MINISTERS were accused of contempt for the North-East yesterday after failing to show up to a Commons debate about the region’s jobs crisis. Labour MPs were furious when a junior government whip, rather than a minister, was sent to answer a debate
A MAN was taken to hospital with neck and shoulder injuries after the car he was driving overturned last night. The accident happened at about 8.15pm on Elstob Lane, about half a mile from Great Stainton, near Darlington, on the road towards Sedgefield
FINAL preparations are being made to Gainford's forthcoming Big Weekend celebrations. The annual two-day event, which has an Olympics theme, will start on Saturday afternoon with a sports day and replica Olympic torch relay ceremony on the village
Matt Westcott talks to Andy Marfleet of Dunlop about how they can help a driver get the best out of his car ALL cars racing in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race on Dunlop tyres. These four pieces of rubber have to be able to
CUSTOMERS at NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland have been hit by technical hitches resulting in balances not have being updated and some online services becoming inaccessible. The group apologised to customers for the problems, which began on Wednesday
THREE of the UK's banks could be facing credit rating cuts in a move which will stretch lenders' already tight finances, reports have said. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays are all in line for a downgrade by ratings agency
BRITAIN is being taken to court by The European Commission over a battle about an unpaid bill of millions of pounds in duty on imports of garlic. The commission announced legal action yesterday after an ultimatum to pay £15m to Brussels or face action
DEFENCE manufacturer BAE Systems has won a £500m deal to build and upgrade armoured vehicles for the Norwegian army. The contract includes 74 infantry models along with 15 for command vehicles and 16 engineering vehicles. The work will be carried out
A GYM chain has been saved from going into administration - but is set to sell three of its branches in the region as part of the rescue plan. Fitness First is selling its Stockton, Newcastle and York centres as part of the firm's company voluntary arrangement
Motor racing drivers can be a temperamental bunch, prone to mood swings and the odd irrational outburst. But Louise Goodman takes all that in her stride. Matt Westcott talks to the ITV motorsport reporter who doesn’t think twice about pushing her
Reigning Dunlop MSA British Touring Car champion, Matt Neal, already has three titles to his name, but his desire for a fourth burns bright. However, if he is forced to relinquish the championship, there’s only one man he wants to see succeed him
"ECONOMIC violence" was used by senior managers at the Royal Bank of Scotland to win city backing for the bank's ill-fated expansion, according to a North-East study. The research, by Newcastle University Business School and Leicester University,
JOBS have been created at a motorway service station after the owners announced they are to recruit 50 new employees for a new fast food outlet. Roadchef is to open a McDonald's at its Durham service station on the A1(M) in August and is recruiting
A £50M fund has been created to help boost small and medium sized businesses in the North-East. Glen Callander has been appointed to manage the credit facility, designed to ease cash flow problems for North-East SMEs, on behalf of Hitachi Capital Invoice
Ian Harrison is the Durham-born managing director of Triple Eight Race Engineering, the most successful team in British Touring Car history. His experience as manager of the Williams F1 team has proved invaluable to this cause. Now behind the newly
THE opening of the 130th Hoppings funfair on the Town Moor in Newcastle has been postponed due to heavy rain. Trucks and rides have already arrived on the site, but the nine day event is under review for health and safety reasons. In a statement issued
JASON PLATO says he is proud of the way his team has worked around the clock to make him a championship challenger, but warned his rivals that he is still not happy with his car. Plato, driving for the MG KX Momentum Racing outfit, led the
CROFT Circuit’s Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship weekend is just the tip of the iceberg in what is turning into one of the venue’s busiest calendars in recent history. Without doubt, the BTCC is the circuit’s jewel in the crown in
THIEVES made off with a safe after breaking in through the front door of a betting shop in Bishop Auckland town centre. Staff at Ladbrokes, in Saddler Street, discovered the branch had been targeted by crooks overnight on Wednesday and reported it to
PLANS to introduce parking wardens in five south Durham towns are one step nearer after councillors agreed the financial details. On-street parking in Bishop Auckland, Shildon, Barnard Castle, Spennymoor and Newton Aycliffe is currently monitored and
HERE in Soapland we are all in favour of safe driving. No getting behind the wheel for Rodney after a few pints at the Woolpack. And no jobs as a getaway driver for Fill the Fug after supping at the Queen Vic. I’m not saying anything about women
MAJOR regeneration plans, which include a controversial £1.3m suspension bridge, will help to shape Barnard Castle in the future, councillors have agreed. The proposals aim to recognise the historical and architectural importance of the town and prospects
A MP has visited the DurhamGate project to view the work of apprentices working on the site. Helen Goodman, the Labour MP, headed to the site being built on the former Black and Decker plot, in Spennymoor. The DurhamGate project involves developing
A FREE microchipping service is being offered to pet owners living across the south Durham area. Durham County Council neighbourhood wardens has organised the event with support from the Safe Durham Partnership. Richard Brown, the council’s neighbourhood
Mock The Week (BBC2, 10pm) Playhouse Presents: Psychobitches (Sky Arts 1, 9pm) Live at the Electric (BBC Three, 9.30pm) IT is hard to believe that Mock The Week has been running so long. When the first episode aired in June 2005
THERE are some challenges in life that just have to be faced – and the Lads versus Dads football match was one of them. My 18-year-old son Jack and his mates have become cockier as the years have gone by and they thought the idea of a five-a-side
AS an ex-serviceman, I am appalled at the treatment being handed out to members of the Armed Services who face having to wait five years longer for their pensions (Echo, June 18). We didn’t get much of a pension, but at least we got it. Surely
I DON’T spend beyond what I can afford and I keep a watch on my incoming and outgoing monies. I am fortunate because I have a good standard of living. There are of course others who have difficulty achieving the socially acceptable standard of
I NOTICED that, apart from a brief mention that Shildon Band were playing at Middridge, Shildon was virtually omitted from the report about the Olympic torch relay (Echo, June 18). I have noticed however that you do seem to focus on nearly all
DARLINGTON Borough Council’s leader Bill Dixon has not been selected as Labour’s candidate for the newly created police commissioner’s post (Echo, June 16). He therefore lost out on the £85,000 salary that comes with the job. Bad news indeed
I AM sick of driving about on bone-crunching-roads, especially after paying thousands of pounds for more than 40 years in road tax to keep them in good condition. My car is not yet a year old and already I am beginning to worry about the suspension
I LIKE to feed the birds and the other night I put some left overs of shepherd’s pie out in the garden for them to eat. The following morning, I ventured out the back to see if they had enjoyed the feast I had left for them, only to find it untouched
I TOTALLY disagree with Robin Cook (HAS, June 18) and I hope that Stephen Dixon’s letters continue to appear in Hear All Sides. Mr Cook appears to be uninvolved in politics and this, combined with his noble backing of the Coalition’s performance
FROM superstar comedian, entertaining the Queen, to the nation’s number one “morally repugnant” tax-dodger – that sums up Jimmy Carr’s week. The funnyman found himself on the front page, named-and-shamed in a fantastic Times expose for sheltering
THE football club formerly known as Darlington FC last night asked fans to help choose a new name after an unprecedented punishment by the Football Association. Club officials had hoped a plea for leniency would see the Quakers allowed to keep
BELIEVE it or not, there are people still moaning about the England football team. We’ve played three games in Euro 2012. We’ve won two and drawn one. We’re top of our group. We’re in the quarter-finals. And yet we keep hearing that: the players
If you can’t run with the Olympic Torch, how else do you get to be at the centre of the action. The Northern Echo’s Ashley Barnard spent the day as a volunteer crowd control steward as the relay made its way through the region yesterday WHEN it was
A COMMUNITY centre’s long-term future could be secured under a charity takeover deal. Committee members at Framwellgate Moor community centre, in Durham, have held talks about their Victorian facility, on Front Street, Framwellgate Moor, with officials
Morning Readers! I hope you've all had a fantastic week. I've had a great week food wise and have lost 2lb but I am disappointed with my results this week. I know I always say that anything between 1-2lb a week is brilliant and also the healthy way
ANIMAL wardens are keen to trace the owner of a very poorly young dog left at a depot in Darlington. The stray dog was handed in at the Vicarage Road depot yesterday lunchtime, by a man who told staff he had found it in a shed on the Lascelles estate
THE Quakers have lost their appeal to the Football Association (FA) over its decision to place the club in the Northern League. The ruling means the club will be prevented from playing in national FA competitions next season and must now change
CONTROVERSIAL plans that could see a 4,000sq metre supermarket built in the centre of Darlington would have a damaging impact on independent businesses, traders have warned. A campaign was this morning launched against the idea of a supermarket
A MAN’S body has been found by a resident in a parked car in a small village on the edge of the Howardian Hills. North Yorkshire Police has launched an investigation following what police described as “a sudden death” in Huttons Ambo, near Malton.
PROPOSALS to axe GCSEs and return to an O-level style exams will ensure an education system that compares with most rigorous in the world, Michael Gove told MPs. The Education Secretary denied claims from critics that the plans would create a two-tier
MINISTERS vowed to plough ahead with preparations for lower local pay for North-East nurses, teachers and civil servants yesterday – scotching rumours that the policy had been dumped. The Government came out fighting, after several days during
A MAN’S body has been found by a resident in a parked car in a small village on the edge of the Howardian Hills. North Yorkshire Police has launched an investigation following what police described as “a sudden death” in Huttons Ambo, near Malton. The
TWO drivers have been treated in hospital for serious leg injuries after a four-vehicle pile-up on a rural road. The crash happened west of Thirsk, on the A167, one mile from Busby Stoop roundabout, near Breckenbrough Hall School at 5.30pm on Tuesday
A MAN has died after being hit by a train at Northallerton station at 9.47am this morning, in what is believed to be suicide. British Transport Police arrived at the Boroughbridge Road station just after 9am, and North Yorkshire Police and North Yorkshire
It's easy to imagine the frantic discussions that were held between tax-dodging Jimmy Carr and his public relations advisers this morning. "Look, Jimmy, this isn't playing out at all well. Don't turn it into a gag - just hold your hands up,
GPs across the region will today refuse to join industrial action by the British Medical Association, saying they cannot let their patients down. A survey of surgeries by The Northern Echo revealed that the majority will be unaffected by today
A NORTH-EAST museum has been awarded £1m to safeguard its financial sustainability during the next four years. The Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle, received the money from the Catalysts Endowments programme to build an endowment fund to underpin
A TORTURE victim was forced to clean up her own blood after being beaten black and blue during an horrific hour-long ordeal. The woman suffered 57 separate injuries in what a judge described as “a vicious, sustained and humiliating attack”
THE patriotic crowds greeting the torch for the last leg of its North-East journey created a carnival atmosphere that was compared, by many, to a national event in London. People started lining the streets of Barnard Castle long before the
A RANGE of stringent licensing conditions for youth party events will be enforced in a North-East town after a teenage party held in one venue got out of hand. The incident at The Grange, in Darlington, happened over February half term, when a
COMMUNITY hospitals will be sent to the wall by the Government’s private-sector led NHS shake-up, the Government was warned last night. Tom Blenkinsop, the Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, raised the alarm about the future
NEWCASTLE UNITED are among a growing number of clubs keeping an eye on Swedish striker John Guidetti's situation at Manchester City. Guidetti is expected to be given permission to spend a second season out on loan from the Etihad Stadium and
A COUPLE facing up to 20 years in prison have lost an appeal to stop them being extradited to the US where they will face drugs charges. Brian Howes and his estranged wife, Kerry Ann, are accused of supplying chemicals to crystal meth dealers
BRISTOL CITY are pressing ahead with plans to add to their defence but Middlesbrough's Stephen McManus is by no means certain to head back to Ashton Gate. The Robins remain interested in the Scotland international but Boro are yet to receive an offer
MARTIN ONEILL has been urged to follow up tentative interest in Louis Saha before the former Manchester United striker finalises a move elsewhere this summer. Saha has hinted he is more than willing to consider a move to the Stadium of Light after being
UNLIKE the majority of the British athletics community former Olympic silver medallist Steve Cram has not been surprised by Ross Murray's meteoric rise from London 2012 nobody to Games shoo-in. But the Jarrow Arrow has warned the Wallsend youngster his
