A last minute promise of extra cash for Northumberland's crumbling roads and a climbdown on spending cuts in care of the elderly was enough to avoid a potential council budget crisis last night.
The 11th-hour package of concessions by County Hall leaders enabled the unitary authority to finally agree its 2010/11 budget plans, with just four days to spare.
The agreement averted the risk of the council failing to set a legal budget in the required timescale, and the threat of Government-appointed commissioners being sent in to do the job.
Young children showed heart by raising more than ã200 for the Haiti appeal.
The Reception and Junior One classes at Longridge Towers School near Berwick held a cake stall and collected the money in aid of the DEC Haiti Appeal.
The whole junior department got involved after four-year-old Scarlet Baker felt that the school should do something for the appeal and her class agreed. Classmate and keen baker Angus McGregor suggested making cakes to sell and Ellenor Swales then wrote a letter to all the other junior school pupils, who gave donations for the cakes.
Pubs across the county will be shown how to maximise the famed Northumberland friendliness to draw more tourists in and increase profits.
Northumberland Tourism says pubs in the county, unlike those in other parts of the country, are not realising their full potential and need to up their game to catch up.
"Good Pub Grub, not Grubby Pub" is the message from the organisation in an effort to get more money from the estimated 72% of UK residents who are planning to holiday at home in 2010.
The Maltings Theatre in Berwick is offering entry to a top show for just ã1 after being left with a plethora of tickets.
Artistic director Miles Gregory said he has been left scratching his head over why there are still lots of tickets to Colin Hoult's comedy show 'The Carnival of Monsters', which is on this Saturday night (February 27).
He said: "When I booked this show last year, I knew it was going to be a really funny show.
A face from the past has emerged during restoration work on a 15th Century tower house in Northumberland.
Natural England and English Heritage have combined on the project to consolidate Kyloe Tower, near Fenwick in Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Tom Gledhill and Frances Fewster of Natural England North East
The tower has a vaulted ground floor and a spiral staircase, and scaffolding was put into place so that work could be carried out on the ruined upper reaches.
Five businesses from the North East are in the running for prestigious national tourism awards.
The Old School bed and breakfast, at Newton-on-the-Moor, near Alnwick; The North Music Trust, based at The Sage Gateshead; Sunderland Football Club; Doxford Cottages, near Alnwick, and Hunting Hall (pictured), at Beal, near Berwick, have all been shortlisted for the 2010 Enjoy England Awards For Excellence.
The awards, known as the Oscars of the tourism industry, are organised by VisitEngland and recognise tourism excellence in a number of areas.
Kevin Allan added this calm image of the Holy Island causeway to our Northumberland group on the photo-sharing website Flickr.
Join the group to share your photos or send them to northumberland@ncjmedia.co.uk
Berwick Ladies Netball were at home to Hexham on Thursday night. With a full squad Berwick started positively and gained possession quickly but with some missed first shots Berwick's heads went down and Hexham took the lead 8-2.
A great team performance from Berwick gives them victory over promotion chasing Ellon. If Berwick played like this every week they would be pushing for promotion rather than fighting against relegation. Ellon were hard on the heels of Dalziel and Whitecraigs for promotion out of Scottish Hydro National League 1 as they made the five hour bus trip down to Berwick. The visitors either don't travel well or took Berwick for granted as this game was well controlled by Berwick for long periods of the game and in the end the home side fully deserved their victory.
Political leaders were urged last night to delay a budget-slashing decision amid claims people were denied the chance to have their say.
Northumberland County Council unveiled its proposed budget for 2010/11 in November. As part of a consultation on the budget, public meetings were scheduled across the county for January.
However last month's snow meant two of the meetings, at Berwick and Cramlington, had to be cancelled.
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