Tyne Tees Money

A protest march was held in Newcastle today to oppose any cuts to a support and advice service for parents in the city. The Sure Start scheme is being reviewed by the city council as part of plans to reduce spending.

Scarborough Council will decide if they're to invest £135,000 to bring the Tour de Yorkshire to the town. The two day cycling race is set to take place next May. The final route is yet to be agreed but Scarborough could be the starting location for day two.

More than 40,000 borrowers are in line to receive thousands of pounds in compensation following a High Court ruling over the wording of documents sent out by lender Northern Rock.

Northern Rock Asset Management (NRAM), the state-owned remnant of Northern Rock plc, will have to pay £258 million of taxpayer funds in refunded interest to 41,000 borrowers if it does not overturn the decision.

The case relates to Northern Rock's 'Together Mortgage', which allowed customers to borrow up to 95% of the value of their home on a secured basis, as well as take out an unsecured loan of up to £30,000.

In 2012, NRAM had to pay out £270 million in refunded interest after the bank failed to make mandatory disclosures in customer letters since 2008.

In today's case (December 10) covering the period 1999 to 2008, unsecured loans of between £25,000 and £30,000 used the same documentation as smaller loans which are subject to the 1974 Consumer Credit Act.

NRAM, which is part of UK Asset Resolution, brought the case against itself to test whether customers are owed compensation because agreements were documented as though they were regulated by the 1974 Act.

The Department for Transport today confirmed it has officially signed the East Coast rail franchise contract with Inter City Railways, a venture between Stagecoach and Virgin.

A spokesman says the eight-year deal will give passengers between Edinburgh and London more seats, more services and new trains from March next year.

East Coaast trains stop at Newcastle, Durham, York, Darlington and Berwick-upon-Tweed.

However the move has been strongly criticised by trade unions and some Labour MPs.

East Coast has been under public ownership since 2009.

Mick Cash from the RMT union described its privatisation as a "national disgrace" and said the current arrangement was earning the British people £1 billion:

Bookings for camping and caravan sites across Yorkshire tripled as a result of this year's Tour de France.

A report released today showed the event generated £102 million for the county's economy.

Simon McGrath, editor of Camping and Caravanning Magazine says statistics show that advance bookings to their sites went up by more than 300 per cent:

Images that made Le Grand Départ unforgettable

A report out today shows that le Grand Départ generated over £100 million for Yorkshire's economy.

Some of the key findings are listed below, revealing the social and economic benefits found for the county:

• Over the course of the three days the race was watched at the roadside by a total crowd of 4.8million
• The race was watched in person by approximately one in four people in the whole of Yorkshire and the Humber region
• The event attracted 113,000 visitors from outside the UK, generating £33m into the UK economy
• The Tour provided £24.3m benefit to the accommodation sector in the host areas
• 18.6million people followed the race on television or on other devices in the UK
• 92 per cent of spectators who watched the Yorkshire stages felt the Tour had been positive for the region, as well as 79% of those who attended stage 3
• The Yorkshire Festival 2014, the first of its kind, saw more than 800,000 people attend more than 2,000 performances of arts and culture in the 100 days leading up to the Grand Départ
• The official website letouryorkshire.com received two million visits during the week of the Tour starting, with over eight million page views

A report out today on the economic and social impact of this summer's Tour De France's Grand Depart , which started in Leeds and went through West, North and South Yorkshire over two days, will reveal that it produced a £102 million boost for Yorkshire.

Around two and half million spectators lined the route over the first two days.

Shoppers in Byker queued for hours to grab the bargains on Black Friday.