War of the Roses?

A small grassed area in Laurel Close has proved to be contentious after Council workers moved in to dig it up in readiness to plant rose bushes.
Some residents, who want it kept as grass for the Close's small children to safely play on, were infuriated by the council's actions.
Louise Sutherland was among those who objected. Her children are among those who happily play there and, as Louise is blind, she says it's even more important that she can hear them playing safely close to home.
The council said the diggers had been sent in following complaints about children playing. The grass had been temporarily reinstated after Mrs Sutherland raised her objections.
Mrs Sutherland said the saga dates from 2006, when a poisonous bush was removed from the area and residents were allowed to grass the patch over. Her husband regularly mowed it and it became a popular place for toddlers to play safely. That prompted Louise to refuse requests to plant bushes there as part of the town's Saltburn in Bloom effort and she was told that nothing would be done to the grassed area without proper consultation.
" If people didn't want it, I'd have to accept that, but we should at least be properly asked our opinion. I don't think it's been handled very democratically".
Mrs Sutherland added: "If it's a choice between rose bushes and flowers or a safe environment for our children to play, I know what I'd choose."
A Redcar and Cleveland Council spokesperson said: "We have received complaints from some residents regarding the use of the area by children for playing. In direct response to this we began to prepare the area for planting. We have now made the decision to stop the preparation of the area and return it to its previous state so that further consultation with all residents can take place."

Capsized!

Redcar's lifeboats were called out to the rescue after a small boat capsized while ferrying its passengers to and from the shore at Saltburn.
The alarm was raised just before 5.30pm when a 7ft inflatable tender capsized while trying to reach shore to pick up the crew of a 34ft motor cruiser, which was anchored off the beach near Saltburn pier.
The Bay Dream III had sailed from Hartlepool earlier in the day. Its crew had left the craft to run ashore in the tender for a meal at the Ship Inn.
The motor cruiser's skipper, a Sheffield man, had successfully taken his wife back to the cruiser after the meal, and was returning to shore to pick up two more crew when the craft capsized.
Although unhurt, the skipper was unable to re-launch the tender because of heavy seas breaking on the shoreline, and called for help.
Redcar RNLI dispatched both lifeboats and transferred one crew member to the motor cruiser to be with the lone woman left on board. Another crew member managed to lift the craft's anchor and steered it into safer waters. Meanwhile the lifeboat picked up two more of the cruiser's crew to take them back to the vessel.
Finally the skipper was picked up and the tender towed back offshore.
Redcar RNLI spokesman Dave Cocks said: "The skipper was very lucky to be unhurt when his inflatable capsized. We had a major rescue at exactly the same spot last year when a large number of fishing boats capsized and a woman suffered a nasty head injury."

Body found

Following an alarm raised by a dog walker at about 9.30am this morning the body of a man, believed to be in his early thirties, was reclaimed from a spot about 60ft from the foot of cliffs between Saltburn and Skinningrove. The dead man's identity was expected to be confirmed by police later today.
In an operation involving Redcar's two lifeboats, the Staithes lifeboat as well as members of the Coastguard and police, the body was brought down to the base of the cliffs and transferred to the Redcar lifeboat. The location of the body made the operation particularly difficult but the teamwork of the volunteer crews successfully brought the body to the bottom of the cliff where it was transferred to a rescue craft.
The body was then landed at Redcar lifeboat station and handed into the care of the police.

Time capsule.

An intentional time capsule, purposely placed and intended to be opened one hundred years from now, has been buried on the site of Saltburn's new learning campus.
With the modern replacement for the old Huntcliff School now open pupils decided to mark the occasion by burying the capsule to commemorate the now demolished school's past.
They collected a host of items suitable for placing into a sealed metal box which they hope people might find interesting when the box is dug up.
Whoever opens it in 2109 should discover a brief snapshot of school life in Saltburn from 2009.
In addition to hundreds of photos, stamps, pencils, CDs, key rings, a Y11 group photo and money, scores of pupils filled in small index cards with their thoughts and feelings of life at the birth of the new school.
History teacher and project coordinator, Hannah Mohon, commented: "It's social history reflecting our students thoughts and how they feel about society and the world. A historian is like a detective and part of the fun of this has been compiling something that will be fun to unpack."
Local historians Cath and Tony Lynn helped to advise on what to include in the box.
Tony said: "When the old British School was built in the 1860s they buried some sort of time capsule, but when the school was bombed in World War Two they took the rubble away and the capsule has never been found. I think this story helped fire the schools imagination to create their own time capsule."

According to time capsule historian William Jarvis, most intentional time capsules usually do not provide much useful historical information: they are typically filled with "useless junk", new and pristine in condition, that tells little about the people of the time. Many buried time capsules are lost, as interest in them fades and the exact location is forgotten, or are destroyed within a few years by groundwater. Let's hope that this capsule endures the test of time and is more successful than it's earlier counterpart.

Crawl, slither and slide... up close and personal!

Saltburn children have recently experienced the chance to get close to some special rodents and reptiles during their science lessons. The Zoolab Tour is visiting schools as part of the University of Teesside's Meteor Scheme, bringing along a snake, giant snail, cockroach, rat and a frog. As well as being able to handle the animals the pupils learned about the vital role that sunlight plays in our lives and how the animals fit into the food chain.

During its two week run the university's Meteor programme aims to inspire pupils to think about the benefits of higher education.