Residents in County Durham are being reminded to sign up for garden waste collections. Residents can join the scheme at any time of the year but the sooner they subscribe, the sooner they will start receiving collections. For an annual fee of £20 householders will receive fortnightly garden waste collections until the Autumn. A three...

By Martin Walker The Conservative Party candidate for the Sedgefield seat in this year's General Election has welcomed new jobs figures which claim a drop in the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance in our region. Scott Wood, a former Army tank commander from Darlington who served in Afghanistan and Iraq on peace and stability...

By Martin Walker Newton Aycliffe FC chairman Allan Oliver is appealing to the club's fans to get behind the club in the run-in to the season. The Newtonians progressed to the semi-finals of the League Cup with a 2-1 win at Washington on Tuesday night. But Aycliffe are hovering just two places and eight points above the Northern League...

Two former Newton Aycliffe captains will swap the pitch for the dugout later this year when they take charge of respective Newtonian XI’s to raise money for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. Sean Tarling (pictured above, right) and John Close (above left) will select from a pool of current and ex-Newtonians in the charity game which will...

By Martin Walker Newton Aycliffe WMC keeper Ste Richardson says the team dedicated their County Cup semi-final victory to two club legends who are no longer with us. The former Aycliffe FC shot-stopper made a blinding save with the tense last-four clash on a knife-edge last Sunday. Lewis Wing had put the home side ahead in the first...

By Martin Walker Construction of the North East's first University Technical College (UTC) will begin in Newton Aycliffe this summer, it has been confirmed. The University of Sunderland has revealed the South Durham UTC - an engineering and advanced manufacturing Centre of Excellence - will be built at Long Tens Way on Aycliffe Business...

By Martin Walker Business leaders from Newton Aycliffe were treated to a rare insight this week - a sneak peek of Hitachi's very first Aycliffe train carriage. Hitachi's first prototype train arrived at the Port of Tyne in January after making a 52-day trip to the UK covering 12,880 nautical miles. The 26m-long carriage arrived on...

By Martin Walker The leader of Great Aycliffe Town Council says we must avoid "unrealistic ambitions" in the light of the Durham County Plan being panned last week. Councillor Bob Fleming (pictured above) says Aycliffe's Neighbourhood Plan will "press on", regardless of inspector Harold Stephens' damning review of Durham County's...

By Martin Walker Durham County Council is considering a bizarre proposal to remove street lighting along the whole of the A167 which takes in Newton Aycliffe. Now the Aycliffe Business Park community is gathering support to oppose the council's intentions. The local authority was left reeling last week after its much-celebrated,...

iPad con woman Kirsty Cox could be facing jail again after asking for a £19,000 reprieve this week. The 38-year-old appeared at Teesside Crown Court in relation to the proceeds of crime order imposed on her in March last year. Cox duped hundreds of people out of thousands of pounds in the lead up to Christmas 2012 after telling friends...