Cedar Court and The Ivy close in Harrogate

Cedar Court Hotel in Harrogate has become the first of the town’s hotels to temporarily close as a result of the government’s announcements on stricter “social distancing” measures. Cedar Court has 100 rooms and is one of the town’s larger hotels.

The Managing Director of Cedar Court, Wayne Topley this afternoon posted on the hotel website that:

It is with great regret, that as of Friday the 20th March, the decision has been taken to temporarily close the Cedar Courts: Bradford, Huddersfield, and Harrogate. We have taken this, enormously difficult and unprecedented, decision in a direct response to the Government’s advice around ‘social distancing’ and our ongoing duty to protect the health and the wellbeing of our customers and our teams within the business. We are taking new bookings from the 1st of May onwards – unless Government advice changes. As a business and a team of people, we hope for happier times, but for now, the safety and welfare of guests and team alike is of paramount importance.

The hotel will be contacting all its customers and suppliers in the coming days, and said it would  “do our upmost to move contracted business and honour our obligations where we can”

The Ivy on Parliament Street

Last night The Ivy Restaurant in Harrogate which opened in November 2017 announced  last night it was shutting immediately until further notice. A notice on its website said:

It is with a heavy heart that we inform you that due to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the advice from our government and the World Health Organisation, we are left with no option but to close as of 7pm today, Thursday 19 March

This extraordinary measure has been taken in the interest of both employee and guest safety which are of utmost importance to us.

 

‘I’ve lost one son and people don’t understand the panic you feel about possibly losing another’

Debbie Smith has run Twisted Cakes on Kings Road in Harrogate for 3 years.  She is pregnant and  has 3 children, her 15 year old son, Sam, has chronic asthma. Last year Debbie lost a baby boy, Theo, when he was only 27 days old to whooping cough. Debbie told the Stray Ferret that the coronavirus has left her terrified. Debbie acted before any government announcement and took the decision to pull her children out of school on Monday.  

“I understand that some people think I’m over–reacting but I’ve already lost one son already and people don’t understand the panic you feel when you think you might lose another and I’m also pregnant”  

Like many people struggling to cope in this crisis, Debbie can’t afford to stay at home with her children. She runs her business alone, is self-employed and her family is dependent on her:  

“I can’t stay at home. I have to support the children by working. If I don’t put keep my business going no one is going to feed my children if I don’t”.  

Her cupcake shop has seen a dramatic 90% fall in business –all but one order remains. Her shop has stayed open but she’s had no customers.  

Debbie, though, hasn’t given up. She has launched a new delivery service and has produced a cupcake home decorating kit to entertain children who will be off school and bored. She is prepared to deliver the boxes for free.  

Debbie has seen a 90% drop in sales

She has welcomed news that she might get some financial support but isn’t sure how or when she’ll receive it. She thought it might be in April. 

“We just have to wait until the money comes to us. I just don’t know how we’re going to apply for it. I heard it would be through the local council but I’m not sure.”  

For information about how to get in touch with Debbie at Twisted Cakes click here

The Stray Ferret wants to hear your story of how the coronavirus is impacting your business

 

 

 

 

Harrogate: Image gallery of a very quiet town last night

Images taken of Harrogate at around 7.30pm:

Harrogate’s hotels reel as PM tells the public to avoid social venues

 

Larger hotel and restaurant owners in Harrogate have called on the government to provide financial support after the government today asked the public to avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and social venues.

Rudding Park and Spa in Harrogate, one of the towns largest hotels, has 90 bed rooms. Peter Banks Rudding’s Managing Director demanded clarity from the government:

“What help are the government going to provide?  Are they going to allow us to stop paying PAYE, VAT, Corporation Tax and rates and what further liquidity are they going to give to banks to allow them to keep us going? More importantly, how quickly is this going to happen? Anyone in a leasehold or rented property will need to be paying their mortgage, rent and bills at the end of the month – where is that money coming from? From a hospitality industry perspective, at Rudding Park we are lucky, we are large enough to ‘ride’ it but I certainly wouldn’t want to be running a smaller business in this environment.”

The Yorkshire Hotel Harrogate

Simon Cotton, the managing director at the HRH Group, which owns the White Hart Hotel, the Yorkshire Hotel, and The Fat Badger pub said:
 I am worried about the long-term sustainability of the business if we don’t have any customers coming through our doors. The government has suspended business rates for smaller places but I think we need to look at some relief for bigger businesses as well. The government has not shut us down so I think it’s still okay for fit and healthy people who are not at risk to still go out for food and drink.”
Ekrem Babat, the owner of Uno Momento an Italian restaurant in Ripon told The Stray Ferret:
“My biggest worry is about the staff, we have over 200 people employed across our restaurants. We are going to stay open for now but if people don’t come to the restaurant we are going to have to think about that. Our staff have partners and children who rely on them to bring home a wage but we can only pay them if the customers come to eat. “

 

Coronavirus: Community Action Groups Harrogate district

  

HARROGATE

 Covid Co-operation Harrogate 

#ViralKindness postcard 

Almsford Drive   

 

KNARESBOROUGH 

Knaresborough Coronavirus Support 

 

BOROUGHBRIDGE 

Covid 19 Boroughbridge  

 Deliveries:

 

SPOFFORTH 

Spofforth Deli and Post Office   

 

 

If you want us to add your organisation or support group – however small — please get in touch :

@thestrayferret       email: contact@thestrayferret.co.uk   

 

 

  

Thousands offer to help others in the Harrogate district

 

Across the district today local people have launched social media sites to mobilise support for their elderly and vulnerable neighbours.

Covid Co-Operation Harrogate, a Facebook page which was started over the weekend, already has more than 4,000 members who are either offering help or need it.  Susie Little from Birstwith, who started the group, said she is ‘overwhelmed’ and that she ‘never expected’ so much support. The site is working to connect people: 

 “If you are well and are able to run errands for people who aren’t, please write a new post saying whereabouts in Harrogate you are.

If you are elderly, vulnerable or ill, please message me directly and I will match you with someone close to you who can potentially help. Any shopping etc will be delivered to doorsteps – no actual contact will be made.  

We all need to pull together and help each other out and let’s make people’s lives a little bit easier and less worrying.” 

The public rapid response came as the Government warned that people over the age of 70 could be told “within the coming weeks” to stay at home for an extended period of time to protect themselves from coronavirus.  

Community response meetings between various organisations are planned across the borough over the next couple of days to discuss action plans. 

Social media groups have also been set up to serve the people of Knaresborough and Boroughbridge.  #ViralKindness postcards, which was started by a woman from Cornwall, offers a printable postcard aims to help elderly and vulnerable neighbours who are self- isolating. This is now being circulated among many of these groups locally offering help to those who may not use social media.   A Harrogate printing company ‘Enid Taylors’ posted on twitter today saying it was getting involved:

 

With supermarkets struggling to cope; empty shelves in stores and up to a weeks wait for a delivery slot online, some local shops stepped in to make sure people get the supplies they need.  

Havenhands the bakers, based in Boroughbridge, has started offering this service.  It’s owner,  Clarke Thornton told the Stray Ferret:

‘It helps support our business as well as our loyal elderly customers. In light of people being stuck in their own homes we want to offer to deliver bread, cakes, pies or whatever else they may need. We can take payments over the phone so no contact is necessary. ”

If you have you launched a support group or are offering to help people through this crisis and would like us to publicise it , please get in touch below 

First coronavirus case confirmed in Harrogate

Harrogate District Hospital confirmed yesterday afternoon that it had its first coronavirus patient.

Robert Harrison, Chief Operating Officer at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, said:Robert Harrison, Chief Operating Officer at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, said:

“We can confirm that we are currently caring for a patient who has tested positive for the COVID-19 infection. They are being very safely cared for by our highly skilled team at Harrogate District Hospital and all of the appropriate protection measures are in place.

“As always, our prime concern is to respect patient confidentiality at all times and we would ask the media to do the same.

“Services continue to run as usual across the hospital.”

Yesterday the total number of confirmed cases in the UK has reached 1,372 cases with 35 deaths.

On Thursday the Government moved from the “containment” phase to the “delay” phase and Public Health England will no longer be publishing regional numbers for people testing positive to the virus.  It’s thought the government may announce a ban on mass gatherings in the coming days.

The NHS 111 testing pods outside Harrogate Hospital

For the latest advice from Harrogate District Hospital  on COVID-19 click here 

Lower turn out at Ripon Cathedral today as worshipers stay at home

The congregation for this morning’s Sung Eucharist service at Ripon Cathedral, was considerably smaller than the previous two Sundays in Lent, as the coronavirus crisis continues to impact on events that normally attract large gatherings.

The turn out was around half the usual size of the congregation and also saw wardens who were welcoming church goers, saying that they could not hand out the order of service booklets, as they had to avoid hand to hand contact.Instead, the wardens pointed to the booklets and invited attendees to pick them up for themselves.

The 10.30am service at the Cathedral is invariably the most well attended of the week, with a steady stream of church goers heading down Kirkgate, or from the nearby Cathedral and Market Place car parks to take their seats in the ancient building.

Meanwhile one Harrogate church turned to technology to get access to its parishioners. This morning’s Parish Mass at St Wilfred’s Church on Duchy Road, was streamed and then posted on Facebook for worshipers who had stayed at home.

Supermarkets continue to see people rush to stock up

Not far away from the Cathedral at the Ripon ALDI store, a queue of cars backed up onto the road as shoppers looking to stock up, waited for parking spaces to become free in a car park packed with vehicles.

Yesterday many shelves were getting empty by 1.30pm and large multi-packs of toilet roll were proving a popular buy. Packs of Paracetamol and Ibuprofen were proving difficult to get hold of at chemists and other stores around Ripon while all types of hand-wash and particularly sanitiser with an alcohol content of sufficient strength to kill the coronavirus, are being bought as soon as they are put on the shelves of Boots in Market Place and Day Lewis Pharmacy in North Street.

At Day Lewis, the pharmacist put up a sign on the shop door saying We Have No Hand Gel, because the pharmacy has been dealing with up to 100 people a day coming in to ask and that was disrupting the serving of prescriptions and other products.

The shop eventually received a small supply of alcohol-based hand sanitiser and the nine bottles costing £9.95 that were received, were sold before midday. The pharmacist points out: “We ordered 60 bottles, but it is in short supply everywhere.”

Cancelled hotel bookings and ceilidhs : how coronavirus is affecting Pateley Bridge.

 

First it was the floods, now it’s coronavirus, Pateley Bridge is a town that is once again having to call on its exceptional community spirit to see it through a crisis.  

Margaret Ninness has run the Willows Tea Room and Restaurant in Pateley Bridge for the last 30 years. Above the tearoom she can accommodate 14 people in the guesthouse . Margaret has started to deal with cancellations:  

“People are either cancelling their bookings or asking me to waive our cancellation policy- they want to leave it to the last minute which I’ve agreed to do. You can see how quiet it is. We’ve had a lot of floods and bad weather and now this. I worry for my staff.”  

Margaret Ninness in her tearoom

Margaret has reduced the hours her staff work to try and keep them employed. She welcomed news of the chancellor’s rates holiday for shops, hotels and tearooms which have a rateable value of less than £51,000 but was upset to hear that her energy bill is to go up. 

Small hotels and events seem to be the first to be affected by the coronavirus crisis in Pateley Bridge.  The local lunch club that’s run by volunteers every month has been cancelled, as has a Ceilidh that was planned for last night.   

Liz Carnell Director of the SPAR on the High Street seems to know every local who came into her store. The talk was of nothing but coronavirus:  

“The elderly we deliver to have been asking if we’re going to be able to continue to do this and we have said absolutely yes—even if you’re not feeling well. People are starting to get worried as it’s getting closer and we’ve been trying to put people’s minds at rest”

A few doors up the High Street is Weatherheads the butchers. Established since 1876.. it’s survived many an economic crisis. The current owner, Andrew Weatherhead, said he’s worried about how he’ll keep the business going if staff get sick but also saw a potential silver lining 

Andrew Weatherhead hopes for the best

 “The situation might work in our favour if people start avoiding large busy supermarkets” . Andrew and other store owners have welcomed the rates relief announced in the budget to help offset the financial impact to smaller businesses.  

Pateley Bridge has tremendous community spirit. They pulled together in the recent floods and they know they will do the same for coronavirus as the days becomes more challenging.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dean of Ripon’s Message: trust in God and look out for your neighbour

As the district and the country face an unprecedented public health challenge, The Very Reverend, John Dobson, has written this message to the people of the Harrogate District:

The coronavirus is having an incredible impact on the global community. We hear unprecedented accounts of an entire European country being in lock down. Our hearts go out for those who have died and to all affected. The threat to health and life has been matched by that to the economy, stock markets have tumbled, and our new chancellor has made massive financial provisions.  

The church is not exempt from this huge challenge. As an organisation that brings people together in fellowship as well as worship and prayer, the need for some to be isolated seems counter cultural.  At Ripon Cathedral, like many hospitality businesses and events venues, we are having to plan and make contingencies. The possibility of organisations cancelling their events with us is as disturbing for us as for them.   

The cathedral has an even more significant dimension to its mission; the need for spiritual reassurance and encouragement becomes even more obvious as our natural routine and sense of security are undermined. This is why we are taking all possible precautions to enable people to gather for worship in a way that is safe and responsible. We have the advantage of space! It is also interesting to observe how many people are choosing to come privately into the cathedral – open every day of the year – to light candles and pray.  

This time of national concern reminds me of the 2008 financial crash and the government’s bailout of the banks. I happened to be in the gallery of the House of Commons to hear the then Prime Minster, Gordon Brown, announce the unprecedented £150billion provision. No one knew what state the world’s economy would be in by the end of the week. Sitting in that mother of parliaments, I couldn’t help reflecting that it had seen many historic decisions over the centuries.   

At the end of the afternoon, I attended evensong in Westminster Abbey. Every stone seemed to bear witness to the message of God’s utter reliability in the long history of our country, with all its ups and downs. It seemed to put the problems of the day into perspective. Ripon Cathedral, whose 7th century crypt is the oldest built fabric of all English cathedrals, does the same. And it continues to encourage us all to trust in God and look out for our neighbour. That is a message particularly relevant today.