HOMEOWNERS are being urged to tighten up security to stop a sudden spate of burglaries in an area used to seeing crime figures fall. Burglaries in the former Wear Valley area have reduced during each of the last three years but in recent weeks
PROGRESS on a town centre's long awaited redevelopment has leapt forward with the arrival of new public amenities and 50 new jobs. Cranes have lifted a temporary library into place in Newton Aycliffe town centre and Wilkinsons is opening a nearby store
The first step in seeking to negotiate a financial and property settlement as a result of the breakdown in a marriage or civil partnership is to make a full and frank disclosure of means. Generally, whether matters are resolved by consent, mediation
THE evening after the fright before, Newcastle United Reserves hosted Ashington in the 115th final of the Northumberland Senior Cup. The Colliers wore the black and white stripes, the Evening Chronicle – latterly goal starved – talked of the
Middlesbrough 1 Aston Villa 1 AS unlikely as it may sound, Middlesbrough could still be playing Premier League football next season after avoiding the defeat that would have condemned them to the Championship. But when they head for West Ham United
RESIDENTS and business living alongside a busy road link are urged to comment on plans to create a "superoute". Sections of the A183 Chester Road, between Chester-le-Street and Sunderland, would undergo a major upgrade if the plans win the
NEWCASTLE'S survival hopes suffered a crushing blow this afternoon as they lost 1-0 at home to Fulham. Hull's 1-1 draw at Bolton has plunged the Magpies back into the bottom three ahead of next Sunday's trip to Aston Villa on the final day of the season
Citizens Advice Bureaux are now offering a free service to help people understand their finances. Trained Money Guides will give face to face information and guidance to people on mortgages, insurance, pensions, savings and budgeting, amongst other
JULIO ARCA has been given a surprise recall to the Middlesbrough starting line-up for today's must win relegation clash with Aston Villa. The skilful Argentine has not played since March 14 and was overlooked at the expense of Mohamed Shawky at Newcastle
NEWCASTLE skipper Michael Owen will miss this afternoon's home game with Fulham because of injury. As revealed in this morning's Northern Echo, Owen missed training yesterday because of a knock. Newcastle officials had described his absence as a 'precautionary
FORMER CBI boss Lord Jones joined workers from steel giant Corus in a protest march today aimed at urging the Government to wake up and take action to halt the jobs crisis gripping the UK. The demonstration in Birmingham was part of a campaign by Unite
FAMILIES are invited to celebrate the opening a village’s new play facilities next weekend. The official opening of the £80,000 playground on Stobart Terrace, Fishburn, will take place on Saturday May 23. Following discussions with local residents,
TWO medical charities have benefited from an outgoing mayor’s charity campaign. As Mayor of Chilton, Alan Bruce, has spent the past 12 months in office raising money for Chilton St John Ambulance and James Cook University Hospital’s chemotherapy and
I’ve just returned from a very enjoyable three days, attending the ‘Dante’ meeting at York racecourse. To say the winners were hard to find is an understatement, the trip turned out to be more of a ‘Bookies Benefit’! The weather started
A MARTIAL arts team that found fame on a television talent show will be onscreen again tomorrow to try to set a new world record. Chi Demo Team, based in Spennymoor, will appear on Sky1’s Guinness World Records Smashed at 8pm on Sunday. After 13 members
SHADOW Home Secretary and Richmond MP William Hague is expected to announce today that he will begin winding down his outside interests in the lead-up to the next general election. Mr Hague is to end his business and speaking commitments to focus purely
The world’s most northerly whisky distillery is celebrating opening its new visitor centre – with a wee dram, of course. HIGHLAND PARK is welcoming visitors to the newly-refurbished visitor centre at its Orkney distillery, the northernmost Scotch
Famous for its long hours of sunshine and its popularity with the retired, Eastbourne may not be the obvious choice for a twenty-somethings’ weekend break. Helen Smithson heads south to prove the doubters wrong. THE South Coast seaside resort
Tim Healy reveals he’s playing a transvestite who dates Johnny Vegas in ITV’s Benidorm. TIM Healy is back in the heart of the Geordie nation, back with the Quayside’s Live Theatre, where he started out as an actor, and tackling the role of an
NORTH-EAST fivesome Maximo Park kicked off a UK tour with two sellout dates in their hometown, and the Newcastle fans surely got everything they wanted from the band. Launching straight into top hit Our Velocity, they were greeted like the saviours
HOW fitting it was that California gal Laurie Lewis and her bluegrass band, The Right Hands, were the act booked when The Round (after a short life) reopened as the Cluny 2. Sounding great with lots of drive to her music, Lewis, on fiddle and
TALK to American actor Hank Azaria and you also hear from Boris Karloff, Jerry Lewis and a whole raft of characters from The Simpsons. Even in his latest movie, Night At The Museum 2, the producers get more than their money’s worth from him. His
Now in its 30th year, the Tyneside Rape Crisis Centre has helped thousands of women recover from rape and sexual violence. Sarah Foster pays a visit. A WOMAN sits quietly in the waiting room. She is a survivor of sexual violence. That is the reason
COLUMNIST Peter Mullen objects to the modern wedding phrase “All that I am I give to you” (Echo, May 12), asking if it includes bad temper and indigestion. What then of his own recommendation: “How much better is thy love than wine and the smell
I FIND the vindictive comments by Margaret Thatcher’s detractors amazing. It’s as if all the prime ministers before and after have been so memorably wonderful, whereas most have been memorably forgettable. Of course, she made mistakes, but she
THE repetitive message from Westminster is that “the vast majority of MPs are not ripping us off with their expenses and they should not be linked with the activities of those who are”. There is no way of the public knowing if this is the case.
HAVING recently returned to Darlington from our honeymoon on Holy Island, Northumberland, my wife, Becky, and I discovered that we had inadvertently caused a town-wide alien invasion “panic” after we set off some Chinese lanterns at our wedding
I WENT to Durham Crematorium on Sunday, May 10, to tidy my two children’s graves and take some flowers. There were six adults and two children looking at the headstones and laughing. I think it showed no respect at all for the dead, and I was
THANKS to Christopher Wardell for the many wonderful letters to HAS. He can’t go to another planet, as some recent correspondents have inferred. We need him here to make us laugh and brighten our day. What a brilliant sense of humour he has. It
HUGH Pender suggests a memorial to the fallen service personnel in Iraq (HAS, May 8). This is a good idea. However, it should be a mobile memorial consisting of a set of stocks that can be driven around the nation. These should be occupied for
THIS week, I am celebrating a tremendous victory over the might of corporate Britain. When the annals of the great triumphs of the little man are written, this will be up there with David beating Goliath and Darlo beating the Grim Reaper. Possibly
LABOUR MP David Chaytor has been suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party pending a watchdog investigation into his expenses, Downing Street announced today. Chief Whip Nick Brown took the decision after speaking to Mr Chaytor about a £13,000 claim
Durham estate agent Philip Taylor lost the chance of a job with a six-figure salary, but found love when he appeared on The Apprentice. He tells Steve Pratt that he wasn’t scared of his prospective boss, Sir Alan Sugar. FOR most of the hopefuls on
THE Formula One crisis is set to spill into the courtroom after it emerged Ferrari have applied for an injunction to proposed rule changes. FIA president Max Mosley, F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone and team representatives were locked in talks at a
THESE are dangerous times. MPs return to their constituencies this weekend to feel the full fury of the people. One MP, who claimed £4,000 for gardening, has had his lawn dug up; another, who has claimed a dubious £282,731 with her MP husband, has
MK Dons 0 Scunthorpe United 0 SCUNTHORPE edged through to the League One play-off final after a nerveshredding penalty shoot-out victory over MK Dons. Iron’s former Sunderland goalkeeper Joe Murphy saved two spot-kicks before ex- Chelsea striker
ASK provided Sir Michael Stoute with his second success in the Emirates Airline Yorkshire Cup as the 2-1 favourite landed a significant blow for punters on the final afternoon of York’s three-day May meeting. Seventeen years on from Rock Hopper
DARLINGTON striker Curtis Main will not be joining Fulham after the Premier League club decided to monitor the teenager’s progress. The 16-year-old spent last week on trial at Craven Cottage and impressed during a friendly match. Newcastle and
TWO weeks after making his first signing for next season, Hartlepool United boss Chris Turner followed it up with his second capture. Stockport County right winger Leon McSweeney has followed Adam Boyd to Victoria Park as Turner plots an improvement
ASTON Villa captain Martin Laursen has been forced into retirement at the age of just 31 by a persistent knee injury. Laursen had not played since the 2-1 win against West Brom on January 10, when he aggravated the problem he picked up the previous
Six years after first arriving at Hartlepool United, Joel Porter is finally heading home. Before his departure Down Under, Sports Editor Nick Loughlin met up with the striker at Victoria Park and discovered it’s not the first time he has contemplated
GUUS Hiddink insists he does not know whether Carlo Ancelotti will be the man to replace him as Chelsea manager but will look back on his own time at Stamford Bridge with pride. The AC Milan coach is tipped to replace the Dutchman amid suggestions
WEST Brom manager Tony Mowbray will have to rewrite the record books against Liverpool tomorrow to keep alive the club’s bid to pull off another ‘Great Escape’. The Baggies need to avoid defeat to take their battle for survival to the final game
GARETH Southgate has attacked the current fashion for players to engage in a lap of honour after the final home game of the season. The sight of a team making a triumphant parade around the pitch was traditionally reserved for cup final victors
FULHAM boss Roy Hodgson intends to delay Newcastle’s escape act but expects Alan Shearer’s presence to ultimately inspire the Magpies to survival. A 3-1 victory over Middlesbrough lifted Newcastle out of the Premier League relegation zone with
RAFAEL Benitez has refused to concede the Premier League title to Manchester United and called on Arsenal to prove they are better than their recent results. The Liverpool boss is defiantly clinging on to the faint hope that leaders United will
FAILING to earn a contract at Manchester United after a brief trial always left Teemu Tainio dreaming of playing in the Premier League and he is not prepared to give it up now. Sunderland’s predicament at the wrong end of the Premier League table
WHEN Newcastle United take on Fulham in their penultimate game of the season this afternoon, it is safe to say the chips will be down. Or at least they would be if they hadn’t become a taboo subject in the last two months. Since Alan Shearer
SIR Alex Ferguson claims equalling Liverpool’s record of league championship wins was the last thing on his mind when he joined Manchester United in 1986. The Merseyside giants had finished top on 18 occasions before United managed their first
ONLY eight points separate Norton from their visitors Benwell Hill before the start of their Dukes NEPL game this morning. Both sit in the bottom four, both still seeking their first win. The same Norton side that played well at Tynemouth last
Darlington Building Society NYSD Premier League IT’S derby day as four of the top six teams and rivals go head-to-head. At Fountains Garth Guisborough, handily placed in second spot, take on Great Ayton, currently sixth. The Priorymen are exhibiting
DURHAM cruised to a 60-run win in the battle to avoid the Group C wooden spoon after Surrey capitulated for 227 on a good pitch at The Oval. Michael Brown (15) was Surrey’s first casualty nine overs into the reply, edging to understudy keeper
YORKSHIRE’S director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon has hit out at the ECB for their scheduling of Durham’s most recent fixtures. The men from Riverside have drawn the shortest of straws, playing on eight days out of the last ten in two
TWO childminders from Barnard Castle are celebrating after receiving "outstanding" Ofsted reports. Kerry Jevons and Rachel Hanley are both members of the Teesdale Quality Assured Childminding Network. Mrs Jevons inspection report said
ANDREW Flintoff’s possible unavailability for next month’s World Twenty20 would be a ‘‘huge blow’’ to England but one they are capable of overcoming, according to captain Paul Collingwood. Durham batsman Collingwood is to lead his country in
DURHAM have offered a double compensation boost to anyone who was due to attend yesterday’s washout at Riverside. As well as receiving a full refund following the abandonment of an entire day’s play, anyone with a ticket for yesterday’s second
THE head of the England and Wales Cricket Board last night expressed sympathy for Durham’s plight after the second day of the second Test between England and West Indies was abandoned without a ball being bowled, but defended the decision to play
THE meticulous restoration of a famous mechanical swan has won an award. The £34,000 restoration of the Silver Swan, at the Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle, has been recognised in the 2009 Museums and Heritage Awards for Excellence, announced
ALAN Shearer has launched an impassioned defence of under-fire Newcastle skipper Michael Owen, warning the misfiring striker’s critics: “Write him off at your peril.” Reports in yesterday’s Daily Express suggested Owen was ready to quit football
A RAPIST who plied his teenage victim with alcohol before assaulting her has been sentenced to ten years in prison. Ivan Victor Coates, 66, of Tunstall, near Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, pleaded guilty to two counts of rape against the
THE pain of recession eased a little yesterday, with a surprise fall in the number of families on the brink of losing their homes across the region. County courts reported 3,005 repossession orders against householders unable to pay their mortgage
THREE members of staff at a North-East school have been suspended. An internal investigation has been launched at Harrow Gate Primary School, Stockton, but the names of the staff involved have not been disclosed. Stockton Borough Council chiefs
GARDENERS have been devastated by a spate of break-ins at allotments over the past fortnight. Burglars have targeted 25 plots near Stanley, County Durham. Padlocks and chains were removed using bolt-cutters, by thieves who have stolen tools and
FORMER railwaymen who rose through the ranks on the tracks have celebrated a 50th anniversary lunch. The Hinds’ Lunch is held monthly in The Coachman Hotel, Darlington, for former middle and senior railway managers. It was set up 50 years ago
FORMER Cabinet minister Alan Milburn has urged the professions to recognise that “Britain’s got talent” and to open their doors to people regardless of their social background. Earlier this year, the Darlington MP announced that he was working
WORKERS at car company Honda’s Swindon plant will face a three per cent pay cut when the company resumes production next month after a four-month shutdown as a result of a slump in the market. The Japanese company said the cut would be temporary
A FORMER serviceman who was injured in Iraq has given an emotional talk to girls at a North-East school. Duncan Moyse visited Polam Hall School, in Darlington, to pay tribute to the school’s support for the Help for Heroes campaign. Mr Moyse
THE FTSE 100 Index struggled for direction despite a boost for Barclays and a positive start on Wall Street. Barclays rose as much as ten per cent at one point as it confirmed takeover interest in its Barclays Global Investors division, which
AN Olympic medallist performed the opening ceremony for a new spa facility at County Durham’s only retirement village. Bronze medallist Joanne Jackson, the 400-metre freestyle world recordholder, performed the honours at the £500,000 centre
AN aerospace company where workers are due to strike next week has denied transferring work from the North-East to a plant in Cambridge. About 80 GMB union members at CAV Aerospace, in Consett, County Durham, will take the first of two days of
A CYCLIST is preparing to ride across the country in a single day for charity. Doug Winham, from County Durham, plans to start the 135-mile ride at Workington, on the Cumbrian coast, tomorrow. The father-of-two hopes to complete his leg-weary
A DELIGHTED pet owner has been given a big squeeze by the reptile he lost seven months ago. Raymond Myers is now reunited with the 5ft snake Jake, who vanished during a family party – only to turn up in his terrified neighbour’s bathroom. Relieved
THE Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, will be conducting the funeral service of a bishop who had built a retirement home in a North Pennines village. The Right Reverend Ian Cundy, Bishop of Peterborough, died while on a family outing
UNION leaders and bosses at crisis-hit steel plant Corus have pledged to explore all avenues in the hope of saving up to 3,000 jobs. The livelihoods of 2,000 workers and a further 1,000 contractors at the plant in Redcar, east Cleveland, were
TWO proud parents have been showing off their new family. The two swans have been attracting a lot of attention from passers-by as they have been swimming with their two cygnets on the River Skerne, in Darlington. There were fears that the
A NORTH-EAST town is to host the first World Chicken Chucking Championship. As part of the annual Meet in Barnard Castle next weekend, tourists and locals will be challenged to throw a rubber chicken as far as they can. The idea came
A MAN who stabbed a drug addict with a kitchen knife, missing his heart by a millimetre, has been jailed for more than five years. Thomas Anthony Sherlock plunged the blade into amphetamine user Stephen Lea’s stomach after Mr Lea and two friends
DETECTIVES investigating the disappearance of university chef Claudia Lawrence are trying to track down two men who they believe could be key witnesses. Images of both were captured on CCTV near the 35- year-old’s home early in the morning
A POLICE fraud inquiry into expenses claims made by some MPs could be launched as early as next week. Amid a growing public outcry, a panel of senior Scotland Yard officers and prosecutors will meet to decide what action to take over claims some
DURHAM must show ambition if it is to be named the first British Capital of Culture, the Government minister behind the scheme has said. Fears have been raised that Durham will be overlooked in favour of a larger city. Culture Secretary
A POLICE fraud inquiry into expenses claims made by some MPs could be launched as early as next week. Amid a growing public outcry, a panel of senior Scotland Yard officers and prosecutors will meet to decide what action to take over claims
A TEENAGER was taken to hospital with a suspected broken leg after the car he was in collided with a lamppost. The accident happened around 9.30pm last night(FRI) at Clarendon Square, Carley Hill in Sunderland. The teenager, the only occupant of the
