08/02/2017 North West Tonight

Oldham University Technical College today announced it will

close this summer - less than three years after it

opened - because it can't attract enough pupils.

The Government spent tens of millions of pounds

setting up the UTCs where students aged 14 and over

can do vocational training alongside their GCSEs.

Another in Burnley is already shutting down.

It opened only three years ago, at a cost of ?9 million.

But this university technical college in Oldham will

The trustees in charge say too few teenagers wanted to study here,

making it financially unviable. These students say they'd benefited

from unintentionally small classes but could tell something was wrong.

The people that were here were stuck here

This year, the exams would be great because they are here for the right

At the beginning of the year, there wasn't as many students.

One of the town's MPs has branded the project as a failed experiment.

They are throwing money at it but not good at making sure

the foundations put in place are solid and sustainable

What I want to see is a decent college funding.

At the moment that isn't what we have got.

The trust that runs this college say it is working with Oldham Council

to find places for students at other schools and colleges in the area

but this isn't the only UTC in the north-west that

Burnley's UTC had already announced it would close at the end

Another engineering college with recruitment problems.

We should make sure that UTC's who are started because employers

and universities in the area felt so strongly about this shortage

of skills and what was coming out of the school system

This is the studio that our year 13 studios are working

This UTC in Salford tells a different story.

We are doing well in terms of our recruitment.

We have 400 students and are on track to hit the target.

Each UTC is different and is successfull based

on the infrastructure it has in place.

We are fortunate and are based in the heart of Media City and linked

We have backing and the employers know we are here and

The Department for Education says its priority in Oldham

is to minimise disruption for existing UTC students

and to find an alternative educational use for the site.

Police have released CCTV footage after a man was killed

in a hit-and-run at Levenshulme in Manchester yesterday.

Shahid Tarafdar, who was married with

three young children, died in hospital.

Officers want to trace the driver of a silver Peugeot -

registration KW55 EVP, as Yunus Mulla reports.

Shahid Tarafdar from Longsight has tonight been named

as the victim of a hit and run in Manchester last night.

In the moments that followed, CCTV footage shows the a Peugeot 306

stopping eracticaly and then passenger jumping out of the car

Emergency services arrived at the scene but Mr Tarafdar,

His brother today said Shahid was a loving husband and a father

He was a devoted family man who was loved by his

family and respected by the whole community.

We as a family are in total shock and devastation

at the loss of a young brother, husband and father and are appealing

to anyone who has knowledge of the collision to contact the police.

The car was later seen near Kirkmanshulme Lane where it

mounted the kerb narrowly avoiding pedstrians and was

Greater Manchester Police said tonight they will use every

possible means to trace the driver and passenger.

Officials at the Martin Mere Wetlands Centre in Lancashire say

it's business as usual even though a wild goose has tested

Officials say there are no plans for a cull.

An outbreak of the disease on two commercial farms further north

in the county recently led to tens of thousands of birds

But precautions have been put in place to prevent any spread.

We've put the disinfectant mats down so people coming in can't bring

the disease into the site but also people coming out just in case we do

end up with another case on-site, don't actually take it out.

We know that people around the area, they keep birds themselves,

they might live on a farm and we don't want to infect

their birds but we don't want their birds to infect our birds.

That's the reason we're going over the mats.

Greater Manchester Police says it's found no evidence of a cover up

of sexual abuse at the former Knowl View Children's

The force conducted a two year investigation

after allegations that abuse at the home in the 1960s and 70s had

The alleged abusers are said to have included the town's

A man from Lancaster has been jailed after feeding drugs to a hamster.

RSPCA inspectors today said they'd never seen a case like it -

This isn't an ordinary fizzy drink and it isn't

It is being mixed with the deadly drug LSD.

The footage shows a group of men feeding the drug

Cannabis leaves were put through the cage.

Chinnumya Natembe was given four months in prison and banned

Corey Lee Destrow got 80 hours community service and was banned

It sickens me because they are defenceless animals who look to us

It is sad because it willingly went up to them and had

The hamster has now been re-homed but Netembe also owned two dogs.

He pleaded guilty to failing to provide veterinary care for them

Here at the RSPCA centre in Blackpool, they have

Really happy with how they have come on.

It is amazing how they can be so loyal to us with the way

They have responded really well to our training.

They are fantastic dogs, they really are.

The RSPCA are hoping that now the court case is over,

both dogs will be able to find new owners and a new lease of life.

Just before the weather, it was a lovely day

to get out for a walk, if you were able to today.

And it's something 94-year-old Don Austin has been doing

He still gets out most weeks in the Lake District.

And today he took Dave Guest with him.

Many who reach their mid-90s might see it as a time

He's had a love affair with walking ever since being demobbed

from the Army shortly after the Second World War.

I had my old army boots with me and I went up Snowdon and it

He has kept diaries of his exploits and even at the age of 94,

he has no plans to stop any time soon.

Today he's setting off on one of his favourite walks and he's

We're heading near to his home in Windermere.

I remember hearing somebody say something about my age.

You haven't got a spare one, have you?

I don't like the look of those steps.

You are surely not going to make that.

It is a bit slippy up there so I always go by this wall.

How long do you think you'll carry on doing this?

Let us see if it will be nice whether to get out and about

tomorrow. From me, good night. If you didn't see some sunshine

today, maybe our weather watchers will cheat you up. We will not see

much sunshine over the next couple of days. It is all about the cold

out which will stay with us towards the weekend. Some of the shells

around could be winter really from time to time. The temperatures are

falling away. There is no lead to keep the temperature is up and we

have clear whether -- and we have clear whether with the temperatures

lowering. Quite a few degrees colder in rural areas. A cool start of the

day. Some places will see some sunshine and with these conditions,

the coast and Isle of Man will always see the brighter skies. You

can see the cloud creeping towards us. Maybe a light flurry of snow

over the highest hills. Top temperature will be three Celsius.

Towards the weekend, the temperatures are not better.

cloudy and Ben Rich will take you through the bigger picture.

Good evening. Over the next few days I suspect it's going to feel like we

have been plunged into the deep freeze. Cold weather on the way and

not necessarily crisp cold weather, with blue skies. A lot of cloud,

there was some sunshine today across parts of west Wales, for instance.

That lifted temperatures up to 11. But further east as you can see from

the picture, there was a lot of cloud feeding in and that pegged

temperatures down into single figures, because there is

increasingly cold air heading in this direction on a cold and fairly

strong wind. Tonight that wind will continue to deliver wintry showers,

particularly close to the east coast, a mixture of rain and sleet

along the coast. Inland some snowfall and wherever you are it's a