Local Democracy Reporting Service
Stuart Arnold

The leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council has defended its IT security over a cyber attack, which left it without online services for weeks.

Councillor Mary Lanigan said: “There was nothing wrong with our systems – this was a foreign attack that came into Redcar and Cleveland. It had a ransom attached which we did not pay.”

The cyber-attack is estimated to have cost more than £10m and left about 135,000 people without online public services in February 2020.

Councillors are confident conditions attached to the payment of a £3.6m government grant intended to help with the costs of the cyber attack will be met.

It will be paid to the council early next month but all, or some, of it could be clawed back if conditions are not met.

They include the authority providing an independent assessment by the end of September on work undertaken to recover from the cyber attack, and a financial assurance review, commissioned by the Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick’s department to be completed by the end of July.

Councillor Glyn Nightingale, cabinet member for resources, said: “Some of the work has already gone into fulfilling these conditions in order to provide the government with due diligence so it could assess whether we [got] any money or not.”

Ms Lanigan said: “We tried to get as much money as we could [from the government] and it has been a tremendous effort from Redcar and Cleveland to get that done.”

Police issue a fresh appeal for help to find who killed Andrew Stones, who vanished in October.

Youths have been shouting obscenities and vandalising the family's car.

Stuart Whincup
BBC Look North

Police on Teesside have praised the vast majority of reopened pubs, bars and restaurants for doing their best to follow the coronavirus rules.

This weekend saw queues on streets and packed outside seating areas, with people meeting for the first time in months, as restrictions eased.

Sarah Best from Dr Watson's said Saturday night was had given them some challenges.

"It's totally crazy, it's like being in a playground, it's like trying to keep the customers seated and trying to keep the customers from not retaliating because they're not used to drinking and it's like a different world to what we were before the pandemic started," she said.

Officers were on patrol across the town checking premises were trying to keep people safe while trying to build up their businesses again.

Julie Spensley from The Dickens, where a queue had formed while people used track and trace to check in, said it was a good atmosphere

"Everybody's really happy, everybody has been really, really good, we can't believe how good everyone has been," she said.

Cleveland Police says it will continue to encourage and explain rules to licensed premises but will take enforcement action if premises don't follow the law.

A couple who won £1m on the National Lottery have decorated and donated bird boxes to a Newcastle school.

Kate and Darren Donaghey are among a number of winners who have been making the bird boxes for Thomas Bewick School in West Denton, which looks after children with autism.

Pupils at the school, who include the couple's children, will be able to watch the birds nest and chicks hatch via a camera system installed in one of the boxes.

Image source, National Lottery

More than 40 bird boxes have also been given to the school, so the children can decorate them and put them in their gardens at home.

The young are "less likely" to drink at "risky levels" than the middle aged, a campaigner says.

Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team says it is seeing the busiest start to its year for a long time, with volunteers called out nine times in nine days.

The team says it's a 41% increase on the average for the same period across the previous three years.

Call-outs have ranged from weather-related ones at the beginning of the year, to a couple becoming stranded on Roseberry Topping after deciding to climb it in high winds at night.

As lockdown restrictions are relaxed and more people venture out and about, Gary Clarke from the team said: "If it continues that way for the rest of the year we'll either equal or surpass our record year."

He said most people have been well prepared.

"This last group of call-outs we've had three walkers who were all kitted out with correct footwear et cetera and it's just very simple to slip and fall, in these cases they were all broken legs, and we had a man on Saturday who was properly kitted out and well prepared and he was taken ill on the day," he said.

Image source, Cleveland MRT

A man and a woman were held on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving, police say.

Police say they are increasingly concerned for the safety of a County Durham teacher who has been missing for more than four days.

Darren Blyth, 55, left his home in Trimdon Station on Wednesday evening, telling his family he was going to take photographs at Hawthorn Dene.

His camera was found in his car but widespread searches have found nothing.

Mr Blyth is described as 5ft 10in, of slim build and short grey hair. He was last seen wearing a black North Face coat and grey outdoor trousers.

Image source, Durham Constabulary

Bringing you the latest news from across the North East from Monday 19 April to Friday 23 April 2021.

Seven sides complete victories on the final day of the second round of the County Championship.

As well as schools and community centres, votes will also be cast in more unusual places.

Simon Harmer takes Essex to an unlikely 44-run win as Durham collapse on the final morning at Chelmsford.

Hampshire sign Durham batsman Cameron Steel on a two-month loan deal.

The Covid-19 vaccinations are being given to people living in remote areas by a 'roving' clinic.

With the 200th anniversary approaching, what's so special about the Stockton and Darlington Railway?

Relive final-day victories for Essex, Gloucestershire and Lancashire in the County Championship.

England's Ollie Pope completes a Championship double century, as Yorkshire duo Joe Root and Adam Lyth and Glamorgan's Kiran Carlson hit tons.

Premiership leaders Bristol Bears earn a bonus-point win over Newcastle Falcons to re-establish their 12-point cushion at the top.

Durham need 108 more runs to beat Essex with seven wickets in hand after a rollercoaster day three at Chelmsford.