Archive
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£1.5m new look on the way for heart of cathedral city
THE second phase of a programme to revamp a city centre is about to get under way at a cost of £1.5m. By the time the project is completed, in October, the centre of Ripon will have been given a whole new look. A key feature of the works will be the enhancement
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Gardens plea is granted
OWNERS of new houses in Darlington have been given approval to extend their gardens. In 1998, Darlington Borough Council sold part of the former Tees Grange Farm for residential development. But it kept ownership of the copse of trees next to the site
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Dishing out advice on preventing fraud
LOCAL business people can learn how to prevent fraud while enjoying bacon and eggs at a breakfast seminar. The Business Security Initiative, Cleveland Police and Business Link Tees Valley have joined forces to warn firms in the Tees Valley area about
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Extra aid to help local groups
SMALL community groups in part of Darlington are to benefit from a Government initiative. The Community Resource Fund was launched by the Home Office in 1999 to promote and support activity in local communities. The fund is designed to reach groups which
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Don't begrudge nannies a decent wage
WELL, shock horror - nannies are earning up to £22,000 a year. And quite right, too. What was really disturbing about the survey, carried out by Nannytax, a nannies' payroll service, was that so many commentators (mainly women, alas) seemed aghast at
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Has Berriman's van had its chips?
PERHAPS because so many readers can still taste the smell, the smoke gets in your eyes whiff of nostalgia has hung heavily since a passing reference in last week's column. It was a two pint reverie, no more, during which memories of Berriman's chip van
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Councils given more money for regeneration
WEAR Valley and Sedgefield district councils have been given more money to accelerate the regeneration of the area's deprived communities. The Government has doubled the amount of money the councils will receive in the first year of the three-year Neighbourhood
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Closing door on a lifetime of memories
BIDDING a final farewell to her terraced home will prove a real wrench for miner's widow Ivy Barker. For from the day she was born, 82-year-old Ivy has lived in the same house at Number 9 Ascot Street, in Easington Colliery, County Durham. It was only
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Couple's £100,000 legacy to library
HERBERT Corner was a genuine bookworm. The North-East pensioner's passion for books knew no bounds. Most days be could be found in the reference section of Darlington's Crown Street Library quietly studying a weighty text book. The library, which opened
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Old media not yet ready to disappear
THE development of electronic publishing was seen by media companies as positive in allowing them to move towards fee based earnings, such as content, information and advertising, whilst removing a significant cost factor - the "hard copy". However, companies
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Warning over bogus advertisers
POLICE are warning companies to beware of bogus advertisers following a spate of incidents on Teesside. Cleveland Police have received several complaints about people purporting to be selling advertising space and demanding payment before evidence of
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Teacher is latest signing at Stadium of Light
PUPILS on Wearside will soon be chanting their approval of one of their teachers, who has just signed for Sunderland AFC. Joe Puech, 40, will be at the Stadium of Light until Easter as a study support centre manager, which means he will work with some
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Thousands of families jam switchboards
THOUSANDS of people have jammed hospital switchboards in attempts to discover if body parts had been removed from their dead relatives as the impact of the NHS organs scandal reverberated round the country. Hospitals from Newcastle to Southampton took
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Pensioner given church accolade
A PENSIONER who has served in his village church throughout his life has been made an Honorary Lay Canon of Ripon Cathedral. Rex Lowson, 69, from Teesdale, was installed by the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, the Right Reverend John Packer, at a service in
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Driver facing death charge
A MAN has appeared in court charged with causing death by dangerous driving. Martin Jones, 24, of Eden Road, Middlesbrough, was remanded in custody by Teesside magistrates yesterday, for one week. He is accused of killing 71-year-old Anne Profitt, in
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Bobby aims to end run of capital punishmennt
BOBBY ROBSON is back where he started as Newcastle boss tonight, urging his players to put an end to their capital punishment at the expense of bogey side Chelsea. United have failed to win in 22 visits to London since they beat Crystal Palace 2-1 in
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Meccano magic attracts crowds
THE magic of Meccano has not lost its appeal if attendance figures at an exhibition at Kirkleatham Old Hall Museum in Redcar are anything to go by. The children's classic favourite is celebrating its centenary this year and the exhibition has attracted
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Ferguson facing another tough cup tie on Wearside
After losing one cup tie against West Ham on Sunday, Sir Alex Ferguson knows Manchester United face another one at Sunderland tonight. United travel to the Stadium of Light for a Premiership summit meeting, knowing Sunderland will be treating the game
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Steel town cancer campaign is back on
A LONG-RUNNING campaign to prove that a North-East steelworks lies behind a cancer cluster among its workers is back on. Earlier this month, cancer sufferer Jack Atherton and his wife, Dot, announced they were pulling out of the fight on behalf of afflicted
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Steel town cancer campaign back on
A LONG-RUNNING campaign to prove that a North-East steelworks lies behind a cancer cluster among its workers is back on. Ealier this month, cancer sufferer Jack Atherton and his wife, Dot, announced they were pulling out of the fight on behalf of afflicted
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Trade mission heads for Denmark
YORK and North Yorkshire Export Forum is planning a four-day market visit to Denmark. The trade mission to Copenhagen, in the autumn, is part of the Export Excellence Campaign to help businesses explore export opportunities. Spokesman Roland Harris said
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Putting on record voices for posterity
A HISTORY project in a rural community has been awarded cash from a millennium grants scheme. Lynesack and Softley Parish Council, in Teesdale, has been awarded £800 under the Millennium Festival Awards for All Programme. The funding means that the parish
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Reaching out for global contact
AN event to be staged in Durham City to celebrate the very best in business innovation has received influential backing. Interprise 2001, which is being organised by County Durham Development Company (CDDC), will be held at County Hall on March 12 and
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Panel recommends U-turn in haemophiliac CJD scare
FEARS that haemophiliacs may have received blood contaminated with the human form of mad cow disease have prompted a hospital trust U-turn. The Northern Echo disclosed last week that North-East haemophiliacs had been treated with blood products from a
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People to decide council system
PEOPLE in Darlington are being asked to decide how their local authority should function. Darlington Borough Council is consulting its residents over new political management arrangements. The authority must have the new model in place by the end of 2002
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Jobs are objective of funding initiative
AN innovative project to provide new jobs in Darlington has been launched by the local authority. With the support of funding from the European Social Fund Objective 3 Programme, £60,000 of funding is available to help the town's employers match the right
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Solar-powered device ensures eyes are kept on the road
A SOLAR-POWERED cat's eye is making night driving safer for motorists. Durham County Council is the first highway authority in the country to use the multi-coloured markers on dangerous roads. Unlike the traditional cat's eye, which reflects light which
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Wait for Prescott verdict on store scheme
PLANS to revitalise a run-down area of Bishop Auckland with a multi-million pound superstore are edging forward. Asda wants to build a £15m supermarket, which should revitalise the south of the town, replacing its Newgate precinct store. Plans for the
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Residents asked how area should develop
PEOPLE in Sunderland are being given the chance to say how they would like their area of the city to develop. Sunderland City Council's Sunderland South Area Committee and the Sunderland South Healthy Cities Group have commissioned a survey to find out
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Heart attack link to death crash
A TEESSIDE man has died following a two-car smash in North Yorkshire. The motorist - who has not been named - is understood to have suffered a heart attack, while driving on the A172 road, near Stokesley. A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said: "
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Joy as £14.5m road opens
A £14.5m road is being heralded as the way ahead in part of the North-East. The Skelton and Brotton bypass, in east Cleveland, the biggest engineering project undertaken by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council in its five-year lifetime, has been completed
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Animal rights extremists blamed for two nail bombs
ANIMAL rights extremists yesterday widened their campaign of terror with two more nail bomb attacks on unsuspecting addresses. A total of nine explosive devices have now been sent to people involved with the animal trade across the North - including two
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Medieval history holds up hall plan
PLANS to alter the appearance of a village hall have hit a stumbling block because of the village's medieval history. The plans involve altering the layout of the frontage of the hall at Liverton, near Loftus, east Cleveland. The village hall committee
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Eleven held in big drug swoop
HEROIN worth £100,000 has been seized, and 11 people arrested, after an operation to crack a drugs ring described as "the biggest in the North-East". A six-month operation, code named Operation Pelican, ended yesterday in a series of dawn raids at nine
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Sound system plan scrapped as too costly
COUNCIL bosses under fire for considering the installation of a £25,000 sound system in their council chamber have scrapped the plans. The system, which would have enabled councillors to vote electronically and control the volume of each microphone, was
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Fumes theory in tragedy
AN investigation was under way last night after a man was found dead and his son critically ill at their family business. Police believe Peter Agar, 53, and his son Nicholas, 33, both of Beech Grove, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, may have been overcome
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Flood victims in Downing Street protest
ANGRY residents left homeless during last year's disastrous flooding yesterday took their complaint to the top - and staged a protest at Downing Street. They set off from their flood-ravaged homes in North Yorkshire to make a plea for help directly to
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Young runners put on a champion display
STUDENTS from a County Durham college were among winning teams in the Durham Schools' Cross-Country Championships, held in Bishop Auckland. Darlington's senior boys and girls teams were made up largely of students from Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College
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Bags snatched in shop raids
POLICE are appealing for witnesses after two handbag thefts in the Stockton area. At about 6.30pm, on Monday, a woman had her bag snatched from her shoulder in the car park of Safeway, in Norton. The thief, who is described as 18 to19, was wearing a dark
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Northern Rock expansion plans will create 250 jobs
NORTHERN Rock, the building society turned bank, plans to create more than 250 jobs this year. The jobs in customer service operations at Doxford Park in Sunderland and at its headquarters in Gosforth, Newcastle, are in addition to the 350 jobs created
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Double-chasing Lungo reaches for the Skies
When it comes to racehorses, quality over quantity has always been the priority of Carrutherstown trainer Lenny Lungo. But this season the Scot is in the enviable position of having a generous helping of both, and he's well on target to beat his best
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Invitation to Chinese New Year festival
THE Year of the Snake will be celebrated in style on Sunday when Durham holds its second Chinese New Year festival. Last year saw the first major event staged by the County Durham Chinese Association, to mark the first year of the millennium. Now bigger-scale
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'Now we must get Lockerbie truth'
GRIEVING relatives last night demanded that the search for the full truth behind the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 should continue despite the end of the Lockerbie trial. They spoke out as a Libyan agent began a life sentence after being convicted of the
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When justice is not enough
WE must not overlook the significance of the trial of the two Libyans accused of planting the bomb on Pan Am Flight 103. The delivery of the verdicts yesterday is a credit to the painstaking investigation by those on both sides of the Atlantic, and is
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No time to sneer at Hartlepool
ON FRIDAY, the London Evening Standard gloated over the downfall of Peter Mandelson. What would he do next, it asked? He'd spent all his life gathering oily skills and now had "nobody to give them to apart from the lowlife scum of Hartlepool". This obsessively
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Letters
PETER MANDELSON THE Labour Government has demonstrated in many ways that it is lightweight, incompetent and deceitful and that the judgement of its leader is seriously flawed. Evaluate the performance of a leader who relies upon advisors who are repeatedly
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Crime-fighting work praised
A CRIME prevention panel led by a Chester-le-Street pub landlady has been praised for its outstanding work in the town. A fundraising golf tournament, organised by Black Horse landlady Irene Boyers, was the key event in a string of initiatives launched
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Boro's run goes on
MIDDLESBROUGH took their impressive unbeaten run to nine games last night but the Teessiders had to fight all the way to take a hard-earned point fron Goodison Park. Boro threatened to spoil Walter Smith's 100th match in charge of Everton through goals
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Let us now praise famous men
George W Bush. The very first act of the new US president is to open up the Arctic, one of the world's last great wildernesses, to oil exploration. The day after he was sworn in, his White House spokesman announced: "Moving quickly on a national energy
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No end to United's capital punishment
Christian Bassedas' first goal for Newcastle was not enough to prevent his team suffering another defeat in London. The Magpies' winless run in the capital now stands at 23 games and despite going ahead in the 22nd minute they always looked vulnerable
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Ikea sorry for service
SWEDISH furniture giant Ikea admitted last night that service at its stores at weekends was not good enough. The popularity of its shops, which includes a site near the Gateshead MetroCentre, had been blighted by overcrowding and queues. In a frank admission
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Axe falls today
Corus will today announce thousands of job losses as part of a savage cost cutting programme that will decimate the 160-year-old steel industry on Teesside. Despite last ditch pleas from Government ministers, the company said it had been forced to make
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Battle to keep weekend local pharmacy service
HEALTH watchdogs fighting to keep open a Saturday morning pharmacy in a deprived area of Bishop Auckland are calling for changes to the way chemists' shops are funded. South Durham and Weardale Community Health Council (CHC) is refusing to support Welsh
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Hutchison relishes meeting 'the best'
SCOTTISH international Don Hutchison looked forward to crossing swords with Manchester United tonight and conceded: "They are the best team in the League by far." But the 29-year-old Tynesider, whose consistent displays on the right side of midfield have
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Historg lands a gamble with easy win
Historg upheld family honour and landed a gamble in the process when galloping through the mud at Newcastle yesterday. Ferdy Murphy's charge was slashed to 4-1 at the start of the Newcastle Novices' Hurdle after being available at 10-1. Historg was clearly
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£1.2m city learning centre planned for college site
A NEW learning centre could be coming to improve educational opportunities for a Teesside community. The city learning centre would be built on the site of a hockey pitch at Gillbrook Technology College, in Normanby Road, South Bank. It would be a single-story
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Bold Action has the class to land Newcastle hat-trick
HAT-TRICK seeking Bold Action has the class to complete an impressive three-timer in the Stephen Easten Handicap Chase at Newcastle today. Trainer Jim Turner deserves a change of fortune having suffered the agony of seeing last Saturday's valuable Great
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Reaping benefits of £1m services
PLANS for a £1m cash injection for better council services in Redcar and Cleveland have been announced. The package, agreed earlier this week by the council's ruling Labour group, comes after the authority announced it would not be increasing council
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£19bn Abbey National takeover may cost 9,000 jobs
MORTGAGE bank Abbey National is considering a £19.8bn takeover proposal from Lloyds TSB which, if successful, will see about 9,000 job losses over four years. An Abbey spokeswoman said the terms were unchanged on the previous proposal, which Lloyds TSB
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Reid ready to lock horns with Ferguson
STRAIGHT-TALKING Sunderland boss Peter Reid goes into tonight's white-hot top-of-the-table clash against mighty Manchester United at the Stadium of Light admitting: "We can't catch them." The Wearsiders have become the Premiership's surprise team of the
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Man accused of flouting order
The first person in the region to be made the subject of an anti-social behaviour order is due to appear in court for allegedly breaching it. Ashley Jones, 44, of Newcastle, was one of the first people in the country to be placed under the new order in
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Families at forefront of my vision for the future, says Quakers boss
DARLINGTON Football Club's chairman George Reynolds has unveiled his vision for the future of the Quakers, and is asking the fans to back him all the way into the new stadium. Here is what he told The Northern Echo: "We all get frustrated at the club
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Pupils sent home in staff shortage
More than 100 pupils at a comprehensive school are at home for three days this week because of lack of staff, it emerged last night. However, staff sickness, not teacher shortages, was to blame, said the headteacher and the Labour-run local education
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Regal rematch for Boldon
PUNTERS at Sunderland could be in for a mouth-watering rematch between the two stars of this month's Regal Gold Cup. Local favourite Harsu Super, unbeaten in open races at the East Boldon circuit where he started his racing career, tasted defeat for the
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Metro boy tells of tunnel terror
THE mother of an eight-year-old boy who was dragged 50 yards along a rail track and into a tunnel after getting his finger stuck in the doors of a Metro train, has told how he was lucky to be alive. Lee Hildreth was travelling from a Metro station near
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Meals on Wheels decision 'miserly'
COUNCIL officials have been accused of penny pinching over their plans to pull out of the Meals on Wheels service in Chester-le-Street. Chester-le-Street District Council has decided to stop funding the service - which it provides on behalf of Durham
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Why I grieve for those I never knew
STRANGELY enough, it is not the image of the dead bodies which is my most vivid memory of the night Flight Pan Am 103 fell out of the sky. Rather, it is the ceaseless clatter of the rotor blades of the rescue helicopters as they hovered above Lockerbie
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Thousands of organs stored in North-East
HOSPITAL bosses in the North-East set up help lines last night after admitting that they hold thousands of body parts. While most organs will have been removed with the relatives' agreement, hospitals admitted that families were not given enough information
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Tidyings of comfort
After three years in Bulgaria Sharon Blackburn-Maughan returned to the North-East with an unusual idea for a new business. She has started Great Tidyings, in east Durham, to provide a helping hand to anyone who is having difficulty selling their home.
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Bad back forces licensee to bid sad farewell
A licensee says he is heartbroken to sell his pub at a knock-down price after a full refurbishment. The Highwayman pub, just off the A693, at West Pelton near Stanley, does a roaring passing trade, but licensee Peter McFarling is selling up because of
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snail racing proves surprise winner for pub
A DURHAM pub has found the ideal way to bring drinkers out of their shell - snail racing. The O'Neill's Irish bar, in Claypath, is holding weekly race nights that are proving highly popular with its customers. The races are based on the TV adverts for
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Brewing up an 'old' excitement
STUDENTS hope to come up with an original recipe to excite beer lovers on St Valentine's Day. Beer in the Bath, Bishop Auckland Town Hall's third beer festival, runs from February 14 to 17. The festival, organised by the Campaign for Real Ale's Wear Valley
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Flood defences bill nears £3m
NEARLY £3m is being spent on emergency repairs to protect the region against flooding. The Environment Agency is undertaking £2.8m worth of repairs to flood defences in the North-East, to combat the havoc caused by the wettest autumn since records began
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We'll tough it out - pledges Filtronic chief
UNDER pressure microchip manufacturer Filtronic has promised to "tough it out" at its Newton Aycliffe facility, despite costs of £1m a month. Yesterday, the Northern Echo revealed the full extent of the losses at the West Yorkshire-based mobile phone
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Moves to raise voting turnout
COUNCILLORS have approved an initiative to encourage better voter turnouts in elections. Darlington Borough Council has been looking at ways to improve the turnout at general, European parliamentary and local government elections. A report into how voting
