Children rolled up their sleeves and put their green fingers to the test to take part in a special tree planting.

Youngsters aged between four and 13, all from Tynedale, planted saplings on the banks of the River Derwent to celebrate the important role trees play in our natural environment.

Don Coe, Northumbrian Water leisure operations manager for waterside parks & fisheries (foreground) with Tony Richards, SCA Hygiene factory & site manager at Prudhoe (standing) with Ben Pentland, aged six and his fellow tree planters

The session was organised by Northumbrian Water, owner and operator of the Derwent Reservoir and Velvet toilet tissue, which is made locally by SCA Hygiene Products Prudhoe Mill.

Families in Northumberland have been spared a 25% increase in the cost of having their garden waste collected this year following a revolt by opposition county councillors.

It was planned to put up the annual charge for the service from £20 to £25 in March - to bring in an extra £60,000 and help the county council achieve tough budget savings.

Now the saving will have to be found elsewhere after Conservative and Labour councillors joined forces to defeat the move at a meeting in County Hall on Wednesday.

Controversial plans to build a fire station on a field used by a Northumberland school have been approved.

Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service has been given outline planning permission for a new facility on land beside Prudhoe West First School.

The decision means the fire service could be given £23m Government funding for the development and similar schemes at Hexham and Haltwhistle.

Police arrested two youths after three cars were damaged in Prudhoe.

Three cars had their wing mirrors damaged in Adderlane Road.

Police arrested two youths over the incidents, which happened between 10.30pm on Friday January 29 and 9am on Saturday January 30.

They are aged 16 and 15 and were released on police bail pending further enquires.

Anyone with information contact police on 03456 043 043 ext 69191 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Black ice on one of the North East's main dual carriageway caused a string of accidents today.

As commuters made their way to work along the A69 between Hexham and Newcastle, cars skidded out of control.

Drivers watched in horror as four cars slid into embankments and one even overturned.

No-one received serious injuries and the road was closed for a period of time. It started at 7.54am when a Land Rover slid off the road near Wylam. Police then received a flurry of reports from panicking drivers of a Vauxhall Corsa, a Fiat Punto and a Toyota Yaris.

All three had also skidded on black ice in separate accidents.

Plans to create a £3.5m centre of creativity for young people in Northumberland have come a step closer.

Designs for the Tynedale Creative and Media Skills Centre - next to Prudhoe Community High School - have gone on public display.

The centre will house state-of-the-art media production facilities in a leading edge building shared across the Tynedale Virtual College - a partnership of the four high schools in the area along with Northumberland College, Dilston College and Hexham Priory School.

A veteran Labour MP has accused council bosses in Northumberland of seeking the easy way out by targeting elderly and disabled people when making tough budget cuts.

Blyth Valley MP Ronnie Campbell is writing to Liberal Democrat leaders at County Hall and asking them to "stop hitting" the elderly population of the county.

He says the recent announcement the council is axing a scheme which provides cut-price taxi travel for hundreds of pensioners who are unable to use buses is the latest in a damaging series of cost-cutting measures affecting older people.

Andrew Hush uploaded this photo to JournalLive, showing the sunset near Prudhoe during the period of heavy snow last month.

Upload your own photos at www.journallive.co.uk or send them to northumberland@ncjmedia.co.uk if you would like to share them on this site.

Northumberland County Council will not have to make a further £11m in "horrendous" budget cuts, the Government has said.

It was feared that around £30m worth of savings would be required to balance next year's budget but the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has allowed councillors to pay for some costs from the capital budget.

The authority had submitted four bids for capitalisation in respect of potential losses on Icelandic investments of £9.1m, for £6m in strain on the pension fund, £2.8m for enhanced redundancy and £1.4m for statutory redundancy.

Plans to build a fire station on a field used by a Northumberland school have outraged a community.

Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service has submitted an application for a new facility on land beside Prudhoe West First School. County councillors are recommended to approve the plan at a meeting on Tuesday.

But school governors say they knew nothing about the proposals until presented with a leaflet at a recent meeting, despite the fact the field is often used by pupils. They had been working on plans to create a play and learning area on the field, with £2,000 having already been invested to train staff.