News

Disruption expected as key part of ‘major’ Greater Manchester motorway closes this weekend

Motorists are being urged to plan ahead.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 4th September 2024

Drivers are being reminded that a key section of England’s main trans-Pennine motorway will be closed this month.

As Network Rail looks to replace an almost 60-year-old railway bridge, the Castleton bridge, a key section of the M62 between junction 19 at Heywood and junction 20 at Rochdale is set to close for two full weekends while demolition work takes place.

The section of the major motorway will be closed in both directions from 9pm on Friday (6 September) to 6am on Monday (9 September), and again from 9pm on Friday 20 September to 6am on Monday 23 September.

National Highways – which operates the M62 – is working with Network Rail to ensure the work goes “as smoothly as possible”, but just as you’d expect, is warning drivers that will likely affect travel plans, especially as the motorway links Liverpool and Hull, as well as the cities of Manchester and Leeds in between.

While drivers are being urged to avoid this section of the M62 if possible, diversions will be in place. 

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Due to the timings of the work over the two weekends, different closure and diversion arrangements will be in place for the westbound and eastbound carriageways – with the eastbound carriageway actually being closed from junction 18 of the M62 at Simister Island interchange, to junction 20 of the M62 at Rochdale.

The westbound carriageway will be closed between junction 20 at Rochdale and junction 19 at Heywood.

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This is the first time in recent memory that the M62 – which carries around 120,000 vehicles a day – has been closed for a whole weekend or other extended periods, specifically for planned work. 

A key part of the M62 in Rochdale is closing this weekend / Credit: National Highways

Traffic officers at National Highways’ regional operations nearby will be working “around the clock” throughout the two weekends to monitor traffic, and work alongside the police and Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) to help clear any incidents as quickly as possible.

Drivers heading across the Pennines are being urged to plan journeys in advance, including checking for congestion or incidents before setting out. 

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A dedicated webpage has been set up to help keep commuters, businesses, and other M62 users up to date with all the progress and planned closures in relation to the Network Rail project – including diversion information.

Read more:

Check it out on the National Highways website here.

Featured Image – Wikimedia Commons

News

‘Life-changing’ scheme helps house hundreds of Greater Manchester’s homeless people

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

Hundreds of homeless people in Manchester have now been helped “get back on their feet” thanks to a successful pilot housing scheme.

Greater Manchester’s ‘Housing First’ pilot scheme was rolled out in 2019.

The scheme is all about recognising that “a good home has to be the first step to a good life”, according to Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), and since it was first introduced, it has primarily been helping people with chronic and long-standing experiences of homelessness into homes of their own, without preconditions.

Ongoing personalised wraparound support to manage issues, ranging from mental health problems to substance misuse, is also a key part of what the scheme’s all about.

Since 2019, the scheme then has helped a total of 413 people find “good, safe homes”, GMCA has revealed.

Around 75% of those housed have also sustained their tenancies too, with some even going on to form part of Housing First’s co-production panel – sharing their experiences, and making sure that the service continues to meet people’s needs.

Because of the clear success of the pilot in our region, Greater Manchester and Mayor Andy Burnham are now calling on the Government to take the lessons learned from the scheme and embed them into a new approach to tackle the housing crisis nationwide.

Andy Burnham says he believes that giving everyone a good, safe home would be “one of the best investments the country could make”, as it would “take pressure off” other public services and public finances, and declared that our region is ready to follow in Finland’s footsteps by becoming the first UK city-region to adopt the ‘Housing First’ philosophy permenantly.

“The evidence is clear that it works, and when a pilot scheme gets results it shouldn’t end there – it should become the new normal,” Mr Burnham said.

A ‘life-changing’ scheme has helped house hundreds of Greater Manchester’s homeless people / Credit: Manchester City Council

“Housing First has shown that if you give people an unconditional right to safe and secure housing, backed up with personalised support, you set them up to succeed, so instead of winding it down, we should be scaling it up and turning it into a national mission.

“We’re starting that here in Greater Manchester.

“We’re bringing in new protections for renters, tackling bad landlords, and with the right powers and funding, we can deliver 75,000 new homes in this parliament.

Read more:

“Our new Housing First Unit will drive this work forward, bringing together partners across our city-region with a clear goal – a healthy home for everyone in Greater Manchester by 2038.”

Featured Image – Flickr

News

Bolton nurse whose 10-week-old baby died after being left home alone jailed

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

A nurse whose 10-week-old baby died after being left home alone for more than eight hours has been jailed.

Ruth Auta appeared at Bolton Crown Court last week (Tuesday 10 September), where the court heard that she left her nurses’ accommodation shortly after 6:30am on 20 December 2022 to carry out her shift at Royal Bolton Hospital – leaving behind her son, Joshua Akerele, in the process.

The 28-year-old returned more than eight hours later, and then, at 3:24pm, called for an ambulance reporting that her son “was not breathing”.

Despite attempts by paramedics to resuscitate him, Joshua sadly could not be saved and was pronounced dead at 4:40pm, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) revealed.

Experts could not confirm the cause of Joshua’s death, and say he was “a healthy baby in all respects”.

It’s thought that he may have overheated due to the layers of clothing and bedding he was wrapped in, but other potential causes of death “could not be ruled out”.

Auta initially told the police that she had collected Joshua from a childminder after she had finished work, and then took him back home, fed him, placed him on her bed and fell asleep next to him, before claiming that it was when she woke up she found him unresponsive, however, police seized CCTV footage showing Auta leaving her flat at 6:47am without her baby and returning home alone at 3:13pm.

Messages to the childminder asking her to tell the police she had looked after Joshua that day were also found on on Auta’s phone, but the childminder told officers she had not seen Joshua for a few days.

In her police interview, Auta gave no comment to the questions asked. She was released on bail whilst a full police investigation was carried out.

Despite the fact Auta gave no comment to the questions asked in her police interview, she was charged with cruelty to a child and pleaded guilty at Manchester Magistrates Court on 24 May 2024, with case adjourned to 21 June 2024 for sentence, and finally sentenced to three years in prison at Bolton Crown Court last week.

Speaking following the sentencing last week, Sara Davie, who is the District Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West, said: “Whilst she went to work to provide care for other people, Ruth Auta left the very person who needed her care the most home alone.  

“As a nurse she should have known the dangers of leaving her baby unattended. As she begins her sentence, she must now live with the consequences of the terrible decision she made that day.

“Auta has failed to show remorse throughout the case, she misled police about her childcare arrangements, and then tried to evade justice by attempting to flee the country.

Read more:

“Our thoughts and sympathies are with all those who been affected by Joshua’s death.”

Featured Image – GMP

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