THOUSANDS of pensioners in the North will perish during the harsh winter months unless they get more help with heating costs, new research reveals today. More than 4,000 people met their deaths during the freezing winter in the North-East and Yorkshire
SCHOOLGIRL Charlotte Purdham gave up her holiday to raise money for youngsters less fortunate than herself. The nine-year-old, from Bolton Grove, Bishop Auckland, enlisted the help of her mother Debra Dickinson and stepfather Graham, who made up sponsor
A MULTI-MILLION pound facelift of a town centre is to continue. The recently pedestrianised centre of Middlesbrough is to receive new paving stones, lighting and trees at a cost of £2.3m. Middlesbrough Borough Council's aim is to create sites for public
THE terrorist attacks of September 11 had an immediate and devastating impact on the travel and tourist industries. Continued uncertainty over the course of the military action in Afghanistan is compounding difficulties. These are tough times for airlines
BUSINESS people, voluntary workers and council staff met yesterday to take steps towards improving the long-term future of Darlington. It was the first meeting of the Darlington Assembly, which aims to give a voice to everyone with an interest in how
A FIRE brigade may have to review safety procedures after a crew was ambushed by hooligans throwing fireworks. The crew of six found themselves the target of yobs who used the flat roof of a shopping parade as a platform to launch fireworks at them. Divisional
HIGH-TECH fundraising has come to Darlington with the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association's launch of its on-line raffle. The raffle is linked to the charity's website at www. guidedogs.org.uk, which is the current holder of the Best Charity Website
SUPPOSE a penniless immigrant arrived by sea at Hartlepool today. Should he be sent back to the country from which he came - let us say Poland? The overwhelming view would be: Yes. Most people in Britain are firmly against allowing any refugee without
THE battle made famous by the film Zulu, starring Michael Caine and Stanley Baker, will be the subject of a public lecture tonight. The Battle of Rorke's Drift took place in South Africa in January 1879. Eleven men were awarded the Victoria Cross for
UNION representatives will today ballot bus drivers to decide whether to accept Stagecoach's final pay increase offer. Drivers held a one-day strike on Monday in Darlington, Stockton, Middlesbrough and Hartlepool, after talks with bosses to negotiate
THREE men who travelled to Harrogate for a night of crime are facing spells behind bars after an appearance before the town's magistrates yesterday. Brothers-in-law John O'Neil, 24, and Adrian Morrell, 28, both of Sandfield Road, Bradford and Daniel Hodgson
A CONFERENCE focusing on the problem of housing for drug users in Darlington will be held on Thursday. Darlington Housing Action has organised the conference in response to growing concern that there is not enough housing provision for those trying to
SCHOOLGIRL Charlotte Purdham gave up her holiday to raise money for youngsters less fortunate than herself. The nine-year-old, from Bolton Grove, Bishop Auckland, enlisted the help of her mother Debra Dickinson and stepfather Graham, who made up sponsor
A GREEN theme features high on the timetable of a new south Durham school, which will be officially opened tomorrow. Middlestone Moor Primary School, whose pupils come from the former Spennymoor West Infant and Middlestone Moor Junior Schools, includes
A SIX-YEAR-OLD girl's chilling account of how her police officer father bludgeoned his wife and two of his children to death in a hammer attack was read to an inquest yesterday. PC Karl Bluestone, 36, attacked his North-East born wife Jill, 31, and two
THE plight of a young transplant patient has touched the heart of Premiership soccer star Craig Bellamy. The Welsh international dedicated his two goals against Aston Villa on Saturday to Indie Singh, 14, and also handed the schoolboy his signed Newcastle
A MOTHER is battling to get kinky teddies that bare all banned from shop shelves. Angela Young said her children were shocked when they picked up the toys to find they had their private parts poking through rubber fetish gear. Trading standards has investigated
MARKS & Spencer boss Luc Vandevelde has toasted a 20 per cent jump in first-half profits and said the retailer had continued to see better sales in recent weeks. But he admitted the economic outlook on the high-street in the run-up to the all-important
OVER decades, the simple poppy has become the ultimate symbol of sacrifice in war. Its blood-red leaves are still an evocative reminder of the selfless courage shown by countless servicemen and women in conflicts great and small. Each year they are sold
ARE we really that stupid? That careless, that irresponsible, or even that unlucky? A third of all women have had an abortion by the time they're 45, says a new report. And numbers are rising. Ann Furedi of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service says
A GREEN theme features high on the timetable of a new south Durham school, which will be officially opened tomorrow. Middlestone Moor Primary School, whose pupils come from the former Spennymoor West Infant and Middlestone Moor Junior Schools, includes
A SPECIAL needs teacher physically and verbally abused autistic children who were entrusted into his care, a court heard yesterday. Malcolm Phillips, 51, is accused of mistreating six autistic youngsters at a residential school over a two-year period.
A FORMER North-East student dubbed the "limbs in the loch" killer is to be interviewed by detectives from the Metropolitan Police in connection with an unsolved London murder. They want to speak to 38-year-old William Beggs about the discovery of a body
A REVIVAL of a village tradition has won a group of young people a top County Durham award. Kirk Merrington Youth Club, near Spennymoor, beat off competition from 67 other projects to win Durham County Council's Youth Work that Works Award last night.
THE jury hearing the case of a man accused of murdering his girlfriend by stabbing her to death in the home they shared will retire today to consider its verdict. Simon Keogh, 40, is accused of murdering teacher Lesley Grant, 43, at their home in Whitby
ELEVEN children were taken to hospital last night after being beaten by a masked attacker who pounced from bushes armed with a truncheon. The man, wearing a full face balaclava and dressed in black, only ended his sustained attack when a parent of one
A NIGHTCLUB manager was arrested after telling airport staff that he was carrying a bomb and half a dead cow in his luggage, a court heard yesterday. Paul Michael Kelly, of Beaumont Road, North Ormesby, near Middlesbrough, was fined £500 for the prank
THEY have played better this season and lost. It may be hard to believe this wasn't their best display, but it was their most comprehensive and most pleasing. Hartlepool United last night beat high-flyers Hull City 4-0 at Victoria Park to move off the
SPENNYMOOR'S new police station is at the centre of a row over restricted hours - even before it opens next week. Town councillors claim it will be a £2m part-time "white elephant", which will be closed to the public for a third of the working day. Spennymoor
HOSPITAL staff and patients can now relax in the serene surroundings of a peaceful rooftop garden. The garden, at the Macmillan Dales Unit at Harrogate District Hospital, was funded by a charity cycle ride and the local Rotary Club, which raised money
BOOKWORMS have the chance to read all weekend as part of the celebrations to mark the 75th anniversary of Gateshead Central Library. The library, in Prince Consort Road, was opened in 1926, and Gateshead Borough Council has decided to open it on Sunday
A CALL centre operation is creating 500 new jobs, and almost doubling its workforce. Nvisage, formed five years ago, is part of the Innogy energy group. It employs about 700 staff at offices on the Bracken Hill Business Park in Peterlee, dealing with
EMERGENCY services staff took part in a fitness challenge in a bid to raise money for their colleagues in New York. The group from Cleveland fire brigade, police and ambulance service took part in the challenge at Fitness First, in Stockton, yesterday
BOSSES at Safeway have promised shoppers that they will not close the firm's Barnard Castle store until its new £15m supermarket is completed. The store chain announced last week that it will begin work on a 10,000 sq ft superstore next year, with completion
PUBLIC transport in Hartlepool has been given a boost following a successful bid for Government money by council officials. The town has been awarded £185,650 of Urban Bus Challenge Money, which will be spent during the next three years. It was one of
THE parent company of the crisis hit Newcastle Jesters Ice Hockey Club has been given 14 days breathing space in its battle to avoid being closed down. Fablon Investments Ltd faced a compulsory winding up petition in the High Court on Wednesday, but Mr
REDCAR MP Vera Baird made a splash when she went out on patrol with Redcar Lifeboat at the weekend. She was given a tour of her constituency from the seaman's perspective in the station's Atlantic 21 lifeboat Leicester Challenge. On the way back, Ms Baird
TRADING standards officials have issued a pre-Christmas warning to families not to be tempted by counterfeit computer software. This follows the discovery of illegal copies of the latest Microsoft Windows XP Professional package at car boot sales in the
ARE we really that stupid? That careless, that irresponsible, or even that unlucky? A third of all women have had an abortion by the time they're 45, says a new report. And numbers are rising. Ann Furedi of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service says
FRANK Skinner - he of Baddiel and Skinner, football funsters - has written a self-flagellating autobiography. Excoriating, it might be said, but only by Latin humorists and lovers of long words. The bits about his recovery from alcoholism and return to
NEWCASTLE United goalkeeper John Karelse is being kept in an isolation ward in a Dutch hospital after contracting a mystery bug. Karelse was taken ill with a bacterial infection following a knee operation last week. The 6ft 3in keeper, a £750,000 signing
BLOOD donors will be able to make contributions at five venues around the region today. The National Blood Donor Service will be in Darlington, Hartlepool, Lynemouth, South Shields and Sunderland. Two sessions, at Cockerton Club, in Woodland Road, Darlington
VANDALS caught desecrating a war memorial are to be prosecuted. The pledge was made by a council leader as upset veterans prepared for this weekend's wreath-laying ceremony at Normanby, Middlesbrough, where vandals have erased 30 names of the fallen from
Kieron Dyer and three teammates were today sent home from Newcastle's Spanish training camp in disgrace. The England star, 22, was sent packing along with Wales striker Craig Bellamy, 22, and England Under-21 stars Andy Griffin and Carl Cort. It's the
A COUNTY council has come under fire for its failure to act promptly and clear potent-ially dangerous asbestos and ragwort from land it owns. North Yorkshire has been found guilty of maladministration by Local Government Ombudsman Patricia Cook, who said
Archaeologists have uncovered some extraordinary secrets of the North-East's past from the ashes of one of the great historical losses of recent years. When fire badly damaged the ancient church of St Brandon's in Brancepeth, near Durham City, in 1998
SUPPOSE a penniless immigrant arrived by sea at Hartlepool today. Should he be sent back to the country from which he came - let us say Poland? The overwhelming view would be: Yes. Most people in Britain are firmly against allowing any refugee without
LUMP on Granite City (1.50) in division 2 of the Golf Course Handicap at Musselburgh this afternoon. Jim Goldie's four-year-old needs to come fast and late off a strong early pace and with two confirmed trailblazers, Memhaas and Lion's Domain in the line
DURHAM City residents came out in force yesterday to protest against plans to turn a disused cinema into a night spot. People living in Claypath are opposing an application to convert the Palladium cinema into a Chicago Rock Caf. Durham City Council turned
A HIGH-RANKING military nurse who claims she was described as a "blonde, thick bimbo" by one of her senior officers had previously been highly praised for her work in some of the world's worst trouble spots. Captain Janet Kelly told a tribunal yesterday
A BRAVE policeman who cheated death in a motorbike accident wants a "helping hand" to get his life back on track. Fitness fanatic, Superintendent Ian Rowland, 46, defied medics when he returned to work five months after the accident which left him with
A MAN, who battered his life-long friend before leaving him to die while he went out and committed a house burglary, has been jailed. Michael Burlinson, 28, got into a drunken row with 30-year-old Keith Warrener, which resulted in Mr Warrener being knocked
Letters from The Northern Echo WAR ON TERRORISM HAVING seen all these lefties objecting to the American action in Afghanistan makes me wonder where they all were when Russia invaded Afghanistan in an entirely unprovoked attack which lasted ten years and
A LONG-standing wrangle over a bare-knuckle fight came to a head during a gipsy wedding, which ended in a man being shot and severely wounded on a traveller's site, a court heard yesterday. The victim, Robert James, had been called in as one of an "army
The Government today announced it was giving an additional £2m to help farmers and their families in England hit by the foot-and-mouth crisis. Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael said the money was largely to match private donations to charities helping
BUSINESS confidence in Darlington has surprisingly not yet been badly affected in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attack on America. However, some investment programmes have been withdrawn or put on hold since the disaster, according to the Business
BRITISH Airways has reported plummeting profits as the airline showed how the September 11 terror attacks had hit home. For the six months to September 30, pre-tax profits were £45m, compared to £150m in the same period of last year. Some of the toughest
A campaigning shopkeeper has challenged Prime Minister Tony Blair to halt the sale of fireworks to the public. The Northern Echo told on Monday how Pearl Hall was so fed-up with youths setting off fireworks in the street in the run up to November 5 that
A HUSBAND who stabbed his teenage bride to death was not a "particularly violent man", a forensic scientist told a court yesterday. Stephen Butters, 41, is standing trial at Teesside Crown Court accused of murdering 19-year-old Claire Butters, nee Cummings
NORWEGIAN airline Braathens is axing its route from Newcastle to Stavanger. The route is one of two to be cut in a further aviation casualty of the September 11 terror attacks on the US. The Oslo-London Gatwick route is also being closed. A spokesman
TAXI drivers say bells which alert them to customers will stay at their Market Place taxi rank in Ripon, despite protests from a former mayor that they disturb residents and visitors. Following outspoken criticism of the bells by Councillor Paul Freeman
AMBULANCE response times are expected to be cut and inter-service training improved when crews move into a new home at Darlington's fire station. The town's branch of the North East Ambulance Service is currently run from Darlington Memorial Hospital,
THE witching hour began early for several coachloads of muggles. Bleary-eyed, a procession of them left a London hotel at eight in the morning to board buses to transport them, not as promised on the poster of the year's most hotly-anticipated film on
POP Idol Zoe Birkett is hoping to follow in her mother's footsteps by becoming a musical success. The 16-year-old has already made waves in the record industry through the television show, Pop Idols, and her mother, Tracey, has been supporting her all
POLICE are trying to trace a good Samaritan who helped a 24-year-old woman after she was held down and raped by two men. The victim was walking along Grange Road, in Fenham, Newcastle, at 10pm on Saturday, November 3, when she was approached by two men
A DENTIST was struggling with the pressure of work shortly before he was found dead at the foot of a viaduct which has become a popular suicide spot. Paul Howes, 43, had learned to live with ongoing problems of depression and psychological illness over
SCARCELY any trace remains of the Darlington textile industry, but in its time it employed thousands of local people. It survived against all the odds into the 20th Century - particularly surprising, as it was so far from the other textile districts.
THE grief-stricken girlfriend of the North-East's only known victim of the September 11 terrorist attacks told last night how she watched in horror as the Twin Towers collapsed - knowing her boyfriend was inside. Bridget Fitzpatrick frantically tried
FULL-BACK Curtis Fleming is standing by for club and country as Middlesbrough launch their Premiership revival and the Republic of Ireland chase a World Cup dream. Fleming has lost his place with resurgent Boro and is no longer a regular in the Irish
THE owner of a popular garden centre has decided to snub a council's offer of a temporary lease on his premises and is blaming the authority for the demise of his business. There was uproar in Richmond when Mike Pattison first announced the Garden and
A rail boss has paid tribute to a driver who put the safety of his passengers first after coming under attack from rock-throwing thugs. The unnamed driver kept his cool when a rock was hurled through the windscreen of his cab as the train made its way
FRANK Skinner - he of Baddiel and Skinner, football funsters - has written a self-flagellating autobiography. Excoriating, it might be said, but only by Latin humorists and lovers of long words. The bits about his recovery from alcoholism and return to
RAIL operator GNER is slashing the price of a ticket to London to just £10 to tempt travellers back to the rails, in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The company is offering 125,000 cut-price tickets between London and Scotland during November
THE first of Durham County Council's new breed of residential care homes for the elderly has opened its doors. Five more "extra care" schemes could be modelled on £2.2m Southfield Lodge, in Crook if a planned shake-up of services goes ahead. Seventeen
THE North-East and North Yorkshire have some of the cleanest coastal waters in the country, according to a Government report released yesterday. The study, by the Department for Environment, Food and Rur-al Affairs, says that all of the region's designated
GOAL-SHY Sunderland, who have slid down to fifth bottom place in the Premiership after three defeats in four games, may fend-off £1m First Division bids for their want-away striker, Danny Dichio. Pace-setters Wolverhampton Wanderers and promotion hopefuls
DETECTIVES investigating the murder of a County Durham pensioner are looking for a man spotted with the victim and his daughter on the day of the tragedy. The body of 77-year-old Bill Pyle, from Stanley Street, Close House, Eldon Lane, was discovered
Darlington's search for a win stretched to eight games when they were thumped 3-0 at Shrewsbury Town's Gay Meadow last night, leaving boss Tommy Taylor furious as he locked his players in the dressing room for 25 minutes afterwards. Until the first goal
CHESTER-LE-STREET Scout leader Alan Purvis is determined to get the message across that being a Scout is not just about dib, dib dibbing and tying yourself in knots - it is off-road buggies and extreme adventure nowadays. Recruiting has begun for the
