Cycling campaigners and environmental groups in the district have called for “pop up”  temporary cycle lanes and lower speed limits to encourage people to continue cycling and help walkers with social distancing.

Jemima Parker of Zero Carbon Harrogate said the group has written to Andrew Jones MP and David Bowe, the county council Corporate Director Business and Environmental Services, asking for temporary changes.

Zero carbon Harrogate would like to see a 20mph speed limit in urban areas, more street space allocated for “active travel” (pedestrians, mobility scooters and cyclists) and encouragement for cars to be parked on the road rather than the pavement.

Harrogate District Cycle Action has published a list of “post-lockdown travel improvements” that, amongst others, include:

• Closing streets to cars at school drop off and pick up times
• Add temporary cycle lanes by putting up barriers and making streets one-way
• Close off town centre roads to cars
• 20mph limits in built up areas and “car free weekends”

In Knaresborough, town councillor Hannah Gostlow has urged the County Council which is in charge of highways to reduce the speed limit to 20mph between King James School and High Bridge in Knaresborough and around the towns schools, as well as increasing cycle lanes in the town.

“Our High Street is usually a fast and busy road that discourages cyclists, narrows our footpaths for pedestrians, and disconnects shops from the town centre, this scheme aims to let our town recover and breathe again. As well as a 20mph scheme I would also like to see cycle lanes where possible, and local businesses encouraged to take a lead on green transport initiatives”

The calls for parking bays to be made into cycle lanes in Harrogate are at odds with Independent Harrogate, the body which represents the town’s independent retailers. It’s called for free parking to be kept indefinitely to encourage more people to come into Harrogate by car when the shops finally open.

The Stray Ferret has asked North Yorkshire County Council for a comment. It said it was working to give a response as soon as possible.

No further deaths have been reported by Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust in the data released by NHS England today. 32 deaths were reported across the North East and Yorkshire region.

The total number of deaths at the hospital stands at 51, with 82 patients discharged after treatment for Covid-19.

The last death confirmed by the trust was on Monday, May 4th. However, it can take several days for deaths to be confirmed and added to official figures, particularly over weekends.

Today’s figures show a further 178 deaths confirmed across England, bringing the total of 23,149

Statistics released by NHS England only cover patients who were treated and died in hospitals. A further 39 people had died in the community across the Harrogate district until April 24, according to information released by the Office for National Statistics this week.

This column is written for The Stray Ferret by Jemima Parker, Chair of Zero Carbon Harrogate*

When we started to go into lock-down I knew that Covid-19 would bring significant carbon emissions reductions for the District. Cutting our greenhouse gases and playing our part in the global response to climate breakdown is something I have been advocating for years. But not like this. Not with the shutdown of our amazing local businesses and heartache of lives lost to the virus.

Sure I, like many, have been enjoying waking up to a quieter world each morning without the roar of traffic out of the window; being able to hear the birds in the Valley Gardens; breathe clean air on Skipton Road and soak up those clear blue skies across the Stray without contaminating contrails.

It feels like a little window into a low carbon world, but it’s missing the vibrant economy that can go with it.

Strangely, I have found the pandemic crisis a levelling experience, with my own world of living in a continual state of climate emergency (10 years left to radically reduce our carbon emissions or millions more die), now shared in some ways with my friends and family.

Working from home has been normalised. Having food deliveries – as my family have done for years (from the lovely local Organic Pantry) – is all the rage and even creatively eating up all the bits and bobs at the back of the fridge is now obligatory.

In these difficult days, pockets of hope have surprised me. I was cheered by how quickly we got it, we acted, the science of the virus was understood, the risks evaluated and the radical changes required in our behaviour adopted. Next stop climate science, risk assessment and adaptation?

It has been a joy to see a resurgence of localism, neighbours walking to the local shops and others out exploring previously neglected footpaths – why wouldn’t you, we live in God’s own county?

I have been overwhelmed by the plethora of community groups that sprung up from nowhere to provide support, from Pannal to Pateley, Bilton to Boroughbridge. This community resilience, this coming together to support each other, will help as we adapt to the changes required to prevent the worst extremes of climate change.

How many of these positives can we capture and take forward as we begin the long and difficult task of rebuilding the local economy? We can’t go back. Can we go forward investing in more resilient local, low carbon businesses, creating green jobs, valuing all our key workers and giving a true value to the natural world that sustains our very existence?

*Zero Carbon Harrogate is an organisation dedicated to making Harrogate District a net zero carbon community by 2030 in order to secure a sustainable future- for more information click here.

Harrogate Neighbours overcame the problem of social distancing to put on a special day of VE Day celebrations for the residents of The Cuttings in Starbeck and Heath Lodge in Harrogate. Drake’s Fish and Chips in Knaresborough arrived with an appropriately-dressed team to deliver lunch.

Police have named a man found dead in Harrogate this week as Aaron Atkinson.

The 38-year-old’s body was discovered at a property in Harrogate in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Two men, aged 46 and 40, arrested on suspicion of murder and robbery, have now been released on bail.

North Yorkshire Police said investigations into the death are continuing and further forensic tests are being carried out, but detectives are treating it as suspected murder. Officers have reassure the public that it was an isolated incident.

A Harrogate veteran who survived the D Day landings was the star of one of the town’s VE Day celebrations yesterday.

Sergeant John Rushton, known as “Jack” among friends had his spirits lifted as residents on his street went to great lengths to make his day special.

Jack is 95 years old and has been inside his house on Beech Road in Harrogate since lockdown started. But thanks to Vic- Smith Dunn, who lives on his street and runs the Oatlands community group, there was socially distant celebrations.

There was a heartwarming performance from 14-year-old Lucy Hall, who was playing the bagpipes as well a visit from Lieutenant Col Richard Hall who is the commanding officer at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate.

Jack leant out his window to watch all the goings-on throughout the afternoon.

Jack was ready to celebrate.

Merryfield cul-de-sac off Hartley Road in Harrogate where they had decked the road out in red, white and blue..

Alistair Ratcliffe (above) from the Oatlands Community Group prepared tea parcels to give out to the elderly and vulnerable. The group delivered around 150 today. One of the happy recipients who raised a glass to the group to say thank you….

Along Mallinson Oval there was a carnival atmosphere…

The residents of Tewitt Well Road in Harrogate came out in force this afternoon to sing the National Anthem and raise a glass to commemorate VE Day..

Here are more images from a noisy, happy road enjoying the day:

Harrogate District Hospital has reported 51 coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic.

The hospital has added another death to its total from April 21 as part of another 332 fatalities across England’s hospitals today.

Patients were aged between six weeks and 103 years old.  22 of the 332 patients, who were aged between 40 and 96 years old, had no known underlying health conditions.

CORRECTION: Yesterday the Stray Ferret incorrectly reported there had been no coronavirus deaths .There had, in fact, been a death on May 4.

As of May 7, Harrogate District Hospital has released 82 patients after recovering from coronavirus. The hospital reveals its recoveries on a weekly basis.

The number of deaths in care homes is rising according to weekly data from the Office for National Statistics.

The data, which goes up to April 24, now shows that there have been 39 deaths outside of hospitals.

In Harrogate, two people have died from coronavirus in their homes and two have died in “other communal establishments,” so the majority of deaths outside of hospitals were in care homes.

A Harrogate veteran who survived the D Day landings will be the star of one of the town’s VE Day celebrations today.

John Rushton, who is also known as Jack, will be the guest of honour at Beech Road where the street will hold a socially distant party in their front gardens.

Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hall of the Army College will also join in the celebrations with his daughter playing The Battle O’er & Balmoral as they drive past in a vintage car at 4pm.

Jack was born in Doncaster on May 24, 1924, where he was brought up and educated before leaving school to become an apprentice joiner.

At the outbreak of World War II because he was too young to enlist, he joined the home guard before he volunteered for service shortly after his 18th birthday.

On the night of June 5, 1944, he set off from Portsmouth, having been sent in place of another marine who had been taken ill.

The crossing was made in a flat bottomed tank landing craft, and as the weather was poor, he sheltered with a comrade underneath one of the tanks, lying on top of the ammunition.

The crossing was so rough that he later said that he preferred being shot at in France to staying on board.

Jack during his military service.

Arriving on the Normandy beach at 6am on June 6 he proceeded to deploy and arm his unit’s tanks and guns and spent much of the assault without his helmet or rifle as they impeded his tasks.

During that day, he narrowly avoided death three times including running over an anti-tank mine several times. He often says with a wry smile that only the good die young. He also says that the real heroes are the ones who didn’t return home.

Having been promoted to Sergeant, Jack was then sent out to India, travelling by ship and often sleeping on riveted steel decks. On arrival in Bombay his unit was tasked with keeping the peace during the country’s internal struggles, and later training to join the war against Japan further east.

In 1945 he was sent to Malaysia to await deployment to the battlefront, however when the atomic bombs were dropped, he was spared the ordeal of the next fight.

Although the war was now over, his unit was sent back to India to help quell a naval mutiny, and as a result, he didn’t make it home until 1946, when he was demobbed, and returned to Doncaster.

He moved jobs and towns before he settled in 1972 with a final family move to Harrogate College of Further Education.

Jack retired in 1988 and turned to his interests in the local brass bands and the Royal Naval Association. He was widowed in 2012 after almost 61 years of marriage and has four children, four grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.