Smaller communities should be thinking ahead to the day when they can generate all their own power, energy expert Dr Barbara Sexon believes.

Dr Sexon runs the Thropton Energy consultancy in the Northumberland village of the same name, near Rothbury.

She studied for a PhD 25 years ago on the potential of small scale wind turbines in the days before wind farms of considerably larger machines became the hot potato they are today.

A presentation on plans to revamp the region's hospitals takes place in Northumberland next week.

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is proposing a new specialist emergency care hospital near Cramlington for people living in Northumberland and North Tyneside, improvements to Wansbeck and North Tyneside general hospitals and rebuilding community hospitals in Berwick and Haltwhistle. The proposals would also affect emergency care services at Hexham General.

A presentation on the plans takes place at a meeting of Warkworth Parish Council on Thursday, June 4 at 6.30pm in the Memorial Hall on Castle Street.

Youngsters are being invited to take part in a fell race being held alongside the Roman Wall Show later this summer.

Northumberland National Park and the Fell Running Association have organised a 4.6m fell race which takes in spectacular views of Hadrian's Wall World Heritage site in Northumberland National Park.

The race is now in its third year and is being billed as a challenging but reasonable run for leisure runners.

Two women from Tyneside are preparing for battle on Hadrian's Wall. Rosie Serdiville and Sarah-Jayne Goodfellow will be joining hundreds of other re-enactors in the Living Frontier events along Hadrian's Wall until Sunday.

Rosie (pictured), 52, a retired consumer rights worker from Newcastle, admits to enjoying assassinating Romans as a hobby.

She said: "I'm often cast as a Celtic woman and it's good to show people that these women could stand up for themselves.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of Class A drugs were seized in a year-long crackdown by police vying to rid rural Northumberland communities of drug barons.

The Journal can today reveal the scale of the drug problem that plagues the county's isolated countryside, with a massive haul of drugs confiscated by police specialists.

Earlier this year a top judge said drug dealing gangs were targeting rural villages in sophisticated cannabis production operations.

Bosses at Northumberland's new super council are being recommended to stick with its controversial 0845 single telephone number.

County hall chiefs have been urged by campaigners both locally and nationally to change the 0845 6006400 number, which has been provided since April 1 for all people who need to contact the unitary authority.

Rubbish police could confiscate bins if householders fill them with the wrong items.

Northumberland County Council hopes to crack down on contamination in recycling wheelie bins using hard-line tactics.

Householders who repeatedly ignore warnings to stop throwing waste food, nappies or dirty items into the bin which is supposed to be for dry, clean, recyclable materials, will have their bin confiscated.

Plans for a holiday village complex have been thrown out after inspiring huge opposition from local people.

Disapproving voices made themselves heard as letters and petition signatures flooded in against the proposals for the former Langley Brickworks in Langley.

A petition, which was presented to planning bosses, was signed by 94 people, with Langley villagers signing it, as well as people from Hexham, Haydon Bridge, and across to Cramlington and Wideopen.

A Tyne Valley man is celebrating two years of providing a free handyman service to people in the west of Northumberland.

Sandy Johnston works as a handyman for Northumberland Stars, a not-for- profit social enterprise that provides a free handyman service for anyone aged over 60 and for people with disabilities.

Tourists could take a trip to the future this summer - thanks to a group of young artists.

A Haltwhistle shop has been transformed into a travel agency. But these are no ordinary package tours - the exotic locations are images of how the town might look in the future.

Artists Henry Amos and Marianne Wilde celebrate the launch of the Time Flies travel agency in Haltwhistle with performance artists, The Loons.

The Time Flies travel agency is the fruit of a month-long project which has seen young people from the Haltwhistle Film Project working with two visual artists.