25/02/2017 North West Tonight

Police had to intervene at an anti-fracking protest

Dozens of people broke through barriers and gained access

to a site in Little Plumpton being prepared for

Police say those involved were largely thought to be

from outside the area and not from local protest groups.

A protest against fracking in Lancashire and a rally

campaigners say which is evidence of support from across the country.

Today, at least 400 people gathered close to Cuadrilla's operation

This is not just a local protest, you know, this is at the cutting

The international protest movement against fracking.

The company has previously said drilling would start

in the spring on the UK's first horizontal fracking site.

But in recent weeks, there have been a number of incidents

near the Preston New Road site and arrests.

Direct action can be a protest outside the supply with a placard.

I have not actually seen anything that is particularly ugly.

The government decision last October to allow fracking at the site

Campaigners will mount a legal challenge next month.

We believe the decision to overrule Lancashire County Council

was fundamentally flawed and it is a very dangerous position

Later, around 250 people performed what they called a water blessing

outside the fracking site, but at least 30 people

Our local communities and our vitally important tourist

eceonomy will lose out with this disgraceful behaviour and, you know,

I am all for peaceful protests, but the time has come to say no.

Lancashire Police also prevented protesters from getting close

But they have said that the group involved earlier were not

No arrests were made but an investigation is under way.

Yunus Mulla, North West Tonight, Little Plumpton.

Police investigating the escape of convicted murderer Shaun Walmsley

in Liverpool are continuing to question a 25-year-old man.

He's the third person to be arrested and is being held on suspicion

Shaun Walmsley fled from outside Aintree University

Detectives are working with police forces across the UK

and abroad to find him, and they're reminding the public

A torchlit march is about to take place in Manchester

city centre to protest against government funding cuts.

It's being led by city councillor Pat Karney and is expected to be

supported by thousands of teachers, social care workers and charities.

The council needs to save ?30 million over the next three years.

Four rare tortoises, rescued from smugglers

and handed to Chester Zoo, have gone on show for

The ploughshare tortoises were confiscated by customs

Experts from the zoo want to raise awareness

Sport now, and in the Premier League, Everton stretched

their unbeaten league run to nine games with a 2-0 victory

And in rugby union's Premiership, Sale have been beaten

Let's have a look at the weather forecast with Rebecca Wood.

Well, it has certainly been a windy day today.

We saw gusts of wind at 36 miles an hour along

the coast in Lancashire, and across Cumbria, 42 mph.

Now, as we head through the next few days, we are going to continue

to see that breeze rippling through and bringing

We have got quite a few lined up out to the West,

the first two moving through tonight and then we will see a second one

pushing in as we head through to the start

It will steadily start to work its way eastwards.

Behind that, we will see things drying up for a time,

although a few showers are still possible with temperatures

overnight holding up between six and eight Celsius.

So, we start the day tomorrow still on a mild note

and we will have plenty of cloud, then we start to get that rain

Again, some heavy pulses and along the coast we are likely to see

some really strong gusts of wind once again.

Temperatures still managing to make it up into double figures.

So it is staying mild, even though it is wet and windy,

but colder as we begin the new working week with some

Take care if you are out and about in those conditions tonight. Join us

again tomorrow. Have a lovely evening. Goodbye.

Good evening. Starting with a quick look at the satellite sequence from

earlier. We started under a big blanket of cloud but Scotland and

Northern Ireland brightened up as the day went off. Underneath the

cloud in England and Wales, quite a bit of rain at the moment, drifting

southwards and East. It will continue to do so. In the small

hours the rain will become patchy, and most will give way to the

continent. There will be some breaks, particularly to the East of

Scotland, where there could be a touch of frost. Next batch of rain

into the western side of Scotland first thing, moving east with a

little snow