A BARNARD Castle teenager has received the highest award possible for a Girl Guide.
Heather Brown, 13, has completed her Baden Powell Challenge which involves youngsters completing ten challenges. She will be one of the last Guides to get the accolade before the programme changes this summer.
Among the activities she completed to achieve the badge was to take part in a residential activity week and experience a slice of culture – in this case seeing the opera at The Witham, in Barnard Castle. The aim of the award is to push participants’ boundaries.
Proud mum Debby, a Guide leader, said: “When girls go to secondary school we do tend to lose them so not many girls achieve what Heather has done.”
Heather, who has been involved in the organisation since being a member of Rainbows, said: “I have made a lot of friends – it gives me confidence and I’ve done a lot of things and gone to a lot of places.”
The Barnard Castle School pupil plans to stay on with the movement and will become a Ranger, which is the most senior level in Girl Guiding.
![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)
