From a little-noticed gym on Skipton Road in Harrogate, Nathaniel Kalogiannidis is preparing for the fight of his life.

He’s one on the UK’s best practitioners of Thai boxing – or muay thai – and he’s just three bouts away from winning a six-figure contract with ONE Championship, the world’s biggest fight promotion organisation. If you’re a little hazy on the muay thai hierarchy, think Premier League. 

When I meet him at the Kao Loi Gym, he’s relaxed after a week in Morocco, where he and his girlfriend went for a quick holiday following his last fight. Yet nine days after the bout in Manchester, his nose is still bruised and his knuckles still hurt, but he’s in good spirits, relentlessly cheerful and hitting the pads on full power. 

He lost that fight, but the winner – the UK’s number one at 79kg – broke his hand on Nathaniel’s forehead, so he’s out of contention and the Harrogate man has a second chance. He’s not going to let it pass. 

He said: 

“I’ll be grabbing this opportunity with both hands. If it works out the way that I’m hoping, I should be going to Canada.” 

Nathaniel Kalogiannidis punches opponent Dan Bonner during their recent bout in Manchester. Photo: Lamine Mersch.

His last fight was part of a four-man tournament where the winners were supposed to fight each other. They didn’t – “neither made it out” says Nathaniel – so that contest will happen next month at the O2 in London. The winner of that will head to Alberta, Canada in November. From there, the victor will be on a flight to Thailand. 

If he ever feels daunted by how far there is yet to go to achieve his dreams – which appears unlikely, given his easy confidence – he should perhaps reflect on how far he’s come. 

Born in Harrogate District Hospital, he spent his childhood in his father’s home country of Greece, where his dad introduced his “little hyperactive kid” to taekwondo. He won his first fight at the age of six and has been hooked ever since. 

Nathaniel at the Kao Loi gym on Skipton Road in Harroagte.

He returned to Yorkshire and attended King James’s School in Knaresborough, always keeping up with the martial arts. Did he fight at school? He laughs: 

“I tried to stay out of trouble! I’m sure there are some teachers who can remember a few instances. 

“My first coach, who I had in Greece, was always encouraging us not to get into confrontations outside of the gym, so it’s something I’ve tried to stay away from. But as a teenage boy, I feel like that’s sometimes a little inevitable.” 

Does he regard himself as a Harrogate fighter, or a Knaresborough fighter? Yorkshire, English, or Greek? He said: 

“Harrogate, Yorkshire – I don’t want to sound too territorial, to be honest! I want to represent my team and the people who believe in me. That’s who I represent.” 

Photo: Lamine Mersch.

He’s now a professional fighter and at the age of 25, he jokes that he’s “still got about 10 more years of punch-ups” in him. His record is 10 wins and five losses, but he says those don’t bother him. He ranks eighth in the UK at middleweight and his trajectory is ever upward. 

He said: 

“I pride myself on not cherry-picking opponents. I’ve never said no to any man who’s been offered to me in a fight. My first professional fight was against the UK number five ranked K1 fighter. All of my opponents have gone on to fight at international level or world level, so the guys that I’m getting beaten by – and it’s not by a lot – are very respectable opponents. 

“I’ve never said no to anybody, because I’m not interested in polishing my record. I’m interested in being the guy who will just get in there, fight anybody and always make it an entertaining fight. Wins and losses don’t really matter to me too much.” 

That may be so, but it doesn’t mean he’s not deadly serious about getting to Canada and then Thailand. He knows who he’s up against and he’s training hard, with between 10 and 12 sessions a week – two a day, six days a week, each an hour-and-a-half or two-and-a-half hours long. He said: 

“We prefer quality over quantity. I don’t really need really long hours to be training – it’s just how good I can be for five three-minute rounds. That’s all that matters in a fight.” 

Those 15 minutes are intense. The lead-up to a fight typically takes months, so there’s a lot of time to think about it. Nathaniel said: 

“It’s really interesting, because the emotions up to the fight are never consistent. For a lot of fights I’ve been really nervous, about a month out. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions – it’s so inconsistent. Up, down, up, down. And then you get to walk into the ring, and there’s still a little bit of that anxiety and right before I walk out, my music comes on and everything leaves. It just goes and I’m just full of confidence. And I’m completely zoned into I have to do.

“It’s quite a beautiful thing for me because my brain’s quite full-on and I’ve got a lot of internal chatter, but to know that for however long the fight is, all I have to think about is me and the person stood in front of me. I don’t have to think about anything else. It sounds mental, but for me that’s a really, really peaceful place.”

It may feel peaceful, but that’s not how it looks. Muay thai is known as the ‘Art of Eight Limbs’ because it allows the use of eight “weapons” – the hands, the elbows, the knees, and the legs/feet – and the damage they can do can be spectacular. When Nathaniel’s last opponent broke his hand on his skull, the two of them were covered in his blood, and he needed seven staples in his forehead. 

Nathaniel lost his last fight, but the winner broke his hand and will be unable to progress. Photo: Lamine Mersch.

Little wonder that fighters study each other intently to avoid the traps. In training, their sparring partners aim to imitate the fighting style of their next opponent, so that all the correct responses can be filed away and incorporated into the game plan. The last thing a fighter wants is to have to think too hard when in the ring. Nathaniel said: 

“You put it all into your autopilot so you don’t have to think. I’ve had times where I have been really thinking and you fall behind. You don’t have any momentum – it’s gone. Gone. It’s like a meditation – you can’t afford to be stuck on any single thought.” 

He says the worst feeling is finishing a fight and thinking he could have done more. It only happened once and he’s never let it happen again. He said: 

“I know for a fact that I leave absolutely everything in the ring. I give absolutely everything in my preparation. Anything I can possibly do, anything that I can control, I do 100%. I don’t do half measures.” 

But then again, the other fighters are doing the same thing, so is there ever bad blood? Trash talking has become de rigueur in boxing, so is it the same in muay thai? He said: 

“Muay thai is a much more traditional, respectful support, and I’ve always had respect between me and my opponents.  

“It doesn’t always mean that I’ve liked the guys who I’ve fought, before or after, but they’ve never been anything but respectful after the fight. A lot of the time it might not even be a personal thing, but when you have the same dream as somebody else, it’s very hard to get along with them. We both want the same thing. We’ve both put a lot into what we’re doing. 

“But I’ve met some of the nicest people I’ve ever met through combat sports. To go through 15 minutes of doing what we do in a ring to then hug it out covered in blood and have a drink, which I have done with a lot of my opponents – a drink and a chinwag after – is really, really quite a beautiful thing, I think.” 

That feeling is, of course, intensified by victory – winning, he says, is like an addictive drug. He said: 

“It’s an incredible feeling getting your hand raised. I wish I could bottle it up and give it to people. But I can’t – it’s the product of giving something 100%, chasing something that you love, and coming out the other side victorious. It’s got to be one of the best feelings in life.” 

Whether he wins, loses or draws at the O2 next month – he says “When I win” – there’s no chance that Harrogate and Knaresborough’s hometown challenger will throw in the towel on his career anytime soon. Had he lost that first bout aged six, he would still have kept fighting. He said: 

“I’ve lost loads of times and there have been times when people have told me to stop, and I could have just quit and done something else as a career. But I’ve never wanted to do anything else.

“I really feel like this is my calling and this is what I was put on this planet to do. And to use my platform to help and influence other people through combat sports. So, one way or another I’d have found myself back inside of a ring!”

Read more:

• ‘Tai chi teaches you about yourself’ – the Valley Gardens class honouring martial arts principles
• Harrogate fitness instructor qualifies for Miss England
• Harrogate man to fight in boxing match in aid of charity

This is the fifth in our Trading Hell series of features investigating anti-social behaviour and crime in Harrogate town centre.

All this week, our Trading Hell series of features has been putting the problems faced by central Harrogate businesses under the microscope.

We’ve found out what town-centre traders feel about anti-social behaviour, shoplifting and threats to staff through our unprecedented survey.

We’ve taken a deep dive into the official data to find out what the stats have to say about crime levels in the heart of our town.

We’ve heard from Harrogate Homeless Project about the limits constraining the charity sector’s response to rough sleeping and street drinking.

And we’ve heard from a senior police officer about what North Yorkshire Police are doing to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour and to restore public confidence. 

But could there be a better way? Matthew Chapman certainly thinks so. He’s manager of Harrogate BID (business improvement district), and for the last couple of years he’s been leading the charge for the introduction of a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO). He told the Stray Ferret: 

“At the moment, the police are on the street and know there’s a problem, but they don’t have the powers to be able to do anything about it. A PSPO would give them the tools to be able to do that.” 

Introduced in 2014, PSPOs prohibit specified behaviours and offences from precisely delineated areas. Harrogate introduced one in August 2016 and extended it a year later for another three years. It was tailored to clamp down on street drinking inside the railway and bus stations, Victoria Shopping Centre, and the Victoria and Jubilee multi-storey car-parks. Enforcement officers had the power to ask people to stop drinking in a public place and ‘surrender’ their alcohol. Refusal to hand it over could result in a fixed penalty notice of up to £100. 

But that order expired in 2020 and the pandemic lockdown meant there was no need to renew it, so there hasn’t been one in place for the past four years. 

A new one is long overdue, according to Matthew Chapman, and an overwhelming majority of central Harrogate businesses appear to agree. Our Trading Hell survey found that 92% of town-centre traders support the introduction of a PSPO.

Lifestyle choice?

Who is to blame for all the problems that traders face – including anti-social behaviour, street drinking, persistent begging and shoplifting – is a simple question with a complex answer. According to Matthew Chapman, there are several different kinds of offender, but most of the problems are caused by two groups: “homegrown” street drinkers and gangs from out of town.

Photo: Dennis Jarvis/Flickr.

He said: 

“We know of people who have got addiction problems, people who have had some kind of trauma in their life – whether it’s in childhood or more recently – and they’ve ended up in a really difficult situation as a result. 

“These people deserve the right to support, and health, and care, and there’s a lot of help out there for them. We’ve got Harrogate Homeless Project that can provide counselling, GPs, vets, food and showers; we’ve got North Yorkshire Horizons, which offers support with addiction; we’ve got the rough sleeper coordinators at the council; we have the No Second Night Out provision that allows people access to a hotel room for the night when the temperature’s 2°C or below.   

“If all those avenues have been explored, and this person continues to shoplift, continues to perform anti-social behaviour, continues to be a nuisance to society, then we believe the gap is in policing. At this moment in time, those people aren’t breaking the law – and that’s why we’ve been calling for a PSPO to be introduced.” 

Does this mean he agrees with former Home Secretary Suella Braverman that rough sleeping is a “lifestyle choice”? He said: 

“Some people have chosen that way of life for so long that adapting back into what we would call a ‘normal’ way of living is difficult. We know, for example, that we have a rough sleeper in Harrogate who doesn’t want a council property and prefers living on the streets – prefers that community around him that he trusts. 

“Whether it’s a ‘lifestyle choice’… you can pick that wording apart, but we certainly know some people who do choose to live that way rather than taking a local authority housing option.” 

People-trafficking gangs

The other main group of people causing problems for town-centre businesses is driven by money rather than personal problems. Some come to beg, others to shoplift, and they are far more flexible in their approach, according to Mr Chapman. 

He said: 

“We know of national people-trafficking gangs that come in and target places like Harrogate. One of the challenges is that when the police get on top of some of these really high-level groups in a certain area, they swiftly move to a different area, but the information-sharing isn’t there from police constabulary to police constabulary. 

“It’s similar to County Lines [the city-based networks that traffic drugs to outlying areas] – once one group is getting tackled a bit more, they’ll literally just move from North Yorkshire to West Yorkshire, or from Greater London to Birmingham, or from Manchester to Glasgow, and it is quite high-level organised crime groups that do these things.” 

The bands of professional beggars follow the crowds, he said, often moving seasonally or from event to event, and can make a lot of money:

“There’s a known group of individuals in Harrogate that the police, the council and charities are working with, but that can change daily, weekly, depending on what’s happening in town. 

“If the Great Yorkshire Show is on, that can be quite ‘productive’ for certain groups of people, and when the races are on in York, sometimes we’ll see a dip in begging in Harrogate, because York will be the place to go for those people.  

“Christmas is really well delivered in Harrogate, and we sometimes get an increase, because there’s footfall, there’s spend, there are people feeling a little bit more generous. So it’s quite targeted, where these people operate.” 

As reported in yesterday’s Trading Hell instalment, we put these assertions to Chief Inspector Simon Williamson of North Yorkshire Police, who told us: 

“I don’t think we have a specific, identified problem of people targeting the Harrogate area – there’s no evidence to support that – but there are anecdotes to suggest that people have come on occasion.” 

Told of Ch Insp Williamson’s response, Mr Chapman said: 

“We don’t have access to the level of data that the Chief Inspector would, and it would be really interesting to see where that information has come from. 

“But our knowledge has come from being on the ground, day to day, speaking to business owners, speaking to security guards, speaking to the charities. They know what’s going on.” 

‘Reporting crime is vital’

Whatever the problems are in Harrogate town centre, and no matter who is causing them, many are hoping that Project Spotlight, the initiative launched last week to step up police patrols in the town centre, will help tackle them. 

Mr Chapman also has high hopes for the new town centre support officer that Harrogate BID is currently recruiting. Their job will be to support the police, council and charities, acting as a “middleman” to gather evidence and share information. 

They will also be useful in making sure that all crime is reported – a vital measure if a PSPO is to be introduced. In order for North Yorkshire Council to be able to apply for a PSPO, national guidelines dictate that crime figures must demonstrate its necessity. But that’s a level that central Harrogate does not yet reach – officially, at least. 

Mr Chapman said: 

“The number of actual reports of crime [in central Harrogate] is really low, but the picture on the ground is very different. But if people don’t report the crimes, the crime figures will never be high enough for us to be able to get that PSPO.

“It’s ironic really. I want crime to go down – as everyone does – but I want the figures to go up, just so we’ve got a case when speaking to the police.

“We really cannot stress enough that people need to report crimes, no matter how low their value, because the only way that we’re going to make change is by getting those crime figures up to make the Chief Inspectors listen.”

Case study: How a PSPO helped cut crime and anti-social behaviour in Lincoln

Lincoln has sought to use PSPOs to tackle problems similar to those experienced in Harrogate town centre. 

City of Lincoln Council has used the powers over the last nine years to prohibit various kinds of anti-social behaviour, which council leaders, police and other agencies feel have plagued the city. 

They range from banning street drinking in the city centre, to prohibiting substance abuse and “loitering” in local car parks. 

Lincoln city centre. Photo: Lincolnian (Brian)/Flickr.

The city’s first ever PSPO was introduced in 2015. It banned the possession and consumption of “legal highs” and alcohol within a defined area of the city centre, and allowed police and council staff to either force people to hand over those substances and move on, or issue a fine if they refused to do so. The order has been renewed every three years and is due for review this year. 

A separate PSPO covering three city-centre multi-storey car-parks was first enforced in October 2020. It banned drinking, drug-taking and “congregating in groups of two or more people”, as well as public urination, smoking and any activity likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to any other person. 

Figures provided by the council at a meeting to discuss its extension last September show that the PSPO had its desired effect. Incidents of drug-taking dropped from 107 in the three years prior to the order to 35 over the three years the order was in force. 

Over the same periods, public order offences dropped only slightly, from 189 to 150. Nevertheless, council officials felt this modest drop justified extending the PSPO for another three years. 

Read more:

• Trading Hell: A Stray Ferret investigation reveals how Harrogate shop workers routinely face threats, shoplifting and anti-social behaviour
• Trading Hell: Shocking rise in shoplifting in Harrogate town centre
• Trading Hell: ‘We cannot force people to do something’, says homeless charity
• Trading Hell: ‘We can’t arrest our way out of it’, says police chief

This is the fourth in our Trading Hell series of features investigating anti-social behaviour and crime in Harrogate town centre.

Levels of crime and anti-social behaviour have increased so much in Harrogate town centre that traders are desperate for a stronger police presence, the Stray Ferret has found. 

The Trading Hell survey we carried out recently found that more than two in three town-centre businesses (68%) want to see more bobbies on the beat. 

So when the Stray Ferret met Chief Inspector Simon Williamson of North Yorkshire Police (NYP) in town to ask him about our findings, it came across as a signal of intent when he was accompanied by a squad of police officers, who headed off in twos with a NYP photographer to patrol the main shopping streets. The officers’ hi-vis stab-vests make for an arresting sight – in recent years they’ve been conspicuous by their absence. 

It was, of course, choreographed. More than seven weeks after first asking for an interview, our request was finally granted on the very day Ch Insp Williamson wanted to publicise a new initiative. 

Project Spotlight 

North Yorkshire Police says Project Spotlight will mean increased patrols and activity in Harrogate town centre to tackle street crime, retail theft, begging, rough sleeping, substance abuse and anti-social behaviour.

Yet despite repeated requests, North Yorkshire Police would not tell us how many officers have been patrolling the town centre up to now, or how often, citing “operational reasons”. So it’s impossible for us to accurately report just how much of an increase Project Spotlight represents. Nor is it clear how long Project Spotlight is set to last. 

But in a statement, a spokesperson said:

“Harrogate Inner Neighbourhood Policing Team, which is leading the project, has 20 officers and police community support officers (PCSOs) who will deploy on Project Spotlight patrols. Other officers from other teams will also support the project and can add to patrol numbers when available.”

The initiative officially launched last Wednesday, but it’s a project that Ch Insp Williamson has been considering since he took up his post as officer responsible for North Yorkshire Police’s neighbourhood teams in December. He said: 

“I’m conscious that some concerns have been raised to us, and that’s why we’re responding with Project Spotlight. It’s a multi-agency operation which involves partners. Some of the issues that we see in Harrogate and in towns across the country at the moment are complex, multi-dimensional problems and often they involve very vulnerable people, so it’s not a policing-alone sort of solution to resolve.”

Project Spotlight will see increased patrols in Harrogate town centre to deter crime and restore public confidence.

‘Lawless’ 

Whatever the reason for the timing of Project Spotlight, it is sure to be welcomed by traders in Harrogate town centre, but only if they experience noticeable, sustained improvement.  

Our survey covered almost all the businesses on Oxford Street, Cambridge Street, Cambridge Road, Market Place and the Victoria Shopping Centre, as well as parts of Beulah Street and James Street. When we spoke to traders, the message came across loud and clear that many of them were sick of the problems that are prevalent in parts of central Harrogate and wanted to see change. 

Almost every business polled (96%) said that anti-social behaviour is a problem, and more than two thirds said street-drinking (74%), rough sleeping (70%), begging (68%) and drug misuse (66%) were also problems. One in five (20%) experienced threats to staff at least once a week.

Nearly three in every four businesses (74%) said they had lost trade as a result of some or all of these behaviours. 

Some traders used words such as “crisis” and described the town centre as “lawless”. 

Ch Insp Williamson is unsurprised. He said: 

“No-one should feel unsafe or intimidated within their workplace or within their daily life. These issues you’ve identified all seem to form part of the same picture. Whether that’s the fear of an incident happening because they’re witnessing street drinking or anti-social behaviour, or whether that’s experiencing threats or coercion of any kind, they’re all fundamental to community confidence. They’re part of a picture that I think we need to tackle, and it’s fundamental to our success in policing to restore that confidence.” 

Grey area 

Official figures reveal that North Yorkshire Police could have been tackling the problem with more vigour, and in fact were doing so until 2020. In that year, the force used the Vagrancy Act 13 times to arrest people for offences such as persistent begging and street drinking, but hasn’t used it once since then. When asked why not, Ch Insp Williamson told us: 

“My understanding is that the Act has been repealed.” 

But this turns out to be a grey area. The Act was indeed repealed in 2022 by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, but remains in force until it is replaced. Alternative legislation in the form of the Criminal Justice Bill is making its way slowly through parliament, but in the meantime, the Vagrancy Act can still be used, and is being by police forces across the country. Last year, The Guardian revealed that officers from 29 police forces across England and Wales arrested 1,173 people between 2021 and 2023 – showing that it was an option open to North Yorkshire Police. 

‘Organised bands of beggars’ 

Its continued use would likely be welcomed by Harrogate’s town-centre traders. In our Trading Hell survey, 50% said they would like to see the police given more powers to move people on. 

Another concern raised by several store managers was the persistent rumour that some of the problems they face are caused by people from neighbouring cities. We heard stories of “gangs of shoplifters” and “organised bands of beggars” commuting from Leeds, Bradford and elsewhere to take advantage of the “rich pickings” to be found in Harrogate. 

But Ch Insp Williamson said the rumours were largely unfounded. He told us: 

“I can’t advise exactly how common or frequent it is. It is an issue that occurs nationally, with people travelling to various locations, sometimes seasonally. People do move around.

“I don’t think we have a specific, identified problem of people targeting the Harrogate area – there’s no evidence to support that – but there are anecdotes to suggest that people have come on occasion.”

This contradicts what several other sources have told us. For example, Matthew Chapman, manager of Harrogate BID (business improvement district), said:

“We know of national people-trafficking gangs that come in and target places like Harrogate.” 

Ch Insp Williamson denies this. He said: 

“There isn’t a strong evidence case for that. Certainly, most of the team know their community very well, they know some of the persistent callers have identified various groups and they’re all well known to us. 

“That’s not to say that on occasion we haven’t had people coming from other areas – it does happen – but I wouldn’t suggest that that’s a significant issue for us in Harrogate.” 

Response to thefts 

One issue that is significant for North Yorkshire Police is the public’s perception of the job they’re doing. When the Stray Ferret spoke to shopkeepers and store managers in central Harrogate, several told us that the police “didn’t do anything” when thefts were reported. One said “they don’t bother if it’s worth less than 200 quid”. Some have even stopped reporting thefts.

Is Ch Insp Williamson worried? He said: 

“It worries me that that view is held, and I am concerned that they have that opinion, because that’s not the case. All thefts should be reported to us and should be investigated.

“The way that we investigate them has changed over the years as technology has advanced. Now, our Initial Inquiry team take initial calls for shop theft and will routinely send out an information pack to be completed by traders.

“So, the methods have changed slightly, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t take shop theft extremely seriously, and the impact that can have on traders and their livelihoods.”

‘The solution isn’t to arrest our way out of it’ 

Equally concerning for the police is the response to another question in our survey. Asked “Which organisations, if any, do you think are failing to meet their responsibilities in tackling these issues?”, 40% of traders explicitly named the police – far more than named any other organisation. 

Ch Insp Williamson responded: 

“We have a significant part to play in resolving any issues within the community, particularly around community confidence and reassurance, and I take those complaints very seriously.

“The issues are very complex, and they often are involving vulnerable people who are in need of social care and health care and other support, so by no means is it a singular police problem.

“The solution to this problem isn’t to arrest our way out of it. However, I acknowledge that concern and I do take it seriously.”

Tomorrow, we hear from Matthew Chapman, manager of Harrogate BID, about one possible solution to the problems faced by town-centre businesses.

Read more:

• Trading Hell: A Stray Ferret investigation reveals how Harrogate shop workers routinely face threats, shoplifting and anti-social behaviour
• Trading Hell: Shocking rise in shoplifting in Harrogate town centre
• Trading Hell: ‘We cannot force people to do something’, says homeless charity

This is the latest in a regular series of Business Q&A features published weekly.   

This week, we spoke to Zara Jackson, founder and CEO of Harrogate-based Network Scientific.

Tell us in fewer than 30 words what your firm does. 

We help scientific business grow. We offer recruitment services, sales and marketing, all aimed at helping clients to grow their sales.

What does it require to be successful in business? 

A good work ethic and a thick skin. Being prepared to just get stuck in, no matter what you’re doing.

What drives you to do what you do every day? 

Relentless ambition! I recently found out that I have ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), and one of its features is that you just keep on going. I don’t stop from morning to evening.

I want more – nothing’s ever enough. We’ve achieved at least 20% growth in turnover and profitability each year since Covid, but this year I want to reach 30%.

What has been the toughest issue your company has had to deal with over the last 12 months? 

Recruiting our staff. Hiring good commercial scientists is quite a challenge. That’s why I’ve set up a model of hybrid working where everybody can work from home, so long as they work in the office at least once a week. We employ people based as far afield as Huddersfield and Teesside, and we can’t expect them to come in every day.

Which other local firms do you most admire and why? 

Impression Recruitment – we’ve worked with them from day one and they’ve helped us with our recruitment.

Also Extreme Creations – it’s really inspired me to see how they’ve grown their business.

Cloud Nine‘s growth is very impressive, and I saw they also got voted one of the best places to work in the Sunday Times.

And I can’t forget Artizan – I love that business! I used to do a lot of volunteer work with differently abled people when I was younger (and had more time available!). We need more of those companies that bring inclusivity into the town centre.

Who are the most inspiring local leaders? 

I have no idea. I’m coming up blank!

What could be done locally to boost business? 

I think the council needs to invest more in the high street. It’s struggling, it’s tired, and more investment is required to attract people into the town centre. Harrogate BID is doing a lot, but we need more if I’m to be able to get people to relocate here.

Also, with Viper Rooms closed, there’s no nightlife any more. When I first came to Harrogate in 2006, the nightlife in Harrogate was one of the things that really attracted young people here. But that’s gone now, and people go to Leeds instead – and that makes selling the town to young scientists that much more difficult.

We also need more inclusivity to boost local business. I have two employees who are currently observing Ramadan. We offer a private space for them to use as a prayer room here but we’ll be moving offices soon, and when we do, we won’t have that space. Harrogate Islamic Association are currently fundraising to develop a building in town into Harrogate’s first mosque. We’ll be donating to their efforts during Ramadan this year.

Best and worst things about running a business from Harrogate? 

There’s a good business community in Harrogate that’s really supportive and close-knit. I’m quite cut off from it now that I have young children, but when I was first starting out it was a big help. Harrogate also very picturesque. If I’m having a stressful day, I’ve been known to have a walk round the Valley Gardens – and it helps.

The worst thing is trying to recruit younger employees. It used to be OK, and I’m sure it could be again.

What are your business plans for the future? 

Growth. I’ve never wanted to have any external stakeholders. Network Scientific was launched from my back bedroom and I’ve built it up from there, so I just want to carry on growing it organically. I’ll be happy if we stick to growing at 20% a year, but I want more.

We’re quite well known now in the UK, so we’ll be targeting more European and US work.

What do you like to do on your time off? 

Spending time with my family and getting muddy with my children. Nidd Gorge is brilliant, and in the summer we take our bikes to the greenways and cycle to Ripley.

I’m a footie mum as well. I thought having two girls that I might be spared standing on the sidelines in the rain, but my eight-year-old plays football six times a week!

Best place to eat and drink locally? 

I like the Smith’s Arms at Beckwithshaw. It’s relaxed and the food is good, so we always seem to end up going back there.

I like the Giggling Squid and Lucia too, but that’s closing and reopening soon, so I hope the new restaurant is as good as the old one was.

• If you know someone in business in the Harrogate district and you’d like to suggest them for this feature, drop us a line at contact@thestrayferret.co.uk. 

Read more:

• Business Q&A: Dan Simpson, Harrogate Organics
• Business Q&A: Laura Dudley, Painting Pots
• Business Q&A: Victoria Clark, French Soaps

A café set up to reduce food waste, loneliness and food poverty in Harrogate has been forced to close due to financial pressures. 

Resurrected Bites’ Give As You Can café has been held at St Paul’s United Reformed Church in Harrogate on Wednesdays, but low footfall and high costs have made it unviable. 

Michelle Hayes, director and founder of Resurrected Bites, told the Stray Ferret: 

“We’re making such a loss that we’re getting to the point where we can’t cover staff wages. We can’t sustain it.” 

Resurrected Bites also runs a community groceries scheme with bases in Harrogate and Knaresborough for people in food poverty, as well as two other cafés, at Gracious Street Methodist Church in Knaresborough on Fridays and at Killinghall Methodist Church on Thursdays, which she said are still doing well. 

Resurrected Bites’ expenditure for the first three months of this financial year varied between £15,000 and £17,000 per month, resulting in a shortfall of £8,000 to £10,000 to be made up from grants or fundraising. 

To help stabilise the organisation, Ms Hayes has split it, with the Resurrected Bites charity as the main fundraising body covering the community groceries and environmental aspects of preventing food waste. As a charity, any donations are eligible for Gift Aid, boosting them by 25%. 

But the cafés are not eligible for charitable status because there are no restrictions on who may provide custom. 

Ms Hayes said: 

“Charitable status would restrict us to only serving people who are lonely or in food poverty. We feel that our existing model of focusing on the environmental aspects of food waste enables us to support people who are in food poverty or are lonely without stigmatising them.

“Legally, the charity cannot support the shortfall in finances for the community interest company, and so we have to ensure the cafés raise enough revenue to cover their costs.

“That’s why we had to make the very difficult decision to close the Harrogate café whilst we consider how we can generate more income to cover its costs.

“We’re hoping that it’s temporary. We may be able to find a new venue with a bigger space so that we can get more people through, and attract a wider range of customers who can pay more.

“Once we get through this rough patch, I think we’ll be alright.”

Photo: The Killinghall Methodist Church cafe run by Resurrected Bites remains open.

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Shocking levels of anti-social behaviour, drug-dealing, shoplifting and even threats to staff are all routine occurrences faced by many shop workers in Harrogate town centre, a Stray Ferret investigation has revealed. 

Even though Harrogate is widely viewed as one of the finest shopping towns in the North, our investigation pieced together a picture of “scary” back alleys where shop workers fear to go, and high streets that shoppers have started to avoid. 

We surveyed 50 businesses in the town centre and spoke to many retailers at length. We found a deep sense of frustration among traders, most of whom feel not nearly enough is being done to make our shopping streets the safe and pleasant places they should be. 

What’s more, while some traders had shocking stories to tell, only a handful were willing to be quoted by name. Most preferred to remain anonymous for fear of becoming a target. 

In a series of articles running through this week, we’ll be examining the problems that make life difficult for town-centre businesses, finding out what’s being done to tackle them, looking at whether it’s working, and asking if there may be a better approach.

Our Trading Hell survey covered almost all the businesses on Oxford Street, Cambridge Street, Cambridge Road, Market Place and the Victoria Shopping Centre, as well as parts of Beulah Street and James Street. 

The vast majority of businesses polled (96%) said that anti-social behaviour is a problem – only two said it isn’t – and 52% said it’s a major problem. 

Other behaviours considered to be a problem included shoplifting (78%), street-drinking (74%), threats to staff (70%), rough sleeping (70%), begging (68%) and drug misuse (66%). 

Shockingly, 20% of town-centre businesses face threats to staff at least once a week. 

One trader told the Stray Ferret: 

“I’ve been working here for 18 months and it’s been a shocker. This place has become lawless in the town centre.”

Hotspot 

Our survey showed that nowhere is immune to the problems, but there are hotspots, and the “hottest” spot is centred on the intersection of Oxford Street and Cambridge Road – the area between McDonalds, Wesley Chapel and the Halifax bank. 

One shop owner said: 

“There are often groups drinking around the doorway, which discourages customers, and hanging around under shelter, shouting and swearing in the street. It makes for an unpleasant environment.” 

Nearby, Ian Hall, store manager of Games Crusade on Oxford Street, recounted a disturbing incident when he had to physically keep two men apart. He said: 

“Two gentlemen came chasing through the street and the first one bolted through our door and ran to the back of the shop. He looked really scared. The second one was shouting and swearing at him, calling him all sorts of names, and wanted to knock seven bells out of him.

“I stood in the doorway and told him he couldn’t come in and eventually he calmed down and left. If he had come in, I think they’d probably have started fighting in the shop, knocking things over and destroying stock. Anything could have happened.”

But the problems are by no means confined to adults. One trader told us he had to be particularly vigilant against theft in the late afternoon, when school pupils “flooded” into the town centre.

Two years ago, two Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) were seriously injured in an attack by three schoolgirls in McDonalds. One of the officers suffered a suspected broken nose and the other later left the service, partly as a result of the incident. One of the girls narrowly avoided a custodial sentence.

Alcohol wasn’t a factor in that case, but it does appears to be a common feature of much of the town centre’s anti-social behaviour and is believed to have played a part in an incident on Oxford Street last May, when a man admitted to pulling the wing off a pigeon. 

A common view among traders is that the problems are showing no signs of getting any better. On the contrary, one said: 

“It’s got much worse in the last two to three years. You can smell weed on the street, there’s drug-dealing in front of our door, and I’ve even had to call an ambulance for somebody.” 

Lost business 

While these problems are not pleasant for shoppers and passers-by, for businesses they translate into lost trade and, for some smaller traders, damage to livelihoods.  

One Oxford Street retailer said: 

“My shop windows were smashed more than once, and it cost me a lot of money to replace them.” 

Others complained of casual shoplifting. Games Crusade’s Ian Hall said: 

“We get drunk people coming into the shop and trying to walk out with stock. It’s not underhand – it’s in full view. I just take it off them and that tends to be the end of it. But you have to have your wits about you all the time.” 

Across the town centre, nearly three in every four businesses (74%) said they had lost trade as a result of some or all of these behaviours. Among Oxford Street retailers, the figure was 100%, and many are convinced that footfall is down as a result.

The manager of one shop said: 

“Anti-social behaviour and street-drinking discourage the general public from visiting this part of town.” 

Paul Rawlinson, who has two businesses on Oxford Street, Baltzersen’s and Bakeri Baltzersen, said: 

“Oxford Steet has become a much less desirable place to walk down as a result of these behaviours. It’s more pronounced during the summer, when rough sleeping is a more comfortable option than it is in winter.” 

Back streets 

Although the main streets of the town centre are where activities such as street drinking and anti-social behaviour are most visible, the back alleys are where other things happen for the most part unseen. 

Last year, a woman was seriously sexually assaulted in an alley to the rear of Clarks shoe shop in Market Place. That alley was finally closed off by a new gate after three years of lobbying, but other backstreets are still used for illegal activities. 

One shop worker on Cambridge Street told us: 

“Staff feel unsafe going out the back of the store because of large groups of kids smoking weed and shouting abuse to intimidate us. It’s quite scary. Also, drunks use our property and we find needles and glass bottles lying around.”

During our investigation, we discovered down one back alley abandoned prescription drugs, discarded clothing, clusters of clothes hangers – presumably dumped by shoplifters – and even a notebook containing obscene sexual content.

What’s being done…

One body that has tried to do something about the town centre’s problems is Harrogate BID (business improvement district). It would like to see a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) put in place banning certain behaviours, such as persistent begging and street drinking, from the town centre. But according to the national guidelines, these can only be applied if crime levels are above a certain benchmark, which Harrogate doesn’t reach.

BID manager Matthew Chapman said: 

“The statistics showed that the number of crimes is very low in the town centre. 

“While on the face of it this seems like good news, the stats just didn’t match up with what we were hearing from BID members.

“Shop owners and staff were telling us they were regularly seeing relatively minor crime, but the police figures just didn’t reflect this.” 

So two years ago, the BID launched a campaign to encourage town-centre businesses to report crime. For three months it promoted its Report a Crime initiative, telling traders to report every crime, no matter how minor. But bizarrely, crime figures over that period went down, so the PSPO is still a goal rather than a reality – and the BID is still lobbying for it. We’ll be speaking to Matthew Chapman about the PSPO and the BID’s efforts to tackle these issues in Friday’s feature.

…and what’s not 

Several traders told the Stray Ferret that they had stopped reporting low-value thefts because they did not believe the police would do anything about them. Worse still, we uncovered a widespread belief that the problems plaguing the town centre are simply not being adequately addressed. When asked how well the issues are being tackled by the authorities, 38% said ‘badly’ and 32% – almost one in three – thought the problems weren’t being tackled at all.

Two in every five traders (40%) blamed the police for failing to tackle the issues, many of them complaining that the police response to reports of theft is slow and ineffective. A report released last week by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services following its inspection of North Yorkshire Police only rated the force “adequate” at investigating crime and responding to the public, although this assessment was better than last year, when it received the notice “requires improvement” in both areas.

One town-centre jeweller said his shop had been burgled last summer when thieves stole £60,000 worth of stock, but claimed the police response was inept and late. He said:

“It took the police 12 hours to respond to my initial 999 call, and when they did, they said they’d pass my details on to the appropriate officer ‘a week on Friday’ because he was on a course.

“Very soon after the theft, someone told me they knew who had committed the crime and even where my stock was being held. I believed them because the details they gave were bang on. I told the police, but it took them eight months to arrest anybody, and by that time the evidence had all disappeared.

“They lost emails with my details in them and didn’t even have my telephone number. As far as I know, nobody’s yet been charged.”

The Stray Ferret has spoken to Chief Inspector Simon Williamson of North Yorkshire Police about the force’s response to reports of crime, and you can read the interview here on Thursday.

In the meantime, traders are becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress in improving conditions in the centre of “one of the finest shopping towns in the North”. One shopkeeper said: 

“I see it all here. Every week there’s something going on. I speak to other business owners and there’s a general feeling on the street that there’s no-one in power who’s doing anything about it – and it just gets worse.”

Tomorrow – what exactly do the official stats show? We report on a huge rise in shop-lifting and examine the extent of drug taking and wider anti-social behaviour cases reported to police in Harrogate town centre.  

Have you got a story to tell about any of the issues covered in this article? Let us know by emailing us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.

Read more:

• Trading Hell: Shocking rise in shoplifting in Harrogate town centre
• Trading Hell: ‘We cannot force people to do something’, says homeless charity
• Trading Hell: We can’t arrest our way out of it, says police chief
• Trading Hell: Report crime so we can cut crime, says BID manager
• Harrogate needs ‘collective approach’ to town centre problems, says MP

A popular pottery workshop in Knaresborough is moving to a larger studio in what is fast becoming the town’s thriving art hub.

Northernline Arts is relocating from its current home on platform 2 at Knaresborough railway station to new premises on Kirkgate.

Run by former pottery teacher Maria Dawbarn, Northernline Arts is a workshop space that gives people the opportunity to take part in a diverse range of creative clay and potters wheel sessions.

Since opening its doors almost exactly three years ago, the business has grown steadily, attracting increasing numbers of people either trying pottery as a one-off experience, or taking it up as a regular hobby.

Owner Maria set up the workshop after first training in ceramic at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at Dundee University and then spending 23 years teaching at Henshaw Arts and Crafts Centre before moving into a management role.

She said:

“I first tried pottery at school and have been hooked ever since, I still get real joy working with clay every day.

“My career saw me moving from teaching into a management role, after more than a decade doing that, I was missing being hands on so I decided the time was right to embark on a new adventure and set up my own studio.

“I’m sure the popularity of the Pottery Throwdown on TV has had a positive impact, but it’s been great to see so many people coming along to try the potter’s wheel sessions. We also have a thriving community of regulars.

“I’m delighted I can work with people every day to share my passion for ceramics and continue to make my own wheel-thrown work.”

Maria hopes the new studio, which is due to open on Tuesday, April 2, will become an exciting art hub for Knaresborough.

As well as giving her and other potters a chance to display and sell their work, she also plans to expand the range of classes available and hold demonstrations of other crafts.

Read more:

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• Business Q&A: Laura Dudley, Painting Pots

A new drive to target anti-social behaviour, street crime and shoplifting in Harrogate has been launched by North Yorkshire Police and North Yorkshire Council. 

Project Spotlight was announced yesterday, just days before the Stray Ferret publishes Trading Hell, a week-long series of features investigating these very issues. 

Over the course of our investigation we spoke to a chief inspector from North Yorkshire Police, as well as North Yorkshire Council, Harrogate BID, Harrogate Homeless Project and dozens of town centre traders. You can read the first of our special reports on Monday. 

Project Spotlight sees teams working with residents, shoppers, town-centre workers and businesses to: 

• gather information about crime and anti-social behaviour and use it to target police and council resources at key times and locations;
• reduce thefts, anti-social behaviour and other crimes by working with retailers and licensed premises;
• prevent begging and rough sleeping by ensuring vulnerable people have access to the services they need and are encouraged to use them;
• deploy targeted, high-visibility patrols to make sure residents, town-centre visitors, workers and businesses feel safe;
• reduce drink- and drug-related crime by working with specialist teams, licensed premises and support services;
• ‘design out crime’ by making changes to the town-centre environment;
• keep the public informed about the project and its progress, encouraging them to keep sharing information about any town-centre issues affecting them. 

Project Spotlight builds on work between North Yorkshire Police, North Yorkshire Council and other organisations to address street crime, retail theft, begging, rough sleeping, substance abuse and anti-social behaviour. 

Project Spotlight will work with retailers to tackle shoplifting and other town-centre problems.

In a sample of 140 patrols of the town centre since October 2023, North Yorkshire Police made 10 arrests and moved people on or gave words of advice 54 times. The force also issued one dispersal order, which effectively bans someone from an area for a certain amount of time. 

Harrogate neighbourhood policing inspector Nicola Colbourne said:  

“Project Spotlight sees us stepping up that positive work we’ve already done with partner organisations, the public and town-centre businesses. 

“We’re using a good old-fashioned mix of community engagement, information-gathering, targeted policing and robust law enforcement during this project, which we’re delivering alongside policing Harrogate’s wider residential areas. 

“Harrogate is already an incredibly safe town, in what is officially England’s safest county. With the help of the public, businesses and key organisations, we’re working hard to make it even safer.” 

North Yorkshire Council’s assistant chief executive for local engagement, Rachel Joyce, said:

“Alongside North Yorkshire Police and others, we have been working hard to maintain Harrogate town centre’s reputation as a safe and welcoming place in which to visit and work.
“Operation Spotlight presents an opportunity for all concerned to come together and build on this work. To do this we need the co-operation of the public and the business community and I would encourage everyone to support us in this aim.”

Project Spotlight comes in response to problems highlighted by the Stray Ferret’s Trading Hell survey, which revealed very high levels of dissatisfaction among town-centre traders at North Yorkshire Police’s response to anti-social behaviour and retail theft.

The results of the survey, some of which have been shared with North Yorkshire Police, will be revealed in our first Trading Hell report, published on Monday.

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This is the latest in a regular series of Business Q&A features published weekly.  

This week, we spoke to Victoria Clark, owner of French Soaps in Harrogate.

Tell us in fewer than 30 words what your firm does. 

We’re the largest importer of French soap in the UK. Our products are all natural, traditional soaps made in the Provence and Marseilles region of France.

What does it require to be successful in business? 

For me there are two things. Firstly, people. You’ve got to have the right people around and you have to look after them, and that starts from the top. ‘People’ also includes customers. People should always come first.

Secondly, having a focus: knowing what you’re good at and sticking with it. Own your space. Know it, love it, and be brilliant at it.

What drives you to do what you do every day? 

The customers and the product. I love my products and I love surprising people, delighting people, and having happy customers.

What has been the toughest issue your company has had to deal with over the last 12 months? 

Supplies. We work with some big savonneries in France and also with some small, family savonneries. Last summer, it was particularly hot and a lot of our products are handmade, and there were a lot of problems in terms of being able to make product in sufficient quantity when it was cool enough.

Which other local firms do you most admire and why? 

To have a successful business, you need to have a focus, stick at it and be brilliant at it, so for me, that has to be Bettys. They do what they do really well, and they haven’t tried to go out of area or do anything that they can’t manage and control.

Who are the most inspiring local leaders? 

Any business needs to evolve, and the best often do that through a constant series of small changes and tweaks that keep things fresh and alive.

For me, the people that do that really well are the Mackanesses at Rudding Park. They’re always looking at what they’re doing and moving it on.

What could be done locally to boost business? 

Improve parking to make it easier for people to use the facilities in the town. We need 10-15 minutes of free parking in the centre of town, not big pedestrian zones or hour-long car-parking charges everywhere.

If you live in an outlying area like I do, you just want to go in, do what you need to do, and leave. I don’t want to be parking and getting a bus – I’m not there for a day-trip, I’m there to use the facilities.

Best and worst things about running a business from Harrogate? 

I love working in Harrogate and running a business here. Our customers love the fact we’re in Harrogate, and there’s a perception that it’s a good brand fit: a nice product in a nice location.

The worst thing is that prime retail locations are so expensive! My company needs a prime retail location because that’s what the brand needs, and I’d need the footfall to make it viable, but the cost of doing that doesn’t work for me with the size of business I have at the moment.

What are your business plans for the future? 

We’re going to start doing some shows, so this year you’ll find us at the Harrogate Flower Show in April.

We’re also working with some other brands and there are various new launches coming along, although I can’t say too much about that at the moment. We’ve always got something happening

What do you like to do on your time off? 

I play golf, love pilates and yoga, and enjoy dog agility and scent work – so I’m busy most of the time.

Best place to eat and drink locally?

In Harrogate, Konak Meze, the Turkish restaurant on Mount Parade.

Slightly out of town, our favourite place is Harewood: Muddy Boots Café and The Hovels. But I’m always open to trying new places.

• If you know someone in business in the Harrogate district and you’d like to suggest them for this feature, drop us a line at contact@thestrayferret.co.uk. 

Read more:

• Business Q&A: Sophie Hartley, Sophie Likes
• Business Q&A: Paul Rawlinson, Baltzersen & Bakeri Baltzersen
• Business Q&A: Laura Dudley, Painting Pots