A MOTHER has written to the chief executive of Darlington Borough Council asking for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme to be protected from budget cuts. Her concern follows the inclusion of the Open Award Centre in the council spending review
PUBLIC views are being sought in Barnard Castle on how to enhance an area with tourism potential. The Heart of Teesdale Landscape Partnership is seeking to redevelop Scar Top, just above the River Tees at the entrance to the castle, which is
JUST a snapshot view of the Teesdale landscape perhaps, but this image will take three months to produce. The long exposure, using a pinhole camera, forms part of Newcastle Science- Fest’s Winter Solstice photographic project. The camera,
KATY McLean, 25, who plays fly-half for Darlington Mowden Park Sharks, has been appointed captain of the England Women’s rugby union team. She takes over from Catherine Spencer, who stepped down last week after three seasons in the role. “There are
MOVES are afoot to give village life at Heighington a boost – and more than a few rockets. Last year was the first in living memory that the village had no Bonfire Night celebration. For two years, there has been no summer fete. But that may be
TRADERS are urging people to object to plans to implement controversial parking measures in a popular town centre. Stockton Borough Council wants to introduce pay and display facilities in the Castle Dyke Wynd and Old Market car parks, in Yarm
RESIDENTS living near the site of a proposed wind farm are angry after plans were submitted for a new weather monitoring mast. Broadview Energy has applied to Stockton Borough Council to erect a 10.26m-high meteorological mast for 12 months
PASSENGER numbers at Durham Tees Valley Airport have slumped to their lowest for 35 years. Officials at the airport said it has “borne the brunt” of a difficult period for the aviation industry. The Civil Aviation Authority has yet to
A MUCH-LOVED sheep under threat of eviction from a church grounds is no longer facing the chop after a new home was found for him. Bertie the sheep’s future was far from certain after his owner Paul Tidy was given until the end of the month to
UNION leaders say the public will suffer if North Yorkshire Police closes one of its two control rooms. The force is considering the future of its Newby Wiske and York call centres and is consulting on whether to keep both control rooms or close
A MAJOR event is being staged for personnel at the biggest Army garrison in Europe in preparation for the thousands of soldiers expected to leave the Armed Forces as budget cuts bite. The career transition and networking event at the Scotch Corner
COUNCIL leaders will decide next week whether to press ahead with the closure of a Wensleydale school. Members of North Yorkshire County Council executive committee will on Tuesday vote on plans to shut St Peter and St Paul’s RC Primary School
A PREMIER League footballer dropped into the Dales yesterday to star in a national TV advert. Tottenham and England star Peter Crouch arrived by helicopter to appear in a commercial for Mars being filmed at Carperby, near Leyburn. About 80 local
KITCHEN and bathroom supplier Court Homemakers has invested more than £250,000 in a new showroom in Northallerton. Housed in a two-storey building that was previously the old station house, the business is located next to the railway crossing
BEN Timney and Rob Adams are looking to expand after a successful first year in business. Clients of Itchyrobot, their website design and development company, include an RAF radar base, the University of Teesside, jewellery, clothing and training
A FAMILY-RUN business that specialises in offering niche meat products has won a place on the supermarket shelf. Taste Tradition Ltd, which was founded by mother and son Joyce and Charles Ashbridge in 2004, specialises in rare breed lamb, beef
A RECRUITMENT company is celebrating 20 years in Northallerton with a move to new offices. IRS Recruitment was founded in 1991 to provide personnel for the oil and gas sector. It has expanded into other fields, including business services, office
A RANGE of woodland courses is being held throughout the North-East by Northwoods during February. A one-day management course at Blagdon, Northumberland, will cover broad leaf and coniferous trees, teaching the basics of establishing a wood
THE potential for out-wintering on brassicas features on a new web site for British Seed Houses. The britishseedhouses.com site offers a wide range of forage solutions, downloads of company publications such as its clover management guide and
SINGLE farm payments must continue if British beef farmers are to survive. Europe is considering a reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) from 2013. Caroline Spelman, Environment Secretary, wants an end to direct farm payments with
IF YOU don’t have a heated greenhouse and want to start your seeds off early to give yourself a head start on spring, it’s time to invest in a heated propagator. Not only can you sow slowgrowing tender perennials such as geraniums now, so
GM TECHNOLOGY and animal cloning must not be ruled out of the fight to feed the world’s booming population, a major report said this week. Leading experts on food security said new technologies would be key to increasing global food production
stripped-down Sunday roast. CARVERIES are rarely very good in our experience. Typically a way of turning out the Sunday roast with the minimum of staff, they tend to be a triumph of quantity over quality. Diners who get their timing wrong can
THIS was the first appearance in Darlington, and possibly in the North-East, of Josephine Davies’ Quintet. It was led by Davies on tenor saxophone, with Robbie Robson on trumpet and flugelhorn, Ross Stanley, piano, Dave Whitford, bass, and Nick
The Taste Of War – World War Two And The Battle For Food by Lizzie Collingham is published in hardback by Allen Lane, priced £30. In the West today, plagued by obesity, the only food problem experienced by most people is how to summon up enough
A QUARRY inspector who also works with troubled children has combined his two roles to write a book based on his experiences. Drawing on a decade working in quarries and mines throughout County Durham, Mike Tweddle, of Bridge Road, Darlington
Main Line Diesel Locomotives: A Photographic History IN A feast of railway nostalgia, Main Line Diesel Locomotives celebrates the history of Britishbuilt main line diesel locomotives constructed between 1947 and 1997. Written by respected
THE success of a creative writing workshop at The Station, Richmond, this month’s eight-week course, On the Write Track, was oversubscribed so another has been arranged. It will start on Monday, February 7, from 1.30-4pm, led by Irene Lofthouse
WOOD engraving by the early 20th century draughtsman Eric Gill will be on show at the Old Courthouse, in Thirsk, from February 13 to 15. Gill (1882-1940) was one of the most colourful figures of his time, despite most of his prints being in black
THOUGH the busy jazz scene in Darlington is under threat, there does seem to be a more reasonable sprinkling of jazz elsewhere, writes Peter Bevan. To begin in Darlington, the Opus 4 Jazz Club at the Traveller’s Rest in Cockerton has switched
THERE are about ten villages named Butterwick spread over the North of England, from Lincolnshire to Cumbria, including Ryedale’s Butterwick, near Malton. The second part of the name is wick, an antique English word that is found in one form
AMILE or so south of Grassington, not far from the southwestern boundaries of D&S Times country, stands a curious hill known as Elbolton. Because it rises to more than 1,100ft (c330m), it is locally known as a mountain and indeed, many refer
Lucy Richardson hears how being made redundant was the spur Samantha Lowdon needed to start her own interior design business. THE recession cloud has had a silver lining for Samantha Lowdon, who is turning her passion for interior design into
CONFECTIONERY giant Mars has made lots of friends in Wensleydale with its large grant which enabled Carperby to build a new sports pavilion. But our reporter Joe Willis isn’t one of them after the firm’s PR people became rather precious about
Sir, – Bill Oldfield was quoted in last weekend’s D&S re-the River Tees rope bridge scheme: “The pure idea of the bridge has always been what we were interested in.” Yet in August 2003, a Teesdale Marketing document about the proposed rope bridge
Sir, – In response to Margaret Tiplady’s comments on the lights at Leeming, she claims that complaints should have been made in the planning stage. She seems not to have seen the plans herself as they did clearly show a by-pass that exited at
Sir, –I refer to A Jones of Bedale’s letter (D&S, Jan 21), who worries about where to shop as he can’t get to Northallerton due to traffic light queues and the imminent closure of Morton on Swale Bridge. Can I recommend that he and others in
Sir, – I have read (D&S letters, Jan 7 and 14) a number of comments from various councillors about Independents and their role in local councils. It is a fact that the Redcar and Cleveland Labour council has been held together for four years
Sir, – Not only are we greatly concerned by the library closures proposed by North Yorkshire County Council, we believe the plans are extremely unfair in their piecemeal approach. While the full amount of council tax will continue to be demanded
Sir, – The first paragraph of the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 states: “From the commencement of this Act it shall be the duty of the Secretary of State to superintend and promote the improvement of the public library service provided
Sir, – Further to last week’s letter submitted by June and Martin Sunderland, I can confirm that the place to which they refer to as being “Somewhere west of Reeth” has not been totally lost. There is now evidence to suggest that it has indeed
Sir, – So, the leader of the Tory group on Richmondshire District Council thinks that unless a councillor votes for her party line they cannot be independent (D&S letters, Jan 21). In fact, she defeats her own argument by admitting that independents
Sir, – The growing debate in the letters column of the Darlington & Stockton Times, about the integrity of councillors as Independents, is indeed welcome. How often has it been said that there should be no politics in local government and politics
Sir, – F Peart, oil distributors, of Hartlepool are also owned by GB Oils and therefore need to be added to the list of heating oil companies, mentioned in last week’s paper, which are under investigation. I ordered oil from Pearts on December
Sir, – Further to the correspondence (D&S, Jan 21)about my previous letter regarding the proposed new parking restrictions in Yarm (D&S, Jan 14), last weekend, I came across two parked vehicles that particularly irked me. Local people are
From this newspaper 100 years ago. In the Hull Bankruptcy Court on Monday, another chapter was added to the amazing story of the Driffield traveller, J W Temple, who after witnessing a performance of the “Merry Widow” in London in February 1909 lost
Sir, – Last week the D&S reported North Yorkshire County Coun Gerald Dadd as advising residents of his Thirsk constituency to be prepared to campaign to prevent their local library being closed. I would go further and urge every resident who
RELEASE of provisional figures showing the slump in numbers of passengers using Durham Tees Valley Airport makes for depressing reading. After years of seeming relentless expansion, the airport’s business has shrunk to what it was in the 1970s.
FACEBY joiner Guy Kendrew and the all-new AM-sponsored Ossa proved to be an unbeatable partnership on Sunday at the Middlesbrough DMC Lazenby trial on Eston Hills. Kendrew fired the Ossa round for the loss of just seven marks to beat Marton
MSA Academy driver Max Coates, 17, from Scorton, North Yorkshire, has signed up to race in the Ginetta Junior Championship this year following last season’s success. The signing took place at the recent Autosport show in the National Exhibition
THIRSK’S men’s team defeated Slazengers away 2-1. The visitors took the lead Paul Doyle broke down the right wing though and delivered an inch perfect cross for Luke Carey, who had excellently timed his run to arrive at the far post. Andy Loftus
Northallerton Town 1 Guisborough Town 2 FOLLOWING on from their great 1-0 away victory against Thornaby in mid-week thanks to a 17th-minute goal from club skipper Martin Butterworth, Northallerton Town played their first home game since November
THE tie of the round in the Dales Cup was at Easby where in-form Richmond Mavericks met league leaders Richmond Town Academy last Saturday. The hosts looked set for a sixth straight win when Gary Walker headed them into an early lead but Abdoulie
HOLDERS Northallerton Police reached the last four of the Frank Bainbridge Cup after a 6-2 win at Colburn Town last Sunday. Goals from Dan Cardie, Nathan Hemingbrough, Ben Darville (2), Gary Sharda and Rob Fraser were enough to send the Division
A BEDALE schoolgirl was crowned the best distance runner in North Yorkshire when she scooped a cross-country championship. Katy Kitching, from Well, became the North Yorkshire County Cross Country Minor Girls Champion in the County Championships
DARLINGTON Mowden Park’s hopes of closing the gap on the top three at the other end of the division were ended at high-flying Bradford & Bingley. In a gruelling encounter between second and fourth, it was the Yorkshiremen who came out on top
SEDGEFIELD staged a sevenrace card on Tuesday and not for the first time this year Richie McGrath was the star of the show, riding a fantastic double. The Bedale-based rider kicked off with a win on the Irish- trained mare Radharc Na Mara in
Brimham Riding Club. – Feb 7: Tack and togs sale, Henry Jenkins pub, Kirkby Malzeard 7pm Stalls £6 members, £10 non-members in advance. Food served. Zetland Hunt Pony Club. – Jan 30, Feb 13, Mar 26: Unmounted rallies. Contact Andrea on 0786-0185443
THE first point-to-point in the Yorkshire Area gets under way at Sheriff Hutton on Sunday January with the first race at noon. The meeting has already been postponed twice due to the weather, but with the forecast for the week looking warm
