Teesdale MP blasts gun club funding

A ROW has broken out after Teesdale’s MP complained about public money being spent on a clay pigeon shooting club.
Teesdale Gun Club was awarded £15,000 by three of the dale’s county councillors late last year.
Now MP Helen Goodman is taking aim at councillors Richard Bell, Ted Henderson and George Richardson, questioning why cash from their neighbourhood budgets was directed to the club.
She was reacting to a complaint she received from one of her constituents.
The Labour MP said: “I am astonished that with all the cuts to services for young people, the disabled and care for the elderly, the gun club is the priority for Tory councillors. Nor is it in tune with the Teesdale Action Partnership priorities of older people, transport and the environment, jobs, enterprise and training.”
She added: “Perhaps this is a metaphor for the Tories’ destructive attitude to our community.”
However, gun club members say the cash is going to be used to improve access, particularly for the disabled, with new paving allowing people in wheelchairs to take part in the sport. The money will also be spent on replacing the current portable toilets with new disabled toilet facilities, leading Cllr Bell, who contributed £5,000 of his neighbourhood budget to the scheme, to describe the criticism as misplaced.
He said: “I feel Helen is ‘shooting from the hip’ in criticising this project, and it is disappointing that she has not bothered to check the facts. It is a good community project about addressing issues of accessibility to the club site, particularly the provision of wheelchair access to the whole range area and toilet facilities. We don’t carp about enabling the less mobile to access shops and public buildings, so why should a sporting club be off-limits to them?”
Teesdale Gun Club currently boasts the top ranked automatic ball trap junior shooter as well as the 12th ranked colt marksman in the down the line discipline.
Club chairman Nigel Mitchell said: “We are trying to encourage people of all ages and ability to come and try the sport of clay pigeon shooting in a safe controlled environment, for members and non-members, but we need the right facilities to be able to do this.”
The club is renowned for hosting charity shoots, the most recent of which was for Butterwick Hospice.
Memorial shoots held at the club have helped raise cash for defibrillators in Middleton-in-Teesdale, one of which has already saved a person’s life, and a number of other causes in the upper dale.
Mr Mitchell added: “I reassure individuals that it is of great benefit in ensuring this Teesdale facility has a future.
“Following our successful application, we aim to improve our facilities to help us encourage younger membership, support existing enthusiasts whilst making the ground accessible for disabled shooters. As a club we are very grateful to our county councillors in helping us achieve our aim through the grant money they have awarded us.”
He added that the funding was applied for fairly and met the necessary criteria.
It is hoped the improved club facility will attract more people, including the disabled, to the sport.