tm, Teesdale Mercury

tm

May 27, 2003

GEORGE

TM website 28.05.03

New rescue

vehicle unveiled

THE new search and rescue command and control vehicle was unveiled on Thursday at the TWSRT headquarters in Barnard Castle.

The £38,000 vehicle can carry out a number of roles including a control centre, personnel carrier, briefing area, equipment storage and an ambulance.

As he officially unveiled the vehicle, Lord Barnard, President of TWSRT, remarked how far the search and rescue team had come over the years.

“There’s been some great advances, he said. “I’ve been president for a long, long time and remember a rather battered Landrover in the early days! I’ve been very, very proud of what you have achieved – it makes you the leaders in the country in the work you are doing.”

The project began following a large donation in memory of a Teesdale gentleman who loved the dales. Grants and donations also came from North Pennine Leader+, Lloyds, Glaxo Go Country Club, the Clique and Montalbo School.

The deputy team leader in charge of resources, Dave Bartles-Smith, thanked all those who had made donations.

He was extremely glad the project was now finished, and admitted having a few sleepless nights about whether the new vehicle would fit in the search and rescue centre. Fortunately it did, albeit with only a few inches to spare!

As part of the ceremony, three team members, Paul Fell, Neil Banner and Des Toward, all received Queens Golden Jubilee medals for their work on the team.

Barnard Castle Dog Training Club also made a donation of £1,152.83 to the rescue team, with money raised from their sponsored dog walk around Raby Park. They also announced the results of the competition for most sponsorship money raised during the walk. Helen Pursey came out top, with £232, she receives a Collie Wobbles voucher; 2nd was the Allinson family from Caldwell (£190) who win a voucher for a meal at the Red Well Inn and 3rd was Clare Moore (£160) who receives a voucher for a meal at The Montalbo Hotel.

The club also gave cheques to the Border Collie Rescue Centre and Barney Bullets.



Booze-busting by-law?

JUST how far should villagers go to ensure that anti-social behaviour in Middleton-in-Teesdale is monitored, reported and dealt with?

There was a consensus at Tuesday’s parish council meeting that there was a problem of bad behaviour around the village, but how to deal with it was another matter.

In the end, chairman Coun John Miller said that it was up to parishioners to keep a note and report incidents to the police, but the police in return needed to ensure that the resources were there to respond.

Police and district councillors turned up for a round-table discussion prompted by letters from former council chairman, John Cronin, about his frustration over continuing bad behaviour, litter and bikes being ridden along the pavement, which it appeared, the police were tolerating.

Mr Cronin, who was at the meeting, has mooted a by-law being imposed to stop the drinking of alcohol on the streets, which some councillors pointed out was becoming a growing nuisance and menace.

First up was Coun Diana Mahood, refuting that the parish council had failed to act over Mr Cronin’s concerns. They had been discussed at three consecutive meetings, and she had brought in the “big guns” of the two district councillors, Richard Bell and Richard Betton, to push the matter on at this meeting.

During a long debate, Coun Mandy Harrison said she was getting phone calls about the nuisance behaviour of young people. Friday nights were a big problem, the playground was in a terrible state, rubbish strewn, benches moved, although there was not a problem all of the time. But Insp Paul Roe and local officer, PC Alison Race, said not enough incidents were being reported to the police in Barnard Castle.

Coun Madeleine Sutcliffe asked if anything could be done to meet the kids off the bus who were coming in from Barnard Castle, complete with bottles of vodka, to put them straight back on the bus. The Potting Shed window had been put in, but PC Race said it wasn’t criminal damage; it appeared that someone had too much to drink and had fallen against it, it wasn’t youths running amok.

Mr Cronin brought the discussion back to his by-law suggestion to ban drinking on the streets; he thought Cockfield might have imposed one on similar lines. Insp Roe, who is new to the area, wasn’t sure, but thought something had been tried out in the Spennymoor area, but he warned that it might simply disperse the drinkers from town centres into other villages. Councillors agreed that this was not what they wanted to happen, and Coun Richard Betton, who agreed to investigate the issue further with the district council, thought that defining a no-drinking area might be the biggest problem.

Then Mr Cronin outlined an incident in the village, which had all the councillors nodding their heads in agreement. He was just going to bed on the Sunday night, he said, when he had noticed two youths by the fountain, moving the bench into the road. He spoke to them, and asked them to put it back. “They said ‘we haven’t done it.’ I said ‘I have just watched you doing it’!” he told the council. “At 11.15pm I rang the police and they said someone would come out the following day. I have never seen anybody,” he said.

Insp Roe apologised. This was something he would have to address and he would look into why no-one had come out.

Both Mr Cronin and Coun Harrison agreed that on-street drinking was a problem – mostly from over 18s who could go into pubs, but preferred to drink on the streets.

District councillor, Richard Bell, had just been to a conference about youth crime, and pointed out that 76 per cent of those in young offenders’ institutions re-offend, whereas it was only three per cent in Turkey. “It makes you wonder what the Turks are doing to them,” he said. One option for the district council could be to pursue anti-social behaviour orders, he told councillors, but this would need specific evidence in the form of diaries, details of incidents, times, names, and cast iron evidence, not the odd phone call. It was a burdensome and bureaucratic process, and villagers would need to be prepared to stand up and be counted.

This got Coun Mahood worried. “For me that is a bit draconian at this stage,” she said.

In the end, the meeting agreed with Coun Sutcliffe that the recruiting of special constables for the village could be a way forward. “Then we have got people to help Alison (PC Race), we have people here to do what is necessary,” said Coun Sutcliffe.

Said Insp Roe: “We are positively wanting to recruit special constables. We don’t seem to be getting them, perhaps it’s because we don’t pay them.”

Coun Miller had the last word. Villagers should ensure they keep a note of poor behaviour, and report what they have seen to the police; in return, enforcement was needed.



Holding fire on

shooting rights

STAINDROP Parish Council has held fire over plans to allow shooting rights at Blakely Quarry.

The clerk, Joe Hodgson, told the latest meeting he had received three sealed bids for the shooting rights, and had asked Raby Estates if it wanted to be considered. Estates manager, Jeremy Greenside, said Lord Barnard was away, and in the circumstances Mr Hodgson thought it would be fair to wait until he returned.

Coun Craig Sams was con- cerned this may disadvantage the other bidders, but Coun Humphries said it would not make any material difference, and also give the parish council the chance to talk to Raby Estates about other issues.

Councillors also heard that an advertisement by the parish council inviting tenders for summer grazing on 1.2 acres of land at Staindrop Moor Fox Covert, had prompted a letter from Brian Robson at adjacent Gawen House Farm, Moor Road. “I give you notice that I claim title to this land by adverse possession, and will not allow anyone to take possession of it,” wrote Mr Robson.

But Mr Robson has now been told by letter that the parish council became freehold owner of three areas of common land, including Blakely Quarry and Staindrop Fox Covert, the latter an award of the Commons Commissioners in 1973, follow ing a public inquiry.

The land was entered on the Commons Register, and is sub- ject to a public charitable trust that the council is responsible for managing. The original leaseholders had been leasing the three parcels of land from 1963 to Raby Estates, and the parish council had simply renewed this annual lease each year until now. A Notice to Quit was served on Raby Estates, and this has now expired. “If you have been occupying the land, it can only have been either under some sub-letting arrangement with Raby Estates, or less officially,” said the letter, signed by the clerk. “In either case, as I am sure you will know, it would not have been possible for anyone to establish by adverse posses- sion a title larger than that of the lessee, Raby Estates, and certainly not the freehold. In any event, I know of no way to acquire a possessory title over statutory common land that is, in effect, inalienable.

In the circumstances, you are not entitled to prevent the parish council exercising its rights as a freehold owner. If you are interested in occupying the land can I suggest you sub -mit a tender to the parish coun cil as soon as possible, marking the envelope, ‘tender.’ I am sending a copy of this letter to the Raby Estates offices,” said Mr Hodgson.





Pictures with story below



Barney Meet success

GOOD weather, lots of floats, an enormous crowd and plenty of planning by an enthusiastic committee, were the essential ingredients that combined to make the Barnard Castle Meet procession on Monday the best in recent years.

A tired Meet chairman, Steve Wilson, said on Tuesday: “It went very well indeed, there was an incredible number of people there, in their thousands. After we had cleared up last night, everyone was delighted, and then we all collapsed.” The committee is hoping for bumper takings to cover the high costs of entertainment laid on.

“The community spirit is back,” was the succinct comment of town mayor, John Yarker, as judging took place on the Glaxo car park.

Meet week continues tonight (Weds) with the Meet Quiz with John Yarker at The Montalbo Hotel, and the beer and jazz festival at the rugby club from Thursday-Saturday.

The Meet events, combined with the RnB Day at the Red Well, the steam fair at Streatlam Farm, the fun fair, and events at the castle, ensured the town was heaving over the bank holiday. PC Steve Wailes, Barnard Castle police, said: “It wasn’t a bad weekend. The steam fair and the Meet went very well, we haven’t had any complaints. There was one little disturbance in town on Monday, but otherwise it’s been quite a good weekend from a police point of view.”

MEET RESULTS: The winners of the shop window competition were the St Teresa’s Hospice shop in Hall Street. Champion float (£200 and silver bowl trophy), English Country Garden, from Thorngate with their friends from Teesdale Day Care Centre (pictured below); more float winners next week. On foot prizes: Adults, 1 (£15) Debra Matthews; 2 (£10), John Emerson. Under 5s, 1 (£15) Elise Stevenson; 2 (£10), Liam Samson; 3 (£5), Matthew Morrison and Lucy Hinch. 6-11 years: 1 (£15), Liam and Zoe Raine; 2 (£10), Ryan Gargett; 3 (£5), Courtney Blakemore. 12-16 years: 1 (£15), Katy Richards; 2 (£10), Peter Fry; 3 (£5), David Fry. Group causing most fun (£40 and Vince Carter Memorial Trophy), the re-cycled celebrity wheelie bin ladies with Robert Harle as Ant and Jack Walker as Dec (pictured below left). Special prize to the Rainbows walking group and also to Dorothy Mitcheson as a motorised Barney Bear.