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.

Harrogate Railway organises ‘rugby prom’ for charity

Harrogate Railway Athletic Football Club is organising a rugby match in which the players wear prom dresses to raise money for charity.

The club is fundraising in support of former Leeds Rhinos rugby league player Rob Burrow, who has motor neurone disease.

It has already raised £6,200 but would like to achieve £7,000 to match the number 7 Rob wore on his team shirt.

Anne Mitchell, the clubhouse manager, came up with the idea as a finale to the charity walks the club has done for the MND Association.

She said:

“One of the most exciting things is the team names — the sugar plum fairies and the nutcrackers”.

Rob Burrow, who has been raising money for the MND Association since his diagnosis, is supporting the event:

https://twitter.com/RunforRobMND/status/1409262293909753861

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Players from different districts, including Leeds, York, West Park and Stanningley, are taking part in the match at Harrogate Railway AFC.

Details of the event are available on this Twitter account.

Forty two new positive covid cases in the Harrogate district

There have been forty two new positive covid cases in the Harrogate district in the past 24 hours according to Public Health England.

It brings the total number of people who have tested positive for coronavirus to 8.372 since the pandemic began.

There have been no deaths of covid at Harrogate District Hospital — the death toll in the district currently stands at 179.

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The number of cases of the Delta variant in the Harrogate district has nearly quadrupled in the last two weeks.

Harrogate district’s seven day rate of cases per 100,000 population is 155.4 – the England average is 158.9.

 

 

 

 

Twenty new covid cases in the Harrogate district

There have been twenty new covid cases in the Harrogate district in the past 24 hours according to data published by Public Health England.

It brings the total number of people who have tested positive for the virus in the district since the pandemic started to 8,273.

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The average seven day case rate per 100,000 population in the district is now 148 – that’s above the England average which is 136.4 (latest data up to June 24).

The highest seven day average case rate in North Yorkshire is in Richmondshire which currently stands at 169.4

Twenty seven new covid cases in Harrogate district

The daily statistics published by Public Health England show there have been 27 new covid cases the district.

The number of positive cases comes as scientists said yesterday that the UK is experiencing a third wave of infections.

There are currently no covid patients being treated at Harrogate District Hospital, according to latest Public Health England statistics.

The total number of people testing positive to the coronavirus in the district since the pandemic began is now 8,039.

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The 7 day covid case rate per 100,000 population stands at 72.1 in the district, compared with the North Yorkshire average of 71.  Selby has the highest rate of 135.7 (latest data up to June 17).

 

Harrogate district farmers fear cheap Australian meat imports

Livestock farmers in the district have expressed concerns over the Australian trade deal and its potential to flood the UK market with cheaper, lower quality produce.

On Tuesday Boris Johnson announced that a new trade deal had been struck up between Australia. It will make it easier and cheaper for Australians to export meat to the UK.

Tim Weatherhead, a Ripon farmer and Vice Chair of the Yorkshire Young Farmers, said;

“The main concern is definitely them undercutting us on standards; we have higher standards of rearing, medicine and farming. Things like this don’t always cross the minds of the consumers, they often just go for the cheapest option. But they don’t see what’s going on behind the scenes.”

Australia’s animal welfare laws aren’t as strict as the UK’s. According to the Animal Protection Index, the UK has an animal welfare ranking of B while Australia ranks at D.

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The National Farmers Union published its concerns over welfare practices in Australia which include feeding up to 50,000 cattle at one time and growth hormones which are banned in this country.

Andrew Loftus, a livestock farmer near Masham, shared similar concerns;

“I would be surprised if the government allowed meat containing banned growth hormones to enter the country, but this isn’t the only issue. Meat production standards in the UK are getting tighter and tighter, and there are a whole range of standards which we have which Australia would potentially not be subjected to.

I’m not against free trade deals, in fact I think that competition is good to give consumers a choice – it just has to be fair.”

Boris Johnson assured people that no meat would enter the country containing banned growth hormones.

Other local farmers were concerned about the environmental impact of importing meat from the other side of the world.

Jo and Rob from Blue Coat Farm in Harrogate said:

“Our government’s agenda in this country is for us to farm sustainably, with the environment in mind, so importing meat from the other side of the world would appear to be the polar opposite of this.”

Gov.uk data shows that the Yorkshire and the Humber region is the biggest contributor to the farming industry in the country, and livestock farms account for a third of all its farms.

Final volunteer call for cat charity Harrogate hotel abseil

Yorkshire Cat Rescue is calling for final volunteers to abseil down Harrogate’s Crowne Plaza Hotel in a daring fundraiser.

There are six slots left for those willing to take the plunge on the 3rd of July. The spaces were previously filled but due to a handful of last-minute dropouts there is space left for those wanting to sign up.

The abseil scales 140 feet and those taking part will be trained on the day by professionals.

Participants will need to pay a registration fee of £25 and are also asked to raise a minimum of £100 for the charity.

So far the charity has managed to raise more than £10,000 through the event but are aiming to reach £15,000 in the final few weeks.

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This isn’t the first daring exploit run by the charity; last year it held a ‘firewalk’ in Skipton where participants walked over burning coals.

Yorkshire Cat Rescue has been taking in unwanted cats and kittens and giving them homes for nearly 20 years. As an independent charity, it relies on fundraising to keep going.

The money it raises will go towards rescuing more cats, food, vet bills and shelter.