World Cup winner Sir Bobby Charlton has been voted the Greatest Living Northumbrian in a poll on the Your Place microsites.

The Ashington-born footballer won 27% of the votes, beating actor Robson Green (17%) and comedian Ross Noble (15%).

Other nominees in the poll were Sir Bobby's brother Jack, musician Kathryn Tickell, cricketer Steve Harmison, the Duchess of Northumberland and darts commentator Sid Waddell.

Plans to extend CCTV coverage to a notorious trouble spot in Amble have been put on hold.

An application had been made to Alnwick District Council to install a CCTV camera near to the children's play park and two disused paddling pools on the town's shore.

The request was made by Northumbria Police to enable the area to be adequately monitored and was supported by Amble Development Trust and the town council.

A holidaying teenager has helped save a baby seal after finding it injured on a Northumberland beach.

Scarlett O'Flaherty, 13, was so upset when she found the injured seal lying stranded on the beach at Low Hauxley, near Amble, that she set about saving it.

Her efforts in sitting with the seal and trying to feed it led a villager in Hauxley to alert the RSPCA which came to rescue the animal.

The baby seal is now recovering in a specialist unit in Norfolk, where its injured flipper will be healed.

People living in a Northumberland district are the most active in the country, a national survey has found.

Alnwick district has come out on top in the Sport England poll, with almost 31% of the 506 people taking part engaging in 30 minutes of moderate intensity sport or active recreation at least three days a week - the Government's recommended target.

The Active People Survey was carried out to find out more about adults' exercise habits and to help with future efforts to increase participation in sport and other similar leisure pastimes.

The owner of a dog rescued after being swept out to sea has donated £200 to the Northumberland lifeboat crew that saved him.

Last year, the Amble volunteer crew rescued cairn terrier Freddie he was swept more than half a mile out to sea while being walked at Druridge Bay by his owner Jean Brigstock.

His story was reported in The Journal at the time and later picked up by a number of media outlets around the world, reaching newspapers as far afield as China and America.

Plans for a pigeon loft which had neighbours in a flap in Northumberland have been thrown out.

Pigeon racer Philip James applied to Alnwick District Council for planning permission to build a loft for his birds in the back garden of his home at Acklington Road in Amble.

The loft was to cater for 16 cocks, 16 hens and 30-40 young birds.

The future looks brighter for a number of the North East's at-risk historic treasures - including the Church of St Lawrence at Warkworth.

Yesterday an English Heritage grant of £14,000 towards a rescue and interpretation saw the future of Grade I-listed Hollinside, overlooking Derwent Walk Country Park in Gateshead, secured.

And English Heritage expects that this year a number of other historic places removed from its At Risk register.

Players in the North Northumberland League enjoyed the recent relative good weather and played some of their hectic fixture list.

Teams got straight back into the action with some high scoring matches. Acklington Athletic and Craster Rovers took out the frustration of the last few weeks on each other with a 4-4 draw in their Division One clash.

Phil Grey with a hat trick and a Steven Watson goal were not enough for Craster as the home team hit back to share the points with goals from Richard Lemon, Kevin Kirby, David Littlefair and Steven Pearce.

Linton and Woodhorn took three points at Alnmouth Argyle with a 3-1 win in Division One of the Morpeth Sunday League.

Stu Bremner netted for Argyle, but Davie Jones, Kevin Bell and Michael Freathy won it.

Pegswood Ex-Services swept aside Ox Inn with a 9-0 thrashing. Lee McAndrew scored five, Carl Sanders took a hat-trick and Josh Gilmartin completed the scoring.

A campaign to save a day care and after-school centre has been backed by a MP.

Sir Alan Beith has pledged to take the issue of the closure of the Coquet Children's Centre, in Hadston, up with Northumberland County Council and the Government.

Lack of funding, grant and volunteer money has led the council to announce the facilities at the centre will end on July 24.