Vandals are sabotaging a popular cycling route with razor-sharp carpet tacks. Police were called in after the tacks were sprinkled across Wylam Colliery waggonway, which is also regularly used by horseriders.

The route is a former railway line running alongside the Tyne through Scotswood and Newburn to Wylam village in Northumberland.

Public relations consultant Rob Lawson discovered the potential hazard when he got a punctured tyre on his bike as he cycled along the waggonway earlier this week.

There's plenty of monkeying around to be done at a new children's soft play area.

The 'Insides Out' playing space at Prudhoe Waterworld has been transformed into Space Jack's soft play area.

Children from The Priory School tried it out, joining Jack the monkey in his new space adventure.

A volunteer-run radio station is hoping to become a permanent fixture in Northumberland after being granted a licence to continue broadcasting.

Tynedale FM has a new month-long licence from telecoms watchdog Ofcom, and the station hopes it might lead to a permanent licence sometime in the future.

The radio station was given a month-long restricted service licence to test the water back in December, which went successfully and uncovered some talented presenters.

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.

Prudhoe, the home of champions, already has two golfers qualified for The Journal Champion of Champions, even though their club championship is not being played until July 12.

The club has clocked up 29 national championships in its 79-year existence with the 1986 British Amateur champion, David Curry, the club steward at Blyth, leading the roll of honour.

Now Tom Rowland and Danny Shevill are already through to The Champions at De Vere Slaley Hall on September 6, having brought both the Northumberland junior titles back to Prudhoe.

Drinkers partial to a drop of Mother's Ruin can now enjoy a truly local tipple.

Fledgling venture Northumbria Spirit has revived a centuries-old tradition of producing liquor in the Tyne Valley with the launch of a premium gin.

And, combined with Hexham-based Fentiman's tonic water, it makes for a local G&T.

Mickley Square Post Office near Prudhoe could reopen in new premises just 30 yards away from its former site.

The post office at 22 Riding Terrace closed in December last year.

Now, it plans to re-open at 18 Riding Terrace. A final decision on the proposal will be announced soon after the consultation period ends on August 4.

People seeking to turn over a new leaf by boosting their skills and gaining qualifications are being offered vital support.

Representatives of the Test the Region campaign, designed to help unemployed people and single parents get back into work, will be at Prudhoe Library tomorrow, from 10am to 1pm.

The morning session will give you the chance to get expert advice on the courses and learning programmes

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. Dan Southern, four, from Hexham won a grow your own vegetable garden kit, and 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 and James Franklin, four, from Stocksfield, won a grown your own salad kit.

The prizes were donated by Velvet, Activ Cycles of Corbridge and Northumbrian Water. The money raised from the event went to The Penguin Fund at Newcastle Freeman Hospital's paediatric intensive care unit. The fund was set up after three-year-old Martha Andersen from Edmundbyers received life-saving treatment at the unit.

Hundreds of elderly and disabled people who use seven council-run day centres in Northumberland face a three-month wait to find out whether they can be saved from closure.

A series of public meetings on the future of the threatened centres in Amble, Bedlington, Blyth, Hexham, Haltwhistle, Ponteland and Prudhoe - which are used by 370 people a week - has now been completed, and final decisions will be taken in September.

Further private meetings will be held with individual centre users and their families, and feedback from the public consultation analysed, before reports setting out the various options are presented to county councillors.