Prime Minister Gordon Brown began his visit to the region yesterday by calling in at a Northumberland power station.

Mr Brown paid a late afternoon visit to Lynemouth for a whistle stop tour of the Rio Tinto Alcan facility, which employs 630 people.

The prime minister was introduced to staff by managing director Wyn Jones and facility manager Vaughan Campbell.

Excavator driver Chris Collier, 36, who works on UK Coal's Stobswood opencast site near Morpeth, has handed over almost £2,000 to the Spinal Research charity after completing the London Marathon in April.

Chris, who is married to Caroline and has two children Nikki and Ethan, completed the race for the first time, finishing in a time of three hours, 55 minutes, 45 seconds. He has now raised more than £3,500 from charity runs in the last three years.

New team Lynemouth are taking the MB Socca Leagues by storm and they head Division One after overcoming fellow title contenders Cramlington Ford FC 2-1.

Joint top and hot on Lynemouth's heels are North Seaton Elephant, who looked more like the team of old as they convincingly beat old foes Newbiggin Sports Centre 3-0.

Real Ashington smashed struggling Entertainers 7-2, while the game between Stakeford and Northern Social Club was declared void.

More than 2,000 female council workers in Northumberland are set for payouts after agreement was finally reached to settle a long-running, £50m equal pay claim.

Women county council employees such as cleaners, kitchen assistants and carers are in line for the compensation payments as a result of being underpaid for years in comparison to male colleagues who earned bonuses.

Northumberland County Council is the last local authority in the North East to settle its equal pay dispute with the GMB and Unison - and defended its case as far as an Employment Tribunal scheduled for earlier this month.

Families in Northumberland are being invited to have their say on policing in their area at a special meeting.

A Police and Community Together meeting will be held for people living in Ashington, Ellington, Linton, Lynemouth and Newbiggin.

The session is designed to give residents a chance to meet their Neighbourhood Policing Teams and discuss any problems they have in their area.

Independent rural petrol stations are facing an increasing battle just to survive, as they struggle to compete with their bigger rivals.

Many of the stations also act as convenience stores in their local communities, but dozens have closed over the last few years, in yet another blow to the rural economy.

Gordon Moore, pictured, who owns the Border Reiver Station in Knowesgate, Northumberland, said the margin on fuel from his station is tiny.

A fox cub found in a snare has been rescued after a walker alerted campaigners.

The National Anti-Snaring campaign were called after a walker found the cub in a wood near Widdrington.

Campaigners visited the site the following day and found a fox cub still struggling in a snare surrounded by illegally dumped lamb carcasses as well as decomposing birds.

The fox charity has reported the illegal carcasses dumping to Northumberland County Council.

Police are now investigating the illegal snare.

A Northumberland beauty spot became the scene of a massive beach party when it was invaded by more than 300 students.

The youngsters were celebrating the 50-year life of their school before it went out of existence.

And the sun helped everything go with a swing yesterday as Newbiggin Middle School was moved to Druridge Bay beach for the day.

More meetings are to be held in Northumberland to allow people to have their say on £200m proposals for new and improved hospitals in the county.

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust has drawn up plans for a new specialist emergency care centre near Cramlington, plus improvements to Wansbeck General and the rebuilding of community hospitals in Berwick and Haltwhistle.

But the changes would see the closure of emergency departments at Wansbeck and Hexham General, moves which have caused some concern with patients.

Druridge Bay Middle School prides itself on keeping its pupils busy with a fantastic range of activities designed to get the best out of school life.

The Druridge Bay 10k charity run was a huge event for the school, with student Holly Moscrop winning a competition to design the shirts given to the participants on the day and Year 8 pupil Brydie Smith winning the under-16s race.

Pupils remember their tragic young playmate Philippa Callaghan, who died from cancer last year, by holding a special day and spelling out PIP in the playground

Another important event for the school was the recent 'PIP day' (pictured), held in memory of former pupil Philippa Callaghan who died from cancer last year, which was organised by Pip's sister Zoë and her friends Chelsea, Katy and Frances.