• Durham Wildcats basketball team; home game Sunday 5th v. Newcastle Eagles at Newton Aycliffe Leisure Centre (4pm).
• New Free confidential text service for 14-25 year-olds in County Durham, open 10am-9pm Monday to Friday & 3-5pm Sunday.  Text ASK and your question to 80800
• Needing to save £3.6million by 2018, the Fire and Rescue Service has produced a strategic plan at http://bit.ly/FRSplan and invites you to complete an online consultation on it at http://bit.ly/FRSconsult
•Persimmon held a consultation meeting with the people of Middridge about a proposed housing development to the west of Eldon Whins.  You can see the proposal at http://bit.ly/PersimmonProposal
• If you buy a three-year contract for your garden waste you get a £10 discount – watch the video at http://bit.ly/DCCGardenWasteVideo
• The wonderful new Locomotion Way – beside the railway line from Hitachi to the Locomotion Museum – was opened last Saturday, connecting Shildon to Newton Aycliffe.
• Insomniacs will be please to learn that you can now film or audio-record council meetings.
• DCC has 42,000 tonnes of salt, 37 large power gritters, 33 trailer gritters, four snow blowers and 2,500 salt bins ready for the winter.  It will treat 1,700km of the county’s roads . To see the map for Aycliffe go to http://bit.ly/DCCsalting and select town: Newton Aycliffe.
• The PCP held its AGM last week; the annual report of this amazing organisation is worth a read: http://bit.ly/PCPreport
• DCC is running courses for people wanting to research their family tree: phone 03000 267626
• Please complete the Neighbourhood Plan questionnaire: http://bit.ly/GreatAycliffePlanQ
• ‘Hewin Goals’ drama: free performances next week at the Youth Centre (6th October, 7pm), Greenfield School (7th October, 6:30pm) and Woodham Community Centre (11th October, 7pm): http://bit.ly/Hewin
• Don’t forget that you can speak face-to-face about housing, benefits and council tax issues at the DCC Customer Access Point in Newton Aycliffe Library (Tuesdays 10.00am-3.00pm) – phone 03000 260000 to book an appointment.
• The first Space Conference and Trade show will be staged at the Xcel Centre next month – an indication of how important Aycliffe Business Park is becoming.
• Keep up with local council issues on Cllr John D Clare’s facebook page: http://bit.ly/JDClare