Hannah Mitchell

About 22 Greystoke allotment holders were evicted in August after receiving six months' notice to vacate their plots, despite asking for more time to harvest crops. The allotments had been cultivated for more than a century and were recently recognised as an Asset of Community Value. Land management company GSC Gray's, acting for the estate owner, refused to change the eviction date. The site is included in a proposed housing development of four homes on the allotment land and about 39 more nearby, but the application has attracted objections from residents, Greystoke Parish Council and the Environment Agency over ecology, drainage, highways and flooding.

Police and rescue teams are searching the River Tyne and the surrounding Wylam area for 22-year-old Liam Potts, who disappeared after spending the night with friends. Police believe he entered the water after being seen near Wylam Bridge at about 00:20 BST on Saturday. He had been present when a vehicle struck pedestrians on the bridge but was not in the vehicle and was not believed to have been injured. A man and woman were seriously injured, while two men have been arrested and bailed pending further inquiries. Police have asked the public not to speculate and said Potts’s family is being supported.

A memorial in South Shields was completed with 10 metres of former Tyne and Wear Metro railway track, symbolizing the estimated two deaths for every 10 metres of the Thailand–Myanmar Death Railway. The track was installed by Nexus volunteers beside Ray Lonsdale’s sculpture of Sunderland veteran Len Gibson, who was among the Allied prisoners forced by Japan to build the railway during World War Two. The memorial was unveiled during VJ Day celebrations, with veterans and supporters highlighting the prisoners’ appalling treatment, disease, forced labor and lasting sacrifice.