Blindfold politician learns about problems of street clutter

TEESDALE parliamentary candidate Helen Goodman has learned first hand the problem of street clutter faced by disabled people on a daily basis.
Scouts in Staindrop got a boost to their campaign to rid the village of hazards by getting Ms Goodman, who is defending her Labour seat in the Bishop Auckland constituency, to wear a blindfold and walk along the pavements.
Staindrop suffers from people parking over the kerbs, forcing disabled people and mums with buggies to move on to the busy A688 to get around them.
Scout leader Jacqui Nicholson said the problem was first identified in January last year.
She added: “We did a street clutter survey and we realised cars are parked on the pavement. One of our Scouts did some research and found out that it is against the law in London, but not up here.”
The group produced a video on street clutter in Staindrop which attracted 25,000 views on Facebook.
They also secured an appointment to deliver a letter to then Prime Minister David Cameron who agreed to meet them personally at 10 Downing Street.
Staindrop Scouts were able to deliver the letter later, but new Prime Minister Theresa May was unable to accept in in person. Sadly the Scouts did not get the response they had hoped for.
Ms Nicholson said: “We got a letter back and basically they are not interested.”
She added that the troop now wants to apply for a grant from the County Durham Foundation to get radio and television coverage for their campaign.
They also approached Ms Goodman to help and she agreed to be guided through the village wearing a blindfold on Thursday last week.
Ms Goodman, who is a former Girl Guide, said: “I am a great supporter of Staindrop Scouts and I think raising awareness of the situation that people with disabilities are in is important.
Ms Nicholson added that, along with disabled people, it is also unacceptable that mums pushing buggies are being forced on to the highway to get around inconsiderately parked vehicles.
Staindrop Scouts recently won a national award for their campaign. Ms Nicholson said: “We won the award for community impact, which is a really big thing for the Scouts.”
She added that parking was generally a problem in the village and a solution might be to replace part of the village green with cobbles – as it had been in the past.