North west news update 4 Oct 2023: Nursing home resident in bow and arrow stand-off
Digital reporter Lucinda Herbert with today's top north west news headlines and weather
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00:00 I'm Lucinda Herbert for the Blackpool Gazette and these are your headlines for the North West.
00:04 A nursing home resident armed with a bow and arrow was arrested after a tense standoff with police.
00:11 The 63-year-old man had allegedly been threatening staff with a bow and arrow at the Belmar nursing home in Lytham early on Monday afternoon.
00:21 Police were called and a tense standoff ensued as Stanley Road was closed off.
00:26 The man was arrested two hours later and taken into custody where he remained on Tuesday morning.
00:32 Eyewitnesses claimed that arrows were fired at officers during the standoff but Lancashire Police have not confirmed this.
00:41 Hundreds of civil servants in Preston were told to leave their offices over fears of crumbling concrete.
00:49 HMRC instructed its staff to vacate its two buildings in Preston while specialist contractors inspected them for RAAC during September.
01:00 HMRC staff worked from home while the inspections took place at the two sites, St Mark's and St Mary's, off Newhall Lane.
01:10 However, no trace of RAAC was found and the buildings were later declared safe.
01:16 Thousands of hospital appointments and operations had to be cancelled at Morecambe Bay Hospitals because of NHS strike action over the last year.
01:26 New NHS England figures show University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust cancelled 604 appointments or operations
01:38 initially scheduled between September 19th and 23rd as a direct result of strike action by NHS staff.
01:47 It means a total number of treatments cancelled grew to 4,130 over the last year.
01:56 Health Secretary Steve Barclay said it marks a "grim milestone" as over 1 million appointments have now been cancelled as a result of the strikes.
02:08 Burnley Town Centre is becoming overrun by giant rats.
02:14 A local businessman has accused the council of failing to act on the problem which he says is caused by the open bins on Manchester Road.
02:23 Jimmy Pilling, who owns several properties in the area, said the group of his tenants, along with himself, have been battling furiously for nine months to try and get rid of them.
02:34 He reported that a rat the size of a cat was found by a pest controller during a visit to one of his properties.
02:41 The council's environment boss, Councillor Lubna Khan, said Street Scene is aware of the issues and efforts are ongoing to improve the area at the rear of York Street.
02:54 In Wigan, an up Holland man has been found guilty of making and possessing vile images of child abuse.
03:01 Daniel Healy, aged 33, of Higher Lane, appeared before Wigan and Leigh magistrates to admit possessing 52 prohibited images of children and making Category B and Category C indecent images of youngsters.
03:18 He has been given a community sentence and faces major restrictions on computer, phone and social media use.
03:26 He must not have unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 16 or sleep in the same house as a minor unless with the permission of parents who would have to be aware of his convictions.
03:40 And now for the weather. It's mostly dry today and cloudy at times with occasional sunny intervals.
03:47 It will be rather windy and showers are possible but they will be lighter than yesterday.
03:53 Expect a mild night with winds easing. Minimum temperatures 10 degrees Celsius.