BUILDING society staff have come to the aid of Scouts and Guides in North Yorkshire who are raising money for a new climbing wall.

Employees from the Skipton Building Society in Bedale heard about the local groups ambitious plans to build a climbing wall and presented a cheque for £150 to help.

Branch Manager Lynne Garner said: "We were really pleased to be able to donate the money which came out of our community budget allowance. The Scouts and Guides have worked so hard building their new headquarters and to have a climbing wall would just be the icing on the cake.”

Bedale Scouts and Guides raised £360,000 to build the new headquarters in Emgate, Bedale. It took over eight years to raise the money and build the new centre and there are now over 300 youngsters and adults a week using it.

But they’ve set themselves a new challenge to raise the money for a climbing wall to be built on the site.

Scout Leader Chris Hall accepted the cheque and thanked the building society for their donation.

Mrs Garner added:” They still have quite a bit of fundraising to do but Chris has promised that when they get the wall finished we can all go along and have a go.”