THE Dominic Cummings saga continues today as a legal challenge over his County Durham antics during lockdown reaches the High Court. Here are today's top stories from the North-East and across the county. 

A legal challenge over the decision not to investigate Dominic Cummings for alleged breaches of coronavirus lockdown rules will be heard by the High Court.

The Prime Minister’s chief adviser made a controversial 260-mile drive from London to Durham in March with his wife, journalist Mary Wakefield, and their four-year-old son to stay on his parents’ farm while strict travel restrictions were in place.

London resident Martin Redston is taking legal action against the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Max Hill QC, over the alleged failure to properly consider whether Mr Cummings breached lockdown rules.

His application for permission to bring a full High Court challenge against the DPP will be heard by Lady Justice Carr and Mr Justice Picken at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Tuesday afternoon.

​A teenage boy has been found dead near a public green. 

Police received a call shortly before 6.30am this morning reporting concerns for an individual near Baliol Green, in Newton Aycliffe.

Officers, paramedics and the fire service attended and found a 16-year-old boy who was unresponsive.

The boy was sadly pronounced dead at the scene. His death is not being treated as suspicious.

Residents say they are going "ducking crazy" after weeks of flooding on their estate.

A raft of rubber ducks have appeared in the floodwater at the entrance to Central Park, in Darlington as residents become increasingly fed-up at the situation.

Nicknamed "the pond", it is understood the flooding was caused by a pipe being damaged during roadworks, carried out in September.

One resident says people are worried it will ice over as the weather gets colder and become a hazard. 

​The number of people taking the bus in the North-East has declined steadily over the last ten years, leading to calls for a nationalised service as private firms “cannot compete” with the falling cost of driving.

There were 162.2 million bus passenger journeys in the North-East from April 2019 to March 2020, 10.5 million less than the year prior.

A Go North East spokesperson said: “As the Department for Transport has said itself about the statistics it has issued, Covid is ‘largely’ to blame for the slump. Lockdown began on 23 March, but bus companies saw declines in earlier weeks.

“Here in the North East the ongoing efforts of bus operators to invest in cleaner, greener buses with the latest onboard features as well as evolving services had actually delivered growth, or at least halted historic year-on-year decline in bus use across the North East.

“We felt that we were almost at a turning point but Covid has since had a disastrous effect on the use of all public transport, not just buses."

The Prime Minister has expressed his deep shock at the “terrible attacks” in Vienna which have left three people dead and several injured.

Police in the Austrian capital said the attack was considered to have an Islamist motive, with a suspect – who was shot dead by police – armed with an assault rifle, carrying other handguns, and wearing a fake explosive belt.

Shots were fired at six different locations in the city centre on Monday evening and two men and one woman were killed.