Organisers of an annual awards ceremony had to think on their feet to be able to celebrate environmental guardianship and community spirit during the coronavirus pandemic. County Durham Environment Awards, now in its 31st year, usually gathers its green-minded finalists together for an official ceremony to award the winning entrants for their...

Emergency 999 call dispatcher Angela Walton leapt into action last week when she apprehended a shoplifter in Newton Aycliffe. Angela had just escorted her 81-year-old mum to the opticians when the pair decided to nip into one of her favourite shops. “It was the first time mam had been out in nearly a year because of Covid so she was...

Newton Aycliffe-based Tekmar Energy has clinched a new cable protection system (CPS) supply contracts for two offshore wind farm projects located in the coastal province of Guangdong in South-East China. Under the contracts, Tekmar Energy will supply its patented TekLink mechanical latch CPS technology to protect subsea cables as they...

A council budget that includes investing £112m in frontline services and the most ambitious regeneration plans in a generation has been approved. Durham County Council’s Medium Term Financial Plan sets out spending plans and priorities from 2021/22 to 2024/25 and reflects the additional demands of the coronavirus pandemic. At a full...

Public, private and voluntary sector professionals in County Durham and the Tees Valley are invited to sign up to free digital skills training – both technical and creative – following some quick thinking by Teesside University as part of its comprehensive response to Covid-19. The Digital Skills for Growth programme is providing ten,...

Greenfield Arts are due to welcome back artist Bill Hindmarsh to the Greenfield Gallery. Bill’s exhibition, People and Places, has a new place in Greenfield’s programme and is an exhibition that showcases his ‘eclectic mix of subject and media’, including previously unseen and current work. Bill is a renowned artist who lives and...

Applications are invited for a role which helps to ensure high standards of conduct in local government. Durham County Council is looking to appoint two people to the role of Independent Person to assist the authority, as well as town and parish councils across the county, in maintaining high ethical standards. Those appointed will be...

Thirty-six businesses from across County Durham are the first recipients of the Durham Business Recovery Grant scheme to help them implement recovery plans to overcome the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The new £5m grant funded by Durham County Council, which was launched on January 14, is aimed at those businesses affected by the...

Major employers representing thousands of Newton Aycliffe workers have backed calls to locate the Treasury’s new northern economic campus in Teesside. Figureheads from some of the area’s biggest employers have signed a joint letter to Rishi Sunak, urging him to bring the jobs to the Tees region. The chancellor has proposed moving 800...

Durham County Council has spent nearly £1m on traffic management at its recycling centres over the three lockdowns. The local authority spent £900,000 on blocking the entrance to 12 waste disposal sites across the county. But it insists the cash won’t come from local coffers – but will eventually be claimed back from central...