Category Archives: County Durham

Labour council accuses minister of ‘moral bankruptcy’ over social care dispute

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Hartlepool leaders ‘furious and appalled’ after meeting with Steve Reed about growing cost of social care

The housing, communities and local government secretary has been accused by a Labour council of showing “arrogance, indifference and moral bankruptcy” towards children in social care.

In an unusually forthright attack, Labour leaders of Hartlepool council said they were “furious and appalled” at Steve Reed after a meeting with him last week. A cross-party delegation had asked the secretary of state for £3m to help alleviate the growing cost of social care.

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British teenager Bella Culley to be held in Georgia until September drugs trial

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Tbilisi judge rejects lawyer’s offer of plea agreement for release of pregnant Teesside teenager, now 19, at hearing

The British teenager Bella Culley is to be held in a Georgian prison for at least five more weeks as she awaits trial on drug-smuggling charges, a court in Tbilisi has ordered.

Culley, the great-granddaughter of a former Labour MP, was arrested on arrival at the city’s airport in May. Georgian prosecutors said she was carrying a large amount of illegal drugs in luggage she brought with her from Thailand.

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Attack on officers raises questions about separation centres at jails in England

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The country’s three special units at high-security prisons are in spotlight after Hashem Abedi’s assault against staff

With its high, ugly, grey concrete perimeter walls HMP Frankland looks as grim from the outside as you would expect for a place nicknamed “Monster Mansion”.

Since it was opened in 1983 on the leafy outskirts of Durham – near a 13th-century priory used for centuries as a holiday retreat for Benedictine monks – its inmates have included Peter Sutcliffe, Harold Shipman and Charles Bronson.

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County Durham school drops plan to turn off heat on climate ‘blue nose day’

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Wolsingham school’s carbon-cutting event had been planned by pupils but parents raised concerns

A school has made a U-turn on a student-led plan to turn the heating off for a “blue nose” climate action day after parents raised concerns.

The heating was due to be turned off at Wolsingham school, County Durham, on Friday but the plan has now been postponed until the summer term of next year when it is likely to be warmer.

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English coroner issues warning over death of woman trapped in ottoman bed

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Inquest hears Helen Davey died of suffocation when the gas piston bed platform fell on her, trapping her neck

A coroner has warned that gas piston ottomans could present a risk to life, after a woman died when her bed collapsed on her, trapping her between the mattress and the base.

Helen Davey, 39, a mother of two from Seaham in County Durham, died on 7 June when she suffocated after becoming accidentally trapped in the bed, an inquest heard.

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Guernica-style battle of Orgreave painting stars in miners’ strikes exhibition

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Bob Olley’s unsettling vision of clash between miners and police is part of 40th anniversary show in Bishop Auckland

Bob Olley was there 40 years ago at the “battle of Orgreave”. “I saw the violence,” he said, shaking his head. “I thought I was in a foreign country when I saw what the police did. It is hard to believe it happened in this country.”

The brutality he and others witnessed on 18 June 1984 as striking miners met 6,000 police officers on horses or wielding batons on foot will stay in the memory. It was in his head as, some years later, he embarked on his response to one of the world’s greatest artworks, Picasso’s Guernica.

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High-risk prisoners sit GCSE English – and many outperform peers on outside

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Inmates at HMP Frankland in County Durham, some of ‘hardest to reach people in society’, did course in a year with no internet access

Inmates serving long sentences at one of the UK’s most secure prisons have been allowed to study GCSE English for the first time and have outperformed many of their peers on the outside.

More than three-quarters of the small cohort of prisoners who sat the exam at HMP Frankland in County Durham secured a pass at grade 4 or above – equivalent to a C – which is almost three times the success rate in further education colleges in England.

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