05/04/2017 North West Tonight

It's come to light that police officers,

who fatally shot an unarmed man in Cheshire, had a meeting

with the officer who shot alleged London gangster Mark Duggan before

Today, at a public inquiry into the death of Anthony Grainger,

there were questions about why that meeting had taken place.

Our social affairs correspondent Clare Fallon was at the hearing.

You might think in the hours and days after an event like this,

an event in which an unarmed man was shot dead by police,

one of the priorities would be getting clear and accurate accounts

from the police officers who were there on the ground

But today, at the enquiry into the death of Anthony Grainger,

we heard that it was six days before those firearms officers

gave their written witness accounts of what had happened.

And they only gave those written accounts after they had had

a meeting with another police officer, a man known as V53,

and he is the police officer who shot dead Mark Duggan in London

That was a high-profile police shooting, not least

because the protests that it triggered in London quickly

escalated, and there was rioting, not just in the capital,

but also here in Liverpool, in Manchester, and in other cities.

And so, today, at this enquiry, where one of the police officers

who was in that meeting was giving evidence, he was essentially

He was asked by a lawyer representing the Grainger family,

"Did you not think when V53, the man who shot dead Mark Duggan,

"came up to Manchester and came into a meeting of all the firearms

"officers in this case, did you not think,

The response from the police officer was no.

He said the meeting was about welfare and support

for the police officers who were involved.

It was 2012 when Anthony Grainger was shot dead in a car park

in Cheshire during an operation by the Greater Manchester Police,

which was meant to be targeting suspected armed robberies.

But during the course of this enquiry we have heard

that there were issues with some of the intelligence

that had been gathered by Greater Manchester Police,

and that after Anthony Grainger was shot dead no weapon was found.

A minute's silence has been held in Blackpool tonight

to remember the victims of the Westminster terror attack.

People of all faiths came together in St John's Square

Earlier a Service of Hope was held at Westminster Abbey.

Among those attending were the Edge Hill University

students from Lancashire caught up in the horrific events last month.

For everyone involved, even in our party from the Edge Hill,

we came, and this is part of a process of healing and kind of

Like, putting everything to bed and just showing

A man spared jail for domestic abuse after telling a court he would lose

an offer to play professional cricket is to have his

Mustafa Bashir, from Middleton in Greater Manchester,

beat his wife with a cricket bat and forced her to drink bleach.

He claimed he'd lose a contract with Leicestershire County Cricket

But the club later said this was "wholly false".

A controversial proposal to charge people to be "crucified" to fund

Manchester's Easter Passion Play has been cancelled by organisers.

The idea, to let members of the public pay to

spend time on a cross, was branded blasphemous and highly

People in the Isle of Man are being asked to help

the Manx government make ?25 million worth of cuts.

It's part of measures to tackle an ?80 million

A new webpage has been set up so residents can suggest

where they think the money should be saved.

Press reports that the Guardian newspaper is considering a move back

to its traditional north west homeland from London have been

It's claimed the move is being considered as the paper

But the Guardian insists it has no plans to leave

It's a title that has traditionally had strong northern roots.

When the paper was first launched back in 1821, it was called

the Manchester Guardian, only ditching the Manchester

This is what we intend to have on Monday.

It spent almost 150 years at its Cross Street premises

in the city, but in the 60s began its move to the capital.

Its current headquarters near King's Cross.

Now the Times claims it is considering a return

to the north-west, as it attempts to save money.

A lot of people were sad, very sad, when the Guardian left in 1964.

It had a fabulous old building, sadly now knocked down,

on Cross Street in the middle of Manchester.

And let's hope, if it does come back, that the title

Manchester Guardian goes back on the masthead at

According to the Times report, the move is being actively

considered by the Guardian media group as it tackles falling

advertising revenue and needs to make savings.

It is thought Media City UK in Salford is a potential

Ever since 2011, when the BBC moved many of its productions

to Media City from London, the area has proved an attractive

ITV is here too, and Channel 4 is currently being urged

Media commentators say a move by the Guardian could make sense.

Well, there have been rumours circulating for quite a while,

and obviously the Guardian itself, it's been under pressure.

Costs are obviously much higher in London.

Moving up here, staff turnover tends to be lower, office costs

In a statement, Guardian News and Media says:

It was a Grand National which was to go down in history.

20 years ago today, 60,000 spectators, jockeys

and racing staff had to suddenly evacuate the course after bomb

Families were separated from their loved ones,

But local people offered spare rooms and help in a showing

of true community spirit, as Naomi Cornwell reports.

You can see how close we are to the racecourse.

That would have been full of cars, Rolls-Royces, chauffeurs,

all the razzmatazz that went with them!

And when the course was evacuated, all that razzmatazz ended

All the jockeys were in here in the silks, the whips...

It turned into a rather large party, actually!

And we were dispensing food and drinks.

Well, we thought we had plenty, till they drank us dry!

You all represent the best face of Britain.

We always got Christmas cards from them thanking us

It was an amazing day, it was the most memorable day, ever.

Spirits were high, but thousands of people still needed to find

I'm joined by two people in the studio, Jack

We have just tried several hotels and we can't get in anywhere.

Somebody rang in, from my memory, and said, I've got a spare room,

And then that just started a flood of calls.

I don't think anybody got left on the streets.

Schools and sports centres pitched in.

We decided to stay at the leisure centre with everybody else,

and it was, yeah, terrific camaraderie and atmosphere.

Melling Road runs alongside the racecourse, and many

of the houses here became homes for the night for racegoers who had

There were ten people, ten men, and they were all wagon

drivers from Nottingham, and they had come into

So they had nowhere to go, so I ended up

I used about 500 tea bags that weekend!

Well, I had about three pounds of bacon, and I had to run down

to the shop to get some more, and some more eggs and bread,

And with them all being young lads I thought they'd eat a loaf each!

Carol's generosity was hailed as a shining example of how

the people of Liverpool opened their homes

The following month, a race at Aintree was named after her,

The Carol Towner Spirit Of Merseyside.

I was really pleased, you know, that they did get recognised, cos

there was lots and lots of people beside me who took people in.

I am absolutely amazed at the generosity of

It's been wonderful, I've had the best time,

In the Premier League, Manchester City missed out on

three points after losing away to Chelsea.

Meanwhile, Liverpool drew 2-2 against Bournemouth at Anfield.

Is that it from me, a very good rest of the evening. I will leave you

with the weather. Lots of cloud today across the

north-west. It has been a pretty uninspiring day. As you can see from

our weather watcher Victor from this evening, this is Rivington. But

better news from the weekend, warm air coming in from the south, and by

Sunday we could see temperatures in the region of up to about 21,

increasing amounts of sunshine. As for tonight, it stays pretty cloudy.

We could see a few gaps developing in that cloud, it should be dry.

Temperatures into Thursday morning round about 7-8 C. Thursday, it is

going to be cloudy, we could even see a few showers coming in from the

Isle of Man. By the afternoon, the cloud may break up just a touch. One

or two glimmers of sunshine, what on the whole it is cloudy, maximum

temperatures 10-11, a cool feel for the day like we saw through today.

Into Friday, it will stay cloudy, for Aintree, temperatures 10

Celsius. By Saturday, temperatures starting to rise, and with that

there will be increasing amounts of sunshine as well. Over the weekend,

more sunshine to come, temperatures rising as well, the national outlook

is coming up. or 15. It is sunny towards the

weekend and we could see the low 20s