A COUPLE are celebrating after winning £700 of holiday vouchers in a Northern Echo competition. Mark and Doreen Blacklock, who live in South Shields, won the prize in the Echo's Florida Citrus competition. Readers were asked to write in with a recipe
A MAN took advantage of a broken-hearted 14-year-old schoolgirl and formed a sexual relationship with her, a court heard. John Smith, who was 22 at the time, bombarded the girl with letters then put "emotional pressure" on her to have sex with him. Newcastle
RESIDENTS in Derwentside face a massive increase in their council tax this spring. Derwentside District councillors last night agreed a 12.5 per cent increase, taking account of a 14.8 per cent hike in Durham County Council's levy and a 14.2 per cent
ANGRY Newcastle United boss Bobby Robson has rapped four of his international stars for putting country before club. Centre-back Nikos Dabizas is in the doghouse after missing Sunday's FA Cup fifth-round clash with Manchester City because of an injury
A GROUP of environmentally-aware youngsters put their half-term holidays to good use by stepping up their efforts to protect a Hartlepool beauty spot. The Beck Buddies spent yesterday planting 200 trees alongside Greatham Beck on the town's Fens Estate
A TAXI firm boss was blackmailed after one of his drivers failed to make a pick-up. Robert Wright, 20, demanded £500 from the owner of the firm near Consett, County Durham, after a minibus driver took a group of men to Yarm, near Stockton, Teesside, but
A DARLINGTON hospice is urging runners to help with its fundraising. St Teresa's Hospice is hoping people taking part in the Great North Run on October 6 will collect sponsorship for its coffers at the event. Last year, 13 runners raised a total of £4,700
An autistic boy has spoken his first words at the age of seven after being treated by a North-East football club's physiotherapist. Thomas Bryan showed signs of autism when he was just six months old and had yet to speak or write by the age of seven -
PATTERSON Ford has announced plans for a £600,000 refurbishment of a dealership on Tyneside. The revamp of the Scots-wood Road site in Newcastle follows a 40 per cent rise in vehicle sales and a turnover in excess of £120m. The makeover involves a recladding
A PERVERT who groped three young boys while trusted to look after them has walked free from court. George McCann, 34, indecently assaulted the youngsters, all under 11, by touching them intimately through their clothing. Yesterday, he pleaded guilty at
COACH, bus and car body manufacturer Mayflower Corporation is poised for recovery after enduring its toughest ever year. The company, which has former Prime Minister John Major as a non-executive director, said it had won much new business. Order books
Letters from The Northern Echo RAY MALLON RAY Mallon has constantly asserted that he has been "cleared" of any criminal wrongdoing. He is patently under a misapprehension. To be cleared of any criminal charge, one must first be placed before either a
ICE sports enthusiasts campaigning for a new rink gather on the site of a city's former facility to further their cause tonight. County Durham Ice Foundation is established to campaign, raise funds and coordinate interested groups to highlight the "clear
NEWTON Cap is famed for its two bridges - the low, ancient one and the tall, railway one. But for most of the last century there was a third bridge at Newton Cap. It was built just after 1900, around the River Wear from Bishop Skirlaw's bridge of 1400
A FORMER senior Government advisor last night piled the pressure on Cleveland Police to explain how sensitive Operation Lancet papers were leaked. Lord MacKenzie, of Framwellgate, said a leak to The Observer newspaper raised "serious questions of concern
MUSIC lovers are being asked to help a group of youngsters working on a production of a famous show. The Flying Ducks Youth Theatre Group, of Haxby and Wigginton, near York, need a jukebox for their version of West Side Story. An authentic 1950s music-maker
A COMMITTEE set up to ensure councillors adhere by a code of conduct closed its doors to discuss whether disciplinary action should be taken against a member of the authority. Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council's newly-established standards committee
MEDICAL secretaries have voted to strike for more pay in a move which threatens to bring chaos to the North-East's hospitals. More than 280 medical secretaries working at the City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Trust and Northumbria Health Care NHS Trust have
A PE teacher who took a group of teenagers on a "river walk" hours before two schoolgirls were swept to their deaths in the same stream told an inquest it did not occur to her to warn later parties about rising rivers levels. Dawn Nicholson was giving
NEWTON Cap is famed for its two bridges - the low, ancient one and the tall, railway one. But for most of the last century there was a third bridge at Newton Cap. It was built just after 1900, around the River Wear from Bishop Skirlaw's bridge of 1400
A WEARSIDE park has been given £75,000 towards improving its landscape and providing facilities for teenagers. The Blackie site, in Upper Ford, Sunderland, has won the grant from the third round Single Regeneration Budget, after a need for a more teenager-friendly
ALEN BOKSIC started his first game since Boxing Day and inspired Middlesbrough to a victory which further eases their relegation fears. The Croatian, pushing for a place in his country's World Cup squad, slotted his seventh goal of the season - and first
Five men were arrested as Third Division rivals Darlington and Hartlepool played in the last derby clash at the Quakers' Feethams ground. Two of the men, from Hartlepool, have been charged with football-related offences, while the other two, one from
Red-faced Whitehall officials have apologised after a Government minister got his Newcastles mixed up. Embarrassed Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford has admitted confusing the city of Newcastle with Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire. The blunder
Customes and Excise officers have seized 87 vehicles during a six-day oil fraud operation in the region. Operation Keeper, was launched in Cleveland, Durham, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear in a bid to catch drivers of vehicles illegally using red diesel
TWO motorists and a passenger were taken to hospital with injuries following a head-on crash this week. The crash, at 3.25pm on Monday in Lyden Road, Leechmere, Sunderland, saw the road closed for two hours afterwards. A Toyota Avensis travelling east
SUB-ZERO temperatures and teammates' near-death experiences on an Antarctic adventure failed to dampen the spirits of a North-East soldier. Just days after returning home from a three-month expedition, Sergeant Steve Ayres is already looking forward to
A PROPOSAL intended to stop travellers from camping illegally in a village lane has been rejected by residents. About 200 people packed into Sedgefield Parish Hall to discuss ways of solving the problem of travellers stopping in Beacon Lane on the way
A CITY'S mayoral lamp, which is more than a century old, is to take pride of place outside an imposing civic headquarters. Ripon's ceremonial lamp has been in continuous use since the early 1890s, but community leaders feel the time is right to give it
A GOVERNMENT inspection has praised North Yorkshire's registration of births, marriages and deaths service. The official review, which takes place every four to five years, looked at all aspects of the service and particularly praised the standard of
AERO-engine maker Rolls-Royce, which last year axed 5,000 jobs worldwide, has secured a deal worth more than £1.4bn. Rolls-Royce has signed an agreement with the Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation to supply up to 600 upgraded BR710 engines - made near Berlin
INTERSKY FALCON can provide Jonjo O'Neill with a timely boost at Doncaster today following the tragic death of one of his stable stars, Miros, out at exercise yesterday. At this stage of his career Intersky Falcon couldn't possibly hope to be a ready-made
The farming community took another important step towards normality yesterday after more business returned to the region's cattle marts. A year to the day after Barnard Castle Auction Mart shut because of foot-and-mouth, farmers yesterday gathered to
AN effort by schoolchildren to save the harvest mouse - almost lost to the region - is to feature on television. The pupils of Harrowgate Hill School, Darlington, are running a breeding programme and will appear on Tyne Tees Television's Wild North programme
What is the greatest - and very possibly proudest - achievement of Mike Neville? Almost alone among North-East TV presenters, he has evaded all attempts to press him into the Great North Run. For let's face it, if Mike did run, it would be his not-quite-trim
Ray Mallon last night turned to Home Secretary David Blunkett in a bid to prevent his mayoral campaign from being derailed. The man dubbed Robocop fired off a letter of complaint to Mr Blunkett over the behaviour of his accusers at Cleveland police. Mr
THE possibility of a 12.5 per cent rise in council tax bills for Darlington taxpayers moved closer when the rise was approved by the borough council's scrutiny committee. Most householders will end up paying an extra £1.25 a week - more than £60 a year
THE last Feethams derby was one to remember. A game of frantic football was a fitting way to mark Hartlepool's last visit to Darlington's home before they move into a new ground in the summer - and although Chris Turner's men bossed the majority of the
A WOMAN has fallen victim to crooks twice within minutes. The 63-year-old had gone shopping to help old people at a Teesside day care centre where she works, when she was mugged. The unnamed victim was loading gifts, chocolates and Easter eggs into the
Darlington boss Tommy Taylor admitted he was satisfied with a derby point against Hartlepool last night despite his side having the lead at half-time. Mark Tinkler's second-half equaliser cancelled out Ian Clark's opener, but the draw extended Quakers
MOBILE phones group Orange is launching a new initiative to target the European business customer. Orange, which employs more than 2,500 in Darlington and 6,000 people at other operations in the region, has vowed to increase its focus on the business
A COLOURFUL parade through the streets of Norton and Malton will be the centrepiece of the towns' golden jubilee celebrations. Norton town councillors are now looking for volunteers to bring forward and implement plans for the national celebration this
PEOPLE in Redcar who may be entitled to financial help towards the cost of childcare are invited to an information session today. It will examine issues surrounding the Working Families Tax Credit and takes place at Rosedene Nursery, The Neighbourhood
PUB chain JD Wetherspoon has confirmed it will be Easter before its newest nightspot opens in Richmond. The company boasted a six per cent rise in sales last October, with other outlets expected to open in Washington, on Wearside, and in Consett, County
TWO rare football programmes are to be sold. The collectables, relating to Newcastle United and Wolverhampton Wanderers, will go under the hammer at the UK's leading sports auctioneer, Mullock Madeley. Produced for a South African tour in 1952, the Magpies
FEUDING neighbours who took their dispute over the right to install new water pipes to London's Court of Appeal were urged to settle their differences yesterday. The water supply to Peter and Jean Childs' home at St John's Chapel, Weardale, County Durham
THE closure of a village newsagents has struck another blow to a Weardale community. Shotley Stores, in Stanhope, closed its doors at the weekend after asking customers to settle their accounts. A customer, who did not wish to be named, said: "This is
FIRST came plastic surgery, then it was the Wonderbra - now the cleavage has a new weapon in the form of a chest expanding gel. Bust Booster has arrived from America with the claim that one drop can boost breasts a full bra size for an entire evening.
A MUSEUM is launching a musical initiative with a concert. Music at the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, will begin at 1pm on Sunday with a programme featuring the award-winning Cadenza male voice choir, from Edinburgh, and a solo by Spanish guitarist Josep
THIS IS a picture of Newton Cap FC in the late-1930s. They competed in the two blues of Bishop Auckland and played on the batts, or on a field by the river. They changed in the Toronto colliery stables - the door behind them has a horseshoe on it. The
FOOTBALLERS from around the North-East will gather today to pay tribute to a popular player who died after a road crash. Edward Sharp lost his fight for life in Newcastle General Hospital a week after his car was involved in an accident near his home,
A Middlesbrough man was last night starting a life sentence after murdering a neighbour in a frenzied knife attack. Simon Jenney, 28, of Meadow View Road, Whinney Banks, was found guilty today (February 20) by a Teesside Crown Court jury of murdering
A TRAIN company has been criticised by the advertising watchdog - after a fed-up passenger challenged its boast that it ran efficient services. Arriva Trains Northern was rapped over the knuckles for misleading claims in a newspaper recruitment advert
SUNDERLAND goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen is tipping new striker Patrick Mboma to become an instant success on Wearside as the team prepares for Sunday's visit of arch-rivals Newcastle United. Mboma, signed on loan until the end of the season from Italian
THOUSANDS of patients are being re-admitted to NHS hospitals as emergency cases weeks after being discharged, Government figures have revealed. Statistics for 2000/2001 show that the situation has "significantly deteriorated", compared with 1999/2000,
It was the epidemic which brought a whole industry to its knees - now, a year on, Nick Morrison looks at how farming is faring after foot-and-mouth. JUST over 12 months ago, David Maughan was feeling pretty optimistic. After four lean years - a combination
TWO teenage girls were attacked by two women as they waited at a bus station, a court heard yesterday. The 17-year-olds were were punched, kicked and bitten by Michelle Heron, 21, and Pauline Carty, 22, at Park Lane bus station, Sunderland, on July 10
PLANS for a chain of lap dancing clubs throughout the North-East will take a step forward this week with the opening of a new club on Teesside. Business partners Chris Neil and Ernie Bennett already own and run the Angels lap-dancing club, in Stockton
Last car day at Dagenham: The mood of workers at Ford's biggest UK plant was said to be "sombre" as they geared up for the final day of car production. The last few Ford Fiestas will leave the production line at the Dagenham plant in Essex today, marking
THE start of 2002 has been a record-breaking one for public sector jobs website, Sector1.net. The site saw a big increase in user traffic amounting to 600,000 page views in January, the largest number recorded since it was launched in November 2000, by
A TINY community centre looks set to be turned into a bungalow despite object- ions from a senior citizens club. The building, in Fabian Road, Eston, is one of many small community facilities dotted around the area, and located in the middle of a housing
AN artist is appealing for local people to give a phone view of Saltburn. Jane Gower, from County Durham, wants to hear from people who live or work in the east Cleveland seaside town, who will give a description of a favourite view from a window in the
The Department of Health has dismissed claims that NHS care for heart patients in the UK was among the worst in the Western world. The Daily Mail yesterday put Britain near the bottom of international league tables for the number of operations such as
FORGET aerobics, jogging and spinning - the best way to stay fit and build up stamina is by learning the art of table dancing. With the launch of the North-East's first pole and table dancing school, the opportunity is open to women across the region.
THOUSANDS of patients are being re-admitted to NHS hospitals as emergency cases weeks after being discharged, Government figures have revealed. Statistics for 2000/2001 show that the situation has "significantly deteriorated", compared with 1999/2000,
A research project has been launched to help the region's manufacturing businesses benefit from defence procurement contracts. Funded by regional development agency One NorthEast, the research has been commissioned by Northern Defence Industries (NDI)
A COUNCILLOR from Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council has been going the extra mile to ensure the safety of some of the older residents of his constituency. Councillor Mark Hannon, who represents the Kirkleatham ward, has distributed a number of personal
One of the main auction marts in North Yorkshire opened its doors yesterday a year after it was closed down because of foot-and-mouth. Northallerton market's first sale was low-key with 34 animals sold - well below the normal run of about 300 beasts a
THE sensational re-discovery of a ceremonial mask of the ancient Egyptian God of Death sparked a frenzy of interest yesterday. Scholars across the world were focusing on events at the Royal Pump Room Museum, in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, where a unique
THE seedier side of Pierremont Crescent was beginning to show through by October 1996. The genteel Victorian villas were being broken up into flats rented by Darlington's growing student population - an island of bedsit-land among the 19th Century grandeur
What is the greatest - and very possibly proudest - achievement of Mike Neville? Almost alone among North-East TV presenters, he has evaded all attempts to press him into the Great North Run. For let's face it, if Mike did run, it would be his not-quite-trim
THE mother of a pregnant woman killed in one of the most horrific crimes ever perpetrated in the North-East last night angrily attacked a decision to cut the murderers' sentences. Sylvia Jobson said that the teenagers who murdered her daughter, Lesley
NSK Steering Systems Europe is transferring part of its manufacturing operations from Coventry to the North-East. The transfer will create 138 new jobs in Peterlee, whilst putting 260 jobs at risk in Coventry. However, non-production activities, including
A Middlesbrough night-club owner who once wined and dined Charlie Kray has thrown his hat into the ring in a bid to become the town's first elected mayor. But Barry Faulkner, 53, declared yesterday "I'm no gangster" when asked about his links to the notorious
THE father of a toddler who was knocked down and killed by an icecream van, stormed out of a County Durham inquest yesterday. Freddie Thompson, whose two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Billie, died on June 29 last year, reacted angrily to the verdict of
A public meeting in the North-East will form part of the Government's Lessons to be Learned inquiry into the foot-and-mouth crisis. Chairman of the inquiry Dr Ian Anderson will visit County Durham and Northumberland between March 5 and 6 to see how badly
THE farming community took another important step towards normality yesterday after more business returned to the region's cattle marts. A year to the day after Barnard Castle Auction Mart shut because of foot-and-mouth, farmers yesterday gathered to
FORMER benefits agency director, Val Curran, has been appointed as the director of the new JobCentre Plus North-East. Jobcentre Plus was set up by the Department of Work and Pensions as a merger of the former Employment Service and Benefits Agency, aimed
MORE than 600 jobs will be on offer next week when a work fair is staged in east Durham. The full and part-time call centre posts will be up for grabs at a jobs fair on Thursday, February 28, at Peterlee's East Durham and Houghall Community College. The
YOUNGSTERS are enjoying the benefits of their school winning an award, by being presented with bookmarks and stickers. The keepsakes are to celebrate Cockton Hill Infant School in Bishop Auckland being awarded the Quality Mark by the Basic Skills Agency
AMONG this column's more lamentable failings is an almost complete inability to tell its Carroll from its Lear, its Jabberwocky from its Jumblies. It was the Jabberwock, for example, which came whiffling through the tulgey wood and burbled as it came.
A CRUCIAL advice service for disabled people is being closed down because of funding cuts, disappointed organisers said yesterday. The Scarborough and District Disablement action group, which has been operating since 1995, will fold at the end of this
HAPPY Birthday Cosmo! Cosmopolitan Magazine, the British version, is 30 this year. It's been part of our lives for so long that it's hard for a lot of people to remember what life was like before it. Grim. Apart from the brilliant mould-breaking Nova
AMONG this column's more lamentable failings is an almost complete inability to tell its Carroll from its Lear, its Jabberwocky from its Jumblies. It was the Jabberwock, for example, which came whiffling through the tulgey wood and burbled as it came.
THE chairman of the new Sedgefield Primary Care Trust (PCT) has said he believes the group can provide a quality service to the people of the borough. The PCT, which will come into being on April 1, will have powers to employ people and own property.
AN inquest jury has watched harrowing video film footage of the last hours of the life of a petty criminal found hanged in his police cell. The court was cleared after relatives of the man, George Rudd, 30, had requested to see the close circuit television
DRUG-making equipment was found on the ground floor of a blazing terraced house. Crews went into the inferno, in Talbot Street, Middlesbrough, which was so intense the plaster on the walls melted in the heat, a ceiling collapsed and flames shot a metre
A FORMER champion bodybuilder was secretly recorded by an undercover police officer as he spilled the beans on his drug dealing and his infidelity. A jury at Teesside Crown Court yesterday listened through headphones to the months of secretly-taped conversations
DEMONSTRATORS gathered in Billingham yesterday to protest at plans to demolish the town's theatre and replace it with a supermarket. Stockton Borough Council wants to pull down Billingham Forum - which incorporates a theatre, ice rink and swimming pool
HEALTH Secretary Alan Milburn will take no comfort from the latest hospital performance tables. They show that the number of patients re-admitted to hospitals has increased significantly. And they also show that "bed blocking", caused by elderly patients
A NORTH Yorkshire school will be looking to a new era when work starts on a long-awaited extension next month. As much as £650,000 will be spent on a new classroom block at Northallerton College - with students promised 21st Century facilities once the
IN an age when many teenagers are strangers to duty, 17-year-old William Oliver is preparing to take his place beside the County Durham Lord Lieutenant to welcome the Queen to the North-East. The determined student from south Stanley has been bestowed
A young woman died after taking an overdose of prescription drugs, an inquest heard yesterday. The inquest, in Durham, heard that Claire Barnes, 23, of Berwick Close, Peterlee, County Durham, had previously suffered from depression and had tried to harm
Masters Of Darkness (C4) - PENSIONER Dot was worried about her honeymoon night with new husband Jim in EastEnders last week, but she should be thankful she didn't marry Aleister Crowley, the man dubbed "the wickedest man in England" by the press in his
HAPPY Birthday Cosmo! Cosmopolitan Magazine, the British version, is 30 this year. It's been part of our lives for so long that it's hard for a lot of people to remember what life was like before it. Grim. Apart from the brilliant mould-breaking Nova
