COTHERSTONE fun weekend organisers have hailed the new parade route a success.
With rising costs for traffic management, the fun weekend committee decided against applying for a road closure for their traditional fancy dress parade this year. Instead the committee devised a route, using the back paths, to bring the colourful procession from the Fox and Hounds to the village’s east green.
Organiser Kelly Green said: “We just couldn’t justify the cost of the road closure so we thought we’d try something new and it seemed to go down really well.”
The fancy procession, led by Ravensworth-based Ovinos Samba, was well supported with any number of cartoon characters on display from old favourites Batman through to modern animations from Inside Out.
Fancy dress results: Girls under five: 1, Ada Tarn; 2, Erin Gregory; 3, Heather Dunn. Boys under five: 1, Arthur Thorn; 2, Stanley Gill 3, Rex Nicholls. Girls 5-10: 1, Evie Tarn; 2, Annabelle Toulson; 3, Penny Green. Boys 5-10: 1, Brandon Yip; 2, Joe Coulson; 3, Jack Francis. Girls over 11 years: 1, Josie Green. Boys over 11: 1, Toby Green; 2, Charlie Whitburn; 3, Adam Wheldon.
Groups: 1, Botanical Garden; 2, Inside Out – Green Family; 3, Smurfs the Whitburn family.
![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)
