Harrogate Town to host first fans forum

Harrogate Town is set to host its first fans forum this month.

Taking place at the Cedar Court Hotel, fans will be invited to hear updates from club officials and manager Simon Weaver as well as ask questions.

Doors will open at 6.30pm and the forum will start at 7pm. The forum will be held on Wednesday, September 29.

A spokesperson for Harrogate Town said:

“The forum will provide attendees the chance to hear all the upcoming news from club representatives, the Community Foundation, the Independent Supporters Club, the Supporters Trust, and first team manager Simon Weaver, who will be discussing a wide range of topics and will be available to answer any questions you may have.”

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Town currently sit second in League Two with 14 points from six matches and have a game in hand.

Fans wishing to attend the forum must email Phill Holdsworth, supporter liaison officer, on phillholdsworth@harrogatetownafc.com to reserve a seat and submit questions.

Festival of wellbeing to be held in Harrogate

A free wellness event is to be held in Harrogate tomorrow in an effort to improve peoples’ health.

Onewellness, a fitness club which is based in the town, will host a “festival of wellbeing” at its facilities in Mowbray Square.

The event includes classes in various fitness disciplines, such as Pilates, HIIT, Yoga, and Barre, to guided meditation and mindfulness sessions.

There will also be prenatal and postnatal fitness classes, offers designed for people over the age of 50, group running, family gym sessions and a nutrition workshop.

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Stalls will also be set up at the event with healthy food and snacks, juices and drinks, as well as a sportswear pop-up shop.

Alasdair Everest-Ford, Head of OneWellness in Harrogate, said:

“We have created The Festival of Wellbeing as an opportunity to bring our community together, and so people can make the most of and enjoy their health.”

For more information on the festival, visit the Onewellness website here.

Knaresborough trekking centre fined after 11-year-old bitten by horse

A  Knaresborough trekking centre has been fined after an 11-year-old girl was bitten on the arm by a horse.

Owners of the Little Pastures Trekking Centre pleaded guilty to a health and safety offence at Harrogate Magistrates Court on Friday, September 10.

The prosecution was brought by Harrogate Borough Council after the 11-year-old suffered a serious bite to the arm from a horse as she walked past a stable door.

During the investigation by the borough council, the owners of the trekking centre accepted that the horse was ‘grumpy’ and it was revealed that the horse “gets territorial around her stable and snaps when people are too close”.

The young girl required reconstructive surgery as a result of the bite.

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After viewing CCTV footage of the bite, the court found that while the defendant had made some attempts to rope off the horse, the precautions were not sufficient to prevent the bite.

Following a guilty plea from both Mrs Jocelyn Fletcher-Bryan and Mr Roy Bryan – owners of Little Pastures Trekking Centre – the judge sentenced them both to a £3,000 fine, £170 victim surcharge and costs of £2,500 to the borough council. In total, they have been fined £11,340.

Cllr Mike Chambers, the council’s cabinet member for housing and safer communities, said: 

“Customers of Little Pastures Trekking Centre should be safe in the knowledge that by visiting the trekking centre they will not be subject to injury or trauma.

“This incident, that has physically harmed an 11-year-old, should never have happened and it is only right that we investigate thoroughly and take appropriate action to ensure it never happens again.

“The result should come as a reminder for all businesses that engage with the public that health and safety is paramount.”

Another 82 covid cases in Harrogate district as rate falls

The Harrogate district has reported 82 covid cases, according to today’s Pubic Health England figures.

The district’s weekly infection rate now stands at 322 per 100,000 people, while the North Yorkshire rate is 289 and the England average stands at 273.

No covid deaths have been reported at Harrogate District Hospital, according to NHS England statistics.

It means the death toll at the hospital since March 2020 currently stands at 186.

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Meanwhile, the hospital is currently treating eight patients for covid according to the latest government figures.

Elsewhere, 127,505 people have received a first covid vaccine in the Harrogate district and 119,115 have had a second dose.

Beech Grove closure to remain in place, despite petition objecting

Harrogate’s low traffic neighbourhood on Beech Grove will remain in place, despite a 770-signature petition calling for it to be removed being lodged.

Councillors on North Yorkshire County Council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Committee heard the petition today, which was set up by Harrogate Residents’ Association.

It called for the planters, which the county council put in place to encourage walking and cycling, to be removed from both Beech Grove and Lancaster Road junction.

However, councillors voted to keep the scheme in place on the grounds that the council had committed to improving cycling and walking infrastructure in Harrogate town centre.

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Cllr Don Mackenzie, executive county councillor for access, said that the measure was a small part of a wider scheme.

He said:

“The Beech Grove LTN is a very modest step to what this area constituency committee asked officers to do. 

“Namely, to introduce a better system of walking and cycling in Harrogate town centre and also to encourage people out of their cars onto their feet and public transport.”

He added that the scheme was “under constant review” and had a maximum term to be in place until August 2022.

‘Lack of consultation’

Anna McIntee and Lucy Gardner, of Harrogate Residents Association, told the committee that the county council had “failed to consult the community” on the scheme.

They added that the council was “reactive and not proactive” when engaging with people.

Mrs McIntee said:

“The priority [for consultation] should have been the residents on Lancaster Road and Beech Grove and the many residents who do not really use social media.”

But, Kevin Douglas, chair of Harrogate District Cycle Action, said that the scheme had “transformed the experience of cycling” in the town and had a benefit for pedestrians, such as dog walkers.

He added that the scheme would become part of a wider cycle network and help connect Otley Road to Victoria Avenue.

Councillors on the committee voted to note the petition, but continue with the experimental scheme until its conclusion next year.

Harrogate district MP promoted to cabinet

Nigel Adams MP has been promoted as part of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle.

Mr Adams, whose Selby and Ainsty constituency includes parts of rural Harrogate, has been appointed minister without portfolio in the Cabinet Office.

He moves from his previous position as minister of state for Asia at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The new role means he will support coordinating government policy, but will not have responsibility for a specific department.

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Mr Adams will, however, sit on the cabinet and have a vote at meetings, which means he is one of the country’s key decision makers.

The Prime Minister said he wanted a “strong and united team to build back better from the pandemic” after his reshuffle.

The appointment comes days after Mr Adams was criticised for telling anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray to “f**k off” outside the House of Commons.

He defended his outburst, which he claimed “no doubt reflected” the feelings of other MPs.

500-year-old misericord restored at Ripon Cathedral

A 500-year-old misericord in Ripon Cathedral depicting a fox has been restored.

The choir of the cathedral has a set of 32 misericords created by master carver William Bromflet in the 1490s.

The misericords, which are small seats, gave clergy the opportunity to rest from standing during worship.

The fox is thought to have lost its nose and arms at some point during the last 100 years.

The restoration by Henning Shulz is the final part of a wider conservation project of the medieval choir stalls.

A post on the cathedral’s social media said:

“We are delighted to see the return of this freshly restored misericord (mercy seat for perching on during long services), which depicts a fox preaching from the pulpit to an assembled congregation of birds – his prey.

“This was a common motif in the middle ages, warning against travelling preachers who would lead their flock astray for their own gains.

“At some point this fox lost his arms and then, sometime in the last century, his nose. We know this from a 100 year old photograph which shows the fox ‘armless’ but with his nose.

“These seats are 500 years old and in daily use – remarkable survivals from our medieval past.”

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Harrogate council awards £275,000 contract to KPMG

A £275,000 contract to come up with a business case for the refurbishment of Harrogate Convention Centre has been handed to consultants KPMG.

Harrogate Borough Council awarded the contract to the London consultants ahead of making a final decision on whether to spend £47 million redeveloping the convention centre.

As part of the deal, KPMG will also assess the economic impact of covid on the events industry.

Trevor Watson, the council’s director of economy, environment and housing, approved the contract following a competitive tender process in which the council only received a single bid for the work.

A council spokesperson said previously the award of the contract would mark “a significant step forward in our major investment”. They added:

“Harrogate Convention Centre makes such a significant contribution to the district’s economy by bringing visitors and investment.

“And this investment will deliver a major component of the Harrogate town centre masterplan and will be key to the district’s covid-19 economic recovery plan.”

It comes as a major shake-up of local government in North Yorkshire looms, which will see the Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council scrapped and replaced with a new super council.

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Control of the convention centre will be handed over to the new super council, which the government aims to have in place by 2023.

However, Harrogate Borough Council officials have said they remain “committed” to completing projects and that the convention centre redevelopment and plans to scrap the two-tier council system were “two entirely separate things”.

£288,000 contract for Brimham’s Active

Meanwhile, a separate contract to overhaul the booking management system in Harrogate district leisure centres has been awarded to an Oxfordshire company.

The £288,000 contract has been handed to Gladstone MRM Ltd, which has offices in Wallingford.

The council has commissioned Gladstone to upgrade its current booking system, which it said is 20 years out of date.

According to the government’s procurement portal, the contract will run until July 2025.

Brimham’s Active, which was set up by the council in August, now runs leisure facilities such as Harrogate Hydro, Starbeck Baths, Knaresborough Pool and Ripon Leisure Centre.

Fall in number of Harrogate hospital covid patients

The Harrogate district has reported another 73 covid cases today, but the number of patients in hospital has fallen.

The district’s seven-day covid rate stands at 361 per 100,000 people, while the North Yorkshire average is 308 and the England rate is 287.

No further covid deaths have been reported at Harrogate District Hospital, according to latest NHS England figures.

It was revealed today that the number of covid patients at Harrogate hospital has fallen slightly.

As of yesterday, there were eight patients at the hospital – down from 11 at the same time last week. The fall has been mirrored across North Yorkshire where patient numbers have fallen by 10 to 122.

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The number of patients in intensive care, however, has gone up by six to 26.

The latest figures were provided by Amanda Bloor, accountable officer for the North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group, who in an update to a meeting of North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum today also said covid and flu vaccines would be key to minimising pressure on the NHS this winter.

She said: 

“Winter is always the NHS’s busiest time of year and we expect that to be the same this year.

“In addition, there are still covid patients in our hospitals, we are working together to address the waiting lists which have arisen due to the pandemic and we also still have full covid measures in place.

“The flu vaccination programme is one of the ways we can help protect hospital capacity this winter by helping people stay healthy and well and out of hospital.

“We would like to see as many people as possible get the flu vaccination this winter and will share information through the months ahead to support people with this.”

350 Harrogate hospital staff not fully vaccinated against covid

About 350 frontline staff at Harrogate hospital have not been fully vaccinated against covid, it has been revealed, as a consultation on whether to make the jabs mandatory gets underway.

That figure represents just under 10% of the 3,598 frontline staff at the hospital and was revealed by Dr Jacqueline Andrews, executive medical director at the Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust.

She said the trust was urging all remaining staff to get doubled jabbed and that managers were speaking with those workers about their concerns.

Dr Andrews said: 

“It is vitally important that we all continue to do everything we can to minimise the risk of covid-19 transmission in hospital and in the community.

“We have encouraged and supported all our staff to be fully vaccinated against covid to keep themselves, their families, fellow colleagues and patients safe and improve our organisational resilience over what is likely to be a challenging winter.”

Government plans are already in place to make it a legal requirement for all care home workers to be fully vaccinated, while implementing the same rules for frontline NHS staff is currently being considered in a consultation.

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Across North Yorkshire, around 430 care home workers are not fully vaccinated and health officials have insisted they are making progress on reducing this number.

The date from which it will become a legal requirement for all care home staff in England to be double jabbed, unless medically exempt, is November 11.

Concern over mandatory vaccines

The move has sparked concerns that making the jabs mandatory could lead to thousands of job losses, which would only worsen the current staffing shortages in both sectors.

And there are now new warnings that employers could face legal action if they sack staff because they have not been fully vaccinated.

Ben Kirkham, regional organiser for the GMB union, said mandatory vaccines could open the door to claims of unfair dismissal if employers sacked staff without offering them redeployment into roles where vaccines were not required.

He said: 

“GMB is opposed to a mandatory requirement for NHS staff – or any other employees – to be vaccinated.

“If the government takes this course and an employer thinks that this gives them the green light to dismiss our members then they need to think again.

“Dismissing any employee because they have not been vaccinated still gives rise to the potential for a claim for unfair dismissal. That employer would still be obliged to look for alternative work for the employee to undertake.

“At one stage we were clapping on a Thursday to show our thanks for the work the NHS and social care staff did during the pandemic, now the government hopes we will get behind insisting they be vaccinated so they can continue to be employed – that simply cannot be right.”

‘We must protect patients’

The consultation on mandatory vaccines for NHS staff is seeking views on the proposals and any impact on staffing and safety such as reducing staff sickness absence.

Staff, healthcare providers, patients and their families are all being urged to have their say, with a final decision expected this winter.

Launching the consultation last week, health secretary Sajid Javid said: 

“Many patients being treated in hospitals and other clinical settings are most at risk of suffering serious consequences of covid-19, and we must do what we can to protect them.

“We will consider the responses to the consultation carefully but, whatever happens, I urge the small minority of NHS staff who have not yet been jabbed to consider getting vaccinated – for their own health as well as those around them.”