PEOPLE are launching a bid to build a community centre on a former refuse site near their homes. Residents in the Sunnydale area of Shildon have called for a community building to house extra facilities. A survey of homes in the area conducted by the
A FAMILY who won the hearts of people from across the region are enjoying a happier start to the New Year than they ever dared to hope for. Doctors had given up on four-year-old Emily Guiney in the summer, warning her parents that a tumour at the base
A homeless man was found dead on New Year's Day after he had been subjected to a sickening and severe beating, police said today. The victim, who has not been identified, was found lying dead next to his sleeping bag in a seafront shelter on the promenade
ONE of the region's much-loved attractions, a star of the hit Harry Potter movie, has become the latest victim of foot-and-mouth disease and its knock-on effects. The North York Moors Railway, famous for the steam engines that run on the picturesque line
NOT even a week old and already Jennifer Jane Brown has achieved the apparently impossible. She has turned the Chancellor into a human being - a delightful, delighted, doting dad. Who would have thought that buttoned-up Brown could beam so broadly? Jennifer's
From new chanels to the digital revolution, this year promises to be one of major upheaval in the world of television. TV writer Steve Pratt looks at what it means for the viewers. This year viewers will watch more soap than ever before - the only certain
A NORTH-EAST politician left a New Year's party to fly to Holland and back again early yesterday to ensure the first euros in Britain were spent in the region. North Durham MP Kevan Jones was in Holland at the crack of dawn to pick up the newly-minted
AN animal charity is hoping to find a gentle giant a new home after caring for the dog at its rescue centre. Bilko, a German Shepherd cross, has been looked after by staff at the National Canine Defence League rescue centre, near Darlington, County Durham
RAIL firm Arriva has decided to give its beleaguered customers a New Year treat with a fare freeze. Sunderland-based Arriva Trains Northern, which operates lines across the region, has decided not to raise ticket prices because of recent disruptions due
A taxi driver has been arrested after a New Year's Eve partygoer was found dead outside a house, police said today. Detectives launched a murder inquiry into the death of 34-year-old unemployed gardener Colin Arnold who was seen having an argument with
A MAN was killed and two people injured when a their car left the road and collided with a lamppost on the A19 early yesterday. The three were travelling in a northerly direction in a green VW Passat when the accident happened between Peterlee and Easington
A £1.9M modernisation programme to provide new kitchens and bathrooms for 269 homes on a Sunderland estate has begun. The scheme is being carried out on the city's Silksworth estate by Sunderland Housing Group, in partnership with Lovell. It is the first
CHILDREN are taking part in a project to track their lives during a 20-year regeneration strategy. Pupils at Delaval Community Primary School, in Scotswood, Newcastle, are creating a website to chart their development during Newcastle City Council's Going
PRIMARY school youngsters have done their bit for the environment as they helped to transform a former waste tip into Paradise. More than 40 children from Escomb School and Witton Park, St Chad's, recently assisted officers from Wear Valley District Council
FIREFIGHTERS last night risked their lives crawling across a frozen beck to rescue a man who had plunged through ice. Crews from Coulby Newham and Thornaby were called to the Hemlington Lake area on Teesside shortly after a man walking his dog saw the
IT IS early days, of course, but it is a case of so far so good for the euro. The momentous launch across 12 European nations has gone smoothly enough, although the real challenge dawns today when shop trading begins in earnest. It will take time to judge
STOCKTON Borough Council has won an award for being energy-efficient. The energy management section within the council has been recognised for its work by the National Energy Accreditation Scheme. The award recognises the council's work to promote energy
ON the football field, 2001 proved to be another 12 months to forget for the North-East. The year provided no silverware - again - excitement was thin on the ground, and only Hartlepool threatened to make any progress with a third division play-off spot
A TERRITORIAL Army officer is to become the first member of the Green Howards to be posted to the Northumbrian Universities Officer Training Corps. Major Ian McFarlane, who lives in east Cleveland, is to become the Infantry Wing Commander of the corps
A CHARITY lost £20,000 in the North-East last year because of the foot-and-mouth crisis. Marie Curie Cancer Care in County Durham, North Teesside and South and North Tyneside, suffered the losses because so many fundraising events had to be cancelled.
THE boy descended into the depths of a coal mine with his father for the first time. Having journeyed miles beneath County Durham and out under the North Sea, he saw his father hewing coal for hours in one of the world's harshest environments. "Do you
WITH the foot-and-mouth crisis now formally over a concerted effort has been launched to bring tourists back to Yorkshire. Stars from the worlds of showbusiness and sport are lending their support to a £1.5m effort to get the tourist industry back on
A FOLK song collector has paid a touching tribute to the memory of his wife - by saving part of the region's rich musical heritage from obscurity. The traditional songs of Yorkshire have been restored to their rightful place in English folk history, thanks
A DRIVER and two passengers fled after the car they were in collided with another vehicle, leaving a woman with a serious injury. Police have appealed for witnesses to the incident in Jackson Street, Spennymoor, County Durham, which happened shortly before
BUSINESS is bad enough for the bookies at present with so many fixtures being frosted-off, but from a punting point of view there's nothing like rubbing a bit more salt in the wound by cashing in on Western Command (11.50) in the day's sole surviving
THE Government has started the New Year with a multi-million pound investment in early years education in the region. Schools Minister, Catherine Ashton, will today confirm that £5.1m will be shared by local authorities in the North-East, with another
MYSTERY surrounded Colin Cooper's absence from the Middlesbrough squad for yesterday's vital 1-0 victory over Everton at the Riverside Stadium. Manager Steve McClaren confirmed that defender Cooper was originally named among the substitutes, but had been
MORE than £400,000 is to be spent on improvements to council homes in the Stockton Borough Council area. Approximately 250 tenants in Fairfield, Wolviston and Billingham will benefit from renovations to their bathrooms. The work, which includes improving
WALSALL referee Mark Warren is to be grilled by Football League chiefs, after his controversial decision to abandon Hartlepool United's game at Bristol Rovers last month. Pool's game at the Memorial Stadium on December 15 was halted after just 12 minutes
MILESTONE man Alan Shearer makes his 500th League and Cup start tonight against Manchester United, with Newcastle boss Bobby Robson declaring: "He's one of the greatest.'' Shearer, who also clocks up his 200th appearance in all competitions for the Magpies
DARLINGTON'S Neighbourhood Warden scheme started with only one officer 19 months ago. But with a complement of ten now patrolling the streets and volunteers lining up to help, it has become a nationally-lauded project which could provide the basis for
THE man instrumental in much of Hartlepool's regeneration efforts has spoken of his delight at being awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours List. Brian Dinsdale, chief executive of Hartlepool Borough Council, said the news was the best Christmas present
VISITORS to a new £1.1m regional resource centre are being offered the chance to view valuable mementoes of the past. The centre, at Beamish Museum, has built up a collection of more than 120,000 photographs, 64,000 books and 76,000 objects since it was
NOT even a week old and already Jennifer Jane Brown has achieved the apparently impossible. She has turned the Chancellor into a human being - a delightful, delighted, doting dad. Who would have thought that buttoned-up Brown could beam so broadly? Jennifer's
HOSPICE staff are blazing a fundraising trail by organising a series of treks for the New Year. And to prove how serious they are, they have even signed up themselves. Teesside Hospice staff Joanne Denwood, Franca Gallacher, Sheila Bearcroft and Julie
Letters from The Northern Echo LEEDS UNITED THE vitriol expressed by your correspondents (HAS, Dec 26) is not only insulting to the two Leeds footballers and their fans, but seems to suggest that, because people get drunk and end up fighting, they deserve
MANY may have chosen to stay inside yesterday morning, nursing sore heads from the night before - but some hardy fundraisers proved they were of much sterner stuff. Not content with just venturing out into the cold crisp air, they threw caution to the
FORGOTTEN man Gianluca Festa made a surprise return to mark his 400th career appearance with a crucial winner for Middlesbrough manager Steve McClaren. Centre-back Festa, in senior action for the first time this season after two hernia operations, would
THE Under-16 football team at Northallerton College is through to the final of the North Yorkshire County Cup after winning a semi-final cliff-hanger. The match, against King James' School, Knaresborough, went to extra time and was finally decided 5-4
A FORMER North-East professor who was a leading light in the development of particle physics has died. George Dixon Rochester, 93, of Durham, was Emeritus Professor of Physics at Durham University. He had a building on the campus named after him in 1997
A COUNCIL receptionist is helping to relieve the aches and pains of Wear Valley people by bringing an ancient Chinese therapy to the area. Trudy Beadle has made it her mission to bring holistic medicine to wider audiences, after qualifying as a shiatsu
ENGLAND international Kevin Phillips has decided not to take any more penalties after his third spot-kick miss of the season in yesterday's 1-1 home draw against Aston Villa. The eight-goal striker revealed his shock decision after Danish international
THE closing date for nominations for runners for the Queen's Golden Jubilee baton relay is looming - and potential runners are being urged to return their applications before the deadline. The City of York Council is co-ordinating plans to host the relay
GUN victim Kris Stephenson recalled the moment of horror when he confronted armed raiders at his North Yorkshire pub. And, his arm still in a sling, he paid tribute to his local community for the way they rallied round and helped after he was shot and
THE huge scale of the problems caused by the foot-and-mouth disaster become clear in a new report on the state of the region's countryside. The massive impact has spread far beyond farming, affecting town as well as country communities and underlining
A COUNCIL is launching a campaign to protect residents from shoddy workmanship and drive cowboy builders out of town. South Tyneside authority is introducing a traders registration scheme for all workmen offering services directly to the public, including
A WOMAN died and her husband was seriously injured when their car hit and killed one of two horses that strayed on to the Great North Road yesterday. The collision occurred just after 7am on the A1 southbound motorway close to the sliproad at Bramham,
New Year revelry brought the traditional catalogue of problems for emergency services. The Tees, East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service received more than 500 calls in the period from midnight to 11am yesterday. Many were drink-related but none were
TEACHERS are being tempted to steer their students towards "easier" subjects to boost their school's league table ranking, according to academics in the North-East. Research carried out at Durham University revealed that pupils are more likely to get
ONE of the country's oldest hunts proved that foot-and-mouth disease had not put an end to its traditions, as members met yesterday for the first time since the crisis. The message from the South Durham Hunt, which covers Prime Minister Tony Blair's constituency
Construction worker John Bell was hailed a New Year hero last night after he saved a family of six from a blazing house. The reveller smashed his neighbour's door down after the family became trapped in the house in Stephenson Street, Ferryhill, County
A TEENAGER was taken to hospital after being stabbed twice in the neck by an unknown man. Bob Hewitt, of Cromwell Road, Scarborough, had been to an amusement arcade and was walking home in the Westborough area of the town. Police Inspector Paul Warner
A TAXI driver is being hunted by police after a New Year reveller was found dead outside a house. Colin Arnold, 34, had been at a party with his wife, Vicky, when tragedy struck. Detectives say they believe the jobless gardener was involved in an "altercation
IT must have been a gift for IRA fundraising in the US. Perhaps it still is, despite what are now called "the events of September 11''. For though we all know it to be true, it requires almost the suspense of disbelief to admit the staggering fact that
PUPILS at a Darlington school continued a Christmas tradition by gathering toys for the needy. Girls at Polam Hall School went through all their old toys and picked out any they no longer wanted to give to less fortunate children. The school began the
FIREFIGHTERS were called to a burning house in the early hours of New Year's Eve, after a neighbour raised the alarm. Two fire engines from Darlington attended the blaze at the house in White Hart Crescent, in the Red Hall area of the town, at 3.30am.
A FIREFIGHTERS' union has warned that a brigade could face serious problems this year, unless extra cash is forthcoming. Last month, the draft Local Authority Finance Settlement for 2002-03, which determines how much the Government proposes to give councils
House building company Tay Homes has won a planning appeal to build a large housing estate in a market town. Permission had been refused by Ryedale District Council for the 31 homes, in Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, after protests from residents and
LATE arrival Hollie Petitjean had perfect timing when she was born at 1.11am on New Year's Day. Her father Ralph, 31, had turned out to celebrate the New Year when he had to rush to Bishop Auckland Hospital to be by wife Julie's side for the happy event
THE New Year started badly for one homeowner after a stolen car left a gaping hole in the front of her cottage. A Mitsubishi Shogun 4x4, stolen minutes earlier, crashed into the house in Sunderland at high speed. The driver fled after leaving a trail
ENGLAND striker Kevin Phillips missed his third penalty of the season as Sunderland managed to salvage a point with a goal from Brazilian defender Emerson Thome four minutes from time at the Stadium of Light. It looked as though Phillips' miss in the
MERCY crews are being stretched to the limit by a surge in New Year violence, it was revealed last night. As midnight chimes rang in 2002 an explosion of violence broke out across the region. Up to 12 midnight on New Year's Eve the North-East Ambulance
A TOWN is celebrating its 20th anniversary as a twin. Chester-le-Street and Kamp-Lintfort, in Germany, have enjoyed close contact since they were twinned. To mark the anniversary, Chester-le-Street District Council leader Councillor Malcolm Pratt was
CLEVELAND fire brigade chiefs are backing a campaign aimed at forging better employee relations in the North-East. Bosses have signed up to the Employee Relations Forum, a group of employers, employees and trade union representatives committed to building
