About 10 people took part in a demonstration against covid vaccines at a roundabout in Harrogate today.

The group held placards alongside the Prince of Wales roundabout from about 1pm to 3pm.

It is part of a national movement called Rebels on Roundabouts, which co-ordinates similar anti-vaccine protests at roundabouts across the country.

A Rebels on Roundabouts website says it believes ‘the virus has been ruthlessly exploited by a global elite through their puppet politicians and mainstream media’ and is a ‘scapegoat for the inevitable upcoming collapse of the scam economy’.

Those taking part held up signs saying ‘how may vaccines are you going to have before you question it?’. ‘why vaccinate teens?’ and ‘this is not about a virus’.

 A participant from Harrogate, who asked not to be named, said the event was organised by people from Leeds and Otley.

Read more:

• Compulsory covid vaccines make recruitment harder, say district care homes
• Andrew Jones MP queries delay of covid vaccinations in schools

Knaresborough viaduct is one of the most photographed places in the Harrogate district.

The viaduct, which crosses the River Nidd, has stood for 170 years and is a magnet for photographers.

But it is less commonly captured from the sky, as Darren Leeming achieved with this photograph when he flew a drone over the site this week.

St John the Baptist church can also be seen.

Mr Leeming, from Starbeck, also took this drone photo of the Stray from Wetherby Road.

The Stray by Darren Leeming

You can see more of his drone photography on Facebook here or on YouTube here.

Masham will host the Harrogate district’s first Christmas market of the year tomorrow.

About 30 stallholders, plus Father Christmas, are expected to attend the event in the town’s market place.

Many of the usual monthly stallholders will be in attendance, plus others, so visitors can expect hand bell ringing and folk music as well as a wide variety of craft and food and drink stalls.

Masham has one of the few licensed market places in the country so alcohol will also be available.

The market opens at around 9am and Santa is expected between 11am and 1pm.

Masham Parish Council has organised the event. The town will host a second Christmas market in the market place and town hall on December 4.

Councillor Ian Johnson said the long stay car park near the cricket field was a good place for anyone travelling in by car to park.

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• Masham restaurant founders to sell business after 16 years

Harrogate residents described the Station Gateway consultation as a “whitewash” when they delivered a petition today.

Consultation on the revised plans for the £10.9 million scheme, which would see Station Parade reduced to single lane traffic and James Street partly pedestrianised, closes today.

Five members of Granvillle Road Area Residents Association took the petition to Harrogate Borough Council‘s Knapping Mount office at lunchtime today.

They are concerned that re-routing traffic off Cheltenham Parade and Cheltenham Mount through the nearby residential streets where they live will increase traffic and pollution and make it more difficult to park.

Dan Harper, executive officer economy and transport at Harrogate Borough Council, received the petition, which had about 140 signatures. He declined to be photographed by the Stray Ferret.

The residents expressed frustration over the consultation process, claiming it was difficult to get hold of information or people to address their concerns.

Catherine Ward-Brown, who lives on Cheltenham Mount, where traffic will be diverted if Cheltenham Mount is made one-way, said:

“They are trying to force commercial traffic on to residential streets and ignoring valid points made. They are hellbent on sticking to their views. It hasn’t been a consultation — it’s been a whitewash.”

Andrew Jones ‘not willing to engage’

Antonia Lowe questioned why Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, had not meaningfully replied to residents’ questions about the scheme.

“He was willing to engage with the process to relocate the post office but isn’t willing to engage with us.”

Rachael Inchboard said:

“He is passing the buck and refusing to engage. He has a duty to the Harrogate residents who voted him in to engage with this at the earliest opportunity. We would like to see him come to Granville Road.”

Read more:

• Harrogate businesses consider legal challenge to Station Gateway
• Station Gateway: the story so far of the £10.9m scheme

The petitioners are considering paying to monitor air quality in their local streets as well as launching an online fundraising appeal to pay for an environmental impact assessment, which Harrogate Borough Council did not deem necessary.

The Stray Ferret has approached Mr Jones for comment.

What is the Harrogate Station Gateway?

The Harrogate scheme is one of three projects worth a combined £42m in Harrogate, Skipton and Selby funded by the Leeds City Region Transforming Cities Fund, which encourages cycling and walking.

They are being delivered in partnership by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council, Craven District Council and Selby District Council.

A consultation on the revised designs ends today. It is anticipated that work in Harrogate will begin by the middle of next year.

To take part in the online consultation, click here.

Two people have been arrested after police pulled over a car last night and found suspected class A drugs.

Officers from Operation Expedite, the county lines drugs team at North Yorkshire Police, stopped the vehicle.

Harrogate traffic police officer Sgt Paul Cording, who along with Harrogate traffic constable David Minto assisted the other officers, tweeted shortly after 5am:

“A search of the occupants revealed a number of clear bags containing believed class A drugs. Driver and passenger arrested and enquiries ongoing.”

This vehicle stopped by myself & @TC174_NYP along with our colleagues from #OpExpedite in #Harrogate A search of the occupants reveals a number of clear bags containing believed Class A drugs. Driver & passenger arrested & enquiries ongoing #NotInOurCounty #RoadsPolicing pic.twitter.com/BWx1zv9Al3

— Sgt Paul Cording BEM (@OscarRomeo1268) November 12, 2021

Harrogate residents will hand in a petition today opposing the Station Gateway on the final day of consultation on the £10.9 million scheme.

Members of Granvillle Road Area Residents Association organised the signatures in response to fears that re-routing the A61 will increase traffic in nearby residential streets, such as Granville Road, Back Granville Road, Mount Parade, Back Cheltenham Mount and Strawberry Dale Avenue.

Rachael Inchboard, a member of the association, said about 200 of the 250 homes affected by the changes had signed the petition, which will be presented to Harrogate Borough Council.

After the consultation ends, councils supporting the initiative, led by North Yorkshire County Council, are expected to produce a final report summarising consultation outcomes and outlining the next steps.

Businesses in the town are considering applying for a judicial review to halt the scheme.

Read more:

• Harrogate businesses consider legal challenge to Station Gateway
• Station Gateway: the story so far of the £10.9m scheme
• Harrogate residents form group to fight £10.9m Station Gateway

North Yorkshire County Councillor Don Mackenzie, the executive member for access, reiterated his support for the scheme. He said:

“I do not believe that the gateway scheme for Harrogate should now be dropped because of opposition from certain businesses.

“Whilst their views, and indeed the local town centre economy, are very important to us, there are also the views of many other sectors and persons to consider. The findings of the latest round of consultation will be important to us too, as are the many thousands of views expressed in the Harrogate congestion study public engagement.

“I have nothing further to say about legal action. If an individual wishes to begin such a process, we shall be ready to respond.”

What is the Harrogate Station Gateway?

The Harrogate scheme is one of three projects worth a combined £42m in Harrogate, Skipton and Selby funded by the Leeds City Region Transforming Cities Fund, which encourages cycling and walking.

They are being delivered in partnership by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council, Craven District Council and Selby District Council.

A consultation on the revised designs ends today. It is anticipated that work in Harrogate will begin by the middle of next year.

Hospitality students from Harrogate College are helping to devise a menu for the the cafe due to open at the former Harrogate Arms pub.

The horticultural charity RHS Harlow Carr, which owns the former inn, plans to open the cafe in summer 2023.

The students have been asked to use their culinary and creative skills to come up with a concept for the long-closed venue and a sustainable menu.

Fresh produce grown at the RHS gardens will feature prominently in the dishes.

The students, who are being led by seven Level 2 professional cookery students, recently visited the site to be briefed on their task.

Harrogate College students being briefed on their ‘design a menu’ challenge at RHS Garden Harlow Carr.

The initiative represents the start of a closer partnership between the college and Harlow Carr.

Jason Parry, the college’s cultural, contemporary and heritage studies programme manager, said:

“It ticks so many boxes for us in terms of the college’s values and aspirations — sustainability, ‘food to fork’, carbon reduction and seasonality — along with menu and service design, work experience and responding to a client brief.

“The project will be followed up throughout the year with Harlow Carr, who will do a progress check with the students in January.

“Ultimately it will end up with the students giving a Dragon’s Den style pitch to Harlow Carr staff, with small groups presenting their ideas around the menu, and the service, and showing how they have worked to meet the client’s brief.”

The college recently launched a sustainability pledge which sets out its commitment to becoming net zero carbon by 2030.

Read more:

• Harrogate College meets local firms to fix skills gap
• Harrogate Civic Society has ‘many concerns’ about Station Gateway

Harrogate Civic Society has called for the £10.9 million Station Gateway scheme to be totally reconsidered as consultation on the latest designs draws to a close.

The organisation, which protects Harrogate’s heritage, said it had “many concerns” about the initiative, which aims to make the town more attractive and improve cycling and walking.

Its submission to the consultation questioned whether the scheme, in its current form, would achieve its main aims and called for a rethink, even if it risked jeopardising funding.

It said:

“We have many concerns, including the absence of wider strategic thinking to address traffic flow; the risk of increased congestion if part of Station Parade is one lane; potential conflicts between the flow of pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles at crossing points; poor design proposals for Station Square, which do not reflect Harrogate’s distinctive character.

“We would prefer to see the whole proposal reconsidered, even though this may mean that Harrogate would lose the opportunity for improvement though this particular fund.

“Traffic and congestion is a problem in the town, the environment for pedestrians and cyclists must be improved, businesses in the town centre should be supported through infrastructure improvement, and the town centre should be a better place for those living in it but this scheme, in its present form, does not achieve this.”

Read more:

• Harrogate businesses consider legal challenge to Station Gateway
• Station Gateway: the story so far of the £10.9m scheme

What is the Harrogate Station Gateway?

The Harrogate scheme is one of three projects worth a combined £42m in Harrogate, Skipton and Selby funded by the Leeds City Region Transforming Cities Fund, which encourages cycling and walking.

They are being delivered in partnership by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council, Craven District Council and Selby District Council.

A consultation on the revised designs ends tomorrow. It is anticipated that work in Harrogate will begin by the middle of next year.

To take part in the online consultation, click here.

Harrogate Borough Council has voted to press ahead with plans to open a new leisure centre and pool in Ripon next month despite concerns about the long-term safety of the site.

A new council-commissioned report by engineering company Stantec outlines measures to mitigate the effects of a void that was detected last year.

The report says the measures should allow the pool and the first floor of the leisure centre to open safely on December 8 while the ground floor remains closed.

But it adds there is a “residual risk” of “catastrophic collapse” because of ongoing ground instability issues at the Dallamires Lane site since the original leisure centre was built in 1995.

This prompted Dr Alan Thompson, a geologist and director of Cuesta Consulting in Somerset, and Stanley Mackintosh, a chartered engineer in Ripon, to write to the council urging it to postpone a decision and give greater consideration to finding an alternative site.

But at last night’s cabinet meeting, councillors voted unanimously in support of a recommendation by Michael Constantine, the council’s head of operations, to carry out further work while opening most of the site.

Dr Thompson and Mr Mackintosh’s concerns were not mentioned.

Read more:

• Sinkhole experts urge councillors to consider new site for Ripon pool
• Harrogate police officer keeps job after running red light and crashing

Mr Constantine said work would probably start in January and last nine months, during which time the ground floor of the leisure centre will be closed.

Michael Constantine at last night’s meeting

He said the council had been “assured by consultants” that this course of action was safe.

Councillor Stanley Lumley, the cabinet member for culture, tourism and sport, said:

“We have to follow the advice of the professionals. That’s why we pay them, why we employ them. We should surely act on that advice given.”

Council leader Richard Cooper added:

“We are providing a state of the art swimming pool for the people of Ripon to replace a pool that could have collapsed at any time.”

A man driving a works van in Harrogate was almost four times the drink-driving limit when he was stopped by police during the afternoon.

North Yorkshire Police said in a statement it received a tip-off shortly after 1.30pm yesterday about a man driving a van with a works logo on it who was potentially under the influence of alcohol.

The 60-year-old man was pulled over on Skipton Road and asked to provide a roadside breath test. The statement added:

“He initially refused, so was arrested on suspicion of failing to provide. On returning to the station, the man blew 135 – the legal limit is 35. He was charged with drink driving.”

Sergeant Paul Cording, from North Yorkshire Police roads policing group, said:

“The fact that this man had been driving as part of his job yesterday and provided such a high reading is astonishing. The actions from the member of the public who called us with this information yesterday has probably saved a life.”

“I would encourage anyone who suspects a person to have drink or drugs in their system and is driving or about to drive to call us immediately on 999.”

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• Harrogate police officer keeps job after running red light and crashing
• Harrogate’s addiction to SUVs contributing to climate crisis