THE bitter wrangle over plans to merge one of the North-East's best-performing schools with one of its worst went to the heart of Tony Blair's education reforms. Less than 24 hours after the Government's Education Bill required Conservative support to
A MEDICAL diagnostics company that has seen its turnover nearly double in two years expects to continue to grow and increase exports. Turnover at Hart Biologicals Limited has increased from £173,000 in 2003 to £326,000 last year. Orders in January and
STEWART DOWNING'S part in Middlesbrough's glorious triumph in Rome impressed Sven Goran Eriksson and the dazzling winger has been left dreaming of a UEFA Cup and World Cup double. With England boss Eriksson in the stands at the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday
A FURNITURE manufacturer will shed between ten and 12 jobs in the coming weeks as it moves its operations from three factories into one. The second phase of job cuts at Europa Sofabeds and Brundellwood Upholstery, both run by the same management, is part
DESPITE his many midfield options, Darlington manager David Hodgson is ready to turn to teenage rookie Mark McLeod for tomorrow's visit of Carlisle. With Clark Keltie beginning a four-match ban, Hodgson is considering handing 19-year-old McLeod his professional
A MEDICAL diagnostics company that has seen its turnover nearly double in two years expects to continue to grow and increase exports. Turnover at Hart Biologicals Limited has increased from £173,000 in 2003 to £326,000 last year. Orders in January and
A CATERER has been forced to remove her daughter's name from her products after a complaint from a tea room company. Seven-year-old Betty Guy is said to be far from impressed her name will no longer be associated with the range of children's frozen meals
DARLINGTON Mowden Park will be without last week's two best forwards for tomorrow's crucial National Three North survival battle at New Brighton. Luke Monument is unavailable, and after giving the club loyal service in recent weeks Eni Gisende is saving
As a detective chief inspector in Hartlepool in the mid-nineties, I was often asked to speak in other force areas about the success we had had in cutting crime. Chief Constable Barry Shaw would always check that his counterpart in that area had no objections
NEWCASTLE midfielder James Milner last night turned his back on the Magpies and urged David O'Leary to secure him a summer move to Aston Villa. Milner, who is on a season-long loan at Villa Park, is due to return to St James' at the end of the season.
THE partner of a woman who was killed in her home made his first appearance before a judge yesterday accused of killing her. Peter Wyatt, 51, appeared at Teesside Crown Court accused of killing Audrey Badger, 42, at her house in Stirling Way, Thornaby
THE Prime Minister and his former Health Secretary have stepped in to find a compromise in an escalating dispute over the future of two schools, The Northern Echo can reveal. Darlington Borough Council has backed down on plans to force Hurworth School
BAD SCHEME: I AM appalled at the Government's suggestion to pay gangsters to behave (Echo, Mar 9). Bad parenting has to come into this equation somewhere. Fifty years ago there was no such nonsense of paying gangsters to be good. It's outrageous. Where
A GUNMAN who masterminded a botched gangland execution in which an innocent pensioner was shot dead as he enjoyed a quiet pint was yesterday jailed for 15 years. Retired miner Fred Fowler died in a hail of bullets after Robert Fox and hired hitman Robert
GYMNASTICS is no longer the preserve of able-bodied athletes. Youngster with disabilities and learning difficulties across the North-East now have the opportunity to take part in the sport. About 60 competitors, aged seven to 16, were involved in the
A MAN took delivery of a motor scooter he had bought on an Internet auction site, and then went for a test drive despite having no insurance, a court heard yesterday. Justin Jefferson, 31, of Hebron Road, Stokesley pleaded guilty to charges of driving
TEAMS of undercover underage "drinkers" have helped to slash illegal sales of booze to youngsters, a report claimed yesterday. The policy is likely to be extended in the hope it will have similar effects on sales of aerosol sprays and cigarettes. Last
SHOPPERS were surprised to see what appeared to be Marilyn Monroe in a North Yorkshire high street this week. A student from Harrogate High School dressed up as the famous blonde to promote a range of jewellery designed by the school's enterprise company
PEOPLE in Chester-le-Street can use an online calculator to determine what benefits they are due. By answering a few questions on the council's website, people undertake a self-assessment to see whether they qualify before making a formal application
THE former head chef at the awarding-winning Star Inn, at Harome, near Helmsley, is to open his own restaurant near Beverley. James Mackenzie and his partner, Kate Boroughs, will open the doors of The Pipe and Glass, at South Dalton, on Thursday. The
WORK started this week on a £4m business village that could bring up to 160 jobs to Northallerton. The chairman of Hambleton District Council, Councillor Peter Brown, cut the first turf on the Omega Business Village at Northallerton Business Park, off
A MAN hanged himself just days short of the tenth anniversary of his son's death. An inquest in Middlesbrough heard that Stephen Collinson Jnr died in October 1995. Following the death of his 23-year-old son, Stephen Collinson Snr started drinking. Mr
JOES EDGE (3.15) has the potential to spring one of the biggest upsets of all time in this afternoon's £400,000 Cheltenham Gold Cup. I'll probably end up with egg over my face judged by his crazy odds of 150-1, however he owes followers of this column
A VOLUNTEER support group has set up a scheme to help community organisations across Teesdale and Wear Valley get online. To many groups, a website is too expensive and difficult to manage, but 2D has set up the scheme to make it possible for their members
A NEIGHBOURHOOD'S street wardens are heroes in the eyes of the people who live there. Residents have successfully nominated Steve Westwood, Tom Gatley and Linda Irvin for "Oscars". The three, who patrol Middlesbrough's Saltersgill estate, funded by landlord
SCORES of schoolgirls are taking up the beautiful game to keep fit and extend their knowledge. Girls under ten from 50 schools across Teesside are taking part in the Three Lions Girls World Cup Festival. Festival organiser Paul Kreczak said each team
A COUNCIL has welcomed the findings of a public inquiry into land caught up in a development scheme on Teesside. Residents called for the inquiry last year in a bid to get land known as Coatham Common, in Redcar, designated a village green. But the area
CAMPAIGNERS from North Yorkshire are calling for tougher arms trade controls. Staff from the Oxfam shop in Richmond are urging people to sign up to the Million Faces petition. More than 750,000 people have already joined the campaign for an international
COUNCIL officials have issued parking warnings to football fans. Up to 3,000 away fans are expected at this weekend's match between Darlington FC and Carlisle United, and council wardens patrolling close to the 96.6TFM Arena are to ensure the residents-only
A CONSETT school is highlighting the benefits of an education system that helps pupils overcome mobility problems. Villa Real School is celebrating National Conductive Education Awareness Week by giving presentations on the programme to staff from Sure
SUNDERLAND has hardly been a byword for sporting success in recent years but, when the Commonwealth Games boxing tournament starts today, Tony Jeffries will be desperate to uphold the city's proud gold-medal winning heritage. In 2002, Sunderland ABC's
FORMER Robocop Ray Mallon has really lived up to his name. For five weeks the ex-CID chief went about his duties without realising he had a broken leg. In fact, Middlesbrough's mayor, who earned the nickname Robocop for his zero-tolerance policing, could
MATHEW Tait led the North-East's Commonwealth Games medal charge yesterday as England's rugby sevens side edged a thrilling group game with hosts Australia to set up a quarter-final tussle with Samoa. Having scored a hat-trick of tries as England thrashed
MIDDLESBROUGH'S reward for knocking out Italian giants AS Roma in the last round will see them face Swiss side Basle in the quarter-finals of the Uefa Cup. Boro sealed their place in the last eight of the competition after eliminating the competition
POLICE investigating the abduction of a six-year-old girl yesterday arrested three people on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. Detectives are still hunting a man who snatched the child from her bath in her Willington Quay home in North Tyneside
A FAMOUS old advertising slogan has been revived as part of a major new road safety campaign across the North-East. Clunk, Click - Every Trip, which was first aired as a public information film on TV in the 1970s, will feature in a new push to encourage
FOOTBALL fans caught up in violence in Rome were last night scathing about their treatment at the hands of the police. While supporters praised the help they got from travelling officers from Teesside, they condemned Italian police for their handling
UNSETTLED Sunderland striker Andy Gray is expected to leave the club next week, with Championship strugglers Burnley negotiating a permanent deal. Gray's future has been the subject of some conjecture in recent weeks, with both Preston and Leeds having
Sven Goran Eriksson's bid to delay the deadline for naming his World Cup squad has failed. Eriksson and other European coaches wanted FIFA to put the deadline back from May 15 until June 5. They made their case at a workshop in Dusseldorf yesterday but
A CONSORTIUM has pulled out of the fight for the contract to build and run the new Tyne Tunnel. T4, which includes Edmund Nuttall, Mowlem plc and Vinci SA, withdrew because ownership of one of the companies has changed hands. The two remaining bidders
Apart from being an adorable family pet, Yogi the chocolate Labrador is smarter that the average dog... and a lot more useful to his owner. Health Editor Barry Nelson meets the North-East's latest TV celebrities. DANIEL George still can't believe what
A DEFIANT Tony Blair last night called for a new debate within the Labour Party on how it should face the challenges of the coming decade and lay the foundations of a fourth General Election victory. In a combative speech delivered in his Sedgefield constituency
STEELMAKER Corus last night voiced its concern about spiralling energy costs, despite increasing its profits in 2005 - its second year back in the black. The Anglo-Dutch company, formerly British Steel, said energy bills were £20m higher in the first
Yesterday's announcement brings an end to months of uncertainty surrounding education in Darlington. Political editor Chris Lloyd looks at the political manoeuvring surrounding the issue. POLITICS is often about the unsayable. For the past nine months
AN MP is taking legal advice after allegations made by a senior councillor that she "bent the rules" to have a multi-million pound housing development called in by the Government. The increasingly strained relations between Lib Dem-controlled Durham City
DARLINGTON Football Club have announced their new chairman as North-East property developer George Houghton. Millionaire Mr Houghton, 65, has bought the club for an undisclosed fee, and will take over from Stewart Davies as chairman from 3pm tomorrow
THE life and death of a celebrated women's rights campaigner will be celebrated at a conference in the North-East this weekend. The day-long event, to be attended by Home Office Minister Fiona McTaggart, is being staged to mark the 100th anniversary of
STEWART DOWNING'S part in Middlesbrough's glorious triumph in Rome impressed Sven Goran Eriksson and the dazzling winger has been left dreaming of a UEFA Cup and World Cup double. With England boss Eriksson in the stands at the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday
STEELMAKER Corus last night voiced its concern about spiralling energy costs, despite increasing its profits in 2005 - its second year back in the black. The Anglo-Dutch company, formerly British Steel, said energy bills were £20m higher in the first
THE Conservative opposition group on Darlington Borough Council is demanding to know why more steps were not taken to research the location of a gas pipe before the Pedestrian Heart project got under way. On Wednesday, The Northern Echo revealed that
MAGISTRATES told a woman she must muzzle her dog in public after it bit a postman. Anne Robinson, of Chapel Row, Eppleby, near Richmond, appeared at Northallerton Magistrates Court yesterday. The court heard that her small Irish wolfhound, Biggles, bit
A LENGTHY investigation into heroin dealing on Teesside has ended with two men being sentenced to a total of five-and-a-half years in prison. When police raided Terence Moloney's Middlesbrough home in December, 2003, a sniffer dog discovered £100,000
TEAMS of young enthusiasts built an array of model bridges yesterday in a challenge contest to mark National Science Week. They used paper cups, clothes pegs, lollipop sticks, straws, cardboard, paper and glue to produce a variety of structures in the
CHILDREN'S play facilities are to be improved with a £200,000 Lottery cash grant. The Big Lottery Fund has allocated the money to Richmondshire District Council. The council will now draw up a plan on how to spend the money. Councillors from the community
TRADERS were dismayed yesterday after eye-catching window displays were removed from an empty town centre store - because of a threat to charge rates on it. Volunteers filled the window with photographs, posters and ornaments because they felt the unused
A SUPPORT group for patients and carers living with breathing problems is celebrating its first anniversary. The Bishop Auckland Breath Easy group opened last March with local GP James Carlton and The Northern Echo's Mike Amos as guest speakers. The aim
POLICE swooped on a number of properties in Bishop Auckland - including a bank, a school and a high street store - and carried out four "arrests". The arrests were in aid of a Butterwick Hospice event called Jail'em and Bail'em, where colleagues and customers
THE life and death of a celebrated women's rights campaigner will be celebrated at a conference in the North-East this weekend. The day-long event, to be attended by Home Office Minister Fiona McTaggart, is being staged to mark the 100th anniversary of
A COUNCIL and police officers have stepped up their fight against thieves targeting town allotments. Ferryhill Town Council and Ferryhill police are using the Smart Water property marking system to boost security at local sites. Sergeant Kelvin Vincent
IF Chaetan Kotur has designs on fast cars when he leaves school, he is off to a racing start. The 15-year-old has won £1,500 for his school, Yarm School, with his winning design for a Jaguar 4x4 model. The teenager is also being treated to a visit to
A TOWN council that objected to new dog kennels is urging residents to voice any concerns with the development before it wins permanent planning consent. Last month, Sedgefield Borough Council approved plans to set up boarding kennels in Ferryhill despite
A £10,000 grant has been provided for a community learning facility. The money has been pledged by Richmondshire District Council for the extension to Gilling West village hall. Villagers plan to use the facility for activities including computer lessons
A CHARITY shop was opened yesterday to provide much-needed income for Marie Curie Cancer Care. BBC Radio Newcastle presenter Sue Sweeney cut the ribbon to open the shop in Front Street, Chester-le-Street. The comedienne said: "Few of us will go through
MOTORISTS are facing a fine if they continue to take illegal short cuts along a one-way street. Council officials have noticed an increase in the number of vehicles driving the wrong way along Errol Street on to York Road, in Hartlepool. They have alerted
PUPILS are using their pens and pencils to help keep their village free of dog fouling. More than 140 children at Pittington Primary School, near Durham City, took part in a competition, organised by Belinda Snow, the city council's area neighbourhood
A MUSIC student who has been crowned Darlington's top young DJ could soon be heard on local radio. Joe Newman, 17, was one of the finalists in the Darlington heat of a mix-off, which hopes to find undiscovered DJ talent. Similar competitions are also
KIND-HEARTED students at Darlington College rolled into action recently to raise money for their classmate to buy a wheelchair. Youngsters on the Pathways course staged a series of events to raise the money for student Terri Litten who was facing a two-year
A DOG which has twice found herself homeless is hoping to be third time lucky. The crossbreed Kelsa is at Deerness Kennels in Mill Road, Langley Moor, Durham, after her latest owner fell ill. RSPCA spokesman Angela Taylor said: "We are hoping it will
RADIO presenter Sue Sweeney will bring the hammer down on an auction next week to help pupils on a scientific trip of a lifetime. The 24 students from Framwellgate School, in Durham, are going to Egypt on a conservation trip in July. They have raised
A SUPPORT group to help children with Down's syndrome learn and have fun is to expand after securing a £7,000 grant. The Darlington Down's syndrome Education Trust has announced plans to launch a Saturday Club in addition to its usual Friday sessions.
A MAN has been given a restraining order after making threats to kill his son's aunt. Joseph James Hope, 45, of Wordsworth Road, Darlington, bombarded Betty Hawkins and her family with abusive and threatening phone calls after she reported his son to
A MAN broke into a house to attack a teenager he suspected of carrying out a rape. Durham Crown Court heard that Michael David Holdsworth reacted angrily on being told a woman he knew had been raped. He was given the name of a person suspected of carrying
A REFORMING heroin addict escaped a jail sentence yesterday for the second time in just over a month. Jamie Maesepp, 27, was given a chance five weeks ago to prove he could kick his habit when he was handed a community sentence for two theft offences
YOUNGSTERS from the Newtown Youth Drama group will be depicting life in Stockton with their play, Newtown Dream. It includes factual information and a fictional depiction of life in Stockton. It will bring to life historical people and places from the
A MEDICAL diagnostics company that has seen its turnover nearly double in two years expects to continue to grow and increase exports. Turnover at Hart Biologicals Limited has increased from £173,000 in 2003 to £326,000 last year. Orders in January and
A GUNMAN who masterminded a botched gangland execution in which an innocent pensioner was shot dead as he enjoyed a quiet pint was yesterday jailed for 15 years. Retired miner Fred Fowler died in a hail of bullets after Robert Fox and hired hitman Robert
At 16 and 5ft 7ins tall, Gary Tiplady thought he'd stopped growing. But by 20, a medical condition saw him shoot up to 7ft 3ins. He tells Lindsay Jennings how he has forged a successful career out of his disability. I'VE just walked into Gary Tiplady's
TOP o' the mornin' to y'all. You might have awoken on St Patrick's Day to find white stuff on the ground, but the black stuff will be flowing from Dublin to Cheltenham and the Irish rugby team will emerge at Twickenham tomorrow in no fit state to take
A NORTH-EAST council which has scrapped controversial plans to shut nine care homes could face a fight over the future of another four homes earmarked for closure back in 2001. Members of Durham County Council's cabinet will next week be recommended to
THE country's first sporting academy to specialise in women's cricket has been launched in the North-East. The move follows England's Ashes victory over Australia, which helped make cricket the nation's fastest growing sport. Former England women's cricket
THE Prime Minister and his former Health Secretary have stepped in to find a compromise to an escalating row over the future of two schools, The Northern Echo can reveal. Darlington Borough Council has backed down on plans to force Hurworth School and
A SERIES of operational failures and ignored orders in the days leading up to the slaughter of six Red Caps were laid bare at an inquest yesterday. As a baying mob descended on the Royal Military Policemen in the southern Iraqi town of Al Majar Al Kabir
Boro's recent success has been based on the quality of the young players who have come through the Academy. Paul Fraser reports on a seemingly never-ending production line. HAVING achieved one of the most memorable victories in Middlesbrough's history
FORMER Robocop Ray Mallon worked for five weeks without realising he had a broken leg. For the past six weeks, the Mayor of Middlesbrough has been limping badly after he injured a tendon while on a training run and fell a week later. He soldiered on,
Tony Blair hailed the North-East workforce as an example to the rest of the country while visiting the Nissan motor plant to help officially launch the companys latest model. Since production began at the Sunderland plant 20 years ago more than four million
A gang of rogue builders who conned more than £140,000 out of elderly victims and spent it on booze will be sentenced today. They admitted defrauding 11 people living in North Yorkshire and Teesside by repeatedly charging for unnecessary, shoddy and often
A SERIES of operational failures and ignored orders in the days leading up to the slaughter of six Red Caps were laid bare at an inquest yesterday. As a baying mob descended on the Royal Military Policemen in the southern Iraqi town of Al Majar Al Kabir
There's a new baked bean on the block - and it's proving so popular we decided to put it to the test in a tasty bout with on old heavyweight. A million housewives every day pick up a can of beans and say: "Beanz meanz... Branston". Branston? Yes, there's
POLICE have successfully stamped out a plague of pickpocketing with a simple strategy that would have foiled the Artful Dodger - handing out hundreds of tiny cat bells to shoppers for free. The bells, linked to a split ring, are simply attached to purses
A football club has warned it must be allowed to stage other activities at its stadium to guarantee its long-term future. Darlington FC has applied to the borough council for permission to relax conditions restricting the events that can be held at its
