Tamsin O'Brien, Author at The Stray Ferret

“I couldn’t do it for life” – the jobs crisis in Harrogate’s hospitality venues

This week we are focusing on a recruitment crisis in the Harrogate hospitality industry as venues across the district report a serious shortage of staff.

17 year old Josh Suddaby is currently with the Stray Ferret on work experience from Harrogate Grammar School. With friends currently working in bars, restaurants and hotels we asked Josh to report on what they feel about a career in hospitality. This is his report:

Three of my 17 year old friends are working in Harrogate hotels, bars and restaurants to earn some money over the summer holidays. I have learned that their wages are between £6.00 and £8.20 an hour. All of them are men.

None of my friends wanted to be identified as they felt they could be more open if they stayed anonymous.

I wanted to know if they’d consider making a career out of their current work.

Behind the Bar– £8.20 per hour

My one friend is working 5-11pm shifts behind the bar in a large hotel.

He told me “the responsibility I’m given makes me feel valuable” and that staff made him feel like he’s worth something in his workplace.

I asked him what he enjoyed about working in a hotel his response was that the flexible hours are good and there was enough variation in tasks to make every shift different.

He liked the social side of the job as he gets to meet a lot of people including colleagues and customers.

So would he consider staying on there? He replied he would not as he felt it was “not something to stay in forever”, as he would rather go on to further education or an apprenticeship.

Working in Housekeeping — £7.50 per hour

Another friend has worked in housekeeping for a large hotel for over a year and a half. He works evening shifts from 5-9pm.

I asked why he chose a hospitality venue he responded saying that they offered the hours of his choice and he can work after school.

He told me he enjoyed it socially, he liked talking to the people who worked around him and getting to know them. But said that it can be stressful in a fast paced environment.

Like my friend behind the bar though he also said that he would not consider the venue a future career, I followed up by asking why to which he replied “don’t think I could do it for life”.

He also has another job in the building trade, I questioned him on which job he would choose if he had to do one and he said he would rather work in the building trade it better suits him in life.

Bar Work and Room Service – £6.00 per hour

Another one of my friends who works behind the bar and does room service in a large hotel in Harrogate for 20 hours a week.

He told me that’s he has “no ambition” to continue in that area of work as it doesn’t feel right for him.

His reason for getting the job in the hotel bar was to gain money and life skills such as communication and experience in a fast paced workplace.

After talking to my friends in detail, I feel hospitality venues are not putting enough effort into showing my friends how a career in a hotel or bar could be right for them.

Offering higher pay, showing young people a career path and including good benefits will make more want pursue a career in hotels and restaurants –and not see hospitality as just a summer job.

Are you looking for a job or have a job vacancy you need to promote to as many people as possible? Take a look at the Stray Ferret jobs page to see the latest jobs or to submit a new one. Every job is placed on our homepage and posted on our social media channels.

Tomorrow we’ll be asking whether the high housing costs in Harrogate make it difficult for people to make a living in hospitality.

Fifty nine new covid cases in Harrogate district

Fifty nine people have tested positive for covid in the past 24 hours in the Harrogate district, according to figures from Public Health England.

It brings the total number of people who have tested positive for the virus to 12,719 since the pandemic began.

The number of people in the district who have died of the virus after testing positive is currently 180 after a death was reported last week.

The seven day average covid rate of infections per 100,000 population in the Harrogate district is 346.3 (latest data up to August 19).

This is higher than the England seven day average case rate of 325.5 and also North Yorkshire which has an average of 306.1

No TV? Your questions answered by local aerial expert

After a fire at the Bilsdale transmitter a week ago many homes in the district still have no TV. This week, we put out a social post asking people how it was affecting them and it had a huge response. So we’ve hooked up with Jody Lovatt of Direct Aerials based in Knaresborough and put some of your questions to him.

Mr Lovatt says he has been inundated with calls and has been working long hours, visiting up to 30 homes a day to re-tune aerials. He has warned homeowners to be wary of people charging huge prices for aerials re-tuning. His charge is £30.00 per home.

Do you know when services will resume?

The company responsible for the transmitter, Arqiva, says there will be “significant improvement” in the coming days. It’s my understanding that there’ll be a limited number of channels back by August 28 – when the signal returns to around 80% strength. Only the main channels will resume at this point.

Will I need to retune my TV when services resume?

If you didn’t try to re-tune your telly when you first lost your TV signal then you will not have to re-tune. If you tried to re-tune your TV not realising the fire was the problem, then you will have to re-tune it.

Why doesn’t my TV retune to the Yorkshire region?

About 90% of the Harrogate district can get Yorkshire TV, most will need their aerials moved and TVs retuned. There are a number of transmitters that I can turn your aerial towards, including Emley Moor, Hayshaw, Belmont and even Pontop Pike. It’s a quick job of around 20 minutes.

If you live in a higher part of the district, such as Harlow Hill, you may be able to do this without moving your aerial or calling out an engineer. Your TV will give you the option of the Yorkshire region when you try to re-tune it.

The only homes that may struggle with either of these options are low lying areas such at parts of Jennyfields or parts of Bilton. Homes there may have to resort to buying a Roku stick to get services if they want some TV before the signal is restored.

What is a Roku stick?

A Roku stick is a bit like an Amazon Fire Stick. It’s easy to buy (Argos, Sainsburys, and Currys stock them). It costs about £20 and is easy to install. It connects your TV to the internet if you have wifi. It is effectively a streaming box.

Will I get a refund on my TV Licence?

Some of my customers have already asked the BBC if they will get a partial refund of their licence fee. I’m told the answer from the BBC has been no because BBC radio services are working.

Do you have a question for Jody? You can contact him directly on Facebook page here.

Harrogate council pledges to resettle Afghan refugees under new government scheme

The leader of Harrogate council has pledged that the borough will help house Afghan refugees who are fleeing the country following the Taliban takeover.

Conservative Cllr Richard Cooper said the refugees are “in need of and deserve our assistance” as he pledged his support to a new government scheme to welcome up to 20,000 Afghans over the next few years.

His pledge comes after the council offered resettlement to 19 Afghans in June under a similar scheme which targeted former translators and others who worked for the UK military during the two decades that it has been fighting in Afghanistan.

Speaking at a meeting on Wednesday, Cllr Cooper said this was the “right, humane and just thing to do”.

He said:

“Back in June, Harrogate Borough Council pledged to take its fair share of the quota of Afghan interpreters who were seeking relocation to this country.

“We not only did that – we pledged to take more than our quota and we have done so.

“The government will now be coming forward with a new scheme for relocating Afghan refugees and on behalf of the council I want to make that pledge again that we will not only take our quota that the government suggests, but we will take more.

“Harrogate is a welcoming, tolerant and diverse place and these people are in need of our assistance and deserve our assistance.”

In June, senior Harrogate borough councillors agreed to offer resettlement to 19 Afghans, which amounts to four families.

The Harrogate district has previously taken part in other resettlement programmes, including welcoming 13 Syrian families between 2016 and 2017.

Cllr Mike Chambers, cabinet member for housing and safer communities at the council, said the families are not only offered a place to live, but also given opportunities to go to school, learn English and find employment.

He added that the authority would be prepared to resettle more families if it was required to do so.

Meanwhile, eight families are expected to be resettled across North Yorkshire under the same scheme.

Nationally, more than 3,000 Afghans are expected to be allowed to settle in the UK, joining 1,300 who have already done so.

Social care at ‘tipping point’ as staff shortages deepen with 1,000 vacancies

Social care in North Yorkshire is facing an imminent staffing crisis health officials have warned after they revealed a worrying drop in the number of people coming forward for vacant jobs.

Richard Webb, director of health and adult services at North Yorkshire County Council, said the sector is facing “unrelenting” pressures and that it had reached “tipping point” over recent weeks with a 70 per cent drop in applications for 1,000 jobs currently vacant.

He said the NHS has also not escaped the staffing problems which existed before the pandemic but have only been exacerbated by the virus outbreak.

Mr Webb told a meeting of the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum today:

“We have seen a real tipping point over the last four to six weeks, particularly as the wider economy has reopened.

“What we are seeing is fierce competition between care services, hospitality, retail and other sectors for people to fill jobs.

“We have about 1,000 vacancies in social care across North Yorkshire – that’s not just us, that’s the 500 organisations that provide care in the county – and we have seen a 70 per cent drop in applications for those jobs in the last few weeks.

“In North Yorkshire, we are as well placed as anywhere to deal with some of these pressures, but they are pretty unrelenting and they are probably the most significant I have seen in a quarter of a century working in social care and the NHS.”

Nationally, social care looks after around 400,000 people in care and nursing homes – three times the number in NHS hospital beds.

There are also around 640,000 people receiving care in their own homes.

Independent Care Group (ICG), a non-profit organisation which provides services in North Yorkshire and York, has raised concerns that as these numbers continue to rise, there may soon not be enough staff to care for the elderly and most vulnerable in society.

Mike Padgham, ICG chairman, said in a statement:

“We are approaching a crisis point where there simply won’t be enough people to go out and provide care to people at home and to those living in care and nursing homes.

“Care providers are facing a daily battle to cover home calls and care home shifts and it can’t go on.”

Mr Padgham is also calling on the government for short-term help and to also accelerate its long-delayed plans to overhaul the social care sector which ministers have pledged to publish by the end of the year.

A specific tax to help find the extra billions needed in funding and directing more cash straight to care homes are all ideas which have previously been brought to table, but these have never come to fruition.

Speaking at today’s meeting, Mr Webb said the reforms would not be a quick fix to the problems the sector is facing and that the county council would continue stepping up its support for care providers.

He said:

“I’m pleased that the government is looking at how it can reform social care, but that will take probably three to five years – it is not going to be an instant solution.

“That is why we have continued to put additional funding into social care while we have been giving so much other support to individual care providers.”

The county council is also urging people to consider careers in social care as part of its Make Care Matter campaign.

Pilot panel to help victims of slavery and exploitation in North Yorkshire

A new panel is to be set up to support for victims of trafficking and exploitation in North Yorkshire.

The pilot project involves the creation of a new local panel which will make decisions on protecting and supporting adult and child victims.

The panel has powers to create specialised support, which may include protection from their traffickers or other criminals, accommodation, access to legal advice and emotional and practical help. Previously, these decisions were made by the Home Office.

The Harrogate area has had a long standing problem of gangs using vulnerable children to move drugs over county borders and sell them in the town. The children or vulnerable adults are recruited with gifts or money and then locked into the criminal network through the use of violence, intimidation, debt and grooming.

There have also been cases of modern slavery in the district. In September last year six workers were rescued from a take-away in Ripon after residents raised concerns about their living conditions.

The new twelve month panel will be run by North Yorkshire County Council and the City of York Council with input from other organisations including NHS bodies and North Yorkshire Police.

Jess Markwart, manager for multiple vulnerabilities with North Yorkshire County Council said:

“Many people may be surprised to learn that modern slavery affects North Yorkshire, as well as the rest of the UK, but sadly, that is the case.

“The creation of this panel gives us powers locally to make decisions on keeping victims safe and removing them from the criminals’ control. The local agencies involved with the panel will have local knowledge and context and will be well placed to put in place the best possible support to keep people safe and protected from traumatic circumstances.”

Rose Howley, head of assessment and targeted intervention with the City of York Council’s Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) said:

“The new, multi-agency panel enables decisions to be made quickly and effectively on keeping child victims safe from exploitation and serious criminal activity.

“It also means we can draw on a range of services and expertise in the county to put in place the right kind of support; whether that’s legal advice, help with safe accommodation or emotional support.”

Possible signs that a child is experiencing a form of harm, such as exploitation, include a change in behaviour, such as becoming unusually withdrawn, secretive behaviour, having more money, clothes or other items they usually couldn’t afford, or being seen in places they shouldn’t be during school hours or normal term-time.

Seventy new covid cases in Harrogate district

There have been 70 new positive coronavirus cases in the Harrogate district in the past 24 hours, according to statistics from Public Health England.

It brings the total number of covid cases in the district to 12,192 since the pandemic began with 179 deaths.

The seven day case rate (per 100,000 population now stands at 266.1 in the Harrogate district – slightly higher than the North Yorkshire average of 261.5.

The England average seven day case rate is now higher than any district in North Yorkshire at 305.1

Seventy three year old woman admits role in Harrogate cannabis farms

A 73 year old former Harrogate guest house owner has admitted her part in cannabis farms worth half a million pounds.

Yoko Banks offered three of her properties to an Albanian gang to grow cannabis with yields of up to £475,000 if sold on the street, Leeds Crown Court heard.

The London-based gang set up three cannabis farms at Banks’s properties on Alexandra Road, Woodlands Road and Somerset Road.

The pensioner and six Albanian men were arrested in September last year when police swooped on three properties on the same day and stopped a van with cannabis inside. The vehicle was thought to be heading for London or the South-East.

Banks, of Scargill Road, was charged with three counts of being concerned in the supply of cannabis on or before September 27 but initially denied the offences. Her trial was due to start this week but on Monday she changed her plea to guilty on all three charges.

The six Albanian men – Kujtim Brahaj, 50, Indrit Brahaj, 27, Visar Sellaj, 33, Bledar Elezaj, 36, Andi Kokaj, 23, and Erblin Elezaj, 33 – had already admitted various charges in relation to the six-figure drug enterprise.

Prosecutor Martin Bosomworth said it was the Crown’s case that Sellaj and another named man, who was never arrested, were the ringleaders of the mega-money cannabis plot and that Banks, who had been targeted by the gang for her properties, was not actively involved in the growing of the plants, although she had played a “significant”, advisory role.

Her potential profit was said to be limited or “capped”, based on her role as “facilitator” by allowing her premises to be used for the illicit practice.

Each of the seven defendants, including Banks, will be sentenced on Friday.

Mr Bosomworth said that Banks’s role was to “let out these properties knowing what they were used for”.

Banks had a “body of evidence” stacked against her, not least “(telephone) conversations at length” with the unnamed man thought to be the “leading light or middle man in all this”.

Benjamin Whittingham, for Banks, said her involvement in the drug plot was “indirect” and amounted to “facilitating”.

She had previous convictions for health-and-safety offences through her work but nothing drug-related.

The former guest-house owner, who owned “multiple” properties and was said to have numerous bank accounts, had been letting properties to people on benefits.

She had been on bail since her arrest partly for her own safety as it was feared she might be blamed by the gang for the loss of hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of drugs.

Indrit Brahaj, of Whitings Road, Barnet; Kokaj, from London but of no fixed address; Sellaj, of Newnham Road, London; and Erblin Elezaj, also from London but of no fixed abode, all admitted being concerned in the production of cannabis and possessing a Class B drug with intent to supply.

Kujtim Brahaj, of Wellington Road, Enfield, and Bledar Elezaj, from London but of no fixed address, each admitted being concerned in the production of cannabis.

Indrit Brahaj was said to be the gang’s driver, making deliveries such as fertilisers to the cannabis factory.

Judge Tom Bayliss QC told Banks:

“You have pleaded guilty to various serious offences but I’m not going to consider sentence until Thursday.”

Each of the six Albanian men had been remanded in custody since their arrest and will remain locked up until they learn their fates later this week.

Forty five new covid cases in Harrogate district

Forty five people in the Harrogate district have tested positive for coronavirus in the past 24 hours, according to data from Public Health England.

In the past 7 days Central Harrogate has seen the highest number of cases at 39 followed by Ouseburn, Hammerton and Tockwith and Ripon South and East with 29.

It brings the total number of people who have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic began to 11,724.

The seven day case rate (per 100,000 population) is 277.9 in Harrogate, which is lower than the England average of 291.5 but above the North Yorkshire average of 262.3 (latest data up to August 5).

Harrogate District Hospital has not reported a covid-related death in nearly four months. The last time a death was recorded was on April 11. The total number of people who have died of the virus in the district stands at 179.

Sixty four new positive covid cases in Harrogate district

There have been sixty four new covid cases in the Harrogate district in the past 24 hours.

It brings the total number of people who have tested positive for the virus to 11,377 since the pandemic began.

Data from Public Health England also showed that a total of 228,781 people in the district have had covid vaccines — 123,120 have received one dose, 105,661 have been double jabbed.

The seven-day case rate per 100,000 population now stands at 246.8 (latest data July 31) in the Harrogate district.

This is below the North Yorkshire average of 251.9 and the England average which is 282.6.

Behind the Bar– £8.20 per hour

Working in Housekeeping — £7.50 per hour

Bar Work and Room Service – £6.00 per hour

Read More:

Read More:

Read More:

Read more:

Read more:

Read More:

Read More:

Read More:

Read More:

Read More: