Harrogate Gymnastics Club, led by head coach Chloe Carey, is “excited to be back” after over three months off.

Since closing the gym doors on March 18, the gymnasts have been taking part in online sessions and competitions via zoom. However, they are now able to train in small groups and have set up an ‘outdoor gym’ in order to keep practicing.

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• WATCH: Junior tennis players from David Lloyd get back into the swing of things 
• District primary schools make scarecrows for the Stray 

The gymnasts videoed all compete at national level but have unfortunately missed out on this year’s competition due to coronavirus.

The gymnasts train in small groups and are socially distant at all times.

However, the girls are now determined than ever to get their training in as they wait for the go ahead on future competitions.

North Yorkshire County Council has published its coronavirus outbreak plan which includes the roll out of antibody tests and daily calls to care homes.

The plan recognises the higher than average elderly population in Harrogate, at 23.1%, by including plans to work with care homes. Plans to ensure quick, localised responses to a suspected outbreak are in place. Each care home will also receive daily calls from a contact worker and allocated its own liason officer.

The plan details how testing will be developed locally – mobile testing units will continue to be distributed and antibody testing will be rolled out.

For complex cases that cannot be followed up over the phone or via the test and trace app a tailored approach will be taken by a core team to provide the necessary support.

Research into specific areas with high rates of transmission has also been taken to ensure support is targeted correctly. Key agencies and organisations will work alongside the county council to ensure those in a vulnerable or high risk category are looked after.

The NHS test and trace system will continue to be used, but strategies will now be focused at a local level.

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The plan also details a number of groups which will be set up to work at local and regional levels to develop outbreak plans as lockdown eases and provide public-facing communication.

Alongside these initiatives, those introduced at the beginning of the outbreak will continue. For example, social distancing and thorough hand washing will continue to be encouraged.

Hairdressers will be allowed to reopen from 4 July – and clearly it’s not a moment too soon for many people in Harrogate.

The Stray Ferret has been out asking people whether they are ready to get back into the chair…

“I can’t wait, can’t you tell… look at my roots”

“I’m walking around with a mop on my head… I had to trim my sideburns as my wife said I looked like the guy from life on mars.”

“I have managed to get an appointment for the 24th July… So I coloured it for the last time last night… I am never doing that again!”

For over three months people have been cooped up, turning to kitchen scissors, freshly-bought clippers or DIY dye kits to keep their hair in check.

But now hairdressers across the country are getting ready to welcome customers for much-needed fixes and trims after getting the green light to open next Saturday.

Harrogate District Hospital has not reported any coronavirus deaths for the last six days.

The last recorded death at the hospital happened on June 18, meaning that it remains at 80 deaths for another day with 135 patient discharges.

It comes as hospitals in England report another 67 deaths. Hospitals in the North East and Yorkshire made up 13 of those deaths.

Read more:

• When Harrogate care homes recorded 90 deaths
• Why the hospital has not taken in any coronavirus patients for eight days
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Patients were aged between 52 and 98 years old. One patient, aged 86, had no known underlying health conditions.

Harrogate hospital said yesterday that it has not admitted any new coronavirus patients for eight days. It also said it is at the lowest number of inpatients since the start of lockdown.

A hotel worker from The Crown Hotel in Harrogate has been spending his mornings cleaning up the Stray after it turned into ‘an absolute eyesore’ over the last three days.

Andrew Langley has been furloughed from working at the hotel and decided to do his bit for the district:

” I have been out all week picking up beer cans, pizza boxes and all whatever else. It’s something I feel I have to do. It had been ok up until now but the past three days it’s been packed with people and its been left in such a state, there should be a fine or something.”

Vandals have pulled up young trees on the Stray in the evening that police officers cracked down on large groups.

Community police officers tried to disperse some of the larger groups yesterday and reminded them of the social distancing guidelines.

Some rebutted the officers and claimed that they were all in different groups of six or that they were all from the same family.

The levels of litter this morning were not close to the mounds of rubbish left the day before. A new problem has emerged this morning but it is unclear who is responsible.

Read more:

• When a volunteer described the rubbish on the Stray as the worst for six years
• Why some groups think Harrogate has lost its “feel-good factor”?
• When a group of young men won praise for cleaning up rubbish on the Stray

Judy d’Arcy Thompson from the Stray Defence Association (SDA) said this morning that the uprooting of trees just adds to the “horrendous destruction.”

“We now seem to have marauding gangs of youths wreaking mayhem on our Stray. The drunken, lewd and downright disgusting behaviour is going on all night every night. There seems to be no limit to what they will do or how disgusting their behaviour can become.”

Police dispersed groups on the Stray yesterday evening.

She added that the SDA has seen reports of mass gatherings, drug-taking and dealing on a huge scale as well as youngsters urinating and defecating.

An SDA committee member Guy Tweedy had planted the trees in memory of several people.

The Stray Ferret has approached both Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire Police for a comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Harrogate has lost its “feel-good factor” due to poorly designed housing being built in the town, according to a key member of Harrogate’s Civic Society.

Speaking to The Stray Ferret, Stuart Holland, joint chairman of the group, warned that the housing is putting the town’s “unique ambience” under strain.

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However, he said it can still be protected through good design.

He said:

“We’ve got to encourage better design but we won’t change it overnight.”

Several major housing schemes have been built across the district in recent years, with more in the pipeline as part of Harrogate Borough Council’s Local Plan.

Yet the design of many of the new homes are a familiar source of complaint for people living here.

Formed 40 years ago, the civic society published a new strategy earlier this month that hopes to influence better housing design.

Mr Holland hopes the strategy can help the group reinvent itself so it’s more relevant to a new generation of people who care about the town.

But what would the Victorian architects who designed heritage buildings like the Pump Rooms, Royal Hall and have to say about the new housing schemes?

According to Mr Holland, they would “be horrified”.

He added:

“They’d say they’re so small, they lack detail. But we’re spoilt in Harrogate with the architecture we’ve got. We can’t expect to be building the homes of the late 1880s.”

No museums in the Harrogate district will be re-opening their indoor facilities to the public on 4th July, but there will be one new museum experience in Ripon from today (Friday 26th June).

The dates for re-opening of museums in Harrogate, Knaresborough, Ripon and Nidderdale, are to be confirmed – in part because volunteers involved in the day to day running of the facilities need to be available.

However, Ripon Workhouse Museum, run by charity Ripon Museum Trust, will re-open its gardens to the public from today.

The ‘Inside Out Museum Trail’ will see the gardens of the former workhouse in Allhallowgate, open on selected days during June and July, with pre-booked timed slots to ensure that visits are spread out through the day so the site does not exceed a safe capacity.

The trail will help visitors discover features of the Workhouse Museum from the outside as well as an opportunity of enjoying the Front Garden, the Master’s Garden and the Victorian Kitchen Garden.

The Royal Pump Room in Harrogate remain closed

The museum buildings will not be open to the public, but a peak inside the windows will give a glimpse of how people lived in the workhouse. Some of the exhibits, photographs of life in the Workhouse and information boards have been moved nearer to the inside of the museum windows, so people can see them from the outside.

Director of Ripon Museum Trust, Helen Thornton, said:

“We wanted to open up our beautiful outdoor spaces at the Workhouse Museum for all to enjoy as soon as it was allowed and safe to do so. The Workhouse site has so much to tell us about how the poor lived and inspires us to think about these issues today.”

The Prison and Police Museum and The Courthouse Museum which are also run by Ripon Museum Trust, but re-opening dates are yet to be announced.

Read more:

• Nidderdale school fully re-opens
• Ripon housing development refused

There is also no opening date for the Nidderdale Museum in Pateley Bridge.

Museum chair Sue Welch, said:

“Our re-opening date is under discussion, but it won’t be July 4, as we have some matters to resolve first regarding staffing.”

A spokesman for Harrogate Borough Council, said that no dates have yet been agreed for the reopening of the Royal Pump Room, Knaresborough Castle and Courthouse  Museum and Mercer Gallery.

Two scarecrows made by Harrogate district primary school pupils were placed on the Stray today as the borough council announced seeding work has started.

Pupils from Belmont Grosvenor School, Coppice Valley Primary School, Killinghall Primary School and five other schools created the scarecrows for West Park Stray, which is being reseeded.

Ben Grabham, from Harrogate Borough Council, confirmed the sowing of the grass seeds began this afternoon and that the scarecrows will remain in place while work is carried out.

West Park Stray is currently closed off to the public and the fences will continue to surround the area for a further four weeks.

It comes as the Stray is being re-seeded and repaired after damage caused from the 2019 UCI Road World Championships. The council estimated that the work would cost close to £130,000.

Works continue on West Park Stray, but the scarecrow prop could represent that sowing the grass seed will be soon.

Read more: 

• Hundreds of young people gathered on the Stray to enjoy the sunshine but left huge amounts of litter behind.
• Council cuts down 12 trees on West Park Stray

The announcement was made during one of the council’s regular Stray updates on their social media platforms.

Here's Ben with the latest update regarding West Park Stray… pic.twitter.com/mdFhY3xU95

— Harrogate Borough Council (@Harrogatebc) June 25, 2020

Harrogate District Hospital has not admitted any new coronavirus patients for the eighth day in a row.

It is also at the lowest number of inpatients since the start of lockdown. That news comes as the hospital reached 135 patient discharges.

The hospital has not reported any new coronavirus deaths since Saturday, so it remains at 80 deaths.

A spokesperson for the hospital said it was fantastic news:

“A massive thank you to all Harrogate hospital staff. Thank you as well to everyone who has played their part socially distancing, shielding and looking after themselves these past few tough months.”

The hospital also encouraged people to continue following social distancing guidelines to keep the number of coronavirus patients down.