From mid-January an Electric Music Studio will be in operation at minimum cost for hiring facilities. Contact Spectro at Whitley Bay 22336.

When I heard that two companies in the south of England had been fined for polluting rivers it seemed that the powers of justice had begun to get the problem into perspective.

But, alas, it turned out that one had been fined £70 and the other was fined £25 for polluting a river which resulted in the death of five thousand fish …

Local councils in the north-east have been getting a push recently to increase their efforts to combat air pollution, which is the worst in England. It has been revealed that deaths from bronchitis in the area are 56% higher than the national average.

Durham University strikes again. Sometime next year, the University is going to take over Fowler's Salerooms in Old Elvet, to build more lecture blocks. Already they have demolished a close of houses in Old Elvet (despite Durham's housing shortage) and when Fowler's goes there will be nowhere in Durham for people to buy cheap furniture and bedding. The salerooms sell about 1,000 lots per month - and serve an invaluable function for people who can't afford new furniture.

Just one more example of the University's disregard of the people of Durham.

We apologise to all the people who wrote to us after Muther Grumble number 8 asking for the article on making your own artists' materials. Because the duplicator we normally have access to has broken down, we have so far been unable to duplicate the article. Sorry!

However we promise that the article will be sent to you as soon as possible - and if anyone would like a copy, just send us an SAE.

Good news for pensioners and disabled people on Tyneside. Tyneside passenger transport authority are giving free transport for these people during the day except at rush hours.

Felling Council have tried to join the long list of creditors in the Poulson case. They have put in a claim for a mere million pounds as compensation for alleged negligence by John Poulson and associates who were the architects for some blocks of flats at Felling. The flats were of the same design as Ronan Point, and have had to be extensively altered to make them safe.

The partial rent strike in S Shields continues. When the £1 increase was finally imposed in the middle of November, several hundred tenants refused to pay the increase and are still refusing to do so.

We didn't like the space that was left where this is so we decided to type out something silly.