John Plummer, Author at The Stray Ferret

Strong support for new Boroughbridge sports village

A consultation has revealed strong support for plans to create a sports village on the edge of Boroughbridge.

The Stray Ferret revealed last month local gym owner Darren Sadler and Boroughbridge Town Council were behind the scheme.

The 10-acre site at Aldborough Gate would include free to use community facilities, including a games field, a one kilometre running track, a sprint track and a multi-use games areas for team sports such as five-a-side football and netball, as well as a meeting room and a nature reserve.

There would also be a gym and functional strength training centre and a health food café run on a commercial basis by Mr Sadler, a former World’s Strongest Man competitor.

Of the 1,193 consultation responses so far, 93% either agree or strongly agree the facility would improve the health and wellbeing of the residents of Boroughbridge and neighbouring communities.

A total of 84% said physical activities were important to them with a fully equipped gym, exercise classes and outdoor games field generating the most support.

‘One of the biggest things we’ve ever done’

The proposal has been brought forward by Mr Sadler, the town council and Boroughbridge Sports Village, which is a newly formed charity.

The Stray Ferret met Cllr Sean Hynes, the mayor of Boroughbridge and Mr Sadler at his Absolute Fitness gym this week to find out more about the venture.

Mr Sadler is buying land off the town council to fund the commercial side of the operation.

Cllr Hynes said “all money we get from the sale of land will be put back into the project” to create free community facilities. He added:

“It’s one of the biggest things the town council has ever been involved in and we are pleased to have Darren and his team as a partner.

“We are all aware Boroughbridge is doubling in size but there are few places for young people to go.”

The sports village proposal revives previously failed town council plans to build sports facilities on the land, said Cllr Hynes. He added:

“The council is very excited about this. For a small town council it is a massive project and without Darren’s involvement, it would not get off the ground.”

‘We want to create a supergym’

Boroughbridge-born Mr Sadler no longer competes in strongman but over the last 10 years has had phenomenal success in the sport as a promoter.

He started off staging events in car parks and now organises World’s Strongest Man qualifying events under the Giants Live banner that regularly sell out huge arenas worldwide. Many of the biggest names in strongman regularly visit his gym.

His current schedule includes events at the Royal Albert Hall in London and in Las Vegas.

He said Absolute Fitness had outgrown its current site in Roecliffe and a new facility with a full equipped gym, including strength and functional training areas would enable the gym to help more people get fit, especially youngsters.

A map showing the location.

The proposed site

He added:

“We want to create a supergym and make it famous across the country. Every month I’d like to have special guests. I can get all the top strongmen to come, like Hafthor Bjornsson and Eddie Hall, but I want to bring in people from other sports as well.”

Mr Sadler said the extra space would also enable the gym to cater for martial arts, dance and a broader range of fitness classes.

A public consultation event at Boroughbridge Community Library this month.

A public consultation took place at Boroughbridge Community Library this month and people can still take part in the phase one consultation here. A planning application is expected to be submitted to North Yorkshire Council within the next month.

Cllr Hynes said there had already been “positive discussions” with the council about it but with a lengthy planning process ahead, neither party is willing to commit to a timeframe.

Mr Sadler said:

“We don’t want to rush. We want to get it right.”

Still no date when work will begin on closed road near Kex Gill

There is still no date for when work will begin to repair the landslip that led to the closure of the A59 at Blubberhouses.

The road, which is the main route between Harrogate and Skipton, closed suddenly on February 2 when a crack appeared on the verge.

The council has said wet weather caused the crack in the landslip-prone area.

However Alistair Young, whose house in Blubberhouses overlooks the closed section of road, has claimed previous landslips occurred about half a mile away at Kex Gill, where the council is working on a £68.8 million road realignment. Mr Young believes the council’s work on the Kex Gill realignment has caused the landslip.

The closed section of road at Blubberhouses.

Seven weeks on from the road being closed, repair work has yet to begin.

Barrie Mason, North Yorkshire Council’s assistant director highways and transportation, parking services, street scene, parks and grounds, gave an update in a video published on the council’s social media channels on Friday.

Mr Mason, who was filmed speaking on the closed road, said:

“We are working hard on a design solution involving sheet piles, which is where we put interlocking sheets of metal into the ground to stabilise the ground and stabilise the road.

“We are working hard to get that design finalised and programmed as soon as possible.

“As soon as possible we will be out on site and getting this road reopened.”

Harrogate hospital could face six more months of strikes

Harrogate District Hospital could face a further six months of disruption after junior doctors voted to extend their mandate for strike action.

It’s been over a year since junior doctors began striking over pay and this week 98% of British Medical Association union members backed further walkouts on a turnout of 62%.

Most recently, junior doctors at the Lancaster Park Road hospital staged two separate walk-outs between December 20-23 and January 3-9.

The strikes have had a “draining impact”, according to the boss of Harrogate & District NHS Foundation Trust.

Junior doctors are qualified doctors in clinical training and they make up nearly half of the medical workforce in England.

The BMA says while workload and waiting lists are at record highs, pay has effectively been cut by more than a quarter since 2008.

The union is asking the government for a 35% pay rise, but health ministers have described the demands as unreasonable.

A spokesperson for Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust said the hospital hopes a deal can be reached before future strikes take place.

They said:

“Whilst we respect the decision made by BMA junior doctors to extend their mandate for industrial action, we hope that the BMA and government can have effective discussions which will lead to a solution before further strikes are undertaken.

“Should further industrial action take place we will continue to manage the disruption to ensure our patients are safe during the strike, any impact on patient care is kept to a minimum and emergency services continue to operate as normal.

“We value our staff and know that junior doctors do not want to be striking. We hope a breakthrough can be made soon so that we can continue to focus on delivering high quality care to all those who need it.”

Readers’ Letters: ‘Abusive beggars’ and intimidating teens in Harrogate

Readers’ Letters is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.

This letter is in response to the Trading Hell series we ran this week. It followed a three-month investigation into anti-social behaviour and crime in parts of Harrogate.

Congratulations to you for raising this issue.

I don’t have a specific situation or incident to report, but I have noticed a huge increase in what might be called passive aggressive behaviour in town.

The beggars are abusive, the teenagers look at you as if you have encroached on their patch and there is a general feeling that something is about to kick off”. I don’t think I have ever seen a police officer on foot in town over the past five years or so.

But why does it always have to be somebody’s fault other than the perpetrator of the misdemeanour? Sadly, this reflects a breakdown in society as us old timers (I’m in my 60s) comment upon time after time.

Unfortunately, I can only see the situation deteriorating further.

Punishments need to fit crimes and these pariahs of society need to learn that their anti-social behaviour is the road to nowhere.

John Chadwick, Huby

The Kex Gill saga is an ‘absolute farce’

This letter is in response to one man’s frustration over a lack of communication about the ongoing A59 at Kex Gill closure.

I 100% agree with Mr Young. This situation is an absolute farce, it is not a difficult situation to address, nor was it unforeseeable that it would happen.

Surely the project risk assessment should have identified the potential for this type of event and made suitable provision.

It is a huge inconvenience for residents and others who are having to suffer lengthy diversions.

That said, everything relating to this route has been so badly managed for years and, unfortunately, is no surprise to anyone affected.

Tony Sidwell, Ripon

Paul Haslam for mayor is a ‘breath of fresh air’

This letter follows news of former Tory whip councillor Paul Haslam standing for mayor of North Yorkshire.

It came as a breath of fresh air to read that councillor Paul Haslam has resigned as the Conservative party whip to stand as an Independent candidate for Mayor of North Yorkshire.

It is a position which demands loyalty to all residents of North Yorkshire and not allegiance to a political party, which has gifted the incumbent their salary of £81,300.

It requires broad knowledge of commerce, as well the workings of public services and its politics. It requires the ability to identify and lead a network of talent and not one based on party hierarchy or other organisations..

This is not political party propaganda. I do not belong to a political party and I am a centrist.

I have seen Cllr Haslam at local community meetings and consider him an efficient operator with local interests at heart.

As a capable Independent candidate, who is challenging the existing hierarchy, Cllr Haslam will have my vote.

I hope the electorate fully realise importance of the Mayor of North Yorkshire and that usual voter apathy for local elections does not occur. The election turnout for the retiring Police Commissioner was less than 15%, which means that 85% didn’t care.

The outcome of this election will be more meaningful and it will affect everyone by influencing the many areas of our public services.

Brian Graham, Harrogate

Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.

30 years of creativity at Pateley Bridge arts and crafts hub

It’s 30 years since a small group of artists, makers and designers moved into a cluster of buildings just off Pateley Bridge High Street.

The newly-created hub aimed to provide individual workshops for craftspeople to grow their businesses while being part of a wider collective and shared experience.

The premises, on the site of the former workhouse complex in King Street, was owned and used by the district council to house everything from bin lorries to rat catchers. But they were just what jewellers Ian Simm and Debby Moxon had been looking for.

‘We found a space that was just the right size’

Ian and Debby were already part of a creative hub based at the Duncan Craft Workshops, a former Otley wool mill that was being converted into offices.

At just the time the group was beginning its search for a new home, the council was looking for its first tenants for the converted municipal buildings. It was a perfect match. Ian said:

“There were four businesses that came from Otley and we were looking for four different-sized workshops. When we viewed the site in Pateley Bridge, we couldn’t believe that each of us found a space that was the just the right size.”

Three decades on, and King Street Workshops are widely known as a place not only where local craftspeople can flourish, but also where visitors and customers can see them at work. Ian said:

“Pateley Bridge is a place people always come to if they are visiting Yorkshire. We get tourists watching us work and asking about things.”

Makers at work

Ian and Debby create handmade jewellery for commissions as well as selling pieces from their workshop and in galleries and craft shops across the UK.

They are one of the few jewellers in the country to specialise in heat-treating, marking and texturing titanium, a dull grey metal which, when heated, transforms into a spectrum of lovely colours.

Their business, Moxon and Simm, is the last of the original King Street group, after glassblowers Andrew Sanders and David Wallace retired last year. As craftspeople have moved on over the years, new ones have seized the rare opportunity to be part of this rarely-found type of creative hub.

Alongside Debby and Ian, there is currently the ceramicist Fiona Mazza, mosaic artist Ruth Wilkinson, furniture maker Augustus Stickland and sculptor Joseph Hayton.

Joseph moved in 13 years ago and has found the workshops suit his business perfectly. His current unit is large enough for the specialist equipment he uses, as well as giving him space to display his work. He said:

“There are not many places like this around that are open to the public. Most of us have a showroom as well as a workspace. The unique thing about this place as opposed to art galleries is that you can see how we work.

“When visitors drop by, I always show them the tools and describe how I do things. If you are interested in how things are made or you want to commission a piece you can see behind the scenes.”

Sculptor Joseph Hayton in his workshop.

Like most businesses, those at King Street Workshops took a bit of a hit during the pandemic but the customers and tourists have returned. Joseph said:

“Pateley Bridge is quite a busy little place, particularly through the summer. We get a lot of tourists visiting us, people wandering in from all over the place. The workshops are interesting places, they’re a creative space and a great place to visit.”

Joseph mainly works to commission, with projects ranging from stone lettering to garden sculptures in stone or bronze. He has customers from the local area, across the UK and, occasionally, abroad. He is currently working on a very large ornate fireplace for a property in Rome. He added:

“King Street Workshops have been great for me; most of my business has come through being at this site. It’s got a creative ethos and it’s great to work alongside other people who are making things. It’s a shared experience and a brilliant little community.”

Ian, Debby, Joseph and the others will be celebrating three decades of the King Street Workshops at the beginning of June, inviting people to watch them at work and view displays of their creations.

The gallery on the site will also host a retrospective of sculptor Roy Noakes, who lived in Nidderdale in his later years.

Photo: Some of the craftspeople currently based at the King Street Workshops, from left, Augustus Stickland, Fiona Mazza, Ian Simm, Debby Moxon and Joseph Hayton.

Knaresborough to get trained tour guides

Knaresborough Town Council has allocated £7,000 towards training tour guides to promote the town.

Knaresborough is a popular destination but visitors sometimes struggle to find basic information on attractions such as the museum and viaduct.

Cllr Margy Longhurst, a professionally trained tourist guide, began providing free tours last year.

But Cllr Longhurst wants to develop the service, which it is hoped will boost tourism and increase civic pride.

The council agreed this week to budget £7,000 towards training a pool of guides, who will provide free tours on Wednesday market days and at weekends, as well as on special occasions.

Knaresborough-born Sarah Cowling, who is now a professional tourist guide in York who also provides accredited training, will run the courses.

The 13-week training course will start in January and it is hoped the first guides will be in action by autumn next year.

Speaking after the town council meeting, Cllr Longhurst said:

“I’ve found it frustrating doing the tours because trying to do everything myself is just too much. I’ve also sprained my knee.

“We want to have regular free walking tours and when I say ‘free’, I mean ‘free’ — we won’t be asking for tips.”

Besides tourists, she said the tours would also appeal to newcomers to the town by making them “feel part of the community” as well as informing them of Knaresborough’s heritage.

Cllr Longhurst said the council was looking to recruit eight to 10 people with a love of history and Knaresborough who were prepared to undertake training and two exams.

Green grants

Knaresborough Town Council is to award grants to young people with ideas on how to improve the environment.

The Green Grant will be awarded to school pupils or youth groups with ideas on how to better Knaresborough’s environment and work towards reversing the effects of climate change in the area.

The council said people with ideas on active travel, climate adaptation, improving animal and wildlife habitats, energy reduction and minimising pollution are welcome to apply for a grant, which will be up to £500 per project.

Kit Lacey, chair of the council’s climate committee, said the authority “understands that things cannot stay the same” and is “in need of young people’s help”.

Mr Lacey added:

“It’s the young people of the town who will live with the effects of climate change longer than us councillors.

“This programme is open to all children of the town and welcomes applications from adults and children in schools and all types of youth groups. Examples would be school groups, young climate committees lead by PTA members, scouts and guides.

“We encourage groups to apply even if they are not sure where the group may sit as we, the council, can push them in the right direction of coming under a group that would be eligible.”

Although the scheme is directed at young people, Mr Lacey said the grant must be awarded to an adult in charge of an organisation, so the money can be sent to their account.

Applicants must also disclose the organisation’s latest financial accounts and, if necessary, any permissions required by North Yorkshire Council.

Knaresborough Town Council also said applicants must mention ‘Green Grant’ in their application.

You can apply for the grant here.

Yemi’s Food Stories: Rafi’s Spicebox Harrogate

Yemi Adelekan is a food writer and blogger who was a semi-finalist in the 2022 series of BBC TV’s Masterchef competition.

Every Saturday Yemi writes for the Stray Ferret about her love of the area’s food and shares cooking tips – please get in touch with her if you want her to review a restaurant, visit your farm, taste the produce you sell or even share a recipe.

Anyone who knows me well will already know that I love spices from all parts of the world. I am intrigued by the unfamiliar and some of my highlights from my trip to the Middle East revolved around the spice markets, and the waft of aromas that hit you creating a beautiful assault on your culinary senses.

Walking into Rafi’s Spicebox in Harrogate took me right back to those places evoking the same memories. There is something beautiful about the colours and smells from different spices, that each tell their stories.

From saffron, the king of all spices, to golden yellow turmeric, from the redness of kashmiri chilli powder to the lemony tang and orange hue of pul biber, there is no end to the response that each spice is able to elicit.

A selection of goods at Rafi’s Spicebox

The rich darkness of tamarind belies its sourness, but this might just be what you need to cut through a rich dessert if you want to avoid the saltiness from salted or miso caramel. Add some tamarind to your sticky toffee sauce to elevate it to something special.

I love hibiscus because of the stunning colour and tart flavours it adds to dishes. Hibiscus is hugely popular in Nigeria as it is used to make a local drink called Zobo. To make Zobo, simply steep hibiscus in boiling water to extract the colours and add a sugar syrup. You can add spices like cloves, nutmeg, ginger and citrus rind to introduce some complexity.

Premixed spices can work for you

At Rafi’s Spicebox, you don’t need to be an expert to cook a curry because they have done all the hard work for you with their premixed spice blends which are suitable for vegetables, seafood or other proteins.

Spices can be customised to your taste if you describe the flavours you like. From Thai to Indian, mild to hot, creamy to nutty, thick curries to broths, spices can be blended to help you deliver the perfect results.

I love the spice blends which are designed to get everyone eating more vegetables. From adding spices to stir fried broccoli, spiced aubergine and potatoes, as well as elevating grated carrots with toasted seeds, there is something for everyone.

Rafi’s Spicebox is a family-owned business with shops in Harrogate, Sudbury and York

Each curry blend comes with instructions on how to cook it and many of their recipes can be ready in under 30 minutes which makes it a viable way to get home cooked meals ready in the same time it would take to have a takeaway delivered.

Rafi’s also curates a seasonal curry range so you can get spice blends that match the season from comforting, cooling to heating to keep the cold away.

The beauty of many dishes from around the world is that they come with ‘buddies’ so at Rafi’s you can get pre-prepped pilau rices, flours, and a range of chutneys, sauces, and flat breads to complete your meals.

Lamb curry with a Rafi’s twist

I left Rafi’s with a pack of Previn’s Thepla – a spiced roti – and a packet of ‘Paretal Spice Blend’ that elevated the Nidderdale lamb I purchased from Addyman K butchers, that I cooked with coconut, asafoetida, tamarind, curry leaves, chillies and the usual staples of onion, garlic and tomatoes.

I added some pul biber for a bit more heat and served the delicious lamb curry with saffron and turmeric rice topped with ghati masala. To accompany this meal, I pan-heated the roti, which has fenugreek, coriander leaves mixed with flour, ginger, turmeric and coriander powder.

Yemi’s lamb curry

My nervousness about pre-made curry spices has always been the salt levels. In my experience, many popular brands make their spice mixes overly salty, that can give dishes a raw and harsh taste.

However with the Rafi’s Spicebox packet, the salt level after following the instructions was perfect for me, and the spices cooked in the 20 minutes suggested time. I cooked my lamb curry for an extra ten minutes to get it more tender.

Find out more

Rafi’s Spicebox is a family-owned business with shops in Harrogate, Sudbury and York. You can pick up their spices from some local butchers, fishmongers and farm shops but for an immersive experience and a chat to their lovely experts, I would recommend popping into their main shop along Commercial Street.

Spices can be customised to your taste if you describe the flavours you like

I’m doing a chef demonstration at the Living North Food event at York Racecourse this Saturday, March 23, so I will share some highlights in next week’s post.

Read more:

Harrogate Spring Water denies claims it could expand again

Harrogate Spring Water denied claims it could expand again at a feisty public meeting this week.

Managing director Richard Hall and colleagues were quizzed for over an hour at Pinewoods Conservation Group‘s annual general meeting.

The company wants to expand its bottling plant, which would involve felling about 450 trees in a section of the Pinewoods known as Rotary Wood.

As part of the ecological mitigation strategy, it has agreed to buy two acres of land from an unnamed individual to create a publicly accessible wood with 1,200 trees — if the scheme is approved.

But this has sparked fears Harrogate Spring Water, which is part of French multinational Danone, could seek to expand again on its newly acquired land.

Mr Hall was asked if the company would consider gifting the land to the community as a gesture of goodwill and to prove it had no further expansion ambitions.

He said the land was “an expensive asset we have bought on behalf of the community” and it was “not considering at the moment” to hand over ownership.

But he added:

“We have no plans to expand the factory further. This is not a mass market brand — it’s a premium niche product.”

Sarah Gibbs, who is leading the Save Rotary Wood campaign, told the meeting Harrogate Spring Water had made a similar pledge many years ago before it was bought by Danone.

Arnold Warneken, who represents Ouseburn for the Green Party on North Yorkshire Council, said the sum involved would be “insignificant” for a company the size of Danone.

Wednesday’s meeting

An audience member called Terry Byrne added:

“Unless you donate that two acres we will have the sword of Damocles over our heads. I don’t see how Danone, with its size, is not capable of doing that.”

No green roof

The company was also under fire at the meeting on Wednesday (March 20) for failing to include a green ‘living roof’ on the proposed new building, which has been criticised for its “industrial” appearance by Harrogate Civic Society.

Nick Pleasant, the planning consultant from Stantec, said there were “certain challenges around delivering a green roof”, including the weight of the extra load.

The proposed extension building.

He added the company had listened to concerns and would produce a “fully compliant ecological mitigation plan”.

This includes working with an unnamed charity to plant another 1,500 trees around Harrogate, which along with the new woodland would mean any trees lost will be replaced on a 6:1 ratio. Harrogate Spring Water has also said the scheme will create 50 jobs plus 20 more during construction.

However, Mr Pleasant said a biodiversity report wasn’t a formal requirement at this stage and the company was “unlikely” to produce one.

Attendees also raised concerns about water extraction and the impact of extra lorries using the highways around Harlow Moor Road in Harrogate while Shan Oakes, the Green Party parliamentary candidate for Harrogate and Knaresborough, said it was simply “unethical” to sell water in plastic bottles.

Tom Gordon, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Harrogate and Knaresborough who has spoken against the scheme, questioned why Harrogate Spring Water could not go “above the bare minimum” by only buying two acres of land for a woodland — the same amount of land its new building will require.

Pinewoods Conservation Group chair Neil Hind

Jemima Parker, chair of Zero Carbon Harrogate, asked what Harrogate Spring Water would do with the income from the timber of felled trees.

Mr Hall said:

“I can assure you that we have no intention of profiting from the wood.”

The issue is unlikely to come before North Yorkshire Council’s planning committee anytime soon.

Public consultation has been extended and another 21-day consultation is expected after Harrogate Spring Water publishes further documents after North Yorkshire Council’s arboricultural officer Alan Gilleard said he was “not in a position to support” the plans as they stood.

Pinewoods Conservation Group chair Neil Hind concluded the meeting by saying he thought the planning application might not be determined until at least late summer.

Even that is unlikely to be the end of the matter because if approval is granted, the council must then decide whether to sell or lease the land in Rotary Wood to Harrogate Spring Water.

Harrogate Spring Water received outline planning permission for the scheme in 2017, which remains valid. The current reserved matters stage deals with its appearance, size and landscaping. Councillors rejected a previous reserved matters application in 2021,

You can view planning documents and comment on the application by visiting the council’s planning portal here and typing in reference number 20/01539/REMMAJ where it says ‘enter a keyword’.

Editor’s Pick of the Week: Flying debris at Tesco, tree protests and New Park news

With its roundabouts, belching traffic and building sites, few would claim New Park to be the loveliest suburb of Harrogate.

But it could have been renamed News Park this week due to its constant appearances on the Stray Ferret — not all for good reasons.

On Friday, we revealed how contractors grinding tree stumps at the Tesco site somehow propelled a lump of concrete through the window of a house on Electric Avenue.

Work on the nearby Ripon Road site where the charity Harrogate Skills 4 Living is building supported living flats has also not gone entirely smoothly. The charity said this week it hopes the flats will be up by Christmas after partially-built apartments on the site were recently demolished.

Elsewhere at the ‘crossroads of North Harrogate’, as New Park has been dubbed (by me), plans to build 135 homes off Skipton Road look set to be approved and, in perhaps the only New Park news to be celebrated this week, the local primary school was rated ‘good’ by Ofsted.

Good news was, however, plentiful elsewhere. You could barely move in Harrogate town centre last Saturday night because the Beam Light Festival was so popular. And Knaresborough Tractor Run, that infectious parade of joy, attracted a record 401 tractors and raised £27,500 for Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

Drone photographer Colin Corker joined me at the start and then hotfooted it around the route to capture some amazing footage. Check this out.

Channel 4 captured the somewhat earthier footage of a room of people squabbling when it attended the parish meeting in Ripon called to discuss the cathedral’s plans to build an annexe.

Our man on the ground in Ripon, Tim Flanagan, sent this photo of Channel 4’s chief correspondent Alex Thomson with tree campaigner Jenni Holman alongside the veteran beech tree at risk of being felled.

Knaresborough Town Council was unusually convivial on Monday night, but there was plenty of crackle in the room when Harrogate Spring Water managing director Richard Hall, flanked by helpers, fielded questions for almost 90 minutes on the company’s plans to expand its bottling plant, which would involve felling 450 trees.

A resolution to this saga seems some way off.

Many North Yorkshire residents ‘unaware about incoming mayoral combined authority’

With just five weeks to go until York and North Yorkshire’s first elected mayor is installed, the top officer of the region’s incoming combined authority says he believes most residents remain unaware of the election or the role of the mayor.

In a wide-ranging interview, York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority’s interim head of paid services James Farrar has revealed:

There is a “real risk of a low turnout” at the ballot box due to national politics and people being unaware of how the mayoral combined authority will aim to improve lives.
None of the cost of the combined authority would come directly from taxpayers, but rather from the £18m annual Mayoral Investment Fund given by the government and from funding for specific programmes.
Following concerns the combined authority would focus efforts on its largest urban area, York, it has been agreed to monitor and publish where all funds are distributed.

Mr Farrar said while some people perceived a mayor to be “robes and regalia”, in the first four-year term, the combined authority’s elected mayor’s main responsibilities would be growing the economy and taking on the governance of the police and fire services.

He was quick to dismiss criticisms from opposition politicians the combined authority would lack accountability as four of the five members of its decision-making executive were appointed by York and North Yorkshire councils.

Pointing toward the combined authority’s directly elected leader in the mayor, he said residents and business owners needed to get their voice heard at the ballot box as the mayor would be responsible for the combined authority, which would oversee investment of more than £600 million into the region.

Mr Farrar said:

“There is a fundamental issue we have got to address in raising awareness of what the mayor will be responsible for.

“People aren’t engaged in local politics, so the vast majority won’t be aware this is coming and there’s also a pretty negative view of national politics at the moment.

“The combined authority has been legally created now, but what’s really important is on May 2 people are motivated to vote for whichever mayor they want.”

When asked how the combined authority would balance its responsibilities between the contrasting areas of York and North Yorkshire, Mr Farrar said the two areas were already interdependent.

He pointed towards how money was being pumped into a new railway station at Haxby, north of York, it had helped strengthen the case for half-hourly trains to Scarborough.

He added:

“The combined authority should be making investment decisions based on what’s best for the whole region.

“All areas will benefit, but it won’t just be a carve up of the money between the two councils, looking at connections such as how Craven and Harrogate connect into West Yorkshire and Hambleton and Richmondshire link to Teesside.

“The purpose of the mayor is to be able to take that strategic overview across these geographies and make decisions on how people, product and business work, rather than be constrained by local authority boundaries.”

Mr Farrar said he believes the councils, which currently have Conservative and Labour leaderships, would be able to work together for the common good, and had already agreed a shared set of economic priorities for the combined authority.

He said set the mayoral combined authority would set the strategic vision and ambitions for York and North Yorkshire, secure investment to deliver the vision and to make investments to improve people’s lives, enable business growth and create jobs.

Mr Farrar added the councils would have an important role in delivering the objectives of the combined authority, which would go out and secure the investment.

Responding to concerns that pressing social issues such as housing and access to public transport, Mr Farrar said such issues would be picked up as part of the authority’s focus on improving places to attract investment.

He said affordable housing was “writ large in our economic framework”, adding:

“You can’t deliver a successful York and North Yorkshire if people can’t afford to live there.

“We know public transport is a challenge, we don’t quite know what the answer is to that problem. The mayor will bring the ability to invest, to find out the solution and put it in place.

“We are not thinking the mayor will swan in and answer difficult issues immediately. I think there needs to be a strategic review across the piece.”