Summary

  • Latest updates as Storm Christoph brings disruption to the North West on Thursday 21 January

  • Cheshire takes brunt of flooding

  • Severe flood warnings in place on River Bollin near Lymm and River Dee near Chester

  • Dozens of pensioners at a Northwich retirement village are stranded by flooding

  • Thousands of homes narrowly escaped serious flooding in Manchester

  • Rail services disrupted across Merseyside, Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Lancashire

Live Reporting

  1. Flood risk downgraded in Maghull

    The severe flood warning at Dovers Bridge in Maghull has been reduced to a flood warning, the Environment Agency has said.

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  2. Firefighters evacuate homes from village near Chester

    Firefighters had to help people leave their homes in the village of Tattenhall, south east of Chester, just before midnight last night.

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  3. 'Danger to life' warning in place in Cheshire and Greater Manchester

    The Environment Agency currently has four severe flood warnings in place across the North West.

    The warning is the highest level set by the agency and means there is severe flooding and a danger to life int he surrounding area.

    The warnings are in place as follows:

  4. Merseyrail replacement buses disrupted by flooding

    Flooding is affecting the rail replacement buses on part of the Merseyrail network.

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  5. Severe flood warning for Heatley and Little Bollington

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  6. Leisure centre refuge for evacuees

    Anna Jameson
    BBC Manchester

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  7. Snow and rain 'was apocalyptic'

    A councillor has said that when people were asked to leave their homes as flood waters rose last night in Didsbury, not everybody near the flooding zone was prepared to go.

    Didsbury sbowPA

    Richard Kilpatrick, the Liberal Democrat representative for West Didsbury said people were "half expecting it, but didn’t want to believe it".

    "With the snow, it was almost apocalyptic," he said.

    "It was literally a matter of knocking on doors [to persuade people].

    "A lot of people are used to the flood defences doing their job."

    Police knocking on doors in DidsburyPA Media

  8. Police in Cheshire issue 'hazardous driving conditions' warning

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  9. Rail passengers advised not to travel

    Rail operator Northern has advised passengers not to travel on many of its routes in the North West "due to increasingly poor conditions following torrential rain across the region".

    The firm said routes covering "north of Manchester, Lancashire and Cumbria" were affected and a number had "experienced issues with flooding and... seen closures and significant disruption".

    A spokesman said Northern had worked "alongside Network Rail throughout the night to prepare as many rail services as possible to resume on Thursday, [but] despite this hard work, flooding is persisting, and it has become increasingly difficult to operate a reliable service".

    Regional director Chris Jackson added:

    We have worked for the last few days, in conjunction with colleagues from across the industry, to keep our services operating and, where possible, supported those services with replacement buses when the flooding meant running trains was impossible.

    Unfortunately, we have had to make the difficult to advise our customers that they should not travel before 12:00 on Thursday across many of our North West routes.

    The situation is constantly changing so I urge anyone who needs to make essential journeys over the next few days to allow extra time for travel and to check carefully before setting off.

  10. Storm Christoph: Thousands of homes evacuated

    BBC News UK

    People have been evacuated from their homes overnight amid widespread flooding across England and Wales caused by Storm Christoph.

    Flooding in Didsbury

    About 2,000 homes in the Didsbury and Northenden areas of Manchester and in Maghull on Merseyside, are affected.

    There are more than 200 flood warnings in place - five of them severe - and weather alerts for rain and snow.

    People have been told Covid rules allow them leave their homes in an emergency.

  11. Good morning

    Hello and welcome to live coverage of Storm Christoph and the disruption it is bringing to North West England.

    If you have a story about what is happening, some pictures of what it looks like in your area or want to comment on what has already been said, please do get in touch through Facebook, Twitter or by emailing northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.