UPDATE: Missing Ripon man found

Ripon police say Spencer Liddiard, 46, from Ripon was reported missing yesterday.

Officers had grown increasingly concerned for his welfare and put out a public appeal to help find him.

 

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This morning police issued a statement saying Mr Liddiard had been found safe and well.

Council “disappointed” over emergency cash for cycle lanes

North Yorkshire County Council said it remains committed to providing extra cycle and walk ways even though it said it was “disappointed” with the amount of money its been given by central government.

The county council bid for money from the Government’s “emergency active travel fund” to provide extra support for sustainable travel as part of the national recovery from coronavirus.

But the council was only allocated £133,000, half of the possible maximum available.

County Councillor Don Mackenzie, Executive Member for Access, said:

“We have a long-standing commitment to active, sustainable travel, and that remains undimmed. The allocation from this first tranche of funding is disappointing, but we will learn from this bid and are determined to take full advantage of the next phase of funding and beyond”

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Harrogate District Cycling Action gave us this statement:

It’s disappointing that NYCC has only received 50% of the Tranche 1 amount provisionally allocated to it (which was £266,000). It must be because the plans presented weren’t ambitious enough.

There’s an opportunity later in the summer to bid for a further £1,065,000, and we would like NYCC to work with us in developing the best possible bid. The recent Harrogate Congestion Survey showed 77% support for improved walking & cycling infrastructure. This is an opportunity to invest in it, and it’s vital it isn’t wasted.

The authority said it was planning to bid for the second wave of cash. Cllr Mackenzie said:

“Initial feedback from the Department for Transport indicates that the drive behind this first tranche of the fund is to enable people travelling on public transport, particularly those going to and from work, to instead cycle or walk.

This is primarily an issue for large urban areas which have much higher levels of this sort of public transport usage.. Presently, our main impetus is creating town centre spaces to enable social distancing.

“We await guidance on the requirements for the second phase, which is likely to see an emphasis on schemes identified through our local walking and cycling infrastructure plans, which will be more permanent measures.

 

 

Eighth consecutive day with no coronavirus deaths at Harrogate District Hospital

It’s now been 8 days since the last reported death at Harrogate District Hospital of a patient who tested positive for coronavirus. 7 people in the Yorkshire and North East region were reported to have died of the virus.

The last recorded death at the hospital happened on June 18, meaning that it remains at 80 deaths for another day with 135 patient discharges.

A further 18 people, who tested positive for the coronavirus have died, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 28,653.

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Patients were aged between 43 and 95 years old. One patient, aged 48, had no known underlying health conditions.

Pedestrian injured in car pile up on Parliament Street in Harrogate

The main A61 through Harrogate was shut this lunchtime after a multiple car pile up in which a pedestrian was injured.

Police have not released details of how seriously the pedestrian has been hurt. An ambulance was called to the scene.

The accident happened this lunchtime – diversions were set up around Parliament Street as police closed the road to deal with the incident.

The A61 has since re-opened.

North Yorkshire Police has asked anyone who may have seen the collision to contact Mark Hutchings of the major Collision Investigation Unit on 101 or email Mark.Hutchings@northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk.

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One week passes without any covid deaths at Harrogate District Hospital

For the seventh consecutive day there have been no reported deaths at Harrogate District Hospital of patients who tested positive for coronavirus.

The last recorded death at the hospital happened on June 18, meaning that it remains at 80 deaths for another day with 135 patient discharges.

A further 78 people, who tested positive for the coronavirus have died- 4 in the Yorkshire and North East region.  It brings the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 28,635.

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Patients were aged between 56 and 97 years old.   Two patients, aged 73 and 96, had no known underlying health conditions.

COLUMN: “Speaking truth to power” is part of the job says Bishop of Ripon

This column is written for The Stray Ferret by the Bishop of Ripon, The Right Reverend  Dr Helen-Ann Hartley. The Bishop was in the news recently after she received a death threat over a comment she made about the Prime Minister’s aide, Dominic Cummings, who drove from London to Durham during lockdown.

Following the Prime Minister’s appearance at the COVID_19 daily briefing a few weeks ago, I popped onto Twitter to see what the response was.  ‘Fairly annoyed’ would be a summary of what I saw.  I decided to contribute, and commented on a tweet from someone I know who was very upset at what the Prime Minister had said in defence of a certain official who had made a trip to Durham during the period of what we all thought was total lockdown. “Integrity, trust and leadership were never there; just a driven misguided ideology of power that has total disregard for the most weak and vulnerable, and those who work to protect and care for us for relatively low pay”.

A few moments later, as the comments started to roll in, I tweeted: “My parents live in Durham, an hour away from where we live.  My father finished radiotherapy treatment just before lockdown.  I’ve missed his birthday, Mothering Sunday and countless other catch-ups that would have happened.  And that’s a fraction of a story compared with others”.

What happened next was both brutal and affirming as emails, phone-calls, and then hand-written letters started to pour featuring rather extreme views and threats and heart-rending stories of personal loss and thanks that Church leaders were speaking up.  The reality is that Church leaders speak up quite often about all manner of topics, local, national and global, and this isn’t always noticed.

As much as we are living in ‘unprecedented times’, the conditions of anxiety and lockdown have created an atmosphere that is often toxic and unforgiving.  I didn’t post those tweets lightly, I did so because my own personal story and the stories of so many I have heard in recent weeks has been seriously undermined by the behaviour of individuals who set policies and who I expect would model that in their own lives.

Speaking truth to power is an important aspect of my role as a bishop, and I do that aware of the potential to annoy and even offend.  When I became a bishop in New Zealand over six years ago, my predecessor said to me that leadership was a bit like climbing a mountain: the higher you go the more scenic the views, but the more likely to attract complex weather systems.  How true that is.

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No new coronavirus deaths at Harrogate District Hospital

Today’s statistics from the NHS, which show no new deaths at Harrogate District Hospital, comes after the total number of reported deaths of patients of coronavirus yesterday rose to 80.

A further 26 people, who tested positive for the covid, have died. It brings the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 28,318. 5 were in the Yorkshire and North East region.

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Patients who’s deaths were reported today were aged between 61 and 94 years old.   All patients had underlying health conditions.

Column: Travel agents had unfair bad press in pandemic
This column is written by Peter Cookson, Managing Director of Spear Travels. Spear Travels is a group of twelve independent travel agencies based in Boroughbridge extending from North Yorkshire to Dorset:
The travel industry, like practically every other business in the UK, has been going through hell the past three or so months. But in the travel industry we have had the added intensity of being scrutinised and put in the stocks and pilloried on a daily basis by the press and media regarding refunds. This is for the most part fair in the case of tour operators and airlines, but mostly unfair, in the case of travel agencies like mine.
The general consensus of public opinion is that we, as travel agents, are just holding on to clients’ monies and refusing to pay them back for the sake of our personal cashflow. This is very far from the truth. We cannot pay back what the tour operators or airlines have not given back to us first. 
We started to feel the impact of C-19 on both existing bookings and new enquiries in mid-February and I was in Singapore at the time visiting family. In that country even then, they were well ahead of the game with regards to tracing outbreaks back to the source. 
As soon as C-19 started to bite in the UK in March, understandably staying safe became far more important than holidays. We had numerous people who were trapped abroad all round the world and who took weeks to return in some cases. Some elected to stay put as it was safer where they were. Some are still there now!
We have spent all of our time in the past three months either trying to repatriate clients or sort out their refunds. This is hugely time-consuming which meant that, unlike other industries, we could not furlough all of our staff (currently about 60% are furloughed). So no income coming in but still having to bear a fair proportion of our overhead costs. 
Thanks to furlough pay, CBILS (Government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme), business grants and free rents from most of our understanding landlords for the June quarter, we have kept going. We will come out the other side. After nearly 30 years in this industry, we are not giving up!
Bookings for later this year and 2021 and 2022 are starting to come back, which is great.  This is mostly long haul and cruise, with Canada doing especially well. Our range of holidays includes everything you can imagine from tailor-made travel to family beach holidays and holidays, in the UK are proving popular too. 
Our market research shows that once things return to the new ‘normal’, hopefully by mid-July, there will be a huge upsurge of people wanting a summer break, me included! Our Yorkshire branches will reopen in the next few weeks. The appetite for travel is back!

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Army of town centre “ambassadors” to reassure shoppers

Both Harrogate Borough Council and the Harrogate BID group have organised town centre “ambassadors” as they work to allay shoppers’ fears and welcome them back to the district’s town centres.

The council says its ambassadors will be on hand to help welcome people and offer information and advice to shoppers where they can.

The council has organised a toolkit with advice and materials to help businesses across the district open, including a checklist of the measurements required both in and outside shops. It’s also distributed printable posters and directional signs to help shops manage the flow of customers.

Harrogate BID has also organised town centre “hosts”  and distributed leaflets and posters. The hosts will be tasked with giving shoppers peace of mind as lockdown is eased by welcoming them, giving out information and noting hotspots that need to be cleaned.

It’s not clear if both sets of ambassadors will be working in the town centre at the same time.

One of Harrogate BID’s posters for the town centre

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The council says public toilets in the busiest areas will be opened and parking charges have been re-introduced.

Councillor Graham Swift, deputy council leader and cabinet member for economic development, said:

“Monday will be an exciting and anxious day for everyone as we all learn to adapt to a new normal.

“Many of our retail businesses are pulling out all the stops to be ready to open safely and we are doing everything we can to support their efforts.

“Our package of measures are designed to support retailers and their customers to get back to trading and shopping as soon as possible and operate in a safe way to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

“We know we are at the start of a long road, but we are committed to working with businesses to progress the district’s economic recovery in the months ahead.”

Two more coronavirus deaths at Harrogate District Hospital

Two further patients, who tested positive for coronavirus, have died bringing the total number of deaths at the hospital to 75.

A 125 patients have been discharged by the hospital.

A further 27 people, who tested positive for the coronavirus have died, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 27,954.

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Patients were aged between 50 and 101 years old. Two patients had no known underlying health conditions.