A fleet of specially designed "play vans" will be hitting the road in Northumberland next month as part of a pioneering new service for children and families.

The project - involving four vans which each contain toys, books, play equipment and internet access - is said by the county council to be one of only a handful operating across the country.

The vans include ramps to make them fully accessible and also feature retractable awnings and sliding doors, which allow them to be used for children's play sessions as well as information points for parents and carers.

A library in Northumberland is to close an hour early - at 4pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays - until further notice.

Building work being carried out at Guide Post library near Ashington has resulted in a technical problem which means it is not possible to keep the building open after daylight is lost.

County council heritage and libraries manager, Marguerite Gracey, said: "We apologise for this unavoidable temporary change in closing times for the library. We hope to return to normal hours early in the new year.

Family history buffs in Northumberland are turning to the web.

Northumberland County Council produced a video (below) to raise awareness of the facilities available to people wanting to know more about their ancestors.

It was uploaded onto internet video sharing site YouTube and has got more than 12,000 hits.

Waste bosses are urging Northumberland residents to think green this Christmas.

Northumberland County Council and SITA UK will recycle Christmas trees, cards, wrappings and drink containers.

Household waste recycling centres across the county will be open every day except Christmas Day and New Year's Day, and Christmas trees can be taken along at any time and recycled with other green waste.

Local charity WATBus Community Transport are to benefit from funding to provide cycling in Northumberland.

Manager Lynn McIntosh explained: ''The funding will allow us to provide 3 free trips into Northumberland from Blyth, Ashington and Newbiggin areas for 36 customers who want to cycle the beautiful coastline.

Transport will be provided free of charge so all names will go into a hat and winning groups drawn from each area."

Plans to improve transport infrastructure across Northumberland will go before county council leaders early in the new year.

A new report has identified a number of ideas on how to improve the maintenance and upkeep of the county's 5,000km of roads and almost 1,500km of cycle and footpaths.

It also looks at the upkeep of assets such as bridges, streetlights and drains which in total are worth more than £5bn.

We dip into the Journal's archives to get into the festive spirit with some Christmas images from Northumberland's recent past.

Send your seasonal images of the county to northumberland@ncjmedia.co.uk if you would like to share them on our community sites.

A new scheme aiming to help people in Northumberland detect cancer early urgently needs volunteers.

The community-based initiative, the Healthy Communities Collaborative (HCC), has been set up to help people living mainly in the Blyth, Wansbeck and Morpeth areas.

It aims to raise awareness of the disease so people can spot the early signs of breast, bowel and lung cancer.

A hairstylist who started a new life in the North East after leaving her native Russia has fulfilled her ambition of opening her own salon.

Natasha Watson, originally from the Ural region of Russia and now living in Stakeford, started her first British hairdressing job in a salon in Bedlington nine years ago.

She has now started her own boutique hairstylist business, Chic Hairdressing, in the very same salon where she was given her first job.

The controversy over MPs' expenses was yesterday reignited when Parliament released details of their latest claims, with departing North East MPs facing claims they are feathering their own nests.

Below are the details of Wansbeck MP Denis Murphy's expenses, covering claims between 2004/05 and 2009, with links to the forms filled in for the various kinds of allowances. Some information has been blacked out for reasons of privacy.