People in Northumberland are getting good adult social care, according to a new national inspection.

The Commission for Social Care Inspection has given Northumberland's adult services department a two-star rating, and says it has "excellent capacity" for improvement.

A factory fire which started on Friday was put out last night. The blaze was at the headquarters of motor product supplier Randstad Ltd on the Nelson industrial estate in Cramlington.

It took firefighters until 5.15pm yesterday to finally extinguish parts of the building which were still smouldering. The company's 40 employees were safely evacuated from the building before it was engulfed by the blaze.

Current and former members of a Northumberland sports club are being invited to a special get-together to celebrate its 30th birthday.

The Concordia Volleyball Club was set up in Cramlington in 1978 after a junior international event was held in the Concordia leisure centre.

A student who feared cash shortages would force her to quit college will have her grant paid after The Journal stepped in.

We reported on Monday how Victoria Docherty, 16, of Cramlington, Northumberland, has not received any weekly Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) payments since starting a course in September, despite applying in July.

Drivers without valid documents had to find their own way home after police seized 25 cars across Northumberland including one in Cramlington.

Over a five-day roadside crime crackdown called Operation Magnitude, officers in Northumberland used a hi-tech Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system to target cars and match number plates against a computer database.

Suspect vehicles were intercepted and in 25 cases were seized.

The Conservatives have chosen Barry Flux, 26, to take on battle hardened Labour MP Ronnie Campbell in Blyth Valley at the next general election.

Mr Flux, a public sector worker, is an executive member of Newcastle Conservatives and a past chairman. He's already cut his teeth in local elections, beating Labour into third place in Lib Dem-held South Jesmond in May.

Mr Campbell is defending a majority of 8,527.

People in Northumberland are being urged to have their say on executive decision-making arrangements for the county's new super-council which takes over in April.

Consultations on the issue close on Friday so residents are being reminded to comment before it is too late.

Frank Coulton's love affair with steam locomotives lasted a lifetime, and his dying wish was to share his beloved train photographs with fellow enthusiasts.

His passion saw him pitched at Newcastle's Central Station in all weather.

But the former mechanical engineer died before he could ever see his collection in print.

A teenager says she may be forced to quit her college course because her grant has not been paid. Victoria Docherty, 16, is desperate to forge a career working with animals and should be receiving £30 a week to help pay her way through education.

But she now fears she will be forced to leave her diploma in Animal Care at Kirkley Hall college, where she started studying in September.

About 150 people in East Hartford near Cramlington have signed a petition calling for a review of bus services in the village.

Locals claim recent changes have led to a reduced quality of service, including no buses after 5pm and a lack of a direct link to a GP practice in Cramlington.