| Six months after the Eastern leg to Leeds was dropped, another section of the controversial HS2 high speed rail line has bitten the dust. But rather than being announced in a high-profile Commons address like last November's Integrated Rail Plan, the scrapping of the Golborne Link seen as vital to freeing up extra capacity on the North's railways was announced in a written statement while the attention of the political world was elsewhere. At 7.30pm, as Tory MPs were voting on whether they had confidence in Boris Johnson, rail Minister Andrew Stephenson confirmed the 13-mile, £3bn spur connecting the Crewe to Manchester HS2 line to the West Coast Mainline (WCML) near Golborne, south of Wigan, would be abandoned. Amid local Conservative opposition to the scheme, Pendle MP Stephenson said the decision would allow the Government to "explore alternatives that deliver similar benefits, within the £96 billion envelope of the Integrated Rail Plan".  How the Golborne Link would have fitted in with the plans for HS2. Graphic: Lisa Walsh
The Golborne link or "spur" is part of HS2 which splits from the main line at Hoo Green in Cheshire before it reaches Manchester Airport. Its main intention is to cut journey times and increase train frequencies from London and Birmingham to Glasgow while freeing up capacity on the WCML so it can carry more freight. The spur had been opposed by MPs including Altrincham and Sale West's Graham Brady, who at the time of the announcement was presiding over the no confidence vote in Parliament. Warrington MP Andy Carter described it as "really good news". And Warrington Council leader Ross Bowden said the line "would have had profound and unnecessary impacts on many of our communities with no discernible benefits for our town". But a spokesperson for rail leaders in the Railway Industry Association, the Rail Freight Group and the High Speed Rail Group, said it was "hugely disappointing to discover that, on a day when much political attention was focused elsewhere, the Government confirmed that the 'Golborne Link' is to be removed from the HS2 project". They added: "Without this connection, a bottleneck will be created north of Crewe on the West Coast Main Line, which in turn will negatively impact outcomes for passengers, decarbonisation and levelling up. "With the HS2 Eastern Leg dropped, and the Golborne Link abandoned too, there will now be heightened uncertainty both for rail businesses working on the project and for the communities the line will serve." 
Tory MP: 'If we lose Boris Johnson we lose Brexit and levelling up'  Boris Johnson chairs a Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street
Badly wounded by the revolt against his leadership by his own MPs, Boris Johnson used a Cabinet meeting this morning in an attempt to show "we are going to get on with the job". He called on Ministers to "come forward" with ways to cut costs as he focussed on progressing the Government's agenda, adding that the "way forward" is "by making sure that we not only continue with the unite and levelling-up agenda but we drive supply-side reform at the same time". Mr Johnson went on to call the Government's levelling-up plans "a magnificent agenda" and "totally right agenda for the country" but added that ministers need to continue driving reform and improvement to see "huge, huge changes" in the economy. Tory MPs last night voted by 211 to 148 in support of the Prime Minister, but the scale of the opposition was greater than that seen in 2018 when Theresa May faced a confidence vote. She was ultimately forced out within months. Allies have rallied round Mr Johnson but former Tory leader Lord Hague, Rishi Sunak's predecessor as MP for Richmond in North Yorkshire said "the damage done to his premiership is severe" and he should quit rather than prolong the agony. And a sign of the opposition from all wings of the party came from Bishop Auckland MP Dehenna Davison, the second of the 2019 'red wall' Northern Tories to turn against him after Bury's Christian Wakeford, who revealed she was voting against the PM. But another Northern Tory, Don Valley's Nick Fletcher, said losing the Prime Minister would mean "we will lose Brexit, our nation's recovery and the levelling-up".
Labour will look to turn the screw on the PM this afternoon and have a debate on standards in public life in the Commons. The party's deputy leader and Ashton-under-Lyne MP Angela Rayner said Mr Johnson would get "absolutely hammered" should he call a General Election in the coming months. She said: "If we allow a prime minister to continue in office when he smirks and laughs and has taken the public for fools and lied and broken his own laws, well there has to be a line that is drawn, and I think the public won't move on until Boris Johnson is gone." Meanwhile the leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Ed Davey says his party will put forward a vote of no confidence in the PM.
Would council chief executive be 'insulted' by £197,000 salary?  What council chief executives are paid around the North, according to North Yorkshire County Council research. Graphic: LIsa Walsh
They will serve a population of more than 600,000 people in England's largest county, with a workforce of over 10,000. But how much should the first chief executive of the new North Yorkshire council, due to replace the existing structure of county and district authorities, be paid? A meeting of senior councillors was told the position should come with a salary range of £180,000 to £197,000, as the kudos of the council and lifestyle opportunities in the county should also help to attract the best candidates for the role. Research by council officers shows neighbouring authorities East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Cumbria County Council and Durham County Council, which all have significantly smaller populations than North Yorkshire's 611,000 residents, pay their top officers an average of £183,000. Council bosses say that set against the current combined packages for the eight chief executives of North Yorkshire councils, this would deliver an annual saving in excess of £1 million. However, the meeting was told the proposed salary could appear "insulting" to potential candidates when compared to the £168,000 salary and performance-related pay of the chief executive at Hambleton District Council, which serves a population of less than 100,000, as Local Democracy Reporter Stuart Minting reports. Labour group leader Steve Shaw Wright said it might be worth the authority spending a little more "to get the right person". But executive member for finance Gareth Dadd said North Yorkshire had "far more to offer" candidates than a large salary, with a different lifestyle to other parts of the country.
'Smears and lies straight from the Hillsborough playbook'  Liverpool fans react as they queue outside the stadium (Image: Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)
French ministers will be taken to task over the "appalling" scenes at the Champions League final in Paris and the subsequent smears about the behaviour of Liverpool fans, MPs have been told. Liverpool were defeated 1-0 by Real Madrid at the Stade de France, but the football became a mere sideshow amid organisational issues outside the ground and footage of supporters being pepper-sprayed by authorities. Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston committed to raising the "terrifying and potentially dangerous conditions" with France's sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera this week. Ms Oudea-Castera has been roundly condemned after blaming ticketless Liverpool supporters for causing the chaos, writes Westminster Editor Dan O'Donoghue. Liverpool MP Ian Byrne, asking an urgent question in the Commons yesterday, said: "We were treated like animals for wanting to watch a game of football and then, shamefully, the smears and lies straight from the Hillsborough playbook were used by the authorities to avoid accountability of the horrific events." Mr Byrne asked the Government to make representations to Uefa for a "full and truly independent inquiry" into the events outside the Stade de France.
Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram will appear before the French senate later this week to discuss the chaos at the Champions League final in Paris. On Thursday, Mayor Rotheram, one of many Reds fans targeted by local gangs, will appear in front of the French Senate's Standing Committees on Laws and Culture to talk to senators about his own experiences at the final and his views on where things went wrong both before and after the game. He is also likely to be asked to comment on the responses provided by French ministers in the wake of the chaos.
The first town hall in the North to limit junk food adverts  Barnsley Council has become the latest local authority to restrict high fat, salt and/or sugar advertising.
Dealing with the consequences of poor diet is something that costs health services around the North many millions of pounds a year. And this week a South Yorkshire borough has unveiled two separate schemes to nip unhealthy habits in the bud before they start. Labour-run Barnsley council has become the first in the North to restrict high fat, salt and/or sugar advertising. The measures, developed in collaboration with the Sustain campaign alliance, have been introduced to protect local adult and children's health and will limit advertising on all council-owned or leased advertising sites. Fran Bernhardt, Sustain's Children's Food Campaign Coordinator, said: "We hope their achievements will inspire other areas across the country to take a stand for children's health." Meanwhile, students in Barnsley will be offered financial incentives to quit smoking, under a new pilot scheme. Barnsley Council has teamed up with Barnsley College to offer students £35 gift cards for successfully quitting for twelve weeks. The Barnsley gift cards can be spent in more than 250 venues around the borough, including Marks and Spencer, River Island, Primark, Barnsley Markets and the Market Kitchen.
Newcastle leader's rethink on city's most beautiful street  Grey Street has had new pavement cafes and cycle lanes installed (Image: LDRS)
It's long been considered Newcastle's most beautiful street and one of the most attractive in the country. Grey Street has undergone some major changes in the past couple of years, with a series of temporary measures installed to take space away from cars and give it to pedestrians, cyclists, and pavement cafes. The gradual revamp of the beloved city centre thoroughfare has been ultimately aimed towards a total pedestrianisation, the centrepiece of a £50m transformation of the city centre. But the recent power shift at Newcastle Civic Centre could throw the proposals into question. Nick Kemp, who has recently replaced Nick Forbes as the city's Labour council leader, has spoken out against the current state of the Georgian street, which has included laying temporary pavements and installing a long row of bollards. The Byker councillor, who has promised a "reset" of the council under his new administration, told Local Democracy Reporter Dan Holland: "It has historically, until very recently, always been recognised as one of the most beautiful and attractive streets in Britain. Sadly, you could not say that now. "I would like a review of Grey Street. Whatever we do needs to be something that adds intrinsically to the value of Grey Street." 
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Northern Stories  This is what the Wirral hub could look like (Image: Ellis Williams Architects)
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A £25m plan set to create jobs on docklands in Wirral has been put forward. The Maritime Knowledge Hub would see the Grade II listed Hydraulic Tower on the Birkenhead docklands transformed into a hub for education, research and training within the maritime sector. The plan has been put forward by Peel L&P and is part of the Wirral Waters project, a scheme set to deliver up to 13,000 homes across several different sites along the docklands over the next 25 years. -
A new trust set up to run Bradford's failing children's services will go live next April – 15 months after first being announced. In January, a highly-critical report into Bradford Council's efforts to turn around its Children's Services found the authority "lacked the capacity and capability to improve services at pace on its own." In response, the service would be removed from Council control and run by an arm's length trust. -
The first step has been taken to creating a 'huge ugly' solar farm to generate electricity on a hillside above an East Lancashire town. A development consultancy has indicated to Burnley Council it has a client considering installing the array of panels on 116 acres on farmland off Todmorden Road in Cockden. The solar farm would overlook Cockden Beck and the village of Worsthorne. Liberal Democrat councillor Gordon Lishman described it as 'very large' and 'highly visible'. -
A hospital has issued an urgent warning asking people only to visit A+E in an emergency as they are "overflowing" with patients. Bosses at the Royal Bolton Hospital say there are four times more people in their accident and emergency department than they have space for. As a result, waiting times are a number of hours. The Bolton NHS Foundation Trust has asked people not to attend A+E just because they are struggling to access treatment elsewhere, but only if it is an emergency or life-threatening. -
A Leeds woman has claimed sex workers cost her free home repairs. The woman was entitled to a council grant for repairs in 2001, but "problems with street sex workers operating in the area" stopped the work going ahead, the Local Government Ombudsman said. A report by the Ombudsman, which deals with complaints about local authorities, said the woman had recently been told she was no longer entitled to the grant by Leeds City Council. -
Fares for black cabs in Manchester are set to increase this summer as drivers declare a 'crisis' in the trade caused by Covid, fuel prices and the cost of living. Hackney carriage drivers have called for an 80p surcharge to help them cope with rising fuel prices until a wider review of fares takes place later this year. The 'emergency' measure would take effect from July if Manchester council's executive body agrees to the recommendations of the licensing committee.
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