A consultation exercise begins this week to explain how a multi-million pound investment will help council house tenants. Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council owns 12,000 homes in the area and hopes to transfer the care and maintenance of its housing
ALICE Grant had been a quiet, hard-working, house-proud mother who devoted her life to her three children. The contrast between the 84-year-old and the woman who killed her, a woman repeatedly accused in court of laziness, lying and callousness, could
NOLBERTO Solano has finally allayed doubts about his future by signing a new five-year contract with Newcastle United. The Peruvian winger, dogged by controversy in recent months, had spoken of his desire to play for Real Madrid and also been linked with
A MAN received hospital treatment for suspected broken legs and burns to his body after he jumped from his blazing flat. The man plunged from the first floor of a three storey end terrace bedsit, on Borough Road, Middlesbrough, to escape a serious fire
ONE of Durham City's best known jewellery shops will change hands later this summer. Blacklock Jewellers opened on Elvet Bridge 17 years ago but will be taken over by a new owner next month. The owner, Ralph Blacklock, has decided to concentrate on the
A FORMER councillor-turned-businessman is accused of manslaughter, following the death of an employee. John Elders, 48, appeared at Teesside Magistrates' Court to face three allegations relating to the death of Stanley Dawson, 50. Mr Dawson, of Huxley
A COUNSELLING centre for victims of rape and sexual abuse has launched a new website with the help of The Northern Echo. Organisers hope that the Internet presence of the Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre, in Darlington, will help raise awareness
AMATEUR painter Annette McKinnon had no idea her efforts would cause a stir when she took them into a County Durham art shop. But sharp-eyed art businessman Ron O'Keefe knew better when he first spotted the pastel landscapes and woodland scenes created
new housing, planning and regeneration minister Sally Keeble made her first visit to the North-East yesterday. The MP visited Hartlepool and Middlesbrough to see how regeneration and housing projects are working with community groups to tackle the problems
PUBLICANS could pay for extra police patrols to cut down on drink-related crime. Club and pub managers are in talks with police on Teesside over funding more police on the beat on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. The officers would focus on the concentration
THE first inspection of Darlington Borough Council's education department has revealed that its strengths outweigh its weaknesses. Inspectors from the Government's Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) spent three weeks in the town earlier this year
FUNDRAISERS across the North-East are getting together to raise money for a boy with a rare type of brain tumour. Eight-year-old Elliott Lamb, of Marsden, near South Shields, Tyneside, suffers from a condition which causes him to have up to ten epileptic
A 14-year-old North-East girl who was missing for three weeks has been found. Police in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, were becoming increasingly concerned for the welfare of Kirsty Richardson, who had not been seen by her immediate family since May
CYCLING enthusiasts are being urged to get on their bikes for a coastal ride. The Cleveland and Middlesbrough branch of the Leukaemia Research Fund is teaming up with Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council's Town Centre Management for Redcar's third Seaside
STEEL company Corus is advertising for recruits in the same week as more than 230 of its workers are losing their jobs. The firm is publicising manufacturing and engineering vacancies at its Skinningrove plant, in east Cleveland, while the Lackenby coil
A TERRIFIED teenager fled barefoot in the middle of the night dressed in pyjamas after she was sexually assaulted by a 67-year-old man in his home, it was alleged yesterday. Newcastle Crown Court was told that Matziano Annunziata also plied another youngster
A NORTH-EAST firm stands to benefit from news that European plane maker Airbus Industrie has secured more than 100 new orders for civilian and military aircraft in a multi-billion pound deal. Industry Minister Brian Wilson said the orders would create
AN old mining tradition is to be the centrepiece of an art exhibition featuring North-East talents next month. Artists from the area will be contributing to the exhibition at the Discovery Centre, Market Place, Bishop Auckland, from July 2 to July 21.
A CAR finance company has moved on to UK Land Estates's Princes Park development at Team Valley, in Gateshead. The former Silverscreen premises, in Kingsway, has been let to Yes Car Credit, which operates 14 branches in England and Scotland.The acquisition
THREE members of one family have admitted their part in an elaborate plot to hide a nine-year-old girl from the care of social services. The family, who cannot be named, feared the girl would be made the subject of a court order after her 11-year-old
JUDGING to find County Durham's most litter-free community will start next month, after being delayed because of the foot-and-mouth crisis. The recent easing of restrictions on access to the countryside means that the judges of the county's Tidy Village
Letters from The Northern Echo EUROPE IN his profile of Michael Portillo (Echo, June 14), Simon Page is mistaken to describe those of us with so called anti-Europe views as Little Englanders and xenophobic. Those of us opposed to Britain's continued membership
FOR 55 years, Florence Hodgson has been the custodian of a part of library history. Tucked away in the bedroom of her dales home are thousands of books, which make up the oldest subscription library in the UK. The library, in the main street at Westgate
A JOURNALIST was fined £300 and banned from driving for a year after pleading guilty at Teesside Magistrates Court yesterday to being drunk in charge of a vehicle. Richard Barker, of Penryn Close, Darlington, a reporter with The Northern Echo, was breathalysed
NEW Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren last night admitted that chairman Steve Gibson is the single biggest reason why he accepted the challenge at the Riverside Stadium. Gibson sacrificed Bryan Robson, whom he had stood by loyally for seven years, to
A RADIO DJ is to open a conference on the threat to young people's health posed by alcohol. Metro Radio's evening presenter, Wayne Tunnicliffe, welcomed Friday's event at the Customs House, South Shields. Called Young People And Alcohol - What's The Harm
Labour today unveiled sweeping reforms of the public services in the first Queen's Speech since the party's second election landslide. Education, health and crime have been put at the heart of Labour's first legislative programme of its historic second
ONE of the region's leading Roman Catholics is inviting Christians of all denominations to join in an ecumenical day. Last year, the Abbot of Ampleforth, the Right Reverend Timothy Wright, attended a joint synod of the Anglican diocese of York and the
SPORTS centre staff are going the extra mile for a three-year-old girl suffering from a rare illness - by swimming the distance to France and back. Workers from Tees Valley Leisure's Eston Sports Academy were so touched by the plight of Hannah Dowson,
Inquests have been opened into the deaths of two men in a car crash. Driver Craig McLean, 22, and his passenger, James Weastell, 30, were killed last Friday when their Peugeot veered on to the wrong side of the road and into the path of a Fiat. The crash
A STUDENT plunged to her death in a parachute accident in south west France, the Foreign Office have confirmed. Susan Westwood, 23, a postgraduate student of mechanical engineering at Leeds University, died attempting a jump at Soulac-sur-Mer, near Bordeaux
ARE you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. Only people of a certain age, of course, will remember Listen With Mother, when small children sat entranced by the voice of Daphne Oxenford, as she told a story, and mothers either dashed round and did their
NURSE Alison Firth was beginning a life sentence last night after being convicted of murdering an elderly patient at a North-East nursing home because she simply could not be bothered to look after her any longer. During an extraordinary 16-year career
JOB-HUNTERS have less than a week to join a scheme to help unemployed people into work. The Intermediate Labour Market project has places for jobless people in Hartlepool wanting a hand to find work. Under the scheme, Hartlepool Borough Council, takes
A DEVELOPER is offering to pay for improvements to a sports centre near a proposed estate. Scottish housebuilder Betts Homes is seeking permission from Durham City Council to build 34 detached homes on the site of the former council depot next to the
AUDIENCE participation will be one of the main features of Darlington's annual festival this year. Three days of festivities are due to take place in the town during the August bank holiday weekend, on the theme of A Festival of Festivals. Under the umbrella
A COLLEGE is introducing a range of higher education courses to increase the number of North-East students attending university. East Durham and Houghall Community College is recruiting for foundation degree programmes, which allow students to attend
A £50,000 scheme to help older people with jobs in their homes was launched yesterday. The Handyvan project, set up by Age Concern County Durham, and Chester-le-Street District Council, will help prevent accidents in the homes of the 11,000 people aged
PENSIONERS and the unemployed are being offered free computer training. Durham County Council and Bishop Auckland and Derwentside colleges are running courses at Annfield Plain, Pelton, Ferryhill, Spennymoor and Willington libraries. People on benefit
A collection of beautifully-crafted grilles at a monastic ruin has puzzled scholars for years. They have examined every nook and cranny of 850-year-old Rievaulx Abbey, near Helmsley, North Yorkshire, in a bid to reveal the original purpose of the grilles
TWO police officers and a neighbour were hailed as heroes yesterday after rescuing a young mother and her 15-month-old son from a house fire. The woman, aged 18, and her baby were asleep in their home when the fire broke out just after 4am. The mother
CHILDREN across the region are to benefit from more than £2m of National lottery cash for extra learning activities out of school. The New Opportunities Fund has announced that dozens of projects in the North-East and North Yorkshire will receive "good
A FORMER second-hand car salesman has turned his 20-year hobby of falconry into a business. Robert Allott set up his business, Prince Bishops Bird of Prey and Falconry, using a grant from the North-East branch of The Prince's Trust. The 30-year-old keeps
NO one can be as proud of his home town as Andrew Murray is of Durham City. The 26-year-old believes that, apart from a rich past, the one-time citadel of the prince bishops has a future - a word he spells out in bold letters. Design marketing student
FOLLOWING his so-called re-election "landslide" - in reality a slight slippage towards his Tory opponents - Tony Blair, this time, did not pose with the party's women MPs for a picture of the successors to the "Blair Babes" of the last Parliament. His
A COUNSELLING centre for victims of rape and sexual abuse has launched a new website with the help of The Northern Echo. Organisers hope that the Internet presence of the Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre, in Darlington, will help raise awareness
Darlington fanatic Neil Maddison is determined to help the club move up the Football League ladder. Despite playing in the Premiership and First Division in all his career, the 31-year-old knows all about life at the wrong end of the league. "I've supported
ONE of the first registration services in the country to offer couples a chance to renew their wedding vows has been set up. Married couples in North Yorkshire can choose to hold a service at several venues across the county, with relatives and friends
AN aide of Prime Minister Tony Blair plied three teenage boys with money, alcohol and drugs before sexually abusing them, a court heard yesterday. Martyn Locklin, 41, a senior Labour councillor in Mr Blair's Sedgefield constituency, groomed the youngsters
A BLIND Durham man has started his own business training disabled people to use computers. David Wilkinson, of Newton Hall, has lost 80 per cent of his sight because of retinitus pigmentosa, and needs a guide dog. He set up the Training Rehabilitation
AN uninsured pharmacist, who is £42,000 in debt to his bank and drug suppliers, was struck off the register by the Royal Pharmaceutical's Disciplinary Committee yesterday. John Dickinson, of the Dickinson Pharmacy of Spa Business Centre, Cramlington,
PEOPLE in Redcar are being invited to look back in time to see what Warrenby and the South Gare looked like during the Second World War. The event, at Redcar Library, has been organised by the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust. It will give people the chance
A SOFTWARE company is celebrating after winning a £300,000 order from a leading chilled food manufacturer. JBA Enterprise Solutions, based in the Mountjoy Centre in Durham City, will install a sophisticated enterprise resource planning system for International
A NEW sports pitch has been given the go-ahead despite objections from residents. The village of Lazenby, which lies in the shadows of Teesside's huge chemical giants, is united in calling for the facility, but is split over the location. Yesterday, planning
IT IS lights down for the last time at a 1930s picture house this weekend. But the 62-year-old Odeon, Middlesbrough, is not going before forging one link with the future. The art deco tiled building, which opened with a George Formby film, is, in its
STAFF facing redundancy from a hospital run by monks have been offered a glimmer of hope. Management confirmed last week the surgical wing at the St John of God Hospital in Scorton, North Yorkshire, is to be wound down, with closure anticipated by August
COMMUNITY leaders are hoping to inspire a renaissance of a run-down part of their city after receiving more than £1m for investment. Sunderland City Council has been granted £650,000 of National Lottery cash, which it will match, in order to bring parts
PEOPLE throughout the region are being invited to a free open air concert in a North-East town next month. Darlington Borough Council has joined forces with Northern Sinfonia to organise a concert in the town's Market Square on Friday, July 6. Introduced
AN inquest into the death of a man in a fire at East Cowton, near Northallerton, North Yorkshire, opened yesterday. Stuart Turnbull, 24, of Break House Farm, Eryholme, between Darlington and Northallerton, died at the home of friends on Saturday. Firefighters
SUPPORTING all of the horses ridden by Richard Hughes at Royal Ascot this afternoon is a policy which could potentially pay handsome dividends. Fans of multiple bets such as Yankees and Canadians should strongly consider linking together the pick of his
PENSIONERS and unemployed people are being offered free computer training. Durham County Council and Bishop Auckland and Derwentside colleges are running courses at Annfield Plain, Pelton, Ferryhill, Spennymoor and Willington libraries. People on state
HUNDREDS of youngsters are learning how to stay safe, in a series of workshops. Almost 700 pupils from nine schools are taking part in the week-long event, which has been organised by Gateshead Borough Council. The Stop and Think workshops are now in
THE Belgian government is to face pressure over a shipping collision that killed three North-East men. John Gray and Robert Bold, both 53 and from Sunderland, and Adrian Hirst, 25, of Jarrow, Tyneside, were among nine men who died on the tanker British
DURHAM are seeking revenge against last season's bogey team, Hampshire, when they visit the West End Rosebowl for the first time for the championship match starting today. The new ground near Southampton has been producing some good scores, featuring
A SCHOOL is celebrating success in a nationwide mathematics challenge. Five students from Hurworth School, near Darlington, achieved gold awards in the UK Junior Maths Challenge, run by Leeds University, which was open to year seven to nine pupils. In
FARMERS across the region are being warned to expect more than a week of intense aircraft activity as the region plays host to a major international exercise. Fighters and support aircraft from eight nations will be joining the RAF in a large scale, low-level
DETECTIVES are hoping a holidaymaker can help them establish the last moments of a man found dead at a North-East beauty spot. Police are treating the death of Michael Burrup, 36, from Stanhope, County Durham, as suspicious. He was found in a pool of
A STUDENT plunged to her death in a parachute accident in south west France, the Foreign Office have confirmed. Susan Westwood, 23, a postgraduate student of mechanical engineering at Leeds University, died attempting a jump at Soulac-sur-Mer, near Bordeaux
A FATHER-OF-FOUR was thrown 15ft into the air after being struck by a speeding car on a pedestrian crossing, a court heard yesterday. Darren Vout, 25, of Elwick Gardens, Stockton, denied causing the death of Frederick Brown by dangerous driving, when
IF IT'S Tuesday it must be Darlington. David Callister and Michael Kirk at least know the town, even if the name of the play is more difficult to remember as the summer repertory season at the Civic Theatre stages four productions in as many weeks with
A FIRE brigade in one of Europe's worst arson-hit areas plans to be the first in the North-East to install water sprinklers into people's homes. Cleveland Fire Brigade, in partnership with the Government, private sector and Redcar and Cleveland Borough
POLICE searching fields for post office raiders made a grim discovery when they came across the body of a middle-aged woman. The body had not been identified last night, but detectives in Bishop Auckland were checking through records of people reported
