This week’s Mercury is out in the shops and here are a few headlines:
Town council’s bid to stop Italian restaurant opening in Barnard Castle centre.
Businesses count cost of roadworks.
Witham needs £30,000 in 30 days to keep going.
Magic Middleton carnival – pictures.
Lisa Wood’s final fundraiser will be for her disabled son.
Farmer guilty of animal neglect.
BFG illustrator creates picture for museum.
School leavers do their bit for Ernie’s garden in Evenwood.
Pride of Teesdale Awards launched.
Fears of 40m turbines.
Church’s revamp moves into final stage.
Town chippie among best 60 in country.
Classic cars go under the hammer.
Well known accountant to retire.
Village remembers couple who were at the centre of local life.
Two big fundraisers for Cockfield.
Remember When – the Teesdale lad who became a colonel in the Indian Army.
Dales pony show – report.
SPORT – West Auckland season preview, cricket and all the local grassroots sport.
Plus letters, community news, farming, marts, four pages of arts and more.
![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)
