WHEN Tony Blair took a break from running the gauntlet of angry firefighters to launch the new Micra at Nissan's Sunderland plant yesterday, he may have expected a lull in the storm. Instead, he faced heat from another direction - this time over Britain's
ONE of the region's most remote youth hostels has been hailed as a beacon for energy efficiency. Langdon Beck Youth Hostel, in upper Teesdale, County Durham, has been praised by Transco's Northern Energy Initiative (TNEI) for cutting its energy consumption
PRIME Minister Tony Blair felt the full wrath of striking firefighters yesterday when he returned to the North-East and praised the way troops had dealt with emergencies. He was barracked by angry strikers throughout a series of visits across the region
Middleton Plus, which promotes events in Upper Teesdale, will hold a Roof of England Winter Walks day in February, which organisers hope will promote tourism after the foot-and-mouth crisis. Upper Teesdale was badly hit by a drop in visitor numbers during
ALAN SHEARER'S worst fears were confirmed last night when UEFA found him guilty of violent conduct and destroyed his dream of leading Newcastle United into Champions League combat with Barcelona at the Nou Camp on Tuesday week. The United skipper received
YOUNGSTERS in Teesdale will be given a lesson in sign language as part of an event to make children more aware of deafness. On December 5, under fives from Romaldkirk Playgroup will be visited by members of the Dales Group for the Hearing Impaired for
Alison Brunton has refused to let her disability stop her from helping other people in need. The 40-year-old grandmother and wheelchair-user, from Dalton-on-Tees, agreed to have her head shaved to raise money for a teenager who lost two limbs after he
HOWARD Wilkinson last night told Kevin Phillips and Sunderland's other senior players that they must take full responsibility for saving the club from relegation. Even though Wilkinson has given Sunderland's youth its head by granting opportunities to
Seventy workers are to lose their jobs on New Year's Eve when a plastics factory closes on Teesside. American chemical firm DuPontSA blamed pressure from Asia for its decision to shut its polyester resin plant at the end of the year. Bosses decided production
AN MP visited a retiring college headteacher yesterday to say thank you to him for doing a great job. Howard Clarke has stepped down as head of Stockton Sixth Form College and from 35 years of working in post-16 education. Stockton South MP Dari Taylor
ABOUT 150 parents who have taken part in a pioneering council scheme are preparing to celebrate their achievements next month. In an event organised by staff of Stockton Borough Council's Parenting Plus, parents who have completed a ten-week course to
AN EXHIBITION portraying the healing effect of art on mental health has gone on show at Chester-le-Street Civic Centre. The work was created by people with mental health problems, children and community arts group Flame Community Arts, at a World Mental
TRADITIONAL Christmas gifts are on offer at an old-fashioned festive fair this weekend. More than 20 stalls will be open for business, selling paintings, prints, crafts and cakes, chocolates, local cheeses and mince pies, in the Baltic Square, on Gateshead
IT WAS designed to withstand major floods which occur once every 100 years - but two years after Yarm's £2.1m flood defence scheme was opened, it was realised the walls had not been built high enough. The floods of 1995 turned Yarm High Street into a
A HARTLEPOOL doctor has joined forces with a surgeon to ease the suffering of deformed patients in his Asian homeland. Dr Manmatha Roy, a consultant anaesthetist at the University Hospital of Hartlepool, joined plastic surgeons on a mercy mission to Bangladesh
PUPILS at a school which is to become an eco-centre got the ball rolling by planting trees within the grounds. Children at Esh Winning Primary School, near Durham, spent Thursday planting trees in a joint project with environmental group Groundwork for
POLICE will be looking out for crooks in Redcar as part of a Christmas crackdown on shoplifting in the town centre, starting today. Operation Scrooge is under way to allow shoppers to hunt for Christmas presents safe in the knowledge that thieves will
A TRADITIONAL festive feel descended over a Durham city centre last night as it launched a seasonal shopping event. The city's Christmas Festival 2002 was launched with carol-singing around the tree in the Market Place. The mayor, Councillor Eileen Rochford
EXPERIENCED musicians with their sights set on being part of a traditional Yorkshire brass band need look no further than Bedale. Bedale Brass Band already has 20 young recruits working towards Royal College of Music exams and not far from becoming full-fledged
A TRADITIONAL song from the Philippines will be sung at a dockside carol service next weekend. The Langbaurgh Singers will perform Pasko Na Sinta Ko, a song about being away from home, in the Filipino Tagalog dialect. The Right Reverend Robert Ladd, Bishop
A rugby club's dream of moving to a new home so it can enhance its status and provide for growing numbers of youngsters, will move a step closer next week. Harrogate, North Yorkshire's leading rugby union club, wants to move from cramped conditions at
A HOSPICE is taking steps to raise more funds with the help of a shoe retailer. Family firm Clinkards is to donate £1,000 to the Teesside Hospice each year for the next seven years. The firm is the latest of 50 organisations to have joined a partnership
A COUPLE who boosted the fortunes of a village public house are leaving for a new home a few hundred yards away - in a house converted from a one-time rival pub. Katherine Furmidge, departing landlady of the Crown Inn, at Grewelthorpe, near Ripon, says
FOUR young trainees have successfully completed apprenticeships with their council employers. The four were the latest to build themselves a potentially bright future through the modern apprenticeship scheme offered by Easington District Council. Council
A SCHOOL on Teesside has proved it is top of the form. Norton Comprehensive failed to win the School of the Year Award 2002, but a copy of its presentation made for the competition by pupils Charlotte Rudd, Louise Hughes, Stefan Hodgson and Alex James
SUNDERLAND City Council has reported an excellent response to a local cultural strategy which was circulated to every household in the city. Cabinet member Councillor Brian Dodds said: "We want people who live, work or study in Sunderland, as well as
Teesside enjoyed and endured the mixed fortunes of the current volatile business climate yesterday. Industry was buoyed with investment announcements and the opening of a multi-million pound pharmaceutical plant. But the mood was soured by the news that
A FEW months ago Amanda Barrie would never have spoken to me. The few interviews she granted were conducted along strictly-controlled guidelines barring any intrusion into her personal life. Barrie was one of the country's most familiar faces as Alma
MIKE NEWELL is looking to his left-wing magician to keep Hartlepool United out in front. New Hartlepool boss Newell enjoyed a debut victory at Orient last Saturday, but saw his side unceremoniously dumped out of the FA Cup in midweek. Pool conceded two
CHILDREN are spreading Christmas cheer by working hard to provide 400 festive hampers for less fortunate families on Teesside. Packs of food and gifts are tailor-made, depending on the number and age of youngsters in the household. Yesterday, an assembly
A POLICE authority chairman is appealing to residents to shop rogue landlords involved in drug dealing. Councillor Ken Walker, chairman of Cleveland Police Authority, is urging people to give him details of addresses where drugs are sold, names of drug
THE youngster in the soldier's uniform running scared across the muddy First World War battlefield looks barely old enough to shave, let alone take up arms for his country. And, just as Private Charlie Shakespeare wants to prove his worth, so the actor
FIRE STRIKE WHY don't the firemen accept the wages and conditions of the police force and the police's 'no strike' clause? Firefighters chose the job and many families live on far less than they get. Perhaps a few weeks without wages will prove how well
Caretaker boss Mick Tait took another step towards earning the Quakers hotseat permanently after seeing his side earn a hard-fought 2-1 win over Southend on Saturday. Former Shrimpers striker Barry Conlon scored one and made the other as Darlington picked
A MATERNITY hospital where thousands of south Durham babies were born started a £7m transformation yesterday into a unit which will look after people at the opposite end of the age scale. Bishop Auckland MP Derek Foster took a hammer to walls in the 27
A Northallerton pub regular will be gritting his teeth for charity this weekend. Paul Malton has volunteered to endure an all-over body wax for the town's Cancer Research UK shop and is hoping as many people as possible will come along to support him
THIEVES broke into town centre premises and escaped with cash and vouchers from the safe. Detectives in Chester-le-Street are appealing for information after burglars broke into commercial premises in Front Street, Chester-le-Street, and made off with
CAMPAIGNERS fighting to preserve a prized public open space will have an appeal heard in the European Courts. A residents' group has staged a long-running fight against the development of a new campus for the City of Sunderland College, earmarked for
A TALENTED teenage musician has won the chance to add another string to his bow. Stuart Murray, 17, of Lanchester, has been chosen to take part in a composer's course with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. The youngster, a pupil at Durham
LANDSCAPE snapshots by an amateur photographer are being exhibited at Bishop Auckland Town Hall. Some of Britain's most scenic views have been captured on film by Paul Brookes for his first display in the town hall library. Mr Brookes, 33, of Raby Gardens
CHEMISTS in County Durham have been selected to take part in a pilot scheme aimed at helping patients gain quicker and easier access to medicines. The Durham Dales Primary Care Trust is one of 30 areas in the country to be chosen to take part in the dispensing
Shipping activity is set to double at the UK's second largest port with the announcement that a £20m cargo terminal is to be built. Tees and Hartlepool Port Authority said 120 jobs would be created by the development, potentially rising to 200 within
THE Newcastle Vipers ice hockey team have helped Catchgate Primary School celebrate becoming a healthy school. The school was presented with its County Durham and Darlington Healthy School Award by Verna Fee, from Derwentside Primary Care Trust, and members
HEALTH Secretary Alan Milburn urged pensioners to take action to prevent winter misery at the launch of a campaign yesterday. The Darlington MP was in his constituency to sign up to the NEA charity and British Gas Warm Homes Week initiative. He visited
THERE was plenty of home support for Darlington Football Club chairman George Reynolds yesterday when he opened the £100,000 hall he built for his village school. Until their millionaire neighbour brought in his builders, the 83 pupils at Witton-le-Wear
CAMPAIGNERS fighting plans to build a recycling and waste transfer station near their homes have welcomed a report criticising the proposals. The report was submitted to a scrutiny committee at Teesdale District Council by a working party that looked
Two schoolboys have won a legal battle to have their names taken off the sex offenders register after the High Court ruled their human rights had been breached. One 15-year-old youth from County Durham had admitted "pinging bra straps and touching girls
THE downfall of a once promising young footballer reached new depths yesterday when he was jailed for stealing a ring to fund his heroin habit. Former Newcastle United apprentice Anthony Parry, who was shown the door by the Magpies for drug abuse, was
EMPLOYERS from across the region are to be guided on recruiting disabled staff at a conference on Tuesday. The all-day event at Durham County Cricket Club's Riverside Stadium, Chester-le-Street, has been organised by Jobcentre Plus and aims to show organisations
IT can be a bit of a surprise if you haven't been to Venice for a few years then walk, unsuspecting, into St Mark's Square. You see, the lagoon's rising water levels are starting to engulf the very heart of this marvellous Italian city. My wife Frances
England are on course for another convincing Ashes defeat after they were outclassed on a lively Perth surface and suffered another addition to their ever-lengthening casualty list. Knowing they needed a vastly-improved performance in the third Test if
TWO reports announced in the region have highlighted the continued risk to patients from contaminated surgical instruments. A Patients Association survey among NHS managers indicates there is "chaos and confusion" over the management of infection control
TRIBUTES have been paid to a Middlesbrough councillor and police authority member who died recently after a long illness. Councillor Abdul Hamid was highly thought of in his Westbourne ward, Cleveland Police Authority's chairman, Councillor Ken Walker
WHOEVER it was that counselled against working with children and animals - and who must not in any case be confused with WC Fields, who claimed that he loved children but couldn't eat a whole one - should have seen the Roman Catholic Bishop of Hexham
STUDENT hair stylists have come within a snip of winning an international beauty competition. Aspiring beautician Tam Williams and her model, Kim Wilson, came second in the northern heats final of the Davines Colour Trophy. They were asked to demonstrate
THE Prime Minister may have launched Britain's newest Nissan yesterday - but a shadow still hangs over the award-winning North-East plant. On the day Tony Blair started production of the new Micra, Nissan's president, Carlos Ghosn, repeated his warnings
A FORMER college caretaker was jailed for 15 years yesterday for the chloroform rapes of two children. John Sanderson, who attacked the two boys, aged ten and 14, at a teachers' centre in Darlington, shrugged his shoulders when Judge Tony Briggs said
On-loan striker Richard Offiong aims to repay the faith Darlington have shown in him by firing the club up the Third Division table. The England Under-20 starlet makes his debut against Southend at Feethams this afternoon after signing on a month's loan
A FEW months ago Amanda Barrie would never have spoken to me. The few interviews she granted were conducted along strictly-controlled guidelines barring any intrusion into her personal life. Barrie was one of the country's most familiar faces as Alma
TASTER sessions giving people ideas for new courses at the University of Teesside are available. The sessions cover courses such as car maintenance, yoga, confidence-building and beauty makeovers and can be tried at the Hemlington Initiative Centre, Cass
A TWO-YEAR campaign came to a successful end yesterday when a new crossing over the River Swale opened to the public for the first time. Locally, Richmond's Mercury Bridge was perhaps the most famous casualty of the storms of two years ago. The central
