Harrogate primary school set to close

The governors of Woodfield Community Primary School in Bilton put the wheels in motion today for the school to close.

They have asked North Yorkshire County Council to begin a consultation on closure after nearby Grove Road Community Primary rejected a merger.

Some parents have been offered places for children to start in September.  The proposal is for the school to shut during the next academic year, although a precise date is not known.

A council spokesperson told the Stray Ferret today places offered in September “still exist” but the full implications of today’s news remain unclear.

The governors said in a statement they had exhausted “every possible avenue” and they were moving towards closure “with a very heavy heart”.

The statement said:

“This has been a very difficult time for the school, parents, pupils, staff and governors and we were all hopeful a solution had finally been found with the proposed amalgamation with Grove Road Primary School. Unfortunately, that could not proceed.

“This has left Woodfield Community Primary School in a very vulnerable position and we have had to look again at what options are available for the school.

“The governors have worked incredibly hard to find a positive solution, exploring every available avenue. Unfortunately, it is our conclusion that we have exhausted all options that are available.

“It is with a very heavy heart that the governors of Woodfield school have had to ask the county council to begin the consultation process for closure.’’ 

Read more:

The school received an inadequate Ofsted rating following an inspection in January 2020, which required it to become a sponsored academy.

Woodfield Community Primary School, Harrogate.

Woodfield Community Primary School, Harrogate

The Regional Schools Commissioner was unable to secure a multi academy trust to sponsor the school, which led the governors to explore a merger with Grove Road.

Merger talks fail

The move, which would have meant Woodfield School technically closed and became part of Grove Road from September this year, fell through in March when Grove Road pulled out, citing concerns about the level of risk.

Stuart Carlton, North Yorkshire County Council’s director of children and young people services, said in a statement:

“The Directive Academy Order and the absence of a sponsor from the academy sector had left Woodfield Community Primary School in a difficult position.

“The county council hoped that the proposed amalgamation would provide a solution to retain education on the school site, but that was not to be.

“I would like to thank the leadership and governors of Woodfield Community Primary School for their diligence in exploring the issues and I share their sadness that closure must now be considered.

“We will now move at pace to seek approval to consult on a proposal that the school should close during the next academic year.

“We will communicate directly with the school’s parents in the coming days on the many questions they will have at this time.’’

If you have a child at Woodfield school and have a view on what’s happening, email us at contact@thestrayferret.co.uk.

Why election victory means so much for Harrogate and Knaresborough’s Lib Dems

After more than a decade of Conservative control in Harrogate, the announcement of last week’s election results was a momentous moment for the Liberal Democrats.

Previously, the Lib Dems had just two district seats on North Yorkshire County Council.

Now they have 10 compared to nine for the Conservatives in what marks a big swing of power and public mood.

Not only that, but the Lib Dems look set to remain the biggest party in Harrogate for at least five years as the next local elections are not until 2027.

It is important to remember that North Yorkshire on the whole is still a Conservative majority after the party won 47 of the 90 available seats across the county.

But if the new North Yorkshire Council gets the local decision-making powers that have previously been discussed, the Lib Dems will very much be in Harrogate’s driving seat for years to come.

Speaking on Friday, Lib Dem leader Pat Marsh – who was elected as councillor for Stray, Woodlands and Hookstone – said the party was “thrilled” with the election results which she said reflected a belief that Harrogate had “lost its way” under Tory control.

Her long-serving Lib Dem colleague Philip Broadbank has now said the party’s focus will be on making sure decision-making powers over areas including planning and education are filtered down to a local level.

Cllr Broadbank said:

“The first and most immediate thing to get right is the decision-making arrangements in the new council and devolving power as much as possible to local areas.

“We will work to ensure our area gets a fair share of the funding promised by devolution and that our town centres receive the investment needed to encourage people to shop and meet for leisure.

“The next five years will give everyone a challenge to plan for long-term changes and find new ways of creating the investment that will be needed.”

Read more:

Cllr Broadbank, who won the Fairfax and Starbeck division, also said “no time should be lost” in pursuing the creation of a Harrogate Town Council which could require a local referendum.

Setting out his party’s other priorities for the new council, Cllr Broadbank said:

“We need to ensure that any savings that are found in the reorganisation are invested in our roads, footpaths, social and adult care, and public transport systems.

“We also need to encourage people to walk or cycle more when travelling short distances.

“Over the next few years there will need to be much more emphasis on enhancing and improving environmental initiatives.”

The new councillors elected last week will serve one year on North Yorkshire County Council, before a four-year term on the new North Yorkshire Council which launches in April 2023.

At this point, the existing county, district and borough councils – including Harrogate – will be abolished.

Success for Harrogate cafe and home care company
Hustle & Co

Staff from Hustle & Co collect their award.

A Harrogate start-up company’s efforts to overcome the challenges of covid have been recognised.

Hustle & Co was one of three finalists from 24 nominated organisations in the new business starter of the year category at Yorkshire Choice Awards.

The awards ceremony, attended by 700 people in Leeds, recognised independent businesses in Yorkshire.

Hustle & Co, which is co-owned by Nici Routledge and Jo Bradshaw, opened in December 2020 on Prince Albert Row.

Ms Routledge said making the top three was recognition of the tenacity of everyone at Hustle & Co during a difficult period for start-ups due to covid and Brexit.

Bishop Thornton home care company recognised as one of UK’s best

Carefound Home Care

Carla Hainsworth (left) and Lorna Miles from Carefound.

Carefound Home Care has won an award for being one of the top 20 home care groups in the UK.

Nearly a million disabled and older people receive care at home so they can stay living independently. This includes help with getting dressed, washed, preparing meals and drinks and administering medication.

Carefound was named as one of the top 20 home care providers in the UK based on reviews given at care reviews site www.homecare.co.uk.

Oliver Stirk, managing director of Carefound, said:

“This award is especially welcomed because it is based on actual reviews from our clients and their friends and family, who clearly recognise the outstanding care our home care team provides across Yorkshire.”

Amanda Hopkins, reviews manager of homecare.co.uk, said:

“Carefound has proved that it provides a high standard of care and we’d like to congratulate it on being a top home care group.”

Carefound operates in North Yorkshire, Cheshire and Nottinghamshire.

Read more:

 

Harrogate police begin two-week gun amnesty

Police are urging people in the Harrogate district to hand in any weapons, including guns, knives and tasers, during a two-week amnesty.

Anyone with weapons can surrender them at Harrogate police station, at Beckwith Head Road, anonymously without the threat of prosecution.

The amnesty, which starts tomorrow and ends on May 29, is part of a national campaign to tackle serious crime.

A North Yorkshire Police press release today said some people may be unaware that firearms kept at home for years are illegal. Others are legally held but no longer required and some are used to cause harm. The press release said:

“The surrender gives people the chance to dispose of firearms or ammunition by simply taking them to a local police station and handing them over.”

Read more:

The amnesty includes: illegally-held guns and ammunition, imitation firearms and air guns, tasers, stun guns and CS gas.

Police stations in Harrogate, York, Scarborough, Malton, Skipton, Selby, Northallerton and Richmond are taking part in the surrender.

Knife amnesty

In addition to the firearms surrender, Operation Sceptre will run from May 16 to 22.

As part of this coordinated week of activity, which aims to keep knives off the street, knives can also be disposed at Harrogate police station.

Assistant Chief Constable Elliot Foskett, said:

“I want people to take advantage of this campaign and know they are disposing of a potentially dangerous item in the safest way possible, without getting into any trouble.

“It’s a chance to do the right thing and a chance to potentially save a life”.

 

Funeral next week for Ripon restaurant owner Mario

The funeral will be held next week for the owner of Ripon restaurant Mario’s.

The family-run restaurant, serving traditional Italian food, has been part of Ripon life for almost 20 years.

Mario Chessa, who was the son of a chef, was born in Napoli in 1959. He moved to England in 1997 with a dream of opening his own restaurant.

He had worked as a chef in Italy and was employed by various restaurants around Harrogate until he became head chef at Joe Rigatoni, which is now Lucia.

In 2004 he fulfilled his lifelong dream by opening Mario’s on Kirkgate, which he ran with his son, Marco, and wife, Maria.

Mario's restaurant

The family announced on social media last week that Mario had lost a long battle with cancer. Many of the hundreds of people who commented on Facebook described him as a ‘lovely man’ who would be sorely missed.

Marco Chessa told the Stray Ferret:

“My father was a much loved, kind, hardworking man. He was a loving father and grandfather and a wonderful husband who will be missed by many.”

“Myself, my mother and all our staff will carry on his legacy. We are closed at the moment but due to reopen on the May 24.”

His funeral will be held on May 19 at St Joseph’s Church on Skipton Road, Harrogate, at 11.30am.

 

Harrogate man charged with supplying cocaine and assaulting police

Harrogate man Ermal Biba has been charged with supplying cocaine and cannabis and assaulting two police officers.

Mr Biba, 37, of Trafalgar Court, is accused of supplying cocaine and cannabis in Harrogate and supplying cannabis in Rochdale, Greater Manchester on or before May 5.

He is also accused of assaulting a female police officer at Ashfield Road, Harrogate on Thursday last week and of assaulting a male police officer at Nydd Vale Road on the same date.

On Saturday, North Yorkshire magistrates sent Mr Biba for trial at York Crown Court on June 6. He was remanded in custody.

Read more:

 

Flood fears halt 61-bed Knaresborough retirement home

Developers behind plans for a Knaresborough retirement home have been told to make the building smaller and move it further away from the River Nidd.

Harrogate Borough Council’s planning committee today deferred a decision on the proposals for 61 extra care apartments near Grimbald Bridge after continued concerns were raised over flooding and the impact on local health services.

This was despite the Environment Agency and flooding specialists at North Yorkshire County Council raising no objections.

The developers, Adlington Retirement Living, also said there is “no record” of the site flooding and have agreed to pay £40,000 to help fund expansions at GP surgeries in the area.

However, local people claim the River Nidd has overflowed at the site as recently as February.

Resident Steve Benn told a meeting today:

“Although pictures on the planning portal show the land dry, the debris on the bank indicates that the site has recently flooded.”

Read more:

Mr Benn also claimed there are photos of the site flooded, but council officers said they have not seen any evidence.

Kate Broadbank, case officer at the council, said:

“We haven’t received any verified information that contradicts the applicant’s information which states the river did not overtop its banks on the site in either historic events or more recently in February.

“Irrespective of what has happened in the past, both the Environment Agency and the Lead Local Flood Authority are satisfied that the application provides acceptable mitigation.”

‘Overload’ health services

The Wetherby Road development was refused last year before councillors voted for a deferral in March when the NHS North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) lodged an objection.

The CCG previously said it was “extremely concerned” that another care facility in the area could “overload” local health services.

However, this objection has now been withdrawn after the £40,000 payment from the developers was agreed.

As well as this, Adlington Retirement Living have offered to pay for a new footpath connecting Grimbald Bridge as well as upgraded crossings after road safety concerns were raised by residents.

These proposals have been agreed in principle by highways officials at the county council.

‘It is too large’

Speaking at today’s meeting, Liberal Democrat councillor Pat Marsh said the retirement home amounted to “overdevelopment” of the site and that it should be reduced in size “considerably”. She said:

“It is the numbers that are being asked for on this site which are problematic.

“It is too large. If they want to do it, I would like to see them cut the numbers down considerably and move that building further away from the river.”

A revised application is now expected at a later date.

Surface dressing on local roads begins under new contractor

A new surface dressing programme has begun on roads in North Yorkshire this month.

North Yorkshire County Council has hired a new contractor to carry out this year’s work, which the local authority said can extend the life of a road surface by up to 10 years.

The 2022 programme, which will cover about 200 miles, will be the first delivered by NY Highways, the roads maintenance company created by the county council last year.

NY Highways has recruited Birmingham road construction firm Kiely Bros as its contractor.

Ross Bullerwell, managing director of NY Highways, said:

“Over the past four months we have worked with Kiely Bros to prepare them for the contract, to make sure they understand what we demand in terms of finish and quality.

“The company has already been providing white lining services for us and we have received good local feedback about their work.”

Read more:

A press release issued by the council today described surface dressing as “a quick, efficient and cost-effective way of maintaining skid-resistant and waterproof road surfaces”.

The process involves spraying the surface with bitumen, then spreading stone chippings on top and rolling these into the bitumen. Once the bitumen has set, the road is swept to remove any loose chippings.

Weather warning

Barrie Mason, assistant director highways and transportation at the county council, said:

“We know the value of surface dressing from experience. It is vital in maintaining the condition of our roads network. That’s why it is a key component of our annual roads maintenance programme.

“Year after year, through the programme we enhance the quality of sections of our road network. This is crucial in ensuring that businesses, residents and visitors can travel with confidence.”

Signs should go up at each location before work starts to alert residents and drivers.

Mr Mason warned the programme can be affected by weather, adding:

“This can makes communicating exact dates challenging, so we urge residents to check the advance site signage regularly. The contractor will amend this to highlight any change in the schedule.

“After a stretch of road has been treated, it is important for drivers to heed the temporary speed limit put in place while the new surface stabilises to prevent damage to their own vehicle and those of other road users.”

For more information about surface dressing, click here.

Accountant jailed for conning Harrogate man out of his home

An accountant has been jailed for more than five years for conning a man with learning difficulties out of his Harrogate home and more than £30,000 of savings.

Sukhdev Singh, 73 spent the money within a fortnight on expensive jewellery, gambling, bank transfers to accounts he held in India, private school tuition fees and other domestic spending.

Singh persuaded his vulnerable victim into signing over his inherited £300,000 family home in an up-market location in Harrogate. He also made a sustained and determined but failed attempt to have the title deeds to the victim’s inherited Spanish holiday home fraudulently transferred to himself.

Today, detectives who led the investigation said Singh displayed astounding levels of arrogance, remaining unrepentant throughout his trial for what amounted to be a sickening and callous series of frauds perpetrated against a vulnerable victim.

The man Singh targeted, who has not been named to protect his identity, is in his 50s. But a psychologist who assessed him confirmed his mental capacity to be that of a 12-year-old, someone clearly vulnerable to potential exploitation.

Singh convinced the victim to let his sole trader accountancy business, SS Singh & Co, receive and hold his savings subsequent to the death of his parents some years earlier.

Offshore accounts

Singh, of Chelwood Drive, Moor Allerton in Leeds, had learned of all the assets owned by the victim which had been bequeathed to him by his parents.

These assets included the property in Harrogate, an apartment in Spain and tens of thousands of pounds in offshore savings accounts held with banks based in Gibraltar and Jersey.

By 2016, Singh had transferred the victim’s Harrogate house into the ownership of a company owned and controlled by himself; namely SS and SK Lalli Ltd.

The Land Registry title of the property was thereafter held in the name of SS & SK Lalli Ltd, which appeared to show a purchase price paid during the transaction. However, there was in fact no exchange of funds from Singh to pay for the house, which resulted in him obtaining the house for no payment whatsoever.

Read more:

During the same year, Singh travelled to Gibraltar with the victim where he persuaded him to close his savings account and transfer the balance of more than £34,000 into the UK bank account of SS Singh & Co held by Mr. Singh. The victim was led to believe that Singh would look after these funds on his behalf.

Singh then spent the whole of the £34,000 over the following two weeks on jewellery, gambling transactions, transfers to bank accounts held by Singh in India and other personal domestic spending.

From 2016 onwards, the victim continued to live at the Harrogate property, but had unwittingly become the tenant of Singh’s company without so much as a tenancy agreement to protect him.

The crooked accountant then suggested to the man that he could move from his home address into a flat. Had this happened, Singh would have been free to treat the house as his own.

In the meantime Singh made attempts to ‘help’ the victim to close his Jersey-based savings account and to transfer the account funds into the business account of SS Singh & Co. The police investigation was able to prevent this from happening.

Singh also met with an official in Spain and tried to arrange for the victim’s inherited holiday home to be signed over to him. Fortunately, it failed at the eleventh hour as officials became suspicious when Singh could not provide proof that the purchase funds had been paid to the victim.

The defendant created a series of documents containing false statements to support the frauds.

Citizen’s Advice raises concerns

By 2019, the victim’s Harrogate property had fallen into a significant state of disrepair and he approached the local Citizen’s Advice bureau for help.

This started a chain of events whereby Citizens Advice raised concerns with social services. Singh had let the home deteriorate so much that environmental health teams were brought in.

They became suspicious of the title transfer of the victim’s Harrogate home, and reported their suspicions to North Yorkshire Police’s economic crime unit in 2019.

The force’s specialist economic crime detectives began a long and complicated investigation that would ultimately see Singh arrested in July of that year, and the victim’s remaining assets were secured.

Singh was eventually charged with four counts of fraud, all relating to the one victim. During his trial, Singh refused to accept any wrongdoing and claimed he had acted entirely in the victim’s interests and had merely followed his instructions. Singh attempted to portray his victim as a shrewd and articulate man.

However, a jury didn’t believe Singh and found him guilty of all counts on 13th April this year. After the verdict he was remanded into custody.

A judge at York Crown Court today jailed Sukhdev Singh for five years and six months.

‘Sickening and callous series of frauds’

After the sentence, former Detective Constable Ian Sharp, who led the investigation for North Yorkshire Police’s economic crime unit said:

“Sukhdev Singh had been an associate of the victim’s deceased parents, and had full knowledge of his learning difficulties. He is a manipulative fraudster who displayed a callous lack of empathy for his vulnerable victim. He exploited these vulnerabilities for his own advantage in order to systematically asset-strip him.

“Singh has behaved in an arrogant, deceitful way throughout and appears to have no remorse whatsoever for his crimes.

“It was a truly sickening and callous series of frauds committed against someone who should have been able to trust an accountant to act in his best financial interests.

“Once the case had been brought to the attention of North Yorkshire Police, the force’s economic crime unit was able to safeguard the victim’s remaining assets, and to protect him. The fraudulent transfer of the victim’s Harrogate home has been reversed, and we will now pursue a Proceeds of Crime order against this defendant to confiscate his ill-gotten gains and from this compensate the victim for his lost inheritance.

“While this can’t change the facts of the ordeal he suffered at Singh’s hands, I hope it provides him with some comfort and security.

“I would also like to pay tribute to the agencies who played a significant part in bringing Singh to justice and in safeguarding the victim, particularly Harrogate Citizen’s Advice Bureau who first raised the alarm, also North Yorkshire County Council social workers and the environmental health team.”

Simon Pegg shoots new film in Harrogate

Actor Simon Pegg was in Harrogate last night shooting a new film.

The Cornetto trilogy star was on Crown Place, the cobbled street between the Crown Hotel and the Royal Pump Room Museum.

He was working an upcoming movie called Nandor Fodor And The Talking Mongoose, which also stars Minnie Driver, Tim Downie and Paul Kaye.

The film, described as a dark comedy, is based on a 1935 investigation by para-psychologist Nandor Fodor into claims of a talking mongoose.

Fake rain and smoke gave Crown Place an atmospheric air as the crew took several takes of Mr Pegg walking beneath an umbrella (pictured below) and entering a side entrance to the Crown Hotel.

Simon Pegg pictured filming in Crown Plaza in Harrogate.

Simon Pegg pictured filming in Crown Place in Harrogate.

Filming finished at about 10.30pm, when the crew retired to the Crown Hotel.

Shooting is expected to continue today in Leeds before returning to Harrogate.

Read more:

Film crews have been almost a permanent fixture in Harrogate in recent weeks, prompting jokes that it’s the new Hollywood.

Doctor Who actor Matt Smith has been shooting a horror film in Nidderdale; Sir Patrick Stewart filmed a Yorkshire Tea advert at Cardale Park and Netflix film ‘Bank of Dave’, featuring Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor, was shot at the former Harrogate Borough Council offices in Crescent Gardens.

Shooting for All Creatures Great and Small also took place at Crescent Gardens over the last bank holiday weekend.