A Harrogate headteacher has said he is torn between his head and heart over this week’s teacher strike.

Children in years seven to 10 and year 12 at Harrogate Grammar School will study remotely from home on Wednesday when the first of four days of planned industrial action take place.

Pupils in years 11 and 13 will attend school as usual and have lessons if teachers are not striking.

Speaking on the BBC News channel today, headteacher Neil Renton said half of the school’s 115 staff belonged to the National Education Union, whose members had balloted in favour of the strikes.

Mr Renton said that as head he was keen to ensure the school stayed open but at the same time he could see the issues teachers faced and he therefore had conflicting emotions between his head and heart.

He said “there are just not enough teachers out there” and added one recent vacancy for an English teacher at the 2,000-pupil school attracted just one application.

Mr Renton, who said the union he belonged to would not be on strike this week, said too many teachers were leaving the profession. He added:

“If this continues and we are not able to work with government and ministers to create an education for the future I would, as an educator, want to take steps to make sure we make a much brighter education for our children.”

Read more:

• Some Harrogate Grammar School pupils to study at home during teacher strike
• Harrogate school to recruit fourth headteacher in two years

Harrogate Borough Council has accepted an undisclosed sum to allow a footpath to be diverted at RHS Garden Harlow Carr.

The horticultural charity wants to divert the public right of way as part of wider plans for its Harrogate site. They include converting the former Harrogate Arms into a café and felling 33 trees to restore historic views.

A report to the council’s Cabinet this week says the local authority has accepted a sum, as landowner, to amend the route — however, the amount has not been released to the public.

The Conservative-controlled council is expected to ratify the decision on Wednesday.

The report says the ” relatively minor alteration” will be on land outside that presently leased to the RHS on which the footpath currently runs.

It adds:

“The RHS want the public right of way relocated in order to facilitate their preferred redevelopment scheme for the former Harrogate Arms public house which will create additional catering and teaching facilities on the site, relocation of the public right of way enables greater integration of this asset with their existing facilities.

“This represents an opportunity to generate an unplanned capital receipt which is financially beneficial and economically advantageous to the council.

“Should the opportunity be missed there is very little alternative potential to generate a similar payment for land in this area. This land offers no identifiable potential for long term capital appreciation aside from the current opportunity presented.”

The existing footpath

The new footpath

The report adds the public right of way will still be accessible from Crag Lane to Cardale Woodland and the changes will improve the footpath for walkers once work is complete.

It says the decision is “separate” to other RHS planning applications for the site but adds:

“Refusal could curtail RHS’ plans to develop a property (the former Harrogate Arms public house) that is currently derelict and which has been vacant for a number of years.”

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Andrew Willoughby, footpath secretary of Harrogate Group of Ramblers, said it did not object to the proposal. He added:

“In order to incorporate the old Harrogate Arms pub building into the RHS Harlow Carr garden site means moving the footpath away from the old car park at the front of the building, and walking around the back of the pub instead.

“The path will then drop towards the beck and cross on a new bridge before continuing through the woods as it presently does. It won’t be the same, but I don’t think it will be any less convenient for people to walk on.”

Police are appealing for information after a crash in Harrogate in which a vehicle failed to stop.

North Yorkshire Police said this morning a black Lambretta scooter and a red 4×4 style vehicle were involved in a crash between 9.45am and 10am on on Saturday.

It occurred on Skipton Road near the Empress roundabout.

A police statement said:

“The red vehicle failed to stop at the scene and continued towards the Empress roundabout.

“The rider of the scooter suffered injuries and was taken to hospital for treatment.”

It urged witnesses or anyone with dashcam footage or information to come forward.

You can contact North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2, and ask for PC1282 BURGESS. You can also email 001282@northyorkshire.police.uk.

Quote the North Yorkshire Police reference number 12230016678.

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• Harrogate’s Rachel Daly scores four in Women’s FA Cup

Harrogate’s Rachel Daly continued her fantastic form when she scored four goals for Aston Villa Women in the Women’s FA Cup yesterday.

Villa cruised to an 11-0 win over AFC Fylde to reach the last 16 of the competition.

England star Daly, who started her career with Killinghall Nomads, opened the scoring in the second minute and added a second as her side went 6-0 up after 25 minutes.

She was denied a 13-minute hat-trick when her penalty was saved but still notched a couple more after the interval.

Daly, who played as a defender during England Lionesses’ Euro 2022 victory last year, is having a remarkable first season in the West Midlands since her summer transfer from Houston Dash.

Playing up front, she is along with Manchester City’s Khadija Shaw the joint highest scorer in the Women’s Super League with nine in 11 matches — which doesn’t include her FA Cup goals.

She has twice been named Barclays Women’s Super League Player of the Month this season.

The draw for the fifth round of the Women’s FA Cup takes place at 6.30pm tonight on the BBC’s Sportsday show on the BBC news channel and BBC iPlayer.

Read more:

• Petition launched to honour all England Lionesses — including Harrogate’s Rachel Daly
• Harrogate’s Rachel Daly named WSL Player of the Month — again!

A new professional choir based in Ripon that performs everything from choral music to opera is putting on a local concert.

Jervaulx Singers was founded by Charlie Gower-Smith and Jenny Bianco, who are based in North Yorkshire and perform across the UK.

Group members include baritone Edmund Danon, who has performed at the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne, Opera North, Cadogan Hall and the London Southbank; Yorkshire-born mezzo-soprano Beth Moxon has performed as ‘L’enfant’ in Ravel’s ‘Lenfant et les sortilèges’ for Opéra de Lyon and Royal Opera House Muscat; bass Laurence Williams, who has toured the Messiah solos with Stephen Layton to Australia, singing with the Auckland Philharmonic and soprano Eleanor Garside, who was described in The Guardian as giving a ‘standout performance’ in Waterperry Opera’s Mansfield Park by Jonathan Dove.

Further details of the Sharow event are available here.

Read more:

• Harrogate district festival launches £7,000 search for classical singers
• Bishop of Ripon formally departs — with no successor imminent

Harrogate firefighters were called out in the early hours of this morning to a report of a female locked out of her home where a pair of hair straighteners had been left turned on.

Fearing the straighteners could catch fire, the crew managed to get into the house via a first floor bedroom window — and discovered no straighteners had in fact been left turned on.

The call to the house on Hookstone Avenue came at 2.06am.

Earlier, firefighters from Knaresborough were called to a small fire in the open on Castlegate at 6.39pm.

They located the fire, which consisted of books and paper, and extinguished it using buckets of water.

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Keane Duncan is only 28 but he has already packed a lot into his political career.

At 19 he was selected as a Conservative candidate for election on to Ryedale District Council. The following year he was elected and at 24 he became council leader.

At 22, he became the youngest ever North Yorkshire county councillor and after being re-elected in May last year he was appointed executive member for highways and transportation — the most high profile role on the executive besides the leader. Criticism — often fierce — is part of the brief.

He says:

“The role I have got right now has been the biggest political challenge I’ve had. We cover an area five times the size of Greater London.

“Everybody has got an opinion on transport and everybody wants to express it. It is difficult to switch off because I feel very heavily the weight of responsibility that I’ve got.

“But it’s my home area. North Yorkshire is where I’m born and bred and an area that I want to do everything I can to improve.”

The role includes oversight of major schemes including the £11.2 million Harrogate Station Gateway, the £70 million realignment of the A59 at Kex Gill, introducing a Harrogate park and ride and the headache-inducing Otley Road cycle route.

He became the youngest ever North Yorkshire county councillor at the age of 22.

Cllr Duncan, who was born in Malton in Ryedale, has also got six other districts besides Harrogate to worry about, not to mention countywide problems such as potholes and trying to prevent a mass cull of bus services at the end of March.

Councillors aren’t paid but they do receive allowances. Cllr Duncan currently receives a basic allowance of £10,316 per year plus £15,939 for his executive portfolio. These sums are set to rise to £15,500 and £19,554 respectively when North Yorkshire County Council is replaced by North Yorkshire Council on April 1.

When he isn’t on council duty he works as deputy news editor of the Daily Star, writing recently about everything from a monster python attacking a child to the death of former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev — who left power before Cllr Duncan was born.

He says:

“I work full-time in my journalism role and I would say I work full-time plus in my executive role so there is a lot of pressure. It does take a lot of time but I’m committed to my council duties.”

‘I believe in Conservative principles’

Cllr Duncan, a keen gym-goer, was the most eye-catching appointment to leader Carl Les’ 10-person executive, which is effectively his Cabinet, not least because he was 45 years younger than his predecessor Don Mackenzie.

During our interview, Cllr Duncan gave updates on the Otley Road cycle route and the gateway but we also wanted to know what has driven him since his teens to pursue politics so vigorously and what kind of Conservative he is. Even his degree is in politics. He says:

“Fundamentally I believe in Conservative principles — that is people taking responsibility, low taxes, everything you would expect from a Conservative.

“I do think I look at things slightly differently to some of my colleagues. That is maybe a result of being from a younger generation but I have always been prepared to make my own mind up on things. That isn’t always easy but I have done this for eight years through university and all my working life so far.

“I enjoy being a councillor and serving the public and for people who aren’t involved in local politics that’s difficult to explain and articulate. But it’s something I can’t imagine not having in my life.”

Pictured in Harrogate

Here’s what he had to say on the key local transport issues.

Kex Gill start ‘imminent’

Realigning the landslip-hit A59 at Kex Gill is “the most ambitious highways capital project that the county council has ever embarked on”, says Cllr Duncan.

Work has been delayed many times but the scheme is due to start any day. He said it was a deceptively complex project:

“On a map it looks very simple but we know there are all the engineering challenges this scheme presents. But we are committed to delivering this scheme.”

‘More comprehensive’ active travel schemes

The council’s commitment to active travel has been questioned by Harrogate District Cycle Action after Cllr Duncan indicated the second phase of the Otley Road cycle route won’t proceed.

Other cycling schemes on Beech Grove and Victoria Avenue in Harrogate have failed to progress, along with another scheme for Harrogate Road in Knaresborough.

It seems they may now be shelved too as wider, more ambitious plans are drawn up after the council submits a bid to the fourth round of funding by Active Travel England, which funded the schemes.

He said:

“We are progressing on those schemes but there’s the prospect of further funding in active travel round four and there might be a case for using funding we have already secured and funding we might secure in that round to deliver much more comprehensive active travel schemes in the future. So we are really just waiting to see the outcomes of that.

“We are looking to improve those corridors but there might be more comprehensive things we can do in those locations but they would require further funding so we are working closely with Active Travel England, discussing our plans and proposals, and they are saying ‘don’t deliver a scheme just because you have funding for that element of a scheme, take a step back and look at the bigger picture and if you need further funding to deliver a more comprehensive scheme then we want to work with you to provide that’.”

Read more:

• Local Liberal Democrats could determine fate of £11.2m Harrogate Station Gateway
• Cycling group questions commitment to active travel in Harrogate district
• Harrogate’s Otley Road cycleway: next phase looks set to be shelved

Speaking at County Hall in Northallerton

Park and ride location uncertain

The council previously said it had identified two possible sites for a park and ride in Pannal on land near Pannal Golf Club and the Buttersyke Bar roundabout south of the village.

These were identified as they connect to the 36 bus service which runs between Harrogate, Ripon and Leeds on the A61.

But it seems this too is under review. Asked about the Pannal options, Cllr Duncan said:

“As far as I’m concerned that is one of many sites that have been explored so I wouldn’t want to rule anything in or out at this stage but certainly work is ongoing at this stage in the hope that we can get a positive outcome from it.

“I’m open minded about that and want to wait and see the outcomes of the analysis we are doing. I have not yet had confirmation as to when this is expected to conclude.”

Buses face ‘cliff edge’

Although funding for the 24 service between Pateley Bridge and Harrogate was secured for another year this week, Cllr Duncan says 79 services in North Yorkshire are at risk of reduced frequency of service or ceasing altogether.

D-Day is fast approaching. He says:

“Passenger numbers are 80% of where they were before the covid pandemic on average.

“Operating costs and staffing costs have increased significantly and that has created this perfect storm. The scale of that challenge will far exceed the £1.6m of subsidy we set aside every year which has been the case since 2016.

“The cliff edge moment is going to be March when the central government funding comes to an end. But when the people of North Yorkshire are for whatever reason not using buses, it wouldn’t be right to then ask the public to pay more to subsidise services they are not using. That is not sustainable.

“The only real way forward is passengers. Passengers are the key to this problem and we need people to use buses.”

Just 44% of 999 calls in North Yorkshire are being answered on time, according to figures in a new report.

The report by the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner‘s office said the national target is for 90% of 999 calls to be answered in under 10 seconds.

But between November 2021 and November 2022, only 44% were answered within this time in the county.

The document also revealed that between February and December 2022, the average non-emergency 101 call answer time ranged from 4 minutes and 3 seconds to 10 minutes and 17 seconds. Unlike for 999 calls, nationally there is no imposed target for answering 101 calls.

Police, fire and crime commissioner Zoe Metcalfe has described the figures as “unacceptable”.

Her office has awarded the force control room  a £1.8 million a year to improve the times.

The report, which will be debated by North Yorkshire County Council‘s police, fire and crime panel on February 6, said:

“This investment will enable the Chief Constable to fund 36 additional communications officers, 12 additional dispatchers, six established trainers and two additional police inspectors.”

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The document highlights how call volume has increased, saying:

“Nationally there has been a 16% increase in 999 calls to the police, and 2022 saw the highest number of emergency calls to North Yorkshire Police ever in one month (over 10,000 in July and August).”

The report also said the commissioner “wants the force to explore how they could deliver a long-term programme of public education and awareness about when to contact the police, and the most appropriate method for doing so”.

North Yorkshire Police usually receives over 10,000 emergency 999 calls a month.

The 24 bus route between Pateley Bridge and Harrogate has been saved until at least April next year.

The service provides a lifeline for many people in rural parts of Nidderdale, including Birstwith, Darley and Summbridge.

North Yorkshire County Council warned this month it was one of about 80 bus routes in North Yorkshire facing uncertain futures at the end of March.

But councillor Keane Duncan, the Conservative executive member for highways and transport at North Yorkshire County Council, said today:

“The 24 is a key route that many people rely on so I am pleased to announce that we have been able to step in to support this service.

“When the operator notified us that it planned to withdraw most services on this route, we secured short-term funds to cover these until April 2023.

“This allowed us time to investigate a longer-term solution. We have now secured continuation of the service until April 2024, operated by Transdev (The Harrogate Bus Company).

Read more:

• Talks to save 24 bus from Pateley to Harrogate as cull looms
• £2 cap on Harrogate district bus fares starts today

Cllr Duncan added the timetable will continue unchanged, but with most journeys now receiving financial support.

“We hope that passengers will support the 24 service and that usage will build over the coming 12 months.

“This positive outcome on the 24 is part of our efforts to support several at risk routes across North Yorkshire.

“We will continue to work closely with operators in order to protect as much of the bus network as we can through a period of unprecedented pressure.”

A man has been arrested on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs after officers came across a crashed car in Ripon.

Shortly after 3pm yesterday, North Yorkshire Police officers on patrol near Lark Lane in Ripon located a red VW Golf car that had been involved in a collision and was on its roof.

A police statement today said:

“One of the occupants made off from the scene. Following a search of the area, officers located a large quantity of suspected cannabis and cocaine.

“The other occupant, a 19-year-old local man, was arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply a Class A drug. He has since been released on bail while enquiries continue.”

Anyone with any information about the incident is asked to contact North Yorkshire Police on 101, quoting reference number 12230015627.

Police closed the road while the incident took place.

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