IN response to claims from the chief executive of Northumberland County Council that the Northumberland Gazette had a “healthy presence in the west of the county”, the Courant decided to investigate how readily available the Alnwick-based publication was in Tynedale.

Steven Mason’s pledge that “further copies of the newspaper would be circulated on a weekly basis to two prominent public locations in Hexham, initially for members of the public to avail themselves of at no cost” led our journalists to the town’s library and leisure centre first.

A stand full of Hexham Courant ’s at the reception desk greets visitors to the Wentworth Leisure Centre with no sign of any other papers, including the Northumberland Gazette .

When questioned, staff confirmed the Courant was the only newspaper available at the leisure centre.

Staff at Hexham library were happy to hand over the latest editions of the Courant , The Journal and Chronicle for perusal by library users.

However, they confirmed that no other newspapers were available to read in the library.

At the town’s largest supermarkets, Tesco and Waitrose, copies of the Courant sat alongside the latest editions of The Cumberland News , the Durham Advertiser and The Darlington and Stockton Times – with no sign of the Gazette .

In Prudhoe and Stocksfield, the only place a Gazette could be found was in the One Stop Shop on Prudhoe’s Front Street, which had one copy available.

Staff at Waterworld told us they used to stock the Courant but that it had recently been “withdrawn” from sale.

The Paper Shop in Corbridge stocked a couple of copies of the Gazette compared to shifting almost 600 copies of the Courant each week.

Further afield, in Haltwhistle and Allendale, local shops and newsagents told us they didn’t sell the Gazette .

But Claire’s Newsagents in Haydon Bridge and the Fourstones Filling Station did sell “one or two copies” of the paper each week.

In the North Tyne, the newsagent in Bellingham stocked 250 copies of the Courant every week but only eight copies of the Gazette .