A FAMILY are trying to raise £9,000 to bring their grandfather back from Portugal after his holiday barbecue went horrifically wrong. Bernard Earnshaw suffered severe burns while squirting lighter fluid on to a barbecue during his holiday in the Algarve
A SERIES of youth shelters will be set up to give youngsters somewhere to meet with each other. There are plans for three shelters for Ferryhill, County Durham - at Dean Bank, King George V playing field, and Surtees playing field, in Ferryhill Station
POWERHOUSE Retail has saved 139 jobs in the North-East by taking over ten ScottishPower stores. The Cambridge-based group has acquired 99 ScottishPower stores, securing the jobs of more than 1,500 people. ScottishPower is moving out of retail to concentrate
Q My wife and I both get Attendance Allowance of £37 a week. Apart from this, our weekly income is £207, which includes a War Pension. Can we have our council tax of £607.44 a year reduced? A If no one else lives with you and no one gets Invalid Care
TRADERS could be missing out on a golden opportunity by not signing up to one of East Cleveland's biggest events. Organisers of the eighth annual Kirkleatham engine rally believe that traders and craft workers are not interested in having a stall at the
CITY traders will have further opportunity to gauge the state of the UK economy next week as another clutch of blue-chip companies post interim results. HSBC's interim pre-tax profits on Monday should see a slight fall to £3.53bn, from £3.66bn last year
A BURGLAR kicked a hole in a glass door to gain access to a shopping centre, a court was told yesterday. Teesside Crown Court heard how Shaun McGee, 29, climbed through the hole in the glass and into the Thames Shopping Centre, in Newton Aycliffe, County
A VILLAGE has paid a lasting tribute to the quiet quarryman who poured hundreds of pounds into its social life. Jack Cave's good deeds were legendary in the dales village where he spent his life. He organised and paid for Sunday school parties and trips
A Soldier has been playing hockey for his regiment in Australia. Lance Corporal Karl Manton, 22, a former pupil of Rye Hills School, Redcar, east Cleveland, is a member of the Green Howards hockey team. Despite the fact that the team lost all but one
A burglar carried a bucket as a prop in case he was challenged, a court heard yesterday. But Kathleen Hand, of Skelton, east Cleveland, rumbled Michael Jeffels, 19, when he claimed he was her regular window cleaner, said Jeffrey Hunter, prosecuting. Her
A PENSIONER was knocked to the ground when he confronted two burglars who were ransacking his home in daylight. John Hayley was at his home in Roker Avenue, Sunderland, when he spotted two men in his living room on March 15 this year. Newcastle Crown
A PRESSURE group is pressing Westminster to come clean on the findings of a safety study of one of the region's most dangerous roads. In 1998, the Government confirmed it would be researching the possibility of upgrading the A66 between Scotch Corner
SIR George Gilbert Scott, an architect of whom even the unreconstructed may have heard, was responsible for the Albert Memorial and for the magnificent St Pancras railway station, restored (it is said) most of England's cathedrals and designed handsome
THE Northern Ireland peace process has severe problems. It is distasteful to see convicted murderers back on the streets causing strife. It is distasteful to see men with shadowy pasts like Martin McGuinness in such respectable positions of power. It
THE director o f an after-school care charity is behind bars after admitting having sex with a 14-year-old girl. Phil Hemmans, head of the Julie Graham Children's Charity, had sex with the youngster about 20 times. He was only found out when the girl's
HELP is on hand for lone rangers working in remote areas of the North-East thanks to a partnership between police and the Forestry Commission. Forest rangers, who frequently work alone in sparsely populated areas of Northumberland, will now be linked
SALTBURN Community and Arts Association is asking for help to trace memorabilia of its home. The community centre used to be a Primitive Methodist Church and organisers of the association's Heritage Celebrations are keen to find items of interest dating
TWO operatic tenors are hoping for a full house when they return to their roots in a North-East pit village. John Upperton and his student, John Foley, will play a concert tonight, in Murton, County Durham, where they were born and bred. The show, at
MORE than 8,000 music fans are expected to head for a former pit town today for an annual blues festival. The free event at Stanley, County Durham, is being held in a giant marquee on the town's Kings Head Field and will attract blues lovers from across
THE entrance to Sunderland's Stadium of Light was turned into a beach yesterday. Teams of youngsters took part in a five-a-side soccer competition on sand as part of the build up to the launch of the club's blue away strip. The Nike strip, which was used
NEWSPAPER distributors, who usually deliver the news, are making headlines. Some 84 distribution vans were checked in a combined police and Customs operation on Teesside, 37 of them undergoing thorough examinations on the spot because of their poor condition
BATTLING cobbler Tony Martin will close his 150-year-old business today - but plans to reopen in a fortnight. Mr Martin, 37, who has won national publicity for his battle against the authorities in Durham City, had said today would be the day he shut
THE Great Wall of China should prove no obstacle for one North-East couple. For centuries the famous wall has repelled countless attacks by raiding armies, but that has not deterred Michelle Parkes and Steven Tullip in their bid to conquer it. For the
STRIKE action that would have brought the Tyne and Wear Metro to a halt has been averted, transport chiefs have announced. For months Nexus, which operates the Metro, has been locked in talks with union leaders to try to avoid industrial action. Nexus
BUSINESSES clamouring for a better aid package in the wake of foot-and-mouth disease, have been given an answer by the regional development agency. Yorkshire Forward has pledged to pump £4m of its own reserves into a recovery programme - on top of the
A FORMER Horsewoman of the Year could be ordered to carry out community work after reducing a horse to just "skin and bone" through neglect. Ordering a pre-sentence report at Teesside Magistrates Court yesterday, Chairman of the Bench Stephan Willers
AN expert on the North-East economy has warned of the risks of relying too heavily on foreign companies to provide investment in the region. Professor Ray Hudson, of Durham University, made his comments following a speech by Prime Minister Tony Blair.
REVIEWS: Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legends. Format: PlayStation CD-ROM. Publisher: UbiSoft. £29.99 EVER since a silver air balloon crashed in a quiet part of New Mexico during a storm in 1947 and sparked an amazing UFO scare, Roswell has
AL Jolson showman extraordinaire Clive Baldwin says he first noticed a backlash against his act from the politically correct lobby in 1988. He describes sharing the Broadway stage with a Michael Jackson impersonator, who looked at Clive in disgust as
MORE than 8,000 music fans are expected to head for a former pit town today for an annual blues festival. The free event at Stanley, County Durham, is being held in a giant marquee on the town's Kings Head Field and will attract blues lovers from across
ACTOR and adventurer Brian Blessed has condemned proposals to locate the ''Son of Star Wars'' missile defence project in one of the region's national parks. He said the Fylingdales early warning base on the North York Moors, which campaigners claim will
THE body of a 20-year-old man missing for five days has been found underneath a North-East viaduct. Jason Tate, a landscape gardener from Consett, County Durham, had not been seen by his family since he returned from a night out with friends on Sunday
UPBEAT Chris Turner is backing Ritchie Humphreys to make a big impression in Division Three next season. The former Sheffield Wednesday man opened his Hartlepool United scoring account in Thursday's 3-0 friendly win at Gateshead and Turner believes there
DARLINGTON boss Gary Bennett believes young midfielder Mark Convery has a bright future. Convery, who arrived at Feethams last season, is only 20 but he is showing signs of developing into a winger who can torment opposing defences. And Bennett, who takes
SCHOOLS and colleges in Darlington are taking a lead from some of the borough's biggest companies in a scheme which teaches them about business and helps them gain qualifications. Darlington Partnership is linking up with the Youth Enterprise Programme
A BATTLE of the buyouts is heating up as at least two attempts to save Cammell Laird's operations have been made. Meanwhile, the former boss of the shipbuilder's operations at South Bank, on the Tees, is still hopeful that his bid for the yard will be
YOUNGSTERS in the borough of Stockton who wear their cycling helmets could be in for a pleasant surprise during the next few weeks. Officers from Stockton Borough Council will be taking to the streets to hand out special novelty hats. They will be rewarding
AN elderly woman, involved in a crash in North Yorkshire on Thursday, died in hospital yesterday. She is thought to be from Teesside, but police were not confirming her identity until relatives had been informed. An inquest is expected to open on Tuesday
A LANDOWNER blamed for blocking the restoration of a swing bridge is optimistic that the project will go ahead. On Thursday, Yorkshire Dales National Park chiefs claimed the bid to replace the crossing, at Reeth, North Yorkshire, which was washed away
FOR more than a year Jane Smith saved up every penny she could to pay for smart replacement windows for her east Durham home. But the mother-of-three's dream of completing the transformation of her semi-detached, in Peterlee, has turned into a nightmare
SOME of Teesside's hottest pop acts gathered in the region for the launch of the area's own record label yesterday. From Teesside with Love, the Northern Arts backed music development programme, launched FTwL Records at the Georgian Theatre, in Green
WYN Construction is adding 20 more staff to its 60-strong team, thanks to a £1.4m contract. The project, for ground working at the new DSS building in Longbenton, North Tyneside, will include construction of ground floor foundations, basement, under-floor
BAKERY group Greggs has toasted strong sales of takeaway sandwiches and sav-ouries as first-half profits rose by 22 per cent. The Newcastle group said that like-for-like growth surged across its 1,119 shops, helping to offset the higher costs of ingredients
HE may be a former Prime Minister and a passionate cricket supporter, but there was one problem with John Major's invitation to open a new stand at Headingley - he wasn't born in Yorkshire. Now, after protests from several Yorkshire and England stars
STEAM enthusiasts from all over the North are converging on the region for one of the biggest events of its kind. The annual steam engine rally at Pickering, North Yorkshire, is now under way and will continue throughout the weekend. More than 1,200 vehicles
THE man accused of subjecting a village to a 12-year hate mail campaign told police he believed someone was trying to "fit him up", a court heard yesterday. Dr James Forster claimed he had received 12 of the letters and said his house was bugged and under
Letters from The Northern Echo FOOT-AND-MOUTH THE Government seems intent on blaming farmers for spreading FMD. Many papers on July 29 had full reports of a farmer who was offered an infected sheep's carcass. Remember, the farmer turned the offer down
THE residents of a small village near Consett are helping to bring their district into the 21st Century by transforming its 1930s' school into a new community centre. Muggleswick Parish Community Association has been raising money to refurbish and redevelop
STAFF at a North-East call centre are being given an alternative method of winding down and enjoying new treatments in the workplace. Indian head massage, back and shoulder massage and osteopathy are just some of the new work-based treatments available
A NORTH-EAST man has been given two life sentences following a serious stabbing incident. Stefan Paul Lynas, 25, was jailed by Teesside Crown Court earlier this week after he pleaded guilty to two offences of wounding with intent, following an incident
DURHAM went from the sublime to the ridiculous and back again as Danny Law rode to the rescue in thrilling style at Kidderminster. For the most part they failed miserably to build on Thursday's good start until along came the substantial consolation of
I recently wrote about the type of starting stalls used on our courses and have also heard other trainers complaining about a lack of stalls handlers. I must agree with them that there is a lack of handlers, especially with 20 runners or more. Most stalls
REVIEWS Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legends. Format: PlayStation CD-ROM. Publisher: UbiSoft. £29.99 EVER since a silver air balloon crashed in a quiet part of New Mexico during a storm in 1947 and sparked an amazing UFO scare, Roswell has
THREE nightclub doormen appeared in court yesterday, accused of beating up a customer. Karl Spence, 21, and Shaun Mansell, 31, from The Zanzibar Club, in Stockton, agreed to be bound over for a year at Teesside Crown Court for the sum of £200 after the
THE best thing about Killhope is that it is not a pretty, pretty place. This is not history through rose-coloured spectacles but history in wellies and hard hats. And it's much more fun. Once one of the biggest lead mines in the country and now an award-winning
COUNCILLORS have agreed to donate £10,000 towards a long-running campaign to repair a bridge. The condition of the 136-year-old Myton Bridge, which spans the River Swale near Helperby, near Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire, has deteriorated rapidly in recent
A CALL has been made for a meeting to end deadlock between two neighbouring councils over proposals for an east Middlesbrough bypass. Councillor Ken Walker, lead-er of Middlesbrough Borough Council, has written to his opposite number, Councillor Dav-id
A long-running project to completely restore and refurbish a former country mansion, which became council offices, is now virtually complete. Only the finishing touches still need to be carried out on the Grade I listed Bedale Hall, North Yorkshire, which
POTENTIAL stage stars are invited to book their places at a drama workshop taking place in the period street of a museum later this month. The sessions, at Preston Hall Museum, near Stockton, which will be held next Saturday and Sunday, and on Sunday,
A SUNFLOWER month has boosted the funds of a hospice by £5,750. The event ran through June in aid of St Teresa's Hospice, Darlington. Sunflower badges and other items were sold, with the climax of the month being Wear Yellow Day, on June 29. Businesses
THE crash, bang, wallop, circular saws and flame throwers that have made the BBC2 programme Robot Wars a success worldwide, take centre stage this weekend. Sir Killalot, Matilda, Dead Metal and Sergeant Bash, the awesome house robots of television, will
A new species of butterfly could be attracted to County Durham if plans by Darlington Wildlife Group are a success. With support from staff at Marks and Spencer the group is planning to plant buckthorn bushes throughout the town to attract brimstone butterflies
ALL but two of the 14 refugees who illegally entered the North-East last month have left the area. The stowaways, including eight Turkish nationals of Kurdish origin, five Albanians and an Iranian, arrived at Teesport on a P&O North Sea Ferries freight
LOCAL authorities last night vowed to fight Government contingency plans to re-open foot-and-mouth burial sites this autumn. The proposals, revealed by The Northern Echo this week, have now been passed on to Durham County Council, Wear Valley District
SUMMONED by a frantic phone call, they arrive at the bar to find two men fighting. Pulling the protagonists apart, the gang then starts systematically to beat one of the men up. As the victim lapses into unconsciousness, and the beating shows no sign
SIR George Gilbert Scott, an architect of whom even the unreconstructed may have heard, was responsible for the Albert Memorial and for the magnificent St Pancras railway station, restored (it is said) most of England's cathedrals and designed handsome
Autumn flowering bulbs are appearing in shops and garden centres now. These have a very short period of dormancy and should be planted as soon as possible. Autumn crocus are excellent for naturalising in grass and will reproduce freely, while colchicums
I RECENTLY wrote about the type of starting stalls used on our courses and have also heard other trainers complaining about a lack of stalls handlers. I must agree with them that there is a lack of handlers, especially with 20 runners or more. Most stalls
THIS small pony has been viciously stabbed in a sickening attack which has also left it badly bruised and beaten. The animal is now recovering from its ordeal in the safe haven of Ramshaw Rescue Centre, near Bishop Auckland. It was found by police in
SARAH OLNEY has found herself facing more than one challenge since she decided to take on a sponsored ride across the Egyptian desert later this year. First, she needs to raise £2,000 to cover the costs of the six-day trek in October. Because she will
A CATHOLIC priest who committed a series of sex crimes against a 12-year-old boy was last night starting a five-year jail sentence. Father William Jacks, 49, who lives in Darlington, systematically abused the boy over four years. Jacks, a former secretary
