During a heated meeting of Aycliffe Council’s Recreation Committee on Wednesday evening, humbug councillor Bill Blenkinsopp snarled to members of the public “the Santa Tours will change – and if anyone is unhappy they should stand for election”. The independent councillor for Aycliffe Village – blissfully unaware of the huge swathe of...

The meeting of Aycliffe Town Council’s Recreation Committee descended into utter chaos on Wednesday night as councillors bizarrely put four different ideas forward for the Santa Tours. Around 30 members of the public turned up for what turned out to be a heated committee meeting. But, despite revealing earlier on Wednesday that police...

Santa’s Christmas Eve Tours will continue in their usual format, after Great Aycliffe Town Council revealed the police and their insurers have confirmed the tours are safe to go ahead. The local authority has confirmed Durham Constabulary’s Chief Constable, Mike Barton, and the council’s insurance firm have OK’d the tours in their usual...

More than 100,000 County Durham residents have now signed up to Do It Online. Durham County Council has reached 100,000 online customers who have registered to its Do It Online account, which has become the council’s preferred method of contact for many services. Do It Online enables customers to report issues online quickly and easily at...

The Aycliffe Business Park Community is looking for new board members to drive forward its agenda. In 2016, Aycliffe Business Park Community (ABPC) formed a new company to drive forward its agenda and help create a bright and successful future for all businesses located on the park. Two years later, progress has been made but the group is...

Sinead Hinton and Ben Maxfield were recognised with for five years without absence from Greenfield Community College during a special ceremony. Head teacher Mr Priestley and assistant head teacher Mrs Stubbs joined them at Durham County Cricket Club to see them receive their well-deserved award and to add their congratulations to recognise...

It was a wet and windy welcome to the pitch for the Aycliffe Juniors football teams at the weekend. The Under 7’s Whites faced fellow unbeaten team Durham City Juniors. A hat-trick from Jack C was not enough to win the game with the final score showing an 8-3 loss. The Under 7’s Juniors travelled to play Wynyard Village Youth and after a...

The Pioneering Care Partnership in Newton Aycliffe is joining the Time to Change campaign aiming to end the stigma around mental health problems. Around one in four people will experience a mental health problem yet there is still a shame and silence about talking about how people feel. On World Mental Health Day last Wednesday (October 10),...

A transport expert claims to have found a solution to the health and safety issue which is threatening one of Newton Aycliffe’s oldest traditions. Aycliffe Town Council officers referred a new events sub-committee to road traffic legislation in a report – suggesting the local authority has been breaking the law with the way Santa has been...

Hitachi Rail is launching a brand new educational programme with Primary Engineer that will see 2,700 5 to 11-year-olds learn about engineering with the help of experts in the field. The announcement came after Rail Week (last week) and the initiative is part of the Year of Engineering campaign. It aims to help tackle a serious shortage of...