TOP PUB: A Hartlepool pub has been named one of the best real ale establishments in the region.

Rat Race Ale House, at Hartlepool Station, is in the UK’s best 150 Local Real Ale Pubs listings, published by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), and was named one of the top ten in the Yorkshire region. It will now go forward with a chance of winning national pub of the year, announced next February.

CHEMISTRY SUCCESS: Students from Prior Pursglove College in Guisborough have won gold and silver in a prestigious chemistry contest.

Ian Warren and Matthew Ball won gold while Raza Hussain and David Norman clinched silver honours in the Chemistry Olympiad, which involved 4,000 students from across the UK taking part in a two-hour exam at their own colleges.

VINTAGE BUSES: The annual Teesside Bus Vintage Running Day takes place on Sunday April 21 at the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough.

The event, organised by the 500 Group, which promotes an interest in historic transport, will involve painstakingly-restored vintage buses completing routes around the area. All buses involved used to operate in Teesside and the North-East between the 1950s and 1990s.

Passengers will be carried to Stockton Bridge Road and Yarm Town Hall and return via three different routes, all calling at Middlesbrough Bus Station stand 13 and the Transporter Bridge as the terminus.

For more information visit www.500group.org.uk or phone (01642) 782796.

SHOPS PLAN: Consultation is about to start on plans to replace the burned-out units at Eaglescliffe’s Orchard Shops on Durham Lane.

The 21-day period of consultation will start as soon as the application is rubber-stamped by Stockton Borough Council. Residents can make their views known by visiting the council’s planning portal website and quoting reference 13/0791/FUL.

Local councillor Phil Dennis urged residents to comment on the plans, whether they were in favour or objecting.

GAGA NIGHT: A night of live music, dancing and food is taking place in aid of charity on Friday, April 12 in Hartlepool.

The Chairman Goes GaGa dinner is at the Grand Hotel at 7pm with a performance by a Lady GaGa tribute act, a four-course meal and disco.

The money raised will go to seven local charities which Hartlepool Council Chairman Councillor Stephen Akers-Belcher has chosen to support.

Tickets for the show cost £22 each. To book call 01429 523704 / 523702.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: Locals are being asked to help carry out a survey of Hartlepool’s Grade II listed buildings.

Hartlepool Council and Tees Archaeology have been chosen by, and are being funded by, English Heritage to lead a volunteer survey of 187 Grade II listed buildings in the borough.

Volunteers will be giving full training to record information by looking at the properties from the outside.

Once the surveys have all been completed, the results will be assessed to determine the condition of the buildings and a report will be produced on the findings.

For more information contact Sarah Scarr on 01429 523275 or email landscape.planning@hartlepool.gov.uk Alternatively, people can register as a volunteer at www.volunteerhartlepool.gov.uk

MAYOR’S CONCERT: Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council Mayor Denise Bunn is holding a charity concert at St Nicholas’ Church Hall in Guisborough on Wednesday, April 17 from 7.30pm.

The concert features the Cleveland Police Band and the White Rose Singers and is in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support Tees Valley, the Redcar Branch of the Parkinson’s Disease Society and Saltburn Animal Rescue Association.

Tickets are £5 and are available from tourist information centres in Redcar and Saltburn, Greensleeves Music Shop in Guisborough and Kirkleatham Museum, near Redcar.

Ticket information is also available from Jane Holmes on 01642-444501 or email: jane.holmes@Redcar-cleveland.gov.uk