A Harrogate pub, which invited customers for takeaway food and drinks, breached the lockdown rules repeatedly over the weekend.

Harrogate Borough Council sent its enforcement team to two pubs on Saturday and reported that people were breaking the rules.

It gave advice to the licensees of both pubs and reminded them of the law.

The next day the Coach and Horses opened again and followed the initial advice before, the council says it committed a further breach of regulations.

As a result, the officers served the pub with a prohibition notice.

Read more on this story:

• What happened on Saturday afternoon?
• Harrogate pub owners said they followed government guidelines

When the officers were on site they were also subjected to verbal abuse from customers.

A spokesperson for Harrogate Borough Council said:

“While pubs are allowed to offer take away food (which may include alcoholic drink), they are not permitted to operate any kind of beer ‘garden’ on their property. This includes putting tables or chairs on, or anywhere adjacent to, their premises for customers to use. We will take all necessary enforcement action if a business breaks the current coronavirus lockdown legislation.”

The owners of Three’s a Crowd and the Coach and Horses on West Park Stray said they followed government guidelines when they opened over the weekend to sell take-out beer.

On Saturday afternoon crowds outside the two pubs led Harrogate police to urge the public to stick to social distancing as people blocked the pavements and were not keeping 2 metres apart.  It led to a large amount of concern on social media that people are giving up on the rules.

John Quinlan of Three’s a Crowd told The Stray Ferret that safety was their priority:

We worked with the North Yorkshire police to monitor social distancing and they were supportive and helpful throughout. Helping us maintain the safety of our guests within the boundaries of our pub.

The majority of our guests were sensible and followed the social distancing measures set out with only a few that decided to ignore these. With the Stray being closed directly opposite and people beginning to congregate we decided to close early and stop serving, asking people to disband.

Tables and chairs put on the grass verge of the Stray for drinkers at The Coach and Horses on Sunday

“You can go to Waitrose and buy a can and sit on the Stray and drink it or you can come here and buy a drink and do the same thing. The only difference is that every penny we take is going to Horticap. Saturday was the first day and a one point it did get crowded outside. You learn – today we’ve put chairs up on the other side of the road so that the pavement outside is free and we’ve put an extra barrier outside.

I have a licence to sell beer either on and off the property- what rules am I breaking?”

Whether Mr Nelson will be allowed to keep his chairs and tables on the other side of the road though, remains to be seen.

For the fifth consecutive day there have been no reported deaths at Harrogate District Hospital of patients who tested positive for covid-19. A total of 64 patients have died at the hospital of the virus since the start of the pandemic.

A further 85 people, who tested positive for the coronavirus have died- 25 in Yorkshire and the North East. The total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England is 26,614.

Patients were aged between 56 and 100 years old.  Six of the 85 patients had no known underlying health condition.

WATCH:  A moving video of the 10 weeks of Clap for our Carers in the Harrogate District .

On Thursday the hospital reported a total of 109 patients, who tested positive for coronavirus, had recovered and been discharged – an increase of five on the previous week.

We have noticed an increase in gatherings on pavements due to queuing for takeaways from various premises and then staying around the area with bought goods. Please can we remind you that when queuing outside premises, you adhere to the social distancing guidelines and enjoy your bought goods away from the queues.

What is the guidance for take-aways?

• Setting out clear demarcation for 2m distances for customers queuing.
• Asking customers to wait in their cars. Asking customers to order online, on apps or over the telephone to reduce queues and stagger pick-up times.
• Making regular announcements to remind customers to follow social distancing advice

What are the current rules for meeting others?

• Over the weekend the rules have not changed. People in England are allowed to meet 1 person from another household in a public place outside while maintaining a 2m distance.
• From tomorrow, groups of up to 6 will be allowed to meet. People in England will be permitted to congregate in gardens and other private outdoor spaces, instead of just in public spaces.  Public gatherings of more than six people from different households will be prohibited in law.

A group of 11 on the Stray on Friday evening

 

With social distancing restrictions in place, the coronavirus crisis has impacted on the way in which families and friends are able to say their final farewells to loved ones.

Harrogate Crematorium currently permits a maximum of 10 people to enter the chapel building for a service, but funeral directors are using the technology to ensure that meaningful services can still be held while ever lockdown limits reduce attendance at cremations and burials.

Sarah Jones (pictured) founder of Full Circle Funerals, of Skipton Road, Harrogate said:

” In recent weeks we’ve seen lots of innovations successfully enter the industry that would have been unheard of a couple of months ago.

“We are now helping to organise online ceremonies, using video conferencing software, which has been very successful. Friends and family can also provide messages, drawings, flowers from their garden, or even personal items to go on or in the coffin, which can all play a profound and significant part in the grieving process. It also helps people deal with the fact that they are not able to carry the coffin for the person who has died, which many people have struggled with.”

The technology means celebrants can still lead ceremonies, or people can do this themselves and share the event online and include as many friends and family in it, regardless of where they are in the world.

The family of father of four and grandfather of seven, Bruce Hammond, who died from Covid-19 aged 89-year-old, arranged his funeral through Full Circle.

Daughter, Jo Hammond, said that after considering the social distancing restrictions that would limit the number able to celebrate his life:

“We decided to fully embrace what we could do, rather than thinking about what we couldn’t do.

“As the hearse left the family home, family and neighbours lined the street. We then held a service using Zoom that approximately 60 people logged into, with a couple of people watching on each screen, and one of his grandchildren logged in from Germany.”

In 2018, Sarah Jones wrote and published Funerals Your Way: A Person-Centred Approach to Planning a Funeral, and the book quickly became a successful seller on Amazon.

Take a look at the 30-acre site that could soon see the creation of the first community-owned woodland in the area.

The project would turn an area of green land, known as Long Lands Common into a public woodland with 40,000 trees.

£300,000 is required to buy the land- before the November deadline. A public appeal has been launched and people will be able to buy shares for a minimum of £50 from July through to November

The woodland plan is being led by Nidd Gorge Community Action (NGCA) and it follows its  3-year campaign against the ‘Harrogate Relief Road’ proposed by North Yorkshire County Council.

Chris Kitson who is the secretary of the Long Lands common group told the Stray Ferret:

Where better to have a new community woodland than on the very same greenbelt land, between Harrogate and Knaresborough, that was threatened by the Nidd Gorge road? 12,000 people said they didn’t want a road and now the same people are keen to buy shares. We hope to have this community woodland owned by as many people in Harrogate and Knaresborough as possible.

It would be our contribution to the northern forest project- a scheme which aims to plant 50 million trees across the North of England.

Chris went on to say that he thinks the support comes at a time where people are feeling like there are just too many new buildings:

I think there’s a lot of concern about the amount of development on greenbelt land, it’s just getting too much now. This gives the community the chance to take back real control, take power into their own hands and collectively own a piece of the greenbelt –  to plant with trees, preserve for ourselves and wildlife, and leave as a legacy for future generations, instead of a road.

The community woodland would border the Nidderdale Greenway, close to its starting point at The Avenue, Starbeck and the Bilton Triangle.

Gary Lawson Photography

Large groups of young people have gathered on the Stray in the hot weather – breaking existing lockdown restrictions and new the rules that are due come into force.

From Monday, people can meet in groups of up to 6 people in outdoor spaces like parks or private gardens – as long as they remain two metres apart.

The Stray Ferret witnessed many groups of up to 11 young people on the Stray yesterday evening and today who were lying or sitting close together.  There was no police presence at the time these pictures were taken.

North Yorkshire Police have said their officers would be out and about today and

“continue to engage with members of the public, explain the regulations and encourage people to adhere to them, using enforcement as a last resort”.

What’s your experience of being out in the sunshine today? Have you felt people are abiding by the lockdown rules and staying 2m apart? Get in touch: contact@thestrayferret.co.uk  or follow us and comment on social media @TheStrayFerret

For the fourth consecutive day there have been no reported deaths at Harrogate District Hospital of patients who tested positive for covid-19. A total of 64 patients have died at the hospital of the virus since the start of the pandemic.

Across England a further 146 people, who tested positive for coronavirus have died, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals to 26,529.

Patients were aged between 46 and 97 years old.  Six of the 146 patients had no known underlying health condition.

WATCH:  A moving video of the 10 weeks of Clap for our Carers in the Harrogate District .

On Thursday the hospital reported a total of 109 patients, who tested positive for coronavirus, had recovered and been discharged – an increase of five on the previous week.

This column is written for The Stray Ferret by Steve Parsley. Steve’s voice was the first heard on Stray FM almost 26 years ago. This week it was announced that StrayFM will be turned into a national radio station, Greatest Hits Radio. The journalist-turned-copywriter reflects on its history – and the future of local media:

Memories of that first broadcast on launch day on July 4 back in 1994 are not as clear as they might once have been – largely because there were plenty of other events at the station after that which were ultimately more challenging.

There were nerves on that first day of course – enough to convince us to record the first-ever news bulletin at 7am in advance. We were that determined that there shouldn’t be a single stutter, cough or blunder to mar a watershed moment which had been years in the planning.

But the rest that morning were done live and, once the pressure was off, we were already beginning to enjoy ourselves – and, indeed, that’s how I’ll remember the first few months that the station was on air.

Stray FM’s roots were as an amateur operation run on a part-time licence during the Harrogate International Festival from a Portakabin on the car park at St Aidan’s School.

But, within a few weeks after its full-time launch, it had already become a popular community service; there was no doubt about that. The station’s minute-by-minute coverage of the first snows of the winter, the dramatic story of the animal rights fire bomb attacks on a gaggle of town centre stores and its determination to include local folk in its programming saw to that.

The groundswell of support was tangible and the presenters – and even the news team – began to realise they even had a little local celebrity. They were definitely exciting times.

However, the euphoria began to wear a little thin when the inaugural team’s enthusiasm and relative inexperience ran up against the commercial realities of financing and running a radio station.

Within a year, a new management team had taken the helm, there were departures among stalwarts who had been with the Stray FM brand right from its very inception and even a sad and devastating suicide among the presenting team.

However, slowly but surely, the station put a rocky first anniversary behind it, remained true to its principles – if not its original format – and cemented a place for itself as a source of local entertainment and information and as a new cheerleader at many of the Harrogate district’s local events.

Run on a shoestring in years two and three and now focusing as much on sales as content, Stray FM shrugged off its reputation for an amateur but well-meaning approach to broadcasting to become a proper RAJAR contender.

Some established names from rival commercial stations in Leeds even began to appear in its presenter line-up. News too was revamped to include a half-hour drive-time programme and live Saturday coverage.

But, perhaps predictably, the station’s success was noticed eventually by the larger players and, in 1999, Stray FM was to be acquired by GWR – then the owners of Classic FM – for a cool £3m.

The purchase certainly offered a great return for shareholders who had invested in the early days of the station, helping to get it off the ground. I remember staff being assured their jobs were secure and glasses being raised to a job well done.

But, for me personally at least, the magic was over. Important decisions were no longer made in the meeting room in Harrogate but in a distant boardroom. The station was also expected to conform to the GWR format. However, the final straw was an instruction not to focus so much on news but “infotainment”. From that moment, my own departure was inevitable.

Nevertheless, I remained a supporter and was as pleased as anyone when, in 2008, Stray FM was given an Arqiva Award as the best station for its size. I claim no credit whatsoever, but I still remember hearing the news with some pride. It was the same too when the station appeared more than once on the Sunday Times Best Places To Work list.

I will always remember my six years on the team with fondness. Indeed, my parting gift – a framed montage of some of my favourite sayings (which, sadly, I can’t repeat here) and commemorating the weird way I wore my headphones – still hangs on the wall in our smallest room at home.

It is therefore with great sadness that I heard the news this week of the station’s demise. I‘ve grown used to seeing newspapers I worked for become shadows of their former selves in a world where information is now gathered mostly for free on the internet and on social media.

But, for me at least, commercial radio was somehow insulated from the ravages on the online world. I thought it was still a place we went in our cars, for local news and content or for music on Sunday mornings.

The decision made by Stray FM’s new owners suggests I’m wrong and I have no hesitation in admitting that is both a shock and source of considerable sadness. For me, it’s also another step towards a grey and uniform world where automation is more important than character and content. But that, perhaps, is the modern reality.

Read more about this week’s news story on Stray FM:

• StrayFM to close as Bauer Media announce it’s to become part of a national radio station
• Harrogate district community groups devastated by loss of StrayFM

RHS Harlow Carr has seen a spike in demand for places at its gardens ahead of reopening on Monday.

The RHS saw delays on its online booking system yesterday as a high volume of people flocked to the website to book spaces to its gardens.

The gardens will be open from 10am until 4pm, but people must pre-book a space in order to limit the amount of people attending.

Due to high levels of interest you may experience delays in the online booking process; please bear with us. Please note you will not be allowed entry without confirmation of your booking. pic.twitter.com/VI5xUvpEHG

— RHS Harlow Carr (@RHSHarlowCarr) May 29, 2020

Safety measures will also be in place including floor markings for social distancing, screens at the checkouts, hand sanitiser for visitors and staff and a no cash policy.

A statement on the RHS Gardens website said:

“Our foremost priority remains the health and safety of our members, visitors and staff and we will do everything possible to ensure all government social distancing measures are followed.

“All visitors will be required to pre-book a timed entry slot in advance of their visit and visitor numbers entering the gardens will be limited.”

Meanwhile, National Trust attractions in the Harrogate district will remain closed this weekend.

It means that Brimham Rocks and Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden, Ripon, will not be open for people to travel to as the trust plans a gradual reopening of its attractions in the coming weeks.

Brimham Rocks will remain closed to the public until further notice.

The National Trust is set to reopen some of its smaller gardens and parklands from June 3 and advanced bookings will be required to maintain public safety.

Newby Hall and Gardens, Ripon, will remain closed to visitors. A statement on its website said it was working hard to reopen “as soon as possible”.

Further afield, Bolton Abbey Estate reported that it sold out tickets for the estate yesterday and urged people not to visit.