A parliamentary watchdog has refused to publish its correspondence with Skipton and Ripon MP Julian Smith about his £3,000-an-hour advisory role.

The Stray Ferret revealed in August Mr Smith would be paid £60,000 for 20 hours work for low carbon transport company Ryse Hydrogen.

Because of his former government role in Northern Ireland, Mr Smith sought advice from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments about a potential conflict in taking the role with Ryse.

In 2019, when Mr Smith was Northern Ireland secretary, Jo Bamford, the executive chairman of Ryse, became owner of Ballymena-based bus manufacturer Wrightbus.

The Bamford family owns JCB and are Conservative Party donors.

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We asked Acoba, which advises former ministers on employment and conflicts of interest after leaving office, to provide details of its correspondence with Mr Smith.

The FoI response said Lord Pickles, chair of Acoba, considered that disclosure of the correspondence “would be likely to inhibit the free and frank provision of advice and exchange of views; and would be likely to prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs”.

It added:

“The information being withheld includes that which was provided voluntarily by Mr Smith to
enable Acoba to properly advise on the application that had been made.

“Disclosure of the information requested would, or would be likely to, make applicants
reluctant to share information as freely with Acoba in future, especially if there was any
perceived sensitivity about the information. This in turn would compromise the advice that
Acoba is able to give.”

The response said the publication of its letter to Mr Smith on its website had fulfilled public interest requirements.

The letter said the appointment was not a conflict of interest, provided Mr Smith does not lobby on behalf of the company or advise on government contracts in the two years after he departed as Northern Ireland secretary in February this year.

The Stray Ferret is to request an internal review of the decision.

The Harrogate Nightingale hospital will be ready to take patients at five days notice by the end of the week, according to its medical director.

Dr Yvette Oade said it was “hard to predict” when the hospital, which was set-up at a cost of £27m to cater for covid patients in Yorkshire and the Humber, might be needed.

But she said people should be “very concerned” because the infection rate was rising rapidly across the region and hospital admissions were increasing.

The government said last week the Harrogate Nightingale was being put on standby.

Speaking on BBC Look North last night, Dr Oade described the hospital as “an insurance policy” that would be required if hospitals in the region reached maximum capacity. She added:

“You only draw on your insurance policies when things have not worked to plan.

“Right now the hospital isn’t needed, our colleagues are doing a great job around the region.

“People should be very concerned. Infection rates in Yorkshire and the Humber are one of the highest in the country. We’ve seen hospital admissions rising quickly.

“By the end of this week we will be ready to open to patients if given five days notice.

“Right now the hospital isn’t needed. It’s hard for me to predict when this hospital might be needed. The important thing is if we are needed then we will be ready.”

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Last week Lord Newby, the Ripon-based Liberal Democrat leader in the House of Lords suggested the hospital might not be able to open fully because it “simply does not have the staff available to allow it to operate safely”.

Asked about staffing, Dr Oade said the Harrogate Nightingale would need staff from other NHS organisations.

She added:

“If we get to the stage where we need the Nightingale hospitals it’s likely that because our acute trust will be so full that some of those procedures that they are currently doing will need to be halted.”

The coroner’s office is appealing for information to find the family of a Knaresborough man who died at home this month.

Police officers have been unable to trace the family or next of kin of Brian George Abbott, 73, who died on October 15.

Mr Abbott, who lived in Finkle Street, was discovered after a concerned neighbour raised the alarm when post began to build up at his home.

His death is not believed to be suspicious.

North Yorkshire Police has appealed to anyone who knew Mr Abbott or has any information that could help find his family to contact the coroner’s office.

You can do so by calling 01609 643614 or emailing coroner@northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk.

A peer has expressed concerns the Harrogate Nightingale hospital will not open because it “simply does not have the staff available to allow it to operate safely”.

The government said this week the hospital was on standby to receive covid patients.

But Lord Newby, the Liberal Democrat leader in the House of Lords, told the Lords yesterday:

“It is widely believed in Yorkshire that, as far as the Nightingale hospital in Harrogate is concerned, this will not happen because the hospital simply does not have the staff available to allow it to operate safely.”

Lord Newby, who lives in Ripon, asked Baroness Evans of Bowes Park, the Conservative leader of the House of Lords, if she could “assure the House that this is not the case”.

Baroness Evans replied that the hospital was already being used for CT scans — which did not reassure Lord Newby.

Speaking today to the Stray Ferret, he said:

“I raised the issue yesterday because I had heard from several NHS sources that the Nightingale hospital had neither the equipment nor more importantly the staff to open fully.

“I was not at all reassured by Baroness Evans’ response. She said that the Harrogate Nightingale was currently being used for CT scans and implied that it was on standby to open for covid cases.

“She explicitly refused to answer my specific question about whether the hospital had the staffing levels which would allow it to open safely for covid patients.”

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Lord Newby said he doubted NHS England would want to admit there would be real difficulties getting the Harrogate hospital working with covid patients on any scale.

An NHS England spokesperson for the hospital said:

“As part of our comprehensive activation plans we have developed a model that can be scaled up as and when additional critical care beds are required in the region.

“This ensures that the right skill mix of staff will be available from NHS trusts in the region, and via NHS Professionals and through direct recruitment if required.”

Harrogate Town has appointed its first ever club chaplain to provide pastoral and spiritual help to players and their families.

Rob Brett, who is a Christian but not ordained, said he would offer a friendly face and a listening ear to everyone at the club, regardless of faith.

Most professional football clubs have chaplains but this voluntary role is a first for Town, which was promoted to the English Football League for the first time this year.

Mr Brett, who has lived in Harrogate for more than 20 years and is regulated by Sports Chaplaincy UK, said:

“I will be available to listen, without judging, to whatever it is that people want to share, including family and relationship difficulties, mental health issues and financial problems.

“What I’m told will be in strictest confidence. I won’t necessarily come up with solutions, but rather help people to work out for themselves how to ease or resolve their anxiety.”

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Town manager Simon Weaver welcomed the appointment. He said:

“We are an extended family at Harrogate Town and we look out for each other.”

“Having Rob around gives us someone else to share our personal problems, which we may not want to do with team mates, bosses or colleagues or even our nearest and dearest.”

The club’s newly appointed support liaison officer Phill Holdsworth (left) and an associate director of the club, Mike Partridge.

The club also announced today it had appointed Phill Holdsworth as supporters’ liaison officer.

Mr Holdsworth is a club volunteer and season ticket holder.

Managing director Garry Plant said:

“Phil is very well qualified to deal with off-field suggestions or issues supporters may have.”

The company that carried out drainage work on the Stray at West Park has said the new system is robust and conforms to industry requirements.

John Lowe, managing director of Green Hammerton company L Philliskirk and Sons, said the company used a controlled discharge system that removes water slowly — but does not leave it standing for days or weeks as has historically blighted the Stray.

The Stray Ferret reported yesterday the Stray at West Park was flooded after one night of rain, six months after Harrogate Borough Council spent £20,000 on a new drainage system for this area.

By early afternoon most of the water had indeed drained away. The main problem was large puddles on the adjoining path – with some forcing pedestrians off the footpath close to the Prince of Wales roundabout.

Mr Lowe said the hydrobrake system conformed with Yorkshire Water guidelines. He likened it to draining water through a straw, and said it could be frustratingly slow but was effective at preventing long-term flooding. He added:

“The system may not be as quick as everyone likes but it will drain the water.”

A spokesman for Harrogate Borough Council said the new drainage channels meant the water drained quicker than it did previously. He added:

“This area is one of the lowest points so the water will naturally make its way there. Over the coming hours and days this standing water will filter through to the drainage channels and subside. Rather than the weeks that it would have remained there previously.”

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They were supposed to have moved three weeks ago, but the four-way traffic lights on one of Harrogate’s busiest roads are still bringing daily misery to hundreds of motorists.

Northern Gas Networks began work replacing metal pipes with plastic pipes beneath Skipton Road on July 13.

The project has required two sets of traffic lights on Skipton Road, plus lights on the adjoining King’s Road and Woodfield Road.

On September 18, Chris Reed, site manager at NGN, apologised for any inconvenience caused by the delayed project and assured the Stray Ferret the four-way lights would be replaced by two-way lights the following day as the project moved further along Skipton Road.

But since then the four-way lights have remained.

Besides delaying motorists, the lights have blighted the lives of residents and business.

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Bilton Working Men’s Club on Skipton Road has filed a claim for loss of earnings against NGN.

The Stray Ferret asked NGN if it could finally say when the four-way lights would be removed.

But Richard White, the company’s business operations lead, was unable to give a date.

Mr White said NGN was now resurfacing the Skipton Road end of King’s Road. He added:

“This is a major, complex project, involving the removal of a number of ageing metal gas pipes some of which are 70 or 80-years-old.”

He said completion of the entire project “remains on schedule for the end of November”. But no date before then for the end of the four-way lights was given.

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones today urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to commit to a support package for the conference and exhibition industry.

Speaking at Prime Minster’s Questions, Jones said Johnson had recognised the difficulties facing the industry last month when he revealed ministers were working urgently on a support package for sports clubs that rely on paying spectators.

Jones said the the exhibition industry was “really important in Harrogate and Knaresborough”, adding:

“Could he tell the House when that package will be coming forward, and will it include the conference and exhibition industry?”

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Johnson said the conference and exhibition industry was worth about £90 billion to this country and of “massive importance” but did not commit to any firm support.

He added:

“It was a very difficult decision to take to pause conferences and exhibitions. We want to get them open as fast as possible.

“Of course, they have had a lot of support, as I indicated earlier—the £190 billion package is there to help businesses of all kinds—but the best way forward is to get the kind of testing systems that will enable not just conferences and businesses of that kind but all types and even theatres to reopen and get back to normality. That is what we are aiming for.”

A man suffered a punctured lung following a suspected stabbing – but the attacker was spared prison.

Daryl Hart, 46, from Harrogate, was drunk and high on cocaine when he attacked the man with an unidentified weapon.

The named victim suffered several puncture wounds to his back and two to the front, prosecutor Angus Macdonald told York Crown Court.

One of the wounds caused a punctured lung. The others were described as “superficial” but still required hospital treatment.

Hart, of Albany Avenue, had travelled to Scarborough on one of his regular visits to see family in the area and ended up at the West Riding pub on Castle Road, where he had “too much to drink” and started causing bother.

Fight breaks out

He and a named female left the pub to go looking for drugs and were followed by the victim to a flat in the town. The victim forced his way into the flat and attacked Hart, whereby a fight ensued.

Hart used “some sort of weapon” on the victim who suffered multiple wounds, said Mr Macdonald.

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He was arrested and charged with wounding with intent. He denied the allegation but admitted an alternative charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

This plea was accepted by the prosecution, which offered no evidence on the wounding charge. Hart appeared for sentence on Friday.

Bit man’s ear

The court heard that prior to the offence in August last year, Hart had racked up a litany of violent offences.

In 1996, he attacked a man with a stick, breaking his arm. In another incident, he bit a man’s ear, severing it, after throwing him down some stairs.

In a separate incident in 2002, Hart and another male dragged a man out of his flat at knifepoint. The victim was stabbed with a kitchen knife, resulting in yet another jail sentence.

Defence barrister Taryn Turner said that Hart, who had serious health problems due to drink and drugs, had stayed out of trouble for a long time both before and since the incident in Scarborough.

Recorder Paul Reid criticised Hart for his shocking record and his drink and drug-fuelled attack on the man in Scarborough.

Weapon used

He said although the victim was “the first to use any sort of violence”, Hart then used “some sort of weapon” to cause the puncture wounds.

He told Hart: “It is entirely unclear what (that weapon was) and you have never said what it was.

“Normally, an offence like this, where a weapon is used to cause serious harm, would result in immediate prison, but you were not the initial aggressor and pleaded guilty.”

Mr Reid said he had also noted Hart’s “appalling” health, his remorse and the fact that he had otherwise stayed out of trouble and had been trying to lead a “quiet life”.

For these reasons, Mr Reid said he could suspend the inevitable jail sentence.
The 14-month sentence was suspended for 18 months and Hart was ordered to complete a 30-day rehabilitation programme.

A not-guilty verdict was recorded on the wounding with intent charge.

North Yorkshire County Council may allow visits to care homes after this month following a backlash from upset relatives.

Richard Webb, director of health and adult services at the council, wrote to care homes this week advising them to halt routine visits throughout October.

This prompted some members of the public, as well as Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones, to say visits should be allowed to go ahead.

At a press briefing yesterday, Mr Webb said the council would set up a working group with relatives and care home providers to investigate ways that allowed people to visit homes after this month.

One possible solution, he said, would be to allow a nominated person to visit.

But Mr Webb added he “could not make any promises”.

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One Harrogate resident, whose 99-year-old mother has dementia and is in a local home, contacted the Stray Ferret to say care home residents deserved better. She said:

“It is sheer cruelty and tragic to not address this problem and leave our loved ones to live out their last days alone and severely depressed, as is happening now.

“What we desperately need is adequate testing, which would enable one key visitor, who should be tested and treated in the same way as staff, to be allocated with unlimited access to each resident.’

The resident was critical of Mr Jones’ suggestion to Parliament that visits could take place behind glass screens or windows.

She said it would add to the confusion and frustration felt by residents with dementia, adding:

“It would most likely seriously distress them and add to the cruelty of this situation.”