RESIDENTS from two Barnard Castle care homes were set the difficult task last week of picking winning artwork in a jubilee bunting contest organised to raise money to fund play equipment at Staindrop Primary School.
Pupils from the whole school were invited to enter the competition, organised by the Friends of Staindrop Primary School (FOSS), to design bunting to mark the Queen’s 70 years on the throne.
Amy Bainbridge, from FOSS, said: “We pay for things like hoodies for the school leavers and activities.
“The money raised from the competition will go towards funding new outdoor play equipment.”
She added: “The whole school benefits from our projects and one of the things we were keen to do was be more involved with the community so we wrote to care homes to see if they would judge the entries.”
Children completed their designs at home, paying £1 to enter, then residents from King’s Court care home and the Manor House, in Barnard Castle, shared the task of picking out winners for each class, who will each receive a voucher from Connelly’s Toy Shop.
Once assembled each care home will be presented with half of the unique bunting to display over the jubilee weekend.
![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)
