The Harrogate Competitive Festival for Music, Speech and Drama is set to return this year after a break due to covid.

The festival, which featured nearly 2,000 competitors when it was last held in full in 2019, will run over three weekends in March. The deadline for submitting entries is this Saturday.

Previous winners have gone on to perform in West End shows and compete in BBC Young Musician and BBC Radio 2 Chorister of the Year.

This year, young champions of music, speech and drama have the added incentive of a £250 prize and an invitation to a residential course in their respective disciplines.

The competition was cut short in 2020 by the first national lockdown and was cancelled in 2021.

With nearly 200 different categories to enter, festival chairman Paul Dutton hopes there is something for everyone this year:

“We have missed being part of Harrogate’s cultural legacy, it is one of the most prestigious arts events in Harrogate but, this year we are back with a bang. We really don’t want people to miss this opportunity to be part of our amazing festival.”

Paul Dutton

The festival began in 1936 as a music competition run by the borough council and a voluntary committee. Since then, the categories have expanded into speech and drama and the festival is now run entirely by volunteers as a registered charity.

The festival will take place at Harrogate High School over the first three weekends of March.

Further information is available here and hard copies of the syllabus can be found at local music shops and libraries.

A leading Harrogate hotelier has said the hospitality sector grew “fat and lazy” on cheap labour from Europe and has been forced to pay better.

Peter Banks, managing director of Rudding Park, said some bar and kitchen staff were now earning £13.70 an hour and could earn almost £29,000 a year for a 40-hour week if they were prepared to work anti-social hours.

Mr Banks’ comments came during a speech at Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce last night about the lessons of covid.

He said the sector had suffered from the impact of lockdowns and ‘furloughitis’, whereby staff that had spent eight months of the year being paid 80% of their wages by government had reappraised their lives and decided against a career in hospitality.

Staff recruitment and retention, he added, was now a “serious issue” and had forced pay increases. He said Rudding Park now paid an extra £1 an hour for working after 7pm and an extra £2 an our for working weekends.

The hotel has also introduced service charges for the first time, further boosting staff wages, he added. Mr Banks said:

“We have grown fat and lazy on cheap labour from Europe. Whether you are a Brexiteer or not, the rules have changed. We are not going back.

“It’s no good raging against covid. It’s no good raging against Brexit. We’ve just got to get on with it.”

Read more:

• Rudding Park named hotel spa of the year in global awards
• Harrogate Station Gateway set to be given go-ahead this month

‘Thrown under a bus’

Mr Banks said Prime Minister Boris Johnson “threw us under a bus” during the first lockdown in March 2020 as hotels were forced to close without any support.

Rudding Park came within weeks of closing, said Mr Banks, adding that he told all 320 staff the business might survive until July if they accepted a 40% pay cut.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak then “rode to the rescue’ by introducing the furlough scheme, Mr Banks added.

He said the two years since has been a rollercoaster ride of adaptation.

Mr Banks said Rudding Park no longer accepted cash, which required three person days a week to count. It had also centralised ordering food “because we had five different kitchens and five different chefs ordering their own stock”.

He advised others in hospitality to “stretch the rules a bit, don’t just sit their passively and be creative”. He added:

“Don’t waste a good crisis. there’s always something you can learn from it.”

The leader of Harrogate Borough Council has suggested a ballot could decide whether to create a Harrogate town council.after next year’s shake-up of local government.

Harrogate Borough Council will be abolished on April 1 next year after 49 years of existence.

Its demise is part of the biggest change in local government since 1974, which will see the abolition of all seven district councils in the county, along with North Yorkshire County Council, and the creation of a single new super council.

The move could lead to the creation of a Harrogate town council to manage local assets such as the Stray and Harrogate Convention Centre.

Alternatively, the new super council — which will almost certainly be called North Yorkshire Council — could decide to handle everything itself.

Rudding Park

Richard Cooper told Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce‘s monthly meeting at Rudding Park last night:

“Some people think there should be a ballot on whether to have a town council. That’s something that happens quite a lot.”

But he said the final decision on whether to hold a ballot would be up to the new North Yorkshire Council.

Could Harrogate be home to the new super council?

Cllr Cooper, a Conservative who besides leading the borough council is also a county councillor, also floated the possibility of Harrogate being chosen as the location for North Yorkshire Council. He said:

“It’s still not decided where the new council will be and it could be Harrogate. It would certainly have the best office facilities in North Yorkshire.”

Northallerton, where North Yorkshire County Council is based, is the firm favourite to be chosen as the new location. But Cllr Cooper said whatever the outcome, Harrogate was likely to remain a “significant hub” in the new set-up because there would still be a need for council staff, offices and depots in the town.

Harrogate Borough Council offices at Knapping Mount.

With vesting day — the day when North Yorkshire Council comes into existence — just 444 days away, Cllr Cooper used his speech at last night’s meeting to urge Harrogate district voluntary organisations, some of which rely heavily on Harrogate Borough Council funding, to start networking with North Yorkshire County Council. He said:

“One of the key things voluntary organisations must do over the next year is build relationships.”

Read more:

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He said Harrogate Borough Council had generously funded many local not-for-profit organisations, such as Harrogate Homeless Project, and he hoped the new council would continue this.

Asked whether he would be a contender for mayor of the combined authority for North Yorkshire Council and City of York Council under the new structure, Cllr Cooper reiterated that he planned to leave politics next year.

He said his political career was “in decline down to zero” rather than “on the launchpad”, adding:

“After getting into it 22 years ago, snd rather by accident, I think it’s time for other people to have a go.”

Staff ‘worried’

Wallace Sampson, chief executive of Harrogate Borough Council, told the meeting staff were ‘concerned and worried about what will happen” after they transfer to North Yorkshire Council.

He said all staff, except himself, whose role will no longer exist, would transfer to the new authority under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment). But there were no guarantees beyond then. Mr Sampson said:

“I can give assurances that on day one they will have a role. I can’t say beyond that.”

Nevertheless he said council leaders had set the tone by adopting a “pragmatic” approach to the changes and a “non-adversarial” approach to the new regime.

He added “staff had responded well to that” and were engaged in 16 workstreams related to the handover of power as well as their day-to-day duties.

Proud of Tour de France

Mr Sampson said despite all the changes, devolution was a “prize worth achieving” because the new mayor would have beefed-up powers and there would be economies of scale savings for taxpayers by the reduction in the number of senior managers and back office staff.

Asked what had been his greatest achievement, Mr Sampson said one of the things he was most proud of was leading the council through a decade of severe funding cuts from national government “without a significant impact on services”.

He also cited the council’s part in bringing the Tour de France to Harrogate in 2014. Mr Sampson said:

“I’m proud of the joy it brought to the district. It’s lasting legacy was that it put Harrogate on the map and created pride in what Harrogate could do on the national stage.”

Councillors look set to give the green light to the £10.9 million Harrogate Station Gateway in just over a fortnight’s time.

Work on the scheme, which aims to make the town centre more attractive to cyclists and pedestrians, is then likely to begin in spring or summer.

The designs are not expected to be amended significantly despite considerable opposition from residents and businesses.

North Yorkshire County Council, which is the lead partner, is set to make a decision on the gateway at its executive meeting on January 25.

Don Mackenzie

Don Mackenzie, executive member for access at the county council, told the Stray Ferret it was “likely” the initiative will be recommended for approval. He said:

“I am indeed expecting that the executive will be asked to make a decision on the Harrogate Gateway scheme at its next-but-one meeting on January 25.

“It is likely that a report will be presented with recommendations to proceed with the project.

“I do not expect the design to differ to any great extent from that which has been consulted upon last year, although we may give authority for minor changes as progress is made, should they be required. That is not unusual in such cases.

“All of this is dependent upon a positive decision to proceed.”

Read more:

• Station Gateway petition rejected as council accused of ‘ploughing ahead’ with scheme
• Harrogate business groups call for Station Gateway to be revised
• Majority are negative towards Harrogate Station Gateway, consultation reveals

Petition rejected

Last week the county council rejected a 714-signature petition by Harrogate Residents Association calling for the project to be halted.

The petition followed the publication of consultation responses, which revealed that of 1,320 people who replied to an online survey, 55% feel negatively, 39% positively and five per cent neutral towards the scheme. One per cent said they didn’t know.

Anna McIntee, co-founder of the group, accused the authority of “ploughing ahead” with the project without listening to concerns.

How James Street would look.

But Harrogate District Cycle Action said in a statement at the same meeting that the gateway would be a “big step forward” towards a greener future.

Key proposals include reducing traffic to one lane on some of Station Parade and part-pedestrianising James Street to encourage cycling and walking.

Legal threat

Last month Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce, Harrogate Business Improvement District and Independent Harrogate, accused those behind the project of ignoring criticism and urged them to “put the brakes on”.

Businesses in Harrogate, concerned about the scheme’s impact on trade, are considering a legal challenge.

They had hoped a challenge could either stop the scheme or delay it long enough to jeopardise funding.

New cycle lanes would be built on Station Parade.

North Yorkshire County Council and partners Harrogate Borough Council, and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority have previously said that the Department for Transport, which is funding the Harrogate scheme and similar ones in Selby and Skipton through its Transforming Cities Fund, requires the projects be completed by March 2023.

But Cllr Mackenzie suggested this was not necessarily the case. He said:

“A contractor would need to be chosen before the start of construction. I am guessing that work would get underway in late spring or summer.

“Furthermore, I am confident that the initial deadline for completion of all the gateway schemes in North and West Yorkshire of March 2023 would be able to be extended.”

Skipton and Ripon MP Julian Smith has said the supply of covid tests is improving after complaints that the system is in “chaos”, with health workers and residents left empty handed.

Mr Smith was told at a North Yorkshire County Council meeting on Friday that there have been no lateral flow tests available at Skipton’s pharmacies with staff at the town’s vaccination centre also unable to get tested as demand soared over the festive period.

Conservative councillor Mike Chambers, who represents the Ripon North division, described the system as being in “chaos” after people in the city have struggled to get test kits.

Mike Chambers

Independent councillor Andy Solloway, who represents Skipton West, told the meeting the shortages were putting a strain on the local economy and had also led to some residents launching abuse at pharmacy staff. He said:

Conservative MP Mr Smith said the government recognised there has been a surge in demand for tests and that while supply chains were improving, he would write to Health Secretary Sajid Javid to highlight the issue.

He said:

“The government is aware there was a big crunch point just after Christmas and they are now more confident on supply.

“This is an important issue as we need to get people confident to go to their workplaces, particularly health workers and others on the frontline.”

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‘Ridiculous situation’

Friday’s meeting also heard complaints from Conservative councillor Stuart Martin that health workers – including a family member – had been unable to get tested.

Stuart Martin

Councillor Martin, who represents Ripon South and is also chairman of the county council, said:

“My daughter is a paramedic and some of her colleagues came to my door over the Christmas break as they were unable to access any testing kits whatsoever.

“Luckily we had a couple of tests that we were able to give them, but this is a ridiculous situation.”

It comes as the government has said the current Plan B covid restrictions will remain in place for now.

Changes from tomorrow

It has also been announced that people who test positive with a lateral flow test do not need a follow-up PCR test if they do not have symptoms. These changes come into force from tomorrow.

Mr Smith told Friday’s meeting that he believed the Plan B rules – which include working from home, face coverings on public transport and in public places, and NHS covid passes – were “relatively soft” and that the decision to stick with them was “proportionate”. He said:

“It feels as if that judgement has been correct, but obviously there are still very strong crosswinds on parts of the NHS.

“We are not out of the woods yet and we all need to do whatever we can to encourage the following of the rules.”

People in the Harrogate district will be given the opportunity to see the solar system and Milky Way from an observatory near Ripon next month and in March.

Lime Tree Observatory at Lime Tree Farm, at Grewelthorpe, is offering a series of tours as part of Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty‘s Dark Skies Festival.

If the weather is clear, telescopes will be available to see the dark nights skies close up.

Nidderdale is home to some of the darkest skies in the country and has four dark sky discovery sites — Thruscross reservoir, Scar House reservoir, Fewston and Toft Gate — which are recognised as excellent and accessible places to stargaze.

Credit: Martin Whipp

Iain Mann, Nidderdale AONB manager, said:

“Our dark skies are part of what makes this landscape so special with the opportunity to see thousands of stars, and even at times, the Northern Lights.

“But this wondrous sight is under threat with increasing light pollution. It also threatens nocturnal wildlife, wastes energy and can even affect our own wellbeing.”

New planeterium coming

Lime Tree Observatory, which has a 24-inch reflecting telescope with a motor driven and a presentation room, is run by volunteers on a not-for-profit basis.

Nidderdale AONB recently awarded the observatory a Farming in Protected Landscapes grant to buy digital projection equipment for its new planetarium, which has been three years in the making.

Built in a converted old hay barn, the planetarium will be six and a half metres in diameter, and is set to open to the public this year.

Read more:

• Paddle to the stars at Nidderdale reservoir as part of Dark Skies Festival
• Grants of up to £150,000 available for Nidderdale farmers

The three-year Defra-funded Farming in Protected Landscapes grant programme offers financial support for one-off projects that either support nature recovery, provide better access or engagement with the land, or increases the business resilience of ‘nature friendly’ farms.

Astronomer, filmmaker and volunteer at Lime Tree Observatory, Martin Whipp, said:

“When it opens, the new planetarium will have a real wow-factor. You’ll be able to fly through the Orion Nebula, or witness simulations of galaxies colliding in this immersive experience.”

“The observatory aims to truly engage and inspire the public. Here, children can hold a meteorite that’s four billion years old. It can really fire imaginations. Space offers an exciting platform to learn physics, to inspire art, poetry and philosophy.”

The Dark Skies Festival also offers a chance to canoe under the stars at How Stean Gorge in Lofthouse.

For details and to book for the Lime Tree Observatory, click here.

Tickets are limited and booking essential.

What is Nidderdale AONB?

Nidderdale AONB, which is funded by the government, is an area of 233 square miles located on the eastern flanks of the Yorkshire Pennines stretching from Great Whernside to the edge of the Vale of York.

AONBs are designated in recognition of their national importance and to ensure that their character and qualities are protected for all to enjoy.

A Harrogate councillor has claimed that staff at the Great Yorkshire Showground were “bored stiff” because not enough people are coming forward to get jabbed.

Cliff Trotter, a Conservative who represents Pannal and Lower Wharfedale division, urged more people to get vaccines, saying that Harrogate was in a “bad place” due to the virus.

Speaking at a council meeting yesterday, Mr Trotter said he spoke to a tenant who works at the showground in Harrogate. He added:

“She said yesterday she was absolutely bored stiff. She jabbed 34 people only and there should be hundreds coming in because there are a lot of people in Harrogate that aren’t jabbed — all ages.”

He said central government was pushing the message daily on TV to get jabbed and pleaded with council colleagues to do the same.

Read more:

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Cllr Trotter said he was concerned by talk that covid could be over by March. He said:

“Talking to experts, this virus could go on for five, six, eight, 10 years and we have to educate the people to get jabbed to stop it spreading because it’s really serious.

“So please can you just tell everybody and plead with them to just get jabbed because Harrogate is a bad place at the moment.”

Cllr Trotter’s comments were made during a meeting today of North Yorkshire County Council‘s Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee.

More than 103,000 boosters

According to government figures, 103,149 booster or third jabs have been given in the Harrogate district, as of yesterday.

A total of 135,730 have had first jabs and 126,645 have had second jabs.

The district’s seven-day covid average stands at 1,507 per 100,000 people.

This is a record high but below both the county average, which stands at 1,623, and the England rate of 1,799.

Walk-in covid booster jabs are still available at Yorkshire Showground, Ripon Racecourse and the Chain Lane vaccination site in Knaresborough.

Both the Chain Lane and Yorkshire Showground sites will also be open this weekend for walk-in appointments.

A Harrogate councillor has questioned why secondary schools in the county receive less funding per pupil than most other places.

North Yorkshire secondary schools are placed 138 out of 150 local authorities in terms of funding per pupil.

On average, a school in North Yorkshire has received £5,570 per pupil for 2021-22 compared to the national average of £5,935.

A report to councillors at today’s meeting of North Yorkshire County Council‘s Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee said that for a 1,500-pupil secondary school, this equated to a difference in funding of £0.5m.

Paul Haslam, a Conservative who represents Harrogate Bilton and Nidd Gorge division on the county council, described the situation as unacceptable and wanted to know why the figure for North Yorkshire was “way below” that of other local authority areas.

He told the meeting:

“I just wondered what we as councillors can do to help because this clearly is not an acceptable position.”

Andrew Jones to be asked to help

Philip Broadbank, a Liberal Democrat who represents Harrogate Starbeck, suggested Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, could lobby national government on behalf of local schools.

Mr Jones is due to attend the council’s next Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee in March.

Mr Broadbank said:

“Our MPs are there to lobby. This is something we can ask Andrew about at our next meeting.”

Read more:

• Harrogate district schools see ‘large rise’ in obesity since covid
• Harrogate headteachers ‘nervous’ as schools return during covid surge

Sally Dunn, head of finance for early years and high need at the council, said school funding was based on the Department for Education’s national funding formula.

She added the formula was based on factors such as deprivation and prior attainment and the DfE was in the process of transitioning the criteria.

Ms Dunn added it was “an issue we continue to lobby on and we continue to speak to the DfE on a very regular basis”, adding that there was most concern for small rural secondary schools, which faced “significant financial pressures”.

Primary schools fare better

North Yorkshire primary schools fare better: they are placed 35 out of 150 local authorities in terms of funding.

Primary schools in the county receive on average £4,715 per pupil compared to the national average of £4,611.

Harrogate College is offering free haircuts and manicures to jobseekers.

The college, at Hornbeam Park, is providing the treatments to anyone who has secured a job interview.

Haircuts can be booked now between 3pm and 7pm on Wednesdays. Manicures will be available on Thursdays, starting on January 27, from 10am.

Students will provide the services at the college’s professional standard training salons.

Danny Wild, principal of Harrogate College, said he hoped the initiative would boost the participants’ job prospects. He added:

“We are proud to show that we are living our values by being nurturing towards our community, and giving people the best chance to progress into a positive 2022 with a new job.”

Read more:

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Steph Keedy, programme manager for hairdressing and beauty therapy, said:

“We really enjoy working with the local community and initiatives like this are very rewarding for our students – while also helping them complete their qualifications.

“We hope that by offering someone a new haircut and manicure it will give them a confidence boost that may help them on their way to finding a new job.

Places must be booked in advance, and applicants should be able to show proof of their upcoming interview.

To book a place in the salons, which close during half-term and national holidays, email katie.sharman@harrogate.ac.uk or call the college’s reception on 01423 879466.

Councillors will this week debate a petition urging them to abandon the £10.9 million Harrogate Station Gateway.

North Yorkshire County Council is due to decide shortly whether to proceed with the scheme, which would part-pedestrianise James Street and reduce traffic to single lane on some of Station Parade to encourage cycling and walking.

A petition by Harrogate Residents Association calling for the scheme to be halted generated 714 signatures.

Petitions that attract 500 signatures are automatically scheduled for debate by the county council.

It will therefore be discussed by the council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee on Thursday – although a final decision on what happens next will be made later.

Read more:

• Majority are negative towards Harrogate Station Gateway, consultation reveals
• Stray Views: Station Gateway will benefit far more people than cyclists

Anna McIntee, co-founder of Harrogate Residents Association, will be given five minutes to speak before councillors debate the matter for a maximum of 15 minutes.

Ms McIntee told the Stray Ferret it would be “crazy” to proceed in the face of widespread opposition from residents and businesses.

She said:

“I don’t really understand how they can ignore all the residents and all the businesses that oppose it. It would be crazy to plough ahead.”

Residents were shown the plans at a public meeting at Victoria Shopping Centre.

The county council revealed last month that of 1,320 people who replied to an online survey, 55% felt negatively towards the gateway, 39% felt positively and five per cent felt neutral. One per cent said they didn’t know.

Shortly afterwards three Harrogate business groups urged the county council and Harrogate Borough Council. which also supports the initiative, to “put the brakes on this scheme”.

Many of those opposed fear the scheme will push traffic into residential areas and damage business.

‘No decision taken’

A report to councillors recommends they ‘note’ the petition and ‘consider a response’. It adds:

“The (gateway) proposals aim to introduce a significant high quality uplift to the public realm in the heart of the town aimed at increasing footfall and quality of experience for residents and visitors.

“They will also provide safe cycling infrastructure and improved footways which is key in promoting healthier and more sustainable travel choices.

“Currently no decision has been taken on implementation of the project, the results of the second round of consultation are being analysed and a report with final recommendations will be taken to the executive early in the new year.”