| Harry Styles devotees all head in One Direction to Cheshire village  Fans flock to the railway viaduct where Harry scrawled his name (although it's been rubbed away) (Image: MEN/Dianne Bourne)
He's one of the biggest pop stars in the world. And the spot where Harry Styles had his first kiss in the Cheshire village of Holmes Chapel has become a pilgrimage site for fans of the former One Direction star. But as a meeting of Cheshire East Council heard last week, the hordes of teenagers descending on the area where the singer grew up have now sparked safety concerns. Councillor Andrew Kolker prompted a few puzzled looks around the table of the council's economy and growth committee when he said a road near a 'pilgrimage' site is particularly dangerous and asked the council's officers to take a look at it, writes Local Democracy Reporter Belinda Ryan. He said: "We do have two sites that are a common site of pilgrimage for these kids and that is the viaduct [which] has Harry's name scrawled all over it apparently from when he was a young youth – and that site's a popular site for teenagers, as is the site of Harry's first kiss." As councillors continued to look somewhat bemused, Cllr Kolker continued: "This is fine except that the A535 is an extremely busy road and it's a very, very dangerous road to walk along…It's an extremely dangerous road with very, very limited parking and footpaths." Committee chair Nick Mannion said the Holmes Chapel highways issue was not a matter for the economy committee but 'the police have the powers to deal with overloading of vehicles parked on grass villages, if they see fit, in consultation with the highway authority'. 
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher backs striking dock workers  A two-week strike was launched by members of Unite at the Port of Liverpool last night
Hundreds of dock workers on Merseyside launched a two-week strike last night in a dispute over pay, continuing industrial unrest which has hit several sectors over the summer. And as 560 members of Unite at the Port of Liverpool walked out over a pay offer they considered unsatisfactory, former Liverpool footballer Jamie Carragher sent a message to the striking dockers to "keep going". In a post on Unite's North West Twitter account, Sky Sports pundit Carragher said: "I'm fully behind what you're doing and you've got my support and backing. You fully deserve everything that you're fighting for. Keep going." Union members at the Port of Liverpool voted to take strike action in August, after they turned down a 8.3% pay offer proposed by MDHC, the company who operates the port. Unite lead officer for freeports, Steven Gerrard (not the one you're thinking) said: "MDHC has refused to honour the previous pay pledges it made to our members and is refusing to put forward an acceptable pay rise now. It has no one else to blame for the disruption that will be caused." David Huck, chief operating officer at Peel Ports, said the strike was "bad news for our employees, families and other local employers" and that its pay package offer "represents a 10% average increase in annual pay".
'Stunning' by-election upset as Tories win safe Labour seat  New Rumworth councillor Ayyub Patel (right) with Coun Shamim Abdullah (centre) and Bolton council leader Martyn Cox (left)
With Labour ahead in the national polls, recent months have seen the Conservatives suffer a number of damaging losses at the polls around the country. So it was something of a turn-up for the books when the Tories gained a council seat from Labour on Bolton Council last week after what was described as a "stunning" by-election win. The win for Ayyub Patel, who gained a majority of more than 500 came in Rumworth ward, which in the past has been considered a safe Labour area. Cllr Patel gained 1,610 votes in Thursday's poll, with Labour's Ismail Patel second with 1,102, as Local Democracy Reporter Chris Gee writes. The election was held after Labour councillor Ebrahim Adia stepped down due to career commitments and came just weeks after another former Labour Rumworth councillor, Shamim Abdullah, joined Bolton Conservatives. Her recruitment and the by-election win means the Conservatives have consolidated their position as the largest party on Bolton Council, which they control. Tory council leader Martyn Cox said: "Full credit goes to Ayyub Patel and his team who have worked incredibly hard to win one of the safest Labour seats in the town. Rumworth now has two Conservative councillors who are committed to improving their area."
Could Cumbria and Lancashire pursue devolution together?  The Northern Agenda podcast looks into political issues in the region in greater depth
In a largely rural patch hundreds of miles from London, politicians in Cumbria often feel forgotten about compared with big urban areas in the North. But could a devolution deal like the one recently signed in North Yorkshire give the county more clout? Cumbria's currently going through a major local government shake-up which will see its county and six district authorities replaced with two unitaries, Cumberland to the west and Westmorland and Furness to the east. Jonathan Brook, who leads South Lakeland council and will become leader of Westmorland and Furness when it comes into being next year, tells The Northern Agenda podcast that the "strong hint" is that devolution might be the next step from the current reorganisation. But he suggests that rather than go it alone his preference would be to pursue a joint devolution deal with neighbouring Lancashire, another area yet to have any major powers and resources handed over from central government. He says: "From our perspective, going through this process at the moment, stripping out a tier of local government, the first thing that's being suggested is that we ought to insert another tier by having a mayor in the process, is not necessarily one that makes immediate sense. "We're open to negotiation, of course, but I think we would probably be looking for something a little bit different, and possibly for a deal that if we were going to have a Mayoral Combined Authority, that would be looking for a footprint, perhaps slightly wider than the Cumbrian footprint, again, bearing in mind, local geography and history and, indeed local economy." 
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Northern Stories  Work on the park has been ongoing for the past 18 months. (Image: Vincent Cole - Manchester Evening News)
- Manchester's newest park, Mayfield, will open this week in a 'momentous' day for the city. The official opening of the park has been a closely-guarded secret by bosses, but today the Manchester Evening News reveals the public will be able to start enjoying the 6.5 acre space in just a matter of days. Work on the park has been ongoing for the past 18 months. Thursday will mark the opening of the city centre's first new public park in more than 100 years.
- The North East's ambition to become home to the UK's first low carbon heat cluster is taking a step forward today, as leading figures from local government and the energy sector convene on Tyneside. The Association for Decentralised Energy's Heat Network Conference 2022 – a national conference on the future of heating for homes and businesses – is taking place today at The Common Room in Newcastle city centre, jointly hosted by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership and the Royal Danish Embassy in London.
- A council has reported an escalating number of overweight youngsters since axing a well-regarded scheme to help children and their families make positive changes to their diet. A North Yorkshire County Council report has revealed that since Healthy Choices was abandoned in the wake of swingeing government cuts in 2020, the county has had no weight management service for children and has seen annual rises in children with excess weight that have been "much higher than in previous years". After completing Healthy Choices 80% of youngsters saw marked weight reductions.
- A Lancashire councillor has quit the Tory Party over the behaviour of its national leadership. Hapton with Park ward's Peter Gill has quit Burnley Council's Conservative group and will now sit as an Independent. He said: "This is nothing to do with the local party. It started with Boris Johnson refusing to walk. Then it was new Prime Minister Liz Truss's energy bill plan. It doesn't seem to do much for anyone."
- The government has backed plans to delay new tolls on high-polluting vehicles in Newcastle city centre until 2023. Council bosses announced in July that they were planning to put the long-awaited Clean Air Zone (CAZ) charges on hold until next year, but needed the approval of ministers to do so. Civic centre officials have now confirmed that the latest proposal for the CAZ has been signed off, giving motorists and businesses until the end of January to get ready for the tolls of up to £50 per day.
- Tributes have been paid to Jean Stretton, Oldham council's first female leader, following her death aged 64. Cllr Stretton, who represented Hollinwood for 19 years, replaced Jim McMahon in 2016 and held the position until 2018 when she was replaced by Sean Fielding. Raised on Oldham's Alt Estate and educated at Alt Primary School and Hathershaw Comprehensive schools, she held several cabinet positions in areas including housing, health and wellbeing, town centres, culture and tourism.
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