A tough year lies ahead for charities in the Harrogate district after swathes of fundraising events were cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak. 

From supporters taking part in the London Marathon to their own community activities, charities rely heavily on numerous events in their annual calendars. 

Now, with almost every event being cancelled because of the coronavirus crisis, many are left wondering how they will meet their costs. 

Stephen Tongue, director of fundraising at Henshaws, said:

“We have got all our usual costs and additional costs of getting back-up staffing and deep cleaning areas – that’s quite expensive.

“It’s a challenging time. We do have some money coming in, but there’s a huge question mark over so many events.”

The charity held an art auction in early March and, even then, attendance was only around half of what was expected. Meanwhile, several upcoming fundraisers have been cancelled, including Knaresborough Beer Festival in May. 

Stephen is hopeful two outdoor events – a golf day at Rudding Park and a Yorkshire Three Peaks walk – will be able to take place in June and July, depending on government advice at the time. Its corporate donations, however, may also dwindle over the coming weeks as SMEs in the Harrogate district – a key source of support to Henshaws – struggle to find spare cash. 

To make up the shortfall and meet the additional needs of its students during the crisis, Henshaws has launched a new fundraising appeal.

For Open Arms Malawi, which sends around £500,000 per year out to its projects in the African nation, the worries are just as severe. Founded by Harrogate couple Neville and Rosemarie Bevis in 2000, it still has strong links with the town and relies on local people to contribute to its work with orphaned children. 

Ashville College has been a long-term supporter of Open Arms Malawi, sending students to volunteer there last summer

Fundraising manager Claire Collins said: “We were having a really good year for fundraising and just starting to look at new and different activities. Everything has been cancelled – all the challenge events, runs, and activities in the schools which support us. 

“We have two corporate partners who do trips to Malawi to see how funds are helping and donate significant amounts to us. They still want to support us, but without the trips it’s very difficult: when people see the work, they become really big advocates for what we do.” 

The charity has two infant homes, 10 nursery schools and five family homes for older children, as well as an outreach programme supporting families in the community. As yet, there are no confirmed cases of coronavirus in Malawi but, with high numbers elsewhere in Africa, all the homes and schools are taking extra precautions with hand washing and cleaning procedures. 

“HIV is still a big problem in Malawi, along with malnutrition,” said Claire. “Coronavirus is a huge risk on top of that. They’re taking it very seriously.” 

Claire has set up a new page on the charity’s website to keep supporters informed about the situation in Malawi. They are hoping supporters will still feel able to contribute, despite the difficulties being faced by many families across the Harrogate district. 

Vital care workers say they are being left behind as people continue to clear supermarket shelves as soon as they open. 

Although NHS staff are being given priority access to some shops at designated times, the rules do not always apply to those employed by private organisations. 

However, care home staff and others all play an essential part in keeping elderly and vulnerable people safe and well as the coronavirus pandemic continues. As a result, their work relieves pressure on the NHS by reducing the number of people needing medical care or hospital beds. 

Suzanne Kay, who works at Belmont House in Starbeck, said she has been left unable to get basic provisions because of her long shifts. 

Suzanne Kay

“It’s an absolute nightmare,” she said. “Because I work 12-hour shifts, if I get a lift home I get back to Ripon at 8.30pm. By that time, there’s nothing left. What do you do?” 

After work , Suzanne said she is struggling to come up with meals to feed herself and her 18-year-old son, who has lost his job in a cinema this week. 

“We’re just having to live off what we can,” she said. “By the time I get home, it’s shower, bed and ready to do it all again the next day.”  

Routine is essential

Her role in the early-onset dementia unit is challenging in normal circumstances, but particularly tough at the moment, when relatives are unable to visit. With some carers having to self-isolate as a precaution, there is even more pressure on staff. 

“Everyone is having to pick up extra hours in order to keep residents with some normality,” said Suzanne.

“With them having dementia, routine is essential for them. It keeps them going. You take that routine and structure away from them and it has a really big effect.

“They ask, ‘when is my son coming?’ or ‘when is my daughter coming?’. You have to explain several times a day. A lot of them don’t know how to use a phone so they don’t have that option to keep in touch. When they get upset, it sets you off as well.”

Yesterday the Government urged people not to panic buy. In its daily briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary George Eustice, said that everybody in the UK needs to play their part and shop responsibly:

“Be responsible when you shop. Buying more than you need means that others may be left without.”

Students across the Harrogate district face an uncertain future after A level exams were cancelled.

Now awaiting their grades – to be awarded by teachers based on mock exams and predicted results – they are unsure whether they will even be able to take up their university offers in September. 

For some, the unexpected end to their schooling has led them to question their plans for the future, too. 

Oriana Lioi, 18, had her last day at King James’s School in Knaresborough on Thursday.  

“I’ve applied to uni, but I was never completely set on going,” she said. “I don’t know whether to take a year to collect myself. I feel better knowing that everyone is in the same boat.” 

Eighteen-year-old Morgan Glazier, left, is still waiting to hear whether his application to London School of Economics has been accepted, with other offers already in place. He left Rossett School on Friday and has cancelled all plans for the summer. 

“I was going to Spain with my friends this summer and then to America with my family,” he said. “It’s the year of my 18th so it was a big celebration. 

“I was going to work full-time to earn some money and go to some festivals, but they’re all being cancelled too. It was going to be the best summer.” 

Oriana, meanwhile, has lost her part-time job at the Everyman cinema in Harrogate after it closed its doors this week. 

“That’s hard, because this year I’m going to start needing the money,” she said. “They have been really generous and supportive – they’re saying a job will be available to me at any time in the summer when they re-open.” 

Final goodbye to schoolmates

Complying with social distancing advice, Oriana plans to spend the summer learning new skills, including Spanish, and on self-care. Born and raised for the first few years in Los Angeles, she said hearing from her friends about the severity of the situation there has made her take it very seriously. 

“Some people have a different mindset about having a last ‘hooray’,” she said.

“Everyone has vulnerable people they love nearby. I’m not taking part in anything. I want this to be over as quickly as possible.” 

Morgan was one of those who grouped on the Stray in Harrogate after the schools closed on Friday. For him, there was no extra risk after spending all week with his fellow students in school. 

“People have got to put themselves in our shoes,” he said. “We aren’t going to see everyone again. We have effectively been robbed of our summer and this might be the final send-off.” 

Harrogate District Hospital has confirmed it is testing every in-patient suspected of having coronavirus.

The confirmation came after the North Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner said the hospital did not have any tests for Covid-19.

Julia Mulligan questioned official figures for the number of confirmed cases in the county on Twitter today:

They have no tests for CV19 at Harrogate hospital. So how are we supposed to know? https://t.co/TTFnb6ZLMY

— Julia Mulligan (@Julia_Mulligan) March 21, 2020

Harrogate District NHS Foundation Trust said it has enough kits and is testing all in-patients displaying the symptoms of coronavirus.

Pubs, restaurants and other hospitality venues will remain closed from today after the Government announced last night would be their last evening of trading for the foreseeable future.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in North Yorkshire has risen by one to 14 – with one death at Harrogate District Hospital.

If you work in the tourism industry or run a hospitality business in the district, please get in touch to tell us how you’re coping with the changes.

4pm – Call for hospital volunteers

Volunteers are urgently needed to help at Harrogate District Hospital across all areas and departments.

Harrogate District NHS Foundation Trust has put a call out for new volunteers as some of its existing team are keeping away during the coronavirus outbreak.

The Trust says volunteers will mostly be working in administrative or manual handling roles, depending on their skills and abilities, supporting the work of staff in caring for patients, carers and visitors.

Anyone interested can email hdft.volunteering@nhs.net.

12pm – Bus timetables revised

The Harrogate Bus company has announced changes to its timetables in order to keep vital services running for essential journeys.

The late night services on the 36 bus between Leeds and Harrogate will not operate from today, long with those on the 1N route. The company will also operate a Saturday service from Monday to Saturday for the foreseeable future, while Sunday timetables will continue as usual.

📣 We’re making some changes to our bus times 📣

Our late night Saturday buses on #the36 & 1N will not run from Sat 21 March.

And from Monday 23 March we’ll be using Saturday times on most routes Mon-Sat.

The X6 will be running as normal.

More here 👉https://t.co/cb5cL0O6iS pic.twitter.com/dNMB3zWR3F

— The Harrogate Bus Company (@harrogatebus) March 20, 2020

CEO Alex Hornby praised his team and said: “We’ve been running all our buses as normal until now but as we see less people travelling and pressure on staffing increases, we have made the decision to change to Saturday times going forward. We trust everyone understands the reasons for this but note that we are maintaining the general span of the operating day and many frequencies are similar.”

11.45am – Antiques fair postponed

The Antiques and Collectors Fair due to be held at Ripley over Easter weekend has been postponed.

It adds to the long list of cancellations and postponements of events across the Harrogate district. Many organisers are hoping to find new dates later in the year, based on government guidance at the time.

11am – Instant payments to county council suppliers

Businesses which supply to North Yorkshire County Council will receive immediate payments as the authority works to mitigate the effects of coronavirus on the economy.

Small and medium suppliers will receive instant payment – subject to bank clearing times – instead of the current 30-day period. The Council is currently planning to have the new payment rules in place until the end of 2020, subject to a review in August.

County Council leader Coun Carl Les said: “We are clear how important our supply chains are to our service delivery, and we want to be there for the smaller businesses that supply us and are crucial to the economic vitality of our county and country.

“We will be doing our best to support them through this period, and in addition would urge them to seek the wider support available from central government.”

Harrogate Borough Council says the £11.5m build cost of the Civic Centre is not a true picture of the cost of the project 

Reacting to a Stray Ferret exclusive on Friday, the Council argues the overall cost was lower because of money received in the sale of its other premises. 

Harrogate Borough Council argued that the £11.5m reported as the final build cost by The Stray Ferret did not reflect the overall cost of the new council offices at Knapping Mount.   

The figure of £11.5m for building the Civic Centre was obtained by a Freedom of Information request made by The Stray Ferret. The Stray Ferret asked: What was the final cost to Harrogate Borough Council of building its new Civic Centre at St Luke’s Avenue?

Its FOI response said: 

“Final account negotiations were ongoing between the Council and Harry Fairclough prior to Harry Fairclough entering into administration. The Council’s view of the gross valuation of the final account sum for the building contract is £11,516,200.” 

The council said that the figure it released as part of the FOI may change as it continues to negotiate costs with the construction firm, Harry Fairclough Ltd, which has gone into administration. 

It also said that the £11.5m figure to build its new offices did not take into account the fact that millions of pounds was generated through the sale of its other council department buildings to fund the move—these included the sale of Victoria Park House, Scottsdale House, Springfield House and Crescent Gardens. It also argued that moving staff onto one site would result in savings of £1m a year on overheads. 

The council said the £11m figure was always in the public domain. However, in a leaflet distributed by the ruling Conservative party in 2014 during a consultation about the planned build at Knapping Mount, the £8.7m was reported as a gross figure, with the sale of the offices to be deducted from this: 

Taken from a Conservative leaflet distributed to local households in 2014

The council had refused to confirm the cost in response to previous FOI requests, citing commercial sensitivity. Having now been released, the numbers are still confusing for residents of the district. 

The Stray Ferret requested the information in the FOI as part of a detailed look into the net cost of the move to Knapping Mount, the sale of its former offices and whether or not the council has met its original stated objectives for the whole project.    

A full report of our findings will be published once complete.  

The final build cost for Harrogate’s new civic centre has been revealed as £11,516,200.

It is almost £3m more than the budget announced by Harrogate Borough Council at the outset of the project in 2015.

The figure was revealed to The Stray Ferret after a request under the Freedom of Information Act. Previously, the council had refused to announce the cost on the grounds of “commercial sensitivity”. Contractor Harry Fairclough (Construction) Limited entered administration in February this year.

The council said: “Final account negotiations were ongoing between the Council and Harry Fairclough prior to Harry Fairclough entering into administration.”

In 2015, when the council first began work at the Knapping Mount site, the expected build cost was £8.7m.

Harrogate Borough Council said its intention was to unite all staff on one site, saving £1m per year through efficiencies as a result. It argued its existing offices across five sites were not fit for purpose.

Having first put its historic Crescent Gardens building on the market in July 2015, HBC finally announced it had completed a sale to Impala Estates in January this year for £4m. The company said it intends to refurbish the building as offices.

Two events at Harrogate Convention Centre have been called off because of coronavirus.

The Morrisons supplier conference on 24th March and the three-day IPIG medical conference in May have both been postponed because of the spread of the virus.

However, the AireCon gaming festival is taking place this weekend with 2,500 attendees and the Conservative Party Spring Forum is still currently scheduled for early April.

Kim Wilson, who chairs guesthouse group Accommodation Harrogate, said she believed the two postponed events were relatively small and did not bring significant contributions to the local economy. The Morrisons event would have been mostly day delegates, while those at the IPIG conference kept mostly to the venue itself. New dates have yet to be confirmed for either.

Discussing the growing impact of coronavirus, she said: “I think across town, and across the country generally, we need to hunker down a bit and do what we can to get through.

“There are big events cancelling elsewhere in the country but they are already rescheduling for September onwards. That would be a sensible thing for the Convention Centre to offer, to bring the event to Harrogate in a few months’ time.”

Retailers in the Harrogate district have welcomed the news of a break in their business rates to help them deal with the impact of coronavirus.

The announcement in this week’s Budget will see retail, leisure and hospitality firms with a rateable value below £51,000 receive the tax break in the coming financial year. 

It has been welcomed by business groups, with both Independent Harrogate (IH) and Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce (HDCC) saying it will be badly needed by businesses worrying about the impact of the pandemic.

Sandra Doherty of Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce

Chamber CEO Sandra Doherty said:

“This rates break could mean the difference between businesses surviving into next year and what could otherwise have been many more empty units around our towns. However, we shouldn’t be complacent – this is a short term measure and local businesses still need our support in the coming months and years.” 

William Woods of Independent Harrogate also raised concerns about the extent to which businesses would benefit. 

“It is just not fair the high street has to pay the lion’s share of tax when online businesses hardly pay anything. It’s only smaller businesses that benefit from rate relief for a year – what about good family businesses like Hoopers that will get no benefit?” 

He added that, in the current climate, Independent Harrogate would be renewing its calls to delay any planned increase in parking charges.

Nick Brown, the Conservative councillor for Bishop Monkton and Newby, has put together a list of wide-ranging questions he wants Harrogate Borough Council to answer about its involvement in the 2019 UCI Road World Cycling Championships in Harrogate. 

The list of 12 detailed questions, seen by The Stray Ferret, shows Cllr Brown believes there are still many serious issues around the UCI which need examining- from the council’s role in bringing the nine days of racing to town, to the liability for repairs to the Stray in the wake of the event.  

Cllr Brown, who declined to comment on his list, has already presented it to members of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission, which holds the council’s executive to account. The Commission meets this Monday to establish the scope of its investigation into the preparation for, and consequences of, the cycling event.  

Some of Cllr Brown’s 12 detailed questions:

• Is there any likelihood of compensation to those organisations who lost considerable amounts of money, through no fault of themselves?  
• What insurance arrangements were in place for the event and who precisely arranged them?  
• What due diligence did HBC do on Yorkshire 2019 to ensure they had the assets and abilities to reinstate the Stray in the event it became a mud bath?

News of the investigation has been welcomed by the Stray Defence Association. Its chairman, Judy D’Arcy Thompson, said:

“An investigation would be very welcome. We have been saying that some answers are called for.  We’re sympathetic to the employees of Harrogate Borough Council who are having to pick up this awful mess. I do feel there are people who should take more responsibility.” 

The list of questions concludes with a comment from Cllr Brown: “In view of the huge sums of money involved in running events such as the UCI, at a significant potential cost to our council tax payers, we should… give priority to our, hopefully, constructive investigations but above all take more note of the needs of all our residents and businesses.” 

Harrogate Borough Council declined to comment on Cllr Brown’s list saying the Overview and Scrutiny Commission is yet to take a decision on the terms of reference for its examination of the UCI event.

UCI Image courtesy of Tony Bailey