2 h. ago ‘I dream about toilets, I admit it’: the man on a mission to improve Britain’s loos

Poor accessibility, questionable hygiene, scattered needles and budget cuts the UK is in the midst of a public toilet crisis. Thankfully, Raymond Martin is fighting backThe first thing Raymond Martin looks for in a toilet, he says, is cleanliness. Does the tissue paper on the floor mean this public lavatory has failed his inspection? “You have to understand that it’s a working toilet, it’s now mid-afternoon – a few bits of tissue on the floor is neither here nor there,” Martin says. “If there were cigarette packets, bottles on the floor – that I’d be worried about.” We’re in Knutsford, Cheshire, and Martin is on a toilet-inspection tour of the north and west of the UK. He’s just come from the Lake District and Blackpool. When we part ways in a couple of hours, he’ll head on to Wales to inspect the public conveniences of Pembrokeshire.Do people laugh when Martin, who is managing director of the British Toilet Association (BTA), tells them he does toilet inspections? They do, he says....

Events

3 h. ago The massive change coming to United Utilities affecting 2.5 million people in the north west

Hundreds of jobs stand to be created in the multi-billion pound deal announced by United Utilities for the Haweswater aqueduct

Politics

16 h. ago Famous ice cream seller pictured serving customers before being stabbed to death

Shazad Khan, 41, who was stabbed to death in Wembley, north-west London, is seen serving ice cream to customers in the new picture - police have arrested two people

Economics

24 h. ago Actor David Morrissey is banned from driving after 'being caught speeding three times within a week' in his £40k Mini

David Morrissey, 61, was sentenced after he was caught driving his £40,000 black Mini Countryman at 46mph in a 40mph zone on the A406 in Willesden, North West London, on August 2 last year.

Events

48 h. ago 'I went on UK rail route named world's most beautiful and it lived up to the hype'

The iconic West Highlands Line leaves Glasgow behind and delves deep into the west coast, trundling along the Clyde to Helensburgh, and then north via Garelochhead and Loch Long towards either Oban or Mallaig

Politics

4 d. ago ‘Animal Farm was my parents’ teamwork’: Orwell’s son on 80 years of the satirical classic

Richard Blair on the role his mother played in developing the 1945 political fable – and how it nearly didn’t get publishedAs the second world war reached its height, the winter of 1943-4 was one of the coldest of the century. My parents were living in a poorly heated flat in Kilburn, north-west London. My mother was working at the Ministry of Food. She was deeply involved in BBC Radio’s Kitchen Front which tried to help people conjure nutritious meals from their rations. My father became literary editor of Tribune magazine in November 1943. He was only required in the office three days a week, which gave him the time to write Animal Farm.Every evening, my father would read what he’d written to my mother under heavy blankets in bed. It was the only warm place in the flat. They would discuss the developing story and where it might go next. Lettice Cooper, the novelist and my mother’s Ministry of Food colleague, remembered my mother updating them every morning...

Politics

4 d. ago Mayenda sparks stunning Sunderland start to increase Potter’s West Ham pain

Advertising hoardings dotted around Sunderland are adorned with inviting images of long, sandy beaches and invite visitors to embark on adventures in “our city by the sea”. It is all part of an £80m project designed to reinvent and regenerate the post-industrial riverside area around the Stadium of Light, but West Ham had evidently not bargained for this rejuvenation to extend to the football team.As the second half unfolded an exhilarating afternoon that exceeded the wildest dreams of even the most optimistic Sunderland fans became not so much so an adventure as an ordeal by the North Sea for West Ham. Right from the start a Sunderland starting XI featuring seven debut-making summer signings and only three survivors of May’s playoff final triumph, looked quick, agile and extremely nimble footed. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago ‘The stone is like a sign pointing the way for pilgrims’: Adelino Marques’s best phone picture

On the route of the Camino de Santiago, the Portuguese photographer spotted an impossible-looking rock Adelino Marques was taking a morning walk on the coast near his holiday home in Moledo, north-west Portugal, when he took this image. “It’s the northernmost beach in Portugal and is considered one of the most beautiful in the country,” Marques says. “It also has two unique features: a fort in the middle of the sea, which served as a defence against various attacks over the centuries and is now a national monument, and the hill you can see in the background of this image, Monte de Santa Tecla. It’s in the neighbouring country of Spain, but is nevertheless an icon of this beach.”In the foreground of the image is a rock that echoes the shape of the hill, with a stone “placed atop in a way that would seem impossible. Pilgrims pass through this area every day to walk to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, a pilgrimage that covers around 500 miles [805km] and takes about...

Technology

5 d. ago Flash floods kill at least 159 people in Pakistan after huge cloudburst

Search for the missing continues in north-west after downpour also sparks deadly flooding and landslides in IndiaA massive cloudburst has triggered flash floods in north-west Pakistan, killing at least 157 people, as rescuers continued to search for people missing after floods in neighbouring India.Mohammad Suhail, a provincial emergency services spokesperson, said 78 bodies were recovered from various parts of Buner district in the north-west province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by noon on Friday, and a further 79 were pulled later from the rubble of collapsed homes and flooded villages. Continue reading...

Events

6 d. ago Couple's charity challenge takes them to Dumfries and Galloway coastline

Charlotte and Wayne Stainton are aiming to cover the entire UK coastline to support the North West Air Ambulance.

Politics

6 d. ago Actor David Morrissey faces losing driving licence after 'being caught speeding three times within a week', court hears

The 61-year-old is accused of driving his £40,000 Mini Countryman at 46mph in a 40mph zone on the A406 in Willesden, north-west London , at 5.41am on August 2 last year.

Events

6 d. ago AD FEATURE: Six live shows coming up in the north west that are selling fast

Don't miss out on tickets for Tom Grennan, The Lathums, JLS and more

Politics

9 d. ago Ambulance service shares health warning as north west hit with 'serious' weather alert

"It can result in serious health outcomes across the population"

Events

1 week ago Weather tracker: Europe braces for another heatwave with highs of 44C

Parts of Spain and Portugal likely to bear brunt of heat, while drought conditions sweep North AmericaEurope live – latest updatesAfter a period of cooler weather, swaths of central and eastern Europe face another heatwave as hot air over south-western Europe pushes north-west.Since late July, large parts of the Iberian peninsula have endured persistent heat, with temperatures frequently climbing to the high 30s to low 40s celsius. Continue reading...

Society

1 week ago Health warning issued for Greater Manchester as Met Office forecasts 30C heatwave

The UKHSA has issued a heat health alert across the North West

Events

1 week ago My beautiful French detour: the belle epoque charm of the Pays de la Loire coastline

This tucked-away corner of north-west France is home to beautiful beaches, salt marshes and ciderThe saying goes “curiosity killed the cat”, as if being nosy is a bad thing. As I stood knee-deep in the cool Atlantic Ocean, marvelling at the beauty and emptiness of the Plage de Port Lin, I decided this was nonsense: without this little detour, “just to have a look”, I’d never have discovered Le Croisic, on the Guérande peninsula. The downside is that time isn’t on my side: it’s past 5pm and I’m supposed to be at the big resort, La Baule-Escoublac, six miles east by now. But the presqu’île (a “nearly island”), as the French call it, tucked in the corner where Brittany meets Pays de la Loire, is calling out to be explored.First, though, a late afternoon dip in the sea is too hard to resist, and I wade into the water, sharing a delighted smile with fellow swimmers. Two elderly women in flowery swimming caps nod a cheery “Bonsoir” as I take my first strokes. Afterward...

Politics

1 week ago Red Arrows LIVE as jets fly over Lancashire and North West for second day of Blackpool Airshow

Route map and times as the display team fly over parts of Lancashire, Wales and Merseyside on Sunday

Society

1 week ago What time to see the Red Arrows near Greater Manchester on Sunday

The Red Arrows will be visible in the skies above the North West as they appear at the Blackpool Airshow

Politics

1 week ago Red Arrows LIVE as jets fly over Lancashire and north west for Blackpool Airshow

Route map and times as the display team fly over parts of Lancashire, Cumbria, Wales and Merseyside on Saturday

Society

1 week ago ‘I had her right in front of me. And now she’s gone’: how one mother lost her daughter to mental illness

Studying in London before taking up a high-flying job in New York, Naina Mishra seemed set for a bright future – until she began retreating from friends and family into a paranoid spiral even her mother couldn’t break. What does her story reveal about the dangers of young adult estrangement?Naina Mishra seemed to turn up at the yoga studio in Euston, north-west London, out of nowhere. She wasn’t referred by anyone; she didn’t come with a friend. A 21-year-old woman of Indian heritage with an American accent who grew up in Hong Kong and had recently arrived in London, Naina just “fell in” off the street in January 2022, say her yoga teachers, Hamish Hendry and Louise Newton. But it became part of her daily life. Every morning, she returned to practise there.Chatting after class, they learned that Naina had just graduated from university in the US and had been interning at the investment bank Goldman Sachs and the consulting firm McKinsey. She was studying in London before beginning a...

Politics