A three-year project to create a planetarium in the Harrogate district could come to fruition next month.

The planetarium is based at the Lime Tree Observatory at Grewelthorpe, near Ripon.

The observatory, which opened to the public in 2016, has a 24-inch telescope, screen and sound system and hosts presentations for up to 25 people

Self-confessed planetarium geek Martin Whipp and several other enthusiasts are now close to finalising their latest ambitious venture. It will be one of only about 20 fixed planetariums in the country, and the closest for miles around.

A barn has been converted but the electricity supply needs upgrading before the project can start, and Mr Whipp said he hoped this might happen by mid-November.

Mr Whipp has been to about 100 planetariums around the world and even booked a cruise on Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 because it has a planetarium.

Martin Whipp

He said the one at Grewelthorpe would be an interactive facility rather than “one where someone just presses play and you watch”.

But because all those involved are volunteers, it will be open mostly for private bookings at set times.

The observatory is holding three Halloween-themed events during half-term at the end of the month as part of the Dark Skies Festival.

All three have sold out, but the observatory plans to stage three more Christmas-themed events on December 19, 20 and 21.

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Harrogate Borough Council’s planning committee has deferred a decision on whether to allow 53 houses to be built on Knox Lane in Bilton.

At an unusually busy and noisy meeting this afternoon, attended by some residents, Cllr Rebecca Burnett, who chairs the committee, had to appeal for members of the public not to applaud or heckle.

A 30-page report to councillors by case officer Andy Hough recommended they approve the application by developer Jomast,

But councillors were cheered when they raised concerns about issues such as flooding, contamination and housing sizes.

They voted to ask Joomast to come back with more detailed information — and warned if it wasn’t forthcoming they would be minded to reject the scheme.

Cllr Nigel Simms, a Conservative representing Masham and Kirkby Malzeard, told the meeting:

“I haven’t heard anything that will convince me that the landscape is not worth protecting from the builder’s cement mixer.”

Councillor Sue Lumby, a Conservative who represents Harrogate Coppice Valley, said the fact the application had received 320 objections highlighted the high level of concern. She said:

“Clearly local residents are very concerned about this on many levels.”

A full report on today’s meeting will be published on the Stray Ferret soon.

Read more:

• 53 homes on Bilton’s Knox Lane recommended for approval tomorrow
• GPs ‘extremely concerned’ Knox Lane housing will put pressure on health services

Harrogate pantomime star Tim Stedman will be returning for a 22nd season this festive season, it was announced today.

Mr Stedman has become as much a part of Christmas in Harrogate as the Bettys hamper and lights on the Stray.

He will return to play Wishee Washee in Aladdin, which runs from November 23 to January 15 at Harrogate Theatre.

This year’s performances include a socially distanced show on November 27 and a signed show on December 10.

https://twitter.com/HGtheatre/status/1577249795801894914

Panto regular Howard Chadwick will also be back, playing Widow Twankey, Ebony Feare will be the genie and Colin Kiyani takes the title role of Aladdin. Marcus Romer will direct the production at the town’s Victorian theatre.

It will be the first pantomime since 2019 not affected by covid.

David Bown, chief executive of the theatre, said:

“We are going back to the cast levels and production levels of 2019 and everything is going very well.

“Tim loves Harrogate as much as we live him. I’m excited to see the rest of the cast as well.”

Tickets are currently available for every day, but availability on some dates close to Christmas is extremely limited. Prices start at £18 on most days.

Spofforth Church of England Primary School has been rated ‘good’ in its first full Ofsted inspection for a decade.

Inspectors visited the school on July 20, at the end of the summer term, and said pupils were “confident and articulate” and “proud to attend this happy and welcoming school”. They said:

“Pupils are proud to attend this happy and welcoming school, where everyone knows each other by name. Christian values are at the heart of school life and reflected in the stated ambition to ‘love, learn, thrive’.

“Pupils are confident and articulate. They enjoy leading collective worship and performing in school productions.”

Senior leaders, they added, had “high expectations of what pupils can achieve”.

Children flourish in early years and have strong personal development, read a range of interesting books and follow a clear mathematics curriculum.

But the inspectors said “the curriculum is not as well developed” in some subject areas other than reading and mathematics and also noted:

“Some pupils behave inappropriately and are sometimes disrespectful to other pupils and members of staff. However, pupils have a good understanding of what bullying is and are adamant this does not happen.”

The 101-pupil school, which is part of the Follifoot and Spofforth Church of England Federation of Primary Schools, received a ‘good’ rating at its last full inspection in 2012. A short inspection in 2017 came to the same conclusion.

Read more:

• Starbeck special needs school rated ‘good’ by Ofsted
• Praise for Harrogate school as Ofsted rating improves

David Harrington, chair of governors, said:

“Everyone at Spofforth CE Primary and across our federation is very pleased with the outcome of our most recent inspection.

“We are delighted that the inspector recognised the strong sense of community where everyone knows each other by name.

“We are particularly proud of the strength in our federation EYFS class where children from both schools access such high quality education.

“I would like to thank the children, parents, governors and staff for their hard work and support which is reflected in this report.

“As a school and federation we are ready to focus on the agreed areas for development in the report in order to ensure that all our children have the best possible education and love, learn and thrive across the federation.”

National Highways is warning of three-mile delays on the M62.

Roadworks remain in place outside the tourist information centre in Harrogate town centre.

Rail strikes return tomorrow.

Here is your Stray Ferret traffic update.

Roads

National Highways issued a news release at 6.05am warning motorists the M62 in West Yorkshire is closed between junctions 25 (Brighouse) and 26 (Bradford). The incident has cleared but at 6.40am there were still long tailbacks.

All lanes have now reopened on the #M62 in both directions between J26 (#Bradford) and J25 (#Brighouse) following the earlier @WestYorksPolice incident. There is still approx. 3 miles of congestion on approach both ways, please allow extra time for your journey this morning. pic.twitter.com/AiEUPKD54E

— National Highways: Yorkshire (@HighwaysYORKS) October 4, 2022

In Harrogate town centre, roadworks remain in place outside Harrogate tourist information on Crescent Road. There is no left-turn for traffic turning left at the end of Parliament Street and no right-turn for traffic travelling right in the opposite direction on Ripon Road.

Temporary traffic lights are due to be installed on Cold Bath Road for five weeks later this week.

The A59 York Road, between Station Road and the A658 at Goldsborough, remains closed overnight until October 6. A diversion will be in place.

The closure will be in place while North Yorkshire County Council carries out resurfacing work. The council website says the work will be  carried out between 8pm and 5am but one reader told us yesterday it was until 6am.

Delays are also expected today at Castlegate in Knaresborough where junction markings are being refreshed,

As previously reported, a main road out of Pateley Bridge will be closed for six weeks as repairs are carried out at Fellbeck bridge on the B6265.

Signs for a diversion and a temporary crossing over the river for pedestrians and cyclists are in place.

Trains and buses

Northern is not reporting any problems for commuters on the Harrogate and Knaresborough line this morning. The only incident is that no services are stopping at Rotherham Central due to the attempted theft of signalling cables.

But remember, another train strike is due tomorrow, crippling local services.

Disruption is expected on Harrogate’s LNER services until October 9 due to major engineering works in the Newcastle area by Network Rail.

The Harrogate Bus Company has not posted details of any service issues this morning.

Councillors have been recommended to approve a planning application to build 53 homes off Knox Lane in Bilton tomorrow.

Harrogate Borough Council‘s planning committee is due to meet tomorrow to vote on the scheme. The Queen’s death caused the meeting to be postponed last month.

A 30-page report to councillors by case officer Andy Hough recommends they approve the application by developer Jomast, subject to certain conditions, such as no objection from the local lead flood authority.

However, the councillors could decide to vote against the officer’s recommendation and reject the scheme. The meeting will be broadcast live at 2pm on the council’s YouTube page.

Mr Hough’s report says:

“Amendments to the plans reducing house numbers from 73 to 53 is welcome and the scheme is considered to now be in compliance with development plan policy.

“The site at present represents a transition from the suburban development that is characteristic of the Old Trough area, to the more vernacular loose form of frontage development situated at the hamlet of Knox.

“The frontage to the site has a very rural feel. To aid transition, the houses situated on the Knox Lane frontage have been set back into the site and are to be constructed at low density, behind new additional planting.”

The site is allocated for development in the Harrogate district Local Plan 2014-35, which outlines where planning can take place in the district.

Residents have said the scheme will decimate an idyllic and historic part of Bilton.

Knox Lane, leading to Spruisty Bridge

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones has started posting fact-check videos on his new Instagram account.

The Conservative MP published his first video, which was about the government’s proposed new investment zones, on Friday.

North Yorkshire County Council is one of 38 local authorities in talks with the government about introducing the zones, in which businesses could benefit from lower taxes and liberalised planning rules.

The RSPB charity has labelled the zones an “unprecedented attack on nature” because of the impact they could have on wildlife.

Introducing the series, Mr Jones says fact-check Friday will be “an occasional series where we just present facts — no politics”.

He then highlights how some people are worried the zones  “will mean concreting over green belt and downgraded environmental standards” but he then adds the the government “has made it clear this isn’t the case”.

The video cuts to footage of new Environment Secretary Ranil Jayawardena saying he is committed to helping farmers curate the countryside. Mr Jones then says:

“Investment zones can take derelict but previously developed sites and transfer them into thriving net zero communities.

“A good example might be the Ripon barracks site. That’s the kind of thing that we should be looking for investment zones to do.”

Mr Jones has 75 followers on Instagram and his video has so far attracted five likes.

Read more:

• Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones joins Instagram
• Green Party chooses man to fight Andrew Jones in Harrogate and Knaresborough

Liberal Democrats and Greens respond

David Goode, chair of Harrogate and Knaresborough Liberal Democrats, said:

“Mr Jones says in his fact-check piece to camera that he will hold the government to account. Let us not forget, he is a Conservative MP, part of the Conservative Party who run the government.

“A government that have just pushed the pound to a record low and caused mortgage chaos for thousands of families. A government that has removed the bankers’ bonus cap at a time when some people can not even afford to put the heating on. Those facts we are dealing with.

“What has Mr Jones done to hold the government to account for this botched mini-budget and its disastrous outcomes?”

Paul Ko Ferrigno, who was named as the Green Party’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Harrogate and Knaresborough last month, said:

“Mr Jones says that he intends to ensure that the government’s proposed investment zones will not lead to a deterioration in environmental protections, so I’d like to work with Mr Jones to ensure that current designated protected sites such as national parks, areas of outstanding national beauty, sites of special scientific interest, designated green belt land and buffer zones that surround world heritage sites in Yorkshire will be protected, and not sacrificed to short term economic pressures.

“The fact that these zones are not explicitly protected under the government proposals is worrying.”

A councillor has claimed the majority of people in his ward now support a 20mph speed limit — but enforcement issues mean any change is unlikely.

Paul Haslam, who represents Old Bilton on Harrogate Borough Council, raised the issue with Zoe Metcalfe, the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.

Speaking at a meeting of Harrogate Borough Council’s overview and scrutiny committee last week, Cllr Haslam asked Ms Metcalfe:

“In my area, Bilton and Woodfield, I would say the majority of residents want the whole area to be 20mph. At what stage will police enforce this?”

Campaigners across the country are calling for a speed limit of 20mph to be normal on residential streets and in town and village centres as part of the 20’s Plenty initiative.

Ms Metcalfe said the police and the council “don’t have the resources to be constantly enforcing a 20mph zone”, adding:

“I don’t necessarily agree with 20’s Plenty because for every one person that says they want 20mph there is one who says they don’t.”

She added she could see 20mph limits working “in certain circumstances, like outside a school,” but not as a general measure.

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Tom Thorp, assistant chief executive at the commissioner’s office, said “police enforcement of 20mph limits is difficult”. He said:

“The types of road that want to go 20mph are very residential urban roads and it’s simply not possible necessarily to do the enforcement on those roads easily.”

Mr Thorp and Ms Metcalfe agreed that although police enforcement was problematic, local authorities could introduce more targeted speed restriction measures, for instance speed humps and chicanes, in specific areas, such as near schools. Mr Thorp said:

“There’s an awful lot that we should be doing around prevention before we get to actual enforcement.”

He added North Yorkshire County Council already did this through the  York and North Yorkshire Road Safety Partnership, which is a partnership of agencies working tp reduce road deaths.

More speed cameras?

Cllr Haslam questioned why Bilton and Jennyfields appeared to have different approaches.

“If you go to Jennyfields you will see the whole Jennyfields estate is 20mph and I don’t see any reason why the residents of Bilton and Woodfield can’t have the same scenario.”

Cllr Haslam said “camera enforcement works” in 20mph zones in London, adding “I don’t see why we can’t look at that”.

But Mr Thorp said:

“There’s a significant cost to camera enforcement and if we were looking to do that across the piece I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess as to what that would cost.

“In terms of managing expectations, sometimes putting in 20mph makes it worse.”

The owners of the Wild Swan, the 19th century inn at Minskip, near Boroughbridge, have hired Paul Murphy as chef.

Alex Bond and Stephen Lennox, who bought the Wild Swan last year, heralded Mr Murphy’s arrival as the start of a new era for the inn.

Mr Murphy previously built up the Timble Inn near Otley into a five-star hotel and worked with chef Frances Atkins at the Michelin-starred Yorke Arms near Pateley Bridge.

Chef Paul Murphy (left) and co-owner Stephen Lennox. Photo: Laura Hargreaves.

Mr Bond said:

“Paul’s appointment is crucially important for the future of the Wild Swan.

“He has a superb reputation and we are in no doubt that he will take the Wild Swan to a completely new level in terms of the quality and the presentation of our food.

“We are looking to establish the Wild Swan’s reputation for excellent food and drink in relaxed and informal surroundings, making it a destination location for food lovers across the county.”

Read more:

• New owners unveil Minskip pub’s fresh look
• New heritage map reveals Boroughbridge’s rich history

Mr Murphy said he was “determined to give Minskip and the surrounding district an inn to be proud of”, adding:

“I have completely revamped the menu and am determined to create enjoyable and imaginative food at competitive prices. I haven’t been here long, but the reaction so far has been brilliant.

“I am aiming to replicate the success I had at the Timble Inn, which my wife and I ran from 2009 to 2014. Like the Timble, the Wild Swan has immense potential.

“This is a fabulous opportunity. Alex and Stephen have given us a blank canvas. They simply wants the Wild Swan to be at the heart of the Minskip community and to be loved and treasured by villagers.”

The owners said this year they intended to create a microbrewery at the inn but a spokesman for the venue said those plans were currently on hold.