Stories for 17 December 2007
The Northern Echo News
Gymnasts show their skills on stage
NEARLY 200 gymnasts have more...
Scandal of 130,000 homeless children
MORE than 130,000 children in more...
New North-East rail link to run first train
A NEW train company plans to more...
Teen faces life for killing friend
A TEENAGER was facing life in custody today after admitting he stabbed his 15-year-old friend to death. more...
Act of faith as canon takes on pantomime role
BY day, Canon Paul more...
Eco village planned for Wynyard
PLANS to build an estate of 2,000 houses on Teesside have been unveiled. more...
Thick birthday card causes headache for husband
ALAN Thompson is not exactly a big fan of fancy birthday cards - or the Royal Mail's new charging policy. more...
Teenage girl dies in road smash
ACCIDENT investigators today appealed for information following a road collision in which a teenage girl was killed. more...
Solar panels and turbines for NE schools
Region ‘too remote’ for the return of gospels
THE Lindisfarne Gospels will not more...
Youngsters join in with active Christmas fun
DOZENS of children have taken part in more...
Door still open for lap-dancing
A NEW licensing policy will not protect a North-East city from further attempts to open lap dancing clubs, a council has said. more...
Students eye Olympic success after call-up
COLLEGE students have leapt, more...
Annabel’s night to shine
FAMILIES turned out in force more...
Costume drama proves a storm in a D cup
SADIE The Bra Lady helped ensure more...
Drug addict stole copper piping to buy heroin
A HOMELESS man who broke into a house he thought was empty and stripped it of copper piping could have caused a gas leak, a court heard. more...
Canoeman sons meet with police
THE two sons of back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin are still being treated as witnesses in the investigation, Cleveland Police police said today. more...
Footballer's mum jailed for drugs
Santa Claus-trophobia
SHOPPERS could be forgiven more...
Killer jailed
Husband subjected wife to year of harassment
A MAN subjected his estranged wife to a year of harassment as they went through a bitter divorce, a court heard.Brian Bulmer threatened the woman, shouted and abused her at work and sat in his car outside her home, often through the night, despite her moving house twice.Durham Crown Court heard that his antics included sneaking up behind her and saying: "I've got you now."Paul Hunter, prosecuting, said he threatened her with a knife and demanded she take a £30,000 settlement for their former marital home.He said: "She was petrified, but she managed to pacify him and then spent an hour talking it through."Mr Hunter said it culminated in Bulmer parking in his van outside her home on October 2.Her new boyfriend went to speak to Bulmer, who twice drove his van towards him, narrowly missing him.A confrontation developed in which Bulmer twice landed "glancing blows" to his forearm and head with a rubber mallet, causing minor injuries.Bulmer, 55, of Sunnyside, Merrybent, Darlington, admitted putting a person in fear of violence by harassment and assault causing actual bodily harm.Ian West, in mitigation, said: "This was an acrimonious divorce."Until his wife left him for another man, he had never been in trouble before."Mr West said Bulmer, a self-employed window fitter, has led an "industrious life", building the former marital home in School Aycliffe.He said: "He feared he would lose the house and be forced to sell."He was trying to keep the roof over his head by offering her a sum of money without being forced to sell the house."Mr West said Bulmer was eventually ordered to pay her half the value of the home.He said: "This is at the core of the case. He felt he was being taken for a ride by his wife."Judge Tony Lancaster told Bulmer: "It was probably difficult for you to adjust and accept the breakdown of your marriage, but you went too far."The judge imposed a two-year order banning Bulmer from contacting his wife or her boyfriend.He was also ordered to perform 100 hours of unpaid work as part of an 18-month supervision order. more...
Workers to lose jobs
A MAJOR tourist attraction has been mothballed for the next three months while its owners seek decisions on its future.Twenty-five workers will lose their jobs when Harperley Prisoner of War Camp, in County Durham, shuts on Sunday.Owners James and Lisa McLeod will try to let out the nine shop units on the site while they concentrate on opening historic wartime huts, including a theatre built by prisoners, as a museum.Harperley joined an elite list of historic sites when it was added to a national list of scheduled monuments in 2002.A year later, it narrowly missed a place in the final of the BBC television show Restoration, in which run-down buildings compete for a £3m grant from English Heritage.When it opened to the public in Easter 2004, a taskforce working to regenerate Weardale following job losses hailed it as a flagship project and a key element in its strategy.But the McLeods said their business has become stale while they have waited for decisions from outside groups over developing the museum by restoring the site's 49 huts, built for low-risk German and Italian Second World War prisoners.They want urgent talks in the new year to try to reach agreement with English Heritage, Wear Valley District Council and Durham County Council.Mr McLeod said yesterday: "We hope the place will reopen, but we will not be running the shops."All-out efforts will go into getting the museum up and running. We have waited four years and have attended countless meetings, but we cannot get agreement over the way forward."People want to see the huts. The place has enormous potential. It could be of national and international importance. "The situation is very frustrating, and we feel really deflated that this has had to happen."We have lost money this year, partly because of the bad summer weather and partly because people just will not come back until the museum is open."People think we were given money by English Heritage, but we have not had a penny from anyone apart from a £214,000 diversification grant from Defra for the car park. "We have put in £1m of our own money and we have an investor lined up, but we cannot make any progress."Neil Stonehouse, the leader of Wear Valley District Council, said: "It is a shame. What could have been achieved there was considerable, but I do not think it has been for a number of reasons."No one from English Heritage or the county council was available for comment. more...
Questions for council as asbestos inquiry opens
THE inquiry into an asbestos scandal that put the lives of workers at a sports centre at risk will start today.Independent assessors will try to establish why Wear Valley District Council ignored reports about asbestos levels at Woodhouse Close Leisure Complex, in Bishop Auckland.In August, the council was fined £18,000 by Government health inspectors after staff were allowed to work unprotected in the centre's boiler room for five years, even though bosses had been warned of the danger.The inquiry will be held at the council's Civic Centre headquarters, in Crook, County Durham, and will be chaired by Peter Kemp, a retired council chief executive with more than 30 years' experience. He will be joined on the panel by six district councillors - two each from the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Independent groups.Robert Batie, 56, who worked at the leisure centre for 13 years until 2003, said last night: "I'm looking forward to it getting started. "I just want to see what happens. I might go along myself, but there's not much I can do."I can't understand how people who are supposed to be responsible can let something like that happen."Councillors decided to hold the inquiry in public and appoint an independent chairman to ensure it is "fair and transparent".Discussions will only be held in private if they relate to an officer not directly involved in the case, or if confidentiality is in the public interest. The council admitted six serious breaches of health and safety law in court, but none of the executives in charge at the time were able to appear because they had since moved to different jobs. The district council was told about the asbestos in 2001, but did nothing to treat it, or to protect staff from the danger, until January last year, when a maintenance worker found out about the report and complained to the Health and Safety Executive.Richard Bishop, the inspector who led the investigation, described the breach as the worst he had ever seen.The inquiry begins at 6pm. For a report on the first day of the proceedings, read The Northern Echo tomorrow. more...
Villages are left without power
A NUMBER of villages and towns were without power yesterday after a blackout lasting several hours.Residents in Coundon, Leeholme, Old Eldon and Windlestone, in south-west Durham, were in the dark from 2am following a cable fault.Members of the public said that they had been given several revised estimates of when power would come back on, with each one coming and going without success.Derek Cattell, who lives in Windlestone Park, on the outskirts of Windlestone, said the area had been affected by power shortages several times in the past. He said: "It seems, if you will excuse the pun, that this area is something of a blackspot."Our area is prone to power cuts."In recent months, there had not been a problem, but a couple of years ago it was really bad."At one stage, we were averaging one hour without power every month."We thought we had got over that, but perhaps not."He said there was no gas supply in Windlestone Park, meaning people were suffering in the cold weather.Residents say that between 2000 and 2004, the power supply was notoriously unreliable.NEDL, which supplies the power, was unavailable for comment yesterday, but released a recorded statement via their telephone helpline. It apologised to customers for the cuts, which it said was due to a high-voltage cable fault.Power had been expected to be restored by early evening last night.A spokesman for Ofgem, which regulates electricity supply, said that if power was down for 18 hours or more, residents would be entitled to compensation. more...
George shuns presents for charity Christmas fair
A KIND-HEARTED six-year-old has shown true Christmas spirit by making his only wish to hold a charity fair to save children's lives.While most boys want Santa to bring them a Nintendo Wii or a Dr Who voice-changer mask, George Mordue has requested something to help others.The only item on his Christmas list is to save children's lives in Africa and Brazil by raising money for Oxfam.George came up with his unusual request after he learnt about the plight of children in developing countries at school and, with the help of his parents, has got his Christmas wish.He and his family held a Christmas fair at their house in the Blackwell area of Darlington on Saturday, with crafts, cakes and mulled wine, a raffle and an Oxfam stall staffed by volunteers from the charity shop, in Skinnergate, selling Traidcraft and Fairtrade goods.Staff from the Kids and Co nursery, in Borough Road, volunteered to look after children at the event.George's mother, Iris Pichl-Mordue, a community development worker at Darlington Borough Council, said her son had not asked for anything else from Santa."I said to him, 'George, what do you want for Christmas?' and he said, 'I want to save children's lives'."So we sat down and went through the Oxfam catalogue together and he said, 'I want to have a Christmas fair'. So we started organising it."He still hasn't told me what else he wants."He woke up on the morning of the fair and I said to him, 'Today's your big day'. He said to me, 'No, it's everyone's big day'."I thought it was just nice of him to be thinking about other people."He is the sort of little boy who is always donating his pocket money to charity."Seeing things on television and in magazines about people living in poverty in Africa can scare other children, but it does not scare George. He just wants to change it."She said she and George's father, Tom, would be willing to make it an annual event if George wanted to hold the fair again.She said: "We are very, very proud of George."Helen Frankland, from Oxfam, said: "I think it is absolutely fantastic. When I met him on Saturday morning, I thought he was a lovely little boy."George said he was hoping the fair would raise £2,000.He said: "I want to help children in Africa and Brazil so they do not die. It is really important." more...
Couple deny baby's murder
A HEAVILY-PREGNANT woman and her ex-partner today denied the murder of their five-month-old daughter. more...
Mum pays tribute to tragic daughter
Two arrested over assault
TWO teenagers were arrested after an aasault outside a pub which left a 50-year-old man needing an operation to wire his broken jaw. more...
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