Costa Concordia cruise singer from Esh Winning tells of ordeal

A CRUISE singer from County Durham told how he jumped for his life from sinking Italian liner Costa Concordia.

And he paid tribute to crew member and friend Sandor Feher who was the first victim of the disaster to be identified yesterday.

“The ship was rising and the water was getting closer when the lights went out and we were plunged into darkness,” said Ian Fraser, now back at his home of 16 years in Esh Winning. “I knew then I had to jump or swim.

“We knew this was our chance to go and we just belly-flopped into the water. I was swimming towards the rocks and I looked back and couldn’t believe that just a few hours ago I had been sitting in my cabin watching telly.

“The place we had jumped from had disappeared underwater. All around us people were screaming and shouting.

“The ship was making a terrible groaning, like it was in its death throes. I knew I was lucky to be alive.”

via Costa Concordia cruise singer from Esh Winning tells of ordeal – Today’s News – News – JournalLive.

Esh Winning cashpoint raiders foiled by resident – Chronicle News – News – ChronicleLive

THIEVES targeting a village cashpoint fled empty handed when they were rumbled by a local resident.

The crooks made their move on the Lloyds TSB cash machine in Esh Winning, County Durham, at around 2am yesterday.

They used a forklift normally used on building sites, to ram the machine and rip it out the wall.But they made such a noise that they woke a nearby resident, who spotted what was going on and immediately rang the police.

Realising they had been seen, the criminals fled the scene on foot.Within minutes, police arrived in cars and vans and a helicopter was launched to try and find the offenders.One resident, who did not want to be named, said police cordoned off the area to investigate.

via Esh Winning cashpoint raiders foiled by resident – Chronicle News – News – ChronicleLive.

Backing over Eash Winning school site rethink plans From The Northern Echo

COUNCILLORS have backed the scrapping of plans to re-site a village school so that the development of a play area can go ahead.

Durham County Council was to have rebuilt Esh Winning Primary School, which is at The Wynds, on land off Woodlands Road in the centre of the village.

The Woodlands Road site is considered by residents to be a village green – an application to give it official green status is to be made – and there were objections to the plan.

But the council’s cabinet yesterday confirmed that the school will now be rebuilt on its current site, freeing the other land for the play area.

David Williams, corporate director for children and young people, said the change was being made because the residents’ association had won a £50,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund towards a new play area for two to 17- year-olds on the Woodlands Road site.

John Wilkinson, Liberal Democrat councillor for Deerness Valley, welcomed the move, saying the village would get a 21st Century school and a new play area that would help reduce antisocial behaviour. “The young people of the village now have somewhere to go and something to do,” he said.

Joe Armstrong, Labour councillor for Esh, said he believed the school should be in the centre of the village but “you have got to be pragmatic, £50,000 from the Big Lottery – you can’t let that go by.”

He added that he was pleased the village was getting the investment and that he hoped it would lead to better educational attainment.

Claire Vasey, cabinet member for children and young people’s services, said the council was right to reconsider the site of the school in the light of the play area plans.

“By rebuilding the school on the existing site we will be able to maximise the use of land and ensure that the village gets 21st Century educational facilities,’’ she said.

Council leader Simon Henig said the scheme would provide facilities that the children of Esh Winning deserve.

He thanked local councillors, school governors and Durham City Labour MP Roberta Blackman-Woods for their contributions to talks about the issue.