Young people are being targeting in a hard-hitting campaign to reduce the number of bonfire and firework-related injuries across Northumberland.

Fireworks injure almost 1000 children in the North of England every year, often resulting in permanent scarring or disfiguration. Now Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service is warning pupils in secondary schools about the dangers in a programme of educational visits.

FREE bus transport for older students is set to leave Northumberland County Council with a £500,000 bill. But councillors last night hailed the scheme to provide passes for A-level and college students as a massive success - and said it was likely to cost much less than feared.

The free pass has seen the number of teenagers using buses more than double, from 800 in July to 1,850 now. The county council took the decision to scrap fares after they rose to £360 a year under the previous Labour administration.

Landmark locations across Northumberland will be seen in a new light this winter with the return of a hugely popular winter festival.

Northumberland Lights - and the award-winning team behind it - are back with more bright ideas for outdoor illuminations.

From November 2 to 30, the winter festival will bathe some of the most beautiful and remote spots from Blyth to the Borders in an array of colour, in celebration of the county's contrasting architectural and natural environment.

Handmade crafts hit Haltwhistle next month when the annual arts and crafts fair makes its 22nd appearance in the town.

The event takes place in the Masonic Hall on Banks Terrace on Saturday November 15, between 10am and 4pm.

It is fully subscribed with more stallholders than ever before, and has attracted a varied range of different crafts both from local producers and across the North East.

PEOPLE living and working in rural Northumberland can now receive college training on their doorstep, after the launch of a mobile education centre.

Country communities and businesses in the north and west of the county will no longer have to travel long distances to Northumberland College courses - its £200,000 mobile classroom will come to them.

In Division Five of the Under-12 league, Haydon Bridge maintained their winning ways with a great victory over Morpeth Porto - with Conor Gowland nabbing five goals.

Gowland opening the scoring from a throw-in from captain Jake Hutchinson and soon followed that up with his second of the first half.

THE people of Northumberland will be given the final say on the name of their new council, it was decided last night.

Northumberland County Council opted to consult the electorate on what to call the new unitary authority which comes into force next April, in place of itself and the area's six district councils.

The new body was expected to be called Northumberland Council, but a money-saving motion that it be called Northumberland County Council was put to yesterday's meeting by Coun Jeff Watson.

CONKER-MAD competitors will go on the hunt for artillery this weekend in advance of the Bardon Mill and Roman Empire Conker Championship.

Reports suggest that nearly 40% of Horse Chestnut trees have been ravaged by disease, coupled with the dismal summer.

That has led to concerns there may be insufficient conkers from this year's harvest to carry out the 16th annual Bardon Mill and Roman Empire Conker Championship.

Children in Northumberland are to get new and improved facilities for play, after a successful bid for £1m of Government funding.

Northumberland County Council is one of 43 local authorities chosen by Government to become a 'PlayBuilder' authority and be granted additional funding.

The local authority will receive £1.1million over three years from the Department of Children, Schools and Families to transform and create 20 to 25 play areas countywide.

FORMAL plans have been revealed to create an opencast pit near one of the region's most important landscapes. But leading heritage and conservation agencies are being consulted about plans to dig the mine in the Tynedale countryside before a verdict is reached.

A development company wants to extract 140,000 tonnes of coal from the 75-acre site near the hamlet of Halton Lea Gate - which is close to the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

Six months ago 130 local people attended a public meeting when details of the bid by HM Project Developments first emerged, with the vast majority of them voicing opposition.