• Durham Wildcats basketball team; home game Sunday 2nd November v. Glasgow Rocks at Newton Aycliffe Leisure Centre (4:00 pm)
• Healthwatch Durham AGM – Wednesday 12 November in Bishop Auckland Town Hall. Tel. 01325 375960
• Parking will be free in all DCC car parks after 3pm in December (to encourage Christmas shoppers) and free after 10am on 6 December (as part of ‘Small Business Saturday’).
• The County Council has agreed to continue its Local Council Tax Reduction Scheme for a further year into 2015/16, protecting all claimants in line with what their entitlement would have been under the Council Tax Benefit System – few other Councils in the country have been able to do this.
• Hardwick Park, Sat 1st November, 1-3pm: Sock monsters craft session – £4 per child. Book in advance: 01740 621505
• Feeling old and isolated? Silver Talk offer regular, friendly telephone calls to older people in County Durham: 0800 093 0092
• The ‘Us Girls’ Project seeks to engage girls aged 14+ into sport and fitness activities, with sessions (only 50p) being held on a Monday evening (7:00pm – 8:30pm) at Newton Aycliffe Leisure Centre.  Tel. 07508 050157.
• Tyne & Wear is to take bus services back under public control; this will affect County Durham services into Tyne & Wear: http://bit.ly/BusDeregulation
• The GAMP ‘Small Grants Fund for Children & Young People’ will launch in November. Tel. 01325 327441
• If you are tracing your family tree and have an ancestor who was a miner, volunteers have catalogued 200,000 records from the Durham Miners’ Association: http://bit.ly/DCCMiners
• Significant blue badge parking changes: http://bit.ly/DCCBlueBadge
• Important developments to Welfare Benefits: http://bit.ly/DCCWelfareUpdate
• The County Council this week adopted a new Licensing Policy: http://bit.ly/DCCLicensing