Health care chiefs have given the go ahead for a £200m investment in services in Northumberland, including a new emergency care hospital on the outskirts of Cramlington.

Wansbeck and North Tyneside hospitals will see significant investment while community hospitals in Berwick and Haltwhistle will be rebuilt.

The package of measures was approved yesterday at a meeting of the NHS North of Tyne Trust.

An estimated 90% of Britain's hay meadows have been lost to progress and modern farming methods.

Today's machinery and increased silage production means that plants once common in traditional meadows are less likely to survive because they are cut before they have time to seed.

Sweeping hay at Bowes in the 1920s- Picture Parkin Raine

Now work is under way to re-seed meadows in parts of the North East and the memories of the "bloody hard work" that went into the hay harvest in days gone by are being recorded for posterity.

Groundbreaking radar techniques are being used to unlock the historic secrets of one of the North's wildest upland areas.

Over the next five years a major archaeological research project will concentrate on the North Pennines, an area straddling Northumberland and Cumbria.

In the first two weeks of fieldwork, 300 new archaeological sites have been discovered, from prehistoric features to 19th Century mining remains.

The final haul of new sites could run into the thousands.

Air Ambulance cover for the region has been reinstated.

Fears for families in more remote parts of the North East were raised when the Great North Air Ambulance announced its fleet of helicopters would be grounded over the weekend.

Bad luck and coincidence of timing were blamed for technical faults on the Cumbria and Northumberland aircraft occurring just as the lease of the Teesside helicopter expired.

Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service is taking to the road to attract new recruits.

A series of events are being held across the county to inform people of career opportunities with the service.

The region faces a weekend without the safety net of the Great North Air Ambulance after all of its helicopters were temporarily grounded.

Bad luck has been blamed for all three of the charity's helicopters being out of action over the coming few days.

Two helicopters, based at Otterburn and Carlisle Airport, are grounded with what have been described as "unforeseeable" mechanical problems.

Proposed safety measures on the B6305 Allendale Road in Hexham and local community chest funding are among the items on the agenda for the next meeting of Northumberland County Council's west area committee.

The meeting, which includes a session allowing members of the public to ask questions, will be held on Thursday at 6pm in Allendale village hall. The committee covers business in the Hexham, Haltwhistle, Ponteland and Prudhoe areas.

Work to repair 30 years of damage, caused by draining the North's upland wetlands, was given a major cash injection yesterday.

The Peatscapes project by the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership began three years ago and has so far blocked 1,000km of moorland drainage channels, or grips.

The aim is to restore extensive areas of blanket bog which have been drying out.

The peat bogs are important as wildlife habitats, as vast carbon storage reservoirs and as holding areas for water in times of heavy rain, which helps prevent flooding.

Pictured: A worker among the peat bogs at Allendale in 1910

Repairs to flood-damaged roads and bridges in Northumberland totalling more than £1.8m have been agreed.

Northumberland County Council's executive has agreed to invest £1.5m from the Department for Transport on seven schemes to repair damage caused by floods last September.

The programme of work agreed on Monday will see repairs to four bridges - the Chain Bridge near Berwick, the Allenmill Bridge, the Brandon Ford bridge and Warkworth Black bridge. A landslip at Hagg Bank, Wylam, will also be repaired.

Thousands of families across Northumberland are being asked to list their spending and service priorities as their local authority prepares to cut another £25m to £30m from its already-stretched budget

More jobs losses, higher charges and additional cuts to services appear inevitable at Northumberland County Council when it sets its 2010/11 budget - after making efficiency savings of more than £20m in the current financial year.

Now - with tough choices having to be made - the council's opposition Conservative group wants to find out what people across the county see as their top priorities for the resources available.