John Plummer, Author at The Stray Ferret

Police ‘increasingly concerned’ for missing Harrogate man

North Yorkshire Police has issued an urgent appeal to find a man who has been missing from the Harrogate area for nearly two weeks.

The constabulary said in a statement this afternoon Cao Xuan Tuan, 25, has not been seen since Thursday, February 29.

The statement added:

“Cao is Asian, with short straight black hair, brown eyes and around 5 foot 6” tall.

“We’re growing increasingly concerned for Cao’s welfare and are asking for anyone who may have seen him, or knows where he is, to contact us immediately.

“Cao, if you are reading this, please get in touch with someone, we just want to know that you are safe.”

Officers urged anyone who has seen Cao, or have information that could help, to urgently call 101 or, if you know his immediate whereabouts, 999.

Quote reference number 12240041667.

Council predicts positive future for Harrogate Convention Centre despite scrapping £57m redevelopment

Senior Conservative councillors confirmed this morning that a proposed £57 million redevelopment of Harrogate Convention Centre will be scrapped.

But they offered a positive outlook for the facility’s future and heard it could operate without a £2.7m annual council subsidy in less than three years if it can attract outside investment to make smaller improvements.

North Yorkshire Council’s executive met in Northallerton this morning and agreed to discontinue the project it inherited from the defunct Harrogate Borough Council.

A council officer described the project as unaffordable and blamed spiralling building costs which have seen the cost jump from £49m to £57m.

It also failed in a bid to win Levelling Up money worth £20m from the government that would have helped to pay for the project.

The council’s executive member for finance Cllr Gareth Dadd said it had been a “long and arduous task” to get to a decision on the redevelopment which he said would have achieved “dubious outcomes to say the least”.

Executive member for corporate services, Cllr David Chance, said it would have been “ludicrous” to move forward in light of the current financial predicament facing the authority.

The council is facing a £41.6m deficit in its budget this year with significant financial pressures on adult social care and special educational needs.

Cllr Dadd said:

“It was our job to get under the bonnet of the issues and see how the landscape has changed.”

The council will now undertake market testing to see if the venue can attract investment from the private sector or elsewhere. Cllr Dadd also proposed that the council writes to each mayoral candidate for the upcoming York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority urging them to support further investment.

Despite scrapping the redevelopment, Cllr Dadd maintained the council was committed to improving the convention centre and said it was “not the end of the story, far from it”.

The Harrogate Convention Centre opened in 1982 with conferences and events providing a boost to the town’s bars, restaurants and hotels.

North Yorkshire Council says the convention centre contributes £45m a year to the wider Harrogate district economy which Cllr Dadd said “should be ignored at our peril”.

Convention centre director Paula Lorimer came out against the redevelopment, arguing to do so would be counterproductive as it would involve shutting the venue for large periods.

Ms Lorimer is a proponent of creating new break-out spaces for conference delegates, which she believes could attract £1m additional income each year.

She told councillors that last year was the venue’s most successful in many years and if the upturn continues, along with a more commercial business model and investment, the convention centre could be “cost-neutral” for the council within just three years.

Ms Lorimer also suggested the venue could be renamed to reflect “a broader Yorkshire identity”. It was previously known as the Harrogate International Centre until 2017.

She said:

“I’m very committed to getting investment in the HCC but not at any cost, I do feel there are better ways of investing tactically, so we can do parts of the venue each year.”

Kex Gill: Repair work unlikely to start before end of month

Work to repair a crack in the road on the A59 at Kex Gill is unlikely to start until at least the end of the month.

In an update, North Yorkshire Council said the wet weather and “further movement” had delayed and complicated matters.

The A59, which is the main route between Harrogate and Skipton, closed suddenly on February 2 after a crack appeared. It has led to lengthy diversions and increased traffic in places such as Ilkley and Pool-in-Wharfedale.

Barrie Mason, the council’s assistant director for highways and transport, said:

“February has been one of the wettest on record and this persistent rainfall has made the situation worse.

“We are monitoring the landslip daily and have unfortunately seen further movement since the start of the closure. This has resulted in additional investigations to ensure we have the most appropriate and effective repair scheme.

“Designs have now been completed, which will include sheet piling and backfilling, to address the existing slippage and prevent future movement of the road.”

Mr Mason added:

“Given the complexities of the work involved, we are working with our contractor on when it can start, which we hope to be before the end of the month.

“At the same time, we will also carry out any additional works which might be required in this area to minimise any further disruption once the road has re-opened.”

Motorists have previously expressed frustration at the lack of communication about the timeframe for work.

A council map showing Kex Gill.

Some have also questioned whether the closure is linked to work on the £68.8 million realignment of the A59 taking place nearby.

The realignment is being funded by £56.1 million from the Department for Transport and £12.7 million from the council.

Mr Mason said:

“As we have said previously, the A59 at Kex Gill has a long history of landslips and this latest closure is a result of the weather over the past few months.”

He thanked people for their patience and said:

“We understand the delay it is causing to journeys and would reiterate that we are doing all we can to complete the repair as quickly and safely as possible.”

The update does not give a latest estimate for the cost of the repairs, which were previously £115,000.

Abseil down Brimham Rocks to help neurodiverse children

The charity Autism Angels is giving people the chance to abseil down Brimham Rocks to raise funds.

The organisation is holding its first charity abseil during World Autism Acceptance Week on Saturday, April 6.

Individuals, families, friends, work colleagues and corporate teams can take part at the National Trust site near Pateley Bridge. Registration costs £30.

Autism Angels, which is based at Summerbridge, works with horses to support neurodiverse children and their families.

It relies heavily on donations to provide services and hopes the event will boost its coffers. Further details are available here.

You can also donate on JustGiving, where a fundraising page has been set up with a £4,000 target.

Motorbike destroyed in Knaresborough arson attack

A motorbike was destroyed in a fire believed to have been caused deliberately in Knaresborough last night.

On-call firefighters from the town were caused to a recreational area near Halfpenny Lane at 9.29pm.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service‘s incident report said the motorbike was “well alight” when they arrived.

“Crews extinguished the vehicle using a hose reel jet. The motorcycle sustained 100% fire damage and the cause was believed to had been deliberate.”

Knaresborough firefighters were called out earlier last night when they helped police deal with four youths on top of a commercial building on High Street.

The incident report said:

“Crews accessed the roof and politely persuaded the youths to come down from the roof via an internal stairway.

“The youths came down by their own accord and the incident was left in the hands of police.”

Police tell drivers to stop abusing Harrogate lollipop man

North Yorkshire Police has urged motorists to stop abusing the lollipop man at Richard Taylor Church of England Primary School in Harrogate.

The lollipop man helps children cross the busy Bilton Lane outside the school.

But following a visit yesterday, police said in a statement:

“We have had reports of anti-social driving with drivers being abusive towards, and failing to adhere to the lollipop man outside Richard Taylor primary school.

“The school crossing patrol is there to ensure the safety of children crossing the road and failure to adhere to a stop sign outside of a school could result in penalty points and a fine.”

During their visit to Bilton, police speed cameras detected 15 vehicles travelling in excess of the 20 mph limit during a 30-minute check at school arriving time.

The statement added:

“We will be back in the area and continue enforcing to help tackle the issue.”

Reopening Ripon to Harrogate train line could cost ‘hundreds of millions’

A transport official has poured cold water on hopes that the Harrogate – Ripon – Northallerton train line will reopen any time soon, saying to do so could cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds.

Harrogate’s link with Ripon was axed by Dr Beeching during his infamous 1960s rail reforms and the last train ran in 1967.

Much of the track was then ripped up to make way for the Ripon bypass and former station buildings have been converted into homes.

But there has been a long-running bid to see it reinstated, led by Dr Adrian Morgan, who founded the Ripon Railway Reinstatement Association in 1987.

The campaign was discussed by Graham North, strategy and performance rail officer at the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, when he gave a wide-ranging presentation to Skipton and Ripon councillors on Thursday.

However, Mr North claimed there was not the same level of public support for reopening the route when compared to similar campaigns such as at Skipton to Colne.

Mr North said:

“These schemes cost hundreds and hundreds of millions of pounds and we have to prioritise which ones come forward. We didn’t get the same level of support for Harrogate to Ripon when compared to other schemes.

“It’s been one individual all the time who’s been writing. There has to be a more coordinated campaign.”

The closure of Ripon Station left the city without rail connections and was strongly opposed at the time.

Cllr Barbara Brodigan (Liberal Democrat, Ripon Ure Bank and Spa) said she wanted to see the line reopened as she believes Ripon is underperforming primarily because of poor connectivity.

But she said she “doesn’t hold out any hope” for the line reopening in her lifetime.

Cllr Brodigan said:

“It will get worse with the barracks development increasing the population by 25%. All development is on the west side of the city. It’s a logjam that will get worse.

“Opening up the Harrogate to Ripon line would be a huge move forward and contribute to our economic development. Funding is an issue but the longer we leave it, the more expensive it becomes.”

Cllr David Noland (Green Party, Skipton North and Embsay-with-Eastby) struck a more optimistic tone and added:

“If we can put a tunnel under Stonehenge and a man on the moon why can’t we link Harrogate to Ripon?”

Brimhams Active to be scrapped in council leisure shake-up

Brimhams Active, which runs council-owned leisure centres in the Harrogate district, is to be abolished.

North Yorkshire Council’s executive confirmed today it will bring all leisure centres and wellbeing hubs in the county back in-house. The Stray Ferret revealed in November it was planning the move.

It means Brimhams, which was set up less than three years ago by the now defunct Harrogate Borough Council and has overseen the multi-million pound opening and refurbishment of leisure centres in Ripon, Harrogate and Knaresborough, will no longer exist.

The news comes just two months after Knaresborough Leisure and Wellbeing Centre opened.

Brimhams Active, which was set up by the former Harrogate Borough Council in 2021, recently completed multi-million pound refurbishments at the Harrogate Leisure and Wellness Centre and Knaresborough Leisure and Wellness Centre.

A report prepared for councillors said this was “no reflection” on Brimham’s which delivers “much-valued and high-quality services” at venues including the Turkish Baths in Harrogate and Knaresborough’s new leisure centre and pool.

The company was set up following a strategic review carried out by the borough council, which recommended a local authority controlled company called Brimhams Active be formed to run leisure services in the district.

Its sites include Harrogate Leisure and Wellness Centre, Knaresborough Leisure and Wellness Centre, the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre in Ripon and Nidderdale Leisure and Wellness Centre in Pateley Bridge.

Harrogate Leisure and Wellness Centre

According to the council, the new service which will see a greater focus on health and wellbeing, provide more opportunities for people to participate and be active and focus on addressing inequalities.

The new delivery model, which triggers the start of the next phase of the authority’s strategic leisure review.

Councillors were told that work so far has included input from local communities and sports groups, as well as stakeholders like Sport England and North Yorkshire Sport. A cross-party working group of councillors has also visited sites across the county to help shape the proposals.

North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for culture, leisure and housing, Cllr Simon Myers, said: “With one of the largest leisure portfolios in the country we now have the opportunity to transform the way we deliver those services and put us at the forefront of a national movement towards improving physical and mental health and well-being.

“We will be creating a service bespoke to North Yorkshire with locally-based services and targeted provision, with particular emphasis on the needs of groups that may face barriers to participation. The UK population is 20 per cent less active than it was in the 1960s and we want to reverse that be providing the high quality, accessible and inclusive services people want, where they want them.

“We also want to work in greater partnership with the NHS and social care providers as we recognise the benefits of physical activity in preventing and managing long term health conditions.

“This is a very exciting time for leisure in North Yorkshire – local government reorganisation has given us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to look at our expansive portfolio and consolidate the services by building on best practice to create a new sport and active well-being service.”

Currently the council’s leisure portfolio – which includes 19 leisure centres, 16 swimming pools, three well-being hubs, a nursery and Harrogate’s Turkish Baths are run by five different operators.

Those arrangements will be moved to the single in-house model in a phased way – with the aim of the service being fully integrated and transformed by 2028. The first change will be for services in the former Selby district where the contract with IHL comes to an end this year.

The next phase of work is to create a leisure investment strategy, progressing work already undertaken during recent asset condition surveys at the leisure centres. This will look at the condition of each site, their future roles and sustainability as part of the new delivery model and identify sites where investment is needed.

Questions raised over bid to build homes on Harrogate commercial site

Plans have been submitted to build 12 homes on a commercial site in Harrogate.

Property firm Carter Jonas is advertising the former Buildbase builders merchants site on Prospect Road in Starbeck as a ‘prime residential development opportunity’.

Its sales brochure adds “a decision is expected shortly” by North Yorkshire Council on whether to approve an outline planning application for 12 homes on the 1.02-acre site.

According to planning documents submitted to the council, the site — known as Arville Works — was advertised for sale as a commercial site by property firm FSS but failed to attract a buyer.

An officer at Harrogate Borough Council said in an email in January last year that it would be “really disappointing see the loss of this warehouse and retail showroom”.

The email said FSS had conducted 35 viewings, including second viewings, since September 2020. These led to nine offers, with two deals that progressed to solicitors falling through. But despite this “significant interest”, it concluded:

“Given the length of time that it has been actively marketed and the inability of FSS to secure a deal despite their best efforts, unfortunately it seems that there is little more that can be done in order to secure a successful commercial future for this site.”

The Arville Works site

Chris Robbins, a partner at Harrogate commercial property consultants Robbins Associates, questioned this.

Mr Robbins said:

“There is a massive shortage of employment land in Harrogate and Knaresborough, with most of the land allocation being at Flaxby, which does not appeal to many local employers.

“In my view this site should be retained for employment uses in accordance with the Local Plan policy. If it were to come back to the market, I believe it would find a ready occupier or purchaser.”

Cllr John Mann, a Conservative who chairs the council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough planning committee, said:

“The application remains under consideration with nothing on file to indicate one way or the other whether it will be approved.”

‘Stop this madness,’ says anti-Station Gateway campaigner

One of the main opponents of the £12.1 million Harrogate Station Gateway has issued a plea to halt the scheme.

The Stray Ferret reported on Friday that West Yorkshire Combined Authority is expected to approve the full business case for the gateway on Thursday (March 13).

This will pave the way for North Yorkshire Council to begin preparatory work soon before the year-long project gets underway in earnest in September

However, the latest plans for the downgraded scheme have not yet been made public, the cost has risen by almost another £1 million to £12.1 million and an assessment of the scheme has branded it “poor value for money“.

This led retired architect Barry Adams, a Harrogate resident and vocal gateway critic, to issue a plea for a rethink.

In a letter to the Stray Ferret, Mr Adams said the “overwhelming opinion” in Harrogate was that the gateway is a “total waste of public money”.

He added:

“The gateway plan achieves absolutely nothing but disruption to the town.

“We need to get this madness stopped so in the first instance we will once again consider organising an online petition and would ask residents of Harrogate and businesses to give it their full support.

“We need to strike a chord with people before it is too late.”

Mr Adams, who said he represented Harrogate Residents Association and Granville Road Residents Group, called instead for more focus on creating a park and ride bus service and a Harrogate bypass.

He accused Cllr Keane Duncan. the council’s executive member for highways and Conservative candidate to be North Yorkshire mayor, of “drip feeding” limited information on the gateway to boost his image in the run-up to the mayoral election on May 2.

You can read Mr Adams’ letter below.

Cllr Duncan said last week it was an “exciting time for the regeneration” of the town centre. He added:

“It will see pedestrian improvements along Station Parade, including raised crossings and signal junction improvements, a bus lane from Bower Road into the bus station and a south-bound segregated cycle lane. Station Parade will remain two lanes and there will be no changes to James Street.

“The scheme will also see public realm improvements to One Arch and Station Square, and new cycle parking at the railway station.”

Letter by Barry Adams

I was not totally surprised when I read the news in a Stray Ferret article that the West Yorkshire Combined Authority is expected to agree to approve downgraded gateway schemes in Selby and Skipton as well as Harrogate next week.

We have been drip fed very limited written statements on the de-scoped gateway but the actual plans have not been made public. This is totally inadequate to pass constructive comment on.

As we have stated repeatedly and publicly over the last few years the highways executive had and still appears to have a history of ignoring the democratic process, not listening, being dismissive of public comment, hiding behind a meaningless excess of words in press releases.

However, and in the spirit of co-operation and adopting a positive approach a small interested group has tried to arrange a meeting with Cllr Keane Duncan, the executive member for highways, to understand the full implications of the details. We have been waiting for over two months now for him to confirm an actual date.

We believe all the noise from North Yorkshire Council and Keane Duncan is a publicity exercise massaged to justify the project and now to boost the image of Cllr Duncan, the Conservative candidate in the forthcoming elections for Mayor of York and North Yorkshire. It also appears they are desperately scrambling to rescue their reputation with the Department for Transport and possibly other funding bodies.

This must not be allowed to happen at the long term expense of damage to Harrogate but North Yorkshire Council seem inured to criticism. As the article points out, the de-scoped gateway has been branded “poor value for money” in a cost assessment of the scheme. It is an utter total waste of money when councils across the country are desperately trying to make ends meet.

From the extremely limited information we have been fed by North Yorkshire Council, this scheme is more insane than the original, wasting even more money.

It is OUR money — we as taxpayers in one form or another will ultimately pay for it.

The overwhelming opinion in Harrogate is that the gateway project even in its scaled back form is still a total waste of public money especially with the extortionate level of consultants’ fees spent to date.

All this appears to put the cart before the horse and we therefore question what opportunity there will be for change if, for example, we are not satisfied with the so called “first class public realm improvements”.

What improvements will there be to the appearance of Station Square, if any? What improvements will there be for cycling when we have already suggested a way of achieving this in a joined-up way? What improvements will there be for pedestrians? None.

What improvements will there be to public transport — none apart from the creation of a short length of dedicated bus lane. Still no mention of park and ride. What improvements will there be to reducing congestion, the original purpose of a gateway project — absolutely none.

A re-think on a bypass to remove through traffic from Station Parade is required along with park and ride in the town. The gateway plan achieves absolutely nothing but disruption to the town. We need to get this madness stopped so in the first instance we will once again consider organising an online petition and would ask residents of Harrogate and businesses to give it their full support. We need to strike a chord with people before it is too late.

Barry Adams

On behalf of Harrogate Residents Association and Granville Road Resident’s Group

Read more:

Read more:

Read more:

Read more:

Read more:

Read more:

Read more:

Read more:

Read more: