Thomas Barrett, Author at The Stray Ferret

Housing plans set for ‘eyesore’ Dunlopillo office block in Pannal

Fresh plans look set to be submitted to convert the former Dunlopillo office block in Pannal into housing.

Hornbeam Park Developments Ltd bought the derelict building at the end of March and said it hopes to submit new planning permission proposals later this year. These will include residential apartments as well as industrial units to the rear of the building.

The block was built in 1961 but has been deteriorating for several years. Dunlopillo closed in 2008 but residents had long complained about the unpleasant smell emanating from the factory.

Much of the site has already been demolished and replaced with housing as well as the Vida Grange care home.

A spokesperson for Hornbeam Park said in a statement:

“Our intention is to continue with the proposed conversion of the former office building to residential (apartments) with industrial units proposed to the remainder.

“We expect to be in a position to submit a planning application in respect of the land adjacent Vida Grange this summer.”

From 1938 to 1949 the site was occupied by the Bintex factory, which manufactured radar equipment for use during the Second World War.

It was bought by rubber manufacturer Dunlop, which changed its name to Dunlopillo and made the site its headquarters.

It is estimated around 440 people worked there in its 1970s and 80s heyday producing pillows, mattresses, beds and latex cushioning for cars.

The Dunlopillo building does not have a good legacy in Pannal. Photo: Anne Smith

Pannal historian Anne Smith, who has written several books on the village, said she welcomed plans to redevelop the office block.

She said:

“It’s an eyesore, but we’d rather it was demolished.

“Dunlopillo’s legacy in Pannal is not a good one. People will be glad to see the back of it. The smells from the factory were terrible.”

Sharow church sets the public a biodiversity challenge

St John’s Church in the village of Sharow near Ripon is asking members of the public to help it record how many different species are on its grounds in its latest push for biodiversity.

The churchyard is home to many vulnerable species and is a recognised Site of Interest for Nature Conservation, due to its high-quality hay meadow.

This type of meadow was once common pasture land, but since the 1960s it has become far rarer, with fewer than 6,000 hectares remaining in England.

On Wednesday June 9, volunteers will count the number of species that call the churchyard home. Wildlife experts will be on hand to show members of the public how to count species, and to answer their questions.

The church works in partnership with the Lower Ure Conservation Trust, which manages Nosterfield Nature Reserve, north of Ripon.

The star-shaped flowers of meadow saxifrage can be seen in the churchyard (Photo: AnemoneProjectors)

A spokesperson for the trust said:

“Amongst the many species of wildflower in the churchyard grows the delicate, star-shaped meadow saxifrage.

“Once a common sight in hay meadows, it has been decreasing in abundance and range for decades due to the agricultural improvement of grasslands.

“Sites like St John’s play a very important role in the conservation of this species and many others.”

On Saturday June 5, the site will also host a family open day to celebrate its wildlife.

This will include den building and a wildlife trail, as well as opportunities to further add to the biodiversity of the area by creating a pond. There will be a wildlife walk at 3.30pm.

Both days will begin with a count of moths at 9.30am and refreshments will be served.

For further details please contact revdruthnewton@gmail.com

Image Gallery: Demolition of historic Killinghall pub

Work has begun to demolish the historic Three Horseshoes pub in Killinghall.

The pub has stood on the site for 150 years but closed in September and will make way for a new Tesco Express supermarket and four flats.

When plans were first submitted in 2019, a petition was launched by residents to try to save the building.

It was signed by 124 people who agreed that to lose the pub would be a “travesty”. The petition read:

“The Three Horseshoes is the hub of our community and plays an important part of bringing people together.”

However, there were also many people who submitted comments to the council in favour of the redevelopment.

One person wrote:

“We have been without a grocery or convenience shop for many years which has been to the detriment of the community.”

Anna, who runs the Killinghall Village Community Facebook page, shared photos of the demolition with us.

Former Harrogate Town footballer launches counselling service for young athletes

Former Harrogate Town footballer Brendan Kiernan is launching a counselling and mentoring service for young footballers and athletes.

On his days off from being a professional footballer, the popular winger has been taking counselling courses with the Professional Footballers’ Association, which have equipped him for a different career in the game.

He will launch his service with a special BK Soccer School day on June 4 at Killinghall Country Park that will combine football coaching, fun games and specialist mentoring.

Boys and girls aged nine to 16 are welcome and it costs £25 to sign up. All coaches are fully qualified and DBS checked and Brendan has worked with Starbeck-based mental health charity Wellspring to help set it up.

There will also be an ex-pros vs pros five-a-side match that promises to include some familiar faces.

Brendan told the Stray Ferret he wants to create a safe space for young people where they can learn football skills on the pitch while building emotional intelligence and learning life skills.

“I want to give tools and tips to help young people be the best version of themselves.”

BK Soccer School will launch on June 4

He said mental health is one of his passions and he wants to help young people deal with what can be a tough industry.

England stars such as Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling have spoken out about mental health in football and Brendan said he is pleased that more people are now talking about it.

He added:

“It’s a very fast-paced game but it’s important to slow down and deal with the pressures.”

Fan favourite Brendan, who is 28, was released by Harrogate Town last week after two years at the club, where he played 62 times. He scored a memorable hat-trick against Cambridge United in April.

Before playing for Harrogate, the Londoner had only ever played in the south of England. He said he is now settled in the area and hopes to sign for a new club for next season soon.

He added:

“I had an amazing time at the club. I had a taste for it living up here. It’s a different way of life.”

If you are interested in learning more, contact: Bksoccerschool@gmail.com

Ill feeling lingers after decision to scrap Oatlands cycling scheme

Both sides of the cycling debate have criticised North Yorkshire County Council after it scrapped a controversial active travel scheme for the Oatlands Drive area of Harrogate.

The council received more than £1m from government to improve walking and cycling infrastructure.

It put forward four schemes in North Yorkshire, three of which were in Harrogate and one in Whitby.

But last week it dropped the Oatlands Drive proposals after fierce opposition from residents.

It initially proposed making the whole of Oatlands Drive one-way then revised this to make nearby St Winifred’s Road and St Hilda’s Road one-way.

Both schemes were abandoned, meaning the money will be spent on projects for Victoria Avenue in Harrogate and the A59 in Knaresborough, plus the one in Whitby.

Kevin Douglas, from Harrogate District Cycle Action, said he was disappointed with the way the council handled the Oatlands scheme.

He said:

“The Oatlands Drive one-way idea was dropped by the executive member, Don Mackenzie, at a very early stage.

“Hopefully future plans for the area will involve all agencies.

“On the initial plan, they didn’t even involve St Aidan’s School.

“As soon as there was some opposition they dropped the scheme. That’s disappointing. Hopefully, they learned their lessons and involve more people.”

Mr Douglas said the council had to accept active travel schemes inconvenienced some people and be stronger in the face of opposition if it was serious about improving walking and cycling infrastructure.

He asked:

“Is there a real commitment to dealing with any of this?”

Anna McIntee, who lives on Oatlands Drive, campaigned vigorously against the proposals.

She launched petitions and posted on the Facebook group and website she co-founded, Harrogate Residents Association.

She said “everyone was up in arms” about the plans, which forced her to act.

“I couldn’t let go, it opened Pandora’s box”

“Number one for North Yorkshire County Council should have been to engage with residents.

“We want cycling and walking infrastructure but not at the expense of vehicles.”

The council has said the Oatlands consultation responses will feed into an Oatlands constituency feasibility study that will “reassess opportunities” for infrastructure improvements across the area.

But Ms McIntee warned the council could expect more strong opposition if it put forward similar proposals for Oatlands Drive.

“Yes, 100%. They would be wasting their time.”

West Park car park to host Harrogate covid testing

Harrogate’s permanent coronavirus testing centre off Dragon Road will close this weekend and be replaced by a mobile unit in West Park car park.

In a sign that the emergency response to the pandemic is being scaled back, the permanent site in the Dragon Road car park near Asda will close on Sunday

The mobile units at the West Park car park will open several days a week although precise details are not yet known.

Speaking at a briefing on Wednesday, Matthew Robinson, head of resilience and emergencies at North Yorkshire County Council, said the move to mobile units was being done so tests could target hotspot areas.

He said:

“The advantages of mobile testing sites is that we can flex and strengthen as we go. We will make sure that if covid cases are increasing in a particular area we will continue to provide more frequent testing in that location.”

It was announced in March that the Dragon Road site would close due to the car park being needed by Harrogate Convention Centre, but health officials have now decided a permanent replacement site will not be needed.

The Coronavirus testing site on Dragon Road, Harrogate.

The site on Dragon Road.

Officials are instead urging residents to use the mobile sites, online ordering and local pharmacies where testing has become more widely available.

The closure of the site follows an announcement that the vaccination centres at the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate and Ripon racecourse will also close in August – with local pharmacy sites set to play a larger part in the rollout.

Dr Ian Dilley, GP partner at East Parade Surgery in Harrogate and clinical director of the Mowbray Square Primary Care Network, said in a statement on Tuesday:

“With the huge number of people now vaccinated in the local area, we feel August is an appropriate end date.

“We need to be mindful of the other pressures that will be placed on doctors’ surgeries as we head towards autumn and winter, and the annual flu vaccine campaigns that GP practices need to provide.

“We also need to enable our kind hosts at the Yorkshire Events Centre and Ripon racecourse to provide their own events as restrictions continue to be eased and more public events are permitted.”

There are two types of coronavirus tests: rapid tests, known as lateral flow tests, and PCR tests, which are sent to labs for analysis.

Mr Robinson said anyone with symptoms should get a PCR test – and not a lateral flow test – because they are more accurate and can also better detect variants of concern.

He said:

“Now that lateral flows are more readily available it is easy to think you can just do one, especially if you have got them laying around your house, but the national testing policy is very clear and it is a PCR test that is needed for anyone with symptoms.

“The PCRs miss fewer positive cases and they can help us identify strains of variants as well which is really important at the moment.”

For more information on testing go to www.northyorks.gov.uk/book-coronavirus-covid-19-test-if-youve-got-symptoms

Knaresborough residents call for HGV ban in narrow streets

Residents in Knaresborough have launched a campaign to stop HGVs from using a nearby industrial estate.

They say the vehicles are making their lives a misery and causing damage to nearby cars.

Hambleton Grove Industrial Estate is used by several businesses — but to enter the site the 50ft vehicles have to navigate the narrow residential street, Hambleton Grove.

Joe Farrar, who lives on Hambleton Grove, said the situation had worsened and he feared for the safety of passing children from nearby St John’s C of E Primary School.

He said:

“These heavy trucks have over the years caused an increasing amount of damage to vehicles. In one recent incident just on school time, two cars lost their wing mirrors within seconds of each other while parked within the permitted parking spaces on Hambleton Grove.

“What if the slight blow these vehicles received had been a child? We all fear it could happen.”

The site has expanded in recent years so when an application to expand the industrial estate to include the Myers builders’ merchants in 2016, North Yorkshire County Council highways recommended refusal due to the likely impact on nearby roads.

It said:

“The planning authority considers that the roads leading to the site are by reason of their poor junctions, insufficient widths considered unsuitable for the traffic which would be likely to be generated by this proposal.”

Despite the objection, the plans were passed by Harrogate Borough Council in January 2017.

Damage to this car was allegedly caused by an HGV.

Another resident, Stephen Mckenzie, said he would like HGVs to be entirely banned from the area.

He said:

“As a neighbourhood we are really disturbed. Two of us went door-to-door at the weekend and there is near universal support in the neighbourhood for our request that HGVs are not allowed on our street.”

The residents have launched a petition to try and stop the HGVs which they will present to Harrogate Borough Council, North Yorkshire County Council and Harrogate and Knaresborough’s Conservative MP Andrew Jones.

A Harrogate Borough Council spokesman said:

“We are aware of concerns local residents have regarding HGV movements in this area of Knaresborough.

“We are currently taking action to ensure all turning facilities associated with business premises are available for use to ensure that unsafe manoeuvres do not take place.

“Any decision to ban certain vehicles from using roads in this location would rest with the county council as the highways authority.”

North Yorkshire County Council’s highways area manager Melisa Burnham said:

“As the local highway authority, we are aware of the issues relating to HGV movements in this area and have discussed these with local residents.

“Discussions are ongoing with the business and Harrogate Borough Council as planning authority to alleviate the problem and ensure all highway-related conditions attached to the granted planning permission are adhered to appropriately.”

The Stray Ferret contacted Myers builders merchants but it did not respond by the time of publication.

Harrogate strip club drops legal challenge as new licence agreed

A legal challenge between Harrogate’s only strip club and the council has been dropped after the owners warned a ban on dancers drinking alcohol would “simply finish the business”.

The Kings Club, on Oxford Street, had its sexual entertainment licence renewed by Harrogate Borough Council’s sub-licensing committee in September.

But conditions that dancers do not drink alcohol and must be paid by bank transfer led to the owners lodging an appeal with York Magistrates Court.

An appeal hearing was due to take place on Friday next week but will not go ahead after committee members agreed to new licensing rules at a meeting today.

Speaking at the meeting, Paul Kinsey, the owner of Kings Club, told councillors that he and dancers themselves ensured they do not drink excessively “because drunk girls don’t earn money”.

He said:

“The dancers are all there to earn money and they themselves realise that actually they are not there to drink.

“They are very self aware they don’t want to be drunk because drunk girls don’t earn money.”

Mr Kinsey also gave reassurances that dancers are escorted to a safe mode of transport at the end of their shifts, as his legal representative Paddy Whur argued an alcohol ban would “simply finish the business” due to dancers not wanting to work.

Mr Whur said:

“We do want dancers to have the opportunity to have a drink with the customers. That is something that has always happened here. It happens in every venue nationally of this type.

“Quite often customers will go into the premises and they don’t even want to be dancing. They will buy a drink for a dancer and sit and talk to them.

“You wouldn’t get dancers coming to work here if they weren’t allowed to socialise.”

Mr Whur also said the venue “wouldn’t get the quality of girls that we want” if payments to dancers had to be made through bank transfer.

He added:

“A lot of dancers will not work here if they have to be paid in BACS – they want the money when they finish their shift and that is for a variety of reasons.

“We do keep a very clear audit trail of who has paid what and when. Everything is done properly.”

In September, councillors raised concerns over the safety of dancers after they heard how council officers inspected the venue in 2019 and found some panic alarms in dancing booths were not working correctly, although they were repaired the same day.

Councillors were also told the venue had been in “cahoots” with two former dancers over payments, although this was dismissed by legal representatives at the time.

It was agreed by councillors today that the venue’s new sexual entertainment licence would be renewed with the ban on dancers drinking alcohol and need for them to be paid by bank transfer removed.

The new conditions will be added to existing licensing rules, which include no physical contact between dancers and customers, no photography, no throwing of money and no use of sex toys.

The sexual entertainment licence covers topless pole dancing, topless stage striptease and full nudity lap dancing, and is separate to the venue’s alcohol and premises licence.

Marriage proposal mystery solved: She said yes!

The mystery surrounding an aircraft flying over Harrogate trailing the message “Chloe will you marry me? Luke” has had a happy ending.

Luke Stocking contacted the Stray Ferret after reading our story to let us know that it was he who proposed and his girlfriend Chloe had accepted. He wrote to us in an email:

“Luke here! We loved this article, you’ll be pleased to hear she said yes.”

He also sent some photos taken when he popped the question at Castle Howard near York.

Luke arranged a romantic picnic to watch the flyover with Chloe.

The message brightened an overcast day in the district, generating lots of warm comments on social media — as well as generating intrigue about the identity of Chloe and whether she said yes.

The couple live in the south of England.

Harrogate council’s judicial review bill amounted to £74,000

Harrogate Borough Council has revealed it paid Flaxby Park £17,000 in legal costs after last year’s judicial review between the two parties.

The sum is in addition to the £57,360 the council spent on its own legal fees to contest the case.

It means the council’s full legal bill for the long-running saga amounted to £74,360.

The developer brought the judicial review after the council opted for a site at Green Hammerton over Flaxby as the location for a new 3,000-home settlement in the district. It claimed the process was flawed.

At October’s High Court hearing, Mr Justice Holgate ruled in the council’s favour by saying it did not have to make the decision again.

But he ordered the council to pay 15% of Flaxby’s legal costs because it failed to adequately consider an environmental assessment of alternative locations for the settlement.

The council initially refused to say how much it had spent on legal fees.

The Stray Ferret sent a request under the Freedom of Information Act for the information but the council said it was exempt from disclosure because its lawyers’ legal fees should remain private.

We requested an internal review of this decision. Joanne Barclay, acting chief solicitor for corporate services, overturned the council’s decision and revealed the fee paid.

Today’s revelation of the sum paid to Flaxby means the full legal cost of the review is finally known.

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