Live updates from Lancashire have finished for the day, but we'll be back from 08:00 on Wednesday with the latest news, sport, weather and travel from across the region.

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Charlie Slater
BBC Weather presenter

It will stay dry with clear spells and patchy cloud. It should be milder than last night, with any cloud cover keeping temperatures higher than normal. Overnight lows of 12C.

More from BBC Weather

An emergency department in Lancashire that closed due to staff shortages should reopen in January, an independent review has said.

Chorley Hospital's A&E unit was downgraded to an urgent care centre in April.

An independent review commissioned by NHS England said it could reopen "on part-time basis".

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust said a 24-hour urgent care centre would free up staff to work in a 12-hour A&E.

Blackpool Gazette

Special schools children are set to team up with the football club, external to help keep them healthy.

• Chorley Hospital's A&E department should reopen on a part-time basis from January 
• Police identify a 74-year-old motorcyclist from Lancaster who died in hospital following a crash in Scotland on Saturday

• Blackpool manager Gary Bowyer says the player selection process for the EFL Trophy is "restrictive"

BBC Sport

English Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey has defended the new format of the Checkatrade Trophy.  

Image source, Getty Images

For the first time since its inception in 1983, top-flight clubs with Category One academies were invited to enter a competition which has largely been for League One and League Two teams.

 Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham did not enter because of fixture clashes.  

And three of the first round of matches were watched by fewer than 600 fans - with fewer than 400 people watching Fleetwood against Blackburn Rovers at Highbury.

A car that was involved in a crash with a police vehicle on the M61 last night has been found in Westhoughton.

Image source, HENNA SHETH

Police had been pursuing a silver Vauxhall Vectra suspected of being in an earlier crash with a Bentley in Alfred Street, Blackpool, at 16:50 yesterday.

The officer hit the central reservation and overturned as he tried to get the Vectra to stop on the M61 southbound near Bolton.

He was taken to hospital and has since been released with minor neck and shoulder injuries.

The dilapidated Grade-II listed Burnley Empire Theatre, which is to be sold at auction, has been offered to a campaign group.

The building dates back to the late 1800s and has been disused since the mid-90s. 

It is currently owned by the Duchy of Lancaster.

Sophie Gibson from the Burnley Empire Theatre Trust has said the building has been offered to the campaign group but it cannot accept until it has listed as a registered charity.

BBC Sport

Burnley defender Michael Keane has been handed his first international call-up after Stoke's Glen Johnson withdrew from the England squad through injury.

Image source, Reuters

Keane, 23, who has played for England at under-19, under-20 and under-21 levels, will report to St George's Park on Tuesday with the rest of the squad.

Gareth Southgate called him up after Johnson was ruled out of Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Malta.

On Monday, Andros Townsend replaced the injured Raheem Sterling in the squad.

Mark Edwardson
Reporter, BBC North West Tonight

A woman from Burnley who was told to leave the country after living here for 50 years has won her battle to remain in the UK.

Winnie Birkenhead came to Burnley, Lancashire as a young girl from Malaysia in the 1960s but was told she had to leave by the Home Office last year.

She has now received a letter to confirming she can stay, as BBC North West Tonight's Mark Edwardson reports.

Paul O'Gorman
Reporter, BBC Radio Lancashire

Commemorative benches are available to buy in a park in Preston as part of a restoration project.

The initiative is part of plans to restore the Moor Park to its Victorian glory.

A £1.7m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund has already been received to start the restoration.

BBC Lancashire Sport

Blackpool boss Gary Bowyer believes the player selection process for the EFL Trophy is "restrictive".

Bowyer has criticised the rules governing which players he can and cannot play.

The team play their second group fixture against League One Bolton Wanderers tonight.

BBC Weather

Generally a fine and dry day, with warm and sunny spells. Highs of 17C this afternoon.

More from BBC Weather

Talks are under way to sell Blackpool Airport, 18 months after commercial passenger flights resumed across the Irish Sea.

Owners Balfour Beatty, which bought the Squires Gate site eight years ago, closed the airport in October 2014 with the loss of 100 jobs.

Daily passenger flights to the Isle of Man and Belfast resumed in April 2015.

A spokesman confirmed the company was in talks to sell the site as part of an investments portfolio review.

• Chorley Hospital's A&E department could reopen on a part-time basis, an independent review recommends
• The owner of Blackpool Airport is in talks to sell the site
• The dilapidated Grade-II listed Burnley Empire Theatre, which has stood empty for more than 20 years, is to be listed at auction

A dilapidated Grade-II listed theatre, which has stood empty for more than 20 years, is to be sold at auction.

Image source, Mark Salmon

Burnley Empire Theatre defaulted to the care of the Duchy of Lancaster as an "owner of last resort" after the ownership could not be established.

Last used as a bingo hall in 1995, the Cow Lane venue was recently named the fifth most at risk theatre, external in the UK.

Campaigners who want to restore the building to its former glory said the decision was a blow to their plans.

A hospital's accident and emergency department should reopen on a part-time basis, an independent review has found.

The review, jointly commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement, said the emergency department at Chorley Hospital should reopen for 12-hours per day.

The unit was shut and downgraded to an urgent care centre in April, and the closure was later extended to 2017 due to staffing issues. 

A date is still being finalised in order to "ensure safe and high quality patient care" but reopening is likely to be in mid-January 2017.

Lindsay Hoyle, MP for Chorley, said: "I want the trust management and the Clinical Commissioning Group to get behind by this decision."

The review recommended having the emergency department reopened at the same time as a new 24-hour urgent care centre to "provide additional resilience".

Karen Partington, chief executive of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The new provider taking over the urgent care centre from January gives us the opportunity to redeploy our staff and work in a different way so that we can safely reinstate the emergency department part-time."

• A car involved in a crash on the M61 in which a police officer was injured has been traced
• The Grade II listed Burnley Empire Theatre is to be sold at auction
• Burnley defender Michael Keane is called up for the England World Cup qualifying squad

Lancashire Telegraph
Lancashire Telegraph

A surge in demand at East Lancashire’s accident and emergency ward, external saw the number of patients rise by nearly 20 per cent at the weekend.  

Police have identified a 74-year-old motorcyclist from Lancaster who died in hospital following a crash on the A712 north of Newton Stewart.  

Ronald Barret was seriously injured when his Honda 1300 left the road at 15:30 on Saturday near Glenamour Farm.

He was taken to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow for treatment but died on Monday morning.

Police Scotland said investigations into the cause of the crash were still ongoing.