A new face and a familiar one - the return of The Teesside Lead

We're welcoming Sarah Sinclair to bolster our reporting ranks, but don't fear, Leigh's still here

Sarah Sinclair will be writing regularly for The Teesside Le\ad

At long last, a new edition of The Teesside Lead to garnish your inbox.

You’ll remember there hasn’t been an edition in a few months as I’ve been pulled away by other work, notably on BBC Radio Tees and BBC Radio Newcastle where you will have been able to hear me reporting and reading your hourly news bulletins.

Thank you so much for your patience and continued support while we’ve been catching our breath and re-evaluating what it is we do and how we go about it.

And I want to emphasize the “WE”. I’m joined by my new co-editor, Sarah Sinclair. A fellow freelance journalist, Sarah wrote my favourite article in The Teesside Lead from the time before I joined. You can read that here.

We’ll be working together to bring you more in-depth storytelling and exclusive stories from across Teesside.

I’ll let Sarah introduce herself in her own words…

I’m an award-winning journalist based in the North East. My freelance work, which focuses on health and drug policy, has appeared in publications such as Forbes, WIRED, BBC Science Focus, The Telegraph, The i Paper and of course The Lead!

Like many journalists, I started my career in local news, and was formerly a specialist reporter at the Sunderland Echo and Shields Gazette. If there is one thing that has stayed with me from this time, it’s a belief in the importance of high-quality, independent news sources that serve local communities (which is why I have long followed and enjoyed Leigh’s work with The Teesside Lead!) I’m all about stories that have real people at the heart of them, as you’ll hopefully see in some of my previous reporting from Teesside here and here.

We’re already working on the next edition, which should be with you next Sunday. As always, do get in touch with any tips or stories via teesside@thelead.uk.

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You may have seen a story last week about plans by Northumbrian Water to build a 4km outfall pipe from its Bran Sands treatment plant into Tees Bay. Long time readers of The Teesside Lead will have known about this story for eighteen months, since it was us who broke the story way back in December 2024.

You can read about how Northumbrian Water doesn’t actually want to build the outfall pipe below…

Thanks for being patient and we look forward to being in your inbox again on Sunday.