A RESCUE pooch has joined the growing ranks of therapy dogs in Teesdale.
Anne Richardson, from Woodland, and her rescue dog William qualified to join Therapy Dogs Nationwide earlier this year and completed their debut at Teesside Airport last month.
Ms Richardson had considered signing up to the scheme for several years but her dogs have been too old or too young at the time.
However, she was prompted to apply after reading about an article in the Teesdale Mercury last year.
She said: “It had the web details on so I thought there is no harm in contacting them. They sent me some information about the dogs they look for.
“[Therapy dogs] is a free service performed by volunteers and their dog. Dogs have been through a tough assessment and handlers have been interviewed and reference checked.”
Along with having a current DBS certificate, Ms Richardson has also completed safeguarding courses, has a level 2 in counselling and has just completed a dementia course at Lanchester Road Hospital through Durham County Carers.
More recently Ms Richardson and William held a meet-and-greet at Etherley Methodist Church’s craft fair.
She said: “William seems to enjoy it. It was a long day but he loved it.”
Organisations that would like a visit from the pair can visit therapydogsnationwide .org.
![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)
