The leader of Gateshead's Liberal Democrats is stepping down.
Jonathan Wallace has confirmed he will quit as leader of the Gateshead Council's opposition party later this month, retiring from the post he has held for almost eight years.
Coun Wallace said that the deaths of his brother, Andrew, and closest friend Richard Williams, for whom he was a carer for four years, had made him realise that "time was running out" for him to do things he had shelved to focus on council work.
