The manager of Clarks shoes in Harrogate has said a serious sexual assault in an alleyway behind the store would ‘never have happened’ if gates had gone up earlier to block it off.
The alleyway behind James Street and Market Place was the scene of a serious sexual assault last week.
Speaking to the Stray Ferret, Clarks manager Emily Woodcock said that for the past three years nearby businesses had been asking the former North Yorkshire County Council highways department to take action and give permission to put gates up but had got nowhere.
This week gates are being fitted at either end of the narrow alley where the stores have their waste bins. But the gates have not been installed as a result of the recent attack but because the area has long been a hotspot for serious anti-social behaviour and store managers have been calling for them for years.
The police cordon on Petergate last week.
Ms Woodcock said she told colleagues that one day they were going to find someone dead from an overdose in the alley:
“It ranged from minor crimes, people setting fire to bins or kids climbing on the back of buildings, to the more serious end of drug use with needles everywhere. There was rough sleeping and people going to the toilet in the back area.
“During the winter none of us would go and put the bins out in the dark, it wasn’t safe.”
Clarks, she said, offered to help pay for gates but the council wasn’t interested. The store had to relocate its fire exit to block up an alcove at the back of its unit that attracted drug users. Suggestions of putting up lighting didn’t get heard either.
Ms Woodcock then contacted Harrogate BID which managed to get approval for the gates and has paid for them.
The gate has been erected in an alley off Petergate (pictured here).
Ms Woodcock said the BID has done a good job but gates were too late to prevent this attack:
“All managers got involved and spoke to their head offices and got permission, the landlords were on board but there was a delay getting the gates up because of a shortage of materials. It was meant to go up back in May but the date kept moving.
“When I saw the Stray Ferret story I said to staff ‘that gate should have gone up years ago’. The fight has been going on for too long and then this poor woman gets attacked and the gate goes up a two days after. It’s just so unfortunate. It should have been the council paying for it.”
Nobody has been arrested in relation to last week’s incident, which North Yorkshire Police described as a “serious sexual assault”.
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