Harrogate Council warns of disruption to services due to staff self-isolation alerts

There are fresh warnings that council services could face disruptions due to staff self-isolating as covid infections in Harrogate reach record levels.

Some services including swimming pools and tourist information centres have yet to return to normal since lockdown and there are now concerns that they could be hit by more staff being alerted by the NHS covid-19 app.

Councillor Richard Cooper, leader of Harrogate Borough Council, said people should not expect that public services, also including bin collections, will be “immune” to the same disruptions seen in the private sector at retail and hospitality businesses.

He told a meeting on Wednesday:

“Many of the services that have reopened such as pools, gyms and the whole of the leisure sector employ people who are predominately young – and these people are those who have either had one or jab or no jabs yet.

“With infection levels rising, it may be that the pressure seen in other industries – retail, hospitality and what have you – may affect us.

“I want to get that level of expectation out there now. While we are not having difficulties with service delivery at the moment, it may come to a time when we do.”

On Monday, 20 out of around 1,000 council staff were self-isolating.

Nationally, more than 600,000 people in England and Wales were sent self-isolation alerts by the NHS Covid-19 app in the week between 8 and 15 July.

That was a 17% rise from the previous week – and there are complaints that the alerts are causing serious staff shortages.

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Self-isolation for all fully-vaccinated people ‘pinged’ by the app is due to be scrapped by 16 August, although there are calls for this to be brought forward.

The app alert is only advisory and not enforceable by law, unlike a phone call from the Test and Trace team.

In June, an outbreak among council staff caused delays to waste and recycling collections in the Harrogate district.

Before Starbeck Baths reopened this week, Trevor Watson, the council’s director for economy, environment and housing, warned that the need for leisure staff to self-isolate would have an “unavoidable impact” on services.

He said:

“We continue to face the challenge that, if any staff get a notification from the NHS Test and Trace app to self-isolate, then they must do so.

“For many of us, this doesn’t present a problem as we can work at home. But for our leisure centre staff this isn’t possible and sadly has an unavoidable impact on the services we provide.”

The warnings come as Harrogate’s weekly infection rate has passed its previous record of 497 cases per 100,000 people in January to 532 on Sunday.

However, hospital admissions remain low with just three patients at the district hospital on Wednesday – and there has not been a Covid-related death there in more than three months thanks to high levels of vaccine uptake.

Daily covid cases rise by 123 in the Harrogate district

The daily number of covid cases rose by 123 in the district according to statistics published by Public Health England this afternoon.

There have been 10,231 positive covid cases in the district since testing started in the pandemic.

There have been no new reported deaths at Harrogate District Hospital.

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Harrogate’s 7-day average case rate (per 100,000 population, latest data up to July 14) is 435.2.

This is below the North Yorkshire average of 462.7 but higher than the overall England average of 422.1.

 

Covid cases rise by 170 in the Harrogate district

The latest data from Public Health England shows there have been 170 new positive covid cases in the Harrogate district in the past 24 hours.

The total number of people who have tested positive in the district since the start of the pandemic has now passed the 10,000 mark – with current figures standing at 10,108.

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There have been no deaths of any patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus at Harrogate District Hospital -the hospital has said it is treating five people with the virus.

Harrogate currently has a 7-day average case rate (per 100,000 population) of 435.2 which is higher than the England average of 422.1. Richmondshire has the highest rate of all the North Yorkshire districts -its 7-day average is 573.2.

 

 

 

IMAGE GALLERY: It’s a scorcher at the final day of the Great Yorkshire Show

The organisers couldn’t have wished for better weather — on the final day of the Great Yorkshire Show it’s been 26 celsius. The cows needed hosing down and the crowds needed ice cream.. here’s a flavour of the day..

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Harry Gration on Southgate and the England squad

Harry Gration, Yorkshire legend,  former presenter of BBC Look North and now Vice President of the Yorkshire Society writes for the Stray Ferret about Harrogate’s Gareth Southgate and his historic England team.  

Make no mistake, this guy’s a special manager.

In my 42 years of broadcasting, many of them involving sporting events, I have met so many football managers who are nonentities. You know the cliched kind: taking each game as they come; it was a game of two halves… so how refreshing it is to hear the England manager, Gareth Southgate, setting new standards in every way.

We’ve seen a man of morals, decency, with community values and nurturing ethics. Can this exist in a world of top flight football? He has collected and moulded this side into what some say is the perfect squad. 

They all work together and protect the Southgate brand. What I like about what I see is in the pursuit of eloquence in this team when they are interviewed. 

There is a pride in playing for their country which happily shines through. Just watch the way they sing the national anthem. Many a year, you got the impression that some either didn’t know the words nor cared.

Gareth is a family man. His son, a chip off the old block, plays cricket alongside my son at their school in York. 

He’s proud of his dad, of course, but prefers to talk quietly about it all and concentrate on his game, cricket. He’s a fast bowler, by the way, and pretty good! He also chose to play for his school the day after that epic semi final. How’s that for loyalty!

Gareth loves living in North Yorkshire, away from the madding crowd. His wife and daughter add to the bond that Gareth has created with his England family. So I’d say that no England manager has established a brand like Gareth. 

They are his boys, picked with great thought and consideration, and put together with real care. Yes, he’s taken some stick on social media at times. But his devotion and total belief in his team is unwavering .

I have never felt so proud of an England team since 1966. Whatever happens on Sunday Gareth Southgate is a winner. Who says the good guys can’t win?

For me ‘arise Sir Gareth’ has a nice ring to it.

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Italian Harrogate restaurateur backs his country to win

The owner of an Italian restaurant in Harrogate is backing his national team to win the 2020 European Championship against England.

The owner of Al Bivio, Daniele Bojo, said his employees are also excited . He said:

“It (Euro 2020) makes people who are not usually interested in football more interested.”

Italy’s football team didn’t qualify for the World Cup in 2018 but have played spectacularly and mad their way to the final match.

Daniele described his country’s achievement as “amazing”:

“I thought England would be doing all right as they did all right with the World Cup, whereas Italy didn’t even qualify! But the fact they went to the final straight after a competition where they didn’t even qualify is amazing.”

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Al Bivio

Al Bivio customers Rosie and Chloe wearing Italy’s colours

In the Uefa Euro 2020 qualifying tournament the Italian team won every match and scored 100%, the last time this was achieved was by England back in 2016.

Daniele said that Italy’s accomplishments have inspired national pride but it won’t stop him from getting an early night:

“Being Italian, you obviously want your team to win, you know? I just hope it doesn’t go to extra time and penalties because I don’t want to be too late to bed.

“As long as it’s a good match and there’s no bad playing on either side, let the best team win.”

Daniele’s score prediction:  2-1 to Italy …..the winning goal sealed by the FC Torino Captain, Andrea Belotti… oh dear.  Most of us will hope Daniele is wrong.

Work on ‘worn out’ Ripon flats could get under way this summer

Work to improve “worn out” flats next to the site of a sinkhole risk in Ripon could get under way this summer, a senior councillor has said.

Cllr Mike Chambers, cabinet member for housing and safer communities at Harrogate Borough Council, said the refurbishment of Allhallowgate flats had been delayed due to covid but would get started at the “end of summer or beginning of autumn”.

The project was first agreed in 2014 and the latest update follows complaints from residents and councillors that the ageing building has become an eyesore.

Speaking at a meeting on Wednesday, Cllr Sid Hawke, who represents the Ripon Ure Bank ward, described the flats as “shobby” and “looking a bit tired and worn out”.

The building sits next to a cordoned off site where separate plans for 17 new flats were abandoned two years ago due to problems with ground stability.

Cllr Chambers told Wednesday’s meeting that ground levelling works to tidy up the site were now under way ahead of landscaping.

He said:

“We are now moving forward.

“We have started work on the site – we are levelling that off and it is going to be landscaped.”

And on the Allhallowgate flats refurbishments, Cllr Chambers added:

“It has taken rather longer than we hoped because of covid and I don’t offer that as an excuse. We did use those properties to house people that we brought in off the streets to ensure they were protected.

“The work on those is set to begin in earnest at the end of summer or beginning of autumn and hopefully we will be well on the way to getting them refurbished and made much better than they are.

“They are going to be bigger allround and hopefully back in use by the early part of next year.”

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Ripon is one of the UK’s most sinkhole-prone cities as it sits above a layer of gypsum – a water-soluble rock that leads to the formation of large underground caves that can collapse.

In 2018, a sinkhole was discovered at the city’s leisure centre before works on a new swimming pool and refurbishment project were given a go-ahead to start a year later.

Two years earlier, another sinkhole saw 12 properties on Magdalens Road evacuated in 2016.

More recently, construction crews working on the new swimming pool discovered an underground void at the site last year and an investigation into how to fix the issue is currently underway.

Harrogate woman denied new drugs for chronic migraines

A woman from Harrogate who suffers up to 20 migraine days a month says she isn’t being prescribed a set of drugs that could help her.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) approved the anti-CGRP drugs for use in March 2020 yet Tiffany Snowden says the NHS in England still isn’t prescribing them.

Anti-CGRP drugs are the first medication created specifically for episodic or chronic migraines.

Ms Snowden says only other option being to buy the medicine herself at a cost of £350 per month.

Before discovering the anti-CGRP medication Mrs Snowden had been prescribed three different medications, but Mrs Snowden said they made her feel very ill.

Tiffany Snowden

Tiffany Snowden and her husband Matthew

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Having found out that the drugs have been available in England and Wales since March 2020, Ms Snowden filed a freedom of information request to Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust asking how many people had been prescribed them in the district.

The trust did not meet the deadline to return the information to Ms Snowden.  A spokesperson told the Stray Ferret:

“A response to Tiffany’s Freedom of Information request will be with her shortly. We are working hard to respond to FOI requests but owing to operational pressures during the covid pandemic, replies may be delayed.

“While we are unable to comment on individual cases, anti-CGRP drugs, which currently include erenumab, galcanezumab and fremanezumab, are available as potential treatment for patients accessing services for episodic and chronic migraine. That is for those patients that fulfil the NICE criteria for their use.”

In response, Ms Snowden — who says she does fit the NICE criteria — said:

“That is great news that the hospital is able to prescribe those drugs under the NHS but it does not change the difficulty patients in our district are having in accessing them”.

The NHS North of England Commissioning Support Unit has said the drugs will be available from this month in England and Wales.

Serious accident leads to long delays on southbound A1M

The A1M southbound between J45-44 has been blocked this morning due to a serious accident causing long delays.

The accident involved an overturned lorry and led to the A1M southbound closed at J45 at Boston Spa.

Highways England said delays were up to 25 minutes. 

The motorway has now opened but there are still delays in the area as traffic clears.

Go to the Stray Ferret Traffic and Travel news for the latest information.

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Sneak Peek: Harrogate’s own chocolate factory

A new chocolate café will open on East Parade in Harrogate on Monday to help those with learning difficulties gain work experience.

Planning for the The Harrogate Chocolate Factory Café, which is run the by charity, Harrogate Skills 4 Learning Centre, has been underway since 2019 but opening was delayed due to covid.

The café has a barista bar and seating inside and outside. One of the first thing you’ll notice when entering the café is the colourful packaging design on the main pillar.

Fran Riley, the programme lead, told the Stray Ferret what the charity’s vision for the café is:

“The idea was that we would have a business where we could develop a process all of our young people could access. So making chocolate bars from bean to bar… while sourcing the beans as ethically as we could.”

The employees make a variety of handmade chocolate- all the chocolate is made with dairy alternatives so that “everyone can enjoy some”.

The chocolate is made from scratch in the charity’s main building nearby. It starts with roasting the cocoa beans in their kitchen and ends with pouring liquid chocolate in a moulding tray.

Kelsey Cuthbert, who works at the café, said it is a positive experience:

“I’ve grown from when I started trying to make coffees and stuff, and now I can do the job almost independently.”

A chocolate mixer in action at the café this week

The charity has described the café as a “social enterprise” giving its workers the skills for future employment.

Only 6% of people with learning disabilities have paid employment in the UK, according to the latest government figures.

 

The Harrogate Chocolate Factory Cafe also offers an outside seating area that is equipped to serve customers with disabilities.

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All details about the café’s opening can be found on their website here.