In March 2012, the government-run body Remploy, which since 1946 had directly employed disabled people in specialised factories, announced the closure of 36 of its 54 factories.

The 75-year-old Burnley-born actor, perhaps best known as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, lived in Greater Manchester from the age of three until he was 11.

A ‘vulnerable’ Wigan pensioner has been left ‘extremely shaken’ after she was ‘robbed at gunpoint’ in her own home on Monday – Greater Manchester Police appeal for witnesses.

A petition launched by a Wigan politician aims to have Wigan leave the borough of Greater Manchester to re-establish links with Lancashire.

The number of teenagers falling pregnant in Wigan has fallen to its lowest rate for the fourth year running.

The two offenders, both wearing balaclavas, raided the 48-year-old victim’s house on Marlborough Avenue, Wigan, at around 7.40pm on Monday.

Derek Alexander Szostok, 62, died after he tried to break up a row between William Lynch and his brother at a flat on Moresby Close in the early hours of August 26.

William Lynch, 41, who was hosting the bash, had lunged at sibling Andrew in a ‘childish’ rage while demanding guests leave his home.

The majority of Greater Manchester residents are completely unaware about the city’s devolution agreement and that a referendum must be enforced, according to a local trade union leader.

Ethel Irene Ditcher, known as Irene to friends and family, was hit by an HGV on Leigh Road at 11:45am and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities were called to Leigh Road around 11.45 am yesterday, following reports that a woman had been hit by a lorry.