Harrogate district Conservative MPs, Andrew Jones, Julian Smith and Nigel Adams, return to the House of Commons this week after a six-week summer recess.

It is likely to be a busy autumn with key decisions looming on coronavirus, finance and the environment.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak face pressure from backbench Tory MPs over proposed tax rises to cover the mounting coronavirus bill for initiatives such as furlough payments and Eat Out to Help Out.

Former Brexit secretary David Davis told The Times it would be “very unwise” to increase taxes because of the “fragile” state of the economy. But Sunak is said to be considering raising corporation tax, reforming pension tax relief and making more people pay capital gains tax.

The Stray Ferret asked our three MPs if they backed tax increases but none had responded by the time of publication.

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Skipton & Ripon MP Julian Smith, Harrogate & Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones and Selby & Ainsty MP Nigel Adams.

Votes on legislation are usually announced with just a few days notice, and there are important bills that our MPs could vote on before Christmas.

Mr Smith, Mr Jones and Adams could be asked to vote on the government’s flagship Environment Bill, which would introduce legally binding targets for water, waste and air quality.

The House of Commons will break for the party conference season in September and October — but the pandemic means it will look very different. Our MPs would have headed to the Conservative conference in Birmingham but it has now been cancelled and the event will take place online instead.

A deadline of December 31 for a Brexit trade deal with the European Union is also looming. However, if a deal is agreed MPs won’t have a say on it.

The transport company Transdev has begun its new bus service from Harrogate to Leeds Bradford Airport.

The A2 Flyer bus, which replaced the 747 Flying Tiger service on Sunday, stops at local villages including Pannal, Huby and Poole-in-Wharfedale on the way to the airport. It also goes to Yeadon, Rawdon and Bradford.

An airport return ticket, valid for 28 days, costs £8.90 for a single adult and £15 for a group.

A seven-day ticket for one person costs £24 and a 28-day ticket costs £77.

The buses offer free WiFi and every seat has a USB charging point.

Transdev said in a statement the new route provided “a post-lockdown boost” to the regional economy.

Chief executive Alex Hornby said:

“We’re delighted to have secured a multi-year contract to introduce these amazing Flyer buses to Yorkshire. This new service is a very important element of our growth strategy and will attract new customers by creating buses that people are proud to be seen on.”

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The coronavirus pandemic has seen passenger numbers at Leeds Bradford Airport fall well below normal levels. Last week, Jet2 cancelled all flights to Ibiza, Menorca and Majorca for the rest of the summer season.

Every month the Stray Ferret tries to find out what our local MPs have been up to in their constituencies and in the House of Commons.

MPs were not in Parliament in August due to the summer recess. They return on September 2.

We asked Harrogate & Knaresborough MP, Andrew Jones, Ripon MP Julian Smith, and Selby and Ainsty MP Nigel Adams if they would like to highlight anything in particular, but we did not receive a response from any of them at the time of publication.

So here is what we know after analysing their online presence.

Andrew Jones, MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough.

In Harrogate and Knaresborough here is what we found on Mr Jones:

• On August 2, Mr Jones hailed Harrogate Town’s win at Wembley as “the best news in ages”. He also tweeted about Notts County’s non-existent equaliser, which was quickly deleted. This led to the Stray Ferret’s Paul Baverstock suggesting that Mr Jones might not have been actually watching the game.
• According to a tweet from a constituent, Mr Jones wrote a letter about refugees crossing the channel on boats from France. In the letter, Mr Jones said the refugees “shouldn’t be crossing several safe countries” to get to the UK and he’s “working hard to find a solution to stop them”. However, the United Nations says refugees can legitimately make a claim for asylum in the UK after passing through other “safe” countries.
• On August 10, Mr Jones published figures on his website that revealed more than 15,000 people in his constituency have been furloughed from their jobs since March.
• He also welcomed news that Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust is set to receive an additional £527,000 to support Accident & Emergency (A&E) capacity ahead of the winter months.
• Mr Jones tweeted three times in August.
• On August 4, the MP welcomed £1.5m of government funding for a business park in Harrogate.
• Mr Jones released a statement welcoming the government’s u-turn over A-Level results. He said: “I am sorry for the distress and uncertainty this has caused pupils. In all about 20 students contacted me personally and I am writing to each of them”.
• Mr Jones refused to comment on a Stray Ferret story involving missing Porsche sports cars and Cllr Samantha Mearns, who works as a caseworker in his office.

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Julian Smith, MP for Ripon and Skipton.

In Ripon here is what we found on Mr Smith:

• The Stray Ferret revealed that Mr Smith has been appointed as an external advisor to a hydrogen company at a rate of £3,000 per hour.
• On Twitter, the MP for Ripon paid tribute to veteran Northern Irish politician John Hume who died on August 3.
• Fourteen of Mr Smith’s 19 tweets this month were related to Northern Ireland. He tweeted once about Ripon.
• Mr Smith praised Netflix drama The Fall which he said he was “totally glued to” during lockdown.
• On Facebook, Mr Smith complimented Ripon Catherdral’s 11,000 origami angels, which is a project organised by churchgoers to send messages to family members and key workers.
• Mr Smith advertised for a new parliamentary assistant to respond to constituency enquiries, help run his social media accounts and assist with casework. The salary has not been disclosed publicly.

Nigel Adams, MP For Selby and Ainsty

In rural south Harrogate here is what we found on Mr Adams.

• Mr Adams spoke out on Twitter on a range of subjects including Jeremy Corbyn, the debate over singing Rule Brittania at the Proms, and the sentencing of the Manchester bomber.
• Mr Adams is the minister for Asia and earlier in the month welcomed ambassadors from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries for ASEAN day. He said UK-ASEAN trade reached a 10-year high of £41.9bn in January.
• He tweeted 14 times in August including several times about Drax Power Station in Selby, which is part of his constituency.
• He visited several restaurants in his constituency that are participating in the government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme.

Bilton will soon get a new tea shop, replacing T C Tanning Centre which closed in February.

The former tanning salon on the corner of Bilton Lane and King Edwards Drive is set to re-emerge as a tea shop after Harrogate Borough Council this week gave the green light to a change of use application.

The cafe will create three full-time jobs and will be open from 8am to 7pm Monday to Saturday and 9am to 6pm on Sundays.

According to the planning application, the tea shop will provide the local community with “a place to meet in a warm, inviting and modern setting”.

The owners said the cafe will serve drinks and light snacks but will have no on-site cooking.

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Comedian Johnny Vegas was in Harrogate this week to meet expert sculptor Steve Blaylock, who helped out with a new TV show.

Steve told the Stray Ferret he has been sworn to secrecy about when and where the show will air, but said it will involve Vegas creating sculptures from different materials.

Steve said that he enjoyed spending time with a kindred spirit at his studio on Skipton Road:

“He brought the materials and we spent the whole day just brainstorming and chatting and talking about each other’s lives, which was a bit bizarre. When he walked in it was like a friend who went to art college had just come back to see me.

“We had so many similar personal experiences growing up. We were both bullied at school and we both had to become the class clown, but I didn’t follow my clownship into stand-up like Johnny.”

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Like Steve, Vegas has a degree in ceramics and he enjoyed fooling around with several of the sculptures at the studio, including a giant-sized garden spade.

Johnny Vegas with one of Steve’s spade sculptures.

Steve said:

“He’s an extremely artistic person, so being with somebody who has a creative mind who can see things that normal folk can’t was wonderful.”

Since setting up Studio Blaylock 23 years ago, Steve has had many commissions from TV companies, including the BBC who asked him to sculpt a 6ft tall Blue Peter ship in 1999.

Harrogate Town are one game away from playing at Wembley for the second time in two months — and this time fans would be able to enjoy a special day out.

The government confirmed that last season’s FA Trophy final at Wembley will go ahead on September 27 as a pilot event for the safe return of fans to sporting events.

Town are due to play Notts County, who they beat in the National League play-off final 3-1, in a one-legged semi-final with the winner going on to play the winner of Halesowen Town vs Concord Rangers. A draw will take place to decide whether Town’s semi-final will take place at Doncaster Rovers, which will be hosting Harrogate Town until their new grass pitch is laid, or Notts County. The date is to be confirmed.

The government has not said how many supporters Town could bring if they reach the final, but non-league grounds were opened last weekend with an initial 15% capacity, which will rise to 30% from Monday, August 31.

As Wembley has a capacity of 90,000, it could potentially mean all Town fans who want to attend would be able to if the government allows the stadium to be 30% full.

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It was uncertain whether the FA Trophy would be finished when the season was curtailed in March due to the lockdown. The government warned that the fans pilot could not happen if coronavirus rates rise.

Harrogate Town supporter Rob Nixon told the Stray Ferret that having another chance to go to Wembley would be a “dream”.

He said:

“Being able to go watch us play at Wembley would be a dream for all town fans, especially after missing out last time round. We still have a tricky tie against Notts County to negotiate, but it’s a huge incentive for the players knowing that they’ll get to play in front of a crowd this time if they win.”

On Tuesday, Harrogate Town supporters were able to watch their team play in person for the first time since March as Brighouse Town allowed 100 Town supporters to attend a pre-season friendly, which ended 0-0.

It will be the “end of an era” for veteran newsagent Brian Moses who, with a heavy heart, will close the Bookstall newsagent at Harrogate Railway Station after 30 years due to the financial impact of covid-19.

Brian won the title of UK newsagent of the year in 2016 but he said running the business is not viable in the current economic climate.

He said with trains quiet and commuters from Leeds still working from home, he can’t see trade returning to what it was before covid “for a long, long time”. A changing market has also seen magazine and newspaper sales decline over the past few years, with more and more people reading online.

Brian, who is 65, has worked in newsagents in Harrogate since he was 15 but fears there will be none left in the town in just a decade.

He said:

“Many of the other newsagents that are remaining in Harrogate are up for sale and I fear for the news trade over the next ten years.

“It’s not the way I intended to go out but it’s time to let go. It wasn’t an easy decision but financially it had to be.”

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The Bookstall has been a vital pit stop for commuters taking the train from Harrogate and Brian has seen famous sports stars, TV presenters and his fair share of ex-Leeds United footballers stop in for a packet of mints, a bottle of pop or a crossword puzzle book.

But he said his most memorable customer was Prince Charles who bought copies of Horse and Hound and Country Life magazines when the Royal Train passed through Harrogate.

Brian has racked up more than 50 years in the trade as, before taking over the Bookstore in 1989, he helped his own father run a newsagent on St Winifred’s Road.

Brian said news has been “a real family affair” as his son Paul also run the shop but will now move on to pastures new.

He said he will miss the customers but is looking forward to spending more time with his wife, Mandy, who recently retired as a nurse from St Michael’s Hospice after 24 years.

He said:

“I’ve done 5 AM starts for the last 50 years, so that will take a long time to get out of that.

“But I’ll miss the banter and the ‘good morning’ from the little old lady to friends who come in, discuss sports and have a craic. I’ll miss my regulars.

“It will be sad but things have got to move on. I’m the first of many that will be going in Harrogate, it’s a changing world.”

The Bookstall will close this Saturday.

Sir Ed Davey’s victory in the Liberal Democrat leadership contest could help the party take back control of Harrogate & Knaresborough, according to the party’s local parliamentary spokesperson Judith Rogerson.

Mr Davey, the MP for Kingston and Surbiton, won the leadership election yesterday ahead of Layla Moran, receiving 63.5% of the vote. In his acceptance speech, he said the party would now launch a “national listening project” to try and win back voters.

Ms Rogerson said Mr Davey has been “very supportive” of what the party has been doing in Harrogate and Knaresborough.

She said:

“He is absolutely the right person to be leading the party and helping us win back seats from the Conservatives at the next election, especially here in Harrogate & Knaresborough.”

Under Phil Willis – now Lord Willis of Knaresborough – the Lib Dems held the Harrogate & Knaresborough constituency from 1997 until 2010. Last month, Lord Willis spoke to the Stray Ferret about a range of topics, including what he think makes a good constituency MP.

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Since Lord Willis retired, current Conservative MP Andrew Jones has won four consecutive general elections in the constituency.

In the 2019 general election, Mr Jones won 29,962 votes beating Lib Dem candidate Ms Rogerson by almost 10,000 votes. The Lib Dems did gain a 12 point swing since 2017, which largely came at the expense of the Labour Party.

Plans have been submitted to convert the office block Mowbray House near Asda into 20 apartments.

The four-story building on Mowbray Square dates from 1995 and would be converted into a mix of one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments.

Local property developer Jeevani Properties Ltd is behind the plans which have been submitted under permitted development rules. This fast tracks the planning process for office to residential conversions.

In March 2020, former owner of the building P M Whitaker Pension Trust was granted planning permission to turn the offices to into 12 apartments, but then put the building up for sale for £1.25m.

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In the latest plans, each of the top three floors would contain four 1-bedroom apartments and two 2-bedroom apartments with the top floor also having a studio apartment.

The ground floor will be opened up for 17 car parking spaces for use by the residents.

The building was home to cashmere clothing company Pure Collection which went into administration in February 2020, closing eight of its stores across the UK.

Police officers made three arrests connected to modern slavery after pulling over a car in Pannal at 3 am last night during a routine traffic stop.

Following checks on the Audi A4 and the occupants, a 47-year-old man from Leeds and a 32-year-old woman from Birmingham were arrested for suspected modern slavery and people trafficking offences. They have been released under investigation while enquiries continue.

A 23-year-old woman from Leeds was also arrested for possession of a Class A drug. No further action was taken against her and officers have provided safeguarding support.

The police is asking anyone who may have information that could assist its investigation to call 101, select option 1, and speak to the Force Control Room quoting the reference number 12200148140.

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Modern slavery is thought to be one of the most lucrative forms of organised crime, with the International Labour Organisation estimating its global annual worth at £150 billion.

Modern slavery can come in many forms, including forced labour, sexual exploitation and forced criminality linked to drugs.