THERE was a double golden anniversary celebration in Guisborough this week.

Park Lane Infants' School shared its golden anniversary with the 50th year of school crossing patrol officers and a special group photograph was taken to commemorate the occasion.

Among those celebrating was Redcar and Cleveland Council's longest serving crossing patrol officer, Ann Birtwhistle, now a sprightly 74 and with 35 years' service.

Mrs Birtwhistle started working as a lollipop lady patrolling the road in Easington near All Saints' Church.

Mrs Birtwhistle said that at that time, there were many more children in the village, travelling to and from Loftus schools on three different buses.

However, as the estate grew, her patrol changed to the A174 at the other end of the village, to supervise the youngsters as they caught their buses to and from three Loftus schools - Harry Dack Infants', St Josephs RC Primary and Loftus Juniors.

Since she started to patrol the crossings in Easington in 1968, Mrs Birtwhistle has helped generations of families to cross the road and admits she will miss it when she finally retires on her 75th birthday in November.

"There's half as many children as there used to be, but a lot more traffic now. I really enjoy it; sometimes it's a bit cold, but I've got used to it after all these years.

"I don't really know what I'm going to do when I retire, this has been what I do for such a long time now. I know a lot of people here - I have seen three generations of one family across the roads.

"The children all shout 'lollipop' when they see me and some of the young ones from the Catholic school said they don't want me to leave."

Mrs Birtwhistle cut a special cake during the celebrations, complete with a lollipop design.

And all of the council's lollipop men and women were presented with golden anniversary badges, gold pens and a certificate by the Mayor and Mayoress, Couns Eric Jackson and Brenda Forster.

The officer in charge of the lollipop men and women, Mike Hall, also made a plea for more people to join the crossing patrol service as it is facing a staffing crisis.

Mr Hall said that increasing traffic and road-rage incidents may be discouraging some from joining, but insisted such incidents in Redcar and Cleveland were uncommon.

For more information on becoming a school crossing patrol officer contact 01287 612368.