THIS week, 15 years ago, a campaigner demonstrating against a waste transfer plant chained himself to a council’s doors.

John Greaves, 34, committed the act only a week after holding a protest up a tree.

Mr Greaves did not want the plant to be built in the woods at Stainton Grove, near Barnard Castle, in County Durham.

He spent more than an hour chained to the front doors of Teesdale District Council, in Barnard Castle, while fellow protestors staged a march through the town centre.

He unlocked himself when council officers agreed to a meeting.

Also, that week, sixth form students on Teesside were celebrating some of the best A-level results ever achieved.

Colleges across the area saw an increase in pass rates.

Middlesbrough College had a 93 per cent pass rate, a rise of 13 per cent on last year.

Karen Joyce, director of marketing and recruitment at Middlesbrough College, said: "We've seen lots of happy faces today."

Prior Pursglove College saw a 96 per cent pass rate which was its highest ever result and 60 students gained two or more grade As.

Student at the college, Toju Sillo, originally from Nigeria, achieved one of the top five marks out of 13,000 candidates in biology.

She hit the headlines in July when she won gold medals in two international academic competitions.

The student gained three more A-grades, a distinction and a merit to the two A-grades she secured last year after only one year of study and will read medicine at Trinity College, Oxford.

Helen Welford, from the same college, learned that her A-grade in psychology was one of the top five marks of 25,000 candidates in the country. She achieved three A-grades in total and a distinction in English.

Also, six students from the Guisborough college gained five A-grades – Emma Buckle, Stephen Harrap, Geoff Lam, Rorie MacDonald, Erin Pearson and Charlotte Tailby.