police and to the Prime Minister of the day. That will be no surprise

to Liverpudlians. We have known about this and we have campaigned

for 23 and a half years for the truth and that will come out soon.

Thank you very much. Back to the studio.

Thank you. Next tonight, a teenager was hurled

70 feet by a hit and run driver and left injured on the road. Megain

Heaps, who's 19 and from Stockport, was on a crossing when the accident

took place. Police say the car involved was racing at excessive

speeds with another vehicle and could have killed someone. Today

the student appealed for the public's help to trace the driver.

Yunus Mulla reports. Megan Heaps remembers very little

about the accident that's left her with a dislocated shoulder and cuts

and brusises, but she's in no doubt that she could have lost her life.

This is the moment when she was hit by a car and hurled more than 20

metres down the road. I have got to be lucky. Most people would not

have survived. The cars were going so fast. I was hit, flipped on to

the windscreen, and then I was thrown and the car drove round may.

Another car, a blue Polo, was on the wrong side of the Reddish Road

near the junction with Broadstone Hall Road south in Stockport.

Witnesses have described how the two cars were wasting each other.

The silver Astra that hit the teenager will have damage to its

front end and windscreen. -- racing each other. It is so stupid to be

racing through the daytime right next to a primary school. That

could have been a little kid that would not have lived. It's

astonishing, say police, that an injured girl was left on the road.

Clearly they are not bothered about hurting somebody and they could do

The Stockport student is in constant pain but this appeal she

hopes will help trace the drivers who had little regard to the safety

of themselves or others. A Cumbrian school has been to the

High Court to challenge an unfavourable Ofsted report.

Inspectors had given the Furness Academy an overall rating of

inadequate because its maths results were not up to scratch.

However the Academy argued that the rating was unfair given that it had

only been open two years. The judge told Ofsted it should make it clear

that but for maths the academies rating would have been satisfactory.

He granted a judicial review of the way Ofsted arrives at its overall

ratings. Our next story contains some flash

photography. Eight people have been arrested after a man was murdered

in a Rochdale nightclub. Police carried out raids on addresses

across Manchester and Bolton this morning. John Lee Barrett was

stabbed in the back in Sinclair's Bar on Christmas Day and died two

days later. This was a lot of people all together in one night

club who acted together as a pack. As a result, somebody has lost

their life. The arrest reflect the nature of the offence committed.

A former soldier has appeared in court accused of murdering the

mother of his four-year-old son. Ian Lowe of the 1st Battalion the

Duke of Lancaster's regiment has been charged with the murder of

Leanne McDuff. She was found at her home in Droylsden, Greater

Manchester, on Sunday. A third of the board that governs

the troubled Morecambe Bay NHS Trust have resigned. The Trust is

now looking for four new non- executives. No reason has been

given but the Chair of the Board admits it's been a challenging time

for the Trust after a series of damning reports into the quality of

care at its hospitals. A 23-year-old from Chorley who's in

a coma in Australia is finally being flown home. Holly Raper was

working on a farm in Tasmania when she fell off a quad bike. It's

taken three months to find the funds to bring her back. Her travel

insurance policy didn't cover her accident.

Police stations, fire headquarters, nurseries and mobile libraries,

they are just some of the services being swiped away from people on

the Isle of Man in a long list of cuts. They're trying to save tens

of millions of pounds as one of the toughest budgets in a generation

has been announced. We found out how they are planning to do it.

Reading is everything to Nancy. She is bedridden in a care home in the

Isle of Man and finds comfort in books. She never married, so some

of her only visitors are from the mobile library, but not for much

longer. The mobile library is a lifeline. I get on with my books.

If they take my books away, I don't quite know what I will do. Except

sit and watch the birds. We have to change because our financial

circumstances have changed. There will be more difficult decisions

required until the quoted rebalanced. We try to be fair and

equitable. These cuts will be made in pretty much every department in

Government so they will be no just across the island. But why are they

only happening now? The VAT sharing agreement with the UK has taken

away �175 million. There has also been a reduction in direct tax

receipts of a further �9 million. The island basically now has a

smaller slice of the pie than it did before, leaving a gap in their

budget. One-third of their total income has vanished, forcing major

changes to the way the island operates. We are in the middle of a

very substantial change programme. I can understand that people don't

like change. They do not like change. I know the Government is in

a difficult situation. It does need to save money but there are better

ways to do it. Taking things away from our children is not right. It

is not the Third World, it is the Isle of Man. Where has the money

gone? The Government wants to spread the burden evenly. Some

nurseries, fire stations and police headquarters will be cut. Nancy has

to learn to go without as the Government tried to balance their

books. We've all seen the results of fly-

tipping. It's not pleasant wherever it happens. But in one part of

Preston the illegal dumping of rubbish is taking place on an

industrial scale. Today workmen removed more than ten tonnes of

junk from a former railway line just months after a similar amount

was cleared. Experts say it's evidence of more and more people

trying to dodge the cost of getting rid of waste responsibly. Our

Environment Correspondent Colin Sykes reports.

Clearing up on the former Deepdale railway line in Preston. The

cutting has been turned into a tip with rubbish thrown from bridges on

a large scale. Daniel Gibson's a trainee accountant with Network

Rail. Today he's volunteered to help clean up.

Am quite surprised. We have found some needles as well. I wonder how

people get down here, to be honest. Although much of the waste is

domestic, some is commercial, dumped by traders trying to dodge

landfill taxes. This is fly-tipping on a grand scale. Someone has

thrown a sofa down here. Because of the bridges, people are throwing

things down on to the disused railway line all the time. The

depressing thing is that the team are here today and they were only

here just before Christmas. Within two months it will be as bad again.

Last month the Tipping was just as bad. If you have the energy to take

it to a railway track and throw it over a wall, then why can you not

take it to the tip? Last year there were 820,000 cases of fly-tipping

but just 2400 prosecutions. 60% of that waste was domestic.

Unfortunately there is a group of people either ignorant or

deliberately flouting the law. They take advantage of the rest of us,

which is a real concern. Back at Deepdale, the team know they will

be coming back. We deal within the region of 5000 requests per year to

clear up litter and fly-tipping. Quite why people do it, I am not

sure. The good news is that fly- tipping is down by 13% but it is

still costing as �41 million the year to clean it up.

Astonishing. 10 tons of rubble in a day.

We're constantly told that buying British is best. But when it comes

to manufacturing, especially fashion, that can be difficult,

with most clothes made much more cheaply abroad. But retail guru

Mary Portas wants to change that, starting with knickers. She took

her challenge to a factory in Middleton near Manchester, where

she reopened the sewing room floor and recruited machinists. So did

she succeed? Abbie Jones reports. Business is brisk, Kinky Knickers

production line. They have to make 400 a day to meet their targets.

The last eight years, these machines were silent as the firm

had to send their night where production abroad. You just get a

sense of life having been here and now it is gone. It was only eight

years ago that this stopped. They just ceased production. I want to

bring it back. Mary Portas decided to do that with knickers. She

helped devise the ground, found trainees, sourced the lace and

found retailers. Selfridges and Marks & Spencer are now on board.

We can do this because the costs overseas of manufacturing have gone

up, labour costs and shipping costs as well. We have proved the

doubters wrong, thank the Lord, and it is fantastic to get a factory

back. Mary Portas was convinced that demand from the public was

there to buy British. I think that we should support them. We are

British and we should. It is good for the town, but for people, stuff

like that. It depends on the price. That is most important to me.

project is not just about changing attitudes of the manufacturing

industry. 40 new jobs have been created here, which 200 people

applied for. -- 40 new jobs. That is pretty good turnout and I have

only got eight jobs to offer now. have never had a job before. I have

never really worked. This means a lot to me. I am from a family of

machinists. There is just no manufacturing in the area that does

sowing. Kinky Knickers has 30,000 orders and their goal is 100,000.

You can see more on Mary's Bottom Line at 9 o'clock tonight.

That looks good. The knickers look great as well as the programme!

Football next and the two Manchester clubs are in Europa

League action tonight, both looking to come back from third leg defeats

to progress to the quarter-finals. Not going very well for Manchester

United, 1-0 down against Athletic Bilbao. The game is approaching

half-time. United are 3-2 down from the first leg as well. City kick

off in just over an hour for their match against Sporting Lisbon. Our

reporter is there now. Hello. We will talk about

Manchester City in a moment, but let's reflect on Manchester United

and that scoreline coming from Spain, 1-0 down. With me is the

Daily Telegraph sports correspondent. Hello. It was always

going to be very difficult for United but even more difficult now.

Yes, 3-2 down from the first leg and a very good team. I thought

Alex Ferguson would wrest some plays tonight because they are

playing Wolverhampton on Sunday but he has got lots of players. With

the game at the weekend, what matters is the league, so I am

surprised and the gamble has backfired. Both managers, Roberto

Mancini and Ferguson, have been talking up the Europa League. Do

you think they mean it? Is it find games? I think they both mean it

for public consumption but privately they would be happy to be

out of it. City lost players during this Cup and it is costing them big.

If you lose players in the Europa League, it costs you in the Premier

League so it is probably better to be out of it. Players have been

trying ahead of the fixture. Carlos Tevez is ineligible tonight. Samir

Nasri and the like, those players are available. Despite what you

have said, do you think Roberto Mancini will play a strong side

tonight? I think he has to put a Vincent Kompany is out, so does not

have many options at the back. There are sensibly he does not have

many options to rotate. Joe Harper as well. It is tough for him. He

has got injuries and so we cannot afford any more. And there next

thing is the game against Chelsea. Yes, that is the big thing. Just

who will be up for it after last night, and they seem to be

transformed as a team. Roberta Maggioni cannot afford any more

injuries. Thank you. -- Roberto Mancini. There is full commentary

on the game on BBC Radio Manchester. Kick off is at 8 o'clock, sorry,

five past eight! Back to you. will buy you or what! Carlos

Tevez's hat was almost as good as those knickers!

A Jewish book described as priceless dating back to the 14th

century is leaving the North West and heading to the US. The Hagadah

has just been freshly restored at the John Ryelands Library in

Manchester. In a few weeks it will be on exhibition at the

Metropolitian Museum of Art in New York. Our reporter Nazia Mogra had

the chance to handle the book and found out why it is so valuable.

It was a long, detailed and intense process to restore this book.

a period of eight months, it took approximately 300 hours. And a

great deal of time spent under the microscope, preserving the pigments

and gold leaf which had been cracking and flicking. It cannot be

seen with the naked eye. It is very, very minute detail. You have to go

underneath the pigment. Painstaking it may have been, but its value to

Jewish people? It contained stories of their ancestors who left slavery

for freedom. We can see the plague of frogs. There is the Pharaoh

being attacked by frogs. The manuscript has been at the Library

since 1901. Over 100 years. This is one of the most important Hagadah

manuscripts to have survived worldwide. It tells the story of

the pass over and the flight of the children of Israel to Egypt, the

Exodus story. They are no strangers to working with masterpieces like

this. Last year they digitised one of the largest copies of the Koran.

Because I have got now Polish on, I have been asked to wear these

gloves before handling the book. -- nail polish. The Hagadah is used by

Jewish people all round the world on the first night of the Passover.

Is one from Spain is considered priceless by experts. It will stay

safe and sound right here until it is hand-delivered to New York in a

Extraordinary, it gives you goose bumps. They were very trusting to

let her touch it! The BBC Studios here at MediaCity

were taken over by dozens of young people today for the BBC's annual

School Report Day. Thousands of school children across the North

West have been compiling news reports on TV, radio and online

looking at some of the issues which affect them. And they had some

expert help here in Salford. Welcome to BBC News School Report,

live this morning from Salford. Over the next 75 minutes, that team

of reporters, beavering away here at Media city UK, will be keeping

Hello, I am Jack. We are taking part in BBC School Report in

Now you have done this report and the school has been involved, do

think you might pick up on the sport and start playing? Yes, we

already have a teacher doing a course on handball. Good morning.

It is a cold start this morning, Mr and Bobby, too. -- mist and fog,

too. Who do you think will have the most chance of progressing in the

Cup finals? I think United. From all of us in Salford, we hand you

over to the radio programme. The buyer. Give them a wave. At Shea. -

- and cheer. It was harder than I thought it was. I learned to

interview a number of people. is Jack and Becky for the BBC

School Report. They were grid. It was great to see you doing some

work! -- they were great. Did you take notes on how to do it?! If you

would like to see any of that programme, go to the School Report

website. There are some fascinating topics. Bullying, body image, lots

of things. The address is on the screen. Katie doing the weather was

brilliant. Should anybody be worried? I would be very

Actually, I liked the professionalism. Even in the office

they had a shirt and tie on. If you are fed up with this quiet,

depressing weather that we have been seeing, there is a change on

its way and it comes in tomorrow with the North-South divide in our

weather. Northern parts of the region will be fairly wet and

further South that will be brighter. In the middle, you will get

something in the middle but it will balance out in the end. Katie was

right. It has been cold and cloudy. Temperatures have struggled.

Manchester Airport did not get above five degrees and a 4 o'clock

this afternoon because the overnight temperature was down to

minus two. Visibility has been poor and that cloud cover has not wanted

to move. On the other side of the Pennines, an entirely different

story with lovely spell of sunshine. For us, the cloud has but wanted to

go anywhere and that is our story through the night. -- not wanted to

go anywhere. Overcast, light winds. In the early hours of the morning

mist and fog will be a problem in many places. The other half of our

story moves in over my shoulder through the early hours of the

morning. This weather front will freshen things up as it moves

across the region tomorrow and comes back in a different form on

Saturday. The quiet spell will come to an end through the weekend. It

will offer you something really quite different. Rain in the Isle

of Man and Cumbria. There is a broad spectrum of temperatures,

three in rural areas, seven on the Isle of Man and six or seven along

the coast. Towns and cities around five or six degrees. The rain

starts its journey in Cumbria and it is really slow. For most of us

it is the cloudy start to the day. The cloud base is higher and so the

skies will be brighter. In the south-western corner we will see

the best of the brothers. Parts of Cheshire could see spells of

sunshine. -- the best of the brightness. As the weather front

moves towards us all, we all lose the brightness and many places will

be seeing rain. The weekend is mixed with rain but also some

sunshine. A bit of everything. was saying earlier that there are

two bright stars in a diagonal line. I have been looking and apparently

it is the owners and Jupiter. They look spectacular. -- Venus. Have