PEOPLE are to be asked their views on the conversion of disused quarries into nature reserves and recreation sites. More than 140 councils and community groups are being asked what should happen to exhausted quarries in North Yorkshire. The Swale and
IN 1925, a handful of mothers became the founder members of Easington Village's Mothers' Union. And yesterday, the organisation, which is attached to the community's St Mary's Church, was still going strong, as it celebrated its 80th birth- day. The milestone
YOUNG people have taken part in an art project designed to keep a community free from graffiti. A group of 13 to 16-year-olds from West Auckland took part in a workshop at the Millbank Youth Centre, where they designed graffiti boards with professional
STUDENTS have been swapping the classroom for tourism and leisure attractions to help them with their studies. Sixteen children from Dyke House School, in Hartlepool, have been to the Camerons Brewery Visitor Centre and Hartlepool's Maritime Experience
A FLEET of more than 200 Darlington Borough Council vehicles will now run on a cleaner fuel. All the council's diesel engine vehicles are using bio-diesel, which is a blend of mineral oil, ultra low sulphur diesel and plant oils. The fuel costs the same
YOUNGSTERS have been busy as bees - designing all manner of weird and wonderful insects. About 100 children took part in a drawing event at Billingham Art Gallery, drawing various bugs, with the help of artist Chui Kwong Man - who left the actual design
BUSINESS in Darlington has been booming over the past month, however, some companies are concerned for the future, according to the latest figures. Despite an overall positive increase in turnover, there has also been a downturn in employee figures and
RESIDENTS are being urged to take advantage of a whole host of opportunities to get fit - and have some fun. Hartlepool Borough Council's sports development team is keen for more people to take advantage of its weekly activities programme. Sessions, for
POLICE are hunting a sex pest in a bright yellow car who has approached women to ask if he can take pictures of them. The first incident happened on Saturday as a woman made her way to the railway station at Yarm, near Stockton, at about 1.15pm. The man
A PREGNANT woman has spoken of her terror as she was glassed in the face. Two women have been interviewed by police on Teesside about the unprovoked assault on the 17-weeks pregnant 25-year-old. They have been released on police bail. Their victim was
CAMPAIGNERS fighting to stop their community being bulldozed claim to have won a respite. Residents of Middlesbrough's embattled Gresham ward have appealed by letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair and his deputy John Prescott to halt plans to demolish 1,500
A MOTHER who waited for two hours to have her sick baby treated in hospital watched in disbelief as his doctor rode by on a unicycle. When outraged Paula Dadswell asked why she had been left waiting, the doctor said he had just bought the machine and
Sebastian Coe has warned that producing British gold medal winners will be crucial to the success of the London 2012 Olympic Games. ''Britain performing well in these Games is not the icing on the cake. It's pretty well the whole ingredient; it's crucial
THE RSPCA has launched an investigation after the dismembered body of a pet cat was discovered in a North-East town. The 15-month-old animal was found without its head or tail in the middle of a field near its owners' home, in Darlington. Black cat Sooty
KIERON Dyer will make his latest comeback from injury this evening, with Newcastle boss Graeme Souness admitting he can do no more to address the midfielder's long-standing hamstring trouble. Dyer will be on the bench as the Magpies travel to League Two
Darlington boss David Hodgson last night lavished praise on Neil Wainwright for the way in which the player they call 'Casper' has raised spirits. Wainwright may not be the most gifted of attackers, but what he lacks in skill, the 27-year-old makes up
A FAMILY doctor accused of murdering three of his patients heard doctors testify in court that the doses of morphine he prescribed were up to 12 times higher than usual. Dr Howard Martin, 71, is accused of murdering Frank Moss, 59, Stanley Weldon, 74,
A RADICAL shake-up of health services in the region could be damaging for one of the country's most deprived areas, it has been claimed. Easington MP John Cummings fears that the welfare of the people he represents will be set back if the district's primary
Britain's Youngest Boozers (ITV1) The Real Vampire Chronicles (C4) FIRST, the statistics. Britain is the boozing capital of Europe. A third of teenagers are classed as binge drinkers, one in six under-25s is alcohol dependent and 1,000 under-15s are treated
A HORSEWOMAN who is tipped for Olympic glory will show her dressage skills at a demonstration this week. Anne-Marie Perry, 18, from Hartlepool, is one of a handful of riders selected by the British Equestrian Federation for its World Class Start and Potential
SWAN Hunter will be in trouble if the yard has to wait much longer over a £4bn contract to build giant aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy, the MoD was warned yesterday. Kevan Jones, Labour MP for Durham North, raised the alarm after defence procurement
SMALL babies need their dads - but not as much as children and teenagers do. There are plans afoot to give fathers more paternity leave. It seems a complicated mish-mash of transferring some of the mother's rights to the father, enabling her to go back
ACCORDING to Sunderland manager Mick McCarthy last night's aim was first and foremost to capture the hearts and minds of new generation of Black Cats fans. Unfortunately Arsene Wenger's latest crop of young talent were keen to play party poopers in front
POLICE and trading standards chiefs on Teesside have issued a fresh warning to retailers that selling alcohol to under-age youngsters will not be tolerated. They sent out the strong message in the wake of a court case, which saw another Hartlepool business
A COLLEGE has come up with a recipe to help improve school dinners. In response to the National Agenda on Healthy Eating in schools, East Durham and Houghall (EDH) Community College is running a new course for pupils. The area came to the public's attention
RICHARD Hammond likes blowing things up. On his Sky One show Brainiac the presenter is known for destroying caravans, and on Top Gear he even once blew up a building to test the durability of one particular vehicle which was parked on top. Now he's indulging
Tim Henman has a point to prove in Basle today when he faces his young British rival Andy Murray in a competitive match for the first time. As recently as this summer Henman would have been heavily favoured to breeze past Murray with the minimum of fuss
FOURTEEN jobs have been lost at a car parts company only days after it went into administration. Twelve of the cuts were at the head office of Vickers Pressings Tolwood Automotive (VPTA), Newton Aycliffe, while the other two were at its Newcastle office
STAFF at Abbey National were yesterday braced for thousands more job losses after the bank's Spanish owner intensified efforts to turn around its performance. Santander Central Hispano insisted the cuts would not be as great as the 4,000 announced earlier
WORK began yesterday on a pioneering £60m power plant which will generate enough electricity to power 30,000 homes. SembCorp Utilities UK, based on Teesside, has started construction on Wilton 10, a green power plant which uses wood as its fuel source
A CHEESEMAKER has labelled EU chiefs as idiots after she lost a six-year legal battle to call her product feta. Judy Bell, who runs Shepherds Purse Cheeses, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, said she was appalled by the European Court of Justice ruling. The
THE company that built the Sydney Harbour Bridge has won three major bridge contracts in China, worth more than £2m. Dorman Long Technology (DLT), based in Darlington, will work as subcontractors on the record-breaking bridges, marking a milestone in
The trial of family GP Dr Howard Martin, accused of murdering three of his patients, began yesterday at Teesside Crown Court. Catherine Jewitt details the allegations FRANK Arthur Richard Moss was born on May 14, 1943, and died on March 14, 2003, aged
WILDLIFE LECTURE: I would like to tell your readers of a very special event to take place at Durham County Hall on November 3 at 7pm. Durham Wildlife Trust's annual Tom Dunn Memorial Lecture is this year given by zoologist, broadcaster and best-selling
SCHOOLS across Darlington are being asked to telephone parents as soon as a pupil misses lessons following the murder of an 11-year-old boy in Scotland. Rory Blackhall was killed in Livingston, West Lothian, in August. He was dropped off at school at
WEAR Valley Justice and Peace Group will hold a Fair Trade Day at the Methodist Church Hall, Dawson Street, Crook, on Friday. Fairly traded goods on sale will include crafts, and festive cards, decorations and food from 10.30am to 4.30pm. Susan Scott,
CRIMEFIGHTERS are urging householders to be vigilant as winter draws near and the nights start to draw in. Hambleton is regarded as one of the safest districts in the country to live in, with only 198 domestic burglaries recorded over the past year. But
MORE than 8,000 trees are to be planted in the Yorkshire Dales with money left in a will. Spinster Jean Staples left £23,566 to the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority when she died aged 69. The pensioner, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, was a regular
THE work of one of the country's leading photographers, Joe Cornish, is going on display at a second venue in Northallerton. Mr Cornish already has a gallery in Zetland Street and now a selection of his work has gone on show at the town's Stone Cross
WITCHES, wizards and ghosts are invited to Darlington Railway Centre and Museum this Halloween weekend for a frightening time. People are invited to get dressed up and join in the Halloween Spectacular, which runs from noon until 7pm on Sunday. The museum
A FAMILY doctor deliberately killed three seriously-ill patients by administering fatal doses of morphine, a court was told yesterday. Dr Howard Martin, who was a GP and partner in a County Durham medical practice group, denies the murders of Frank Moss
VETERINARY nurse Samantha Lonsdale decided to aim high when she wanted to raise money for the Blue Cross animal charity. Ms Lonsdale, 23, from Stanley, leapt from a plane 12,000ft above Peterlee Parachute Centre to raise the money, in her first tandem
A TEES Valley council is leading by example in the drive to protect the environment and prevent climate change. All of Hartlepool Borough Council's buildings, including the Civic Centre, the Town Hall Theatre, leisure centres, public halls and community
CIVILIAN staff, working alongside police, have completed a pilot training course to improve their leadership and management. Nine Durham Police support staff completed the scheme. The staff, most of them women, work in a variety of roles for the force
A man has been fined after pleading guilty to possessing a knife in a public place. Robert Clark, of Cottingham Court, Darlington, admitted the charge to District Judge Michael Wood when he appeared at the town's magistrates' court yesterday. The 31-year-old
ORGANISERS of an agricultural show say it has become the first event of its kind to fall victim to avian flu. The pigeon and poultry sections at this weekend's Countryside Live Food and Farming Fair, in Harrogate, have been cancelled on the orders of
Ashley Giles is warning his England team-mates to prepare for the long haul in Pakistan as he tries to help Michael Vaughan's team across another stepping stone to become the world's best cricket team. Giles was a rookie international spinner the last
A former policeman was severely beaten by two teenagers as he tried to wash one of the reveller's vomit from his drive, a court heard yesterday. John Needham, a retired solicitors clerk, 62, was attacked outside his home after Joss Davies, 17, vomited
ARIF and Farmida Ahmed did not mind making room in their house for aid parcels donated by their neighbours for the relief effort in earthquake-torn Kashmir. But the boxes kept coming and coming, to the point where they had 400 cartons of clothes, hundreds
REALISTIC Sunderland boss Mick McCarthy summed up the carnage of a 3-0 home defeat by Arsenal that ended the Black Cats Carling Cup campaign by admitting 'we were mullered'. The Black Cats found the Gunners reserve side just too good at the Stadium of
A TEESDALE village is to pilot a project aimed at keeping house prices affordable for people in rural areas. A proposed development of nine houses in Mickleton will contain two homes that will be subject to an equity purchase scheme. It is the first time
A favourite poet of mine is Ursula Fanthorpe. Born in 1929 she taught at Cheltenham Ladies College for 16 years before, as she put it, "deciding to do something different.'' That included working as a telephone clerk for Hoover and as a hospital receptionist
A GOVERNMENT "sheriff" has been brought in to sort out a row between national park chiefs and self-styled cowboy Django. The inspector is heading a public inquiry into alleged breaches of planning rules on Django's farm, near Thwaite, in Swaledale. The
A BUILDING firm has been appointed to start work on a £8m project to restore an historic building. HBG Construction Limited has been awarded the contract to carry out pre-construction work on Harrogate Royal Hall. The firm will work with Harrogate Borough
THEY might have had their disciplinary problems in the past but, in emerging defender Peter Ramage, Newcastle can boast one of the best-behaved players in the Premiership. It is not that the 21-year-old is afraid of a crunching challenge - it is just
An NHS dentist sexually assaulted a patient in his chair after knocking her out with anaesthetic gas. The 32-year-old woman was referred to Lee Gaukrodger for a tooth extraction and chose not to have a local anaesthetic. But while she was unconscious
SUE SMITH'S superb record at Sedgefield seems all set to be maintained by Flake (4.00) in the Betfred Poker Handicap Hurdle. Smith very rarely leaves the track empty handed, Flake contributing to the Bingley-based handler's outstanding course statistics
WHEN Lily Hardy moved to the North-East there was no electricity, no running water and only a few roads linked the communities. Although she has witnessed huge changes over the decades, Ms Hardy, who celebrated her 102nd birthday this week, has found
TONY BLAIR'S authority appeared to be crumbling last night as he faced Cabinet revolts on two key policies. A split between ministers forced an embarrassing delay to a decision on the extent of exemptions to the ban on smoking in pubs. It was reported
A FAMILY doctor deliberately killed three seriously-ill patients by administering fatal doses of morphine, a court heard yesterday. Dr Howard Martin, who was a GP and partner in a County Durham medical practice group, denies the murders of Frank Moss,
THE county town of North Yorkshire is to lead the country in a groundbreaking national health and safety initiative. Northallerton is to host to the first Safer Working Towns campaign - aimed at making the workplace safer than ever. Spearheaded by the
COUNCILLORS will discuss the progress of plans to create the North-East's latest piece of public art when they meet tomorrow. Members of Durham County Council's cabinet are to discuss a progress report on plans to build a piece of sculpture on land near
A 49-year-old man charged with being the notorious Yorkshire Ripper hoaxer known as ''Wearside Jack'' was today refused bail by a judge. John Humble, of Flodden Road, Sunderland, made his first appearance before a judge today at Leeds Crown Court. He
Eight years after pledging to put education at the heart of government, Tony Blair has finally come up with his plan. But will it make our schools any better? Nick Morrison reports SCHOOLS will be given more freedom to run their own affairs. Parents will
RAY Mallon last night gave his support to David Cameron in the battle for the leadership of the Conservative Party. Writing in a London evening newspaper, the independent mayor of Middlesbrough said of the old Etonian: "Something strange is happening
STEVE McClaren told the football world 'not to hold its breath' if they thought West Ham's controversial goal on Sunday would act as a watershed for the introduction of goalline technology. Assistant referee Ralph Bone flagged for the contentious goal
A SMALL-TIME drug trader who was snared by police whilst guarding the home of a bigger dealer escaped jail yesterday. Jason Hutchins, 39, of Sceptre Place, Elswick, Newcastle, was found in his dealer's house after police caught 14 people calling there
SMALL babies need their dads - but not as much as children and teenagers do. There are plans afoot to give fathers more paternity leave. It seems a complicated mish-mash of transferring some of the mother's rights to the father, enabling her to go back
