14/01/2017 North West Tonight

Police are appealing for the driver of a car that killed

an elderly man in Cheadle Hulme last night to hand themselves in.

Ian Whitworth, who was 80 years old, was killed after he was hit by a car

shortly after 10pm near the Ryecroft Arms on Turves Road.

Witnesses describe seeing a small black car,

possibly a coupe or hatchback, driving at speed towards the A34.

The vehicle is believed to have damage to its front windscreen.

Meanwhile the family of a man found dead in an alleyway in Heywood

on Thursday night today said they will miss him forever.

A postmortem examination showed 33-year-old Matthew McKenzie died

after suffering a stab wound to the chest.

A 28-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains

Fire fighters have this afternoon been battling a blaze in Harpurhey

after an explosion at a cafe on Rochdale Road

Emergency services were called just after 3pm and people

There's free on-street parking in parts of Manchester city centre

this weekend after 18 months of roadworks.

The City Council says it's to thank the public for their patience

but as Kevin Fitzpatrick reports, the disruption isn't over yet.

If you've driven through Manchester in the past 18 months,

you'll have had more than your fair share.

I use public transport and it's been absolutely horrendous

You couldn't get down Oxford Road and I don't drive into town

because of the roadworks and the parking's poor.

For businesses in the thick of it around the Oxford road area,

When the roads were closed, that was a big issue

for us because there was lots of fencing and a lot of noise as well

and we didn't have access to the shop, so that wasn't good for

delivering all the flowers and everything, but once that was

cleared, it actually became a bit easier.

The ongoing works are part of the council's

?1 billion Project Grow, which it says is necessary

to improve access to the city for all forms of transport.

This new tramline known as the second city crossing is

due to be open in early spring, but its construction has caused huge

disruption and the fact that it coincided with other roadworks and a

sinkhole on the Mancunian Way that took ten months to fix means the

misery for motorists has gone on and on.

A lot of people is not going to do anything about it by saying

anything, it's just a case of just putting up with it, really.

If you're going to the Northern College of Music

or the Bridgwater then it has been a nuisance, you know.

Now the council is allowing the public a weekend's

free street parking to compensate for the hassle they've endured.

We realise there's been some short-term disruption

while we grow the city's infrastructure, creating bus gates

and putting a tram right across the city and this is just

a way to say thank you to residents for bearing with us

But the end is still months away with work on the Oxford Road

bus corridor expected to continue until April.

And tonight marks the start of a year of events

and concerts to mark the period in the town's musical history.

It was a year that saw performances in Blackburn by not only Bowie,

but also The Sweet, Slade Status Quo and Queen.

"1973: The Year Bowie Came to Blackburn" gets underway

at St George's Hall this evening with music from local bands

Sport and in darts Bolton's Lisa Ashton has won the BDO

World Darts Championships for the third time.

The player known as The Lancashire Rose recorded

a straight sets victory over the Australian eighth seed

In football, substitute Joey Barton scored the second-half winner

on his league return for Burnley, who saw off Southampton 1-0

Well, it has been a fine and dry day for the most part.

In fact, we had some stunning scenes out there with some lovely blue

skies but as we head through tonight, a change is on the way.

It's all in the form of a weather system

It's bringing with it much milder air so we're going to get a little

bit of mist and murk in there and plenty of rain.

We'll see the cloud thickening up first.

Where we see that cold air meeting the rain, we could

see some wintry flurries over Cumbria and Lancashire.

Temperatures overnight though, doing a little better.

We're holding up just above freezing.

Now, as we head into tomorrow, we're going to continue to

see that rain right at the way through the day.

Plenty of mist and murk as well, but temperatures

finally starting to do a little better.

Pushing up to around about nine, possibly 10 Celsius on the

Isle of Man and as we head into the new working week,

Hope you have a good evening. Bye-bye.

Getting the detail of this cold snap is proving to be challenging and

will continue to be so over the next 24 hours. Ice around across eastern

parts after the earlier showers then rain pushing in from Northern

Ireland across Scotland and a period of snow across eastern Scotland

temporarily. It will extend into northern Wales and England too. A

chilly night across