MOTORISTS are being warned that a chunk of the Great North Road will be closed to traffic overnight during the next two weekends. The closure of the A1, in both directions, between Dishforth and Leeming is to allow the Highways Agency to lift
A MAN has been fined after admitting stealing 100 charity bags belonging to the Great North Air Ambulance (GNAA). Wayne Birbeck was working as a charity collector when he was stopped by police who spotted him picking up the bags in Redcar last December
A SCAFFOLDER who fell from the third floor of an 18th century building remains in a serious condition. The Great North Air Ambulance were called to Firby Hall, near Bedale, North Yorkshire, at around 3pm on Tuesday afternoon following a report
A PROLIFIC thief has been banned from all shops in County Durham as part of a criminal anti-social behaviour order (Crasbo). Police say Gareth Palfrey, of Davis Avenue, St Helen Auckland, County Durham, has admitted to over 15 shop thefts in the region
NORTH-EAST businesses are helping to buy a new emergency helicopter by competing in a new team event. Entrants in the Teesdale Team Challenge taking place near Barnard Castle in May will contribute to a £1m appeal by the Great North Air Ambulance (
JAZZ musicians from two schools staged a charity concert to help hospice patients. Barnard Castle School and neighbouring Teesdale School raised more than £1,400 for St Cuthbert’s Hospice in Durham. Thirty two musicians played to a full house at Barnard
Inmates at a high-security prison have ''gold-plated expectations'' surrounding healthcare and the service they receive ''is probably above that which an individual could expect in the community'', a report revealed today. Prisoners at HMP Full Sutton
POLICE are appealing for witnesses after more than £150 of damage was caused to a community centre at the weekend. Two windows were smashed at Trimdon Village Hall, Wynyard Road, Trimdon Village, between 10pm on Friday March 26 and 9am on Saturday March
CAMPAIGNERS have spoken of their dismay after it emerged Crook may not get its town council until 2013. After collecting hundreds of signatures for its creation, members of the Crook Town Council Steering Group say the project has been hit by frustrating
TWO days after one of the biggest horse racing fixtures of the year- The Grand National- all eyes will switch from Aintree to a North-East racecourse. It may not have the glamour or big-money competitors of the National but the Sedgefield Racecourse
AN acclaimed mountaineer will outline the exploits of one of the pioneers of Antarctic exploration in a public lecture next month. Stephen Venables, the first Briton to climb Everest without supplementary oxygen, presents the illustrated talk: ‘In the
AN advice charity that for half a century has helped people with a host of problems is scaling back its services. Sedgefield and District Citizens Advice Bureau has been forced to make cuts due to rising running costs. The CAB is facing increasing demand
POLICE are trying to track down a fraudster who claims he works for them when he targets jewellery shops. The conman has been contacting jewellers in York and claiming he works for the police. He then tries to persuade them to make a
HILDA RICHARDSON is searching for information on her first cousin. He was Driver Robert Johnson, service number 229428, whose granite headstone is in the churchyard of St Mary's Church, Coxhoe, County Durham. The Commonwealth War Graves
MOTORISTS are being warned that a chunk of the Great North Road will be closed to traffic overnight during the next two weekends. The closure of the A1, in both directions, between Dishforth and Leeming is to allow the Highways Agency to lift
THE hunt for missing woman Mandy Bishop was extended yesterday as a team of expert divers was called in. A police underwater search team entered the river near her home as fears continued to rise for the safety of the 34-year-old. Mandy has not been
A CHRISTIAN charity’s plans to convert a house for multiple occupancy in east Durham community will be placed under the spotlight next week. The British Israel World Federation proposes to turn Hardwick House in Hardwick Street, Horden, into seven separate
TWO thieves took along an unusual accomplice for company - a distinctive dog. The large Weimaraner, which was originally bred as a hunting dog and has a very striking appearance, was out for walkies with the pair in the early hours when they stole
WHERE the parties to a contract agree that in the event of a breach, the contract breaker will pay the other a specified sum of money, the sum fixed may be classified by the courts either as a penalty (which is irrecoverable) or as liquidated damages
DAVID CAMERON says he’s ready for the job, Gordon Brown should have been ready for it before he took the role – he was waiting long enough – and Nick Clegg has more than just a wait on his hands. Of course, the job I’m talking about is Prime
A hundred years after Smith’s Dock was built, the search is on for the men and women who made the proud ships that sailed down the River Tees. ONE hundred years ago The Northern Echo was in full flow, words of history gushing from the pen of
VAN hire company Northgate yesterday announced further high-level changes to its management board, following the departure of its founder and managing director last week. Steve Smith, chief executive of Darlington-based Northgate, is standing
WORK has begun on the creation of a £25m green energy factory, which will make the world’s biggest turbine blades and could lead to the creation of 3,000 jobs. The Clipper Windpower factory, on Newcastle’s Walker Riverside, will be Britain’s
EUROPE’S largest open air theatre is to be officially opened by a senior member of the Royal family, it was announced yesterday. The identity has not been revealed but he or she will officially open Scarborough’s new-look, 6,500-seat Open Air Theatre
A REFINERY which would mark the single biggest investment ever made on Teesside remains on track despite the deafening silence around the project, developers have insisted. Plans for the creation of the £2bn Sonhoe crude oil upgrader were unveiled
A NORTH-EAST agency has won two contracts with transport operator Nexus. Beating off competition from eight rival digital design agencies across the UK, Orange Bus has clinched two tenders to overhaul Nexus’ website as it looks to apply new
INVESTMENT in new electronic production technology is helping to boost jobs and diversify the product range of a County Durham manufacturing company. As part of a six-figure investment programme, Seaward has installed sophisticated surface mount
AN innovative North-East business has won a series of significant contracts and is looking at increasing its rate of growth and expanding overseas. The Test Factory, which provides online assessment solutions, has won deals with national and
POLITICAL parties must put the North-East economy at the heart of all their pre-election pledges to ensure recovery continues unabated, a survey of regional businesses has revealed. On the day that Parliament was dissolved ahead of a May 6 election
A COMMERCIAL dispute expert who began as a trainee at law firm Dickinson Dees has taken over as senior partner, following the departure of his predecessor. John Marshall, head of the commercial disputes group at Dickinson Dees, was elected to the
A MAN who spent his career having to organise his life around work has now turned the tables by becoming his own boss. Graeme Atkinson has set up Dene Cottage Decorators, building on the experience of more than 13 years of working in a factory
AN engineering company which originally planned to make more than 60 redundancies has managed to save some of the at-risk jobs after winning new work, The Northern Echo can reveal. Darchem had planned to make 65 job cuts at its plant in the Tees
Cracking Antiques (BBC2, 8.30pm) The Edible Garden (BBC2, 8pm) Bruce Forsyth: A Comedy Roast (C4, 10pm) ANY series with the word “antiques” in the title faces being compared to the long-running Antiques Roadshow. In Cracking Antiques, interior
SINCE the credit crunch bit hard, fewer families are going away together and are instead making do with day trips and weekends away, say researchers for the Department for Work and Pensions. They also found that large expensive toys, fashion clothes
IT is not often I agree with the Tories, but City of Durham Conservative Jim Bell wrote to point out that some Liberal Democrat leaflets in the constituency contain some of “the most negative and personal attacks on their political opponents” he
A wedding breakfast at the Co-op and a beggar woman found dead with £4,000 sewn into the lining of her clothes. HOWEVER roundabout the route, reference a couple of weeks back to Shanks Pony, prompts Peter Jefferies in Durham to recall that music
YOUR article about ten-minute cycling zones to schools in Darlington (Echo, some editions, April 3) made me laugh. I bet the borough council’s Local Motion team officers didn’t cycle to school with a few children in tow. My youngest child is only
IT is very easy to have negative thoughts about the General Election, which was finally confirmed for May 6 by the Prime Minister yesterday. This is destined to be an unprecedented election in terms of the low esteem in which politicians are held
A GENERAL Election is a strange affair. It centres on a band of (largely) selfseeking individuals canvassing the support of decent folk, to pursue their own agendas for the next four or five years, generally indifferent to the wishes of the decent
CONSERVATIVE leader David Cameron has said he is flattered by the Labour Party poster depicting him as Gene Hunt. I bet he is. As many female fans will know, Gene Hunt, the tough, uncompromising detective in the BBC 1 television series Ashes
TORY parliamentary candidate for Darlington Edward Legard claims the proposed National Insurance (NI) contributions increase will take “£95m out of the Tees Valley economy” (HAS, April 3). He clearly has no grasp of economics. It is blindingly
RE Tony Blair’s visit last week to the North-East (Echo, March 31). Mr Blair laid the foundation stone at the Pioneering Care Centre at Newton Aycliffe back in 1998 and said he was proud of the success at the community facility – and rightly so
RE Durham County Council’s change in free travel – from tokens to bus passes – for pensioners in the Wear Valley area. Why could it not stop as it was, so that people could choose which was suitable for them? I am 74 and the wife is 71. We are
A CAMPAIGN to reduce accidents and road deaths caused by older drivers is to use a comedy play to drive home it message to motorists. The Urban Rodeo play is being brought to the region by the 95 Alive the York and North Yorkshire Road Safety Partnership
COPPER thieves risked people's lives by leaving live power lines dangling from lamp posts, police warned today. This morning's alert followed a spate of thefts of copper overheads from street lighting in the Coundon and Leeholme area, near
CSKA Moscow 0 Inter Milan 1 (Inter win 2-0 on aggregate) JOSE MOURINHO’S Inter Milan reached the last four of the Champions League for the first time since 2003 as they eased to a 2-0 aggregate victory in Moscow. Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder
A CHARITY that works with young people in north Durham is tomorrow hosting an open day so people can share their memories of the past. Consett YMCA will involve current members of its youth forum and older people talking about their experiences of the
The polls point towards a hung parliament. Political editor Chris Lloyd explains some of the mathematics and politics behind the 2010 Election In 2005 LABOUR won a 66 seat overall majority. It had 66 seats more than all the
Barcelona 4 Arsenal 1(Barcelona win 6-3 on aggregate) LIONEL MESSI lived up to his billing as the best player in the world with four goals to end Arsenal’s Champions League dream in the Nou Camp. Nicklas Bendtner had fired the Gunners
ALAN SWINBANK’S Ella can resume winning ways in the Ted Thompson 81st Birthday Handicap at Catterick. The six-year-old mare was winless from four attempts last season and starts this campaign off exactly the same mark as the last one. She ended
Tomorrow and Friday (US unless stated, all times BST) (x) denotes amateurs 1240 Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus (honorary starters) 1312 and 1619 Ian Woosnam (Gbr), Brian Gay, Marc Leishman (Aus) 1323 and 1630 Bernhard Langer (Ger), Scott Verplank
A DISAPPOINTING final PMQs as the party leaders are now too entrenched to generate anything other than noise. David Cameron choose to rattle through several of the most serious charges he has levied against Gordon Brown - lack of equipment for our armed
ERNIE ELS, Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington and Vijay Singh have their own little battle going on entering The Masters – to be regarded as the second best player in the Tiger Woods era. Woods, of course, is going for his 15th major at Augusta
ENGLAND captain Andrew Strauss has insisted Graeme Swann’s arrest on suspicion of drink-driving will not cost the Nottinghamshire off-spinner his place in the national team. Swann, England’s premier slow bowler, was stopped as he returned to his
YORKSHIRE can figure in the hunt for trophies this summer, according to England all-rounder Tim Bresnan. The White Rose county start their summer with a County Championship clash against Warwickshire at Edgbaston on Friday, with many tipping
STEVE HARMISON intends to use Durham’s bid for a third successive County Championship title to force his way into the England squad that travels to Australia this winter. The paceman believes that despite emerging talent such as Middlesex bowler
IRISH hotshot Tadhg Purcell has told Darlington he will listen to any contract offer – but only at the end of the season. The striker is a free agent in the summer and claims to have already turned down the opportunity to begin talks over his
AFTER three games out Gary Liddle returned to the Hartlepool United side refreshed and back to form last weekend. The central defender was forced out with a groin injury, but he returned to the heart of defence for last weekend’s win at Orient
AN ALLOTMENT club has celebrated its first six months with a spring fest. East Durham College set up the Houghall Allotment Club at its Houghall campus, near Durham, in September, after receiving a grant from the Government’s Transformation Fund for
GARY O’NEIL could head a list of six senior players leaving Middlesbrough if the club fails to win promotion to the Premier League this season. O’Neil’s future was plunged into doubt on Monday when financial motives led to his omission from the
SUNDERLAND defender Anton Ferdinand does not believe the club can regard themselves as the region’s top dogs until they dominate Wear-Tyne rivalries for the next four to five years. His view may not chime with the majority of Sunderland supporters
THE family of a former council leader who has died at the age of 67 have vowed to continue his fight against care home closures. Albert Nugent, who served as the leader of Durham County Council from May 2006 to May 2008, died at home in Seaham
CHRIS HUGHTON has earned the right to lead Newcastle in the Premier League according to goalkeeper Steve Harper. The club stalwart hailed the manager for uniting the dressing room in the aftermath of last season’s relegation when morale at
A GREAT-GRANDMOTHER said to have made the region’s best black pudding celebrated her 100th birthday yesterday with a cake made from the breakfast favourite. Hannah Coulson made blood sausages for Grieves’ butchers, in Trimdon Colliery, County Durham
SKATERS have been raising money for injured soldiers. Nineteen fundraisers skated round Durham City’s temporary ice rink in aid of the Help for Heroes charity. They skated three minutes for every British soldier killed in the current Afghanistan conflict
DAVID CAMERON warned that the Conservatives had a “mountain to climb” to win back power as the closest General Election campaign for a generation got under way yesterday. Despite poll leads of up to ten points, the Tory leader said his party faced
POLICE have swooped on a furniture store to seize a huge stone willy after it was branded indecent. Owner Jason Hadlow, who said the action was overzealous, must pay an £80 fine to reclaim the unusual garden ornament. He was fined after the
A MOTHER was stabbed to death by her former husband as she prepared to hold a divorce party in their marital home, a court heard yesterday. Brian Jones, 63, is said to have begged Katrina Jones, 34, not to go ahead with the celebration a month
A SEX offender who has been on the run for nearly a year has been arrested after an investigation by The Northern Echo brought his identity to light. Suraj Shyani Wijekoon had been missing from his home in Middlesbrough since last June, despite
One of the good things about working in the regional press is that no one ever tells you which political slant to take. Unlike the editors of the Sun or the Mirror, I don't have bosses telling me which political horse I have to back - and it's nothing
DETECTIVES hunting the killer of a village postmistress say they have concluded forensic examinations of her home. Officers investigating the death of 40-year-old Diana Garbutt are continuing to carry out door-to-door inquiries in her home village
A TERRIER that won worldwide fame for his habit of hopping on a bus to go to the pub has died. Jack Russell Ratty used to wander from his home at Dunnington, near York, and jump on a bus for solo trips to his favourite hostelry. The tenyear
POLICE have stepped up their hunt for missing woman Mandy Bishop as fears grow for her safety. The 34-year-old, of Bishopgate Street in the Skeldergate area of York, was reported missing by a family friend at 1pm on Saturday. However it is believed
