Ten more people in the Harrogate district have contracted coronavirus, according to the latest daily figure by Public Health England.

The figure takes the total number of cases in the district to 910.

Despite the increase, Harrogate was not among the places in North Yorkshire to be named as ‘areas of concern’ by Public Health England yesterday.

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Everywhere covered by Selby District Council and Scarborough Borough Council were identified as areas of concern due to a rise in coronavirus cases.

North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum, which is a group of organisations that coordinates the county’s response to coronavirus, said this week it was concerned about rising infection rates in Harrogate.

But the town has so far been spared any extra measures amid rising concerns nationally about the increase in infections.

A new French-inspired furniture shop is due to open in Killinghall today.

Once Upon A Time, which is being run by two friends, will also sell flowers, candles, coffee and homemade cakes.

Tina Parker, who lived in France for several years, said she and Sian Ross “could possibly be mad” for opening at such a difficult time.

But she thought the impact of coronavirus had made people more appreciative of small independent shops. She added:

“People missed their local shops when they closed and are more willing to support them.

“We want it to be a destination shop where people come and have a coffee and pick up a gift besides looking at the furniture.”

The interior of the new shop

Ms Parker previously owned French Loveliness, which was also in Killinghall and closed last year. The new shop is about 100 metres along Lund Lane, towards Hampsthwaite.

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Ms Parker and Ms Ross, from Summerbridge, share a passion for French-style design.

Their shop will be open from Wednesday to Sunday each week.

North Yorkshire Police are appealing for witnesses after a spate of house burglaries in the Harrogate area in recent days.

The incidents occurred on Beckwith Road, Grove Street, Hutton Gate, Chatsworth Place and St John’s Road from Tuesday to Friday.

Burglars entered the homes through insecure doors and took car keys, house keys, a wallet and a handbag, which were within easy reach,

A North Yorkshire Police statement said:

“We are requesting the public’s assistance to help establish the full circumstances surrounding the incidents, including details about youths who have reportedly been going door-to-door trying for any insecure premises.

“If you have seen any suspicious vehicles or persons please contact the police.”

Police have urged people to keep their houses secure at night.

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Anyone with information can contact North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2, and ask for Elizabeth Estensen . You can also email elizabethestensen@northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk.

If you wish to remain anonymous, you can pass information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Quote the North Yorkshire Police reference number 12200162246.

People entering some popular Harrogate food and drink venues will be required to have temperature checks from today as part of new measures to combat covid.

The Fat Badger pub, the Yorkshire Hotel, the White Hart Hotel and the restaurant Scran will all operate temperature checks.

New machines will instantly record the body temperature of visitors by scanning their wrists.

If anyone’s temperature exceeds 37.5 degrees centigrade, a red light will appear and the machine will beep loudly to indicate a high temperature – one of the main symptoms of covid.

The person will then be asked to leave the building for 15 minutes before having a second test, in case the first result was an anomaly caused by, for instance, carrying heavy shopping.

If their temperature remains too high they will be refused entry.

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Simon Cotton, managing director of the HRH Group, which owns the venues that have installed the new technology, said:

“We think it’s the right time now with covid cases increasing to be stepping up our measures. We want to do it before we are instructed to do so.”

Besides installing the machines, which Mr Cotton said cost several hundred pounds each, HRH Group venues have also required staff to wear face masks in public areas unless they are working behind protective screens.

Who else has tests?

Rudding Park and The Ivy are the only other two Harrogate venues believed to check temperature on entry.

Peter Banks, managing director of Rudding Park, said:

“Guests feel reassured by the machines. You don’t want people with a raging temperature coming in and coughing over everyone.”

David Straker, the owner of William and Victoria restaurant and wine bar on Cold Bath Road, said its current safety measures, which include table bookings and no standing at the bar, were working well. But he added:

“We are always looking at ways we can improve.”

Alan Huddart, treasurer of Bilton Working Men’s Club, said its reopening had gone smoothly and the cost of new equipment, such as temperature scanners, could be prohibitive to some venues. He added:

“We are open to looking at anything but we have had a professional risk assessment done and are following it closely.”

The group of organisations coordinating North Yorkshire’s response to coronavirus announced today it has gone back into full emergency mode.

North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum said it had taken the action in response to rising infection rates, particularly in the Harrogate and Selby districts, as well as concerns about care home transmission and testing capacity.

Richard Flinton, who is chair of the forum and chief executive of North Yorkshire County Council, said “positive tests in Harrogate remain a worry”.

He added the council was “extremely keen to avoid enforced lockdowns if that is possible”.

Mr Flinton said:

“We are seeing community transmission of the virus now and a worrying rise in cases in a number of areas. We know how quickly infection rates can change and we are calling on the whole county to act now with us in response.”

Mr Flinton said the county council would reinstate major incident status for covid. He added:

“We will be communicating some very important messages with you over the coming days and weeks. Your response to the asks we put to you will be critical.”

Superintendent Mike Walker, gold commander for North Yorkshire Police’s response to covid, said officers in patrol cars were encouraging people to follow the rules, using enforcement as a last resort.

Dr Lincoln Sargeant, director of public health for North Yorkshire, said testing was being hampered by “significant limitations” with laboratory capacity. He added:

“This issue is a national one and outside of our control. We have escalated our concerns nationally and we are targeting our local testing facilities towards the communities and people in greatest need.”

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A Harrogate mother has said the government’s covid test and trace system is broken after she spent two days trying to book a test.

Madeline Smyth endured several fruitless hours yesterday and Monday regularly refreshing the NHS website and dialling the 119 test and trace phone line to arrange a check for her daughter Caitlin, 16, who had a persistent cough.

Ms Smyth finally secured a slot at a site in Burnley, which is a two-hour round drive from Harrogate.

She was fortunately spared the trip because the government’s mobile testing centre happened to be in Dragon Road, Harrogate, yesterday.

On her second visit to the centre, staff provided a test kit even though they said they were only supposed to help people who had managed to book online to be seen there.

Ironically the centre itself appeared quiet because, Ms Smyth suspects, people were unable to get the online booking system to work.

Ms Smyth, who has post-viral fatigue, said:

“It angers me to see people on the telly say there are plenty of tests available. There may well be but the system to access them is broken.

“We were at the Dragon Road site for 35 minutes and only saw two or three cars turn up. Seven or eight people working there were sitting around waiting for cars to turn up.

“The staff themselves were very nice and helpful and I think we only got a test because the poor girl we spoke to took pity on me because she could see I wasn’t fit to drive to Burnley and my daughter was showing covid symptoms.”

Caitlin, who attends Rossett School in Harrogate, and her brother Oliver, 12, are isolating at home pending the test result.

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Ms Smyth suspects her post-viral fatigue is a legacy of covid contracted last winter, which contributed to her relinquishing her role as a teacher at Nidderdale High School. She added:

“I was lucky because I am not working now so I was able to spend two days searching for a test. It was exhausting and stressful but there must be hundreds of working mums in the area with kids that have covid symptoms who don’t have the time to go through this.”

Ms Smyth said schools should be issued with test kits that can be given to children as soon as they develop symptoms.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said:

“NHS test and trace is working, we are processing a million tests a week but we are seeing significant demand for tests, including from people who do not have symptoms and are not otherwise eligible.

“Anyone with an appointment will not be turned away, new booking slots and home testing kits are made available daily for those who need them and we are targeting testing capacity at the areas that need it most, including those where there is an outbreak, and prioritising at-risk groups.

“We recently announced new facilities and technology to process results even faster. If you do not have symptoms and are not eligible to get a test you should not be coming forward for one.”

Harrogate District Hospital is to increase the number of coronavirus tests for staff amid concerns some NHS employees are being forced to miss work to self-isolate because tests aren’t available.

NHS Providers, which represents English hospital trusts, said today there were clear capacity problems with the testing regime.

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said trust leaders from Bristol, Leeds and London had all raised concerns that a lack of testing availability had led to greater levels of staff absence. He added:

“The problem is that NHS trusts are working in the dark – they don’t know why these shortages are occurring, how long they are likely to last, how geographically widespread they are likely to be and what priority will be given to healthcare workers and their families in accessing scarce tests.”

A spokesman for Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust said it had its own staff testing facility and that any staff member required to have a test had received one. He added:

“We’re continuing to monitor demand for testing. In line with recent general increases in demand, we are in the process of extending our staff service to ensure we have capacity going forward.”

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Harrogate Borough Council has yet to recruit any covid marshals, the authority revealed today.

The government’s new ‘rule of six’ came into force today, forbidding social gatherings of more than six people except in certain circumstances.

Ministers have called for local councils to recruit teams of marshals to monitor compliance.

But many local authorities, including HBC, have yet to do so, saying they need more details about the role and funding.

A council spokesman said:

“The government hasn’t published any guidance to local authorities about the role of the marshals, the powers they will have nor how contact tracing at hospitality businesses will be enforced.

“Until we’ve had the detail, we can’t plan for how marshals may be used in the district.”

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Nesil Caliskan, chair of the Local Government Association’s safer and stronger communities board, said the government’s announcement had caused confusion among local authorities and called for “urgent clarity” from ministers.

Ms Caliskan added:

“It is right that councils will be able to choose whether marshals are the best way to manage covid risks in their local areas.

“However, without additional funding to support this proposal, many councils are likely to have to prioritise other activity.

“Even if marshals were rolled out in great numbers, they will not have enforcement powers so it is important that residents do not expect councils to be able to act when they cannot.”

Police warning

Chief Inspector Charlotte Bloxham, silver lead for the North Yorkshire Police covid response, urged people to take personal responsibility for following government guidance. She added that breaches of the regulations should be reported using the online form on North Yorkshire Police’s website.

Ms Bloxham warned, however, that demand for police services was now back at pre-covid levels. She said:

“We will continue to follow our usual approach of engaging, explaining and encouraging people to act responsibly and only resorting to enforcement when absolutely necessary. “

Heritage Open Days, England’s largest festival of history and culture, begins today – but events are thin on the ground in the Harrogate area.

Most events have been cancelled due to coronavirus although an additional virtual programme has been added to the schedule, allowing people to go behind the scenes at cultural sites across England.

The only physical event scheduled for Harrogate is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission walk and talk at Stonefall Cemetery, which is limited to six tours of five people over two days and is currently fully booked.

Nearly 1,000 airmen who died in the Second World War are buried at the cemetery. More than two-thirds are Canadian.

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The neo-Norman church of St Mary’s in Roecliffe, which has a Jacobean pulpit, is opening its doors to visitors on all 10 days of the open days, which end on September 20.

St Martin’s Church in Knaresborough is also welcoming visitors, as is the church of Christ the Consoler at Skelton-cum-Newby at Newby Hall, near Ripon.

Heritage Open Days, which is being held for the 25th year, has adopted a hidden nature theme in 2020. It is coordinated by the National Trust.

To search for events, click here.

The three MPs whose constituencies include the Harrogate district received almost £17,000 in expenses between them in the latest round of claims, which were published today.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority reveals details of MPs’ expenses every two months.

For the latest period, which covers March to the end of May, Skipton and Ripon MP Julian Smith claimed £4,649.21, Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones claimed £4,718.82 and Selby and Ainsty MP Nigel Adams claimed £7,497.56.

The largest sums for all three were to pay the Conservative Policy Research Unit, which is a pooled research facility for Conservative MPs. Each MP claimed in excess of £3,000 for this.

Jones’s details include four mileage claims for £96.75 each, which relate to 215-mile trips to and from London.

One claim is dated March 23, the day the country went into lockdown. Another is on March 26 – the date Parliament shut down. MPs were still expected to attend the House of Commons until then.

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Smith’s smallest claim is 77p for an item of stationery. He also claimed £575 office costs for rent. His entry on the IPSA register does not include any claims for travel.

Adams’ claims include £12 for having his constituency office window cleaned on May 11 and £493 for gas and electricity. He also submitted receipts for £3,550 accommodation costs for rent.