Two UK-based rail giants are submitting a ‘Great British’ train proposal to High Speed Two (HS2) that would be the most advanced, customer-oriented train ever to run in the UK. The contract, worth £2.75billion, is to design, build and maintain at least 54 trains for Phase One of HS2. Hitachi has pioneered Japan’s world-renowned...

Crafter’s Companion has named the Bradley Lowery Foundation as its charity of the year. Staff at Crafter’s Companion have organised a number of events to support the foundation throughout the year including a Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge, a summer fundraiser and a special Christmas campaign. The team will also set up in-store...

Thousands of trees will be planted across County Durham’s towns and villages to create greener and healthier urban areas. As part of Forestry Commission’s Urban Tree Challenge Fund (UTCF), Durham County Council has secured almost £500,000 to plant thousands of trees in spaces where tree canopy is low. Over the next two years large trees...

The County Durham Growth Fund is celebrating having invested more than £500,000 in three businesses from across the county within 10 months of its launch. Established in April 2019, the three-year fund is a £4.9m investment scheme providing funding to small and medium sized businesses in County Durham to accelerate their growth. The fund...

Sedgefield 75 swimming club sent six swimmers to Durham last weekend to compete in Durham Swimming Club’s Valentines Gala. Youngest of the six was Ellis Dickinson who swam his first 100m race in competition and also slashed a combined ten seconds from his 50m backstroke and freestyle times showing excellent progression. Dylan Forster had...

Students from Greenfield Community College have been given the chance to travel to Europe and make new connections with students from a range of countries. The recent ERASMUS+ trip enabled a group of students to travel overseas and spend time in a Spanish school and family homes, learning more about the culture, landscape and learning...

UTC South Durham student Stephen Henry has secured a competitive degree apprenticeship with BTS Facades and Fabrications, a Newton Aycliffe-based company which manufactures high-quality facade and rain-screen products. Year 13 student Stephen joined UTC South Durham in 2016 and achieved excellent GCSE results before continuing to study A-Levels...

Newton Aycliffe 0, North Shields 1 By Dave Strickland Newton Aycliffe can consider themselves unlucky to lose 1-0 to North Shields at the Beaumont Landscapes stadium. They were the better team but went down to a goal in injury time at the end of the match. In-form striker Adam Burnicle was ruled out with injury, and centre half Liam...

By Donna Campbell This weekend again saw many members participating in the local Parkruns on Saturday morning and we had two members achieving Parkrun PBs. First was Paula Lambert who achieved her PB at Shildon in a time of 32.54. At Sedgefield Jayne Rudd achieved a course PB of 32.57. Also on Saturday we had two people take part in races...

County Durham residents are being reminded to sign up soon to ensure they receive all available garden waste collections. To guarantee they receive all 17 collections for 2020/21, people must sign up to the Durham County Council scheme before February 14. The first collection for people who subscribe to the service before this deadline takes...