Harrogate Cat Rescue’s urgent appeal to save Pedro the kitten

Harrogate Cat Rescue has issued an urgent appeal for donations following an unprecedented influx of kittens.

Celia Dakin set up the centre in 2020 to rescue and rehome cats and kittens but said this summer in particular has been “relentless” with kittens coming in from all over Yorkshire, as the cost of living crisis bites. She said:

“I’ve never seen anything like it. We are overrun with kittens.”

The centre, near to Asda supermarket in Harrogate, has around 70 kittens at the moment but many are sick and in desperate need of medical attention. Ms Dakin’s vet bill for last week alone came to £2,300.

One of the kittens in need of help is Pedro, who was rescued this year after suffering abuse. He suffers from a disease called FIP (feline infective peritonitis), which affects his eyes and will kill him without treatment. However, it costs £5,000.

Ms Dakin said:

“He’s had such a rough life. I have to save him. It would lift my heart.”

A crowdfunder has been set up to raise money to pay for Pedro’s vet bills, and is almost halfway to reaching its target. If you would like to donate visit here.

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With pet food prices rising, the cost of living crisis is being felt acutely by many cat owners.

Ms Dakin has even taken calls from people saying they can no longer afford to feed their pets and want to give them up for adoption.

But she is determined to do her best for the cats and praised the Harrogate community for their kindness in supporting her organisation. She added:

“My phone rings incessantly but I can’t not answer. It’s who I am.”

The cat rescue, which is currently applying for charitable status, is also in need of cat food and cat litter. If you would to donate, or are interested in becoming a cat foster, visit its website.

Water returns to some properties in Ripon

Water has returned to some homes in Ripon following a burst pipe on North Road this morning.

Many properties in the city have had no water or low water pressure all morning.

Some companies in Ripon were forced to close, including the coffee shop at Larkhill Nurseries and the Water Rat pub. The latter has now reopened.

The problem has also affected people in nearby villages Sharow and Littlethorpe, as well as further afield in Thirsk.

Residents on Lead Lane in Ripon told the Stray Ferret at about midday that water had come back on, as have residents living in Deep Ghyll Croft and Saint Marygate. However, one person living in Sharow says water is still off as of midday.

Yorkshire Water has been slow to tell the public when normal water supply will resume.

North Road will soon be closed to traffic whilst repairs take place.

A spokesperson issued the following statement.

“Our teams are dealing with a burst 12-inch water main on North Road, Ripon. We are currently working to rezone our network and return water supply to those affected.

“To allow our teams to complete the repair safely, traffic management will be required. We’re working closely with North Yorkshire County Council highways teams to minimise disruption.”

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£70,000 energy bill increase forces Harrogate district farm shop to close

Ainsty Farm Shop is to close next month after its owners were told their annual energy bill was set to jump from £20,000 to £90,000 a year.

Farmers Lily and Stuart Beaton have run the popular store for 22 years and have been in their current premises off the A59 near Kirk Hammerton since 2005. The shop sells meat from their farm as well as other produce grown locally.

The couple’s annual energy bill is due to renew next month and they received a new quote last week that was so shocking they didn’t think it was real.

Ms Beaton said:

“I said they’ve sent the wrong quote, this can’t be right. Are you sure they sent the right quote?”

Massive price hike

They contacted an energy broker, who managed to get the quote down to £76,000, but it was still far more than they are able to afford.

It led to the heartbreaking decision to close the farm shop, which has turned their lives “upside down”.

Ms Beaton added:

“We just don’t have that extra £50,000, it’s not the type of money that sits spare.

“If we were to try and put an increase on prices and charge customers more, that wouldn’t be fair, it would exclude a lot of customers. We’d just price ourselves out of the market.”

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The cost of living crisis is now being felt by just about everyone, with wholesale energy prices soaring due to the war in Ukraine as well as high demand post-covid.

But for owners of small businesses like Ainsty Farm Shop, it can sting seeing oil companies like Shell and BP post record profits whilst they are forced to close their doors.

Ms Beaton said:

“It’s just phenomenal the record profits they are announcing for these businesses, yet everybody else underneath them is going out of business because they can’t sustain the rises. That’s where the problem lies, that’s what needs sorting out.”

‘Tip of the iceberg’

She believes the closure of their business is the “tip of the iceberg” and fears for how the food and retail landscape could eventually look.

The couple hope their plight acts as a warning to show that small businesses need more help if they are going to weather the current crisis and come out the other side. Ms Beaton said:

“It will be a very sad day when there are only supermarkets and no independents. It’s what will happen unless something is done now, but it’s been too late for our shop”.

Since announcing their closure over the weekend they have been heartened by the messages of support and goodwill from customers.

After September, they will continue to sell meat and produce from their farm via their online shop.

“Some of the customers came through the doors when we opened our first shop. They are very loyal, lovely customers. It’s heartbreaking to think these people you see weekly you won’t see them again.

“Its been a long time, our kids have been born since we’ve had the shop, they’ve worked here too during school holidays. It’s just all going to end which feels very strange.”

To sign up to the Ainsty Farm Shop mailing list for updates on how to still buy meat from them after they close, email sales@ainstyfarmshop.co.uk or call 01423 331897

Northern’s new timetable includes early Harrogate to Leeds trains

Rail operator Northern has published a new timetable that confirms the 6.07am and 6.33am services from Harrogate to Leeds will return from December.

Northern controversially axed the services earlier this year, blaming a lack of resources and the need to recruit and train more drivers.

It provoked a backlash from business travellers who relied on the services to get to London before 9am.

The operator had always promised that the services would return in December, which has now been confirmed with publication of the timetable.

Brian Dunsby, of the Harrogate Line Supporters Group, welcomed the announcement. He said:

He said:

“It is very encouraging that Northern has kept their promise to reinstate all the lost services that were cut out in May 2022, although they have not been able to bring any forward to September 2022 due to the ongoing industrial action.”

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No trains will run through Harrogate and Knaresborough tomorrow or Saturday due to a day of national strike action.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport workers’ union and Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association are striking over pay and conditions.

Last month, members of the RMT union organised a picket line outside Harrogate train station as part of the ongoing dispute.

Calls to tackle construction vehicles who cause ‘misery’ in Harrogate

A councillor says more should be done to tackle construction vehicles that are making people’s lives a ‘misery’ in residential areas.

There has been an unprecedented levels of housebuilding in the Harrogate district in recent years, which has resulted in an increasing number of trucks, lorries and other construction traffic going to-and-from sites.

At a Harrogate Borough Council meeting last night, Conservative councillor for Old Bilton, Paul Haslam, queried what more the council could do to support residents dealing with disruption.

When a development receives planning permission, conditions are attached that stipulate how housebuilders will minimise the impact of issues such as noise and dust.

But Cllr Haslam said he and other councillors had received complaints from residents that the council’s planning enforcement team was not ensuring that conditions were being upheld.

Cllr Haslam said:

“I’m very concerned at the moment about some building work that’s going on in Harrogate, where it’s close to existing properties. [The housebuilders] have been given permission to build, not to make their lives a misery.

“How can we help officers enforce conditions to ensure that development is conducted in a safe and healthy way?”

He added:

“I have potential building on the edge of my area at the moment. The people who live next to it will have 10 years of disruption.”

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In response, Conservative councillor for Killinghall and Hampsthwaite, Michael Harrison, suggested council officers should meet with the directors of housing companies so they can better understand “how much work they need to do” to support people who live next to building sites.

Conservative councillor for the Washburn ward, Victoria Oldham asked Cllr Haslam if he thought HBC’s planning enforcement team was acting on complaints from residents “in a timeous manner”.

Cllr Haslam said he was concerned that enforcement officers “don’t have enough support”. He said:

“Quite clearly, guidelines are being flaunted by the developers. We need to make sure we are seen to protect our residents.”

Starbeck groups call truce and promise to work ‘positively together’

Two rival community groups in Starbeck have called a truce and are promising to work together.

Starbeck Residents Association, chaired by Chris Watt, was formed in the 1990s and awards grants and campaigns to safeguard local facilities in Starbeck.

Starbeck Community Group was launched by Starbeck Post Office owner Andrew Hart in 2020 and has been involved in several local campaigns including painting a giant Ukraine flag on the former McColl’s supermarket building.

But the group’s two leaders have history — there was public acrimony when Mr Watt was appointed chair last year at the residents association’s annual general meeting.

In May this year, Mr Hart then said it was “an insult to the community” that Labour Party member Mr Watt was standing for a political party in local elections and called on him to step down from his role as chair.

There have also been unpleasant comments on social media.

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Mr Watt, alongside SRA secretary Geoff Foxhall, met Mr Hart and SCG member Lucky Hubbard over the weekend and they agreed to put their differences aside and work together.

Mr Watt and Mr Hart issued a joint statement that said “public attacks and criticism of other local groups only create division and foster a negative impression of Starbeck”.

The statement said:

“Starbeck is a wonderful area, where we are proud to live and work. The Starbeck Residents’ Association and Starbeck Community Group have been working hard, in our respective ways, to support the area. We complement the many other groups and organisations who put so much into Starbeck and we are proud to support them as well.

“For the good of our area, it is important that we work together. Public attacks and criticism of other local groups only create division and foster a negative impression of Starbeck among people who live here and are considering moving to or investing in our area. It also discourages people from contributing their time and energy into local groups and organisations.

“For the good of Starbeck, we are promising to work constructively and positively together.”

Harrogate district now officially in drought

The Environment Agency declared drought status in Yorkshire today due to low water levels.

This year’s prolonged spell of dry weather has led to exceptionally low river flows and reservoirs levels in the county.

Last week’s heatwave has added further pressure on the water network.

Moving to drought status means that the Environment Agency and Yorkshire Water can implement stricter controls on water use.

Yorkshire Water has already announced a hosepipe ban that will come into effect from August 26.

The last drought in Yorkshire was declared in autumn 2018.

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The region joins large parts of England which moved to drought status on August 12.

Victoria Slingsby, environment planning and engagement manager for the Environment Agency in Yorkshire, said:

“The high temperatures we are experiencing have exacerbated pressures on wildlife and our water environment in Yorkshire. These extreme weather conditions become more likely with climate change.

“We are experiencing some much-needed rain this week, but it will not be enough to correct weeks of dry weather, and it will take more prolonged rainfall to wet up soils and replenish rivers, reservoirs and groundwater levels.

“It’s important for everyone to manage the amount of water they are using in this exceptionally dry period.”

‘Let’s make the best of it’: Hopes and fears for 3000-home Maltkiln settlement

Heated public meetings, protests outside council offices and legal challenges in the high court couldn’t stop Harrogate Borough Council from deciding that 3,000 homes should be built around the villages of Cattal, Green Hammerton and Kirk Hammerton.

The decision was mired with suspicion and ill feeling but now residents are trying to look ahead to how the project can work for them and the people who will eventually live there.

The cold-sounding “new settlement” has been given the more homely title of Maltkiln and a draft document has been published that outlines how the the 3,000 homes along with roads, schools, shops and public spaces will develop over the next few decades.

‘Inevitable’

Since 2016 the name Green Hammerton became synonymous with the new settlement, usually in debates that pitted the merits of developing land there versus Flaxby, which is closer to Harrogate and Knaresborough.

The council’s preferred option for the settlement is now centred around Cattal railway station, on the other side of A59 from Green Hammerton.

Chris Hay and James Veitch are shareholders of Green Hammerton’s Post Office, which also serves as a shop, newsagent and soon-to-be cafe.

The two have a grudging acceptance that the homes will be built but are concerned that Maltkiln will erode the village’s identity, which stretches back to Domesday times.

Green Hammerton

They have already seen Green Hammerton, population 675, swell with three new build housing schemes in recent years.

Mr Veitch said:

“The word inevitable comes to mind but you have to be grown up and make the best of it”.

Not a village

A development plan document (DPD) drawn up by Harrogate Borough Council includes a vision for what Maltkiln will eventually become, which is a “garden village with a distinctive identity where people want to live, work and spend time”.

It conjures up a pastoral scene but with an eventual population larger than Boroughbridge, calling Maltkiln a village is misleading to some.

Mr Veitch said:

“They call it a village don’t they? How on earth can you call a 3,000 development a village? It’s a town, not an insignificant one at that. It will be big enough to create traffic jams on the A59”.

3,000 new homes is likely to result in at least 6,000 cars. Mr Veitch fears that much more investment in Cattal Station is required if commuters are going to leave their cars at home.

Cattal Station

He added:

“There will be a lot of commuting, that’s the bottom line. The A59 will be busy and the railway will not increase its capacity much more than what it is. I don’t buy the argument that it’s a hub where you can transport 10,000 people to anywhere.

“People will still use their cars, anyone who suggests otherwise is naive.”

Fresh blood

Keith Welton and his wife Val have lived in Cattal for 16 years, close to the railway station that the developer Oakgate Group hopes will be one of the unique selling points of Maltkiln.

With homes set to be built in green fields that currently surround the family home, Mr Welton might be forgiven for feeling negative or even bitter about the development.

However, he’s taking a pragmatic approach and sees several benefits that it could bring to the area and the people who live in the villages.

Serious infrastructure investment is promised in the DPD, including improvements to the dangerous Whixley crossing on the A59. Cattal Station already saw £10m of investment in 2020 to increase the number of trains to Harrogate and York.

Kirk Hammerton will also be impacted by Maltkiln

Mr Welton has seen his children and their friends priced out from living locally and he hopes affordable housing can inject some younger blood into the area.

He also hopes the new North Yorkshire Council will be firm with the developers and ensure that affordable housing genuinely is affordable.

Mr Welton said:

“There’s an acute need for affordable housing. Many of our young people come out of university and want to go to Leeds, Manchester or London. They settle down, and they want to come back. We need to capitalise on that talent and make housing available for them.”

“I’m 74 and you can’t have a village full of 74 year olds!”

‘Make the best fist of it’

A criticism of HBC for choosing Green Hammerton over Flaxby was a perception that its residents will be heading in one direction towards York for work and leisure.

But Mr Welton said the majority of his family’s trips are to Harrogate to visit restaurants or the theatre.

He believes Flaxby is “one of the most desirable commercial sites in the whole of North Yorkshire” and that homes built next to a noisy motorway would have made it a poor choice for housing.

He added:

“I do think the location for Maltkiln makes sense. It’s now up to people to make the best fist of it. It’s easy to be negative. We should turn those energies around to get the sort of development that will be an exemplar and people think, wow”.

Climate emergency

The DPD for Maltkiln is 88 pages long and the words ‘climate change’ are mentioned on 36 of them.

It’s clear that HBC hopes the settlement will differ from every other large housing scheme in the district it has approved in recent years that have done little to tackle the climate emergency or help the council reach its emission reduction goals.

The government is set to ban gas boilers in new build homes from 2025. It means the homes in Maltkiln should be powered by renewable energy sources such as heat pumps or solar panels.

The document also claims the development will offer a “biodiversity net gain”, which is a planning phrase that means it will leave the environment in a better state than it was before the homes were built.

But when Maltkiln will involve concreting over vast swathes of green fields, it’s an ambition that could appear impossible.

Land in Cattal earmarked for development

Arnold Warneken, Green Party councillor for Ouseburn on North Yorkshire County Council, said he hopes the developer can be influenced to ensure go further than government regulations around the environment.

He said:

“It’s really, really important we don’t get into lip service and tokenism around biodiversity but it’s going to happen so let’s make sure it happens for best of our community, not just stand back and say I don’t agree with it.”

He added:

“The solution is not to concrete over it, but then the scenario is where do you build the houses? Some people say brownfield but people underestimate the biodiversity of brownfield sites, nature gets everywhere”.

Council’s legacy

Harrogate Borough Council will cease to exist in less than a year’s time but arguably the biggest decision it made during its existence was deciding to change the face of Green Hammerton, Kirk Hammerton and Cattal forever with the new settlement.

How successful Maltkiln will turn out could be HBC’s ultimate legacy.

Popular pub landlords say farewell to Christies

It’s the end of an era for pub landlords Marik Scatchard and Jo Jarvis who have left Christies Bar in Harrogate after over 14 years.

The couple had a leaving party this week to toast the end of their time at the pub, which is opposite Harrogate Convention Centre on Kings Road.

The watering hole has now closed for a refurbishment that is expected to take around six weeks.

The couple said:

“Thanks to all the customers over the years.”

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Transport chiefs urged not to lose focus on improving Harrogate bus services

Transport chiefs have been urged not to lose focus on improving buses in Harrogate after warnings that services are facing a “potential cliff-edge” due to more funding cuts.

North Yorkshire County Council’s bid for £116 million from the high-profile Bus Back Better scheme was rejected in April when the government claimed the plans to upgrade buses and infrastructure across the county lacked “sufficient ambition”.

And now there are warnings that bus services could be at risk of being axed when other government funding comes to an end in October.

Conservative councillor Keane Duncan, executive member for transport at the county council, said in a report that services are already facing “significant pressures” ahead of the cuts which “presents a potential cliff-edge in terms of the future profitability of routes our residents rely upon”.

He added a review was underway to identify the risks and “keep as many of our vital services running as possible”.

At a full council meeting on Wednesday, Liberal Democrat councillor Chris Aldred said the loss of services was all too familiar following years of austerity cutbacks.

He said:

“We have got this deregulated system where as soon as a service isn’t making a profit in the eyes of the provider, it gets lost.

“In our urban communities of Harrogate and Knaresborough, we have suffered from this in recent years.”

Councillor Aldred – who represents High Harrogate and Kingsley – also made a political dig at the Bus Back Better scheme as he urged the council to keep pushing for improvements, particularly in urban areas.

He said:

“I would be worried – appalled even – if I was presenting a scheme for funding from a Conservative government to a Conservative council and the comeback was that the plan was unambitious.

“However, we are where we are and I note that we are assessing the support the council can provide at the moment.

“I would just plead that as well as looking at rural buses – which we all agree are a problem to provide regular and reliable services – we don’t forget urban services as well.”

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The council’s Bus Back Better bid included £23 million for new bus lanes, £74 million for other infrastructure changes and £14 million for support for services.

However, North Yorkshire was one of many areas across the country which did not receive any funding.

In total, just 34 of 79 areas which applied were successful.

The council previously said some of its plans could still go ahead without government support, including an expansion of its on-demand bus service, YorBus, which is being trialled in Ripon, Bedale and Masham.

The possibility of a Harrogate park and ride scheme is also still being assessed, although progress has been slow and questions remain about how this would be funded.

Meanwhile, there has been success in a separate council bid for £7.8 million to make Harrogate Bus Company’s fleet all-electric with the delivery of 39 zero-emission buses

The project will cost almost £20 million in total, with more than £12 million being invested by the company’s parent firm Transdev.

At Wednesday’s meeting, councillor Duncan repeated disappointment over the Bus Back Better bid, but added the council would not be deterred from applying for future funding.

He said:

“Unfortunately our bid wasn’t successful and we didn’t receive the funding.

“That was an immense disappointment to the team that worked on the bid and we are trying to ascertain from government how we can ensure bids in the future are successful.”

Councillor Duncan also said he was keen to see the YorBus scheme rolled out across other parts of North Yorkshire following the trial.

He said:

“The feedback we have received has been very popular… but we do need more time to consider how we can roll out what I believe is an innovative scheme across other parts of the county.”