In this week’s Mercury:
An evening of live music organised by a group of Dale performers has raised more than £11,000 for charities supporting the NHS
A Barnard Castle grandmother donned a giant chicken costume to deliver Easter treats for children in the town
The group of friends responsible for the Covid Cutz haircutting fundraiser have now launched Covid Crowz – a scarecrow competion to raise more money for NHS charities
Extra beds have been placed in Starling Ward at Richardson Hospital as part of County Durham Darlington NHS Foundation Trust’s preparations for any increase in the number of patients with Covid-19
Residents have rallied round to save Lands Village Hall
Find out how a dale resident is planning to scale Mount Everest from the comfort of his own home
And on the subject of mountains, we catch up with top climber Alan Hinkes, who is currently grounded due to the lockdown
In What’s On, meet the Barney singer whose life has taken a new twist after moving to London
And we’ve updated our guide to those independent stores offering a variety of services during the lockdown
In sport, things are on the up for Middleton-in-Teesdale FC, but there’s still no sign of any cricket
Plus there’s all the farming news, two pages of readers’ letters, family announcements and more…
All in this week’s Mercury, which is now available.
![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)
