Residents at The Manor House care home in Knaresborough have celebrated Pride Month with a drag queen belting out hits in their garden.

Miss Bailey Bubbles entertained the residents with showtunes, songs made famous by Doris Day and a few Abba hits.

Carer Alison Morgan said:

“After a long year of covid restrictions at the home it was lovely to share laughter with the residents with our first live entertainment in the garden since last year.”

(Left-right) Care home staff Jo Meredith, Leigh Rudzinski and Hanna Wilks dressed for Pride

Residents June Sharp and Kath Topping agreed. They said:

“It was very different to anything we’ve seen before but we loved it.

“It was a fun afternoon and Bailey took time to speak to all of us afterwards.”

Care home staff Katie Victoria Pickering and Ali Morgan with a Pride rainbow flag

The residents also enjoyed rainbow-inspired art therapy sessions, quizzes and games of bingo. They also helped dress the home and garden with bright, rainbow-themed decorations.

Katie Victoria Pickering, who organised the activities, said:

“The residents embraced the day and everything it stands for, they were happy to be involved in the lead-up and event itself.”

Read more:

• Ripon dementia charity wins royal award
• Harrogate hospital unveils LGBTQ+ rainbow crossings 

This year the Harrogate Harriers will use money raised to support the cardiac unit at Leeds General Infirmary, which saved the life of club member Rob Athey.

Mr Athey, 48, who lives in Harrogate, survived an alarming chain of events that started with a grazed knee last autumn and resulted in life-saving heart surgery and a two-month hospital stay.

He said:

“I do a lot of off-road running so I picked up a graze on my knee, which caused me to contract a blood infection called endocarditis. That took over my body and damaged my heart valve. Some of the heart valve came away, causing a blood clot, and then I suffered a stroke on the back of that.

“Then it came to light that I needed open-heart surgery to actually replace the heart valve.

“I got tested positive for covid as well, which meant that when they performed the open-heart surgery – because they have to stop your heart to work on it – it was touch and go. Basically, they actually saved my life.”

Harrogate Harriers club member Rob Athey. He will run this summer’s 10k event to raise funds for LGI’s cardiac unit.

Mr Athey, who went back to work for Lloyds Banking Group in March, added:

“It’s life-changing. Life will never be the same again, but I’m so grateful for LGI for treating me. The NHS are fantastic, Harrogate ambulance service were fantastic in getting me there for all my procedures that I needed.

“I’m now recovering and I’m back trying to do a bit of running, although I can’t do too much. Because I’m a member of Harrogate Harriers I’d like to raise money for the cardiac unit at the LGI and (club chair Adam Prentis) said ‘yes, fantastic, we’d love to support that cause’.”

He has been running 5k distances as part of his training and is aiming to get around the 10k route in an hour – but insisted that his main motivation was completing the course and raising money.

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The undulating route in the Crimple Valley, south-east of the town, will start and finish at Harrogate Sports and Fitness Centre, next to the Great Yorkshire Showground. Although it is described as multi-terrain, 70% of the single lap is on roads.

Runners on the Run Harrogate 10k course through the Crimple Valley in 2019. Photo: Dan Oxtoby Photography

So far the 10k event is only at half capacity, with 428 places out of 1,000 still up for grabs. The entry fee is £17 for UK athletics club members and £19 for non-members.

Fifty-six years ago, BBC reporter Julian Pettifer came to Knaresborough to cover the legend of Mother Shipton, while looking at the dropping well and caves.

A teddy bear, pair of baby booties and a top hat are seen dangling under the roof of the well, which is also known as a petrifying well, being slowly turned to stone by the water.

Standing at the top of a ladder leaning against the dripping roof, Mr Pettifer strings up a glove alongside the other items.

He says:

“The water of this spring contains so much calcium that, well, looks what happens to Teddy. He’s been in here for three years and he’s far from cuddly.”

He adds:

“This has been a tourist attraction in Knaresborough since 1630, and now the tourist trade has developed so much that in the summer 5,000 people come here every week to have a look at it.”

Read more:

• Harrogate library turns back time on town landmarks
• Stray art installation opens to help people reflect on covid dead

Mr Pettifer goes on to make a wish at the wishing well, retell the legend of Mother Shipton and her prophecies, and interview the great-granddaughter of the man who turned the site into a tourist attraction.

The video was first broadcast on February 22 1965, as part of Tonight, which covered the arts, sciences, topical matters and current affairs. The clip is is now part of a BBC film archive.

People in their 30s have been left confused about where to get a covid vaccination in the Harrogate district, with reports of long queues at the Knaresborough site.

This week the NHS announced the vaccination programme was being rolled out to 30 and 31-year-olds, who were able to book a jab through the national appointment service from Wednesday May 26.

One reader described the scene at the Knaresborough site this morning as “absolute chaos” with a long queue of people down the road, waiting to get in.

She said she had an appointment but was told she would need to wait for about an hour and a half, or could come back later when another pharmacist would be available.

Steve Culleton, an estate marshal at the Knaresborough site, apologised for the delay and said once people were checked into the venue, the aim was to get them jabbed and through to the observation area in three minutes.

Longer waits outside were due to a staff shortage, incidents on site that took staff away from the flow of vaccinations, and a higher than usual number of people turning up with incorrect appointment times, he said, noting that roadworks in the town had not helped.

Mr Culleton said that the pharmacists and other site staff were not involved with bookings, which were all made through the NHS 119 and National Booking Service.

He said:

“I’ve seen 1,100 people today. The overwhelming sentiment from all of them is ‘thank you very much, we appreciate it’.

“It’s a mixture of people turning up outside their appointment times, [booking] glitches and the lack of a full complement of staff.

“We are genuinely sorry that people had to wait, because that is not what we want. We just want people to come in, be jabbed, be observed and go.

“We want people to have a positive experience and go home happy. We know that there will be a few who are unhappy and for that I wholeheartedly apologise. It’s not what they expected, it’s not what we expected but it’s the way today turned out.”

Some people in their early 30s said they found that sites in Harrogate and Knaresborough were fully booked for several days, forcing them to book in Leeds, Pateley Bridge or Bradford.

After making alternative plans, two readers told the Stray Ferret that they received text invites from their GP surgery to make appointments directly due to “extra” supplies of the Pfizer vaccine.

A spokesman for NHS North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group said there were two ways to get an appointment, depending on whether vaccination sites were administered by GPs or the NHS National Booking Service.

He said:

“The Harrogate and Ripon vaccination sites are administered by GP practices – and sit outside of the National Booking Service processes.

“Practices are contacting eligible patients, directly, though quite a lot of activity at the moment is fulfilling second-dose obligations.”

He explained the Knaresborough and Pateley Bridge sites were part of the NHS National Booking Service infrastructure and not linked to the CCG or general practices.

NHS England North East and Yorkshire said:

“On occasion, appointment slots can be booked up quickly and thus won’t appear in the list of options online. More appointments are added regularly, so people are advised to try again later if they can’t or would rather not travel to another venue.”

Read more:

• Stray art installation opens to help people reflect on covid dead
• Five further covid cases in Harrogate district

More than 105,000 first doses of a covid vaccine have now been given in the Harrogate district, according to Public Health England.

A total of 105,579 first and 69,241 second vaccines have been administered in the district.

It means the take-up rate in the district stands at 74.3% for a first dose and 48.7% for a second dose.

Runners in the Harrogate district will have to wait a little longer to get back to parkrun after the charity announced it is delaying its resumption of the weekly free 5k runs by another three weeks.

Although Harrogate Borough Council has given permission for the Saturday morning events to start on June 5 on the Stray, in Conyngham Hall in Knaresborough and the National Trust greenlit its return to Fountains Abbey, not all landowners across the country have agreed.

Parkrun organisers confirmed that more than 250 permissions have been granted but this was below the “critical mass” it wanted to reach to avoid overwhelming the smaller number of events that could go ahead.

Pre-covid there were 589 locations hosting parkruns in England. All events are run by volunteers.

The charity has set June 26 as the new date to resume all its 5k events across the country collectively and hopes many more landowners will grant permission by that time.

It will make another decision regarding the go-ahead for this new date on Friday June 11.

Nick Pearson, parkrun’s global CEO, said:

“We will continue to work hard with landowners over the coming weeks to secure the permissions needed to return at the end of June.

“We are incredibly grateful to all of the landowners who have granted events permission to return so far, and for the groundswell of support for parkrun over recent days.

“Although it is disappointing not to be able to return on 5 June, we are still optimistic that we can return parkrun events to nearly 600 communities across England very soon. We will do everything we can to ensure events restart on 26 June.”

Read more:

• Public Health England monitoring covid variant reported in Yorkshire
• Ill feeling lingers after decision to scrap Oatlands cycling scheme

Harrogate junior parkrun, a 2k run for children aged four to 14, resumed on the Stray on April 12.

https://twitter.com/Harrogatejnrpr/status/1381317401057370112

A parkrun spokesperson said:

“Operating under a government approved COVID-19 Framework, and with significant success restarting the junior 2k event series, as well as the vital need for people to be active and social outdoors, the time is now right for the return of Saturday morning 5k events.”

Long queues are forming on Skipton Road as two sets of roadworks are combining to cause misery for drivers.

Works to replace a gas main underneath Roberts Crescent were already in place but Northern Gas Networks has also started repairs to fix a gas leak on Skipton Road.

It has set up three-way temporary lights on the junction opposite Bilton Lane, which is in between the junctions at both ends of Roberts Crescent.

Temporary traffic lights on Skipton Road, Harrogate

Northern Gas Networks said works on Roberts Crescent are expected to last until May 25, while those on Skipton Road should be complete in “no more than three weeks”.

The footpath is closed on Roberts Crescent, off Skipton Road

On Twitter, the company apologised for the disruption and urged motorists to use other routes.

The emergency repair will last for no more than three weeks. We apologise for the disruption the work will cause and ask drivers to avoid the area if they can or leave extra time for journeys. Call our Customer Care Team for more info: 0800 040 7766 (opt 3).

— NorthernGasNetworks (@NGNgas) May 12, 2021

Skipton Road is one of the busiest roads in the town.

Northern Gas Networks began work replacing metal pipes with plastic ones in July last year, which was paused in October and recommenced in January. The roadworks were finally finished in April.

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• Skipton Road roadwork misery set to end
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A local designer has won Harrogate Spring Water’s international competition to design a new label for its water bottle.

The brief was to create a design celebrating the diverse culture of the Royal Albert Hall as it reaches its 150th birthday.

The winner of the competition was Jane Katherine Houghton, 30, from York. She studied graphic design at Northumbria University before relocating to London for work, but has recently moved back north to Harrogate.

Ms Houghton used bright colours and organic kaleidoscopic patterns to transform the traditionally monochrome label. She also incorporated elements of the Harrogate Spring emblem and features of the Royal Albert Hall.

Ms Houghton said she’s “over the moon” that her design won. She plans to use the £4,000 prize money to support her small stationery and greetings card business.

She said:

“I first saw the competition advertised on Instagram. I didn’t expect to win, it was only something to add to my portfolio.

“Being originally from Yorkshire and having lived in London for several years, it was truly an honour to be able to create a design that fused together the love I have for my two homes.”

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The managing director of Harrogate Spring Water, James Cain OBE, said he was “overwhelmed” by the quality and number of designs submitted to the competition.

“(Ms Houghton’s) design had the perfect balance of our two brand identities, fused together with a beautifully clever kaleidoscope pattern, which felt suitably celebratory.

“The design was both a nod to our Victorian heritage, but with a contemporary edge that looks ahead to the future. Simply put – we loved it.”

The bottle will be available for the next two years from the Royal Albert Hall and selected retailers.

Skipton and Ripon conservative MP Julian Smith earns more than any MP in Yorkshire from outside roles, research by the Stray Ferret has discovered.

He is also one of the highest earning of the 650 MPs, with only six others earning more than him from second and third jobs in the 12 months to April.

As previously reported in the Stray Ferret, Mr Smith is currently making the equivalent of £144,000 per year from three advisory roles outside of Parliament. This is in addition to his £81,932 annual salary as an MP.

Mr Smith was secretary of state for Northern Ireland from July 2019 to February 2020. Two of Mr Smith’s advisory roles have links with Northern Ireland.

In August 2020 he began advising Ryse Hydrogen, whose chief executive Jo Bamford also owns Wrightbus, a Northern Ireland bus manufacturer. The contract is £60,000 for 20 hours of work.

From last month he was contracted to work for 30 to 40 hours over 12 months for MJM Marine, a cruise ship refurbishment company based in County Down, Northern Ireland. This contract is also for £60,000.

In January this year he began another role, advising Cork-based sustainable energy and aquaculture company Simply Blue Management. He will be paid £24,000 over a year for up to two hours of work per month.

Read more: 

• Julian Smith MP criticised for taking on third advisory role
• Strayside Sunday: Pay MPs more and ban outside interests

Former prime minister Theresa May is paid the most money for outside activities: almost £650,000 for a number of speaking engagements. Other high earners include former chancellor Sajid Javid, who earns more than £300,000 a year for giving economic advice to businesses.

Among the 54 MPs in Yorkshire, Julian Smith was the highest earner.

Phillip Davies, MP for Shipley, received more than £49,000 last year from gambling company Entain (formerly GVC Holdings), which owns brands such as Coral and Ladbrokes. This was in return for 124 hours of work, an hourly rate of more than £400 an hour. Mr Davies has previously been forced to apologise for failing to declare hospitality received from bookmakers.

David Davis, MP for Haltemprice and Howden, was the highest earner per hour in Yorkshire. He was paid £10,000 for three hours and 12 minutes consulting work by JCB, the heavy equipment manufacturer. The company’s owners, the Bamford family, are major donors to the Conservative party, having donated more than £10 million since 2010.

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones and Selby and Ainsty MP Nigel Adams did not declare any paid work outside of Parliament in the past year.

Property Gold is a monthly column written by independent bespoke property consultant, Alex Goldstein. With more than 17 years’ experience, Alex helps his clients to buy and sell residential property in some of the most desirable locations in Yorkshire and beyond. 

This month, Alex discusses the pros and cons of instructing more than one estate agent. 

Two heads are better than one, but in estate agency terms this isn’t necessarily the case when it comes to instructing agents.

Some vendors feel that by instructing two (indeed sometimes more), they think that they will have greater exposure in the market and more likely to sell for a premium. However, unless this is done under the right circumstances, in the right way and with great care, having two or more agents working for you can be counterproductive. Not only could you run the risk of appearing desperate to sell, but agents behind the scenes could be arguing about who found the buyer and not necessarily working in your best interests.

So under what circumstances should one instruct another agent(s) and how do you play the game?

Sole agency is as it sounds. One agent working on your behalf and for straightforward sales, usually the best route.

The polar opposite is multiple agency, where two or more agents are instructed, but only the winner gets the fee. This route is not worthwhile and actually dilutes your sale efforts, as agents will see the risks versus reward as too high and won’t bother selling your home!

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• Property Gold: The butchered landscapes of PLC developments – who’s to blame?
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The middle option can be used if your sale is losing that original sparkle. To beef up your marketing, create a ‘marketing spike’ or just to get the original sole agent re-energised, instructing a joint agent could be worthwhile… but proceed with care.

Critically the new agent must be very different from the original agent, so that they fill in any gaps that may have been missed. The downside with two agents is that there is a higher commission rate, yet this needs to be balanced with what you could gain on sale proceeds.

Now here’s the tricky bit – how does one split the commission between joint agents? Yes 50/50 can work and both agents then collaborate and work together for you, the client. However in some circumstances it is worth weighting this towards the winning agent.

An extreme example of this I did recently, where a vendor asked me to get their original agent back on track, but they didn’t wish to disinstruct them given the work they had put in thus far. I brought in a joint agent, but specifically chose them as I knew both agents had a major personality clash and there was fierce rivalry.

I then weighted the fee 80/20 to significantly up the ante. The new agent aggressively went about their new instruction to prove a point and the original agent had a serious wake-up call. Needless to say we got a great result and the new agent won.

Instructing a joint agent can be useful to rejuvenate your sale, however it must be used with caution and done in the right way, otherwise you could be up in a worse position than when you started!

If you have any comments or questions for Alex, please feel free to contact him on alex@alexgoldstein.co.uk

A decision on whether to ban nude bathing at Harrogate Turkish Baths has been delayed while a planned move to mixed-sex sessions only has been reversed.

The 124-year-old spa and health club – which is run by Harrogate Borough Council – has previously had swimwear-free options at single-sex sessions.

However, covering up could be made compulsory under changes which the council said would reflect greater “equality” in the modern world and address concerns for customers of “varying gender categories including transgender, gender dysphoria and transsexual”.

A decision from the council’s cabinet member for culture, tourism and sport, councillor Stanley Lumley, was due this week but he has now asked for more time to mull it over.

He did, however, decide that plans to change the current timetable of single-sex sessions and to mixed-sex sessions only would be scrapped following big response from bathers.

Confirming the decision, a council spokesperson said:

“The decision regarding changes to the timetable, has been approved.

“The decision regarding compulsory swimwear at the Turkish Baths Harrogate has been deferred. This matter will be given further consideration, and will include our wider equality obligations.”

Read more:

• Council hopes to reopen Starbeck and Ripon Baths in May
• Starbeck Residents Association says the Baths should be “kept open at all costs”

After the now-abandoned timetable changes were revealed last year, customers criticised the move and said people would stop visiting if it went ahead.

Baths manager Chris Mason previously said the changes would “promote inclusivity” but 92% of 325 respondents to a survey said they felt mixed-sex sessions only would stop customers attending.

The majority of respondents also agreed that a “safe space” was needed for men and women separately at the baths.

The Grade II-listed building on Parliament Street has been described as “the most fully-restored” Turkish baths in Britain.

It first opened in 1897 and has been managed by the council since the late 1990s.