Five lucky young cyclists are celebrating after winning prizes by taking part in the Velvet Junior Bike Race 2009 - and raising more than £300 for charity.

They were entered into a prize draw as part of the charity bike ride in March, which was sponsored by toilet tissue firm Velvet and hosted by tissue manufacturer SCA Hygiene Products of Prudhoe.

Robyn Franklin, aged six, from Stocksfield, and Ben Pentland, six, from Ryton, both won mountain bikes. Emily Ward, nine, from Stocksfield, won an angling taster day, Dan Southern, four, from Hexham won a grow your own vegetable garden kit and James Franklin, four, from Stocksfield, won a grown your own salad kit.

The North East's only Conservative MP has returned more than £100 in "gardening" expense claims.

Hexham's Peter Atkinson last month told The Journal his claims were reasonable for his second home in London.

But he declared being ready to repay money if ordered to do so by an internal party panel examining Tory MPs' expense claims.

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.

Corbridge is the latest village to get a look into its past through The Journal's photographic archives.

With the sunny weather here at last, summers past are remembered in the picture of a road through the village on a lazy day in July 1961.

Thirteen years earlier, members of Tyneside Electric Cycling Club are clearly enjoying an outing in Corbridge in 1948. The picture was taken by Norman Sinclair.

Finance chiefs at Northumberland's cash-strapped super council are trying to recover almost £9m in unpaid council tax inherited from the county's former district authorities.

The huge debt has been revealed following the abolition of Berwick, Alnwick, Castle Morpeth, Tynedale, Wansbeck and Blyth Valley councils on April 1 - and their replacement by the all-purpose unitary council.

Older people in Northumberland are threatening a revolt against new charges for day centre care which are being brought in by the county's cash-strapped super council.

Apart from meal and transport costs, attendance at day centres has been free for elderly and disabled people until now. But means-tested fees are being introduced to help County Hall bosses make savings on their adult care budget.

Day centre clients are being assessed and told how much they will have to contribute to their care each week, based on their income and savings.

Anger has erupted after people in Northumberland were sent warning letters and court summonses by their new super council wrongly stating they had not paid their council tax.

The 'intimidating' letters have been sent out to some householders who had already paid their monthly council tax bills because of problems which have been affecting the unitary authority's revenues and benefits section since April 1.

A bin revolt is taking place in Tynedale after nearly two thirds of householders refused to pay for their brown recycling bins.

Northumberland County Council demanded £20 for each bin, to continue recycling services.

The brown bins, for garden waste, had been issued by Tynedale Council, but due to council restructuring, the unitary authority took over and imposed the new rules.

A chronic shortage of affordable housing in rural areas is plunging traditional village life into terminal decline, according to a new report.

The National Housing Federation claims that many village shops and pubs in the North East will be forced to close down unless action is taken to address the lack of new, affordable homes.

Milfield, near Wooler

Nationally, it is thought up to 650 country pubs and 400 village shops will shut during the next 12 months, according to a coalition of leading campaign groups.

A major review is to be carried out amid fears that a declining population in Northumberland will force the closure of more small schools and harm rural communities.

A working group of county councillors will be given the task of investigating the likely future impact of demographic change on the demand for school places across the county.

It will try to identify how many schools are at risk of closure because of falling rolls and how council policies - such as in new housing development - can help tackle the problem.