Vicky Carr, Author at The Stray Ferret

Two further covid deaths confirmed at Harrogate Hospital

Two more patients have died at Harrogate District Hospital after being diagnosed with covid-19.

Both deaths occurred on Thursday, December 10, and are confirmed in figures released today by NHS England.

It brings the total number of covid-19 deaths at the hospital to 106 since the pandemic began. The last deaths to be confirmed there were more than a week ago, with one on December 3, two on December 4 and one on December 5

Meanwhile, 17 more people have tested positive for coronavirus in the last 24 hours across the Harrogate district. Today’s figures from Public Health England show the new cases bring the total number diagnosed to 3,822 since the start of the pandemic.

The seven-day average rate of cases for the district has dropped to 90.2 per 100,000 people, from 95.1 yesterday. For North Yorkshire, the number has fallen to 102.4 from 104.5 yesterday. It stands at 148 per 100,000 across Yorkshire and the Humber.

Harrogate school boosts environment by planting 500 trees

A school in Harrogate has planted 500 native trees to help boost the local environment.

Working with the Woodland Trust on its Big Climate Fightback campaign, Ashville College has planted the saplings to enhance existing hedges and establish new ones on the south-west edge of its 64-acre site.

Grounds staff used a mix of hazel, blackthorn, crab apple, dog rose and rowan, which they hope will provide a habitat for wildlife and produce pollen, nectar, nuts, fruit and berries for insects, birds and small mammals.

Ashville’s estates director, Aaron Reid, said:

“We would rather plant hedges than erect metal fencing, as they are attractive, long lasting, store carbon and provide wildlife habitat corridors connecting to the surrounding countryside.”

It is the latest in a series of initiatives by the school to reduce its carbon footprint. Now, it sources all of its electricity from renewable sources, has solar panels on one of its classroom blocks, and collects rainfall from the sports centre roof to water the cricket pitches.

Green waste is chipped and used as mulch or compost, local contractors are used whenever possible to reduce travel time and support the surrounding economy, and the catering team avoids single use plastic and recycles its used cooking oil into soap and biofuel.

Cathy Price, Ashville College teacher and Global to Local Action in Methodist Schools co-ordinator and the school’s Green Committee lead, said:

“When it comes to the environment and climate change, there is plenty of pupil interaction.

“In addition to the subjects being covered in the curriculum, we have a very active Green Committee which works hard to encourage pupils to think about how their actions can either harm or benefit the environment.

“In the past, the committee has organised litter picking in the Pinewoods and the beach at Filey. The environment is everyone’s responsibility and even the smallest actions can help to make a very big difference.

“We look forward to getting back to larger-scale environmental pupil projects and excursions when government coronavirus guidelines permit.”

Nidderdale pupils donate books to boost children’s literacy

Pupils from a Nidderdale school are hoping to spread Christmas cheer and the joy of reading with children across Yorkshire.

Belmont Grosvenor School has donated more than 500 books to Bradford Stories, the campaign from the National Literacy Trust and Bradford Council which aims to improve literacy levels in the city by promoting reading, writing, speaking and listening.

The books, ranging from babies’ first picture books to simple readers, topic books and young teenage novels, will be gifted to children across the Bradford area, many of whom don’t own a single book.

Imran Hafeez, manager of Bradford Stories, said he was delighted to receive the donation of books – and pledged to deliver them to families across the city who need them most. He added:

“Last Christmas, before the pandemic, we found that more than 5,000 children in Bradford don’t own a single book and our fear is that with the closures of libraries and lockdown restrictions, this number will have increased.

“We are continuing to reach out into our communities through partners and volunteer Literacy Champions with the gift of books and we are aiming to distribute over 10,000 by Christmas this year. This kind donation from Belmont Grosvenor School allows us to fulfil this task during a very difficult time.

“We hope to bring the joy of reading to many children who otherwise wouldn’t have a book.”

This week, staff from the independent school, based in Birstwith, travelled to Bradford to deliver the boxfuls of books to the Bradford Stories storeroom in the city.

Belmont Grosvenor School’s book donation comes as Premier League footballer Marcus Rashford announced the launch of a national book club to promote literacy and reading. His aim is to give away thousands of paperbacks and hardbacks to children from vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds.

Jo Henderson, who runs the nursery at Belmont Grosvenor School, said:

“All our children here at Belmont Grosvenor School and Magic Tree Nursery are lucky enough to have access to books, and to benefit from the joy and escapism that reading, and being read to, brings.

“We hope that by donating some of our school’s books to Bradford Stories we can help, in some small way, improve the lives of children and families from disadvantaged backgrounds. We know the books will be distributed to those who need them most and we hope that brings some happiness over the festive season.”

Bradford Stories operates a number of other community-based projects to tackle low-literacy levels in some of the city’s most disadvantaged wards. These include the Bradford Schools Literacy Project, working with 53 schools across the city to improve literacy, and running a team of Literacy Champion volunteers who support and inspire their local communities to engage with reading and writing.

Harrogate district has 23 new covid cases today

A further 23 people have received positive tests for covid-19 in the Harrogate district in the last 24 hours.

The figures released by Public Health England today reveal that a total of 3,805 people in the district have been diagnosed with the virus since the pandemic began.

Meanwhile, today’s figures also show that a further 1,307 people across Yorkshire and the Humber have tested positive. The total number of positive cases in the region since the outbreak started now stands at 226,546.

Across North Yorkshire, 646 new cases have been confirmed in the last seven days, of which 153 were in the Harrogate district.

The seven-day average case rate for the Harrogate district up to December 6 remains at 95 per 100,000 people. It had peaked at more than 300 in early November.

The rate for North Yorkshire as a whole is slightly higher, at 104.5.

As the vaccine roll-out begins, an announcement is expected next week about where in North Yorkshire it will be delivered. Up to now, vaccinations have only been carried out at central points, with the closes to Harrogate being Leeds.

Harrogate family hit by childhood cancer urges charity support

A Harrogate family is urging people not to forget vital charities this Christmas.

The Riley family found out first hand just how important support from a specialist charity can be when it is needed, after daughter Rosie was diagnosed with cancer.

Rosie – aged just six at the time – was found to have acute myeloid leukaemia just before Christmas 2015. Suddenly, the family was thrust into a world of tests and treatment, and found the support of children’s cancer charity Candlelighters invaluable.

Mum Lisa said:

“During her treatment, we lived at the LGI for five months and Candlelighters made Rosie smile every day. They would visit her room when she was too poorly to go to the playroom, they would bring little gifts to cheer her up and they always had time for a chat.

“The sweetie trolley was a weekly highlight and the presents on Christmas Eve were very exciting – and Santa’s visit of course!”

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Candlelighters has continued to support families this year and said it will make Christmas special for them. Children spending Christmas in hospital will be able to enjoy gifts, themed events and a virtual visit from Santa.

The charity’s support for children does not end when they leave the hospital, either. This year, it has adapted its work to support families facing the additional complications of covid, from worries about keeping their children safe from the virus to dealing with even more financial pressure.

Like many charities, Candlelighters’ fundraising opportunities have been limited this year by the pandemic. Reliant on donations from the community to continue supporting families, it is appealing for people to keep contributing towards its efforts this Christmas.

Rosie had successful treatment in 2016, with four rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, before returning home and getting back to school. Now aged 11, she continues to be helped by Candlelighters, which says its support lasts a lifetime.

Lisa added:

“If you are thinking of raising money for Candlelighters, I absolutely urge you. They make a rubbish day a good day and turn a sad face into a smiley face.

“We absolutely can’t thank Candlelighters enough, we would have been lost without them”.

Child abuse images offender sent back to jail for breach

A former hospital IT expert who downloaded more than three-quarters of a million indecent images of children has been jailed again after breaching a court order designed to prevent reoffending.

Martin Richard Shepherd, 49, was jailed for five years in 2017 after police found 748,000 illegal images of children on his computer equipment.

Shepherd, who was working as an IT support officer at Harrogate District Hospital at the time, was released from jail part way through his sentence but remained subject to strict curbs on his internet use, which meant he had to make his computer devices available for inspection and prohibited him from deleting his search history.

In September this year, however, supervising officers found that he had been removing evidence of his internet activity, York Crown Court heard.

Police seized a tablet from his Harrogate home and discovered Shepherd had downloaded a “vast amount” of pornography including indecent images of children, said prosecutor Matthew Collins.

Shepherd told officers that he “couldn’t help himself” and that he needed to be “institutionalised”.

York Crown Court

The IT expert – who was forced to resign from his job at Harrogate Hospital in October 2016 following his arrest for the first set of offences – appeared for sentence on Thursday after pleading guilty to four counts of breaching a sexual harm prevention order.

Mr Collins said that police found “large amounts” of data on Shepherd’s Android tablet after the unannounced visit on September 2, used over a four-month period between May and September. Mr Collins said:

“The defendant claimed that this could be explained by (deleting) some (video) games. He suddenly became very upset, distressed and apologised.”

Shepherd admitted to officers that he had been deleting his internet history “because he had been embarrassed about what they might have found”. Mr Collins added:

“He admitted watching both adult and child pornography. He said he couldn’t stop himself (and that) he kept going back to a protected site.”

‘Couldn’t resist the urge’

Shepherd confessed that he had been viewing indecent videos of children at least “twice a week” and sometimes on a daily basis. He said it was mainly sex scenes involving female children aged 10 and over.

He would then “delete the account” on the website for fear of being caught. Shepherd told police he “couldn’t resist the urge to watch child pornography on a daily basis”.

Shepherd, formerly of Chatsworth Grove, was described as a loner who had never had an intimate adult relationship. He was said to have a “particular interest” in the sexual abuse of girls between the ages of 10 and 14.

In 2016, police cyber-crime detectives found that he had amassed about three-quarters of a million indecent image of children after using his computer skills to avoid detection for about 14 years, using his expertise to encrypt the images.

Shepherd, who worked in the IT department at Harrogate Hospital for 22 years, trawled the dark web for indecent images from May 2002 to the time of his arrest in June 2016. Police found a “massive library collection” of photos and videos featuring the serious sexual abuse of “very young” children including 12-month-old babies and youngsters who had been drugged or plied with alcohol.

Of the 748,000 illegal images found on his equipment, just under 9,000 photos and videos were rated Category A – the worst kind of such material.

Shepherd had painstakingly catalogued the images in 22 encrypted volumes and used an “extremely complex” system of passwords to hide them. Other images were deleted. He also distributed at least 19 videos on a paedophilic file-sharing site and spied on naked and barely-dressed teenagers at a property in Harrogate after setting up covert video equipment.

The sentencing judge at the time said it was “the worst case of its type that I have had to deal with in a long time in the law”.

In January 2017, Shepherd was given a five-year jail sentence and placed on the sex-offenders’ register for life for making and distributing indecent images of children, as well as gaining unauthorised access to private computer files at Harrogate Hospital and two counts of voyeurism related to webcams he had set up to take video footage of two female teenagers getting undressed in 2005 and 2012.

Richard Reed, mitigating at this week’s breach hearing, said Shepherd still had problems “controlling his urges”. He said:

“He says the only way forward is for him to have a complete ban on accessing the internet in any form.”

Judge Simon Hickey said Shepherd was clearly a “dangerous” offender who had breached the order before. He told Shepherd:

“You said you were deleting (video) games, but the vast amount of material deleted (was) over 125 gigabytes. It must have been a vast amount of indecent material. Like you say, you can’t help it.”

Shepherd was given a two-year jail term and told he must serve two-thirds of that sentence behind bars, or until the Parole Board deemed him fit to be released.

Mr Hickey also ordered that Shepherd must serve an extended four-year period on prison licence upon his eventual release from jail.

Plans for social houses raise parking fears in Pannal

Objections have been raised by Pannal residents after plans were revealed to demolish eight garages and build two new houses.

The plans for the site on Pannal Green have been submitted by Harrogate Borough Council, which owns the garages and wants to replace them with two semi-detached “family” homes for social rent.

One of the homes would have two double bedrooms, while the other would have a double and two singles.

As well as the garages, the application states there would be a loss of one on-street parking space, with part of the green itself used to create new parking bays.

However, residents say the loss of eight garages is only part of the issue: the development would also reduce the on-street parking, meaning an overall loss of up to 12 parking spaces. They have raised concerns about the impact in an area which is already under significant pressure, with visitors to the nearby primary school and care home adding to traffic issues.

Louisa Humpage, who lives with her husband and two children in one of the houses adjoining the site, told the Stray Ferret:

“We are already in a deficit of spaces as it is. These are all originally council houses and when they were built, each family didn’t have one car, let alone two. Now, most families have two cars so we’re already squeezed for space.”

Mrs Humpage’s garden will be along the boundary of one of the new homes if they are built, removing the family’s access to the back garden via a gate, which she said was a selling point when they bought it.

She said she was also worried about access for deliveries and emergency vehicles, with several elderly and disabled residents living in the mix of council and privately-owned homes around Pannal Green.

Access to a footpath through to St Robert’s Church could also be lost if the new homes are built, and residents have raised concerns about a ripple effect on parking in the surrounding streets. It is particularly challenging at pick-up and drop-off times for the nearby Pannal Primary School, when Main Street is reduced to single file for through traffic thanks to cars parked either side of the road.

One letter said:

“If a resident cannot park their car close to their home, there is nowhere in the whole village to park, as the whole area has the same problem.”

Mrs Humpage added:

“The only option for us is the church car park or even Main Street, but then people will have to walk a long distance to their houses. The church car park isn’t lit and in the winter it’s slippy, with leaves everywhere. You’re asking people to put themselves into jeopardy just to get to their front door.”

Residents say there is even greater pressure on parking locally at school pick-up and drop-off times

Pannal and Burn Bridge Parish Council is due to discuss the plans this evening and Mrs Humpage plans to ask councillors to object to the proposals. She has also spoken to Cllr John Mann, who represents Pannal on Harrogate Borough Council, to ask for his support.

She added:

“I know they have a long list of people requiring social housing, but there has to be more suitable places to build houses for them. It’s just two houses – is it really cost-effective to do that just to knock two people off the list?

“There has to be some sort of duty of care to existing residents.”

The Stray Ferret approached Cllr Mann, Pannal and Burn Bridge Parish Council, and Harrogate Borough Council for comment on the proposals, but none had responded at the time of publication.

Appeal after burglar targets home in Knaresborough

Police are appealing for information after a burglary in Knaresborough on Saturday evening.

A suspect tried to enter a home on Manor Road around 7pm.

North Yorkshire Police is now asking for help from the public to establish the full details. A spokesperson said:

“In particular, we are appealing for information about a male who was wearing all black clothing with a hood around Manor Road at the time of the offence.”

Anyone with information that could assist the investigation should contact North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option two, and ask for Geeta Maharjan, or email geeta.maharjan2@northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk.

To report information anonymously, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Quote the North Yorkshire Police reference number 12200221213.

Award for Harrogate scrubs campaign leader

The coordinator of a community project to create more than 4,000 sets of scrubs for key workers has been honoured by a women’s group in Harrogate.

Fran Taylor was invited to speak at a virtual meeting of Harrogate and District Soroptimists, outlining how her plan to make a couple of sets of scrubs for staff at Harrogate District Hospital turned into a major campaign.

She set up a Facebook group, Harrogate Scrubbers, asking others to sew scrubs or donate money for material. Within 24 hours, 200 people had signed up and more than £4,500 had been raised.

Five weeks later, an army of 800 volunteers were cutting out, sewing, organising and delivering the vital scrubs, masks, laundry bags and headbands to NHS staff.

The volunteers worked closely with the hospital and other organisations to ensure the right equipment went to the right places, expanding to care homes and GP surgeries too.

Fran Taylor is presented with the award by Harrogate and District Soroptimists president Sandra Frier.

After hearing her tale, the Soroptimists presented maths teacher Fran with their Making a Difference award. President Sandra Frier said:

“It was a great pleasure to be able to meet Fran and, whilst socially distancing, present the Making a Difference award to her, together with a cheque for the Harrogate Hospital & Community Charity, in recognition of someone who has made a real difference for our community.”

Police record 64 speeders in an hour in Harrogate operation

Police recorded more than one speeder per minute in an operation in Harrogate this month.

The camera was deployed on Leeds Road as part of a crackdown on speeding during the second lockdown, and its operator recorded 64 people exceeding the 30mph speed limit.

A deployment in Killinghall, meanwhile, captured more than 40 offences in 45 minutes, including one driver doing 56mph in the 30mph zone.

North Yorkshire Police said speeding has increased during lockdown, posing a greater risk because of the higher number of pedestrians, and they are taking “robust” action to deal with drivers. Criminal justice manager Andy Tooke said:

“Since lockdown two began, we’ve seen a marked increase in the number of motoring offences we’ve captured. We’ve also seen some terrible driving, particularly in our communities.

“These are places where children are going to school, and residents are going on walks – yet some motorists are barreling through these towns and villages at lethal speeds.

“At a time when communities are doing everything they can to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed, driving through 30mph areas at twice the speed limit is sheer stupidity.

“It’s also illegal and we are responding robustly to enforce the law and keep residents and road users safe.”

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‘Couldn’t resist the urge’

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