10/04/2017 North West Tonight

Manchester Council has declared the city's escalating problem

with the drug Spice a crisis and it wants the Home Secretary

The police were called to 60 incidents related to the drug

Hiya, can I have an ambulance, please?

Mid-afternoon in one of the busiest parts of Manchester.

One man appears to need urgent medical attention.

A woman has dialled 999, asking for help.

There is a man here and he looks like he's going to collapse.

He looks like he has been smoking Spice, or something like that.

He seemed unaware that we were there.

Concerned that he might fall and hurt himself,

They have sat him down on the floor now.

As the man lay on the ground, an off-duty doctor stepped

I saw him a bit before as well, and he seemed to be stood

I have seen a few people like that who have come in.

Suddenly, the man seemed to recover and simply stood up and walked away.

This weekend alone, Greater Manchester Police

were called to no fewer than 60 Spice-related incidents

It's a problem focused mainly on the homeless community,

and there are plenty of people sleeping rough in this

The reason it has become so popular is the price.

You can buy Spice for about half the cost of a packet of cigarettes.

You do not know what is going on, you are literally asleep.

Basically because it was so easy to get and it was so cheap.

Manchester Council has declared it a crisis.

It wants the Home Secretary to intervene.

What is happening in Manchester will happen nationally,

so the next steps we are taking is to see the Chief Constable

and review the situation, and then we're going to be seeking

Because the experience of Manchester is going to spread up

It appears that Spice is being taken openly and in broad daylight,

A police crackdown at the weekend doesn't appear to have changed that.

Stuart Flinders, BBC North West Tonight.

Earlier I spoke to Dr Rob Ralphs from Manchester Met university.

I asked him if the problem had got worse since Spice was made illegal.

It's just been sold generally as Spice so the ingredients

are unknown and also the concentrations, so what we've

found when we've been analysing samples is that some of them can be

as low concentration as 1.5%, others as high as 20%,

so one day they could be using something and that's

a particular strength and the next day it could be five,

You're working with the City Council.

Do you feel that the city is at the moment doing what it can?

Manchester City Council is at the forefront of the responses

to this kind of nationwide in terms of the commission and research,

the testing, developing specific Spice-related training

Is it, as some people are classing it, an epidemic?

Your average person will use it, have a negative effect and never

touch it again but in some of the more vulnerable groups,

the prison population, rough sleepers, they're using it

similar parallels to the way people would use heroin in the past.

So they're using it to black out the situation that they're in,

to deal with living on the streets or deal with serving

So people are using it to black out the situation

The energy company behind the fracking site in Lancashire has

used new legislation to keep secret the identities of some

Cuadrilla says it's to protect them from being subjected

Anti-fracking campaigners say it's simply a move to discredit them.

Here's our Environment Correspondent Judy Hobson.

With every day that passes tensions are rising

at Cuadrilla's fracking site on Preston New Road near Blackpool.

Protesters try to slow work at the site by blocking

In the past few weeks, they've also targeted companies

Some have complained of intimidation.

Campaigners say they have been the victims of heavy-handed

Now it's emerged the names of some of Cuadrilla's directors

The company says it's due to the risk of intimidation and violence.

Cuadrilla is majority owned by Riverstone Holdings

Last year the government said anyone who runs a company should

have their names and addresses on a public register

but in a statement today, Cuadrilla said:

Some anti-fracking campaigners said they weren't

aware of any threats to Cuadrilla's directors.

As far as I'm concerned it's just trying to influence

public opinion against us, suggesting that we're a bunch

of troublemakers and we're nothing of the sort.

We are legitimately against fracking for a number of reasons,

but we are decent, honourable people and I've never threatened

Since the legislation was introduced, just five companies

But the move shows the level of feeling on both

Judy Hobson, BBC Look North Tonight, Preston New Road.

The Prince of Wales has been visiting BAE

Systems Submarines site in Barrow-in-Furness today.

Prince Charles, who is also admiral of the fleet,

met with workers and was given a tour of the facility,

including the Devonshire Dock Hall where submarines are being built

A five pound coin is being put into circulation in the Isle of Man.

Five pound coins were issued in the 1980s as collectors

items but they'll now be a lot more common.

A new set of Manx coins was launched today but it doesn't include 1ps

or 2ps as they cost more to make than they are worth.

There are plans to try to bring top motorsports events to Liverpool.

New rules mean the city could turn its streets into a giant

race track and the council says it's interested.

Liverpool is no stranger to putting on a spectacle.

Its giant puppets have drawn tens of thousands to the city.

Could a grand prix on the city streets be the next grand draw?

If you look around Liverpool, I think it's every bit

You can imagine the noise and the spectacular cars

New laws mean motorsport promoters can now apply to local councils

for permission to close public roads in England to stage races.

A taste of Formula One has already come to London watched by thousands.

Now Liverpool is interested in getting the green

NEWSREEL: And it's the International 200 at Aintree.

It wouldn't be the first time Liverpool has hosted

The British Grand Prix was held on the circuit at Aintree racecourse

So would people be keen to see it return?

It's going to bring more money to the city and more tourists

as well and make Liverpool even bigger on the map.

I think it would be good in terms of money for the city but,

from an environmental point of view, not so much.

You'd need a whole new infrastructure, barriers, pits.

In Monaco, every single manhole cover has to be nailed down.

The students at Liverpool John Moores University who design,

build and race cars at Silverstone, the experience would be unrivalled.

Next year our former student team are moving from a petrol driven car

to an electric driven car, so to have an event like that

But don't expect to see a Grand Prix 2018.

Liverpool is not under starting orders yet.

Abbie Jones, BBC North West Tonight, Liverpool.

More sun to come? A little bit. We knew it wouldn't last. Good evening.

This week there's still something to look forward to. Yes, much cooler

today but there's still plenty of dry weather ahead and plenty of fine

weather ahead well. Since we last spoke, it looks dreadful on the map,

but the reality is hardly of it is touching the ground. Dry and drizzly

over the higher ground. Plenty of cloud cover pushes in as we head

towards the early hours of the morning. Generally temperatures,

7-8. When you get up, they will be patchy cloud around and then it

starts to break. Much brighter skies but once you get past lunchtime, the

crowd will regrettably start to build a little bit so it will be hit

and miss. More sunshine than today. The breeze however coming from the

Northwest and in colder towards us. Temperatures, 10-13. Tomorrow night,

temperatures are not an issue at all. 8-9 all over again but we have

a weather front coming towards us on Wednesday. It brings dull and ramp

and drizzly stuff to begin with. Past lunchtime, a mixture of sunny

spells and a couple of scattered showers him in there. Temperatures,

10-11. Cooler than we would expect at this time of year. Then high

pressure pushing its way in but one or two weather fronts, so on

Thursday, light, spotty drizzle from time to time and a similar story on

Friday. Away from that, some bright spells from time to time. Your

National forecast is next. Don't expect anything wonderful for the

Easter weekend. As things settle down with high pressure, it won't be

a bad one. Good night. Good evening. Let's cut to the chase

the first big holiday weekend of the year is on the horizon and if you

consider last weekend as a taster for the summer, this weekend is not

looking too bad. It will be a bit cooler, temperatures this week and

closer to where they should be at this time of the year thanks to the

north-west breed and the reason for that, if we look at the jet stream,

coming across the Atlantic pushing from north to south -- north-west

breeze. It separates the high pressure and low price and it allows

the northerly airflow to develop. It means there will be some showers

going into Easter weekend but they will only be a small portion of the

weekend wherever you are and there will be some dry weather and when

the sun is out, it is getting stronger so it will negate some of