WORK is under way to build a £450,000 information technology and foreign languages complex at Whitby Community College.

The scheme is the first phase of a development programme following a successful bid for technology college status which has resulted in the college being awarded finance to build new facilities, said spokeswoman Chris Oliver.

Stoat watch: Visitors to Mount Grace Priory are being invited to help its custodians log the winter activity of stoats. There are thought to be only three or four families left on the site, which will be featured in the David Attenborough BBC documentary the Life of Mammals, on Wednesday, December 18. Anyone wanting to join the stoat-watch should visit Mount Grace between now and the end of February. The site is open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm. For details, call (01609) 883494. Mount Grace Priory is off the A19 near Northallerton, just north of Ellerbeck.

Concert party: Richmond Operatic Society concert party singers are to give two charity concerts of Christmas songs and carols. On Thursday, they appear at Brompton-on-Swale Methodist chapel, at 7.30pm, and the following Thursday, December 19, sees the singers at Hipswell church at 7pm. Admission is £3 for adults, £1 for children. The concert party performs to raise funds for local causes and charities. For details, call (01748) 832092.

Millennium record: John Stokes, of Northallerton Camera Club, will present Town and Around 2000 - a pictorial record of the town at the millennium - at the next meeting of Allertonshire Civic Society, at the Women's Institute Hall, in Romanby, on Thursday, December 12, at 7.30pm.

Governor sought: Jane Graham is resigning as a governor of Topcliffe C of E Primary School, after eight years of service. Anyone interested in applying for the vacancy should call(01845) 577939.