Hi there Russ, There's still a group of us that are active in the north east but we tend to use facebook nowadays as we were constantly getting warning and bans on here for next to no reason. I put it down to this section being so active that the mods couldnt keep up so spat thier dummys at the slightest thing.
Check out these facebook pages:
Wearside Bash And Trash
Northeast RC Bashers