OFFICIALS have banned all-teenage parties from a newly-opened £500,000 village hall after youngsters went on a damaging rampage. The hall at Bishop Monkton, near Ripon, came under attack during the party to celebrate a 16th birthday. The damage is expected
THREE-WAY traffic lights will be installed today at the junction of North Approach and The Avenue, in Chester-le-Street, while contractors carry out carriageway patching repairs
PEOPLE who beat their partners face an increased risk of being prosecuted as police in County Durham launch a two-month crackdown on domestic violence. The Durham force hopes more offenders will be arrested and taken to court, thanks to better evidence-gathering
A COUNCIL'S cabinet is back to full strength after a disgruntled councillor who resigned last week agreed to return. Councillor Robbie Payne yesterday withdrew his resignation, after walking out of Hartlepool Borough Council's cabinet meeting in fury
Police in County Durham are launch a two-month crackdown on people who beat their partners. The Durham force hopes more offenders will be arrested and taken to court thanks to better evidence-gathering. Frontline officers called to incidents will be accompanied
POLICE will urge magistrates to overturn a Middlesbrough Council decision giving the go-ahead to a round-the-clock drinks party. Cleveland Police last night revealed plans to appeal to a Teesside Bench after members of the council's licensing sub-committee
The launch of McDonald's Family Contract, billed as a "pioneering" scheme enabling employees to share their jobs with other members of their family, produced a remark that perhaps illuminates attitudes to work in modern Britain. The family chosen to highlight
A LOCAL authority will have to use £1.7m from its reserves to balance its budget, finance officers have warned. Hambleton District Council is planning to increase its council tax by three per cent this year, after being capped by the Government last year
YOUNGSTERS put the final stamp on a tree-planting initiative yesterday. The Redcar primary school children gathered at Borough Park's Family Wood to help plant the last of 800 trees. They have been planted over an eight-year period in an initiative between
PLANS to transform a former sports hall into a complex of affordable homes have been unveiled. Richmond Sports Centre, in Lyons Road, closed in 2004, despite widespread objections from residents. Tees Valley Housing Group now wants to convert the centre
CHILD SEX CAMPAIGNER : The shocking story of the child sex campaigner Tom O'Carroll living among the Shildon community (Echo, Jan 26) yards from the homes of innocent little boys and girls is sickening. This political correctness/rights of miscreants
A BUSINESSMAN was left scarred and nearly blinded after an unprovoked attack. Father-of-two Rob McKenzie, 52, thought he would die when he was glassed in a nightclub. Mr McKenzie needed 36 stitches and a metal plate in his cheek after a stranger thrust
A nightclub boss was put through a terrifying ordeal when he was attacked and robbed as he locked up when revellers left the building. He was beaten, tied and gagged by a raider who then ransacked the safe and fled the scene with a "substantial" haul
A MAN was being questioned by police last night after a body was found in the grounds of a country hotel. A police investigation was launched yesterday morning when the body of a 40-year-old man was discovered 50 yards behind Harperley Hotel, near Tanfield
Women who seek to commandeer their husband's cash after they split may make a quick profit, but they do nothing for their sex. Sometimes you wonder why we bothered. Maybe we should have just sat at home like Victorian misses or Jane Austen heroines, fluttered
British forces have suffered their 100th death in Iraq, and another 3,300 troops are being sent to Afghanistan. Nick Morrison asks if there is an end in sight to UK military involvement at the sharp end of the war on terror. NO-ONE said it was going to
IT may not have been as controversial as Gary Neville's infamous kiss-the-badge in front of the Liverpool fans, yet there was clearly just as much satisfaction for Emanuel Pogatetz as he celebrated his first goal for Middlesbrough. The summer buy has
DETECTIVES are hunting members of an organised racket who are targeting people across the region. Police believe groups of immigrants from eastern Europe are being transported to different areas around the North-East and dropped off with the specific
RETAILERS hoping for a sustained post-Christmas spending spree were left disappointed yesterday when a survey pointed to sluggish high street sales last month. More than one in every three shops on the UK high street told the Confederation of British
A MAN was being questioned by police last night after a body was found in the grounds of a country hotel. A police investigation was launched yesterday morning when the body of a 40-year-old man was discovered 50 yards behind Harperley Hotel, near Tanfield
AN investigation was demanded yesterday into the soaring cost of five North-East road schemes - up a staggering 56 per cent. The Liberal Democrats said ministers should ask the independent National Audit Office (NAO) to examine the escalating bill for
DAVID HODGSON may have failed to make a breakthrough at the closure of last night's transfer window, but the Darlington manager remains hopeful of completing one signing this week. Hodgson will seek talks with Guy Bates' representatives today, with a
GLOBAL chemical company Huntsman was last night reported to be in talks with potential suitors over a £2.4bn buyout. The group, which employs more than 1,500 people in the North-East, saw shares rise by more than 12 per cent after the report in New Yorks
Detectives investigating the discovery of a body in the grounds of a country hotel have this morning confirmed they are treating his death as murder. Father-of-two Lyndsay Kennedy, of East Stanley, was found dead just yards from the Harperley Hotel, near
A GIRL left severely disabled after she fell in a river near her home died more than a decade after the accident, an inquest heard yesterday. Rebecca Louise Sage, 15, died in December as a result of brain damage she suffered in the accident almost 13
BUS and train operator Arriva has sold its vehicle rental business to van hire group Northgate. Darlington-based Northgate is paying £53.9m for Arriva Vehicle Rental (AVR), which has 33 branches across the UK. It will pay another £106m for AVR's debt
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (five) Chopped Off (C4) The Perfect Penis (C4) A HOUSEWIFE wearing a shopping bag for a shirt, rubber boots and a G-string is found dead in a car park. A couple are run over by a truck in their trailer home. And a car boot
COUNCILS in England are to receive above-inflation rises in Government funding for each of the next two years. Yesterday's announcement came with a warning that the Government will not hesitate to impose a cap on any authority seeking "excessive" rises
RETAILERS hoping for a sustained post-Christmas spending spree were left disappointed yesterday when a survey pointed to sluggish high street sales last month. More than one in every three shops on the UK high street told the Confederation of British
SPENNYMOOR-BASED Fred's In The Know (3.10) looks likely to be on the premises for today's feature event at Leicester, the £12,000 Golden Miller Handicap Hurdle. If Fred's In The Know does get his head in front it would represent a real family affair since
A FACTORY employee has won a car in a prize draw as part of a safety drive. Every time the GlaxoSmithKline site in Barnard Castle clocks up one million man-hours worked without an accident serious enough for an employee to need time off, the draw is held
A MAN drove through a red light on a level crossing -because he desperately needed a toilet. Magistrates at Newton Aycliffe heard yesterday how the red lights at the level crossing at Heighington, near Darlington, had been flashing for several seconds
THREE new strategies aimed at tackling ill health and promoting well-being in the Sedgefield area have been launched. Action plans to boost physical activity, healthy eating, and smoke-free environments across the district have been produced by the Local
TURNOVER and employee numbers have increased for the third successive month. However, this pattern is not matched in terms of business confidence - which has fallen for the fourth time since September in and around the Darlington area. But the quarterly
IT will be a weekend of nostalgia and family fun when the Second World War is remembered on Teesside. Hartlepool Central Library, in York Road, is hosting two days of events and activities, this Saturday and Sunday, with the title of Wartime Weekend,
TWENTY people have been barred from pubs in two County Durham towns during the first year of a scheme to crack down on loutish behaviour. Organisers of the Pubwatch projects in Seaham and Peterlee are celebrating a successful 12 months in which membership
A FACELIFT scheme costing £57,000 will begin this week on a rundown east Durham shopping precinct. The money is to be spent improving pedestrian walkways at the Edenhill Road shopping parade, in Peterlee. The improvement work has been made possible through
GRANTS have been made to two community groups by the charitable arm of a North-East bakery. The Greggs Trust is providing a total of £67,500 to Delves Lane Community Association and the Consett Churches Detached Youth Project, both near Consett, County
HARD-working and well-behaved children are to get the chance to see a Royal Navy Lynx helicopter close up as a reward. It will be landing in the grounds of Fyndoune School, Sacriston, on Tuesday, for a two-hour visit - provided the weather is good. Youngsters
GLOBAL chemical company Huntsman was last night reported to be in talks with potential suitors over a £2.4bn buyout. The group, which employs more than 1,500 people in the North-East, saw shares rise by more than 12 per cent after the report in New Yorks
JOBS will be lost and members of the public are shocked at the news a community post office is to be demolished and taken over by a private company. The Post Office Ltd confirmed yesterday that new management will take over the Thornaby branch, at Appleby
ONE hundred is, as the Big Brother competitor and sometime MP George Galloway said, a melancholy milestone. The list on Page 3 makes sad reading. One hundred young lives blown apart. But it is much more than that. It is the young wives turned into widows
AN investigation is being carried out after a pregnant woman was hit by a fork-lift truck at a North-East factory. Police and an ambulance were called to the Cummins engine factory, in Yarm Road, Darlington, yesterday. The 35-year-old woman was taken
A FAMILY of eight narrowly escaped death yesterday when their home was engulfed in flames. Gary Griffiths and partner Julie Scott say they are just happy to be alive after their house, in Chester Walk, Colburn, North Yorkshire, was destroyed. The couple
STILL Bronze Age broadsheet, Saturday's Daily Telegraph devoted two mainmast pages to the joys of living in Durham - "simply the most beautiful cathedral city in England" - and its environs. What chiefly seemed to appeal was that beer was £1.32 a pint
Women who seek to commandeer their husband's cash after they split may make a quick profit, but they do nothing for their sex. SOMETIMES you wonder why we bothered. Maybe we should have just sat at home like Victorian misses or Jane Austen heroines, fluttered
GRAEME Souness last night hailed the super-human efforts of midfield dynamo Scott Parker ahead of Newcastle's trip to Manchester City tonight when he admitted he had never met a player like him in his 36 years in football. The United manager, clearly
plans to build the tallest building in the North-East have been unveiled. The proposed 375ft high apartment block in Middlesbrough town centre would be more than five times higher than the Angel of the North And it would tower over the 240ft Centre North-East
STILL Bronze Age broadsheet, Saturday's Daily Telegraph devoted two mainmast pages to the joys of living in Durham - "simply the most beautiful cathedral city in England" - and its environs. What chiefly seemed to appeal was that beer was £1.32 a pint
AN investigation was demanded yesterday into the soaring cost of five North-East road schemes - up a staggering 56 per cent. The Liberal Democrats said ministers should ask the independent National Audit Office (NAO) to examine the escalating bill for
DAVID HODGSON may have failed to make a breakthrough at the closure of last night's transfer window, but the Darlington manager remains hopeful of completing one signing this week. Hodgson will seek talks with Guy Bates' representatives today, with a
FIT again Emre Belozoglu believes European Champions League football was well within Newcastle United's grasp this season if the club had possessed a bigger squad. The midfield magician pointed to the strength in depth enjoyed by Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal
Middlesbrough manager Steve McClaren last night toasted the goalscoring abilities of two of his defenders and the striker he was so keen to keep at the Riverside. Boro cruised past Sunderland in the 135th Wear-Tees derby on the day McClaren attempted
THE family of a woman killed by a bomb in Turkey said last night that terrorists should not deter holidaymakers visiting the country. Helyn Bennett, from Spennymoor, County Durham, died on July 16 last year after a bomb exploded on the bus she was travelling
England head coach Andy Robinson has no doubts about the self control of Lewis Moody, despite the firebrand flanker getting sent off at Twickenham ten weeks ago. Leicester forward Moody became the first England player to be sent off in a Test match at
Manager Martin Scott has been suspended by Hartlepool United. Tempers in the home dressing room reportedly flared following Pools dismal 3-0 defeat at home to fellow strugglers Blackpool on Saturday. A club statement read: Following the incidents in and
POLICE chiefs will meet Government officials to set out their objections to being amalgamated into a North-East superforce. Cleveland Police officials say they have the backing of the Prime Minister as they continue to oppose the controversial proposed
Detectives hunting a paedophile who snatched a six-year-old girl from her bath have received more than 30 calls following a television appeal, police said today. The young victim was dumped naked and shivering in a back alley near her North Tyneside home
STEVE McCLAREN last night admitted Middlesbrough's North-East derby victory was the most important three points of the season and the perfect way to prove the cynics wrong. Having failed to win in the Premiership since November 20, success at bottom-of-the-table
TOFFEE, an 11-month-old, tri-coloured collie, needs a new home. The dog was taken in by its last owners when four months old, but they quickly realised the animal needed more attention and exercise than they could give. They gave Toffee to animal charity
A North Yorkshire man who drowned while on holiday in New Zealand was believed to have been swept into the sea after burning his legs in hot water pools, an inquest at Pickering was told. North Yorkshire East Coroner Michael Oakley recorded a verdict
A POLICEMAN who patrols on a mountain bike is to tackle a charity challenge - on foot. PC Matt Bradley is hoping to raise £2,000 for the charity Criemestoppers by taking part in April's London Marathon. His usual beat is the city centre streets of York
CHINESE New Year was celebrated at a town hall yesterday. The Civic Centre at Chester-le-Street, County Durham, was the venue for a procession and dance performance by schoolchildren in Chinese costume. About 20 youngsters from the reception class at
