AMBITIOUS plans for a major sports development are being drawn up in Barnard Castle.
The proposals include creating two new rugby pitches, a clubhouse, additional car parking, an artificial turf all-weather pitch and a 400-metre running track on land owned by Durham County Council adjacent to Teesdale School and the TCR Hub.
The project, called Teesdale Sports Wheel, aims to provide a new and safer site for Barnard Castle Rugby Club with access to all-weather facilities. Currently the club uses pitches on the upper Demesnes, which are some distance from the clubhouse in Birch Road.
Details of the project, which has four partners – Barnard Castle Rugby Club, Teesdale School, TCR Hub and Durham County Council – were outlined to town councillors by Andy Howard, project lead manager for the rugby club, last week.
Mr Howard, who is also chairman of the Barnard Castle junior rugby academy, said: “This is an exciting step change to take Barnard Castle Rugby Club into the future. It will give us the facilities in the town we need, as well as facilities for the community.
“It will see a fundamental change in the ability of the club to be sustainable and see the rugby club become a much more prominent and active supporting facility within the town and local community.”
It is hoped funding for the project would come from a combination of grant funding, release of capital from the sale of the existing clubhouse, along with money from Teesdale School and fundraising.
More details in this week’s Teesdale Mercury.
![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)
