A SPECIAL effort ensured a dale village’s older folk did not miss out on some much-needed Christmas cheer this year.
Money raised by Eggleston’s carnival committee normally covers the cost of an OAPs’ festive lunch at the village hall. With fundraising efforts proving impossible this year and a lunchtime get-together currently against Covid-19 Tier 3 restrictions, it looked as though it would be not such a merry Christmas for the village’s senior citizens.
However, Eggleston Parish Council, the area’s two county councillors, staff at a popular cafe and a team of volunteers stepped in to help.
Cllrs Richard Bell and Ted Henderson donated almost £600 from their neighbourhood budget to cover the cost of providing boxes of tea-time treats to 77 OAPs, which were distributed at the weekend.
Cllr Wendy Greenfield, a member of the parish council, said: “Eggleston is no exception to having to cancel our usual activities where people of all ages meet, mix and enjoy time together.
“We have cancelled our monthly community coffee mornings, annual carnival, church fair and seniors’ Christmas party.”
She added: “As a parish council we are very aware that many of our parishioners live on their own, have been isolating since March, have lost their spouse in the last 12 months, have dealt with serious medical problems or have no family living locally.
“So we decided the particular senior citizens needed a lift coming up to Christmas and we came up with the idea of a tea box.”
Each tea box contained a range of sweet and savoury treats.
They were put together by Clare Moss-Clennell and her team at the Coach House cafe at Eggleston Hall Gardens.
Cllr Henderson, who is also chairman of Eggleston Parish Council, said: “All the parish and county councillors are delivering them. They have been given a certain patch and a certain number to distribute.
Cllr Greenfield said: “We cannot thank them enough.”
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
