Safety urged after Knaresborough wall collapses

Residents in Knaresborough have been urged to be careful after a section of a wall near to the town’s High Street collapsed.

The wall on Vicarage Lane next to Knaresborough House collapsed yesterday and has since been reported to the council.

The road is just off the town’s High Street and serves as a route to St John the Baptist Church.

In a post on its social media, Knaresborough Business Collective urged people to take another route.

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Harrogate rugby club dedicates memorial bench to fan who died

Harrogate Rugby Union Club has dedicated a memorial bench to a fan who died last year.

Sean Kelly, who was also a long term sponsor of the club, died at the age of 75 in May 2021.

He supported the club for 20 years after moving to Hampsthwaite.

Now the club has installed a memorial bench at its ground in his memory.

Harrogate RUFC said on its website:

“Sean was involved with Harrogate Rugby Club for over twenty years beginning when he moved to live in Hampsthwaite, and became a neighbour of other Harrogate supporters known as “The Hampsthwaite Mafia”.

“When the planning application to move the rugby ground from Claro Road to Killinghall was rejected Sean joined the club committee to pressure Harrogate council to support the club in its ambition to relocate before Crest Homes served notice for the club to vacate Claro Road.

“Every year since 2003, Sean’s company has generously sponsored and supported the club and this support has continued to the present. Sean attended every annual dinner since 1998 and always booked a couple of tables.”

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Boarded-up building in Harrogate town centre could become pharmacy

Plans have been lodged to convert the former William Hill bookmakers in Harrogate town centre into a pharmacy and retail unit.

The Pharmacy Group has submitted a planning application to Harrogate Borough Council to convert the boarded-up unit on the town’s Beulah Street.

It would see the bookies, which has been closed for some time, converted into a shop and the unit facing Station Parade into a pharmacy.

Office space will also be created in the space above the pharmacy.

Former William Hill on Beulah Street

The view from Station Parade.

The Pharmacy Group is a third generation family-owned business with 30 NHS community pharmacies across Yorkshire. They include Harrogate Pharmacy on Haywra Crescent.

The developer said in documents submitted to the council that the proposal would bring “positive benefits” to the area.

It said:

“The change of use from turf accountants to retail and offices and the proposed redevelopment of the site will bring positive benefits to the area by maintaining, enhancing and giving new life to a key property on both Beulah Street and Station Parade.”

Harrogate Borough Council will make a decision on the plan at a later date.

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Harrogate hospital currently ‘very full’, say health officials

Harrogate hospital managers warned yesterday that “high numbers of very sick patients” is causing long waiting times.

They added that people with less urgent issues are experiencing long waits.

The news comes weeks after Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust reported that it had reached maximum bed capacity at the start of February due to covid and winter pressures.

In a post on its social media, the trust urged people to call the NHS on 111 unless they had a life-threatening or severe illness or injury.

It said:

“During this week at Harrogate District Hospital we are experiencing high numbers of very sick patients, and due to this the hospital is very full. As a result, patients with less urgent issues may experience longer waiting times than usual.

“This isn’t ideal and we will endeavour to keep waiting times as short as possible. We know that patients can be in pain, stressed or scared, and our dedicated team with do everything they can to help.

“Your health is our utmost priority and all we ask for in return is our staff are treated respectfully and do not have to face verbal or physical abuse as they try to do their job.

“Unless you have a life-threatening or severe illness or injury, we would ask you to contact NHS 111 first.”

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Plan to convert Harrogate’s Alexa House into family home

Plans have been submitted to convert a Victorian guest house in Harrogate into a family home.

The Alexa House on Ripon Road was sold last year for an undisclosed sum by former owner Sandra Doherty.

Mrs Doherty, who owned the property for 15 years, sold the bed and breakfast after she stepped down as chief executive of Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce to retire to Northumberland.

She had previously had an application to convert the guest house into seven apartments rejected in January 2021 after Harrogate Borough Council said it would not “contribute to local distinctiveness”.

Now a fresh proposal has been tabled to the council to convert the guest house into a family home.

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The application by the Architect Design Studio Ltd on behalf of Laura Harvey includes converting the outbuildings at the property into a garage and workshop area and reducing the size of the car park.

Harrogate Borough Council will make a decision on the proposal at a later date.

Alexa House was built in 1896 by the renowned art collector Baron Conrad Adolphus du Bois de Ferrieres.

It was built as a hunting lodge for its London-based owners to spend time enjoying Harrogate’s spa waters and riding in the nearby countryside.

Traffic and Travel Alert: Lane closures on A1(M) at Baldersby due to HGV fire

Two lanes are closed on the A1(M) in North Yorkshire due to a heavy goods vehicle on fire.

The lane closures are in place northbound between junction 50 at Baldersby and junction 51 at Leeming Bar.

North Yorkshire Police has urged drivers to allow extra time for their journey this morning.

**HIGH** 2 lanes closed #A1M North between #Baldersby J50 & #Leeming J51 due to a HGV fire. Please take care in the area and allow extra time on your commute this morning pic.twitter.com/DaxeS2BV57

— Sgt Paul Cording BEM (@OscarRomeo1268) February 25, 2022

The Stray Ferret has changed the way it offers Traffic and Travel alerts.

We will now notify you instantly through app notifications and flash tweets when there is an urgent alert. This could include heavy traffic, dangerous weather and long delays or cancellations of public transport.

To downloads our app, click here.

The alerts are sponsored by The HACS Group.

Concern over North Yorkshire’s plateauing covid vaccine rate

North Yorkshire’s plateauing vaccination rates have been raised as a concern by health officials as all remaining covid legal restrictions come to an end today.

A meeting of the North Yorkshire Outbreak Management Advisory Board today heard that while vaccine take up has been “pretty good” across the county, more than 41,000 people have yet to receive a first dose.

That represents around 10% of the population – and areas in Harrogate and Scarborough have been highlighted as lagging behind.

Sue Peckitt, chief nurse at the NHS North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group, told today’s meeting:

“We continue to offer vaccines as an evergreen offer and have been running a number of pop-up sites across the locality including in Harrogate, Scarborough and other areas where we have had very little take up.

“We are now putting out a plea that if those people still want their vaccine, we have plenty available.

“We recently ran a pop-up clinic in Eastfield in Scarborough and had two people attend all day. And two weekends ago we ran another for two days in Harrogate and received 24 people for vaccination. We are just not having people come forward now.”

Ms Peckitt said vaccine take up was lowest amongst 18 to 29-year-olds, followed by 30 to 39-year-olds.

Her plea comes as Harrogate’s Great Yorkshire Showground vaccination site prepares to shut in March. The site at Ripon Races closed last weekend.

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Vaccines are now being redirected to pharmacies and GP surgeries where an additional booster dose will be offered to all adults over-75 and the most vulnerable over-12s this spring.

An autumn booster programme, aimed at a wider group of people, is also planned later this year.

Pharmacies and GP surgeries will also be used to vaccinate children aged five to 11 from April.

This extension of the rollout comes after months of deliberation over the benefits and risks before official scientific advice concluded the move would help protect the “very small” number of children who become seriously ill with covid.

No legal requirement to self-isolate

As of today, all remaining legal covid restrictions in England have been removed as part of the prime minister’s Living with Covid plan.

It means people who test positive are no longer legally required to self-isolate, although they are still advised to do so.

The decision has come as a surprise to some health officials who have questioned what the changes will do to the spread of the virus.

North Yorkshire’s weekly infection rate is currently at 412 cases per 100,000 people – its lowest level since mid-December.

Dr Victoria Turner, public health consultant at North Yorkshire County Council, described this as a “much improved” picture at today’s North Yorkshire Outbreak Management Advisory Board meeting.

She also said although many people will have some immunity from vaccines or previous infection, people should still be cautious about the virus now all restrictions have ended.

Dr Turner said: 

“There is a very high proportion of the population that will have a degree of immunity, whether through vaccination, direct exposure to the virus or both.

“What that doesn’t mean though is you are therefore immune from getting the virus again.”

Knaresborough woman who refused to wear face mask unfairly dismissed, tribunal rules

An employment tribunal has ruled that a Knaresborough woman was unfairly treated when she was dismissed from her job for refusing to wear a face mask.

Laura Convery worked at the Volkswagen dealership in Knaresborough from July 2019 until October 2020.

Staff at the dealership were sent an email in May 2020 by British Street Fourth Investments Ltd, which owns the dealership, about a return to work and to follow a covid policy in which they were asked to wear masks and social distance.

The tribunal, which was held in Leeds, heard that Ms Convery had refused to wear a face mask because it gave her “panic attacks” and anxiety.

She said she had tried to wear a face covering in supermarkets when the government made them mandatory, but it caused her “severe distress”.

The company offered her the chance to wear a visor instead, but she declined. This led her line manager, Matt Brodgen, to suspend her.

Ms Convery later told Mr Brogden, in a text message in September 2020:

“I physically cannot wear one [a face covering], I have tried on more than one occasion since July 24 and I just can’t do it.

“It creates severe distress for a number of reasons. The main one being that I have a complete aversion to anything covering my face, which stems back from my teenage years I believe.

“I wasn’t aware that this was even a problem until I have tried to wear a face covering in recent months, but it transpires that it is a huge problem for me.”

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Ms Convery was invited to a disciplinary meeting the following October, but said she did not attend after increased stress and anxiety had led to her to being signed off work by her GP.

The dealership terminated her employment with immediate effect on October 15.

Anxiety impairment

However, the tribunal found that Ms Convery had been unfairly treated in her dismissal because “of something arising in consequence of her disability in contravention of section 15 of the Equality Act 2010”.

A judgement published by the tribunal concluded that she was “unable to wear a face covering because of her anxiety impairment”.

The tribunal also found that the company could not have known about Ms Convery’s disability before her text message in September.

However, it added:

“The respondent, the tribunal concludes, ought reasonably to have made further enquiries whether through its occupational health service provider or directly to the claimants own GP from which it is likely it would have become aware of the claimant’s disabling condition.”

Harrogate’s crime writing festival reveals 2022 special guest line-up

Lynda La Plante, Paula Hawkins and Tess Gerritsen are among the authors set to appear at this year’s Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival.

Hosted by programme chair and award winning novelist, Denise Mina, the event will return to Harrogate’s Old Swan Hotel from July 21 to 24.

The event, organised by Harrogate International Festivals, offers an international audience the opportunity to discover the next big names in crime fiction and hear giants of the genre discuss their work. It includes panels, workshops and talks.

Among those appearing will be Lynda La Plante, creator of Prime Suspect, and Paula Hawkins, author of the global phenomenon Girl on the Train.

Michael Connelly, CL Taylor, Lucy Foley, John Connolly and Kathy Reichs will also appear as special guests.

Channel 4 journalist and broadcaster Steph McGovern, who lives in Harrogate, will also be speaking with actor and author Charlie Higson about his new crime novel Whatever Gets You Through the Night.

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Meanwhile, festival favourite Val McDermid will be returning with her New Blood panel, showcasing four exciting debut crime writers to look out for.

‘Greatest crime-writing event of the year’

Denise Mina, bestselling author of the Garnethill trilogy and the Paddy Meehan novels, said: 

“The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is the greatest crime writing event of the year so it is a very real honour to be chairing it, to work with the programming committee and to have the chance to attend all the thrilling events. 

“After the difficulties and hardships of the past two years we are all very much looking forward to all of the writers and readers coming together in Harrogate once more.”

Sharon Canavar, chief executive of event organisers Harrogate International Festivals, said: 

“We look forward to announcing the full programme in the coming months, and sharing the exciting weekend we have planned for our attendees.”

Weekend break packages for the festival are on sale now.

A full programme for the event will be released in spring.

For more information and to book tickets, call +44(0)1423 562 303 or email info@harrogate-festival.org.uk.

Contract to produce business case for Harrogate’s Station Gateway awarded

Three companies have been awarded a share of a £20 million contract to help progress major transport schemes in Yorkshire, including Harrogate’s Station Gateway.

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority, which works in partnership with local authorities to improve transport and stimulate economic development, advertised a contract to bring in a strategic development partner for its Transforming Cities projects.

The projects include the £10.9 million Station Gateway scheme in Harrogate, which was approved last month, and similar schemes that promote sustainable travel in West Yorkshire, including a new bus station for Halifax town centre.

Leeds-based companies Jacobs UK Limited, Ove Arup & Partners Limited and WSP UK Limited have now been commissioned to help move the schemes forward.

This includes support to help “ensure that all necessary technical work and tasks are completed to enable projects to complete full business cases”.

Business case earmarked for August

Works on detailed designs of the Harrogate project – which includes reducing a stretch of Station Parade to single-lane traffic and a part-time pedestrianisation of James Street – are now continuing ahead of a final business case being submitted around August.

The business case will then be presented to West Yorkshire Combined Authority, which is overseeing the project funding from the government’s Transforming Cities Fund.

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Subject to its approval, a contractor will then be appointed to carry out the works, as well as similar projects in Selby and Skipton.

The Harrogate gateway scheme is one of numerous schemes being funded by a £2.45 billion central government fund to boost active travel in towns and cities.

Work on the scheme was due to begin in spring this year and take a year to complete. But North Yorkshire County Council, the lead partner, has said work can continue longer. Business groups have expressed concern that roadworks could affect Christmas trade.

As previously reported by the Stray Ferret, following final approval, work on the scheme could continue into 2024 after the Department for Transport advised council officials that the deadline could be extended.