LNER has resumed its direct train service from Harrogate to London.

From today, the operator will run six trains in each direction from Monday to Friday as demand rises due to the easing of lockdown restrictions.

Services on the weekend will remain limited.

Passengers must make reservations ahead of travelling and will be allocated a socially distanced seat. LNER also recommend that they wear face coverings in stations and trains.

Read more:

• Strayside Sunday: Build Back Better? I fear not…

• Harrogate and York train services to double with £10 million scheme

Onboard ventilation systems will provide a “continuous supply of fresh air” with the air cycled every six minutes on every train.

The company said extra cleaning is taking place both on stations and onboard trains, with teams using disinfectant and long-lasting virucidal fog.

There was “relief” at Harrogate Theatre as the government announced a £1.5bn rescue package for the arts, but the long-term picture for the venue remains bleak.

Announced late on Sunday evening, prime minister Boris Johnson said the money will help venues “stay afloat and support their staff whilst their doors remain closed and curtains remain down.”

David Bown, chief executive of Harrogate Theatre told the Stray Ferret he welcomed the announcement as it “had been a long time coming” but said they are awaiting further details on how much money might be available to them.

He said:

“It feels as though it’s good news but the devil will be in the detail.”

The government will offer £1.15 billion for cultural organisations which will be made up of £270 million of repayable finance and £880 million in grants, with applications opening later this month.

Mr Bown said the theatre is losing £1 million every three months and an injection of funds could help them become financially stable in the short-term.

In recent days pressure built on social media for the government to rescue the arts sector through the hashtag #SaveTheArts, with several actors making appeals, including Harrogate Theatre patron Reece Dinsdale.

Mr Bown said:

“We’ve all enjoyed Netflix over the last three months but it all starts here. Those actors have to train in theatres. There will be a matrix of consequences for some time to come.”

Read more:

• Harrogate Theatre raises £40,000 in emergency appeal
• Sponsor a seat to save Harrogate theatre from closure

Harrogate Theatre relies on a busy Christmas panto season to help fund it throughout the year which Mr Bown said they may have to cancel due to social distancing guidelines. He said this could have consequences well into 2021.

He added:

“The problem we’ve got is social distancing. We are the antithesis of that. We invite people to come in and share our confined space. That is the opposite of what we’re being instructed to do at the moment.”

Mr Bown also estimated Harrogate Theatre brings in around £25m a year to Harrogate’s local economy which is leaving a “huge hole” the longer it remains closed.

A video was published over the weekend about why Harrogate Theatre is important to the community, which you can watch below.

The West Park Stray has started to turn green again after months of mud. The sight of green shoots will be welcome for many who have missed the space.

Harrogate Borough Council started reseeding work just over a week ago and the results are already starting to show.

The work is set to be complete by September. The council’s leader promised that it will be back “better than ever.”

The grass is starting to show.

West Park Stray remains closed off with orange netting around the site. It allows for the seeds to germinate and also for the footpath repairs.

Read more:

• Why the Stray repairs contract was given under ‘urgent circumstances’
• When local contractors questioned the decision to bring in Glendale
• How much will it cost to repair West Park Stray?

Overall, the council believes that the works will cost £129,971, broken down into:

• £38,105 for repairs to grassed areas of West Park Stray
• £65,385 for pavement, footpaths, Heras fencing, bedding and verge repairs, reinstatement of bins and benches plus any additional council work
• £20,156 to fix longstanding drainage issues
• £6,325 project management and delivery costs

The Stray in late April.

Most of West Park Stray is turning green.

Yorkshire 2019, the organisers of the UCI World Cycling Championships, has agreed to pay £35,500 to help restore the Stray.

The council’s decision to outsource to Glendale Services was met with fierce criticism from local contractors who said they were “disgusted” they weren’t invited to tender.

It awarded the contract to the Lancashire-based contractors under “urgent circumstances” seven months after the UCI.

On Saturday Bruno Marks, a member of Cappuccino Cycling Club in Harrogate, attempted to ‘Everest’, cycling up and down Park Rash in Kettlewell forty times.

‘Everesting’ is a cycling term that involves choosing a steep hill and cycling up and down it until reaching 29,029ft – the equivalent height of Mount Everest.

Bruno began his challenge at 4:30am on Saturday morning and completed the challenge at 8pm that evening, climbing a total of 30,942ft. He decided to raise money for Cancer Research UK the night before the challenge.

Read more:

• Council plans to encourage more cycling and walking 
• Harrogate student runs 465 miles for MIND 

He told The Stray Ferret:

“The day started great at 4.30 am, with a fantastic sunrise on my first lap to lift the spirits, but by 6am an hour long downpour had started!  It made it pretty tough having to descend very slowly and carefully and getting very cold in the process.  But the legs felt strong and I completed 40 laps with 30,942 ft of ascent at around 8pm.”

Bruno climbed a total of 30,942 ft in very bad weather.

Bruno has raised £3,448 so far for Cancer Research UK. To donate to Bruno’s challenge visit – https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/bruno-park-rash-everesting 

Posh Paws, a pet supply shop on Leeds Road in Harrogate says it’s lost money during lockdown as people turned to online shopping instead.

Despite the increase in people buying puppies during lockdown, the owners said many of their customers have turned to online retailers for supplies as they don’t want to leave the house.

Brother and sister and joint owners, Michaela and Ben Stothard, told The Stray Ferret that people have been too scared to visit the shop due to coronavirus. Michaela said:

“A lot of people have ordered online because they don’t want to leave the house and that has affected us the most. A lot of people have asked us why we aren’t online but we don’t work like that. Me and my brother have been doing this for years now and we focus everything on our customers and their dogs.”

Read more:

• Rise in reports of puppy scams online
• Shops out of Harrogate town centre feel “left out” 

Posh paws have been open throughout lockdown.

Unlike shopping online, Michaela and Ben have been providing a hands-on service throughout lockdown which has involved a home delivery service as well as taking dog leads to customer’s houses to try on their pets.

Michaela said:

“We are always there on hand to answer questions, whether that be on the end of the phone or on messenger. I think the hard things is letting people know that we are here and able to help in anyway.”

Posh Paws has all precautionary measures in place including screens, hand sanitiser and markers in order to keep their staff and customers safe.

Today was the second rally held by Extinction Rebellion in Harrogate since lockdown – organisers say they want to make it a monthly event.

Around 70 cyclists turned up this morning at the town’s Library Gardens and looped the town centre to draw attention to the need for more sustainable travel.

It’s only 3 weeks since the group’s last rally in the centre of Harrogate. Organisers say they’d wanted to do another event quickly as many people had been unable to come on the last one.

The rally set off from the Library Gardens

Read More: 

• Cycling groups “must remain realistic” says council highways chief
• 26 cyclists a year injured in Harrogate

Victoria Wild of Extinction Rebellion Harrogate told the Stray Ferret

“There was so much interest in the last one, people who had missed out wanted to come. Alot of people don’t feel safe on the roads as cyclists – particularly women and kids. We want to keep up the pressure to improve sustainable transport and it’s nice for everyone to get together on a rally”.

Last week, North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for highways Don Mackenzie, told The Stray Ferret that cycling groups should “remain realistic” around improvements to cycling routes in Harrogate.

The council received just half of the £266,000 that was allocated to them by government to spend on temporary cycling and walking measures to help people use sustainable transport post lockdown.

Today marks the 15th consecutive day without a reported death of coronavirus at Harrogate District Hospital.  It’s also the 72nd anniversary of the NHS and the nation will clap at 5pm to mark the occasion.

A further 18 people, who tested positive for the coronavirus have died, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 28,889.

Patients were aged between 54 and 94 years old.   All patients had known underlying health conditions.

A flower bed in Ripon to celebrate the 72nd anniversary of the NHS

Read More:

• Strong indication the Nightingale Hospital at the HCC will stay in place for winter
• North Yorkshire Police thank licensees after “normal” Saturday night

So far, the hospital has reported 80 coronavirus deaths. The last coronavirus death happened on June 18.

The Chief Executive of the NHS Sir Simon Stevens has given a strong indication that Harrogate’s NHS Nightingale at the Harrogate Convention Centre will stay in place for the winter.

The 500 bed Nightingale Yorkshire and Humber has yet to treat a single coronavirus patient. Its CT scans have recently started to be used for regular NHS patients.

Sir Simon Stevens appeared on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show this morning. He was asked about the use of the Nightingale hospitals in the future.  His response was the strongest indication yet that the Harrogate Nightingale will stay beyond its existing contract with Harrogate Borough Council, which owns the HCC,  that runs until the end of July.

“We are going to use them in two ways, first of all as we’re doing in Harrogate and Exeter, we want Nightingale type diagnostic care to ensure people can get tests and check ups and also we need to sustain a significant part of that capacity going into the winter, given the concerns of a resurgence of the virus.”

“We’ve seen in other countries in Australia, Spain and Germany that local lockdowns are required because coronavirus will be with us for months if not years to come.”

Harrogate Nightingale Hospital was lit up blue yesterday evening to celebrate the 72nd birthday of the NHS.

Read More: 

• Harrogate Hospital has reached two weeks with no reported coronavirus deaths.
• Numbers of coronavirus cases doubled overnight after the data from mass testing programmes were added to official figures. 

Sir Simon has said that this virus could be “with us for months if not years”. His comments will have been closely watched by the hospitality industry in Harrogate as events at the HCC bring in millions of pounds of businesses.

The Stray Ferret previously reported that the borough council was preparing to reopen the convention centre in the autumn if the NHS did not renew its contract.

Strayside Sunday is our weekly political column written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party. 

Yesterday was ‘Super Saturday’. 101 days since lockdown, the nation is emerging from the social constraints and restrictions of pandemic into what I hope will blossom into newly respected and cherished freedoms, rather than revert to the taken-for-granted entitlements we had allowed to develop pre-crisis.  Many too hope that yesterday’s grand opening will herald the dawn of what economists call a “V-shaped” recovery, one in which the financial markets, business wealth and personal incomes rebound swiftly to pre-pandemic levels.  But should we wish for an old, rather than a new normal?

During the early days and weeks of lockdown, for those of us fortunate enough to possess a garden or other outside space, could not fail to notice the nature that filled the space we and our noisy humanity had vacated.  Birdsong never sounded so good.  Now, even approaching Independence Day, traffic noise and the hustle and bustle of life are coming back and nature is in visible retreat.  I fear we have not heeded Mother Nature’s warning and that we will revert to environmentally disastrous type.

With luck, Boris Johnson’s cry of “Build, build, build” will let loose a new, green and historically respectful economy. One in which the streamlined planning laws the Prime Minister promises, create thriving high streets and town centres, mixed and affordable residential and business use property, local shops and eateries stocked with local produce, with attention paid to making our world-beating heritage work for the public good of all.  I’m not wholly optimistic; a planned £6,000 scrappage scheme to encourage us to buy electric cars has already been, well, scrapped; and a bicycling revolution has been announced, but little evidence of the pedalling republic has yet been seen.

Meanwhile, our leaders here in Harrogate are, in a special edition of “Residents’ News,” signposting a move away from a posture of Covid response, towards one of recovery.  This is welcome, as is the news that the borough council does not face an immediate threat of bankruptcy.  It’s clear too that the council understand how much effort it will take to reboot our town centres across the district.  Indeed, the council has received cash from the European Union (remember them?) Development Fund and will be using it, they tell us, to run a campaign promoting our high streets.  This is great news and the perfect opportunity to bring activist voices together, to create a recovery campaign with the full and engaged support of those it seeks to serve, and to build the ‘Town Teams’ that the council needs, both for their fresh ideas and for their undeniable industry.  We look forward to hearing the detail soon…

In last week’s column, I discussed the recent racist Facebook posts of Darley parish councillor Ernest Butler.  In so doing I expressed my opinion that public representatives (whether they are elected or co-opted into their position, as Mr. Butler was into his) are always on duty and, as such, should always be held to account for any and all views they express on social media, or indeed anywhere else.

My column prompted corrective email correspondence from Harrogate Borough Council Leader Richard Cooper.  In order to respect Mr. Cooper’s express wishes I will not quote here the contents of his email, save to say that he was not impressed by my column, in which I accused the council of “washing their hands” of the Ernest Butler affair.  In fact, the council’s code of conduct does not apply to social media comments made by councillors “in a personal capacity.” My piece suggested otherwise and I am happy to clarify that the council felt their hands, rather than being washed, were tied.

However, in his latest and much reported bigoted outburst, that historian David Starkey was not speaking, at or on behalf of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, did not stop them stripping him of his honourary fellowship.  Nor did it stop Harper Collins refusing, henceforth, to publish his history books.  Starkey has been so unceremoniously given the boot, precisely because his employers know that public opinion is a blunt instrument and makes no distinction between what we say in a private capacity and what we say in public.  In short, if you are a public figure, no matter how obscure, you simply don’t have the luxury of sharing abhorrent views.

Nonetheless, my opinion – and it is just my opinion – remains that it is always the role of our political leaders to call out any racism on their patch, when they become aware of it, whether they choose to do so comfortably, within the narrow confines of written procedure, or on the basis of their implied moral authority; sought freely through public election.

As I hope to continue to write opinion about the council and local politics for our growing Stray Ferret readership, and given I believe in dialogue, on Wednesday I wrote to Councillor Cooper directly to ask him whether he would like to meet, have the opportunity to share his vision for the district and to have a no doubt robust exchange of views.  At time of going to press my email to him has yet to be acknowledged.  I look forward to a response.

That’s my Strayside Sunday.

Harrogate welcomed back pubs, cafes, and hotels with open arms on Super Saturday. Some even queued up for a slice of normality.

Lockdown has been tough on Harrogate’s hospitality sector so they have been anxiously waiting for the big day to arrive.

All businesses have taken extra precautions to make sure the experience is safe but some went above and beyond to draw people back in.

Caffe Marconi reported a line of customers first thing this morning desperate for their coffee and cake fix. Owner Sara Ferguson told The Stray Ferret:

“Everyone’s just really happy to come back and be able to do something that’s a bit closer to what they did before. It’s not what it was before, it has changed, but it’s still us. It’s still our coffee, it’s still our cake.”

Both Cedar Hotel Harrogate and the Fat Badger pub decided to go all out on their outdoor dining experiences. The hotel set up a tipi experience and the pub set up a beach on its doorstep.

Cedar Court Hotel has put up a tipi.

Wayne Topley, the managing director at Cedar Court Hotels, told The Stray Ferret:

“We have been making sure as a business that the customer has a choice. Do they want to check in on their phone, on a touch screen or face to face? They decide.”

Simon Cotton, the managing director at The Fat Badger, said:

“I was stood up here three weeks ago, the sun was shining. I just saw the space and thought it was great, we just needed to get rid of the cars for this beach.”

He also stressed that the beach is not a play pit for children, just a visual backdrop for people to enjoy.