Four released on bail after Jennyfields drugs raid

Four people have been released on bail after police seized a “large amount” of suspected class A and class B drugs in Jennyfields.

North Yorkshire Police arrested two men and two women on suspicion of possession with intent to supply drugs and handling stolen goods.

Officers executed a drugs warrant at a property on Newby Crescent in Jennyfields on Wednesday.

In a statement, the force said a “large amount” of suspected class A and class B drugs were seized alongside items officers believed to have been stolen.

A spokesperson for North Yorkshire Police added:

“The officers executing the warrant were from the Expedite team, the operational support unit and the neighbourhood policing team.

“A large amount of suspected class A and class B drugs were located at the property alongside items believed to have been stolen.

“Two men and two women were arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply class A and class B drugs and handling stolen goods. They have been released on bail while the investigation continues.”

Read more:

 

Plan approved to convert former Smarties nursery in Ripley into home

Plans have been approved to convert the former Smarties Day Nursery in Ripley into a home.

Smarties opened in 1987 and catered for 52 children. The building, which is called Wood Close, is part of the Ripley estate and is owned by Sir Thomas and Lady Emma Ingilby.

However, it closed last year after its owners decided not to renew its lease.

Now, Harrogate Borough Council has approved plans by Sir Thomas to convert the former nursery into a house.

Sir Thomas lodged the proposal as the Ingelby’s son and family plans to move there from Ripley Castle.

The nursery’s closure last year prompted an emotional response from many parents on the Stray Ferret’s Facebook page, with one saying she was “absolutely gutted” and another calling it “really sad news”.

Read now:

 

‘Golden opportunity’ for local councils to take back public buildings and services

Local councils across the Harrogate district are to be given the chance to take back control of public buildings and services under what has been described as a “golden opportunity” for communities.

When Harrogate Borough Council was created in 1974 it took over ownership of several key assets, including Ripon Town Hall and Knaresborough House.

But almost half a century later the borough council is now coming to an end as it will be scrapped and replaced with a new unitary authority covering the whole of North Yorkshire from April next year.

These major reorganisation plans have stoked widely-raised concerns over the future of many buildings which are key meeting places for communities and also play a crucial role in delivering local services and supporting the visitor economy.

‘Rightful owners’

Ripon Independents Cllr Pauline McHardy last night made calls for the borough council to kick-start the process by offering support to local councils that may want to submit any takeover plans.

She told a full council meeting this would be a “golden opportunity for assets across the district to be transferred back to their rightful owners”.

She said: 

“In 1974, the people of Ripon and its council had no say in their assets being transferred at no cost to Harrogate Borough Council.

“Now we want them given back to parish, city and town councils for the same as Harrogate Borough Council paid – nothing.”

Read more:

Cllr McHardy put forward a motion outlining her requests and was supported by the Liberal Democrats, including Knaresborough mayor Cllr Christine Willoughby who said it “can not be right” for local councils to pay for buildings which they once owned.

However, after a stormy debate both parties ended up voting against the motion, which was amended by Conservative council leader Richard Cooper, who said local councils would be able to “procure” the assets.

Photo of Ripon Town Hall decked in poppies

Ripon Town Hall.

This sparked questions over whether local councils would have to pay, but Cllr Cooper said this “does not necessarily mean cash changing hands”.

He also said the motion first put forward “simply isn’t legal” as the borough council itself can not produce takeover plans for its own buildings to be run by local councils.

Cllr Cooper said: 

“Seeking to get better services for residents run from these assets is where we should be focusing.

“If parishes can do it better and put together a delivery plan – great.

“I wish them all well and good luck in managing those services from parish, city and town councils. But what I am seeking to do is make sure they get control of assets and run great services from them legally, quickly and sensibly.

“The original motion I’m afraid just won’t do that.”

What will happen in Harrogate?

The prospect of a new town council for Harrogate is highly likely under the reorganisation plans and something which has been supported by all political parties.

Among the key assets which the town council could take over include the likes of the Stray, the Royal Hall, Royal Baths, the Pump Room Museum, the Sun Pavilion and more.

There are also questions over what will happen to council offices, not least to mention Harrogate Borough Council’s new civic centre headquarters.

At the moment, Harrogate and Scarborough are the only major towns in North Yorkshire not served by a parish or town council.

North Yorkshire County Council has previously said services such as parks and markets could be run by a town council, while areas including planning and highways may be handled by a Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Constituency Committee on the new unitary authority.

It has also said it is supportive of the idea of a Harrogate Town Council, although this would require a community governance review and could lead to a local referendum with a vote from residents.

Man suffers serious injuries after Harrogate car crash

A man in his 60s suffered series injuries after a crash at Buttersyke roundabout at Pannal in Harrogate yesterday.

Emergency services were called at 7.20am after two cars, a blue Seat Ibiza and a black Volkswagen Golf, crashed near to the A658 roundabout and the A61.

The incident caused long delays at rush hour yesterday.

North Yorkshire Police said a man from Leeds in his sixties, who was driving the Seat Ibiza, suffered serious injuries and was taken to Leeds General Infirmary. He remains in a serious but stable condition.

The passenger of the Ibiza was unharmed and the driver and passenger of the Volkswagen, a couple from Harrogate, sustained minor injuries

Read more:

Officers are now appealing to anyone who may have information or dashcam footage of the crash.

A police statement added:

“Officers are keen to speak to anyone who witnessed the incident or who may have dashcam footage of either the collision itself, or either vehicle prior to the incident.

“Anyone with information which would assist the investigation is asked to dial 101, select option 2 ask to speak to Traffic Constable Steve Wright. Alternatively you can email steve.wright1@northyorkshire.police.uk – please quote reference 12220023352.”

Harrogate council approves council tax hike

A 1.99% council tax rise has been approved by Harrogate Borough Council as part of its final budget before the authority is swallowed up into a new North Yorkshire Council.

The increase equates to an extra £5 per year for average Band D households and will come into force from April.

It was approved at a full council meeting last night which marked the last time that the Conservative-run council will set its own budget before it is scrapped and replaced with a unitary authority covering the whole of North Yorkshire from April 2023.

The county’s other six district councils will also be scrapped, as well as North Yorkshire County Council which has proposed a 3.99% council tax rise for Harrogate district residents in its final budget.

There are further tax rises expected from police and services which if all approved could see council tax bills for average Band D households rise to a total of £2,079.

This comes at a time when families are facing a cost of living crisis and opposition councillors have warned many will have to choose between heating and eating to cover their bills.

‘Residents will be faced with eat or heat choice’

Cllr Pat Marsh, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrat group on Harrogate Borough Council, told last night’s meeting that the authority should be using more of its cash reserves to ease the pressure on residents.

She said: 

“It is such a pity that we could not have a 0% increase in council tax to help our residents who are faced with soaring energy costs, fuel and food bills, and 1.25 percentage point in National Insurance contributions from April.

“Many residents will be faced with the eat or heat choice in 2022 – that is disgraceful.

“This is also why we should have kept our fees and charges at a 0% rise and not at least 2.5% as mentioned in many of the cabinet budget papers.

“Using our reserves would take the pressure off our residents to some small degree.”

Cllr Pauline McHardy, leader of the Ripon Independents group, also said she would have supported no increase in council tax and described the 1.99% rise as “another blow to the community”.

Read more:

Cllr Graham Swift, deputy leader of the council, responded to say that not increasing council tax would be “nonsense” as the authority is also facing increasing costs and has to keep services running and its staff paid.

He also argued that no alternative budget proposals were put forward by the opposition parties and that the council’s cash reserves had been earmarked for projects.

Cllr Swift said: 

“We have to pay our staff… and we will also be squeezed by energy prices and as a result of this giving a zero council tax increase to all of our residents is nonsense.

“Despite the hardships that we will all face over the next year or so, I think most rational people recognise that global energy prices are the principal driver of the heating and electricity costs – not Harrogate Borough Council.”

‘Proud of the council’s work’

Cllr Swift added:

“£5 a week is the council tax. For that people get their bins emptied, their leaves swept, their provisions of leisure facilities and all the programmes that go with helping our most needy.

“The list is almost endless of what district councils do and I’m very proud of the work that many people in this council do to ensure that we can provide not only a balanced budget, but a controlled modest expenditure increase.”

The 1.99% rise will increase Harrogate Borough Council’s tax bills for the average Band D property up to £255.92.

The council makes up just under 13% of bills, while North Yorkshire County Council makes up 70% and police and fire services the remainder.

Parish and town councils also charge a small levy.

All 24 Conservative councillors present at last night’s Harrogate Borough Council meeting voted in favour of the 1.99% rise, while seven Liberal Democrats abstained and two Ripon Independents voted against.

North Yorkshire Police pledges to improve dire freedom of information response

North Yorkshire Police has pledged to improve its freedom of information performance after the amount of responses handled on time fell as low as 9%.

The Information Commissioner’s Office included the county’s force in a list of police forces whose FOI responses was deemed under-performing.

Now the force has referred itself to the ICO over its timeliness of responses, its backlog of requests and its low performance.

Organisations are required to respond to requests promptly and within 20 working days. North Yorkshire Police has a target of meeting this 95% of the time but its performance in recent years has fallen woefully short.

It fell as low as 9% in April 2020 and the highest it has reached is 59% in August the same year.

The ICO said in a report dated October 2020:

“Although significant progress has been made to improve NYP’s performance, the Commissioner’s analysis of the performance statistics has led her to issue this practice recommendation to ensure that the trend of improvement continues and NYP achieves satisfactory levels of timeliness.”

Read more:

A total of 365 FOI requests were outstanding in April 2020. Of that figure, 309 requests were overdue and 193 were over six months old.

North Yorkshire Police revealed last week it had created an action plan to tackle the problem.

It said the reason for its lack of response was “mainly caused by increased volumes of FOIA requests, subject access requests and Family Court Order request”.

North Yorkshire Police's FOI response performance as submitted to the Information Commissioner. Table: ICO.

North Yorkshire Police’s FOI response performance as submitted to the Information Commissioner. Table: ICO.

The police action plan has set a target to respond to 85% of requests within 20 working days by September 2022.

The plan recognised its compliance rates had not been met. It said that this was down to “reduced staff resources” and “continued demand for disclosure”.

Developer appeals Knaresborough 170-homes refusal

A developer has appealed a council decision to reject plans for 170 homes in Knaresborough after seeing the proposal twice refused.

Landowner Geoffrey Holland’s application would have seen homes built on Water Lane in the town.

However, Harrogate Borough Council rejected the latest proposal after planning officers said the scheme had a number of “fundamental” issues.

Proposals for 218 homes near Meadowside Academy were first rejected by the borough council’s planning committee in October 2019.

Mr Holland then scaled back house numbers for the scheme to 170 in his second push for approval, but saw this turned down in August last year.

Now, the developer has taken the decision to the government’s Planning Inspectorate.

‘No demonstrable adverse impacts’

In a statement of case, Cunnane Town Planning, which has lodged the appeal on behalf of Mr Holland, said there were “no significant or demonstrable adverse impacts that would arise as a consequence of the development”.

However, Kate Broadbank, the council’s planning officer, told the meeting in August 2021 that the scheme had a number of issues to resolve.

She said:

“One of the site allocation requirements is the provision of a circular recreation route – and this has been provided around the edge of the site.

“However, it is considered to be unsatisfactory, as it is a narrow path between the site boundary and side elevations of dwellings, meaning it is not very well overlooked and would not provide a safe, attractive route.

“The same situation occurred around the open space and children’s play area where houses backed onto this.

“The applicant has tried to overcome this by turning some houses around to face onto the path and play area, however, this has led to an issue with rear gardens now backing onto the streets.

“On the whole, the scheme is considered to lack character or a sense of place.”

Read more:

The site is allocated for more than 148 homes in the Harrogate District Local Plan 2014-2035, which outlines development in the district until 2035. This means development will happen once councillors are satisfied with detailed plans.

The latest proposals included a mix of one and two-bedroom apartments, as well as two, three and four-bedroom houses.

A total of 81 of these properties would have been classed as affordable.

More than 80 residents had lodged objections against the plans, which did not receive a single letter of support.

Councillor welcomes go-ahead for demolition of Starbeck ‘eyesore’

A councillor who has long campaigned for action on a burned-out Starbeck shop has welcomed approval of plans to demolish the building widely considered to be the area’s biggest eyesore.

Liberal Democrat Cllr Philip Broadbank said the approval was a big boost for Starbeck High Street, which has been “blighted” by the former McColl’s convenience store ever since it was gutted and left roofless during a fire more than three years ago.

Cllr Broadbank said: 

“As a resident of Starbeck myself I am pleased that at long last the site owner has now got permission to demolish this semi-derelict building.

“We need to see progress now and work towards getting a prestigious new development on the site that will help to enhance the High Street.

“It is time for some positive thinking and positive action now that the demolition issue has been decided.”

The former McColl’s store has been described as an “eyesore” and “ramshackle” by locals who have become increasingly frustrated with its unsightly appearance on the High Street.

Cllr Broadbank said he would now hold talks with the building owners Bates and Hemingbrough over their plans to revive the site by building new retail and 15 housing units in place of the current building.

These plans have already been discussed with Harrogate Borough Council, although a planning application has yet to be submitted.

Read more:

The council had previously questioned whether the building next to St Andrew’s Church could be refurbished, before more recently putting the demolition plans on hold to allow for more safety documents to come forward.

‘I want to get things moving’

Cllr Broadbank had previously argued the building was beyond restoration and should be torn down.

The council’s decision to allow this finally came to the joy of residents in January and the Leeds-based site owners now have five years to complete their demolition and construction works.

Cllr Broadbank, who represents Starbeck on both Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council, said he was hopeful that progress on the site could be made at a much faster pace than has been done up until now.

He said: 

“Like many Starbeck residents I want to get things moving now that demolition has finally been approved.

“Clearly as there are more than 15 homes proposed in what they would like to see on the site there will be some discussions now with the borough council over financial contributions to support affordable housing in the district and other aspects that now need to be progressed.”

Plan for 390 homes in Ripon set for final approval

Plans for 390 homes at a former race track in Ripon are set for final approval after a long saga of refusals, appeals and a developer pulling out of the scheme.

The proposals for land off West Lane have been recommended for approval by Harrogate Borough Council, which initially rejected the scheme in 2017 over the impact on the countryside and nearby Fountains Abbey World Heritage Site.

This decision was later overturned by the government’s planning inspectorate which said the impacts would be “extremely limited”.

Two years later, the plans hit another hurdle when developers Barratt Homes pulled out before the government’s housing agency Homes England and developers Taylor Wimpey struck a £89.5 million deal to get the scheme back on track.

Marie Kiddell, head of planning and enabling north at Homes England, recently said the body wanted to intervene in the “stalled” site because it would play a “vital” part in meeting the growing need for housing.

A reserved matters application has now been recommended for approval at a council meeting next Tuesday when a final decision will be made.

Read more:

The plans include 155 affordable homes, 42 bungalows, cycling and walking links, a new bus route and children’s play areas.

Four objections have been lodged with the council, including one from Littlethorpe Parish Council, which flagged concerns over how the area’s roads, schools and health services will cope with another population increase.

Ripon City Council did not make any comments on the latest plans.

Recommending the plans for approval, a Harrogate Borough Council officer said in a report: 

“The reserved matters submission including the remaining access details, appearance, layout, scale, and landscaping has been assessed.

“Having assessed the proposal against relevant development plan policies, the application can be supported.”

A computer generated image of the 390-home West Lane site in Ripon.

A computer generated image of the 390-home West Lane site in Ripon.

£455,000 for buses, traffic signals and cycling

If approved, the plans will also include a £455,000 contribution from the developers towards local bus services, £91,000 towards upgrades for nearby traffic signals and £50,000 towards cycling improvements.

Taylor Wimpey recently said it hoped to start construction of the homes this spring if approval is granted.

The company’s regional land director Sarah Armstrong said: 

“We’re delighted to have been selected as preferred developer to deliver this site in partnership with Homes England.

“We’ve taken a landscape-led design approach to develop a residential masterplan that will enhance the character and identity of the site.

“The development will include locally-equipped play facilities and attractive biodiverse landscape features, and we are providing significant areas of open space to allow new residents and visitors to enjoy a high-quality living environment with an attractive outlook.”

North Yorkshire fire service ‘struggling to buy the basics’, says union

The government has left North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service in a “horrendous position” struggling to buy basic equipment, according to union bosses.

The Fire Brigade Union said the decision by ministers to scrap its capital grant entirely will have “serious implications” for the service.

Officials at North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner’s office revealed last month that the fire service may have to borrow up to £31 million to help fund projects over the next five years.

But Steve Howley, Fire Brigades Union North Yorkshire brigade secretary, said the bleak financial position meant the fire service was struggling to buy basics.

He said:

“The government has left North Yorkshire fire and rescue service in a horrendous position – it’s abolished the entirety of its capital funding for it. When coupled with the already desperate financial state of the service there will be serious implications. 

“The fire and rescue service is now struggling to buy the basics needed for our firefighters to protect their communities, and struggling to invest in its dilapidated buildings, many of which are unfit for purpose in 2022. For example, we still have several stations which do not have adequate facilities for female members of staff.

“The government needs to start taking fire and rescue seriously and fund it appropriately. The firefighters of North Yorkshire are staring down the barrel of a gun, either cut firefighter jobs to pay for basic provisions or fail to have adequate facilities or equipment. Neither option provides the public of North Yorkshire with the protection they deserve or require.”

On Monday, the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel agreed a 1.98% increase in the fire service precept, which amounts to £75.61 for the year.

Read more:

The service was limited to such an increase because it is not one of the eight lowest charging services in the country.

Zoe Metclafe, the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, told the panel that she would continue to lobby government for further flexibility in the precept.

She said:

“The financial challenges for the service are considerable with pressures around utilities, estates cost and staff pay.

“I do appreciate and understand members concerns around funding and the budget request at the last meeting and I do share these.

“As you are aware, I have lobbied hard for the government on precept flexibility.”

 Meanwhile, Michael Porter, chief finance officer at the commissioner’s office, said:

“I think it is fair to say that the financial needs of the organisation and the service outstrip what we are asking for and proposing today.”

Jonathan Dyson, deputy chief fire officer at North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, sought to reassure the public that despite the financial pressures the public would “continue to receive a high standard of response”.