A PROPOSAL to demolish a redundant weir in upper Teesdale has been dismissed by one parish councillor as "health and safety gone mad".

Coun Diana Mahood's comment came after members of Middleton in Teesdale Parish Council received a letter from the Environment Agency. Public safety works co-ordinator David Scott informed members that, following a fatal accident at a similar spot in the South-West, the agency was looking to demolish the redundant gauging weir at Dent Bank, across the upper Tees just over a mile upstream of Middleton.

In his letter, Mr Scott said the weir, originally built to monitor flow within the Tees, had not been used or maintained for decades and was now beginning to fall into disrepair. Following the fatal accident, the agency was looking at the possibility of demolishing it.

But while Coun Mahood, whose home overlooks the weir, was saddened to hear of anyone being killed, she feared the agency might be overreacting.

"There is a fatality in the South-West so Middleton has to lose out?" she asked. "I have never seen a member of the public down there and no young children go down. People are content to view it from afar. There is no footpath down to the weir because the river turned and washed away the land. The only people you see anywhere near there are anglers."

She claimed the weir was a thing of beauty which attracted much wildlife.

"What on earth are we knocking it down for? It is health and safety gone mad," she added.

Coun Madeleine Sutcliffe was relieved that Coun Mahood was on the council and was well informed about the matter.

"Otherwise we might not have raised any objection and it would have been lost forever," she added.

Members agreed that Coun Mahood take up the matter with the Environment Agency and gave her permission to voice their strong disapproval against any proposal to demolish the weir