THE town council is considering giving up responsibility for Barney’s Poppy Appeal.
For years, Barnard Castle Town Council has co-ordinated volunteers for the appeal, last year raising about £16,000 for The Royal British Legion through sales of poppies and merchandise.
The Poppy Appeal is the Royal British Legion’s biggest fundraising campaign, with the money helping the charity work with members or former members of the Armed Forces.
But town councillors will discuss a motion by Cllr Laura Drew to hand over responsibility for the appeal to another group.
Her motion reads: “The council greatly values the work of the Royal British Legion and supports the Poppy Appeal. However, being the administrator of the local poppy appeal takes up a vast amount of office time, at a financial cost to the council, and for up to a month the council is in effect working for the Royal British Legion. This subsidisation of a charity sadly cannot be sustained in the current climate. Would the council therefore consider handing over its role as local administrator for the Poppy Appeal to another more appropriate organisation?”
Town councillors were due to debate the motion last week but put the question on hold because Cllr Laura Drew was unable to attend.
Mayor Cllr Rima Chatterjee said an extraordinary meeting may be called over the
matter.
![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)
