:00:00. > :00:00.Monday. That is all from the
:00:00. > :00:00.Good evening. Welcome to North West Tonight with Annabel Tiffin and
:00:00. > :00:10.Graham Liver. Our top story: The pensioner ordered
:00:11. > :00:19.to pay thousands of pounds to his carer for cutting her hours after
:00:20. > :00:21.his wife died. I feel awful about it. I don't know how it will be
:00:22. > :00:23.paid. Tonight we examine how the law
:00:24. > :00:26.works. Also in the programme: Manchester
:00:27. > :00:28.University gets millions for revolutionary X`rays that could
:00:29. > :00:41.could bring us closer to beating cancer. I'm outside Lancashire
:00:42. > :00:44.County Council. In August, its chief executive was suspended. Today, he
:00:45. > :00:48.resigned. And 18 marathons in 18 days in
:00:49. > :00:56.memory of 18 fallen soldiers. One Lancashire man's mammoth challenge.
:00:57. > :00:57.And join me at Martin mere, where thousands of pink footed geese are
:00:58. > :01:14.making a flying visit. A widower has been ordered to pay
:01:15. > :01:18.more than ?3,500 to a carer who sued him after her hours were cut when
:01:19. > :01:21.his wife died. George Lomas from Cheshire was taken to an employment
:01:22. > :01:28.tribunal by Jayne Wakefield after his wife Rose passed away in March.
:01:29. > :01:31.She lost the case but won on appeal. Mr Lomas does not know how he is
:01:32. > :01:33.going to pay it. Abbie Jones reports.
:01:34. > :01:36.George Lomas has looked after his wife Rose since she was diagnosed
:01:37. > :01:40.with Parkinson's disease. Five years ago, he accepted help from a carer,
:01:41. > :01:43.Jayne Wakefield, funded by his local council. When Rose died, he asked
:01:44. > :01:48.Mrs Wakefield to stay on, to help him, on a private basis for fewer
:01:49. > :01:55.hours. She did this but there was no written contract ` and the carer
:01:56. > :01:58.took him to court. I feel awful about it. I couldn't understand why
:01:59. > :02:03.the judgement had gone against me, because I didn't know the rules and
:02:04. > :02:09.I couldn't have insured against redundancy. This seems to be the
:02:10. > :02:13.stumbling block. But how it is going to be paid, as yet, I don't know.
:02:14. > :02:17.Mrs Wakefield was paid for at least 30 hours a week to care for Rose
:02:18. > :02:20.through Cheshire East Council. After her death, that stopped. Mr Lomas
:02:21. > :02:24.paid his carer privately for a few days for 16 hours a week. But
:02:25. > :02:27.nothing was put into writing and Mrs Wakefield resigned. She then sued Mr
:02:28. > :02:30.Lomas for breach of contract and unfair dismissal, which she won on
:02:31. > :02:34.appeal. The judge ruled she'd been unfairly treated. When Mr Lomas paid
:02:35. > :02:38.the carer privately after his wife's death, he was legally classed as her
:02:39. > :02:42.employer. The council says it's not liable for any claims because of
:02:43. > :02:50.this. But his son says others should be aware this could happen to them.
:02:51. > :02:54.I think it ever you are paying anybody to help you in any shape or
:02:55. > :02:57.form, you have to make sure you are doing the right thing, whatever that
:02:58. > :03:00.is. My dad did not know what to do, but this has raised a big question.
:03:01. > :03:03.You must be so careful when employing people. Mrs Wakefield was
:03:04. > :03:07.not available for comment today but her husband told a newspaper she had
:03:08. > :03:11.been given the redundancy money she was entitled to. But Mr Lomas says
:03:12. > :03:15.he doesn't know how he'll be able to afford to pay it.
:03:16. > :03:19.Well Abbie is here now. We heard from Mr Lomas' son. This could
:03:20. > :03:24.possibly raise issues for other people who are paying people for
:03:25. > :03:29.care. Yes, and if you pay somebody privately, as Mr Lomas did, you
:03:30. > :03:33.become an employer, as Mr Lomas and out, and you are liable. There may
:03:34. > :03:37.be many other people like Mr Lomas out there who do not realise that.
:03:38. > :03:41.That can also happen with the care packages. It you have packages to
:03:42. > :03:46.local councils, you may find yourself liable. Sometimes you get
:03:47. > :03:50.the money direct, which gives you the ability to spend it as you see
:03:51. > :03:54.fit, but also gives you responsibilities, potentially. You
:03:55. > :03:57.might be responsible for holidays, or even redundancy payments. The
:03:58. > :04:00.council say they give that information out to be but with those
:04:01. > :04:02.kind of packages, but it is an issue they need to be aware of. Thank you
:04:03. > :04:06.very much. Next tonight, the family of an
:04:07. > :04:10.unarmed man shot dead by the police in Warrington is angry that a report
:04:11. > :04:12.on the killing has been leaked to a newspaper before being given to
:04:13. > :04:16.them. Anthony Grainger's family has been waiting to see the report by
:04:17. > :04:18.the Independent Police Complaints Commission for 18 months. According
:04:19. > :04:22.to the newspaper, the report is critical of the police. The officers
:04:23. > :04:27.involved may yet face criminal charges. Stuart Flinders reports.
:04:28. > :04:30.A single shot fired through the windscreen of a red Audi that had
:04:31. > :04:33.been under surveillance by officers from Greater Manchester Police. It
:04:34. > :04:37.killed Anthony Grainger, a father of two from Salford. No weapons were
:04:38. > :04:41.found in the vehicle and two men arrested at the scene, a car park in
:04:42. > :04:44.Culcheth near Warrington, have since been acquitted of conspiracy to rob
:04:45. > :04:49.along with another man arrested later. Today the Manchester Evening
:04:50. > :04:52.News claimed that a report by the Independent Police Complaints
:04:53. > :04:54.Commission criticised the police for flawed intelligence gathering and
:04:55. > :05:05.suggested the officer who pulled the trigger may have a criminal case to
:05:06. > :05:08.answer. It's 18 months now since Anthony Grainger was shot dead, and
:05:09. > :05:12.his family are still waiting to see that report or themselves. Their
:05:13. > :05:17.solicitor says they should not have been reading it first in a
:05:18. > :05:20.newspaper. We have had to give very strict undertakings about the
:05:21. > :05:24.reports when we have seen it, but we are not allowed to disclose it, and
:05:25. > :05:28.yet, GMP seem to have released quite pertinent details from the report,
:05:29. > :05:31.and the family have found out from a local reporter. Greater Manchester
:05:32. > :05:33.Police and the IPCC say they can't comment on the case. The Crown
:05:34. > :05:37.Prosecution Service says it will decide if the officers involved are
:05:38. > :05:40.to be charged with any offences as soon as possible. Mr Grainger's
:05:41. > :05:48.family, which has mounted a public campaign for justice, has made its
:05:49. > :05:54.views plain. I want justice for my son. I wonder the police officers
:05:55. > :05:56.charged with murder, and I want all the other officers that were there
:05:57. > :06:02.on that night charged with corporate manslaughter. A year and a half
:06:03. > :06:06.after his death, Anthony Grainger's family say it's time the truth was
:06:07. > :06:09.made public. Other news, and a retired police
:06:10. > :06:12.Sergeant has been jailed for raping and sexually abusing two children
:06:13. > :06:15.while he was an officer serving in Lancashire and Merseyside.
:06:16. > :06:19.78`year`old Jeffrey Lake was extradited from Australia in March.
:06:20. > :06:24.His crimes date back to the 196 s and '70s.
:06:25. > :06:28.A woman from Oldham has been charged with the murder of two children in a
:06:29. > :06:32.house fire more than 16 years ago. Fiaz Begum Munshi appeared at Oxford
:06:33. > :06:35.Magistrates' Court this morning Majid Khan, who was 15, and his
:06:36. > :06:41.8`year`old sister Anum Khan died following the fire at a house in
:06:42. > :06:44.Oxford in 1997. A man's body has been found in
:06:45. > :06:49.Alexandra Park in Manchester. Police were called at 2:30 this afternoon.
:06:50. > :06:52.It's not yet known how the man died. The park has been closed to the
:06:53. > :06:56.public and the surrounding area is also cordoned off.
:06:57. > :07:00.Imagine taking an X`ray image of a tumour and lifting it off the page
:07:01. > :07:03.to find out exactly what the tumour's made of, how quickly it's
:07:04. > :07:07.growing, and how treatment is working. Scientists at the
:07:08. > :07:11.University of Manchester have begun doing exactly that. They've just
:07:12. > :07:14.been given a share of a ?35m research grant, and as our Health
:07:15. > :07:17.Correspondent Nina Warhurst's been finding out, it could halve the time
:07:18. > :07:30.of clinical trials, saving the NHS millions, and more importantly bring
:07:31. > :07:34.us closer to beating cancer. If the tumour cannot grow, cannot get blood
:07:35. > :07:40.vessels, it cannot grow, that is the theory. This woman volunteered for a
:07:41. > :07:43.drug trial last year after being diagnosed with Colon cancer. It is
:07:44. > :07:48.being tried on 80 different people will stop it is terribly important.
:07:49. > :07:52.Like how quickly things have moved for us over the past ten years, and
:07:53. > :07:55.the next ten years, perhaps your generation will have a gene known,
:07:56. > :08:01.and things will be able to be found out much more accurately. That will
:08:02. > :08:05.be terrific. Margaret's trial and others like it are set to be
:08:06. > :08:09.exonerated by a share of ?35 million given by Cancer Research UK to the
:08:10. > :08:14.YouTube is the Manchester. They are using it to revolutionise tumour
:08:15. > :08:17.scanning. Instead of traditional 2`D scans, which simply show where and
:08:18. > :08:21.how big a tumour is, they will detect what sells and chemicals the
:08:22. > :08:26.tumour is made of, how much oxygen is getting in, and most importantly,
:08:27. > :08:30.how it is reacting to different drugs. One thinking of it is,
:08:31. > :08:33.traditionally, people would look at pictures and make observations from
:08:34. > :08:36.that. We are turning a scan into a measuring device. You can actually
:08:37. > :08:48.extract measurements that you about the tumour. It is quite profound. It
:08:49. > :08:51.means Alan will be able to work out how well a drug is affecting
:08:52. > :08:53.different tumours like Margaret s in a fraction of the time. Just like a
:08:54. > :08:56.digital camera, you take multiple samples from within the tumour, and
:08:57. > :08:58.each of those is a number which represents something. We can do very
:08:59. > :09:01.constipated mathematics on those numbers, from multiple images, to
:09:02. > :09:05.work out what we really want to know about. The new trial will begin next
:09:06. > :09:09.week, and the potential impact on the next major treatment is
:09:10. > :09:12.enormous. The chief executive of Lancashire
:09:13. > :09:15.County Council, Phil Halsall, resigned today. He was already
:09:16. > :09:20.suspended and an inquiry was underway. It revolves around the way
:09:21. > :09:23.a contract was awarded to maintain the council's cars and vehicles Our
:09:24. > :09:27.political editor Arif Ansari is at County Hall in Preston for us this
:09:28. > :09:37.evening. How much of a surprise is his departure, Arif? I think the
:09:38. > :09:45.timing is certainly a surprise, because Mr Hal Saul has been under
:09:46. > :09:48.investigation, and an enquiry has been underway, and we were not
:09:49. > :09:53.expecting him to resign before it had been concluded. Mr Halsall is
:09:54. > :09:57.the most senior officer here at Lincolnshire County Council, a very
:09:58. > :10:01.important player when it comes to delivering services in Lancashire.
:10:02. > :10:07.Let's go over the details of this. He himself was appointed as chief
:10:08. > :10:14.executive in 2011 on a salary of ?195,000. It was in August that he
:10:15. > :10:17.was suspended. That was over questions about a ?5 million
:10:18. > :10:22.contract and the way that had been tendered to look after the
:10:23. > :10:26.council's cars and vehicles. That is what led to his suspension, and an
:10:27. > :10:31.independent enquiry which was being conducted by a London barrister But
:10:32. > :10:39.today came the news that he has resigned, and that in exchange for
:10:40. > :10:41.him stepping away from his job, the disciplinary enquiry and
:10:42. > :10:44.investigation have been dropped It's been a very turbulent time for
:10:45. > :10:51.the County Council. What happens next? Yes, it has been a very
:10:52. > :10:55.difficult time indeed for Lancashire County Council, which still needs to
:10:56. > :11:00.find a replacement, of course, poor Mr Halsall. One County Council
:11:01. > :11:04.e`mail be Labour leader here, saying well done again, it was a big risk
:11:05. > :11:10.for UN could have gone either way. I am not certain which way it has
:11:11. > :11:14.gone, because Mr Halsall had always said he was going to fight this and
:11:15. > :11:18.clear his name. He has not been able to do that, but that the same time,
:11:19. > :11:22.the admitted patient has not been able to prove that he did anything
:11:23. > :11:27.wrong either stop `` administration. So I think it is the case that both
:11:28. > :11:31.sides have decided it would be best to come to an agreement and walk
:11:32. > :11:35.away. I think that with Mr Halsall's suggestion. He has got a
:11:36. > :11:39.payoff, but nothing more than what he was entitled to under the law.
:11:40. > :11:42.Crucially, my understanding is that white enquiries as to what happened
:11:43. > :11:44.at the council continue. Thank you very much.
:11:45. > :11:47.Meanwhile, plans for a 9,000`space car park for Manchester Airport
:11:48. > :11:50.passengers have been approved. The site in Wythenshawe on Shadowmoss
:11:51. > :11:55.Road is the size of 70 football pitches. Local people had objected
:11:56. > :12:00.to the plans, arguing it would cause traffic problems and take away green
:12:01. > :12:03.space. Planners say the car park is vital to the expansion of the
:12:04. > :12:06.airport. It's been announced that regular
:12:07. > :12:09.club nights at The Warehouse Project in Trafford will not take place as
:12:10. > :12:12.normal next year. Organisers say there will only be "a handful of
:12:13. > :12:16.special events". Nick Bonnie from Gloucestershire was taken ill at the
:12:17. > :12:19.event last month and later died Greater Manchester Police say he may
:12:20. > :12:23.have taken what he thought was ecstasy.
:12:24. > :12:26.And the Royal Liverpool Hospital is considering banning smoking across
:12:27. > :12:29.all its grounds. At the moment, patients and visitors use designated
:12:30. > :12:32.shelters, but the Royal, which cares for more cancer patients than any
:12:33. > :12:39.other hospital on Merseyside, is now asking people whether or not there
:12:40. > :12:43.should be a total ban. Suppose there was an energy source
:12:44. > :12:46.that was totally natural, could be extracted cleanly and didn't depend
:12:47. > :12:50.on the wind or the waves. Well, there is and it's as old as the
:12:51. > :12:53.Earth. It's geothermal energy and it lies deep below the ground.
:12:54. > :12:56.Councillors in Manchester have today given a company permission to check
:12:57. > :13:01.the viability of extracting it in one part of the city. So how would
:13:02. > :13:11.that work? Our Chief Reporter, Dave Guest, is here to tell us. In a
:13:12. > :13:14.nutshell, geothermal energy is heat generated by the earth's core. It
:13:15. > :13:17.warms up water reservoirs deep below ground. That water is tapped via
:13:18. > :13:21.bore holes up to three miles deep, pumped to the surface, the heat is
:13:22. > :13:24.extracted via a heat exchanger and that heat is distributed to homes
:13:25. > :13:27.and businesses. The cooled water returns from whence it came. Dr Jase
:13:28. > :13:37.Curriacos of Manchester University's centre for Climate Change Research
:13:38. > :13:43.is a big fan. This is the greenest possible energy you can extract It
:13:44. > :13:48.is formed naturally from the Earth, and it replenishes by it self, and
:13:49. > :13:53.once the capital investment is made, it just comes constantly. So,
:13:54. > :13:56.its fans say it ticks all the boxes: it's natural, it can be extracted
:13:57. > :14:00.cleanly and there's a never`ending supply of the stuff. But where can
:14:01. > :14:02.you find it? Well, as we recently reported, Cheshire East Council is
:14:03. > :14:05.investigating possibilities near Crewe. And one specialist company
:14:06. > :14:08.now believes there could be a fair amount deep beneath this site in
:14:09. > :14:11.Ardwick, Manchester. The City Council this afternoon gave GT
:14:12. > :14:21.Energy permission to carry out detailed geological evaluations of
:14:22. > :14:24.the site. We know that the resources there, that approximately three
:14:25. > :14:27.kilometres deep, and that it can supply a lotta V2 the local area, so
:14:28. > :14:32.there is very little doubt about what it do. It is how much it can do
:14:33. > :14:35.with a future and how much energy can supply the future. And this is
:14:36. > :14:38.how they say it would look above and below ground. Some environmentalists
:14:39. > :14:41.share the view that geothermal energy is a way forward. Greenpeace
:14:42. > :14:45.told me this afternoon: "We support geothermal energy. What we need is
:14:46. > :14:47.clean sources of energy." If the Manchester scheme works out, it
:14:48. > :14:49.should be producing energy