A father and his three young sons were towed 12 miles to safety by a lifeboat after the engine on their speedboat failed on the south side of the South Gare lighthouse, near the mouth of the River Tees. The boat, named Southern Comfort, put out a distress call to the Humber coastguard at about 5.45pm on Wednesday. The Redcar Atlantic 75 lifeboat, Leicester Challenge II, attended and Senior Helmsman Michael Picknett decided to tow the boat and its crew, a 38-year-old man and his sons, aged 14, ten and eight, of Bishopton Road, Stockton, back to their base at the Tees Barrage, in Stockton. The journey took about an hour and a half.

PEDESTRIAN HURT: A 43-year-old man suffered minor injuries after he was in collision with a police car that was on its way to an emergency call. The pedestrian was injured as he crossed Albert Road, Middlesbrough, near to the Cleveland Centre, at 1.10pm yesterday. He received injuries to his right ankle but did not require hospital treatment. A Cleveland Police spokeswoman said the incident was being investigated.

SUMMER FAIR: Hartburn Primary School is staging its summer fair this month. The event will run from 6pm to 8pm on Monday, July 15 in the school grounds at Adelaide Grove, Stockton. Attractions include stalls, face painting, raffle and tombola, bouncy castles and games for all the family. Admission costs 30p, and free for accompanied children. Proceeds will go towards supporting projects in the school.

Headgehog heaven: Anyone interested in hedgehogs is being invited to visit Castle Eden Walkway, Thorpe Thewles on Sunday, from 2pm to 4pm, to find out all about them. For more details, contact (01740) 630011.

SEA RESCUE: Redcar RNLI Inshore Lifeboat towed the pleasure craft Southern Comfort 2, with four people on board, back to Redcar after it requested assistance following engine failure off South Gare.

ROAD CLOSURE: An articulated lorry carrying a container of paper overturned on the A66 southbound sliproad on to the A19 in Middlesbrough, at 6.45am yesterday morning. The driver escaped with minor injuries and the road was closed until mid-morning.