Aycliffe Today editor Martin Walker takes a look back at 2014, reviewing October, November and December…
October
• A £40,000 Multi Use Games Area at Horndale Park is officially opened (pictured above).
• Aycliffe FC appoint former West Auckland boss Peter Dixon as their new manger.
• Tributes are paid to popular Newtonian Darren Ablewhite, who dies suddenly.
• Ebac add 40 new staff to its team as the production of chest freezers cranks up.
• Plans are revealed to demolish the Oak Tree pub and replace it with two sets of two-storey apartment blocks for people aged over 55.
• More than 11,000 cigarettes and nearly 9kg of rolling tobacco are seized from raids in Aycliffe and Chilton.
• Merchant Place Developments reveal plans to bring 4,500 new jobs to Aycliffe BusinessPark with a five-year plan to develop Merchant 2 and 3.
November
• Aycliffe printers HPM and Addo goes into administration with the loss of 12 more jobs but is bought by Addo Printing in a pre-pack deal.
• Newton Aycliffe falls silent on Remembrance Sunday during a touching tribute in the town centre.
• Proposals for Greenfield Community College and Sunnydale Community College to become one school are approved.
• Aycliffe woman Lisa Phillips, 37, is jailed for five months after lying about being pregnant in a bid to avoid jail, when she was originally convicted in October 2013 for stealing £14,700 from her aunt.
• In another exclusive, Gestamp Tallent’s Plant Director Peter Gallone talks to Aycliffe Today editor Martin Walker in the November-December issue of our business magazine.
• Finley Structures reveal plans to convert the former Presswork Metals factory into a state-of-the-art leisure facility including a rock climbing facility.
• Former Prime Minister and Sedgefield MP Tony Blair visits Woodham Academy – we brought our readers an exclusive video interview with Mr Blair.
December
• Aycliffe Cricket Club become only the second club in NYSD history to win the prestigious Gold Club of the Year two years in a row.
• Durham Police and Crime Commissioner Ron Hogg gathers support for reform and increases the pressure on the Government to review UK drug policy.
• Aycliffe Today reveals plans by the University of Sunderland to create a new scheme designed specifically to offer firms on Aycliffe Business Park a free graduate scheme – dubbed Development in Newton Aycliffe (DNA).