Music fans in Newton Aycliffe enjoyed a celebration of Christmas in Aycliffe town centre on Saturday. Despite the terrible weather, around 100 spectators cheered on three former X Factor contestants during Saturday’s party. Kerrianne Covell closed with a cracking cover of Maria Carey’s "All I want for Christmas" which went down...

Here are a selection of pictures taken by local photographer Dave Stocks at Saturday's celebration of Christmas in Aycliffe town centre at the weekend... ...

Fire Control for County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service took almost 250 calls this weekend resulting in more than 200 emergency responses. These responses involved all 15 stations across the Service area at some stage between Friday morning (4 December) and Monday morning (7 December). The Dales area (Stanhope, Barnard Castle...

Another wet week limited some of the games but Aycliffe Junior’s teams still managed some great performances over the weekend. The Under 7’s game was lost to the wet conditions but the Under 8’s faced Trimdon on the 3G pitch at Sunnydale. A slow start led to Lucas having to pull off a great save to keep the game at 0-0. Aycliffe then took...

Staff at a Newton Aycliffe printing firm have been laid off just three weeks before Christmas. Company bosses at Addo Printing on Aycliffe Business Park, which bought out the crippled HPM Group just over a year ago, say the future is “unknown” after all employees were made redundant on Wednesday. Addo managing director Keiran Bayley has...

An X Factor trio is set to rock Newton Aycliffe town centre during a special celebration of Christmas this weekend. Josh Daniel, Kerrianne Covell and Karen Harding form the highlight entertainment during Saturday’s X Factor-themed street party, which kicks off at 1pm. Josh, 22, from Billingham, famously reduced Simon Cowell to tears with...

Newton Aycliffe MP Phil Wilson voted in favour of extending air strikes in Syria during Wednesday night’s controversial Commons vote. Mr Wilson – the Labour MP for Sedgefield – was one of less than 160 MPs who were given time to have a say during the marathon 10-hour debate. He said he believed Britain would be “letting down our...

Newton Aycliffe hair stylists specialising in extensions have been awarded VIP status by a national stockist which caters for stars including Cheryl Fernandez-Versini and Nicole Scherzinger. Lox of Love, based on Aycliffe Business Park, is the first salon in the North – and the eighth globally out of 2,000 outlets – to be given the VIP...

Huntsman 8, Kirk Merrington Half Moon 2 Following two weeks of postponed fixtures, the Huntsman were back in action on Sunday, at home to Kirk Merrington Half Moon. Manager Neil Dodds was forced into a couple of changes, as Anthony McDonald played in goal and Ollie Gell was called back into the side at left-back. The game got off to a...

The Aycliffe Juniors football season marched on with three fixtures at the weekend, despite the bad weather. The Under 7’s faced a determined Primrose Hill, these sides having had a recent close game in the cup. Aycliffe dominated the game on this occasion and played some excellent attacking football. Kai, Harry and Isaac shared the goals in...