A RETIRED joiner has been overwhelmed by people’s generosity, not only in buying the bird boxes he makes for a charity, but also in providing a mitre saw to make his work easier.
Known as the “Birdman of Barney” , Ken Jordan makes feeding tables and bird boxes on the porch of his Watson Court home, but the progress was slow going because he was manually cutting the wood with a chop saw.
Thanks to a crowdfunding appeal by Freemason John Moore, a new mitre saw was delivered to Mr Jordan last week. The 73-year-old said: “With the little chop saw I couldn’t make long cuts and go through six-inch timber. This will speed things up.”
His efforts to raise cash for the Marie Curie Cancer Care charity have also been helped by Barnard Castle Lions Club which has committed cash to help buy more wood. The tables are sold from This and That and the Hayloft. Visit https://bit.ly/2UwnWxI to donate to his project.
![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)
