Pitch work begins at Rossett Sports Centre after £10,000 goal reached

Rossett Sports Centre in Harrogate is to begin repairing its 3G artificial football pitch after achieving its £10,000 fundraising target.

The appeal was launched last month after the pandemic affected finances and delayed the repairs.

The pitch is usually open to 1,000 people each week but covid meant this number was massively reduced.

But a successful crowdfunding campaign means work can begin.

In a statement on the fundraising page, the centre manager, Josh Lyon, said the total cost of the repairs is £160,000.

He added the pitch was set to reopen to the public later this month:

“A massive thank you for your support in helping us reach our £10,000 target. This money is going directly towards the 3G pitch replacement project. Works on the new pitch is imminently commencing and the new state of the art facility should be back open to the local community in late June.

“Your support is massively appreciated by Rossett and your local sporting community.”

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The current total is nearing £11,000. Mr Lyon has said any extra funding would go towards new goals.

The sports centre on Pannal Ash Road is run by Rossett School and is open to the public outside of school hours, seven days a week.

Its full-sized 3G pitch provides space for both five-a-side groups and full team matches.

Two Harrogate district women lose £500,000 to gold scam

Two women from the Harrogate district have lost a combined £500,000 after scammers persuaded them to buy gold bullion.

The scammers, who claimed to be from the police, told the victims they were monitoring fraudulent activity on their accounts.

The women were told they must work with the police to catch the fraudsters and, as part of this, were advised to move money out of their bank accounts and buy gold bullion instead.

The bullion, which is another term for gold bars, was then collected by a fake courier who promised to keep it safe until the police investigation had concluded.

North Yorkshire Police, which was alerted to the scam last week, said these type of scam stories have become “very common” recently.

Andy Fox, the force’s financial abuse safeguarding officer, said:

“You can sit and think ‘why would they hand over all that money?’ but the scammers are very good at what they do. They pretended to be police so the victims trusted them, you could call it brainwashing.

“I have spoken to the victims and they are very upset. We just have to keep giving advice to ensure these scammers can’t continue.”

Mr Fox said the police were alerted to the crimes when the victims got in touch to ask for the officer they had been speaking to. Once the pair ran out of money the perpetrator stopped calling.

Mr Fox said a detective was investigating various leads associated with the case.

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Fraud victims don’t get their money back unless the bank reimburses it or the police find the culprit and use their assets to pay back victims.

North Yorkshire Police said in a statement:

“Please remember, the police or your bank will NEVER contact you and ask you to move or transfer money. We will never ask you to lie to your bank or your family and we will certainly never ask you to purchase gold bullion.

“If you receive a call like this, hang up immediately. If you are ever worried about any calls you receive speak to a family member, friend, your bank or ring the police.”

If you think you have been a victim of fraud call North Yorkshire Police on 101.

Wine shop with local ethos opens in Knaresborough

A new wine shop has opened in Knaresborough with a pledge to showcase Yorkshire’s artisan suppliers.

Reuben & Grey is a new retail brand that plans to open a chain of wine shops and delicatessens in Yorkshire.

The shop, in Old Town Hall in Market Square, will sell hundred of wines from around the world as well as local beers and spirits.

Luke Morland, the Knaresborough-born co-founder of Reuben & Grey, was part of the front-of-house team at Goldsborough Hall and also ran the Bay House Inn gastropub in Goldsborough for five years.

The company plans to open a complementary delicatessen in the coming months, and is looking for premises in the Knaresborough and Harrogate area.

The wine shop opened in the refurbished Grade Two listed building on Saturday.

Mr Morland said:

“Over the last year, we’ve seen a real shift in the way people shop and eat. Consumers are shopping more intelligently and wisely – they want to know the story behind what they buy.

“They are now concerned with picking items correctly and ensuring that they have been locally sourced, and we want to be a vehicle to enable them to do this.

“Our plan is that the Reuben & Grey name will be synonymous with the best of local, ethically-produced food and drink. We believe that there is real public support for an initiative like this.”

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Mr Morland will manage the Knaresborough shop, which is expected to create two more jobs.

He added:

“We are fortunate that Yorkshire has become a centre of excellence for artisan food and gin producers and we want to celebrate this by offering well-sourced products.

“People seem to have re-discovered their love of fine food and wine over the last year, and we are looking forward to helping them to continue that journey.”

The wine store will be open Monday to Saturday from 10am-5pm, and on Sunday from 11am-4pm.

Police appeal after car crashes into Kirk Deighton bus shelter

North Yorkshire Police is appealing for witnesses after a car crashed into a stone bus shelter in Kirk Deighton.

The 75-year-old driver and the 51-year-old male passenger suffered serious injuries and had to be taken to hospital.

The woman was driving a red Suzuki Swift south on the B6164 from Knaresborough to Wetherby when the collision happened at about 4.45pm on Friday.

The unnamed pair are both from Wetherby.

Police are asking anyone who witnessed the crash or saw the car before the collision to get in touch.

Anyone with dashcam footage nearby is also being asked to call 101 and ask for TC161 Steve Wood.

He can also be reached via steven.wood@northyorkshire.police.uk.

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Festival director welcomes sold-out shows as Northern Aldborough returns

Northern Aldborough Festival is returning this month and festival director, Rob Ogden, said he is excited to offer audiences live performances once more.

Stellar acts in the classical genre such as Lesley Garrett and The Haffner Ensemble will perform in Aldborough between June 21 and 27 as the festival returns as one of the first large events locally since the pandemic.

Eager festival goers meant the event was sold out after 10 days of tickets on sale.

The festival has a rich history welcoming big names in the classical world since it began in 1994. It has grown to be an established classical music event in the north.

northern aldborough festival

Lesley Garrett and Rev Richard Coles are two of the acts in the festival’s line-up.

Mr Ogden has been involved since 2009, taking on the director role in 2010. This year is like no other with capacity almost halved and social distancing measures in place.

Each night 140 audience members will be sat in St Andrew’s Church, previous years it has reached 270. The final night’s outdoor concert will welcome 550 people down from 1,000.

Mr Ogden said:

“We want it to feel like the same experience as much as we can. we will follow whatever guidance is in place at the time, but apart from all of that we hope people can enjoy the same experience. There’s such excitement being so close to such fantastic artists as it is an intimate event.”

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This show has been in the works since August 2019 with many acts agreeing to return this year after the 2020 festival was cancelled.

Young names, famous names and new names all have the chance to take to the stage to offer the audience a live musical treat.

The Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt has stuck in Mr Ogden’s minds as one of the best performances he’s seen at the festival.

Mr Ogden already has plans for next year including a jazz item and a Handel’s Theodora oratorio (a large scale music composition).

“It’s a bit strange because we haven’t done it for two years so it’s nerve-wracking but I’m confident we have everything in place and we’re excited to have it go ahead. It’s just great to be able to do anything again and feel the vibrations of live music once more.”

As a trained opera singer himself, Mr Ogden knows how eager acts are to perform to audiences again and he hopes the Northern Aldborough Festival can offer the act and the audience something they’ve been missing.

Mercer Art Gallery calls for artists in online exhibition

Friends of Mercer Art Gallery is calling for artists and creatives to get involved in its online exhibitions focusing on climate change.

This year’s React 2 exhibition is titled ‘Our Planet, Our Home’ and encourages artists to use any medium and have fun.

Last year’s exhibition was centred around coronavirus and had more than 100 applications. The organisers are determined to have another successful exhibition.

The exhibition will go live in October and artwork can be submitted under these categories: our natural world, climate change and creations using recycled materials.

There is no fee for submission, but the charity asks that the artist makes a donation to support its outreach work supporting art locally.

Last year, creative people aged up to 70 took part in the exhibition.

Catherine Wright, deputy chair of the Friends of the Mercer Project, said:

“Following on from the success of our first online exhibition, we encourage all artists in our local community, amateur and professional, to get involved with this event.

“The subject ‘Our Planet, Our Home’ is such an important and relevant theme and we hope there will be some really thought provoking pieces submitted.

“There were some extremely high-calibre pieces in our last exhibition and we hope the standard will be high again but it is important to us, the Friends of the Mercer that this exhibition is for open to all. If you are artistic we urge you to get creative and get involved!”

There are additional categories for any budding artists under 16. More information on how to enter can be found here.

The submission deadline is September 17 at 5pm.

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Volunteer who’s looked after Knaresborough Cemetery for years retires

Jayne Jackson began maintaining the Knaresborough Cemetery after feeling Harrogate Borough Council wasn’t doing enough.

Mrs Jackson has been working on the grounds for almost four years but now ill health means she has to pack away her tools.

As a regular visitor to the cemetery, near King James’ School, to visit her parent’s graves Mrs Jackson said she was getting “frustrated” by its condition.

She said there were a host of issues including; long grass, overgrown bushes and tree roots causing graves to collapse.

Mrs Jackson has reported issues over the years including a leaking tap and damaged graves, to the council, but said these often went ignored or took a long time to be repaired.

Mrs Jackson said she knew she had to do something for the town she has lived in since she was seven years old.

Her lone volunteering turned into a large undertaking costing her “100s of pounds of my own money”. She would tackle the overgrown foliage and keep weeds at bay.

It was also important for Mrs Jackson to carefully maintain the baby and war graves. Her aim was to create a peaceful place for others.

Jayne Jackson

Jayne Jackson left this note for the cemetery’s visitors.

But now, she has been left questioning why she continues to work on such a large space alone:

“It was important for me to keep it tidy. Over the years there’s been less and less maintenance, lots of the graves have just been left to overgrow. I’ve enjoyed doing it and met some lovely people too but a little help from the council would go a long way.

“I’ve got so frustrated I now just think what’s the point?”

Mrs Jackson has said she hopes Harrogate Borough Council take the same care she did to maintain the cemetery.

Councillor Andrew Paraskos, Harrogate Borough Council’s cabinet member for environment, waste reduction and recycling, said:

“On behalf of the council’s bereavement services, I’d like to say thank you to Jayne Jackson for her work at Knaresborough Cemetery, it has been very much appreciated.

“We have a regular programme work, across all of the district’s cemeteries that we manage, and when specific issues are raised we work to address these.

“Visitors to several of the cemeteries across the district may also start to notice some areas that are being left to grow and not mown. We want to encourage biodiversity so are working with parish councils to leave specific areas to grow, attract pollinators and create habitats.

“We will of course continue to mow the grass along pathways and around gravestones so that mourners can pay their respects to their loved ones.”

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Opened in 1876 the graveyard holds over 3,000 graves.

Her hard work has not gone unnoticed with numerous local residents thanking her on a Facebook post after she left a note in the cemetery to say she was stopping her work.

Mrs Jackson says it is her time to step away after noticing her arthritis makes some of the jobs too difficult.

Harrogate and Wetherby to get dedicated radio service

Ofcom is to offer Harrogate and Wetherby a DAB radio licence.

The communications regulator said today organisations would be able to bid for the licence, which will enable listeners to tune in on digital radio, in the coming months.

Harrogate and Wetherby is one of 25 licence areas included in the latest round of Ofcom’s roll-out of small-scale digital licences.

At the end of last year, in a previous phase of the rollout, five organisations bid for the digital licence in Leeds.

Currently only Greatest Hits Radio in the Harrogate district has an FM licence.

Other stations such as Harrogate Community Radio, Your Harrogate and Harrogate Hospital Radio are available online, via an app and or smart speakers.

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Harrogate Community Radio said it would look into the financial situation before deciding whether to bid but it was excited about the opportunity. Board member Charley Christopher said:

“It’s definitely something we’re looking into but we would need support from others. There may be grants available that we could look into. It is exciting for us and potentially another platform to expand into.”

Your Harrogate presenter Nick Hancock said it intended to bid for the licence. He added:

“It’s great that all our efforts, as well as those of many others, for this to come to Harrogate and Wetherby, have been rewarded.”

 

Live: Harrogate traffic and travel

Good morning, it’s Suzannah with you again this morning giving you updates every 15 minutes on the road and rail links near you.

Our live blog, brought to you by The HACS Group, will give you up-to-date information on traffic hotspots or where it may be building and the temporary lights in place. We also keep an eye on any bus or train delays.

If it is safe, please get in touch on 01423 276197 if you experience any delays.

9am – Full Update 

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6.45am – Full Update 

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The district’s roads are still looking clear so far this morning, keep checking for today’s traffic hotspots.

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6.30am – Full Update 

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The district’s roads are looking clear so far this morning, keep checking for today’s traffic hotspots.

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Bookings coming in fast for Harrogate Christmas Market

The return of Harrogate Christmas Market looks set to be popular with many visitors and traders already booked to attend.

Organisers have said 40 coach loads of visitors and 150 traders have booked for the four-day November extravaganza.

Last year’s market was cancelled due to covid but with lockdown restrictions due to be lifted on June 21, planning for this year is going ahead.

The event will take place at its usual location on Montpellier Hill and St Mary’s Walk from November 18 to 21.

Opening times will be 10-8pm on Thursday and Friday, 9.30-8pm on Saturday and 9.30-5.30pm on Sunday.

A newsletter sent today by market organisers Brian and Beryl Dunsby, and Steve Scarre, said:

“We have been taking applications since early March and have now accepted a total of 150 traders’ applications towards a maximum of 190 stalls – with many enquiries outstanding for a follow-up.

“We began inviting coach groups on May 2 and bookings have started to come in – now up to 40 coach loads.”

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The newsletter added that access to Montpellier Hill and Esplanade will be restricted during the build-up and for the four days of the market. St Mary’s Walk North will be closed from November 15 to 23.

Admission to the market, which is expected to include a funfair and Father Christmas and his reindeer as usual, is free.

The first meeting of the Christmas market supporters group will take place on June 23 at Harrogate’s White Hart Hotel.