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Although unemployment figures showed that in the North East between July and September, there were 4,000 fewer people out of work than in the previous three months, the region still has the joint highest unemployment rate in the country (nine per cent) along with Yorkshire and Humberside.

Sunderland and South Tyne councils could merge as a way of preparing for tens of millions to be axed from their budgets. Sunderland Conservatives have suggested the two bodies could have one set of top paid officers and combined centres for some operations.

Newcastle City Council has defended shelling out £40,000 on a new Audi car for the Lord Mayor, Brenda Hindmarsh amid a climate of cuts and projected hundreds of job losses.

The North-East region is literally counting the cost of the tatters left behind by a bogus airline

The future of 24 out of 42 libraries in North Yorkshire is threatened. The more remote areas of North Yorkshire would be hardest-hit, with skeleton services in Bedale, Great Ayton and Leyburn understood to be among those at risk. Bedale mayor Bob Pocklington said he doubted whether county council plans to use volunteers would succeed in his town.

Nearly 10 per cent of jobs in some departments and 100s of beds will go at hospitals in Northumberland and Tyneside as health chiefs look to change the way they treat the ill. NHS North of Tyne has drafted a confidential paper outlining how 451 beds will be reduced at hospitals across Newcastle and Northumberland by 2014.

Durham Police has had to get rid of about 140 staff to cope with an estimated 20 per cent cut in funding. The constabulary revealed on its website that the full-time posts would be compulsory redundancies.

Unions predict around 30,000 public sector jobs in the northern region will be lost because of the spending cuts. To protest over the losses, Northern TUC members gathered at Newcastle Civic Centre, and Unison members rallied at Sunderland Civic Centre.

Some school governors are arguing there are advantages in cutting the summer break, so they are adjusting their calendars accordingly. MP Frank Field said the six-week summer break harmed poorer children who lost out because of the lack of formal reading or writing. In Leeds, the David Young Community Academy operates a seven-term year.

A Newcastle upon Tyne tribunal ruled that a security guard was entitled to take rest breaks during his shifts at an office block in the city. Gavin Ruddick began the action after he was refused a lavatory break during his 12-hour stints when he was posted at Zurich Financial Services in Newcastle.

Jobs at Nissan’s north-east car plant are secure as their latest Juke car rolled off the production line at Sunderland.

The 2010 Labour Party leadership election ends at the end of the month, and Ed Balls, the MP for Morley and Outwood in West Yorkshire, is proposing a £250 million plan to create 200,000 jobs.