ANGRY school bus lady Anne Burns has slammed council bosses after being told she is too old to carry on doing the job she has loved for almost 24 years.

Since the mid-1980s Anne, pictured, has been a friendly face and daily companion for youngsters on the school bus run from Haltwhistle to Hexham and back.

ANGRY residents are gearing up to continue their fight against controversial plans to build a £6m special needs school on a playing field near their homes.

A group of people living in Hexham's East End say they were not properly consulted over a Northumberland County Council scheme to re-site the Priory School onto Dene Park.

Conservative MP for Hexham Peter Atkinson today revealed that he will be stepping down at the next General Election. - but pledged to continue fighting for his constituents until then.

Mr Atkinson, an MP since 1992, said: "I am going to stand down at the next election simply because I am 65 now and the election may not be for two more years and by that time I will be 67. And if I got elected to the next parliament I would be over 70 and so I think it is right that I make way for new people with new ideas."

A CANCER nurse is appealing to people in the region to join her on a gruelling trek to Peru to raise funds for her patients.

Sister Julie Guest, 44, a bone marrow transplant nurse specialist at Newcastle's RVI, is using her annual leave to lead a team of eight participants on a 10-day trek to the ancient city of Macchu Picchu, but she wants more people to come forward so that £50,000 can be raised.

ANGRY families last night protested against plans to build a special school on a playing field.

People living in the east end of Hexham say proposals to move the town's Priory School for children with special needs to Dene Park will take away the only open space children have in the area.

Construction of the £6m school by Northumberland County Council is due to start later this year, but local people are demanding more consultation before work begins.

A NORTHUMBERLAND town with "nightmare" parking problems has lost its last free car park.

Previously drivers using the Co-op car park in Maiden's Walk, Hexham, were entitled to three hours' free parking in the two car parks close to the store.

But now, with Marks & Spencer set to open a new store on the site today, prominent signs have been put up in the car parks telling motorists they will have to pay.