John Plummer, Author at The Stray Ferret

Knaresborough to get trained tour guides

Knaresborough Town Council has allocated £7,000 towards training tour guides to promote the town.

Knaresborough is a popular destination but visitors sometimes struggle to find basic information on attractions such as the museum and viaduct.

Cllr Margy Longhurst, a professionally trained tourist guide, began providing free tours last year.

But Cllr Longhurst wants to develop the service, which it is hoped will boost tourism and increase civic pride.

The council agreed this week to budget £7,000 towards training a pool of guides, who will provide free tours on Wednesday market days and at weekends, as well as on special occasions.

Knaresborough-born Sarah Cowling, who is now a professional tourist guide in York who also provides accredited training, will run the courses.

The 13-week training course will start in January and it is hoped the first guides will be in action by autumn next year.

Speaking after the town council meeting, Cllr Longhurst said:

“I’ve found it frustrating doing the tours because trying to do everything myself is just too much. I’ve also sprained my knee.

“We want to have regular free walking tours and when I say ‘free’, I mean ‘free’ — we won’t be asking for tips.”

Besides tourists, she said the tours would also appeal to newcomers to the town by making them “feel part of the community” as well as informing them of Knaresborough’s heritage.

Cllr Longhurst said the council was looking to recruit eight to 10 people with a love of history and Knaresborough who were prepared to undertake training and two exams.

Green grants

Knaresborough Town Council is to award grants to young people with ideas on how to improve the environment.

The Green Grant will be awarded to school pupils or youth groups with ideas on how to better Knaresborough’s environment and work towards reversing the effects of climate change in the area.

The council said people with ideas on active travel, climate adaptation, improving animal and wildlife habitats, energy reduction and minimising pollution are welcome to apply for a grant, which will be up to £500 per project.

Kit Lacey, chair of the council’s climate committee, said the authority “understands that things cannot stay the same” and is “in need of young people’s help”.

Mr Lacey added:

“It’s the young people of the town who will live with the effects of climate change longer than us councillors.

“This programme is open to all children of the town and welcomes applications from adults and children in schools and all types of youth groups. Examples would be school groups, young climate committees lead by PTA members, scouts and guides.

“We encourage groups to apply even if they are not sure where the group may sit as we, the council, can push them in the right direction of coming under a group that would be eligible.”

Although the scheme is directed at young people, Mr Lacey said the grant must be awarded to an adult in charge of an organisation, so the money can be sent to their account.

Applicants must also disclose the organisation’s latest financial accounts and, if necessary, any permissions required by North Yorkshire Council.

Knaresborough Town Council also said applicants must mention ‘Green Grant’ in their application.

You can apply for the grant here.

Yemi’s Food Stories: Rafi’s Spicebox Harrogate

Yemi Adelekan is a food writer and blogger who was a semi-finalist in the 2022 series of BBC TV’s Masterchef competition.

Every Saturday Yemi writes for the Stray Ferret about her love of the area’s food and shares cooking tips – please get in touch with her if you want her to review a restaurant, visit your farm, taste the produce you sell or even share a recipe.

Anyone who knows me well will already know that I love spices from all parts of the world. I am intrigued by the unfamiliar and some of my highlights from my trip to the Middle East revolved around the spice markets, and the waft of aromas that hit you creating a beautiful assault on your culinary senses.

Walking into Rafi’s Spicebox in Harrogate took me right back to those places evoking the same memories. There is something beautiful about the colours and smells from different spices, that each tell their stories.

From saffron, the king of all spices, to golden yellow turmeric, from the redness of kashmiri chilli powder to the lemony tang and orange hue of pul biber, there is no end to the response that each spice is able to elicit.

A selection of goods at Rafi’s Spicebox

The rich darkness of tamarind belies its sourness, but this might just be what you need to cut through a rich dessert if you want to avoid the saltiness from salted or miso caramel. Add some tamarind to your sticky toffee sauce to elevate it to something special.

I love hibiscus because of the stunning colour and tart flavours it adds to dishes. Hibiscus is hugely popular in Nigeria as it is used to make a local drink called Zobo. To make Zobo, simply steep hibiscus in boiling water to extract the colours and add a sugar syrup. You can add spices like cloves, nutmeg, ginger and citrus rind to introduce some complexity.

Premixed spices can work for you

At Rafi’s Spicebox, you don’t need to be an expert to cook a curry because they have done all the hard work for you with their premixed spice blends which are suitable for vegetables, seafood or other proteins.

Spices can be customised to your taste if you describe the flavours you like. From Thai to Indian, mild to hot, creamy to nutty, thick curries to broths, spices can be blended to help you deliver the perfect results.

I love the spice blends which are designed to get everyone eating more vegetables. From adding spices to stir fried broccoli, spiced aubergine and potatoes, as well as elevating grated carrots with toasted seeds, there is something for everyone.

Rafi’s Spicebox is a family-owned business with shops in Harrogate, Sudbury and York

Each curry blend comes with instructions on how to cook it and many of their recipes can be ready in under 30 minutes which makes it a viable way to get home cooked meals ready in the same time it would take to have a takeaway delivered.

Rafi’s also curates a seasonal curry range so you can get spice blends that match the season from comforting, cooling to heating to keep the cold away.

The beauty of many dishes from around the world is that they come with ‘buddies’ so at Rafi’s you can get pre-prepped pilau rices, flours, and a range of chutneys, sauces, and flat breads to complete your meals.

Lamb curry with a Rafi’s twist

I left Rafi’s with a pack of Previn’s Thepla – a spiced roti – and a packet of ‘Paretal Spice Blend’ that elevated the Nidderdale lamb I purchased from Addyman K butchers, that I cooked with coconut, asafoetida, tamarind, curry leaves, chillies and the usual staples of onion, garlic and tomatoes.

I added some pul biber for a bit more heat and served the delicious lamb curry with saffron and turmeric rice topped with ghati masala. To accompany this meal, I pan-heated the roti, which has fenugreek, coriander leaves mixed with flour, ginger, turmeric and coriander powder.

Yemi’s lamb curry

My nervousness about pre-made curry spices has always been the salt levels. In my experience, many popular brands make their spice mixes overly salty, that can give dishes a raw and harsh taste.

However with the Rafi’s Spicebox packet, the salt level after following the instructions was perfect for me, and the spices cooked in the 20 minutes suggested time. I cooked my lamb curry for an extra ten minutes to get it more tender.

Find out more

Rafi’s Spicebox is a family-owned business with shops in Harrogate, Sudbury and York. You can pick up their spices from some local butchers, fishmongers and farm shops but for an immersive experience and a chat to their lovely experts, I would recommend popping into their main shop along Commercial Street.

Spices can be customised to your taste if you describe the flavours you like

I’m doing a chef demonstration at the Living North Food event at York Racecourse this Saturday, March 23, so I will share some highlights in next week’s post.

Read more:

Harrogate Spring Water denies claims it could expand again

Harrogate Spring Water denied claims it could expand again at a feisty public meeting this week.

Managing director Richard Hall and colleagues were quizzed for over an hour at Pinewoods Conservation Group‘s annual general meeting.

The company wants to expand its bottling plant, which would involve felling about 450 trees in a section of the Pinewoods known as Rotary Wood.

As part of the ecological mitigation strategy, it has agreed to buy two acres of land from an unnamed individual to create a publicly accessible wood with 1,200 trees — if the scheme is approved.

But this has sparked fears Harrogate Spring Water, which is part of French multinational Danone, could seek to expand again on its newly acquired land.

Mr Hall was asked if the company would consider gifting the land to the community as a gesture of goodwill and to prove it had no further expansion ambitions.

He said the land was “an expensive asset we have bought on behalf of the community” and it was “not considering at the moment” to hand over ownership.

But he added:

“We have no plans to expand the factory further. This is not a mass market brand — it’s a premium niche product.”

Sarah Gibbs, who is leading the Save Rotary Wood campaign, told the meeting Harrogate Spring Water had made a similar pledge many years ago before it was bought by Danone.

Arnold Warneken, who represents Ouseburn for the Green Party on North Yorkshire Council, said the sum involved would be “insignificant” for a company the size of Danone.

Wednesday’s meeting

An audience member called Terry Byrne added:

“Unless you donate that two acres we will have the sword of Damocles over our heads. I don’t see how Danone, with its size, is not capable of doing that.”

No green roof

The company was also under fire at the meeting on Wednesday (March 20) for failing to include a green ‘living roof’ on the proposed new building, which has been criticised for its “industrial” appearance by Harrogate Civic Society.

Nick Pleasant, the planning consultant from Stantec, said there were “certain challenges around delivering a green roof”, including the weight of the extra load.

The proposed extension building.

He added the company had listened to concerns and would produce a “fully compliant ecological mitigation plan”.

This includes working with an unnamed charity to plant another 1,500 trees around Harrogate, which along with the new woodland would mean any trees lost will be replaced on a 6:1 ratio. Harrogate Spring Water has also said the scheme will create 50 jobs plus 20 more during construction.

However, Mr Pleasant said a biodiversity report wasn’t a formal requirement at this stage and the company was “unlikely” to produce one.

Attendees also raised concerns about water extraction and the impact of extra lorries using the highways around Harlow Moor Road in Harrogate while Shan Oakes, the Green Party parliamentary candidate for Harrogate and Knaresborough, said it was simply “unethical” to sell water in plastic bottles.

Tom Gordon, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Harrogate and Knaresborough who has spoken against the scheme, questioned why Harrogate Spring Water could not go “above the bare minimum” by only buying two acres of land for a woodland — the same amount of land its new building will require.

Pinewoods Conservation Group chair Neil Hind

Jemima Parker, chair of Zero Carbon Harrogate, asked what Harrogate Spring Water would do with the income from the timber of felled trees.

Mr Hall said:

“I can assure you that we have no intention of profiting from the wood.”

The issue is unlikely to come before North Yorkshire Council’s planning committee anytime soon.

Public consultation has been extended and another 21-day consultation is expected after Harrogate Spring Water publishes further documents after North Yorkshire Council’s arboricultural officer Alan Gilleard said he was “not in a position to support” the plans as they stood.

Pinewoods Conservation Group chair Neil Hind concluded the meeting by saying he thought the planning application might not be determined until at least late summer.

Even that is unlikely to be the end of the matter because if approval is granted, the council must then decide whether to sell or lease the land in Rotary Wood to Harrogate Spring Water.

Harrogate Spring Water received outline planning permission for the scheme in 2017, which remains valid. The current reserved matters stage deals with its appearance, size and landscaping. Councillors rejected a previous reserved matters application in 2021,

You can view planning documents and comment on the application by visiting the council’s planning portal here and typing in reference number 20/01539/REMMAJ where it says ‘enter a keyword’.

Editor’s Pick of the Week: Flying debris at Tesco, tree protests and New Park news

With its roundabouts, belching traffic and building sites, few would claim New Park to be the loveliest suburb of Harrogate.

But it could have been renamed News Park this week due to its constant appearances on the Stray Ferret — not all for good reasons.

On Friday, we revealed how contractors grinding tree stumps at the Tesco site somehow propelled a lump of concrete through the window of a house on Electric Avenue.

Work on the nearby Ripon Road site where the charity Harrogate Skills 4 Living is building supported living flats has also not gone entirely smoothly. The charity said this week it hopes the flats will be up by Christmas after partially-built apartments on the site were recently demolished.

Elsewhere at the ‘crossroads of North Harrogate’, as New Park has been dubbed (by me), plans to build 135 homes off Skipton Road look set to be approved and, in perhaps the only New Park news to be celebrated this week, the local primary school was rated ‘good’ by Ofsted.

Good news was, however, plentiful elsewhere. You could barely move in Harrogate town centre last Saturday night because the Beam Light Festival was so popular. And Knaresborough Tractor Run, that infectious parade of joy, attracted a record 401 tractors and raised £27,500 for Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

Drone photographer Colin Corker joined me at the start and then hotfooted it around the route to capture some amazing footage. Check this out.

Channel 4 captured the somewhat earthier footage of a room of people squabbling when it attended the parish meeting in Ripon called to discuss the cathedral’s plans to build an annexe.

Our man on the ground in Ripon, Tim Flanagan, sent this photo of Channel 4’s chief correspondent Alex Thomson with tree campaigner Jenni Holman alongside the veteran beech tree at risk of being felled.

Knaresborough Town Council was unusually convivial on Monday night, but there was plenty of crackle in the room when Harrogate Spring Water managing director Richard Hall, flanked by helpers, fielded questions for almost 90 minutes on the company’s plans to expand its bottling plant, which would involve felling 450 trees.

A resolution to this saga seems some way off.

Many North Yorkshire residents ‘unaware about incoming mayoral combined authority’

With just five weeks to go until York and North Yorkshire’s first elected mayor is installed, the top officer of the region’s incoming combined authority says he believes most residents remain unaware of the election or the role of the mayor.

In a wide-ranging interview, York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority’s interim head of paid services James Farrar has revealed:

There is a “real risk of a low turnout” at the ballot box due to national politics and people being unaware of how the mayoral combined authority will aim to improve lives.
None of the cost of the combined authority would come directly from taxpayers, but rather from the £18m annual Mayoral Investment Fund given by the government and from funding for specific programmes.
Following concerns the combined authority would focus efforts on its largest urban area, York, it has been agreed to monitor and publish where all funds are distributed.

Mr Farrar said while some people perceived a mayor to be “robes and regalia”, in the first four-year term, the combined authority’s elected mayor’s main responsibilities would be growing the economy and taking on the governance of the police and fire services.

He was quick to dismiss criticisms from opposition politicians the combined authority would lack accountability as four of the five members of its decision-making executive were appointed by York and North Yorkshire councils.

Pointing toward the combined authority’s directly elected leader in the mayor, he said residents and business owners needed to get their voice heard at the ballot box as the mayor would be responsible for the combined authority, which would oversee investment of more than £600 million into the region.

Mr Farrar said:

“There is a fundamental issue we have got to address in raising awareness of what the mayor will be responsible for.

“People aren’t engaged in local politics, so the vast majority won’t be aware this is coming and there’s also a pretty negative view of national politics at the moment.

“The combined authority has been legally created now, but what’s really important is on May 2 people are motivated to vote for whichever mayor they want.”

When asked how the combined authority would balance its responsibilities between the contrasting areas of York and North Yorkshire, Mr Farrar said the two areas were already interdependent.

He pointed towards how money was being pumped into a new railway station at Haxby, north of York, it had helped strengthen the case for half-hourly trains to Scarborough.

He added:

“The combined authority should be making investment decisions based on what’s best for the whole region.

“All areas will benefit, but it won’t just be a carve up of the money between the two councils, looking at connections such as how Craven and Harrogate connect into West Yorkshire and Hambleton and Richmondshire link to Teesside.

“The purpose of the mayor is to be able to take that strategic overview across these geographies and make decisions on how people, product and business work, rather than be constrained by local authority boundaries.”

Mr Farrar said he believes the councils, which currently have Conservative and Labour leaderships, would be able to work together for the common good, and had already agreed a shared set of economic priorities for the combined authority.

He said set the mayoral combined authority would set the strategic vision and ambitions for York and North Yorkshire, secure investment to deliver the vision and to make investments to improve people’s lives, enable business growth and create jobs.

Mr Farrar added the councils would have an important role in delivering the objectives of the combined authority, which would go out and secure the investment.

Responding to concerns that pressing social issues such as housing and access to public transport, Mr Farrar said such issues would be picked up as part of the authority’s focus on improving places to attract investment.

He said affordable housing was “writ large in our economic framework”, adding:

“You can’t deliver a successful York and North Yorkshire if people can’t afford to live there.

“We know public transport is a challenge, we don’t quite know what the answer is to that problem. The mayor will bring the ability to invest, to find out the solution and put it in place.

“We are not thinking the mayor will swan in and answer difficult issues immediately. I think there needs to be a strategic review across the piece.”

Cycling infrastructure in Harrogate and Knaresborough ‘absolutely terrible’

Councillors have criticised North Yorkshire Council for not prioritising the needs of cyclists in Harrogate.

At a meeting of Harrogate and Knaresborough councillors, Alex Kay, the council’s senior transport planning officer delivered a presentation that included options for future cycle links in the town.

These included Bilton to Starbeck and Jennyfields to the town centre with cost estimates running into the millions.

In recent years the council has built a widely-criticised stretch of cycle route on Otley Road and abandoned the next phase, scrapped a Low-Traffic Neighbourhood on Beech Grove and decided against creating a one-way system on Oatlands Drive.

Meanwhile, funding bids have been rejected by the government for new cycle paths on Knaresborough Road and Victoria Avenue.

Its flagship active travel scheme, the £12.1m Harrogate Station Gateway, has also been drastically scaled back following opposition from local businesses with only a small section of Station Parade now set to include a cycle lane.

Cllr Matt Walker, a Liberal Democrat for Knaresborough West, criticised the state of the cycle infrastructure in the area.

He said:

“To improve things you have to acknowledge there’s a problem. Active travel is absolutely terrible. Roads are gridlocked and full of potholes, buses are missed all the time between Harrogate and Knaresborough.

“We have to make improvements and the council needs to step its game up. It needs to get its act together so people can get out of cars and get around in a quick and environmentally-friendly way.”

Cllr Arnold Warneken, a member of the Green Party for Ouseburn, added:

“The frustration of people who want to cycle in Harrogate and Knaresborough isn’t being taken seriously.”

With several of the proposals put forward by the council years from being built, Cllr Paul Haslam, an Independent for Bilton and Nidd Gorge, said there are not enough “shovel-ready” schemes on the table.

The council’s predecessor North Yorkshire County Council undertook a much-publicised Harrogate Congestion Survey in 2019 which showed there was an appetite for improving walking and cycling infrastructure in the town so people are incentivised to leave their cars at home.

Cllr Philip Broadbank, a Liberal Dem for Fairfax and Starbeck, said:

“I get frustrated with talks and plans and various things we spend time preparing [regarding cycling] yet year-in-year-out nothing happens.”

However, Cllr John Mann, a Conservative for Oatlands and Pannal, defended the council and said it “hadn’t done a bad job” on active travel in his constituency.

Cllr Mann said:

“They’ve installed numerous cycle lanes, several 20mph zones, and school streets. The gateway scheme has not been without teething problems and it’s progressing.

“We shouldn’t be too hard on the highways team. The bigger picture is difficult on financing and funds. Costs of construction projects have gone up enormously and inflation is huge.”

Cycling infrastructure in Harrogate and Knaresborough ‘absolutely terrible’

Councillors have criticised North Yorkshire Council for not prioritising the needs of cyclists in Harrogate.

At a meeting of Harrogate and Knaresborough councillors, Alex Kay, the council’s senior transport planning officer delivered a presentation that included options for future cycle links in the town.

These included Bilton to Starbeck and Jennyfields to the town centre with cost estimates running into the millions.

Meanwhile, funding bids have been rejected by the government for new cycle paths on Knaresborough Road and Victoria Avenue.

Cllr Matt Walker, a Liberal Democrat for Knaresborough West, criticised the state of the cycle infrastructure in the area.

He said:

“To improve things you have to acknowledge there’s a problem. Active travel is absolutely terrible. Roads are gridlocked and full of potholes, buses are missed all the time between Harrogate and Knaresborough.

“We have to make improvements and the council needs to step its game up. It needs to get its act together so people can get out of cars and get around in a quick and environmentally-friendly way.”

Cllr Arnold Warneken, a member of the Green Party for Ouseburn, added:

“The frustration of people who want to cycle in Harrogate and Knaresborough isn’t being taken seriously.”

Cllr Philip Broadbank, a Liberal Dem for Fairfax and Starbeck, said:

“I get frustrated with talks and plans and various things we spend time preparing [regarding cycling] yet year-in-year-out nothing happens.”

However, Cllr John Mann, a Conservative for Oatlands and Pannal, defended the council and said it “hadn’t done a bad job” on active travel in his constituency.

Cllr Mann said:

“They’ve installed numerous cycle lanes, several 20mph zones, and school streets. The gateway scheme has not been without teething problems and it’s progressing.

“We shouldn’t be too hard on the highways team. The bigger picture is difficult on financing and funds. Costs of construction projects have gone up enormously and inflation is huge.”

Young flautist and actor win top prizes at Harrogate Competitive Festival

Flautist Alannah Saphir was crowned Young Musician of the Festival and actor Isabella Withy won the Speech & Drama Championship at the final concert of this year’s Harrogate Competitive Festival for Music, Speech and Drama.

Alannah, a sixth former at St. Aidan’s, performed the last two movements of Carl Reinecke’s challenging sonata Undine, the same work that won her the woodwind section final two weeks before.

Alannah, who is about to take her A levels, has been playing the flute since the age of six. She already holds a performance diploma and is also a talented pianist. She currently studies both instruments with her mum Nichola, herself a professional musician and Royal College of Music alumnus. Nichola said:

“We are so delighted and proud of this achievement. It has come just at the right time for her.”

Alannah hopes to study at one of the London conservatoires next year and will be preparing for auditions after leaving school.

Isabella, who attends Ripon Grammar School, reached the finals of the competition after coming first in the Shakespeare category with a solo piece from Twelfth Night. She also performed a duo from the play Bird with her fellow student Amber Stevenson-Mian.

The 18 year old has ambitions for a career in theatre and television, and is hoping to pursue an acting degree next year. She has already secured offers from the prestigious Guildford School of Acting and the Chichester Conservatoire.

Isabella entered the festival with a group of students from the Upstage Academy in Ripon, which she joined when she was nine. Her win marked the fourth year running that Upstage have won the festival’s overall speech and drama trophy. The academy’s founder, Amelia Urukalo, said:

“Issy has been entering the festival since primary school and this is her last year before she leaves us, so for her to win is incredible.”

The Harrogate Competitive Festival has been a mainstay of the town’s artistic life since 1936 when it was established as an educational trust by the then Harrogate Town Council.

This year’s festival, which attracted more than 1,000 entries, was held over three weekends at Harrogate High School this month.

Nowadays, it is run by a large team of volunteers and a committee that works all year round.

Harrogate residents say convention centre visitors stealing parking spaces

Residents who live in the shadow of Harrogate Convention Centre say they are struggling to park outside their own homes due to spots being taken by visitors to the facility.

John Birkenshaw told Harrogate and Knaresborough councillors that a group of 61 residents living on Springfield Avenue, Spring Grove, Spring Mount and Springfield Mews had signed a petition calling for parking restrictions to be toughened up around the area to stop the current system being “abused” by visitors to the town.

On these streets, the North Yorkshire Council allows motorists to leave their vehicles for up to three hours for free if they display a parking disc.

However, after 6pm parking restrictions end until the morning.

Mr Birkenshaw said spaces are being filled by people attending events at the convention centre and shows at the Royal Hall with the problem worsening in recent years.

He said:

“They regularly park in these streets, often overnight, to save on parking fees.”

Mr Birkenshaw said residents had purchased residential parking and visitor permits from the council but “can’t benefit from the privileges they are paying for.”

He added:

“Many of us park hundreds of yards away which is a safety issue for residents when there’s poor weather, dark nights and uneven pavements.”

A statement was read out on behalf of senior council transport officer Melisa Burnham that said traffic regulation orders could eventually be issued on the streets.

However, she added there are several stages in the council’s process before it could finally be implemented.

Cllr Peter Lacey, Liberal Democrat councillor for Coppice Valley & Duchy division, said this illustrates the “tortuous” routes residents need to go through from the council to get a “blatantly obvious” solution to their problem.

He added:

“The local group are not warriors, they just want to see sense. I’ve wanted to champion their cause because it’s perfectly reasonable and sensible.”

Council confirms closure of Nidderdale primary school with no pupils

Fountains Earth Church of England Primary School will officially close for good at the end of this month.

North Yorkshire Council’s Conservative-run executive met yesterday in Northallerton to approve the closure following a consultation.

The school in Lofthouse near Pateley Bridge has faced dwindling pupil numbers in recent years and currently has no pupils on its books.

The council’s executive member for education Annabel Wilkinson said “nobody wants to close a small school” and it was “a very hard decision”.

Fountains Earth is part of Upper Nidderdale Federation alongside St Cuthbert’s Church of England Primary School in Pateley Bridge and Glasshouses Community Primary School.

Earlier in the meeting, Cllr Andrew Murday (Liberal Democrat, Pateley Bridge and Nidderdale) pleaded with councillors to delay a decision as he called for an investigation to take place first into the leadership of the school’s federation related to its academic and financial performance as well as communication with parents.

He noted that the school received a ‘good’ rating from Ofsted in 2022 and if the issues were resolved, he believes parents would bring their children back.

Cllr Murday said:

“There would be pupils if the dispute with the federation hadn’t happened. Families have put houses up for sale because the school’s not there. It’s a chicken and egg situation.

“Rural schools are important for communities and they gain something from being small and within the community.”

However, the council’s legal officer Barry Khan suggested it would be out of its remit to investigate governance at the federation.

The number of pupils at the school had declined from 20 in 2017 to 10 in 2022.

This led executive member for finance Cllr Gareth Dadd to say keeping a school open with such few potential pupils “would be doing a disservice to those children”.

Cllr Greg White, executive member for environment, said for rural schools to remain open, residents need to “breed and have children”.

Cllr Dadd said:

“I feel very uncomfortable sending a child to a primary school with 8 pupils. I don’t think it can be beneficial to that child. It’s not just about education it’s about social interaction as well.”

Amanda Newbold, assistant director for education and skills at North Yorkshire Council, said this had been a factor when parents withdrew their children.

She said:

“Four to 11-year-olds were being taught in one class. This was a challenge for the one member of staff who then moved on and the school struggled to recruit. They relied on agency staff or other teachers from the federation.

“When a child became the only one in their year group, the parents wanted to move them to schools with other children their own age to prepare for secondary school.”

The school will officially close on March 31 and its catchment area will become part of St Cuthbert’s Church of England Primary School in Pateley Bridge.