The editor of a Tyneside newspaper has taken his paper’s fight to Westminster, backed by a 1,100-name petition.

Rob Lawson, of The Shields Gazette, met energy minister Peter Hain to urge the Government to provide a much-needed miners’ testing centre in the region.

The centre would help speed up the compensation process for the hundreds of sick former pit men in the area who are dying from the chest diseases contracted after years of working underground.

Mr Lawson, accompanied by South Tyneside MPs Dr David Clark and Stephen Hepburn, presented the minister with 1,100 signatures from Gazette readers backing the Test the Rest campaign.

All miners who put claims into the Department of Trade and Industry have to have a medical at a designated test centre before they are offered compensation.

At the moment there are only centres at Newcastle and Durham, and sick miners living in the borough are struggling to make the long journeys to keep their appointments.

Mr Lawson also spoke to Mr Hain about the struggle of miner’s and their widows, while they wait for compensation.

He took with him the miners’ stories printed in the Gazette, and said: “The response has been overwhelming and I will be making our readers’ feelings known to the minister.”

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