18/12/2016 North West Tonight

we are back with the late news at 11.00pm.

A man's been charged with the murder of Paul Groom,

who died on Merseyside last weekend.

The 48-year-old from Fazackley suffered head injuries

in a suspected assault a few days earlier in Kirby.

Michael Hill, who is 32 and from Kirkby,

will appear before magistrates tomorrow.

Some schools in the North West look set to lose as much as 10%

of their income after the Government changed its funding formula.

It means jobs could be lost at schools in West Cheshire

and Manchester but, in other places, budgets will increase.

It's trigonometry time for this year nine maths class at Burnage Academy,

but it's sums of a different type bothering the head.

He thinks up to 10% could be cut from his school's budget

You can't take 10%, say, of that money

from the running costs of the school -

it is going to affect staffing, more than likely.

And that will, of course, affect what happens in the class

There are winners and losers across our region

Amongst the winners are Blackpool, Knowsley and Bury,

who will all see a 2% increase in their funding.

The biggest losers are schools like this one in Manchester -

Also losing out is Cheshire West and Chester schools.

Those figures are just for the first year under this new formula.

The Government says the settlement does make things fairer.

I think, over time, there's been an increasing imbalance

between inner city schools and other schools.

that there is a more reasonable balance.

The changes may be welcome in Trafford,

but not in Ellesmere Port and Neston,

I think there is a slight weighting towards rural areas,

but I think the core problem, really,

is that school funding has not been keeping up with inflation.

The National Audit Office warned this week

that there was a ?3 billion gap in funding for schools.

That means in Burnage and beyond, whether you are a winner or loser

this week, more pressure on budgets appears inevitable.

Hundreds of people have attended a Christmas carol concert in Chester

It's the second year the Catherdral has held such an event

to help civilians in the war-torn country.

From parishioners and politicians to people out Christmas shopping,

they came with Syria in their thoughts.

It's believed half the population of Syria have fled their homes

since the war began, and there were songs and prayers

something that's on our screens daily at the moment,

as it was in Bethlehem when Jesus was born.

"How can we help the Christ child this Christmas,

and those especially in Aleppo, Yemen and across the world?"

The concert was free, but people were asked

to make a donation to the charity Christian Aid,

one of many working to ease the suffering.

It's so terrible to see the scenes are suffering

that there are out in Syria, and it is an opportunity for people

to show kindness and compassion for those that are really suffering.

Been very upsetting, really, hasn't it?

we thought we'd give some contribution.

We should all be thinking about people over there

and doing what we can, the little we can.

It's all we can do, you know, try and support them as much as we can.

Some of the money will also support Syrian refugees

Rail services in Manchester will be disrupted between now

and January the 3rd as work begins on the Ordsall Chord.

The new track will connect Manchester's Victoria and Piccadilly

A bridge will be removed and the line electrified

to improve services for passengers across the north of England.

In the Premier League, two of our clubs kicked off at 4pm.

Manchester City are leading Arsenal 2-1.

And Burnley are also losing at Spurs 2-1

In Rugby Union, Sale's controversial new signing, Denny Solomona,

will make his debut tonight when they line up against Saracens

The winger switched codes by leaving a two-year contract

with Superleague's Castleford Tigers to join Sale.

Castleford are taking legal action for breach of contract.

Well, we did have quite a misty, murky day today,

and we've got more mist and murk on the way this evening.

High pressure still broadly in charge of our weather,

but with that included front coming towards us, we are expecting

some drizzly conditions at times throughout the day.

Looking at the detail for the rest of the night,

there are a few mist and fog patches in places.

Where there are a few breaks in the cloud,

you may see just a sparkle of frost in rural spots,

Tomorrow morning, some of those patches of mist and fog

may take some time to clear, so quite a grey start.

It's a brightness here and there, but some drizzly conditions as well,

Rather cloudy weather on the way for the next few days.

We'll be back with the late news at around 11:20pm.

Hello. Exactly a week to Christmas but it did not feel that way in

north-east Scotland today with temperatures as high as 13 Celsius

in