A HOUSING association has tried to allay fears that a planned system of mobile wardens for sheltered accommodation will mean a reduction in the service.

Bedale town council said last week that it wanted a meeting with the Northallerton-based Broadacres association if any decision is eventually made to extend a pilot scheme, at present under way in the Stokesley and Great Ayton areas, across the whole Hambleton district.

Mr Paul Lightfoot, of Broadacres, said the association was struggling to give the level of care which it believed was required and improvements could not be achieved with the present warden system. The pilot scheme was not driven by cost factors but represented an attempt to direct care to those who needed it most at the right time. There were no plans to get rid of any wardens, who would work as a team to support one another.

NEW developments are underway at the Northdale Horticulture training centre, Northallerton.

A development plan has been drawn up for business, current plans and future working ideas at the charity based in Yafforth Road.

Judith Cox, a retired teacher who has become one of several new Northdale volunteers, has introduced a range of new skills associated with weaving natural willow into various shapes and forms.

A coffee morning at Scruton which raised £100 for Northdale had on sale some of the woven willow products made by the centre's trainees.

A HOSPITAL unit which administers chemotherapy treatment to cancer patients has received £1,000 from the villagers of Deighton near Northallerton.

The Mowbray suite at the Friarage hospital needs two more special pumps, costing £2,500 each, for controlling infusions of chemotherapy.

The £1,000 raised at a charity dance in Deighton will go towards the cost of one of the American-made pumps, which will be used for treating women with breast cancer as well as other cancer sufferers.