A KIND-hearted team of unemployed young people set themselves a bumper challenge to raise money for a dale animal charity.
The Prince’s Trust group, from Bishop Auckland, planned a week’s worth of tasks to develop their own skills while helping Wetheriggs Animal Rescue Centre, at Thorpe Farm.
Prince’s Trust team member Mark Amos said: “We were quite ambitious and set ourselves a target of raising £1,500.
“We know that charities have been struggling during the pandemic and we want to give something back.”
The money will help to cover the £1,750 weekly running costs of the centre.
The young people certainly didn’t make life easy for themselves, planning a series of challenges including rafting, bush craft survival, a man hunt, a sponsored walk and orienteering – all working to relevant restrictions and guidelines for those in education.
Local restrictions and a second national lockdown, meant they had to adapt to work around the changing restrictions.
Assistant team leader Liam Atkinson said: “”Raising this money for Wetheriggs is important as we have worked with the charity before and they have provided students with work experience. This is our chance to say thank you at a time when all charities are also feeling the impact of the pandemic.”
![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)
