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Northumberland County Council's bid for a new caravan and camping site at Druridge Bay Country Park has been given the green light. The proposals, for a plot to the south of Ladyburn Lake, were approved by eight votes to two by the North Northumberland Local Area Council this week. The scheme had attracted 35 objections from residents - and three letters of support - while East Chevington Parish Council was opposed to what it described as 'simply commercialisation of public land', but no objectors spoke against the application at Tuesday's (May 21) meeting. The planning officer's report said that camping provision was specifically included in the provision when the park was created in 1983, before opening to the public three years later. It adds that the area in question continues to be used for camping to this day, but 'due to the modern popularity of caravans/camper-vans, the current set-aside area is no longer considered fit for purpose.' Coun Jeff Watson said: "It's quite obvious that the area we are talking about is already used for this purpose at various times.

Jamie Oliver's restaurant chain Jamie's Italian has appointed administrators, putting more than 1,000 jobs at risk. The business said it had appointed KPMG to oversee the process, with a more detailed announcement expected later on Tuesday. Mr Oliver said: "I am deeply saddened by this outcome and would like to thank all of the staff and our suppliers who have put their hearts and souls into this business for over a decade. I appreciate how difficult this is for everyone affected. "I would also like to thank all the customers who have enjoyed and supported us over the last decade, it's been a real pleasure serving you. "We launched Jamie's Italian in 2008 with the intention of positively disrupting mid-market dining in the UK high street, with great value and much higher quality ingredients, best-in-class animal welfare standards and an amazing team who shared my passion for great food and service. And we did exactly that." It follows a hunt for a new investor in the brand, with a number of private equity firms touted as mulling bids for a stake in the business.

Newcastle’s two universities have taken two of the top three slots in a national table ranking businesses started by its graduates. The city’s reputation as a breeding ground for budding entrepreneurs has been boosted after Northumbria University topped the Higher Education Business and Community Interaction Survey (HEBCIS) for the third year running, while Newcastle University was ranked third. The survey said businesses started by Northumbria University start-ups had a combined turnover of £81.5m, while Newcastle’s were worth £40.3m. They were separated only by Edinburgh University, with Northumbria maintaining top spot from last year and Newcastle moving up from fifth. Graduates from the two universities have started award-winning businesses that include Noveltea, which turned down investment from Dragons’ Den and then made four times as much through crowdfunding, and the Teashed, whose MD Jules Quinn was named on Forbes’ list of top European young entrepreneurs. Lucy Winskell, pro vice-chancellor for employability and partnerships at Northumbria, said: “Northumbria has now been ranked the top university in the UK for graduate start-ups for five out of the past six years, which is an exceptional achievement. “We are extremely proud of our entrepreneurial students and graduates and the significant contribution their businesses are making to employment and economic growth.

Teenagers have been 'dispersed' from a Northumberland town plagued by youth disorder. For several months, locals have been reporting trouble with groups of young people congregating in the parks and public spaces of Bedlington. On social media, reports have been shared of people tipping over bins, setting small fires, throwing stones and smashing panels in bus shelters. In February, Northumbria Police said some of the problems were caused by children as young as 12 and as old as 19 congregating in Bedlington from nearby towns, and pledged "robust" action for those who refused to heed their warnings. Friday May 17 saw another surge in the bad behaviour, with Northumbria Police's Neighbourhood Policing Team dispersing "over 60 youths" in the from the area. Police said this was done "in relation to anti-social behaviour", and that those involved were believed to be from various areas including Bedlington, Newbiggin, Ashington, Blyth, Morpeth and Cramlington.

A Northumberland hardware store which has served generations of families in Bedlington Station for almost 100 years is closing its doors this month. Joan Muter, 84, is reluctantly shutting up shop at R & L Keenleysides shop after working in the same store for more than six decades to enjoy a well-earned retirement. The store first started out as a small hardware shop launched by Bob Keenleyside. Morris Muter, Mrs Muter’s late husband, started helping out Mr Keenleyside with joinery work for his customers in the late 1950s and, once their family were of school age, Mrs Muter also helped out on Saturdays. In 1965 the couple took over the store from Mr Keenleyside. While her husband took care of the timber side of the business, Mrs Muter learned first-hand how to run a business, doing the accounts and looking after customers.

A man has been charged with a number of driving offences following a head-on collision in Northumberland which left three people seriously injured. Police, paramedics and firefighters were called to the A1068 Fisher Lane between Seaton Burn and Cramlington at 10pm on Friday after a collision between a silver Vauxhall Vectra and a black Audi A1. Three fire crews from Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service and a specialist fire unit helped to release one person from their vehicle. Three people – two women and a man – were taken to hospital with serious injuries. Police have now confirmed a 25-year-old man was subsequently arrested and has been charged with a number of driving offences, including causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

Contentious plans for a caravan and camping site at Druridge Bay Country Park, which have sparked a number of objections, are being recommended for approval. Northumberland County Council's proposals for a plot to the south of Ladyburn Lake are supported by planners, with councillors advised to follow suit at next Tuesday's North Northumberland Local Area Council. The development would provide stone-surfaced access tracks and 20 caravan/camper-van pitches with electrical hook-up points and nearby water standpipes. Seven grass tent pitches would also be available. A waste-water cassette wash-out facility would be provided nearby, as well as a small modular building with facilities for washing dishes. It would operate for a maximum of seven months of the year, between the beginning of April and the end of October. Druridge Bay Country Park was created in 1983 following the restoration and reclamation of an opencast mine, before opening to the public in 1986. Stay informed by receiving your choice of the latest breaking North East news, NUFC/SAFC news and business news direct to your email by subscribing to our newsletters - here's how. Facebook: Here's our main Chronicle page. For our Newcastle United Facebook page click here and our Sunderland page is here. We also have a group for breaking news, one for travel news and one exclusively for court news. Twitter: You can follow the Chronicle here, our NUFC page here, our SAFC page is here and The Journal here. Insta: Here's our Instagram page for all you photo lovers. Over on Linkedin you can follow us here.

Proposals to scrap the HS2 high speed rail to pay for a range of smaller improvements have been slammed as "an embarrassment". The Taxpayers' Alliance published 28 projects which they say could be funded if HS2 was scrapped. Their ideas included dramatic improvements to the A1 all the way from Durham to Edinburgh, turning the road into a dual carriageway, and possibly a fully-fledged motorway, along the whole 140-mile stretch. But the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, the think-tank founded by former Chancellor George Osborne to promote the North, said the region needed HS2 as well as smaller schemes. Henri Murison, director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership said: "Northern business and civic leaders all agree we need HS2, Northern Powerhouse Rail and more investment in key road and mass transit schemes for city regions. "Why should hard pressed taxpayers in the North, who pay double the amount of road tax and fuel duty than those living in London, be forced to make a choice between them after decades of underinvestment here?

Scrapping the HS2 high speed rail line could pay for dramatic improvements to the A1 all the way from Durham to Edinburgh, according to campaigners. The road could become a dual carriageway - and possibly a fully-fledged motorway - along a 140-mile stretch, improving transport links between the North East and Scotland. That’s the claim in a new report launched by former Cabinet Minister David Davis. And it’s just one of a number of improvements to road and rail services across the country that could go ahead if HS2 is scrapped, according to the report’s authors. Mr Davis, a former Brexit Secretary, said: “Together, the projects would bridge the divide between North and South, boost economic growth, improve capacity in our transport networks and provide a better service to passengers. "What’s more, all proposals combined could be delivered quicker and cheaper than HS2.

A community facility which has hosted thousands of people is to close at the end of the month.

An 18-year-old from Bedlington is organising a fund-raiser after being named a finalist for this year’s Miss Newcastle.

Consultation is under way on a plan to extend the age ranges of two schools in Bedlington.

Vandals caused more than £10,000 worth of damage at a playground in Bedlington Station.

A private landlord has been fined for illegally evicting his tenant by changing the locks while he was out the house. Trevor Bell had been served a section 8 notice - the first step in proceedings to bring a tenancy to an end. However, he failed to issue possession proceedings or secure any order of the court. South East Northumberland Magistrates' Court heard Northumberland County Council’s private sector housing team advised Bell it would be unlawful to evict the tenant without a court order. But in February 2018, the landlord changed the locks to the property while the tenant was out. Once the council became aware of the matter it was passed to the local authority’s corporate fraud team to investigate.

A man was taken to hospital with serious injuries after being assaulted in an early morning attack. Police were called to Front Street in Bedlington , Northumberland at around 2.50am on Sunday. It was reported that a man had been assaulted and left injured near to Bedlington Service Station. The victim was taken to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries, a police spokesperson said. It is believed that a suspect made off from the scene in a vehicle. Northumbria Police have launched an investigation and ask anyone with any information to contact police by calling 101 and quoting reference number 144 28/04/19.

A Bedlington man cleared of a one-punch attack on an Aussie rugby star has been awarded A$100,000 in damages after winning a defamation case against a TV network. Sam Oliver hit the headlines when he was accused of flooring James Stannard with a 'king hit' - Australian slang for a single punch - outside a hotel in Sydney in the early hours of March 30 last year. Following the hearing, the Nine News Network broadcast a report calling the incident "a coward punch which ended the career of Rugby Sevens captain James Stannard". Now Mr Oliver has been awarded A$100,000 (£54,600) after a judge found the Australian network's report wrongly depicted Mr Oliver as being a coward who punched a defenceless man causing him grievous injury. Federal Court judge Michael Lee rejected Nine's argument that its report of the verdict was fair. Mr Stannard, who announced his retirement from rugby last June, struck his head on the pavement and suffered a fractured skull, spending two nights in hospital after the incident.

A new sports pitch at a special school in Cramlington has been given the go-ahead. A bid for the construction of a multi-use games area (MUGA) at Hillcrest Day Special School, on East View Avenue, was unanimously approved by the Cramlington, Bedlington and Seaton Valley Local Area Council on Wednesday (April 17). The application had sparked no objections and the planning officer described the facility as 'something that the Government and local authority seek to encourage', but it had to be decided by the committee as it involves a county council development on council-owned land. The proposed MUGA would measure around 30 by 16.5 metres with recessed goal ends and a synthetic-turf pitch in green. It would be surrounded by a one-metre-high perimeter fence, constructed with timber rails and steel posts in green, which would be raised to three metres behind the goals. The pitch, which would be located in the south-east corner of the school playing field with Northumbrian Road to the east and Church Street to the south, would be linked to the main school by a new concrete footpath.

A teenager called police to report a man was brandishing a knife in public - but it turned out to be him carrying the blade. Jack Barrass, 19, has been sent to prison for nine months after being caught by police in possession of the knife on March 24. The teenager had called police to claim that he had witnessed a man waving a knife above his head on St James' Crescent in Benwell. When police arrived they spotted a man who matched the description of the person given by the caller. Officers approached him and carried out a stop and search, at which point the man admitted he had a knife tucked into his trousers. Bodycam footage of the search has been shared by the force, showing Barrass admitting he has a knife seconds after being approached by an officer.

If you have an eye for a bargain these properties are going under the hammer for under £20,000. On the Auction House North East website these rundown dwellings are valued with that in mind. And if you are prepared to roll your sleeves up - you might be in for a tidy profit. These properties range from one bedroom flats to a three bedroom house. They are spread across our region in Washington, Blyth, Peterlee, Bedlington, Easington Colliery, Sunderland and Hartlepool. They go up for auction at Ramside Hall Hotel at Carrville, Durham, on Wednesday, 24 April, at 7pm.

Why Newcastle United stars of the 1950s swapped their strips for smart suits to pose for studio portraits has puzzled club historian Paul Joannou. The 12in by 9in studies are of Jackie Milburn (signed), Bobby Mitchell (signed), Tommy Walker, Ronnie Simpson, Norman Smith (signed), Bobby Cowell, Bill Foulkes, George Robledo, Alf McMichael (signed) and Ted Robledo (signed). They will be sold by Newcastle auctioneers Anderson and Garland on Tuesday, with an estimate of £150-£200. “They are lovely studio portraits and are very different from the usual pictures of Newcastle players in their black and white strips,” said Paul. “These are cinema-style portraits and are probably a one-off set. “If player pictures are taken for general sale you expect some to come on to the market, but I have never seen this type of format before. Maybe they were done for the players themselves.” Several of the pictures are signed “to Bill.”