Calvin Robinson Chief Reporter, Author at The Stray Ferret

MPs Watch: New MP, River Nidd and Mayoral election

Every month the Stray Ferret tries to find out what our local MPs have been up to in their constituencies and in the House of Commons.

In July, Labour’s Keir Mather became the new MP for Selby and Ainsty after overturning a 20,000 majority to unseat the Conservatives.

Meanwhile, the debate over the River Nidd bathing water status campaign continued and the Tories selected current North Yorkshire councillor, Keane Duncan, as their candidate for mayor of York and North Yorkshire.

We asked Ripon MP Julian Smith if he would like to highlight anything in particular, but did not receive a response.

Here is what we know after analysing their online presence.

Andrew Jones, Harrogate and Knaresborough MP.

In Harrogate and Knaresborough, here is what we found on Mr Jones:

On July 5, Mr Jones welcomed the decision by rail companies not to close Harrogate station ticket office as part of plans to close hundreds of kiosks across the country.
He also called for an apology from Lib Dem candidate Tom Gordon after he wrongly claimed the ticket office was due to close.
Mr Jones called for a debate in parliament on July 13 over electric vehicle charging infrastructure. He said progress across the country had been “quite mixed”.
On July 13, Mr Jones posted on his community news website that he hosted pupils from Harrogate Ladies College and St Aidan’s Church of England High School in parliament.
Mr Jones welcomed the confirmation of Keane Duncan as Conservative candidate for Mayor of York and North Yorkshire on July 17.
On July 25, Mr Jones defended his involvement in a campaign to designate the River Nidd at Knaresborough bathing water status after Liberal Democrat councillor Matt Walker accused him of using it as a “political tool”.
Mr Jones also welcomed North Yorkshire Council’s backing for the campaign.
On July 25, Mr Jones posted a video of him taking part in a “Take The Bus” campaign, which encourages more disabled and older people to use free bus travel.

When we contacted Mr Jones for comment, his office sent a list of his engagements for July.

They included holding constituency surgeries, hosting a reception in Parliament on behalf the Rail Delivery Group to increase awareness of sexual harassment on the rail network and visiting Springwater School to meet with the headteacher and chair of governors.

Others included visiting GirlGuiding West’s new headquarters development on Cornwall Road and hosting a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Transport across the North to discuss the new strategic transport plan.

Julian Smith, MP for Ripon and Skipton.

In Ripon, here is what we found on Mr Smith:

Mr Smith made no spoken contributions in the House of Commons in July.
On July 21, Mr Smith met with the Ripon Military Heritage Trust to discuss the trust’s plans to preserve military heritage in the city.
On July 22, Mr Smith tweeted his congratulations to Labour’s Keir Mather after his victory in the Selby and Ainsty by-election.
Mr Smith posted 15 tweets on his Twitter account in July, which included promoting government grants and national funding announcements.

Business Breakfast: Harrogate business groups to host summer social

Two Harrogate business groups are to host a summer social to help firms strengthen collaboration together.

Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce and Harrogate Business Improvement District are set to host the event at the Harrogate Inn on August 14.

The meeting will be held from 5.30pm until 8pm and include a networking session and drinks.

The event is open to members of the chamber and BID levy payers only.

For more information and to reserve a place, visit the Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce website here.

Harrogate care company among top recommended providers

A Harrogate care company has been recognised as one of the top 20 in the UK at an industry awards.

Carefound Home Care, which has a branch in Harrogate, won the award at the homecare.co.uk awards.

recognised as a Top 20 home care group in the UK.

The company was among the top 20 most recommended care providers based on reviews at the website.

Reviews were also submitted by friends and relatives of people receiving home care in the UK, with the rankings intended to help people find home care that is right for their needs, location and budget.

Oliver Stirk, managing director of Carefound Home Care, said:

“Homecare.co.uk is the UK’s leading home care reviews site and plays an important role in giving families transparency when seeking support for loved ones.”

“We are enormously proud to have won this award for the second year running at Carefound Home Care.”

In Pictures: Harrogate Carnival fills streets with dance, music and colour

Thousands flocked to Harrogate town centre this morning for the Harrogate Carnival.

Starting at the war memorial and making its way down to Valley Gardens, a parade of dance, music and colour turned the town into a cultural hub.

Launched in 2019, the carnival is commissioned by Visit Harrogate – a tourism organisation run by North Yorkshire Council and produced by Harrogate International Festivals.

Cuisines from around the world, from Greek gyros to Japanese rice dishes to Turkish kebabs and churros were also available for foodies in the Valley Gardens.

Here is a selection of pictures from this morning’s parade.

Harrogate Parkrun founder’s trek through ‘the toughest footrace on earth’

Harrogate man Adam Prentis loves a project.

Whether it be helping to set up Harrogate’s Parkrun on the Stray or trekking through the Sahara Desert in a feat of endurance, he has a taste for the more difficult tasks.

A keen runner, Adam took up the sport quite late in life when he was 46 years old.

From there, he’s chaired his local running club, set up a community park run and even been selected for Britain in the triathlon and duathlon events.

“I like doing things that are difficult,” he says.

But what motivates him to take on such projects and how did he arrive at the idea of setting up Parkrun?

Starting out

While some athletes are born to run and take on feats of endurance such as marathons, Adam’s story is slightly different.

Born in Bramhope before moving to Harrogate in the year 2000, Adam was, by his own admission, not “particularly fit” before he took up running.

“I was a typical businessman of the 80s and 90s who did a lot of corporate lunching and all of the business type stuff. I wasn’t particularly fit.”

In 2009, Adam’s friend had the New York Marathon down on his bucket list.

He set about training for the marathon. The schedule was tough and left him with injuries.

“In my particular case through my life choices and lifestyle, I’d been sitting in a chair a lot for most of my working career or sitting in a car.

“It took about two years for everything to settle down.”

Despite the hurdles starting out, Adam came up with a schedule for the New York Marathon and completed in November 2009 – an achievement which he describes as “life affirming”.

Adam competing for Great Britain.

But, for Adam, the marathons did not stop there. He is constantly on the lookout for new challenges.

“They are projects. I think if they were easy, then everyone would do them.

“But, if they are hard then they take an awful lot of project planning, training and effort. They give you structure and I happen to like structure in my life.

“For a good training programme, you know what you’re doing every day and every week for a long period of time and then you execute at the end of it. That execution might go well or it might go badly.”

Adam has since gone on to run the five marathon majors in Berlin, Boston, London, Chicago and New York – which he went back to run again three times.

‘The toughest footrace on earth’

Perhaps one of Adam’s most remarkable projects was the Marathon des Sables in 2013.

The feat of endurance tasks participants with six marathons in six days through the unforgiving climate and terrain of the Sahara Desert.

“You have to be absolutely off your rocker to sign up for it, really.”

Adam first came across the event when he was looking for his next project in 2012.

He read a news article about the Marathon des Sables, which describes itself as the “toughest footrace on earth”, and that was enough to make him sign up.

The race is self supporting, meaning those taking part have to carry their own food, clothes and medical supplies for the week.

Adam flew in through Morocco for the event and took it on for his 50th birthday.

“It’s an incredibly arduous event over six days in extreme temperatures. Your body falls apart slowly over those six days if you get it wrong.

“For anyone who has done it, it remains a marker in their life.”

The experience drove him to other projects, such as climbing Mount Everest in 2019.

Adam and his mountaineer friend, Chris Brown, climbed the mountain to base camp before running a marathon back down to the finish line at Namche Bazar in Nepal.

“It’s like running around a quarry, there’s a lot of broken debris under your feet.

“It’s incredibly arduous as an event. Just getting to the start line is arduous, a lot of people don’t get to the start line because they get altitude sickness.”

Adam pictured running the Everest marathon from base camp.

The terrain, temperature and environment around the Everest marathon is too much for some to handle.

Climbing the mountain to base camp took the pair two weeks to complete.

Meanwhile, the overnight temperatures dropped to -18 degrees and the diet on Everest saw Adam suffer some muscle wastage.

“For most people, once they get to base camp and they are there and they haven’t suffered altitude sickness too badly, they want to get down as quickly as possible.”

In between his projects, Adam has competed for Great Britain at triathlon and duathlon in his age category.

In 2018, he finished second in the World Championships in duathlon at the age of 55.

But, one of Adam’s proudest projects lies closer to home and can be seen in practice every Saturday morning.

Founding Harrogate Parkrun

In 2011, Adam secured a trial in Harrogate for a Parkrun.

The idea came to him when he was stood watching his son play football one Saturday morning on the Stray.

He had not long been running, but saw an opportunity to create something that people of all ages and abilities could take part in.

“I thought that Harrogate could have a Parkrun, why have we not got a Parkrun? So I set about investigating it.”

A Parkrun in Harrogate from 2015.

Adam approached Harrogate Borough Council about using the land near Empress roundabout, which was only used for football and dog walking at the time.

The council offered him a trial licence for the event.

“They came round and watched it and thought it was wonderful. They gave us a licence to start and it’s about 12 and a half years old now.

“It’s phenomenal, it’s been a really great success.”

Parkrun takes place every Saturday morning and sees men and women from beginners to aspiring athletes take part.

The success of Harrogate also saw Adam set up the Fountains Abby parkrun near Ripon.

Both now see on average 400 people take part each week.

For Adam, part of the reason for setting up the initiative in the first place was to offer something for everyone to take part in.

‘Harrogate needs a running track’

Recently, Adam has been looking for his next project.

This year, he stood down as chairman of the Harrogate Harriers running club after four years in post.

While there, he helped oversee the club through covid and the development of the junior and senior runners.

Now, he has his eye on a legacy project for the town – a running track.

“If you know anything about sport in Harrogate, it is lacking a running track.

“It is one of the only major towns in the country that doesn’t have a running facility that is accessible.”

The town has two running tracks at the Army Foundation College and RAF Menwith Hill, but both are inaccessible to the general public.

For Adam, the lack of a facility is letting down potential athletes in the town who are forced to drive some 23 miles to York to train.

“I have a bee in my bonnet about it.

“Not because of my interest in running, particularly. But because we have an awful lot of football pitches and yet there aren’t a lot of Premier League stars coming out of Harrogate. We have cricket pitches everywhere, but there aren’t that many people who bat for England who come out of Harrogate.

“We have some really high national standard athletes in Harrogate and we do not have a facility that would be good for them to train on.”

Adam points out that a running track is not just about running, but also field athletics such as javelin, high jump and shot put.

He has tried for four years to make the project happen and get schools, landowners and the council on board to push it forward – but to no avail, so far.

But, despite the setbacks, it is still his ambition to try and get people interested in the idea and to create a facility for future generations.

“If I’ve got any ambitions at all, it’s that we build a legacy in town for athletics and sport.”

If you have any local sporting heroes who you think should be featured in Sporting Spotlight, contact calvin@thestrayferret.co.uk.

Developer appeals Harrogate office block conversion refusal

A developer has appealed a council decision to refuse a plan to convert Simpson House in Harrogate into flats.

Bramhope Property and Investments Limited tabled the proposal to North Yorkshire Council to convert the the former office block off Clarence Drive into 12 two-bedroom flats.

It would have seen the ground, first and second floors converted.

However, the authority rejected the plan in May this year on the grounds that the flats would not have enough natural light.

In a decision notice, the council said that existing trees and hedges at the site which would lead to “large amounts of shade” to the flats during the day.

Now the developer has taken the decision to the government’s Planning Inspectorate, which deals with planning disputes.

In documents submitted to the inspector, the developer argued that the council’s reason for refusal was “not based on any detailed technical evidence”.

It said:

“The local planning authority considers that the proposal would fail to provide adequate daylight within all apartments.

“However, the appellant has provided a detailed assessment following national guidance.

“This demonstrates that appropriate levels of daylight can be provided and as such the proposal is acceptable.”

A government planning inspector will make a decision on the appeal at a later date.

The move comes after two previous proposals to change the use of the office block to residential were refused in 2022.

Meanwhile, another application by Artium Group was withdrawn in July 2022 amid concern from the former Harrogate Borough Council officers over the impact on neighbouring trees.

Business Breakfast: Harrogate firm manufactures 10 millionth energy display device

A Harrogate company has manufactured its 10 millionth in-home display for smart meters.

Chameleon Technology, which is based on Otley Road, has supplied the devices to energy companies since 2012.

The devices connect to a home’s smart meter in order to show how much energy is being used.

The company delivered the 10 millionth in-home display this summer. It has manufactured on average 1.6 million devices a year.

An example of an in-home display manufactured by Chameleon Technology.

Mike Woodhall, co-founder and chief executive of Chameleon Technology, said:

“Manufacturing and delivering 10 million IHDs to UK households is a milestone to be proud of.

“Access to real-time energy data is a crucial step to enable low carbon solutions to have maximum impact and provide tangible benefits to all UK households.

“Continued uptake of smart meters, alongside the real-time data provided by IHDs, will help build a flexible, decarbonised and digitalised energy system that will benefit both the environment and consumers through lower energy bills.”

Housing developer acquires new site in Leeds

A Harrogate housing developer has acquired a 223-home site in Leeds.

Casa By Moda, which is based at Beckwith Knowle, will take on the site which is called Abbey Court and is based between Kirkstall and Headingley.

The company acquired the site from Artisan Real Estate and it is set to include 223 family homes.

The site in Leeds which has been acquired by Casa By Moda.

The houses will range from one, two and three-bedroom homes.

Matt Townson, director of development and projects at Casa by Moda, said:

“We’re entering an exciting phase with the delivery of our first neighbourhoods, and as a business headquartered in Yorkshire, Casa, Abbey Court is special for us, as it marks our first neighbourhood that will open in our home region.

“With demand for rental accommodation remaining high, our approach as a long-term owner and operator is to create not only high-quality, sustainable homes, but new communities that go beyond bricks and mortar by actively supporting the wellbeing of our residents.”

James Bulmer, regional director for Leeds-based Artisan Real Estate North, said:

“The collaboration with Casa by Moda provides a significant opportunity to deliver much needed new homes for rent in one of Leeds’ most desirable suburbs for young professionals and families alike, offering fantastic connectivity to the city centre.”

Harrogate hospital cancelled 117 appointments due to consultants strike

Harrogate District Hospital was forced to cancel 117 appointments as a result of last week’s consultants strike.

Members of the British Medical Association walked out for 48 hours on July 20 in a dispute over pay.

Consultants carried out what was described as Christmas Day cover, which meant most routine and elective services were cancelled but full emergency cover remained in place.

At the time, Dr Vishal Sharma, chair of the BMA consultants committee, said consultants had been left with “no option” but to strike after years of pay cuts.

Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust confirmed 117 outpatient appointments were cancelled across a range of hospital services due to the walkout last week.

Among the areas affected included breast surgery, trauma, orthopaedics and general surgery. Neurology and gynaecology also saw cancellations.

A spokesperson for the trust said:

“Appointments were re-arranged as a matter of priority with many being re-arranged at the time of cancellation.”

The hospital is set to be hit by further strike action next month.

Yesterday, junior doctors voted to walk out for four days in August amid an ongoing dispute with government over pay.

Members of the BMA will stage the industrial action from 7am on Friday, August 11, until 7am on Tuesday, August 15.

The organisation is calling for a 35% pay rise in order to restore pay to 2008 levels after below inflation increases.

Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairs of the BMA junior doctors committee, said:

“It should never have got to the point where we needed to announce a fifth round of strike action.

“Our message today remains the same: act like a responsible government, come to the table to negotiate with us in good faith, and with a credible offer these strikes need not go ahead at all.”

Harrogate Hydro delay will see no change in £13.5m project budget, says council

A delay in opening Harrogate Hydro due to “unplanned work” will see no change in its budget, council officials have said.

The Hydro is undergoing a £13.5 million refurbishment and will welcome customers back under the new name Harrogate Leisure and Wellness Centre.

However, North Yorkshire Council confirmed last week that the centre will not re-open until after the school summer holidays. It had been planned to open in August.

In a statement, Nic Harne, corporate director for community development at the council, said the Hydro’s reopening would be delayed until September due to “unplanned works being required”.

He added:

“Refurbishment projects often uncover historic issues that need to be resolved and this complex construction is no different.”

The Stray Ferret asked the council what the unplanned works are and whether this would cost the council any more than its budgeted £13.5 million for the project.

A spokesperson for the authority said:

“There is no one thing, it is a culmination of works discovered during the complex refit.”

They added that there would be no change to the budget for the scheme.

The leisure centre in Jennyfields closed in April last year for what was supposed to be a nine-month refurbishment costing £11.9 million.

But January’s scheduled re-opening did not happen. In May, North Yorkshire Council said the cost of the scheme had risen to £13.5 million and customers would be welcomed back in August.

However, Mr Harne said previously the Knaresborough scheme was still due to re-open later this year.

Mr Harne said:

“The new Knaresborough Leisure and Wellness Centre remains on-track to open in November.”

No trains in Harrogate and Knaresborough on Saturday amid further strikes

Train passengers in the Harrogate district are set to face further disruption this weekend amid strike action.

Members of the RMT Union are set to strike on Saturday, July 29, over a pay dispute.

Northern, which operates trains between York and Leeds through Harrogate, has announced that the industrial action will affect services.

It means no trains will run through Harrogate or Knaresborough stations on Saturday.

The company has also urged passengers to check before they travel on Sunday (July 30) as “some services may be affected”.

The move comes as the district was hit by two days of strike action last week, when RMT members walked out on July 20 and July 22.

At the time, Tricia Williams, chief operating officer at Northern, said:

“Yet again, thousands of our customers will be inconvenienced as a result of this action by the RMT union.

“We all want to see an end to this dispute and the uncertainty that on-going strike action causes to people’s confidence in the railway.”

Defending the move, Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT, said:

“This latest phase of action will show the country just how important railway staff are to the running of the rail industry.

“My team of negotiators and I are available 24/7 for talks with the train operating companies and government ministers.

“Yet quite incredibly neither party has made any attempt whatsoever to arrange any meetings or put forward a decent offer that can help us reach a negotiated solution.”

Police launch investigation after PCSO assaulted in Knaresborough

Police have launched an investigation after a police community support officer was assaulted in Knaresborough.

The incident happened around 3pm on Tuesday (July 25) in Knaresborough Market Place.

Officers from North Yorkshire Police said they have arrested a young man in connection with the assault.

He has since been released on bail while enquiries are conducted.

A police statement added:

“Officers are appealing for witnesses or footage which could help with this investigation.

“Anyone with information that could assist the investigation should email holly.nicholls@northyorkshire.police.uk.

“You can also call North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2, and ask for PC Holly Nicholls.

If you wish to remain anonymous, you can pass information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

“Please quote the North Yorkshire Police reference number 12230138428.”

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Starting out

‘The toughest footrace on earth’

Founding Harrogate Parkrun

‘Harrogate needs a running track’

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