SPORTS SESSIONS: Pay and play badminton sessions in Hartlepool are offering workers the chance to get fit during their lunch breaks. Organised by the Borough Council’s Sport and Physical Activity Team, they are being held on Mondays from 12-2pm at the Mill House Leisure Centre and cost just £2 per week. Due to the forthcoming Bank Holiday, the next session will take place on May 13. For further information call 01429-284047 or just turn up on the day.

CLASSROOM POLITICS: Students from Prior Pursglove College in Guisborough were given an insight into politics when Tom Blenkinsop, Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, and Anna Turley, Labour and Co-operative Parliamentary candidate for Redcar, visited to talk to students them about what a career in politics was like and why it was important that young people expressed their views.

PUBLIC SURVEY: Residents are being urged to look out for the Hartlepool Household Survey that could be dropping through their letterbox soon. Hartlepool Borough Council has teamed up with key partner organisations to distribute around 18,500 copies of the survey to homes across the town and the responses received will help shape public services in the future. The survey is being posted out to a random sample of households and they have until May 31 to complete and return the form.

GARDEN SHOW: The 17th Preston Park Garden Show takes place this Bank Holiday weekend between 10am and 5.30pm each day. Tickets for the event at Preston Hall Park, Eaglescliffe, near Stockton, cost £4.50 for adults, OAPs £4 and £1.50 for children.