Harrogate’s Parliament House to be converted to flats and shops

Plans have been approved to convert a building in Harrogate’s Montpellier Quarter into eight flats and two retail units.

Parliament House on Montpellier Street is currently home to Harrogate Wines shop and a vacant gym and is spread across three floors.

North Yorkshire Council approved an application to convert the building last week.

Developer ATC Properties said the flats will be aimed specifically at young professionals and key workers who are looking to get onto the property ladder.

Each flat will have an ensuite double bedroom with an open plan kitchen, dining and living area.

Documents attached to the application described the site as an “intrusive utilitarian building” at odds with one of Harrogate’s most architecturally-appealing areas.

They added the conversion provided an opportunity to “significantly refurbish a prominent building of poor architectural quality and detailing”.

Civic society objection

A third floor extension was removed following concerns from Harrogate Civic Society, which objected to the plans.

The conservation group said the remodelling of the building “does not reflect the local historic style of the conservation area.”

Other prominent town centre buildings, including the former post office on Cambridge Street, have seen applications to convert them into flats approved in recent months. However, the civic society’s objection letter raised concerns about the trend. It said:

“In principle we are keen to see sustainable town centre living but
are always concerned that local commercial uses will not make for a low standard of residential amenity.”

Concerns were also raised by local residents and business owners about parking.

However, the council wrote in its decision report that the site
was in an accessible town centre location, close to shops, facilities and public transport connections, and secure cycle storage would be provided within the building.

The plans were ultimately approved by the new council as one of its first acts as the new planning authority for Harrogate, replacing Harrogate Borough Council.

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New children’s nursery planned for farm near Boroughbridge

Plans have been submitted to build a new early years children’s nursery at Minskip, near Boroughbridge.

Ben and Emma Mosey, who run Yolk Farm and Minskip Farm Shop on Minskip Road, have applied to North Yorkshire Council for the scheme.

The nursery would be situated on the farm and offer 74 full-day places for children aged 0 to 5. It would be open for 51 weeks a year.

The nursery would create 18 jobs and be based around the curiosity and forest school approaches, which encourage independence through outdoor learning.

Documents state the owners have diversified the farm in recent years with a cafe, farm shop and dog walking area but they and want to add a nursery “to create an experience which is safe, fun and educational for children”.

The intended manager of the nursery, Tracey Roberts of Tiddlywinks Private Day Nurseries, has over 20 years in the early years sector and has achieved an outstanding Ofsted rating at Tiddlywinks’ York and Easingwold nurseries.

According to the application, there is a high demand for early years places in the area because there are 229 nursery-aged children in Boroughbridge but only 85 spaces.

UK childcare is among the most expensive in the world and the government announced last month it will expand free childcare for working parents in England by September 2025 to help more parents get back to work.

Planning documents state:

“The subject proposal continues the established trend of successful diversification at Minskip Farm which plays host to a popular café, farm shop and dog walking field.

“Indeed, the provision of an on-site nursery will support the sustainability of extant commercial operations on site, drawing additional footfall to increase trade.

“It is considered that the subject site represents the optimum setting for the establishment of a children’s day nursery, providing children with access to nature and farming activities within a safe, controlled environment, parents with access to the dog walking, café and shopping facilities associated with Yolk Farm, and being accessible from Boroughbridge by public footway, with a bus stop also nearby.”

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Former Harrogate council charged county council for CCTV footage

Harrogate Borough Council charged North Yorkshire County Council £28,000 last year to view CCTV related to parking fines, according to a report.

The report, which will go before councillors on the new North Yorkshire Council tomorrow, outlines the financial performance of parking enforcement in the county.

It includes details of how much money the now-abolished North Yorkshire County Council spent on traffic management and on-street parking in 2022/23.

Harrogate Borough Council, which was also abolished last week, manned its own CCTV centre which had control over a network of 212 cameras across the district.

However, if another organisation wanted access to its video they had to pay an hourly fee. This included North Yorkshire County Council, which had responsibility for on-street parking in Harrogate.

The council also charged North Yorkshire Police to obtain footage to support prosecutions in court. This led to comments from some councillors and members of the public who felt public bodies should share footage free of charge.

Chris Aldred, Liberal Democrat councillor for High Harrogate and Kingsley, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the issue of who pays for the CCTV control centre in Harrogate has been “a bit of an historic running sore”.

He said:

“My understanding is that North Yorkshire County Council used to contribute to the CCTV provision across Harrogate district until a few years back, then they rather unceremoniously and at the last minute in one particular round of budget cutbacks, took the decision to pull out of an annual commitment to assist with their funding.

“It’s quite expensive to provide, not the actual kit, although that’s not cheap, but the officers who have to do the monitoring and then provide the footage for court — and they only pay for what they actually use.”

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But the debate over which council should pay for CCTV in Harrogate is now over with the introduction of the new unitary council that launched on April 1 and now owns the control centre.

North Yorkshire Council’s assistant chief executive for local engagement, Rachel Joyce, said:

“North Yorkshire County Council was previously charged to access open space cameras in the Harrogate district in order to assist its highways team with day-to-day operations such as traffic monitoring. This made best use of an extensive CCTV infrastructure.

“In the new council, we have the opportunity to look at our CCTV network across the county. Our aim is to maximise the existing CCTV infrastructures, explore opportunities for enhanced partnership working including how CCTV control rooms are funded.”

 

Councillors to elect ceremonial mayor for Harrogate this month

Councillors will elect a mayor for the town of Harrogate at a meeting this month.

Called a ‘charter mayor’, the non-political role will involve promoting the historic and ceremonial traditions of the Harrogate area during events and occasions such as Remembrance Sunday.

The mayor will be chosen by the Harrogate ‘charter trustees’, which are 10 councillors who represent divisions covering the unparished parts of Harrogate town.

This differs from the former Harrogate Borough Council mayor who covered the whole of the former borough and undertook a much wider range of engagements.

Like the Harrogate Borough Council mayor, the charter mayor will also serve a term of 12 months.

If a Harrogate Town Council is created, it will assume responsibility for the mayoral position from North Yorkshire Council.

The new council has allocated an annual budget of £12,100 for Harrogate charter trustee business.

The mayor and deputy mayor will be elected at a meeting of the Harrogate charter trustees on April 17 at the Civic Centre in Harrogate.

Ceremonial robes and chains most recently used by the last HBC mayor, Victoria Oldham, will be used by the new mayor.

On the final day of the council’s existence last week, Ms Oldham tweeted:

“Thank you everyone who has made my 10 months as the last mayor of the borough of Harrogate so special.

“I have enjoyed meeting so many caring, marvellous people. Also, special thanks to my deputy mayor Cllr Robert Windass for his help, and being my consort.”

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North Yorkshire Council’s assistant chief executive for legal and democratic services, Barry Khan, said:

“The charter trustees are non-political. Nominations for mayor and deputy mayor will be made at the first annual meeting on Monday, April 17, where they will be voted on.

“The mayor will wear the chains of office when acting as mayor. The robes are usually reserved for ceremonial occasions at which the mayor feels they are appropriate.“

Harrogate hospital: Patients will be safe during junior doctors’ four-day strike

The chief executive of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust has given assurances that patients will be safe during an upcoming junior doctors strike.

Doctors union the British Medical Association announced that its members will take part in industrial action from today until 7am on Saturday, April 15.

The strike will be longer than the 72-hour action by junior doctors that took place at Harrogate District Hospital last month and follows other strikes this year by nurses and ambulance workers.

Jonathan Coulter, chief executive of the hospital trust, told a meeting of the trust’s board members that the hospital has a “robust plan” in place to deal with any disruption should the junior doctors strike goes ahead as planned.

He said:

“Lots of work went into preparing for the last junior doctor’s strike. The biggest learning we found was the role of other professionals to cover roles.

“The strike is obviously concerning but I’m confident we’ll have safe services. There’s a cost of people covering the work and planning it and the cost to the patients who have work delayed. Services will be safe and let’s hope theres a solution relatively quickly.”

It’s estimated that more than 175,000 patient appointments and procedures had to be cancelled in England during the last junior doctors strike.

The BMA is asking for a pay-rise of 35%, which it says will reverse 15 years of real-term cuts. However, the government says this demand is unaffordable.

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The trust says outpatients appointments and planned activity may be affected at Harrogate hospital but patients will be contacted if appointments need to be rearranged.

It has asked people who require medical assistance and are considering visiting A&E to contact 111 first unless it’s life-threatening or a severe injury.

Why are the junior doctors striking?

Junior doctors are qualified doctors in clinical training and they make up nearly half of the medical workforce in England.

The British Medical Association says while workload and waiting lists are at record highs, junior doctors’ pay has effectively been cut by more than a quarter since 2008.

A BMA spokesperson said:

“If junior doctors are forced out of the NHS because of poor pay and conditions, the services we all rely on to look after our loved ones will suffer.”

A NHS spokesperson said:

“Our door remains open to constructive conversations, as we have had with other health unions, to find a realistic way forward.”

Harrogate hospital reports improved A&E waiting times

People attending A&E at Harrogate District Hospital are experiencing much shorter waiting times than earlier in the year when some patients were forced to stay at the hospital for 12 hours or more.

The department has been under-pressure throughout the winter due to a higher average number of admissions as well as a fresh wave of covid and flu inpatients that has saw the hospital almost completely full every day.

Harrogate has also been a high number of patients aged over 70 attending A&E compared to nationally.

While attendance figures have returned to near pre-covid levels, many patients have experienced longer-than-usual stays due to the high bed occupancy.

It meant some A&E patients had to stay overnight, which has put further strain on staff who have had to conduct medicine rounds, serve meals, wash patients and conduct ward rounds.

Industrial action by paramedics, nurses and junior doctors has also put pressure on the hospital.

To improve the situation in A&E, the hospital introduced a new streaming model for minor injuries so staff can focus on patients with more serious conditions.

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Speaking at a public board meeting of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust last week, chief executive Russell Nightingale said the changes have worked.

Mr Nightingale said the number of people waiting for 12 hours was down to the single figures in March.

He said:

“It’s come down hugely and we’re aiming for zero by August. It’s been driven by improvements in the streaming model. That’s been the primary driver.

“We’re working through some of those sticky admittance issues plus the industrial action.”

As the hospital moves out of its most challenging winter period, next week’s junior doctors strike means there is likely to be some disruption for patients.

The strike is set to take place from 7am on Tuesday, April 11, until 7am on Saturday, April 15.

Jonathan Coulter, chief executive of HDFT, told the meeting the hospital has a “robust plan” in place to deal with any disruption should the strike goes ahead as planned. 

He said:

“The strike is obviously concerning but I’m confident we’ll have safe services. There’s a cost of people covering the work and planning it and the cost to the patients who have work delayed. Services will be safe and let’s hope theres a solution relatively quickly.”

‘It’s wrong’: New North Yorkshire council criticised for not live streaming all meetings

Councillors have criticised North Yorkshire Council after it confirmed not all meetings will be live streamed online.

North Yorkshire Council replaced the seven district and borough councils, including Harrogate, as well as North Yorkshire County Council on Saturday.

It is the largest council area in England, spanning over 3,000 square miles with most of its meeting taking place at County Hall in Northallerton.

During the covid pandemic, the government passed legislation to allow council business to continue online. Meetings took place on apps such as Microsoft Teams and were live streamed for residents to watch on YouTube.

Since pandemic restrictions were lifted, Harrogate Borough Council continued to live stream all of its meetings whereas North Yorkshire County Council only routinely live streamed executive and full council meetings.

Following a question by a councillor, a senior officer at the new council confirmed in an email that the previous North Yorkshire County Council live streaming arrangement will continue.

North Yorkshire County Council headquarters in Northallerton.

County Hall in Northallerton

This means that at the moment, the only chance residents will get to see what is happening in a host of other meetings, including those concerning public health, education and transport, is if they travel to Northallerton.

However, meetings in Harrogate, such as planning committee, licensing committee and area constituency committee, will be streamed using equipment bought by Harrogate Borough Council.

But they will no longer include developments affecting Ripon, Masham and Pateley Bridge as meetings in Harrogate will cover the Harrogate and Knaresborough parliamentary constituency.

The email concludes by saying the new council is reviewing “what is possible and practicable” regarding live streaming meetings in the future.

Three-hour round trip

In some parts of Craven such as Ingleton or Bentham it’s a three-hour round trip to County Hall.

Andy Brown, Green Party councillor for Aire Valley, said residents should not be expected to travel to Northallerton to “watch democracy in action.” He added:

“Working online can save hours of travelling and make the meeting more efficient. It is crazy that I am travelling for 90 minutes to attend meetings that could be done online.

“It is wrong that meetings which could be steamed into the homes of every interested member of the public are not conducted as openly as possible.”

Andy Solloway, Independent councillor for Skipton West and West Craven said:

“The outgoing Craven District Council have been recording meetings for years, and live streaming them, especially decision making ones, would be a good thing for local democracy and for public participation and engagement.”

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Arnold Warneken, Green Party councillor for Ouseburn, also said he was in favour of the council live streaming all meetings:

“Someone should be able to open their laptop in their house and see what the council is up to. Sometimes it’s like watching paint dry but you can have it on in background. That is transparency and engagement.

“The meetings should all be streamed if we’re serious about carbon and the impact we make ourselves. There’s a lot of support for it.”

What the council says

North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for democratic services, Cllr
David Chance, said:

“We are committed to ensuring that the new North Yorkshire Council has local
communities at its heart, despite serving such a vast area across the county.

“The online streaming of council meetings has been an important way of making sure that access is available as widely as possible to both councillors and members of the public.

“Meetings of full council and the executive will be routinely streamed online, and we will continue to record and broadcast planning and licensing meetings that were previously overseen by district and borough councils.

“We will consider broadcasting or recording other meetings when there is a strong public interest or where there are facilities in place that enable it to be readily done.

“The new council is the third largest in the country, and now oversees services that were previously delivered by eight authorities in North Yorkshire. There are therefore a significant number of meetings each year, which is in the region of 200.

“We are reviewing what is possible and practicable regarding the recording and broadcasting of meetings, taking into account the facilities which are available across the county, the IT and democratic support that is needed as well as investment in IT infrastructure.”

Almost half of 4,000-home Maltkiln scheme removed

Almost half of the land allocated for the 4,000-home Matkiln scheme has been removed after a landowner pulled out, the Local Democracy Reporting Service can reveal.

Two sources familiar with the matter told the LDRS that fields that would have formed the development’s ‘village centre’ around Cattal train station have been removed.

They also estimate that up to 2,000 homes would have been built on the removed land.

Harrogate Borough Council said in January that one of the landowners had pulled out, without saying which parcels of land were affected. Wetherby-based developer Caddick Group called the decision by the landowner “regrettable” but said it was confident the scheme would continue.

Plans for Maltkiln have been in the works for several years and also include two primary schools. The homes would be built off the A59 towards York near the villages of Cattal, Green Hammerton, Kirk Hammerton and Whixley.

Cattal station is on the York to Harrogate railway line.

Map of Maltkiln, including the removed land.

Map of Maltkiln, including the removed land.

Last month a meeting was held involving all of the affected parish councils to discuss the proposals. It was also attended by a representative of Caddick Group plus officers from Harrogate Borough Council.

At the meeting, officers confirmed the location of the large section of land that has now been removed from the scheme.

This means the developer will likely have to rethink its village centre because it was due to be located on the land. The Maltkiln website states:

“A new village centre is proposed for Maltkiln, located next to Cattal station with a range of spaces suitable for retail, leisure, health and hospitality uses.

“These will evolve as the community grows and we will encourage local businesses to take up space in the village centre, as well as participating in farmers’ and seasonal markets held in the central village square.”

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Since the landowner pulled out, Harrogate Borough Council paused work on a development document that was due to be submitted to the government for approval.

The LDRS understands council officers are now looking at whether a scheme can be delivered in the same broad location while still meeting the aims and objectives of the new settlement, which forms part of the council’s Harrogate district Local Plan 2014-35, which outlines where development can take place.

Kirk Hammerton parish councillor Alex Smith said the situation at Maltkiln was a “consequence of choosing the wrong location for a new town.”

Cllr Smith said:

“They’ve had to spend a long time chopping and changing preferred options, trying to fit a distinct new settlement into a very constrained area. It was time they didn’t have, given that a key land agreement – almost half the proposed area has expired.

“Local residents have endured years of uncertainty over this project even when Harrogate Borough Council claimed to be following due process. The last thing we need now is for them to start improvising at the eleventh hour.”

A Caddick Group spokesperson said:

“As promoters of the Maltkiln settlement, Caddick Group continues to have positive and constructive discussions with all parties. We are confident that we can deliver proposals, which not only meet the housing needs of the area, but also deliver the requirements set out in the adopted local plan and meet the policy objectives of the draft Development Plan Document.

“We are currently working closely with our consultant team to update our proposals, taking into account the revised boundaries. We remain committed to developing Maltkiln and look forward to being able to share our revised proposals in more detail.

“We continue to talk constructively with the current and successor local authority planning teams regarding how best to progress and deliver Maltkiln. Throughout this process, we have engaged with stakeholders and local communities, and as soon as we are in a position to publicise revised proposals, we will do so.”

Claim North Yorkshire Council ‘not in people’s faces’ about climate change

A Green Party councillor has said North Yorkshire Council’s plan to curb climate climate change does not go far enough.

In January the council published a draft climate change strategy includes ambitions such as becoming carbon neutral by 2030, increasing walking and cycling as well as planting 37,000 hectares of new woodland by 2038.

Last month, it then launched a survey called Let’s Talk Climate that asked residents a series of questions about the strategy

However, Arnold Warneken, Green Party councillor for Ouseburn division, said the survey has garnered just over 1,000 responses, which he called disappointing.

He blamed the number of responses on a lack of promotion by the council and said it should be offering more, particularly around agriculture which is estimated to contribute one third of the county’s total emissions.

Cllr Warneken said:

“Air quality is often overlooked and as far as agriculture is concerned we’re taking no action. The council owns its own farms and there are things we can be doing. I don’t think we’re offering enough and the survey isn’t getting the responses it warrants.

“They haven’t pushed the survey hard. I like the officers but I don’t think we’re in people’s faces enough with it.”

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Cllr Warneken called on residents to fill in the survey before the deadline.

He added:

“We’ve got another two weeks where people can spend 10 minutes filling in a form that gives a real chance for county to lead the way on biodiversity and climate change and give our children and grandchildren a better quality of life.”

North Yorkshire County Council’s Conservative executive member for managing our environment, Cllr Greg White, said:

“We remain committed to tackling the threat of climate change, and we recognise that this is the biggest challenge that we face both in North Yorkshire and as a country as a whole.

“We have launched a county-wide engagement with the public to seek their views on a draft climate strategy for the new North Yorkshire Council.

“This includes the first ever public engagement specifically targeting young people, seeking the views of people aged 16 to 25 on the draft climate strategy.

“There are a host of ways for everyone to take part in the latest Let’s Talk engagement campaign about climate, including online as well as face-to-face events and support from the 42 libraries across the county.

“The engagement has also been publicised to the media, and details have been sent to staff, councillors and partner organisations to ensure that the widest possible audience is reached.

“The new council has an ambition to become carbon neutral by 2030, and we have also endorsed an ambitious bid for York and North Yorkshire to become the first carbon negative region in the country, meaning more carbon dioxide emissions would be removed from the atmosphere than are emitted.

“Work which has already been undertaken in the county to tackle carbon emissions includes the installation of energy-saving LED street lighting, energy efficient improvements to buildings and trialling the use of electric vehicles.”

You can take part in the survey on the council’s website here.

Harrogate’s youngest councillor says unaffordable housing threatens future of villages

The youngest councillor on Harrogate Borough Council has said the “critical issue” of young people not being able to afford a home where they grew up could lead to a decline in the district’s villages and rural areas.

The Harrogate district is the most unaffordable place to buy a house in North Yorkshire with a recent report saying a resident needs on average nine times their salary to purchase a home.

The problem is particularly felt by younger people who may have low-paid jobs in agriculture or in the district’s many tourist and hospitality venues.

This week, Sam Green, former Conservative councillor for Wathvale, sent a letter to Cllr Simon Myers, North Yorkshire County Council’s Conservative executive member for housing, that called on the new unitary council to take steps to ensure housing is more affordable for young people.

Cllr Green, who is 27, shared the letter with the Local Democracy Reporting Service. 

It said: 

“I know first-hand from my peers that many young people, first-time buyers and those on low incomes simply cannot afford to remain in the rural villages and settlements they have grown up across the Harrogate district — in many instances due to the high cost of housing or lack of suitable supply.

“If our young people are then forced to move out of the district to meet their housing needs in lower value areas, this creates a brain drain and will have knock on effects across the district which can only then lead to further decline.”

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Cllr Green proposed in the letter that the new council adds additional affordable housing policies to the council’s Local Plan that will open up smaller sites for affordable housing developments.

He also said the council should take advantage of a government planning policy called Rural Exception Sites that permits the delivery of affordable housing on the edges of villages.

He said failure to take these steps would be a “dereliction of duty” on the part of councillors.

Cllr Myers responded to Cllr Green and he shared his response with the LDRS.

He said: 

“As you know, I am wholly committed to delivering affordable housing across North Yorkshire and to addressing what is a crisis for many of our residents and for the sustainability of our communities. I hope that the new North Yorkshire Council will be able to achieve more and to build on the successes of the districts and boroughs.

“I think Harrogate Borough Council has achieved great things of late in delivering housing but I agree that we must not lose sight of our rural areas, not least the national parks. Rural Exception Sites are not necessarily easy, but there is a real commitment in the new council to bring them forward where possible.

“As you know I am always happy to have input on this and look forward to more discussions with you in the future.”

Cllr Green stepped down as a councillor yesterday due to the abolition of Harrogate Borough Council.

In his letter, Cllr Myers added: 

“I would like to thank you for your contribution to public life as a borough councillor and for your dedication to addressing the issues which affect our residents.”