During December, the fir tree at the end of Mile Road has been lit by colourful Christmas lights and has provided a warm welcome to the village. On Saturday night though, vandals removed the lights from the tree and left them in a tangle on the grass.

Despite heavy snowfalls throughout Saturday, many people braved the conditions to attend the annual Christmas Ball at Dansers above the Co-op in Widdrington Station. Attendance was somewhat lower than usual as people who lived further away opted to stay at home in warm but a convivial spirit enlivened the evening for those who were able to attend.

On Sunday 22 November, Amble's Christmas lights switch-on was marked by the annual Lantern Parade.

Instead of mischief and mayhem, Halloween saw the descent of almost 30 volunteers intent on improving People's Park as part of the Big Tidy Up campaign.

Armed with litter-pickers, spades and thousands of bulbs, this brigade of local families, adults and teenagers spent several hours tidying and planting on a, thankfully, pleasant day.

As you will know from my previous blogs, I am in favour of anything that raises the status of our area, and of Northumberland as a whole. My concern over the plans outlined in the article "Ambitious scheme for Widdrington opencast sites" story posted by The Journal on Feb 20, 09 10:04 AM in News is: How realistic are the benefits listed?

The plans outlined sound fantastic but two questions spring to mind:

How will these jobs replace those lost at the opencasts?

Will these facilities be available to local residents?

There was excitement at Grange View C of E First School on Friday as Martin Wharton, Bishop of Newcastle, visited the school for the first time since it re-opened in September 2008.

Bishop Wharton attended Friday morning's family assembly at which he greeted the children and their families before explaining the significance of the two castles on his mitre. He also allowed his crozier to be handled, he explained to the children that it had been made in Bethlehem.

On New Year's Day, I took my son and one of his friends to Druridge Bay for a walk. Despite the beach being very busy with families and dog walkers, the beach was generally tidy with only a few smaller items of rubbish - unsightly but a vast improvement on the summer months.

As we walked along the beach, however, we found a car mat and a thick rubber inner tube - the kind found inside motorbike tyres. This rubbish had clearly been brought to the beach with the deliberate aim of dumping it.

A fine time was had by all at Dansers's 2008 Christmas Ball. The evening passed with everyone in high spirits despite several disturbances including a fight in the car park outside and an act of vandalism that resulted in a waitress almost being hit by a brick that was thrown by some passing thug. The fight was broken up by the very brave man from the Widdy Chippy.

After a sumptuous dinner, entertainment was provided by the owner, Maureen's, Advanced Latin Class who jived, disco'd and paso'd their way through an exhausting 25 minutes of showtime.

After that it was time for everyone to take to the floor - and we did!!

It is good to hear of new funds possibly being made available to the county and including a new bid for £80m from the Government's Building Schools for the Future Fund and a Heritage Lottery bid of £1.76m to revamp Druridge Bay.

These are worthwhile tasks - Northumberland can be seen as a bit of a mixed bag educationally and Druridge Bay, like much of our glorious coastline, acts as a magnet for tourists - with help it could attract even more people.

In this area though, we need more concrete assistance in the form of workplaces and better amenities.