Editor’s Pick of the Week: A new Harrogate restaurant and ongoing battles to save trees

Harrogate’s new fine-dining restaurant Rhubarb created quite a stir this week, especially as its town centre location has proved a graveyard for several recent ventures.

Today our food writer, Masterchef semi-finalist and Harrogate resident Yemi Adelekan, reviews it.

On the topic of good food, we also revealed the local entries in the latest Michelin Guide.

Besides food, trees have dominated the local news landscape. Some have been felled at the former gasworks where Tesco is starting sitework on its new Harrogate supermarket.

Campaigners are doing their utmost to resist 450 being felled in Rotary Wood, where Harrogate Spring Water’s expansion plans took a step forward.

In Ripon, the cathedral announced it was still open to ways of saving a veteran beech tree due to be felled as part of a new development on Minster Gardens — but none has been identified yet.

Some weird and wonderful things have been happening in Knaresborough. Tonight the town hosts a show featuring local burlesque performer Foxie Gingerella, better known locally as businesswoman Sarah Lowe, from beauty salon Orchis Escape. And did you see our article about another person having to be rescued from public toilets on Waterside?

It’s difficult to follow that — enjoy the weekend content.

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Ripon Cathedral announces next steps for controversial annexe plan

Ripon Cathedral will host drop-in consultation events in February and March where cathedral members will answer questions regarding its controversial plans to build a new annexe.

The cathedral “paused” its planning application to North Yorkshire Council last month following opposition from campaigners and local businesses.

According to a document published today, senior figures at the cathedral still appear committed to the extension — which it now says would cost £8 million. The figure was previously believed to be about £6 million.

However, a spokesperson said it hopes that through the consultation events it can identify areas of “creative thinking” with possible amendments made to the plans.

They said at present, the cathedral has not yet found an alternative to chopping down 11 trees. But it added the future of a veteran beech tree “remains open”.

A Q&A on its website answers some of the key questions posed by critics of the scheme. These include its potential impact on businesses and whether the annexe could be built elsewhere within the footprint of the cathedral.

It maintains the annexe is crucial to offer 21st century facilities whilst safeguarding the future of its choir.

The proposed new song school and cafe would be built next to the cathedral on Minster Gardens.

Local businesses have said it will take trade away from them and there have been protests against the felling of the trees.

Trees in Minster Gardens

A spokesperson said:

“It is hoped that a pause in the planning application to allow for additional consultation will prompt a genuine exchange of views, the sharing of informed ideas and the constructive discussion of concerns raised.”

You can read the Q&A in full here.

Drop-in events will be held at the cathedral on the dates and at the times shown below.

One event on Thursday March 7, from 9am-12pm, will take place at Ripon Town Hall,

February

March

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Harrogate manager Simon Weaver named Manager of the Month

Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver has been named SkyBet League Two Manager of the Month for January.

Weaver guided his side into the promotion race with 10 points from four unbeaten matches.

He said:

“I think this award should go to the whole management team. Everyone does contribute so much to the cause, the staff, the players, we are all here together.”

Weaver has guided his side up the table.

Danny Wilson who chairs the Sky Bet Championship Manager of the Month judging panel, said:

“Four unbeaten games in January and 10 points returned is a fantastic run considering the injury list Simon has had to deal with.

“With the momentum gaining pace, Harrogate find themselves on the brink of the play off places with some very exciting fixtures coming up.”

Celebrating with Town colleagues.

Sky Sports’ EFL pundit Don Goodman described Town as “the form team in League One and Simon Weaver deserves a lot of credit”.

He added:

“They are now in the chase for a play-off position and have hit their stride at the perfect time.”

The Sulphurites started the season 100/30 favourites for relegation but are now 33/1 to be promoted and 7/1 to make the play offs.

They entertain Colchester United this weekend at the EnviroVent Stadium on Wetherby Road.

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Grassroots funding awarded to Harrogate football clubs

Four football clubs in the Harrogate district have been awarded grants from the government as part of the Multi-Sport Grassroots Fund.

The fund will award £93 million in 2023-24 to more than 1,100 projects around the country.

In total the Harrogate district was awarded £5,077 between the four clubs, with all of them applying for goalpost funding. 

Applicants could apply for a range of facilities including football turf, floodlights, pavilions, goalposts, changing rooms and improving sports access.

The Harrogate district clubs which were successful in securing grassroots funding were: 

The aim of the funding was to increase participation in sport amongst underrepresented groups and target communities most in need. 

Currently, the focus within underrepresented groups is to increase the involvement of women and girls, disabled players and those in deprived areas. 

The government funding is partnered with investments from the English FA and the Premier League. 

Conservative MP for Skipton and Ripon, Julian Smith, said:

“This is great news for these local clubs. 

“The government is making a real investment in grassroots sports as we make significant progress towards meeting our ambitious target of 3.5 million more people active by 2030.”

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Harrogate’s Ashville College to end boarding next year

Harrogate‘s Ashville College is to phase out boarding by next year as part of a major new masterplan.

The fee-paying school said the masterplan would see “the biggest investment in its academic and sporting facilities in its history”.

But it will also result in the end of boarding after almost 150 years as Ashville begins a new era exclusively for day pupils, who currently account for more than 90 per cent of its intake.

Chair of governors Jamie Search described the decision as “sensible — and inevitable”.

He added:

“Decisions we have taken about boarding will allow us to fulfil our aim of becoming the school of first choice for those parents in the Harrogate, and the wider Harrogate area, who want independent education for their children aged 2-18.

“In the UK independent sector, boarding education as a concept has been under considerable pressure for some time, exacerbated by the covid pandemic.”

Ashville’s campus

Mr Search added:

“Ashville is a day school with some boarding and is, therefore, very different to a full boarding school.

“Like many similar schools, where boarding is a small and decreasing part of its operation, Ashville has not been immune to these trends. We now have about a third of the number of boarders we had 10 years ago and we occupy only two of our four boarding houses.”

Current Year 10 and lower sixth boarders will be able to complete their current stage of education, whether at GCSE or ‘A’ Level.

Ashville said in a statement it was “working to support families of pupils who currently board by offering one-to-one specialist advice and guidance, including signposting them to alternative boarding schools, before boarding at Ashville ceases in July 2025″.

It added the school was already working with architects and designers on its new vision and would share more details and images next term.

Rhiannon Wilkinson, Ashville head

Rhiannon Wilkinson

Head Rhiannon Wilkinson said in a letter to parents:

“The decision to wind down boarding is made from a position of confidence and it brings us many opportunities as an all-through, co-educational day school.

“We will be able to develop our teaching spaces to accommodate the new styles of teaching and learning and curriculum design which a changing world of work necessitates.”

She added:

“We have plans to develop social and study spaces for our pupils and we are keen to invest further in our sporting facilities.

“We also want to redesign and upgrade a number of other areas across the campus as we further develop a modern learning environment for all our pupils.”

 Founded in 1877, Ashville College caters for boys and girls aged 2-18 years. It consists of Acorns Early Years, and Ashville’s prep school, senior school and sixth form.

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Harrogate Spring Water submits controversial expansion plans

Harrogate Spring Water announced today it has formally submitted plans to expand its bottling plant.

The company wants to fell 450 trees, including some planted by schoolchildren in the 2000s, to develop its site off Harlow Moor Road in Harrogate.

Harrogate Spring Water is a major local employer and one of the town’s best known brands. But its bid to remove trees from Rotary Wood to create more plastic bottles has generated national controversy.

The Stray Ferret has been following the issue closely. We published this summary of the long-running saga in November shortly after Harrogate Spring Water said it planned to create a publicly accessible 1,200-tree woodland to offset the loss of trees.

The firm, which is owned by French multinational Danone, held a consultation event later that month, which attracted protestors from the Save Rotary Wood campaign group, which accused the company of greenwash.

Today Harrogate Spring Water said it had submitted plans and “is now working with the authority to progress the proposal”.

The 1,200 saplings would be planted on two acres of land immediately next to Rotary Wood and to the rear of the existing Harrogate Spring Water operations.

Richard Hall

Richard Hall, managing director at Harrogate Spring Water, said:

“As a business whose success is rooted in the town of Harrogate and its people, it is really important for us to work in partnership with the local community.

“The local community has been very clear in expressing their concern about the potential loss of trees from part of Rotary Wood which an expanded production facility could bring.

“This is why at the heart of our reserved matters application is a new community woodland which will be fully accessible to the public and we hope will become a valued resource for the local community for many years to come.”

Harrogate Spring Water has also pledged to plant 260 trees on the current Rotary Wood site where it aims to expand its production facilities.

Its press release today said “taken together with the new community woodland, this means that any trees in Rotary Wood which are removed as a result of the proposed expansion will be replaced by a ratio of 3:1”.

The release added the company was working alongside forestry experts to identify other locations in Harrogate where an additional 1,500 trees will be planted, further improving the replacement rate.

Harrogate spring water

The company’s headquarters on Harlow Moor Road.

The expansion would help to create more than 50 jobs plus 20 more during construction.

Harrogate Spring Water secured outline planning permission for its expansion in 2017 from Harrogate Borough Council, which means the principle of development has been established.

The reserved matters application put forward now to North Yorkshire Council contains details on the size and design of the expanded production facility as well as information on matters including landscaping.

Councillors on the Liberal Democrat-controlled 13-person Harrogate and Knaresborough planning committee will decide whether to approve the application.

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North Yorkshire fire service buys ‘pre-loved’ fire engines to cut costs

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service has started buying “pre-loved fire engines” to replace its decades old appliances as a means of balancing the books.

A meeting of the North Yorkshire and York’s police, fire and crime panel heard yesterday the service was “very close to breaking” due to a lack of government funding.

This was despite charging residents three per cent more next year for fire services and making £540,000 of savings for the second year in succession.

The meeting heard the service, which protects 820,000 residents, had recently replaced part of its 20-year-old fleet with 11-year-old appliances from a fire service that was replacing its equipment with brand new vehicles.

Chief fire officer Jonathan Dyson said the national standard was for all fire appliances to be replaced by their 15th year because after that time it became “incredibly difficult” to replace parts, but North Yorkshire’s relatively low use of appliances meant fire engines faced less wear and tear.

He said:

“Whichever face I turn someone is unhappy about what we’re trying to do here. Everything is being directed towards frontline prevention or appliances and crew.”

Chief financial officer Michael Porter said the service had ordered 16 brand new vehicles, 12 of which would be delivered next year, and it was also in the process of trying to buy another 15 second-hand appliances.

He said:

“The age of those 15 will be in the region of six to seven years old, so that will mean we will have 31 which will be relatively new, that’s about three-quarters of our appliance stock within the service.”

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Panel member and former judge Martin Walker told the meeting he was particularly concerned about the service’s ability to replace its ageing appliances.

He said:

“With the best will in the world, due to financial constraints, having to buy 11-year-old vehicles, however well maintained or well built they are, is a timebomb. Even with small fire engines, which are becoming more of the norm… we are not talking about a small amount of money.”

Mr Porter said even though the fire service had learnt it would receive about £400,000 more from the government than it had been expecting last month, it would face significant financial distress for years to come if the nationally agreed pay rise for firefighters was above three per cent.

North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime commissioner Zoe Metcalfe nodded as Mr Porter told the panel:

“It does continue to be exceptionally challenging and tight. The 2.99 per cent proposed increase is below what we expect inflation to be for the financial year and is certainly below what we’re seeing in our cost increases.”

Mrs Metcalfe said she had made “strong representations” to the Home Office about the impact of pay if it went above three per cent and that the government’s funding formula for the service needed reviewing.

She added:

“It’s really innovative practise to be able to buy pre-owned… it’s going to save the service in the long-term millions of pounds. It’s really thinking outside the box as unfortunately we’re not in the position our neighbouring fire services are in.”

Council leader says Keane Duncan can fulfil duties during campervan tour

Conservative council leader Carl Les has said Keane Duncan should have time to campaign to be mayor whilst fulfilling his duties as executive member for transport.

But he warned “if he’s not pulling his weight” whilst touring the county in a campervan he will speak to him about it.

Cllr Duncan is the Conservative candidate for the York and North Yorkshire mayoral elections on May 2 but is also in charge of transport in Cllr Les’s executive.

It has led to concern that he won’t be able to give his executive role full attention.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service at the launch of the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority on Thursday, Cllr Les said Cllr Duncan has been attending all informal and formal meetings of the executive since starting his 100-tour and has also been keeping in touch with council transport officers.

Cllr Les said:

“He believes he can do both. I’ve seen no evidence that he isn’t fulfilling his role as executive member.

“He’s given up his day job too, so he has more time available each week. I’m sure he’s an honourable person and if he can’t feel he can do both roles he’ll speak to me about it. If I feel he’s not pulling his weight, I’ll speak to him.”

Before embarking on his trip around North Yorkshire to meet the electorate, Cllr Duncan stepped down from his job as a journalist at the Daily Star.

Cllr Les added:

“What he does need to do is because he’s a member of North Yorkshire Council’s executive he needs to make sure he doesn’t breach protocols about using council resources to promote himself.

“At the moment, I have no evidence he is and he needs to continue to do the job that I’ve asked him to do on the executive.”

If Cllr Duncan becomes mayor, Cllr Les will be one of two North Yorkshire councillors on the combined authority board with him. City of York Council will also have two members.

Cllr Les said Cllr Duncan didn’t need to ask his permission for the tour, which he described as eye-catching.

He added:

“He thinks that’s the right way to deliver his campaign and reach out to people. The acid test is, is he going to win and will that campaign find favour with the electorate?”

Who is standing to be mayor?

The Green Party has chosen former soldier Kevin Foster as its candidate.

Keith Tordoff will stand as an independent after previously announcing he would run for the Yorkshire Party.

Keane Duncan, who is currently in charge of transport on North Yorkshire Council, is standing for the Conservatives.

Labour has chosen local business owner and chair of the York High Street Forum David Skaith.

The Liberal Democrats have not yet decided who its candidate will be.

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New fine dining restaurant opens in Harrogate

A fine dining restaurant has opened in the premises above Sukhothai on Harrogate’s Cheltenham Crescent.

Rhubarb Harrogate serves modern British cuisine under Bradford-born head chef Varun Khanna. Silviu Hasna is the restaurant director.

It offers a tasting menu at £79, a three-course set lunch for £29 and an a la carte menu that includes dishes such as monkfish tail for £29 and venison haunch for £32.

The site has had a chequered recent history. After being occupied by Le Bistrot Pierre for many years. It was briefly Samsons, HG1 Grill and World Bar and most recently The Rooftop.

The latter — a Mexican restaurant and cocktail bar — closed after just two days in August last year.

According to the restaurant’s website, Rhubarb Harrogate is an “understated modern British restaurant, where carefully sourced local ingredients take centre stage” led by “a talented chef with serious culinary heritage”.

It adds:

“Varun provides a dining experience that epitomises quality, sourcing ingredients locally to showcase the very best produce Yorkshire has to offer.”

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‘Warm and welcoming’ Dacre Braithwaite school rated ‘good’ by Ofsted

Dacre Braithwaite Church of England Primary School has been awarded a ‘good’ rating in an Ofsted report. 

Inspectors visited the Nidderdale school in November 2023, and their findings were published on Friday.

The report rated the overall effectiveness of the school as good, but noted that early years provision required some improvement. 

It described the school, which is four miles from Pateley Bridge, as a “warm and welcoming haven set in the Yorkshire Dales.”

The report said:

“It is a friendly, caring school. Pupils enjoy being part of the Dacre Braithwaite ‘family’. They say they are proud to attend here.”

It said children feel safe and behave well and the school is ambitious for pupils’ achievement.

Reading is “given high priority”, staff are “well trained” and “staff and pupils talk about phonics with confidence”.

Three areas of improvement were identified in the report, which said “children are not as well prepared for the next stage in their education as they might be”. Some activities can lack purpose, or are without sufficient challenge to the pupils, inspectors added.

Dacre Braithwaite, which has 84 children, is part of the Leeds Diocesan Learning Trust. 

Headteacher Jo Dobbs said:

“We are very pleased with the results of the report.”

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