It was in October 1981 that Community Action published the first edition of Northumberland Community News (NCN), its bi-monthly newspaper. Printed in tabloid format, it contained four pages of news and information relevant to relevant to parish councils, community groups and voluntary organisations in Northumberland. Almost 25 years later, the newspaper is still alive and kicking and approaching its 150^th edition. 

The paper is distributed free to parish and district councils, the county council, village hall committees, the rural clergy and many voluntary organisations. Copies are also available to the public in the county libraries. Since 2002, the paper has also been available for download from our website. (see the Publications page in the Library section).

The formula has changed little since the first edition with each issue containing a mixture of news, views and informative articles pertinent to the local communities within Northumberland. Over the years, items have covered a wide spectrum of themes and topics such as threatened school closures, fund raising advice, reviews of local plans, transport, affordable housing, village halls and many others. As well as containing articles written by Community Action staff the paper has served as a useful vehicle for other voluntary and community groups in Northumberland to put out information to wider Northumberland.  

Capitalising on what has been a successful mix of news and views, we believe that it is time to update NCN to give it a more modern and appropriate format and we would appreciate the views of its readers in this transition. Does the format of NCN, the size, content and accessibility meet the approval of you, the reader? Does the current format meet our object of providing quality information to our members, partners and recipients of the services we provide? Are the articles contained in NCN relevant to the needs of local community groups and the work they do? 

How well does NCN meet your needs? Enclosed with the August 2006 edition of NCN (Volume 26 No. 4)is a questionnaire that will help us to deliver what you want? It also contains a few questions to help us evaluate the various services that CAN offers to communities in Northumberland. It would help CAN tremendously if each reader of NCN could complete that questionnaire and return it to us by the end of September 2006.

If you do not have a copy of the August issue you can download a copy and a copy of the questionnaire as follows:

For a copy of NCN 2604 Click here
For a questionnaire in Word format Click here (You can complete this and return it by attaching to an email addressed to info@ca-north.org.uk
For a questionnaire in pdf format Click here

Thank you for your help.