COUNCILLOR John Blissett has become mayor of Barnard Castle for the fourth time.
He took over from Cllr Sandra Moorhouse who spent two years in the role.
Cllr Blissett, who was first mayor in 2007, said: “I’m not going to make any promises for the year other than to continue to work for the town and the groups we’re involved in to make Barney better.
“I won’t promise to do something like getting rid of dog poo on the streets because I haven’t got any chance of doing that.”
He was selected at the annual meeting of the town council after being nominated by Cllr Frank Harrison, who became deputy mayor. There were no other names put into the ring to be mayor.
One of Cllr Blissett’s first functions was to attend The Queen’s Buckingham Palace’s Garden Party last week.
Cllr Moorhouse said she had attended 79 civic engagements over the past mayoral year.
She said: “It takes an awful lot of your time during the year. If you are not prepared, it can be difficult.”
She suggested changing the system so there would be a “mayor elect” , giving the next-in-line time to get ready. However, this idea failed to get off the ground.
Cllr Moorhousesaid her main aim had been supporting initiatives such as Making Barney Brighter Together group, which was launched to support the high street. She still raised £2,000 for charities and good causes, including supporting the Scouts and The Bowes Museum’s First World War project.
Cllr Blissett described her as a hard act to follow but he would “do his best” .
![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)
