Starbeck residents raise concerns over street drinking

Residents in Starbeck last night raised concerns about an increase in street drinking and elected a new committee and chair who pledged to tackle the problem.

Starbeck Residents’ Association, which awards grants and campaigns to safeguard local facilities, had its annual general meeting at St Andrew’s Church. It was well-attended with about 80 residents packed into a room inside the church.

Some raised concerns about the “massive issue” of street drinking, with others saying they felt intimidated.

One said:

“Street drinking is a massive issue that needs to be addressed. People drinking during the day using Belmont Park. It’s not good and it’s a continuous problem.”

Another said:

“Older people feel extremely intimidated. It’s in doorways and in parks.”

Some residents suggested the problem had increased since the council’s homeless shelter Fern House opened this year.

Maggie Gibson, a housing officer from Harrogate Borough Council who works at Fern House, rejected this.

She said:

“There is an assumption it’s our residents. That is unfair. We monitor their behaviour.”

The work at Fern House was praised by SRA treasurer and nearby resident Leisa Mark, who encouraged residents to speak to the people that live there.

“Rather than being intimidated, we said hello. They are aware of how people perceive them.”

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New chair

Chris Watt was voted in as the new SRA chair, replacing the outgoing Geoff Foxall.

Mr Watt was voted in by all but two residents, including Starbeck post office owner Andrew Hart who objected to his appointment due to Mr Watt’s affiliation with the local Labour Party.

A new 15-person committee was also elected. It included people who had lived in Starbeck for decades as well as 16-year-old Emily Mark, who spoke of her pride in living in the area.

Mr Watt told the Stray Ferret:

“We as a committee are focused on issues that are important to Starbeck, such as the high street, green spaces and anti-social behaviour. It’s great to have that mix of youth and experience on the committee.”

Grants awarded

The SRA also announced the recipients of four grants to local charities and organisations.

The grants come from interest on a £300,000 gift that was given to the Starbeck community by Taylor Woodrow, a steel fabrication company that moved away from Starbeck in the early 1990s. The grants are administered by Harrogate Borough Council.

These were:

£1,000 to Harrogate Railway Football Club for new nets.

£1,000 to Starbeck in Bloom to improve the area around the war memorial.

£1,000 to the charity Henshaws for new IT equipment

£400 to Starbeck Methodist Church to promote events.

Harrogate’s Rachel Daly dedicates England goal to late dad Martyn

Harrogate’s England football star Rachel Daly last night dedicated a goal to her dad Martyn, who recently died.

Daly, who went to Saltergate and Rossett schools and now plays in the United States for Houston Dash, scored the final goal in a 10-0 win against Luxembourg.

After the match Daly, who has 168,000 Twitter followers, dedicated the goal to her dad.

"I dedicate that to my Dad." ❤️

Amazing, @RachelDaly3. pic.twitter.com/46v5KPB7Sz

— Lionesses (@Lionesses) September 21, 2021

 

Martyn Daly died days before two recent England fixtures.

Daly started in both matches, including an 8-0 win over North Macedonia in which the players wore black armbands in memory of her father.

Speaking to the BBC, England manager Sarina Wiegman praised Daly:

“How she has performed this week and been focused on football is really incredible”.

Defender Millie Bright scored twice against Luxembourg and dedicated the goals to best friend Daly and Martyn.

She said:

“One was for Rach and one for her pops. She’s done him proud.”.

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The Stray Ferret met Martyn shortly before the Tokyo Olympics and he beamed with pride talking about his daughter’s journey from Killinghall Nomads boys team to the pinnacle of her sport.

Mr Daly, who lived in Harrogate and worked in IT in Leeds, played football semi-professionally for Harrogate Town and Knaresborough Town in his younger days.

He said in July:

“She’ll never realise what she’s done in the game until it’s over.

“Every pro has a cockiness about them but she’s down to earth too, she’s just my daughter.”

‘It’s hugely disappointing’: Knaresborough affordable homes refused

Knaresborough Community Land Trust’s bid to build affordable apartments on the town’s high street has been refused by Harrogate Borough Council.

The not-for-profit group wanted to build the housing because it believes Knaresborough has become too expensive for local people to live.

Three homes would have been built on a disused plot of land that once housed a public toilet near Knaresborough House.

The CLT would have owned the homes and rented them to local people at below the market rate.

Innovative design

The plans received support from Knaresborough Civic Society, which praised their “innovative design”.

However, Harrogate Borough Council planning department disagreed this week and said the proposal would harm Knaresborough Conservation Area.

The council also refused the application because of the loss of open space and seven trees. The CLT had planned to replant 14 trees at alternative locations in town.

Hilary Gardner, secretary of Knaresborough CLT, told the Stray Ferret the refusal was “hugely disappointing”, particularly as the council had initially offered it the plot to build affordable housing.

Ms Gardner said:

“Harrogate Borough Council has wasted two years of volunteers’ time on a project that was their idea. That leaves me aghast. They suggested the land as they wanted affordable housing on it.

“We are deciding whether to go to appeal. There were some very good people in Harrogate Borough Council housing that were with us all the way.

“This is a brownfield site. The council are allowing large building on greenfield sites. They offered us this particular piece. I feel that was quite cynical. They like the idea of the CLT but there are other pieces of land that would have been much more straightforward.”

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‘Knaresborough needs its young’

In December, the Stray Ferret spoke to Steph Getao, a director of Knaresborough CLT who is in her early 30s.

She said she was moving away from Knaresborough with her husband due to high house prices. She believes the CLT is necessary to keep young people in the town.

She said:

“Without young people, Knaresborough will get more and more sleepy. The high street is basically all old dear shops! Knaresborough needs its young.”

91 more covid cases in Harrogate district

91 positive covid cases have been reported in the Harrogate district today, according to Public Health England figures.

It means the district’s seven-day case rate has crept back up above 300 to 309 infections per 100,000 people.

It is the second highest rate in North Yorkshire, with Scarborough’s rate of 318 the highest.

The North Yorkshire rate is 270 and the England rate is 264.

The death toll at Harrogate District Hospital from covid-related illnesses since March 2020 remains at 186.

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‘Political bias’ row in Starbeck over appointment of residents’ group chair

A political row has broken out in Starbeck over the election of a new chair to a residents’ group tonight.

Chris Watt has put his name forward to be on the committee of Starbeck Residents’ Association and to become its new chair.

The association, which awards grants and campaigns to safeguard local facilities, holds its annual general meeting at St Andrew’s Church in Starbeck at 7.30pm.

A vote will take place to appoint a new chair, vice-chair, secretary and treasurer and a new committee will be appointed.

However, Mr Watt’s decision to stand has attracted criticism from a local business owner because he is a member of Harrogate and Knaresborough Labour Party.

Andrew Hart, who owns the Red Box Post Office on Starbeck High Street, told the Stray Ferret he opposed Mr Watt standing because his decisions could be influenced by his Labour affiliation.

The group’s current chair, Geoff Foxall, also has connections with the local Labour party.

Mr Hart pointed to the association’s constitution, which states one of its objectives is to be “a strong non-political community voice” that represents the views of Starbeck residents.

He said this meant active political party members should be prevented from standing for senior positions.

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He added:

“I think for the sake of transparency the Starbeck Residents’ Association needs to be dissolved tonight and hold full and proper elections in one month’s time without any political office holders standing.”

Mr Hart set up a group called Starbeck Community Group this year to debate Starbeck issues.

Mr Watt told the Stray Ferret he would not comment until after the AGM tonight.

Harrogate motorists encouraged to ditch car on Fridays

Motorists in the Harrogate district are being encouraged to ditch their car for one day a week and instead walk, cycle or take public transport to work.

It’s for a new weekly initiative called ‘Car Free Fridays’ that has been launched by local green charity Zero Carbon Harrogate. 

It will take place every Friday beginning October 8 and ZCH hopes it will encourage some new greener habits. Transport is the largest source of emissions in the Harrogate District, making up 49% of the total figure.

Jemima Parker, chair of Zero-Carbon Harrogate said:

“It’s a good way of encouraging people to have one day a week where they leave their car at home. It encourages good habits”.

“Reducing cars on our roads also has the added benefit of improving air quality and reducing traffic congestion, and active travel such as cycling and walking is great for our health and mental wellbeing. Good for us, and good for the planet.”

Car Free Fridays is being backed by Harrogate Borough Council and Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate.

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Walk to School Day

Car-Free Fridays will also coincide with the district’s second Walk to School Day on October 8.

More than 7,000 pupils from 31 schools across the Harrogate district ditched their usual method of transport to take part in the first ZCH event in June.

North Stainley Church of England School won the ‘Zero Hero Primary‘ award, with 94% of its pupils taking part.

Electrifying Harrogate’s school buses ‘has to be cost effective’

Yesterday, the Stray Ferret published an investigation that found that children in Harrogate are being taken to school in diesel buses that are amongst the dirtiest and most polluting vehicles on our roads.

We discovered through a freedom of information request that 50% of these buses are over a decade old and almost 20% of these go back at least 20 years.

University of Leeds climate scientist and Harrogate resident Professor Piers Forster told the Stray Ferret that the old school buses will be having a damaging impact on children’s lungs in Harrogate.

He called on North Yorkshire County Council to electrify the school bus fleet.

The County Council’s response: 

Michael Leah, assistant director for transport and the environment at NYCC, said the council is working with Transdev to bid for government funding for electric buses.

However, it is not clear how many of these buses would be used on school routes should the bid be successful.

He said:

“Bus companies are bound by regulatory compliance and as a home to school transport authority we are required to seek best value for money in securing transport provision.   

“We have also set an aspiration of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 or as near to that date as possible; accordingly we work closely with our bus operators moving towards a more modern fleet.

“Indeed we are working with The Harrogate Bus Company, part of Transdev, on a scheme that – if the funding bid succeeds – would see 39 zero-emission buses delivered in Harrogate over the next three years.”

The bus companies response: 

The Stray Ferret contacted the four main school bus providers in Harrogate to ask what they are doing to clean up their fleet.

Craig Temple, managing director of Connexionsbuses said because it is a family-owned business, any upgrades have to be “cost-effective”. He said none of their buses are 20 years old.

“When providing commercial school services, as ours are in Harrogate, our main priority is to provide a value for money, safe and reliable service.

“Each bus carries 70-80 pupils, and as such takes that number of cars off the road. The pollution from this number of cars would massively increase the impact on everyone’s health, and cause congestion (which further damages peoples health).

“I think most people fail to realise what the effect would be on parents through ticket prices if we were to buy much newer vehicles (or even new) at a cost of nearly £400,000 each.

“To purchase vehicles less than 10 years old would add massive costs on to the daily tickets of the children travelling, which, in turn, would no doubt lead to less travelling on the bus and more cars on the road, leading to more congestion and pollution.”

Steve Ottley, general manager of Harrogate Bus Company said some children go to school on electric buses that are part of its main network.

“We are one of 10 operators that run school buses in the district and so this survey is not a representation of our impact as an individual operator. Over 95% of our total fleet is ultra-low or zero emission, running all day and night, compared to school buses which will only run two trips a day.

“As a result of integrating the school bus network into our main network, which improves ticketing and connectivity for customers, the numbers of specific school buses have been reduced, and a third of specific school journeys are now run by electric or ultra-low emission vehicles.

“The remaining five buses are fitted with Greenroad telematics technology to limit fuel usage and idling, and we continue our programme to transform to a fully zero-emission bus operation for Harrogate in the coming years.”

Abbotts of Leeming and York Pullman did not respond.

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Schools response:

The Stray Ferret also contacted Harrogate’s four public high schools to ask if they were concerned with our findings and what they were doing to encourage cleaner buses. St Aidan’s and St John Fisher did not respond.

Helen Woodcock, the headteacher at Rossett School, said the school actively promotes cycling and walking to its students.

“Technology has moved on in the last 30 years, from a period where leaded fuel was considered acceptable, to a real focus on the need to use sustainable sources of energy for transport.

“Some of our students use the new public electric bus services to get to school and we actively promote the alternatives of cycling and walking to all parents and students. The school student council have focused on recommending other sustainable changes to school life over the years.

“We have a policy that buses directly controlled by NYCC have to enter the school site and turn off their engines whilst waiting for students.

“We look forward to changes in government policy impacting on legal limits for emissions as they move towards fulfilling the promises made in 2019, in the amendments to the Climate Change Act.”

A Harrogate Grammar School spokesperson said it provides in-house new minibuses on four school bus routes.

NYCC provides 11 bus routes to HGS and several are shared with Rossett pupils.

“Harrogate Grammar School directly manage four bus routes to and from the following destinations including the surrounding areas; Pateley Bridge, Tadcaster, Boroughbridge and Leeds.

“We no longer use external coach providers for the Leeds and Tadcaster routes, we operate these services in-house with our own Ultra Low Emission Zone compliant minibuses. Our minibuses are leased brand new and receive regular services and vehicle checks to ensure high standards are kept.

“The two remaining routes however, Pateley Bridge and Boroughbridge, are too over-populated for minibuses and so we work closely with our coach providers in ensuring the high standards of these vehicles provided. We source the most local firms with capacity to fulfil the route requirements which ensures that emissions are reduced.

“NYCC also manage school routes which combine at least 3 routes with Harrogate Grammar School and Rossett High School which we are happy to support to reduce further vehicles on the road.”

Micah Richards tackled by Harrogate council in bid to go green

Ex-England footballer Micah Richards has claimed Harrogate Borough Council thwarted his bid to install an electric vehicle charging point at his Harrogate home.

Richards is a regular pundit on Sky Sports alongside Roy Keane and Graeme Souness. During Sunday’s coverage, the trio discussed what steps they had taken to tackle climate change and improve the environment.

Richards said he had an electric car and hoped to install a charging point at his home.

However, the former England player claimed he was held back by the council’s planning department. He said:

“I had an electric car for a while. Harrogate council though didn’t allow me to have a charger. So I had to stop that for about six months.”

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Richards’ comments received support on Twitter, with one person saying councils and government should do more to install charging points and encourage electric vehicle use:

“Good of Micah Richards to mention Harrogate council. The government and councils don’t help on the expense involved of electric cars and charging points to make it practical. You either want to do this as a country for people or not.”

Another person tweeted:

“Micah Richards calling out Harrogate planning department for refusing an electric charging point was not the content I was expecting when turning on Sky Sports today!”

A council spokesman said:

“Planning permission is not normally required for the installation of wall-mounted electric vehicle charging points so we’d welcome Mr Richards getting in touch with us as we’d be happy to help.

“He is also welcome to use the charging points at our civic centre on St Luke’s Avenue in Harrogate.”

 

Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive resigns

Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive James Mason has resigned and will leave the organisation next month.

Mr Mason, who has led the tourism body since January last year, will depart on October 22 to take on a new yet-to-be-announced job in the new year.

The news comes less than a month after it was announced the 2022 Tour de Yorkshire had been cancelled.

Mr Mason joined Welcome to Yorkshire after former boss, Sir Gary Verity, resigned in March 2019 on health grounds. Mr Verity later faced allegations of bullying and inappropriately claiming expenses, which he denied.

Speaking about his departure, Mr Mason said “the decision wasn’t an easy one” but that he was “excited” for his new role.

He said:

“Whilst working under difficult conditions at times, there is lots we can be proud of, such as the much-loved Walkshire campaign, the launch of a personal membership and tree planting scheme, as well as the implementation of a tourism recovery plan.

“The brief when I joined was to guide Welcome to Yorkshire towards steadier waters and drastically reduce costs.

“We achieved this despite all the restrictions we faced and never stopped innovating or striving for excellence.

“I’d like to thank everyone for their involvement in trying to bring the Tour de Yorkshire back especially our local authority partners with their continued commitment. These high-profile events will return to the region when the time is right.”

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Chair of Welcome to Yorkshire, Peter Box, thanked Mr Mason for the “commitment and energy” he brought to the role.

He added Welcome to Yorkshire will arrange a board meeting to discuss the future of the organisation.

Mr Box said:

“We would like to thank James for the commitment and energy he has demonstrated during a particularly turbulent time for tourism and for the organisation. When James joined as chief executive almost two years ago there were many challenges to deal with.

“A positive plan was put in place to continue showcasing Yorkshire to the world and despite the covid pandemic adding a new and unexpected level of challenges for the tourism industry, James tackled all issues head-on and worked tirelessly.

“He embraced all aspects of the role passionately and with creativity. A board meeting will be arranged to discuss the next steps for Welcome to Yorkshire.”

Fraudsters offering £200 to fix TVs following Bilsdale fire

Fraudsters are offering to retune residents’ TVs for £200 in the wake of the Bilsdale mast fire.

Since fire damaged the mast in August, thousands of residents across the Harrogate district have been without a TV signal. Some have also experienced intermittent service.

This has prompted some opportunistic scammers to knock on doors in North Yorkshire and offer to fix TVs for a fee.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesperson said:

“If anyone knocks on your door to offer this service, do not let them into your home and do not give them any money.

“If anyone approaches you at your home and you are concerned, do not let them in and call the police on 101 to report this.”

Arqiva, has said a temporary mast should be up by October 5, meaning local residents should finally see an improvement to their TV signal.

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