Stump Cross Caverns reaches £50,000 goal

Stump Cross Caverns has reached its crowdfunding target of £50,000 — and the popular limestone cave system will reopen in May.

Owner Lisa Bowerman launched the campaign last month by raffling off her prized camper van to raise vital funds. 

Lisa told the Stray Ferret launching the crowdfunder had been “the most nerve-racking thing I’ve ever done”. But the response has shown how much the ancient caves, at Greenhow Hill, are loved.

With 15 days to go, the fundraising appeal target has been extended to £60,000.

A draw for the winner of the camper van will take place on March 31 and the caverns will reopen on May 17.

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 Lisa said:

“It’s difficult to express just how much we value the staggering reaction we’ve received from the public during our fight to save the caves from closure.

“An unsuccessful application for a government grant from the Cultural Recovery Fund was a massive blow and left us with no other choice but to reach out to the public for support.

“Thanks to their unbelievable generosity we no longer have to worry about what the future has in store. Our small, family-run business will remain open and continue to educate and wow those who experience the splendour of the ancient cave system here at Stump Cross.”

 

Star striker Muldoon hoping to end career at Harrogate Town

Harrogate Town’s free-scoring striker Jack Muldoon says he doesn’t want the club’s good times to end and hopes to finish his career at Wetherby Road.

The 31-year-old signed for Town in 2018 and has been the top scorer during each of the last three seasons which has seen them ascend to the English Football League for the first time in their history.

With the club now tantalisingly close to the League 2 play-offs, Jack told the Stray Ferret the squad is now eyeing another promotion.

He said:

“You’re not gonna settle for mid-table.”

Jack commutes to Harrogate from his hometown of Scunthorpe and has been pleased to see how the club’s change in fortunes has captured the imagination of the town.

He said: “There’s a lot more to come in coming years.”

The club are on a rich vein of form and have won four of their last five games. They play Forest Green Rovers this afternoon.

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Overcoming adversity

Jack is a type one diabetic but has overcome this adversity in his life and career. He said it’s a tough disease but is manageable for a full-time athlete:

“I’m one of the fittest lads in the squad. Diabetes is nothing new to me but you’ve got to a bit more open minded and organised. I watch my sugar levels and eat right.”

Jack has his email address on his Twitter profile and says he regularly responds to questions from parents or youngsters who have the disease and want to progress in sport.

Whilst Jack is able to manage his diabetes and play professional football, he paid tribute to his friend and former teammate Jack Emmet who was recently forced to leave the club due to chronic fatigue syndrome.

“I was really sad to see him go. But he’s a bright lad and he will do well for himself away from football.”

On fans return

With the government saying fans can return to sports grounds from the middle of May, Jack said all the players are looking forward to welcoming supporters back to Wetherby Road after such a long time away due to covid restrictions.

It means they could return for a potential play-off run after they were cruelly denied the experience last season:

“We’ve done a year since we’ve had all our fans properly in the stadium, so a few more months won’t hurt but they really help us on gameday.”

Stump Cross Caverns campaign nears £50,000 goal

A crowdfunding campaign to save Stump Cross Caverns from closure has almost reached its target of £50,000.

Owner Lisa Bowerman launched the campaign last month by raffling off her prized camper van to raise vital funds. At the time of writing it’s on over £45,000 with 18 days still to go.

She said she expects to reach the goal over this weekend which she said will be a “huge relief”.

“We’re gonna smash it!”.

Lisa said launching the crowdfunder has been “the most nerve-racking thing I’ve ever done” but the response has shown how much the popular ancient limestone cave system is loved.

She said the business has missed out on £350,000 over the past 12 months due to covid lockdowns and restrictions. She was delivered a further blow after being refused a covid grant for cultural venues by the government.

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If the crowdfunding campaign is successful, as expected, they plan to reopen for visitors on May 17.

But if the campaign had failed Lisa said she might have closed Stump Cross Caverns down and returned to her previous job as a children’s nurse.

The draw for the camper van is expected to be made on March 31.

Lisa paid tribute to everyone who has donated so far:

“Without the support we would have had to close. They’ve saved us.”

Government overturns council decision to refuse 149 homes in Harrogate

The government’s Planning Inspectorate has overturned a Harrogate Borough Council decision to refuse 149 homes on Kingsley Road near to Harrogate High School.

In August 2020, HBC’s planning committee voted by 10 to 1 to refuse the application because they said it would make already clogged roads in the area even worse.

At the time, councillors also agreed that a 1km walk to the nearest bus stop was not practical for elderly people or families carrying shopping.

Developer Richborough Estates appealed the decision which was overturned earlier this week.

An inspector from the Planning Inspectorate, the government agency that deals with appeals, said HBC councillors “behaved unreasonably” in reaching its conclusion. They also highlighted the fact the site was already designated for development within HBC’s Local Plan.

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The inspector A M Nillson disagreed that the nearest bus stop was too far away for residents:

“I do not consider that future residents would be discouraged from accessing bus stops and local services and facilities on Knaresborough Road on foot.”

The council has also been ordered to pay the developer’s legal costs.

Local resident Gary Tremble from the Kingsley Ward Action Group criticised the decision to overturn the appeal. He said: “How can someone believe this is a sensible place to build housing?”.

Liberal Democrat councillor Pat Marsh, who sits on the planning committee and voted against the development, said she was “fuming” and “outraged” at the planning inspectorate’s decision.

A spokesperson for Richborough Estates said:

“The Planning Inspectorate has reviewed the appeal for land off Kingsley Road and decided in our favour.”

Chief Executive: Harrogate council job cuts possible due to covid

Throughout this week the Stray Ferret is publishing excerpts from an interview conducted with Harrogate Borough Council’s chief executive Wallace Sampson OBE. 

In the final part of our interview, we asked Mr Sampson about the impact of the covid crisis:

Mr Sampson, the Stray Ferret has reported that the council faces a budget deficit of £10m due to covid. Are you preparing to have staff cuts?

It’s been a very challenging year financially and going into the coming financial year it’s going to continue.

Covid has affected us in a number of ways. Income has reduced from parking, leisure, Harrogate Convention Centre and trade waste.

Nevertheless, thanks to the fantastic efforts of staff across the organisation, we’ve been able to address the majority of these pressures through cost savings and containing expenditure.

We’ve also put a recruitment freeze in place across the organisation. We’ve gone out to recruitment for very few posts but we’ve instead used staff in services that we cannot do, such as leisure, and we’ve re-adopted them. We’ve made savings in the region of £2m and that’s been a massive help to us.

We’re probably going to be facing pressures into the next financial year. In answer to your question about losing jobs, we’ll probably adopt a similar approach to last year which was really successful.

Wherever possible, we’re going to avoid recruiting and we will limit spend to areas where spend is really necessary. We’ll see if that gives an opportunity to manage the budget rather than making any job reductions. The challenge with job reductions is the effect on services.

What do you say to residents who are worried about the council tax rise that was agreed last month?

HBC’s element of the council tax is relatively small in proportion to NYCC, fire and police. We charge £250 a year at band D whereas the NYCC element is £1,411. In the context of it, £250 for the year is relatively small.

If you look over the last decade, we’ve increased council tax by about 14% since 2010. It’s going to £250 in the coming year but we were at £220 10 years ago.

Historically, the borough council has got a good track record in being able to keep council tax rises low because we’ve looked at a range of efficiency and income generation opportunities. We use those mechanisms so we don’t have to pass on huge increases in council tax to the taxpayer.

Read more of Mr Sampson’s interview here:

What have been the hardest challenges for the council during the pandemic?

The biggest challenge for us was at the point we went into lockdown 12 months ago. It was a big transition for us as literally within the space of a couple of days we had to organise staff being able to work for home. That was a huge logistical exercise.

It was a slightly easier transition for us than other local authorities because we already had “agile working” in place, and that’s partly because of our move to the civic centre.

Very quickly we had to put in remote meetings. We were one of the first in the region to get those meetings in place so the democratic function could take place.

The most important thing was to put in place mechanisms to support businesses and the community. If you’ve looked at the reports that have come through to the cabinet over the last year you’ll get a sense of the pace we needed to work at and the scale of the operation we needed to put in place.

I have to say I’m really proud of the way council officers have responded, particularly within our economic development team and our business team who very quickly put in place mechanisms to pay the various covid grants that the government allocated to us.

I’m not exaggerating that many went above and beyond the call of duty and those businesses that received grants have been really grateful.

We’ve paid around 10,000 grants to about 5,000 businesses. In total, it’s about £60m in grants that have been paid out over the last 12 months.

The other side is the support we’ve given to the most vulnerable in our community. We’ve done a lot of work, as well with North Yorkshire County Council, to help people shielding because they’ve been clinically extremely vulnerable.

We’ve done something in the region of 20,000 calls to people shielding in that time. We’ve used the staff in our leisure department to do that work because facilities obviously been closed.

It’s been a really, really challenging year as a council but the standout is the way council staff from across the whole organisation have responded.

 

Harrogate Town trip to Wembley confirmed – but no fans allowed

Last season’s postponed FA Trophy final between Harrogate Town and Concord Rangers will take place behind closed doors at Wembley on May 3.

The fixture was postponed last year due to covid and fans had hoped it would be rearranged when fans were allowed back into stadiums.

However, the Football Association today confirmed the new date. It added a date later in the year was not available.

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It means Town fans will be denied their first-ever trip to the home of English football for the second time in a year.

The club played last season’s National League play-off final in August at an empty Wembley stadium.

The game will be broadcast live on BT Sport.

Harrogate Town managing director Garry Plant said:

“We were hoping the date of the final would be further along the lockdown restrictions pathway so supporters could have been there with us.

“We had been pushing the FA for that to be the case, but have not been consulted and this date comes to us out of the blue.

“We are deeply sorry for supporters who again will not get the chance to join us at Wembley, however we will be doing all we can to make arrangements that include the supporters and allow them to enjoy the final.”

Harrogate council dismisses all complaints made against councillors last year

Harrogate Borough Council decided to take no further action against nine complaints that were made against parish and district councillors over the past year.

Council documents reveal a complaint against a parish councillor’s conduct on social media, as well as three others, were dismissed as they related to councillors’ behaviour in a private capacity.

Another complaint about “disrespectful terminology” used to describe another councillor’s comments during a debate was dismissed due to freedom of speech.

The report by Jennifer Norton, head of legal & governance, does not refer to any councillors by name but says five complaints were made against parish councillors and four were against district councillors.

The council has a legal duty to respond to complaints against councillors. When a complaint is made, it is investigated by the council’s “independent person”, Alan Mitcheson, alongside Ms Norton.

In 2019/20 there were 19 complaints made against councillors.

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The Stray Ferret reported last year that several complaints were made against Cllr Ernie Butler, a parish councillor for Darley, after he made comments online where he called for a “White Lives Matter” protest.

Harrogate Borough Council said at the time that its code of conduct does not extend to social media comments made by councillors.

However, his comments were criticised by HBC council leader Richard Cooper. In a council meeting, he called Cllr Butler’s comments “deplorable and just really shocking.”

Harrogate’s Alexa House guest house sold

The Alexa House guest house on Ripon Road has been sold and is now expected to be converted into a home.

Sandra Doherty, the owner, said the Victorian property had been on the market for just five days before a buyer was found. It was sold for an undisclosed sum.

Ms Doherty said she was “delighted” to have sold the building, which she has owned for 15 years.

She recently had an application to convert the guest house into apartments refused by Harrogate Borough Council.

She said:

“Ninety-nine per cent of my guests were lovely and I had a lot of return visitors.”

Ms Doherty will soon step down from her role as chief executive of the Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce and retire to Northumberland.

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Alexa House was built in 1896 by the renowned art collector Baron Conrad Adolphus du Bois de Ferrieres.

It was built as a hunting lodge for its London-based owners to spend time enjoying Harrogate’s spa and riding in the nearby countryside.

HBC chief executive defends civic centre figures

Throughout this week the Stray Ferret is publishing excerpts from an interview conducted with Harrogate Borough Council’s chief executive Wallace Sampson OBE. 

Today’s section looks at the council’s new headquarters, the civic centre off King’s Road, which opened in November 2017.

A Stray Ferret investigation published last year revealed the total cost was in the region of £17m. This figure was disputed by HBC which says it cost £11.5m.

This is because HBC did not include the value of the council-owned land on which it was built, which local experts valued at at least £4.5m.   

Mr Sampson, why didn’t the council factor in the cost of the land that it already owned when it published how much the building cost?

When we looked at embarking on the civic centre we ultimately decided to build on an existing site. It was for the council and councillors to ask what will be the cost of construction for the civic centre.

We presented that to councillors in order for them to make the decision which was based on the cost of construction which, as you know, was £11.5m.

The issue for councillors was, what was the overall gross cost for the construction of the civic centre for us to build it on our land? That was the important factor that featured in decision making and we delivered the building pretty much on budget.

The council developed an office accommodation project that was much more than building the civic centre. It was about how can we change and shape the way the council works and how can the council dispose of buildings that we no longer require to support the local economy. I think we’ve done that very successfully.

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But wouldn’t it have been financially prudent for the council to sell the land that it already owned and build the offices elsewhere?

Once the decision was taken we then looked at the cost of construction on that site. That was the only consideration that the council needed to take. If you are looking to build the home, and you already own the land, you don’t factor in the cost of the land when you already own the land.

We undertook a thorough exercise for the various options. We looked at building elsewhere on our land or acquiring land. The preferred option ultimately came out was to build on one of our existing sites.

Are you preparing for the future of the building following reorganisation? 

One benefit of having built the civic centre is we have a modern, fit-for-purpose building for flexible office space that is very energy efficient. It puts it in a really strong position, regardless of what happens with local government reorganisation. It ensures there is modern office space that’s available within the Harrogate district.

My own view is I don’t think local government reorganisation will affect the use of the civic centre. There will still be a requirement for office space within Harrogate to support whatever happens through local government reorganisation.

Harrogate has modern purpose-built offices with flexible use built with very high energy-efficient standards. It puts us in a really good position with local government reorganisation to ensure there are offices devoted to service delivery within Harrogate.

Are you hoping to work in the new local authority whatever that might be?

I’m very focused on supporting the council through these changes and we’ll have to see what happens.

Harrogate murder trial set for October

A murder trial following the death of Harrogate man Mark Wolsey will take place at Leeds Crown Court from October 18.

The date was set at a hearing at Leeds Crown Court this afternoon.

Daniel Liam Ainsley, 23, of no fixed abode, has been charged with the murder and is remanded in custody.

He spoke at the hearing only to confirm his name.

A pre-trial preparation hearing will take place in early April.

Mark Wolsey died on Friday at a flat on Mayfield Grove, Harrogate after sustaining serious injuries.

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