A rail firm planning a rival low-fare service between the North East, London and Edinburgh has ordered trains that will be made in the region. FirstGroup has agreed a £100m deal with Hitachi Rail for five new AT300 electric trains that will be built in part at Hitachi’s plant on Aycliffe Business Park. The service – which will run five...

A man who killed another man after punching him outside a pub has been jailed for eight years. Iain Lee, pictured above, suffered critical head injuries after he was punched to the ground in the early hours of September 8 last year. The 31-year-old had been socialising with a friend at The Roundhouse pub in Newton Aycliffe when he was...

The 39th issue of Aycliffe Today Business – the magazine for Aycliffe Business Park – features Think Eleven managing director Darren Race as the cover star. Race is an experienced engineer who has devised user-friendly cloud-based software which enables employers to ultimately boost their productivity. He’s now delivering his unique...

Students from Greenfield Community College took to the stage at Durham Gala Theatre with a stunning performance as part of ‘Feetfirst’, a secondary schools dance showcase. The group of dancers from Greenfield have been taking the event seriously, rehearsing at every opportunity to be the best that they can be. The students made the hard...

Cross-party politicians have joined calls for a review into a decision not to award a £1.5bn contract to a North-East train builder, describing it as a “slap in the face”. It had been revealed that Transport for London (TfL) knew Siemens intended to build new trains to serve the London Underground's Piccadilly line in Austria almost a year...

Team Sky have officially become Team Ineos to reflect their new sponsor, a chemicals firm which owns a huge site in Newton Aycliffe. Broadcaster Sky said in December it would end its decade-long commitment at the end of 2019, during which time the team Sky have won eight Grand Tours. “So excited that we as riders and staff will be able to...

Auditors were so impressed by a local authority’s work to help its workforce stay healthy that they took the unprecedented step of making no recommendations for improvement following a recent inspection. Every five years the Durham County Council Occupational Health Team is assessed for the Safe and Effective Quality Occupational Health...

Staff at Newton Aycliffe Youth and Community Centre are putting to good use a new cooker that has recently been installed. They’ve taken delivery of the new cooker thanks to a grant from Great Aycliffe and Middridge Partnership (GAMP). Thanks to funding from local county councillors the group were awarded £1,500 to purchase and install a...

Aycliffe Business Park software specialist, Excelpoint has announced it is on target to realise a 100% increase in sales by the end of its financial year. As a key player in the global no-code systems and process automation market, Excelpoint has built its success and reputation on supporting its customers to streamline and automate business...

By Donna Campbell It may only be early in the year but the racing season is certainly stepping up with the first marathon being run by one of our members. As always, I will begin with Parkruns which this week saw two of our members achieve PB’s. This was despite the terrible weather that Storm Gareth brought. At Sedgefield, Hannah...