New figures on coronavirus deaths, which now includes statistics outside of hospitals, paint the clearest picture yet of the outbreak in the Harrogate district.

The government has released three different sets of data, which will be released on either a weekly or a daily basis.

The first set of data, released daily, is the number of deaths in hospitals and, with two more deaths reported today, Harrogate District Hospital has now reported 46 deaths.

The second set of data, released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), has revealed that up to April 17, there have been 22 Harrogate coronavirus deaths outside the hospital.

19 of those deaths outside hospital were recorded in care homes, one death was recorded at home and another two deaths happened in “other communal establishments.”

The final set of figures is the number of care homes that have reported a coronavirus outbreak, which is the first time this data has been released.

Of Harrogate’s 71 care homes, 26 have so far reported outbreaks. That works out at 36.6% of the district’s care homes.

Coronarivus testing for care home residents and staff has been patchy across the Harrogate district, as the government promises to make 25,000 home testing kits available every day.

Some care homes are reporting they have received the kits they had requested, while others are still waiting for a delivery so they can confirm whether residents have the virus.

For key workers, drive-through testing sites have been opened, but can only be accessed by arranging an appointment. In one case, a care home worker was told there would be a three-week wait, despite NHS advice being to test within five days.

Guidance on the NHS website shows tests should be carried out within five days

The member of staff from Emmaus House on Harrogate’s Valley Drive had shown symptoms of coronavirus, but after trying to get a test at Temple Green, just off the M1 to the east of Leeds, was told the next appointment was in mid-May. Another member of staff who doesn’t drive has been unable to access testing so far – but a third member of staff who showed symptoms earlier had been able to arrange a test.

Without confirmation of whether they have coronvarivus, those two staff members now have to self-isolate. Meanwhile, testing kits for residents have not yet arrived at the home. A team leader at Emmaus House, who asked us not to use her name, said:

“It’s quite frustrating. We’re losing staff for longer than necessary. They should make sure everything is in place before they talk about it on the news.”

A new testing site has been set up at Poppleton park and ride

The government this week promised to roll out testing across much more of the population, making 25,000 testing kits available every day and allowing key workers with symptoms to book appointments at drive-through test centres, including one created for the Harrogate district at Poppleton park and ride.

Statistics released today show that 26 care homes in the Harrogate district have reported suspected coronavirus cases and there had been 19 deaths in care homes thought to be related to the virus.

Testing kits arrive

Although some homes, including Emmaus House, have struggled to get deliveries of testing kits, others have received them this week. At Vida Grange in Pannal, staff have been able to access testing facilities, while tests have been received by the home in order to test residents with symptoms. James Rycroft, Managing Director of Vida Healthcare, said: 

“So far, five residents and numerous staff members have been tested. Of these, two residents and four members of staff have shown positive results for the virus. As we hear more on test results we will update the families of our residents in our newsletter.

“We are continuing to monitor the situation closely and it’s encouraging to hear the Government’s plans for a massive expansion in testing. The testing of residents and staff without symptoms could prove crucial in tackling the spread of the virus in care homes.”

At Belmont House in Harrogate, the tests are now beginning to arrive for residents and all staff will be screened. Similarly, Ripon’s Skell Lodge has received testing kits and has had negative results back for two of its residents, leading to cheering among them and the staff when the results arrived.

The Mayoress of Harrogate, April Martin came down with symptoms of coronavirus 5 weeks ago.

She isolated at home for 14 days after she started to get symptoms, but on the 16th day, she took a turn for the worse. She was admitted to Harrogate hospital where she tested positive for the virus.

April was taken to intensive care where she received treatment before she was moved to a ward where she stayed for 2 weeks. She told the Stray Ferret:

“I was otherwise fit and healthy, then on the 16th day I just couldn’t go on any longer… it was very scary but the staff at Harrogate hospital were amazing. If it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be here now.”

The Mayor of Harrogate was not tested, however, he told the Stray Ferret that he did have mild symptoms of Covid-19 whilst they were isolating at home. He said:

“When they put April in the ambulance and asked if I wanted to come and say bye, I thought to myself this could be the last time I see my wife, it was a very dark moment.”

Ripon City Council has responded to the coronavirus crisis by buying £1,200 worth of material and sewing equipment for use in the production of scrubs and  other items for frontline healthcare workers.

The council is currently in isolation and town clerk Paula Benson, contacted all 12 councillors – who unanimously agreed to the purchase of the material. It’s now been supplied to an army of volunteers across the Harrogate district involved in making the items that include masks, sets of scrubs and scrubs bags.

The material and sewing equipment was purchased respectively from local suppliers Reynard Fabrics of Scotton and White Rose Sewing and Craft Centre, Harrogate.

The Mayor of Ripon and chair of the council, Councillor Eamon Parkin (above) , told The Stray Ferret:

“The city council is delighted to support healthcare workers in this way and we pay tribute to the many volunteers, working in their homes, who have collaborated to make items that are vital in our collective fight  against coronavirus.”

He added:

“The council is in harmony with the community in Ripon and I am proud by the response that residents have made through numerous acts of kindness – from active involvement in the production and delivery of PPE, to shopping and the collection of medicines for people who are in self-isolation in their homes. Whenever there is a need, you can count on the people of Ripon to rise to the occasion. This has been the toughest challenge we have ever faced, but we will win, if everybody in every community, continues to pull together.”

Cllr Parkin, whose own business – The Magdalens Pub – is currently closed, has turned the premises into a community hub, delivering shopping and vital items to residents in isolation in the Hospital of St Mary Magdalene Almshouses and to local care homes.

Earlier this month, in a Stray Ferret article, Ripon City and Harrogate district councillor Pauline McHardy, who worked as a nurse in the NHS for 41 years, expressed concern about the shortage of PPE for healthcare workers.

She said:

“With fellow councillors, I am absolutely delighted to support funding for these essential items.”

A further 552 people in England, who tested positive for coronavirus have died, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 19,301.  87 of the latest deaths were in the Yorkshire and North East regions.

Harrogate hospital has so far reported that 44 of its patients who tested positive for coronavirus have died. This latest death was reported on Sunday 26th April.

The reported deaths today were aged between 31 and 99 years old. 38 had no known underlying health condition.

The NHS England figures released today do not account for those who have died of suspected coronavirus but were not tested, such as those in care homes.

Yorkshire 2019, the organisers of the UCI Road World Championships, has agreed to pay £35,500 to help restore the Stray, with the council leader promising that it will be back “better than ever” in September.

Harrogate Borough Council has appointed contractor Glendale Services to start this week. They will start by breaking up and aerating the affected soil as well as treating the grass with a spray that will turn it blue temporarily.

The council said grass will be left for two weeks for the treatment to take effect before the contractors return to undertake rolling, sub-soiling, and further harrowing in preparation for seeding over a week. Seeding will take place at the end of May.

To avoid further disruption, workers will fence off badly affected areas, including the footpaths.

They will also fix uneven flagstones and address the historical drainage issues at the corner of West Park and Otley Road.

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

That figure is based on estimates provided by the contractors with the council saying the costs for footpaths is covered by the “existing programmes of works that were held off until after the event.”

Harrogate Borough Council released these details a day after an exclusive report from the Stray Ferret which revealed that the council has set aside £150,000 for Stray repair work this year on top of the £51,000 already spent

Councillor Richard Cooper, leader of Harrogate Borough Council, said:

“It is great to see work start on West Park Stray this week. We hope, by the autumn, it will be returned to its former glory before it was affected by one of the wettest autumns since the 1970s. We have decided to use opportunity to address the historic drainage issues at the corner of Otley Road and West Park. This has been an issue and frustration to local residents for a number of years and I’m pleased to announce this is also being addressed.”

The new interim manager of Harrogate BID wants to turn conversations and plans into real action over the coming weeks.

Simon Kent believes the money put into the BID by its levy payers – businesses in Harrogate town centre – should be put to good use in making the organisation one of achievements, not just ideas.

“It’s difficult in any organisation where you have got a board of people all with their own businesses to run,” he said. “It’s easy to sit around agreeing things, but getting things done is another matter.”

In his previous role as director of Harrogate Convention Centre, Mr Kent (pictured above) said he was an advocate of setting up a BID in Harrogate from the outset. It was first proposed in 2017 by John Fox, at the time leading a group of volunteers to fundraise for the annual Christmas lights, and Mike Procter, president of Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce.

Mr Kent said:

“There are lots of people in Harrogate with similar ambitions for the town. I saw the BID as a way of moving these things forward.

“It would generate money which means, rather than just ideas, you can make things happen. That has always been the driver for me: it puts the town centre businesses in charge.

“I live in Ripon and I used to live in Knaresborough. They’re smaller towns but they also have a stronger sense of community. They have parish councils that effectively become the focus for the activities. There’s no equivalent parish council in Harrogate town, so I saw the BID as slotting into that gap.”

After he helped to get the BID established in late 2018, Mr Kent was vice-chairman for the first few months while the board at the time was working on getting the organisation established and setting up its ways of working.

Only three of the current 15 board members have been in place since this time last year, with resignations including then-chairman John Fox, who stepped down at the end of 2019 and was replaced by Bob Kennedy in March. The manager appointed last July, meanwhile, left the post within four months.

Now, having had his first meeting of the current board via video last Thursday, Mr Kent says it is a happy group:

“It’s difficult, because joining an organisation where you can’t meet people face-to-face is very strange. I’ve spoken to all the board members for an hour, or two in some cases.

“I understand their aspirations for the BID and their goals. It’s interesting how aligned everybody is. There’s a number of projects and some people are advocates of some over others. There’s good, healthy debate, but everyone is focused on a common goal.”

List of priorities

For the next three months, Mr Kent’s part-time role will be to help move some of the BID’s upcoming projects forward. Although the coronavirus crisis makes it difficult to set up events, the board has a list of priorities which it will be carrying out as soon as it can. These include:

• joining other BIDs to lobby for the coronavirus grants scheme to be extended to any business with a rateable value up to £150,000, rather than £51,000 as it currently stands.
• Investing “significant sums” in deep cleaning the town centre
• emphasising Harrogate’s floral reputation with more displays
• planning for improved Christmas lights
• making the run up to Christmas “really magical” with events and activities in the town centre to help businesses recover from the coronavirus shut-down

With questions raised about whether levy-payers’ contributions should be spent on work like street cleansing, Mr Kent argued that although it is a Harrogate Borough Council (HBC) responsibility, the BID’s money could complete cleansing work over and above the levels done routinely by the local authority.

Harrogate BID wants to prioritise street cleaning, to make the town centre attractive when shoppers return

Asked about the many groups in Harrogate and their overlapping work, such as Think Harrogate, Independent Harrogate and the proposed new destination management organisation with links to HBC and Harrogate Convention Centre, Mr Kent said the BID would play its part alongside others.

“I think it’s an exciting time,” he said. “The key thing is that the BID brings is a bit of extra money. The businesses have put into it and there’s a responsibility to spend that money wisely on making Harrogate the best it can be.”

People from all over the Harrogate district took part in a national 1 minute’s silence, to pay tribute to key workers who have died from coronavirus.

Respects were paid at 11 am on Tuesday morning. People from all across the borough stopped what they were doing to remember those who have lost their lives through COVID-19, whilst working on the frontline of this pandemic.

The event coincides with International Workers’ Memorial Day, an annual observance that pays tribute to workers who have become unwell, injured, disabled or have died due to their work.

Harrogate district gin distillery has opened a ‘Drive-in Market’, where people can either pull up and order or use the click and collect service.

Steven Green, co-founder of Harrogate Tipple has set the drive-in up at the distillery in Ripley. He told the Stray Ferret:

“People want to support local buisnesses… We have pulled together all these great companies in one place to offer a safe service for customers, and also support buisnesses during a crisis.”

You can pick up some Harrogate Tipple hand sanitizer, as well as supplies from local companies such as Baltzersens, Coldbath Brewery, The Little Ale House, Daleside Nursery and many more.

The Stray Ferret can reveal that Harrogate Borough Council will spend more than £200,000 on the Stray’s restoration after the 2019 UCI Road World Championships.

The council confirmed it has set aside “revenue expenditure of £150,000 or more” this financial year for the work. That’s on top of the £51,000 it had already spent up to the end of January this year.

Lawnmowers are out on the Stray today with scarifying and re-seeding work starting this week. The restoration work is set to continue until autumn – a year on from when the championships started.

One thing that is unclear is who will foot the restoration bill. It could be Harrogate Borough Council and so ultimately the council taxpayers, Yorkshire 2019 Ltd which was set up to run the event, or their insurers.

The Stray in March this year

What has the council done to restore the Stray?

By the end of January, the council had spent £51,000 on repair work, re-seeding on the West Park section and installing protective netting.

As of February, it had repaired damaged verges, restored bedding, repaired and opened all footpaths, and installed netting around waterlogged and unsafe areas.

The council has not released details of its restoration work since then or exactly what the £150,000 will be spent on. When asked for an update on progress, a council spokesperson said:

“We are addressing the historical drainage issues in the top corner of West Park Stray as well as re-seeding work.”

As well as repairing the damage, the work could include addressing the long-standing problem of flooding on West Park Stray, particularly if future events are being considered. Although, the council has said it is not taking bookings for the Stray until 2021.

The Stray back in October after the championships. Photo: The Stray Defence Association