North west news update 4 Sept 2023: Hundreds demonstrate at asylum seeker hotel

Assistant editor Iain Lynn with today's top north west news headlines and weather

Transcript

00:00 Hello and welcome. These are the top headlines making the news today from our

00:03 newsrooms across the North West. Lancashire councils are issuing updates

00:08 over the wrack concrete collapse concerns in schools as precautionary

00:12 checks are carried out in the county. A second Preston school will stay shut for

00:16 the first two days of the autumn term so that a structural survey can be carried

00:20 out. Fullwood Academy contacted parents and carers on Sunday morning to advise

00:24 them that it will be closed to its more than 700 pupils on Monday and Tuesday.

00:28 The news came after Our Lady's Catholic High School in Fullwood told parents and

00:32 carers of its 900 pupils on Friday afternoon that it will be unable to

00:36 reopen as planned on Monday pending further investigation. All of Blackpool's

00:40 schools will reopen as normal for the autumn term as it emerged that none are

00:44 amongst those ordered to close because of the presence of a type of concrete

00:47 that can suddenly collapse. However one of Blackpool's facilities, Bisbomme Endowed

00:51 Primary on Bisbomme Road, has seen its hall take out of use as a precaution.

00:57 Hundreds of people including far-right activists gathered in Wigan to protest

01:01 against plans to turn a second of its hotels into an asylum seeker hostel. There

01:06 was a heavy police presence in Standish Village Centre to keep a large crowd and

01:09 the smaller group of anti-racism protesters apart. The main demonstration

01:14 had been organised by Ince and Scholes Independent Councillor Maureen O'Byrne

01:17 after Wigan Today revealed last month that McDonald's Hotel and Resorts had

01:21 done a deal with the Home Office and its asylum seeker accommodation contractor

01:25 Serco to close Kilhay Court to the public and use it instead for a purpose

01:30 in which the government had recently been saying is turning away from because

01:33 of the huge cost to the public purse. A Dad of Two has spoken of the dramatic

01:39 moment he rescued a young woman from a first floor of a Burnley pub after the

01:43 premises set on fire. Damien Whitton dashed to help when he saw flames

01:47 shooting from an extractor fan at the side of the turf pub in Yorkshire Street.

01:51 When he realised someone was on the first floor at the rear of the building

01:54 Damien and a couple of road workers used garden furniture and items from a

01:58 nearby wheelie bin to build a makeshift tower so that one of them could reach

02:02 the window. And a pub in a village near Lancaster is up for auction with a

02:07 guide price of £600,000. The Dragon's Head pub on Main Street in

02:11 Whittingham near Carnforth has planning permission for five houses on the plot

02:15 and agents say it will be an exciting residential development opportunity. The

02:19 development site extends to around 1.65 acres and apparently will be of

02:24 interest to a range of developers or private individuals seeking a unique

02:28 project. In the weather Monday will remain a dry day with plenty of very

02:33 warm sunshine, bit of fog to start Tuesday but otherwise another sunny day

02:37 with a maximum temperature of 27 degrees. Enjoy. That's it for now. Thanks for

02:42 watching. We'll see you tomorrow.