Harrogate streets reopen after bomb scare

Several streets in Harrogate town centre closed this morning due to a bomb scare. Harrogate Magistrates Court was evacuated and police blocked Victoria Avenue, where the court is based, along with several other streets. Police, paramedics and firefighters were at the scene until after midday. Here’s what happened.

1.05pm: Police say enquiries are ‘ongoing’

North Yorkshire Police said no arrests have been made following the incident.

Enquiries are ongoing, the force said, but the scene appears to now be cleared.

12.56pm: Evacuated school issues statement about ‘most unusual day’

St Peter’s Church of England Primary School in Harrogate was evacuated as part of today’s bomb scare.

A spokesperson said:

“We quickly responded to advice from the police and evacuated all staff and pupils  to a local church.  All were calm and happy throughout the process and we would like to thank our staff and our pupils’ parents/carers for their support in dealing with what has been a most unusual day.”

12.48pm: Last police car leaves Victoria Avenue

Things appear to have returned to normal in Harrogate town centre after today’s bomb scare. We still await further information about what happened from the police, but for now it seems the bomb scare is over.

12.37pm: Police cordons being removed

Police are removing cordons and police vehicles are leaving the scene. We haven’t had an official update but it appears the incident may be under control.

Victoria Avenue reopens to traffic.

12.32pm: Aerial view of Victoria Avenue

Brian Simpson has posted this view on X, formerly Twitter. He added:

“I live down the street and there don’t seem to be too many concerns. Certainly they’re not doing a huge amount to stop people moving around Victoria Avenue towards the junction with Station Parade and they’ve even directed some cars that way.”

bomb scare 9 Jan 2023

12.24pm: West Park reopens to traffic

West Park has reopened to traffic. It had been closed at the Prince of Wales roundabout but it has now reopened after the cordon went up on Victoria Avenue.

12.15pm: More cordons go up

Police cordons have now gone up on Victoria Avenue, where firefighters and an ambulance incident response unit are on site, and on Princes Square.

12.10pm: Cordon extended to Raglan Street

The whole of Victoria Avenue is cordoned off, but police have now extended the exclusion area to Raglan Street. Traffic is still blocked from West Park, which leads on to Victoria Avenue, which is the focus of police activity.

12.03pm: Police issue update 

North Yorkshire Police has just issued the following statement:

“We are attending reports of a suspicious vehicle on Victoria Avenue, Harrogate. We ask members of the public to avoid the area for the time being, and we’re very grateful for your patience and understanding.:

11.56am: Bomb scare in car?

An officer at the scene has said the incident is a suspected bomb scare in a car on Victoria Avenue.

Court staff have been evacuated.

11.46am: Police cordons up

Dog walkers heading out of town were turned away from a police cordon across the pavement by the Prince of Wales roundabout.

The Stray Ferret has contacted North Yorkshire Police for details about the incident. We will update this article when more information is available.

West Park is closed to traffic.

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Four Harrogate firefighters to be axed in April

The number of firefighters stationed in Harrogate will be cut by four in April.

The move, which will save £210,000, is part of plans to reduce the number of nighttime fire engines based in the town from two to one.

The Stray Ferret broke the news in 2022 that Zoe Metcalfe, the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner planned to shed frontline firefighting jobs as part of her Risk and Resource Model, which sets out how fire resources will be deployed.

The proposals were later adopted despite widespread safety concerns but they have yet to be implemented.

A report that will be debated by councillors on Thursday  (January 11) about setting the police and fire service precepts for the next financial year gives a brief update.

It says Harrogate will have four fewer firefighters from April this year. Scarborough is due to lose four firefighters next year, saving another £215,000. Another seven firefighters, described as ‘operational staffing reserve’, will also go in April next year, saving £375,000.

The report, which comes after Ms Metcalfe hinted council taxpayers may have to pay more for police and fire services this year,  warns “finances continue to be exceptional tight”.

The Stray Ferret asked Ms Metcalfe’s office how many firefighters will remain at Harrogate after the changes take effect and whether those affected had been offered alternative roles.

A spokesperson said:

“The proposals in the precept report are in line with the consultation and decisions made in relation to the Risk and Resource Model in September 2022.

“The report to which your questions refer will be discussed at the police, fire and crime panel meeting on Thursday, January 11 and it would not be appropriate for us to provide any further information at this time.”

The North Yorkshire Police Fire and Crime Panel, which is a joint committee of North Yorkshire Council and City of York Council, scrutinises the performance of the commissioner.

How will it work?

Harrogate fire station on Skipton Road.

Harrogate Fire Station

Currently, Harrogate Fire Station on Skipton Road has one fire engine which can respond to all callouts and one smaller tactical response vehicle. Both operate around the clock.

The tactical response vehicle will be replaced by a larger fire engine but it will only be crewed during the day.

Ms Metcalfe’s Risk and Resource Model said more fires occur during daytime, and having two fire engines at Harrogate would provide better daytime protection at key times.

But the second Harrogate appliance won’t be staffed between 10pm and 9am, meaning greater dependence on on-call firefighters in Knaresborough when a second fire engine is required at major incidents.

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Police warn of spate of pushy cold callers in Harrogate

Police in Harrogate have urged people to be wary of cold callers turning up on doorsteps offering garden maintenance work.

In a statement today, North Yorkshire Police said it was aware of individuals and groups targeting elderly residents in the area.

It added some could be “pushy and threatening” or “charge inflated prices or pretend to find more and more jobs that need doing on a property”.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said:

“We’re aware of Harrogate households in different areas of the town being approached for landscaping and gardening work. We’re working proactively to address this.

“As part of this work, we want residents to be aware of the risks and to know what to do if someone turns up at their door offering services like gardening work, building maintenance or selling goods.

“We’d advise people to be wary – legitimate gardening and maintenance businesses usually work through recommendations and don’t need to knock on doors to get business.”

Unsolicited calling, or cold calling, is when people are approached by someone offering a service despite not requesting it.

Although cold calling is not an offence, North Yorkshire Police said it frequently investigated frauds, thefts and burglaries that happened as a result of doorstep calls.

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The spokesman added:

“Always give yourself plenty of time to make decisions about who you employ and ask friends, family and neighbours for recommendations.

“And don’t feel bad about saying ‘no’. Normal businesses understand that people want to shop around and won’t try to pressure you into a decision on the spot. If they do, that’s a massive red flag.

“Sadly, elderly people are particularly at risk. So if you have older parents, relatives or friends, please share this message with them and check they know how to stay safe if cold callers knock on their door.”

Police urge anyone suspicious about cold callers to dial 101.

Car catches fire in Harrogate multi-storey car park

Harrogate firefighters were called to the fifth floor of the town’s Victoria Car Park yesterday when a car caught fire.

Both Harrogate appliances were summoned to the multi-storey near the train station following reports of smoke billowing from the boot of the vehicle in the multi-storey.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s incident report said:

“Fire crews used a hose reel, breathing apparatus, thermal camera and tools to access and extinguish the fire.”

It added the cause was attributed to an electrical fault to a CD multi-changer in the car boot.

The incident proved to be the start of a busy morning for Harrogate firefighters.

At 10.36am,  they released two people trapped in a lift at an undisclosed location on Crescent Road in Harrogate.

Then at 11.41am, a women’s walking group alerted them to a cow trapped in barbed wire on a fence at the edge of woodland off the A661 Harrogate Road at Spofforth

The incident report added:

“On finding the cow, the fire officer was able to establish which farm the cow belonged to. The farmer then attended with bolt croppers to free the cow.”

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‘Don’t waste our time’ — firefighters issue plea to wild campers

Firefighters have urged wild campers to “think about the consequences of your actions” after a remote call-out took three hours of their time.

On call firefighters from Masham and a crew from Ripon responded to police reports of a fire near Roundhill Reservoir at 8.47pm on Saturday night.

The location, near Leighton Reservoir, is between Masham and Lofthouse.

Masham Fire Station said on social media the call was to a camp fire set up by a group of youngsters wild camping.

It added:

“The crews were unable to reach this destination by road so the crews had to walk over unknown ground from Roundhill Reservoir in the pitch dark using only torches.

“This not only put them in danger walking this area in the dark but was an unnecessary waste of resources which may have been required for another more serious incident elsewhere.

“This incident tied up both crews for up to three hours. Although it was only a campfire it could have been more serious.

“Please think about the consequences of your actions before wild camping in rural areas.”

It urged people to look at the picture of the location “to see what the conditions were like and imagine having to walk that in the pitch dark. Not fun.”

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Knaresborough roadworks to resume for 10 weeks on Monday

Traffic lights will return to a main road in Knaresborough for 10 weeks from tomorrow (January 8).

The lights will enable the next phase of a £200,000 scheme to repair and maintain the wall on Briggate to take place.

A section of the wall collapsed on to the road on September 14. Nobody was hurt but the rubble remained on the carriageway for almost three months.

Traffic lights were put up and North Yorkshire Council, which had been warned about the state of the wall multiple times in the run-up to the incident, finally began repairs on November 27.

Karl Battersby, the council’s corporate director for environment, said in November some cellars belonging to residents had been impacted by the collapsed wall and consequently the “works are now more complex than first anticipated”.

Work paused before Christmas when the first phase of repairs finished.

Now the next phase is set to begin. The council posted on social media yesterday:

“We will be carrying out further repairs and maintenance work to the wall on Briggate in Knaresborough from Monday, with work due to be completed by Friday, 14 March.

“This follows the collapse of a section of the wall.

“For the safety of our team and road users, two-way lights will be in place while the work is carried out.”

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Three fire crews called to Ripon house blaze

Firefighters from Ripon, Boroughbridge and Harrogate were called to a house fire in Ripon last night.

The crews were alerted to smoke billowing from the roof of a detached home in the Gallows Hill area of the city at 6.21pm.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used the aerial ladder platform  based at Harrogate Fire Station to tackle the fire on the third floor.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service‘s incident report said:

“The cause was believed to be radiated heat from the flue of a wood-burning stove.”

No further details have been released.

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A week of floods, facial recognition cameras and ice rink meltdown

Welcome to a new weekly feature rounding up some of my favourite articles on the Stray Ferret each week.

We often publish more than a dozen stories a day and it’s easy to miss things. Hopefully this digest will give you the chance to catch up.

The Harrogate ice rink saga has been one of our best read stories of the week. The rink has been criticised for slushy ice, rusty skates and slow refunds. It’s difficult not to feel some sympathy because — ironically — a winter wonderland attraction has been somewhat undone by the northern winter, which has forced its closure rather too regularly.

The company running it said this week it won’t be back for Christmas 2024.

As editor, one of the questions I’m asked most is ‘when is the new Lidl opening in Ripon?’. It was granted planning permission in September 2021 and we have an update on one of the slowest moving but most popular local retail stories here.

We also have news of a fascinating dual enterprise by two sisters in the former Dangerfield & Keane salon on Cold Bath Road in Harrogate. Ever used a hyperbaric chamber?

It’s been a week of rain and flood. The Ford car stuck in the ford over the River Skell in Ripon has caused a bit of a ripple. It was still there yesterday. The weather may be improving but Boroughbridge rarely looks prettier than when the River Ure floods, as happened this week.

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How do you feel about walking through Harrogate town centre and having facial recognition cameras matching your features to those of police suspects? It could happen if Conservative Keane Duncan is elected Mayor of York and North Yorkshire this year. Read more here.

Who remembers Knaresborough’s new primary school? You’d be forgiven if you didn’t given that it was pledged nearly four years ago and not a jot of progress appears to have happened. We got an update this week.

The week ahead should see Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservative MP Andrew Jones appear before the Liberal Democrat-controlled area constituency committee of North Yorkshire Council. It could be tetchy.

Enjoy the site. If you have a view on any of our articles, or indeed anything else that’s bugging you about life in Harrogate, Ripon, Knaresborough, Boroughbridge, Pateley Bridge and Masham, do email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk and we will consider it for publication in our Stray Views letters page.

And if you don’t already, sign up to our new look daily bulletins for a round-up of the news every evening in your inbox. Click on the link below.

 

Driver rescued from Ripon ford as flood threat continues

Police and firefighters were called to Ripon last night when a vehicle got stuck in floodwater in a ford across the River Skell.

The ford at Firs Avenue is notoriously difficult to cross when water levels are high.

The Stray Ferret reported in September that a Fiat had to be towed out.

Now another vehicle — ironically a Ford — has also encountered difficulties. It was still awaiting recovery this morning.

The car awaiting rescue this morning.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service was alerted at 6.21pm to a similar incident.

Its incident report said a single vehicle had become stuck in floodwater after attempting to cross the ford.

“On the arrival of crews, the driver of the vehicle had been assisted out of the water by a member of the public.

“The driver was checked over by police officers and given advice.

“Crews closed off the ford and footbridge with assistance from the police.”

The footbridge was closed following the incident.

The Met Office forecasts a drier day today but flood warnings remain in place for Boroughbridge camping and caravanning site on the River Ure, Swinney Beck at Masham and the the River Nidd at Hunsingore. Flood warnings indicate flooding is likely.

Less severe flood alerts are active for the lower River Ure  and the lower River Nidd catchment areas.

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£300,000 upgrade of The Woodlands in Harrogate to begin next week

Building work on a £300,000 upgrade of The Woodlands pub in Harrogate is due to begin next week.

Work will start on Monday (January 8) and the pub on Wetherby Road is due to re-open at the end of February with a new food and drinks offer.

Heineken-owned Star Pubs & Bars said in a statement today it planned to “transform it into the best family-friendly community and sports pub in the area”.

It added:

“Funds are being spent on a top-to-toe redecoration of the interior of The Woodlands to include new hard flooring, carpets and furniture to give the pub a brighter, smarter more contemporary look and feel.

“A new sports area will be created with a pool table, traditional darts board and TV showing Sky Sports and TNT Sports.  A kitchen upgrade is also taking place to enable the pub to extend its traditional pub favourites and cater for the increased numbers the operators expect to attract.

“The pub’s exterior is to be given a complete makeover, repainted in a smart grey-blue and white with new signage, lighting and in warmer months, hanging baskets. To the front there will be a beer garden with new tables and chairs and behind a sheltered beer garden, that’s a real sun trap.”

The Woodlands on Wetherby Road

An artist’s impression of how it will look.

Star Pubs and Bars first unveiled plans to give the pub a facelift in December 2020. At the time it also announced plans to give the pub a controversial new name, West Riding Harrogate, but this was dropped when it didn’t go down well with some local residents.

The company today said the refurbishment has taken time to begin because it initially planned to recruit a licensee who would have also invested in the pub, but it had now decided to run The Woodlands as one of its managed operator pubs and is doing the whole investment itself.

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It announced Paul Caunt and Matthew Carr would take on the management of the venue. Both previously worked for Mr Carr’s father who had the lease of the pub for many years.

Mr Caunt said:

“Matthew’s father decided to retire last year when his lease came to an end.  We had thought we would have to leave the pub but were delighted when we found out that it was going to benefit from a major investment and that there was an opportunity to manage it.  We were both ready to run our own pub so it’s a dream come true.  We make a great team as Matthew is responsible for the kitchen, and I’m front of house.

“We were both brought up in Harrogate and both live nearby so know what locals want and the area needs.  We get on well with the regulars and there’s a fantastic community spirit.”

The partners plans for The Woodland include continuing to host twice weekly pub quizzes and show live sports on TV and if there’s interest they will look to host live music. They are also looking for pool and darts teams.

Paul Caunt(left) and Matthew Carr toast the pub’s success.

The drinks will include a selection of wines, spirits, and beers as well as cocktails, cask and craft ales and Heineken 0.0.  Beers will include Birra Moretti and Beavertown as well as Theakstons and Timothy Taylor’s.

Andy Moore, Star Pubs & Bars investment manager, said:

“The Woodlands is in a prominent position on a busy crossroads near to the Yorkshire show showground and near the newly promoted Harrogate Town Football Club.  It’s tired looking at the moment, a bit of an eyesore, but with this major investment it will be somewhere that locals can be proud of.

“The immediate area has plenty of top-quality food pubs, but no real top quality community local offering sport.  With Matthew and Paul at the helm, a new look and feel and new food and drinks menus, I’m confident it will deliver what is needed locally.  People will have the type of pub on their doorstep that previously they had to travel to enjoy.”

The vast majority of Star Pubs & Bars’ 2,400 pubs are leased to small businesses and entrepreneurs.