A councillor who owns Swinton Park Hotel near Masham has said a new tourism body for North Yorkshire is “not in the interests” of the hospitality sector.

Felicity Cunliffe-Lister, the Liberal Democrat councillor for Masham and Fountains, said an organisation should be created for the whole of Yorkshire instead.

Cllr Cunliffe-Lister was speaking at a full meeting of North Yorkshire Council on Wednesday.

The council is coordinating a new tourism strategy to boost the county’s £1.5 billion tourism industry, which is home to popular destinations like Castle Howard, Fountains Abbey and Bettys tea rooms.

A draft destination management plan is due to be finalised by the end of June before a bid is submitted to government to become a Local Visitor Economy Partnership, which would open the door for funding.

LVEPs are replacing destination management organisations, such as the former Harrogate Borough Council’s Destination Harrogate, following an independent review.

Read more:

• Harrogate council spends £2.2m on new tourism body in first year
• Harrogate council agreed £222,000 in exit packages due to tourism restructure
• Bid begins to create new North Yorkshire tourism body

Visit Hull and East Yorkshire was awarded LVEP status last month and Cllr Cunliffe-Lister said having more than one LVEP in Yorkshire risked wasting taxpayers’ money as LVEPs would compete against each other to attract tourists.

The councillor also referred to Welcome To Yorkshire, the tourism body for Yorkshire that entered administration in 2022 following a high-profile expenses scandal. It still exists but is no longer funded by public money and is now owned by private business Silicon Dales.

Cllr Cunliffe-Lister said:

“The Yorkshire brand is well-established and well-regarded nationally and internationally. It’s not in interests of the hospitality sector that this is fragmented.

“Should North Yorkshire achieve LVEP status it will not deliver value for money if it is then used to be pitched as a competitor destination against East Yorkshire or other regions in Yorkshire.

“What is being done to establish a generic county-wide brand that all regions will subscribe to and support and what steps are being taken to co-ordinate with other councils to achieve this?”

In response, Conservative executive member for open to business, Derek Bastiman, said “work is being carried out on that” but added it will take time as the council is still only in its second month of existence.

Cllr Bastiman added that workshops were taking place across North Yorkshire for people and councillors to add their input into the new tourism strategy. 

He added:

“It’s vitally important as much work is done on the coast as is done in the Craven area to Richmondshire or Selby.“

Speaking this month, Conservative council leader Carl Les called the development of the new tourism strategy a “major milestone“ for the authority. 

He said:

“We have such a breadth of tourism businesses and attractions which we can be rightly proud of, but we want to ensure that the sector can grow and flourish in the future and help support the region’s wider economy.“

Conservative councillor Paul Haslam was appointed as the North Yorkshire climate champion at a meeting yesterday.

His role will involve encouraging positive action over the climate crisis in North Yorkshire in the same week that an IPCC report said only drastic action can prevent “irrevocable damage to world.”

Cllr Haslam, who represents Bilton and Nidd Gorge on North Yorkshire Council, has been a proponent of climate change policies and the need to protect the environment since becoming a councillor on the now-abolished Harrogate Borough Council in 2014. He was nominated for the climate champion role alongside Green Party member for Ouseburn, Arnold Warneken.

Councillors then made pitches about why they are best-suited before members voted again.

Cllr Warneken said:

“My adult life I’ve been campaigning for the climate.

“In my workplace, in my private life. I’ve committed my ambitions to see a better place for all of us to live. I don’t really care who saves the planet, as long as they get on with it.

“My credentials are I won’t politicise this, I will do it purely from what I think is the council’s best approach to ensure their commitment to climate change is secured. If you slice me in half, you’ll see climate change like a stick of rock.”

Cllr Haslam said:

“The fight to mitigate climate change is vital. It’s the mission of this generation.

“I’m persistent, some might say relentless. I will use this role to engage and educate the discussion around climate change and enable and empower people to fight this change.

“I believe I have the anger and courage, curiosity, and expertise, to not only champion but embed climate change in this council. For this community, this country and in a small way, the world.”

Councillors initially took a vote on the two councillors sharing the position, but it was narrowly defeated after many Conservative members voted against it.

When voting for who should take up the single role, councillors voted for Cllr Haslam by 46 to 38, with 3 abstentions.

Cllr Paul Haslam

Read more:

• Claim North Yorkshire Council ‘not in people’s faces’ about climate change
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What is the council doing to tackle climate change?

Nearly all council services emit carbon emissions, from street lighting to getting rid of waste, heating schools and care homes. The council is the largest employer in North Yorkshire and is a significant landowner, which means it has the power to affect change.

In January the council published a draft climate change strategy that includes ambitions such as becoming carbon neutral by 2030, increasing walking and cycling as well as planting 37,000 hectares of new woodland by 2038.

But it has been criticised for its response to the climate crisis after it finally declared a climate emergency last year, three years later than other nearby councils in Harrogate, York and Darlington.

Harrogate and Knaresborough Liberal Democrats have called for Yorkshire Water to be overhauled following the company’s sewage apology.

Yorkshire Water chief executive Nicola Shaw wrote to customers this week apologising and said she will refuse any bonus this year.

Ms Shaw admitted the company had not done enough to tackle storm overflows, which release raw sewage into rivers at times of high rainfall.

Tom Gordon, the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Harrogate and Knaresborough, described the apology as “far too late” and “meaningless unless the firm is completely reformed”.

Mr Gordon called for water firms to become “public benefit companies,” putting environmental goals ahead of profits and making it compulsory for environmental experts to sit on their boards.

He said this would put an end to billions of pounds being wasted in dividends whilst sewage destroys waterways.

The local Lib Dems also called for an apology from local Conservative MPs for what it described as “voting down tougher action on water firms”.

Mr Gordon said:

“This announcement is too little too late after years of putting public health at risk and large-scale environmental damage, which has previously been arrogantly dismissed by the water industry.

“This apology means nothing unless the firm is completely reformed from top to bottom. Protecting the environment should be more important than making overseas investors rich. Sadly, Yorkshire Water still has their priorities all wrong.

“To add insult to injury, this Conservative Government and our local MP have spent recent years voting down tougher action on polluting water firms. They too owe people an apology.”

Read more:

• Yorkshire Water chief executive apologises for sewage failures
• Historic hotels in Harrogate, Ripon and Knaresborough set to re-open

Andrew Jones MP welcomes £180m pledge

Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, described Yorkshire Water’s pledge to spend £180 million between now and 2025 into reducing discharges from storm overflows as “a significant commitment”.

Mr Jones added:

“This is in addition to the £147m already committed in Yorkshire Water’s business plan.  I am pleased to see too that the commitment is to do even more in their five-year-plan between 2025 and 2030.  This will build on the decrease in the operation of storm overflows in Yorkshire last year.

“I note as well that dividends have not been paid to shareholders by Yorkshire Water since 2017.  In the current climate this is the right call for the company to have made.”

Mr Jones added that although “significant progress” needs to be made on river quality, progress had been made.

Mr Jones (left) campaigning for better water quality at Knaresborough Lido.

He said:

“In 2009, 75 per cent of bathing water sites were classed as good or excellent. In 2022 the figure was over 92 per cent.  This has been achieved through improved monitoring, infrastructure and enforcement.

“We have seen too much of the he-said-she-said politicking about this issue.  Despite what some like to pretend, no politician has ever voted to discharge raw sewage into rivers.  What we need, and what we are getting, is action – local and national – not US-style attack politics.

“That is why I am working with the Nidd Action Group, Yorkshire Water, the Environment Agency, businesses and residents to compile a case to put to DEFRA to designate the River Nidd at the Lido in Knaresborough as a bathing water quality site.

“The survey work starts tomorrow and anyone who wants to join the team can contact my office or the Nidd Action Group through their website.”

A cyclist has been seriously injured after a collision with a car in Harrogate.

North Yorkshire Police has appealed for witnesses to the incident, which involved a silver Vauxhall Insignia and a woman cyclist.

It happened on Wetherby Road, at the junction of St Nicholas Road, at around 6pm on Monday (May 15).

The cyclist, a woman in her 60s, was taken to hospital by ambulance for serious injuries, including a fractured arm. She has since been discharged.

A police statement said:

“We are appealing for witnesses to the collision or anyone who recalls seeing the car or the cyclist prior to the collision, to get in touch as soon as possible to assist the investigation.

“In particular, we are appealing for any dash-cam footage of the collision.

“If you can help, please email gary.dukes@northyorkshire.police.uk , or contact North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2, and ask for Tc 1266 Dukes.

“Please quote the North Yorkshire Police reference number 12230088421.”

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Harrogate Pride in Diversity has been cancelled again, with the organisers once more citing a lack of volunteers.

The event, which started with a parade through town followed by live music and entertainment in Valley Gardens, drew crowds of up to 26,000.

But it has not been held since 2019, and the latest cancellation after covid has led to an attempt to set-up a new event over the August bank holiday.

Harrogate Pride in Diversity posted on its Facebook page:

“We are so proud of all we have done together in the last few years, but recently life has gotten in the way. Our committee has become smaller, and our lives have become busier.

“We are taking a break from Pride in Diversity. Not forever, but for a little while.

“There will be no Pride in Diversity event this year, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be back.”

Read more:

• Harrogate Pride in Diversity cancelled as volunteers sought for 2023
• Catwalk line up announced for the Harrogate Fashion Show on Saturday

The news prompted Craig Joynson and his wife Rea to start planning a free August event with a view to growing the LGBTQIA+ scene in Harrogate. They have set up their own Harrogate Pride Events Facebook page.

The event in 2019 in Valley Gardens

Mr Joynson said the local LGBTQIA+ community was currently under-served, adding:

“I am looking to provide some form of not-for-profit Pride event over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Not a full on Pride parade — hopefully that’ll be next year — but a social event of some kind.”

Mr Joynson, a former DJ, added he had a venue and DJs lined up and he hoped it could lead to regular monthly events for LGBTQIA+ people and perhaps the return of a Pride march next year.

Harrogate’s Army Foundation College has a “much improved climate” after allegations of abuse and sexual assault, a government minister has said.

Baroness Goldie, a Ministry of Defence minister, told the House of Lords the college had taken steps to improve and that this was reflected by an Ofsted report in 2021.

It comes after the college on Penny Pot Lane, which trains junior soldiers aged 16 and 17, was hit by allegations of abuse and bullying in 2021.

In February, former instructor Simon Bartram was found guilty of disgraceful conduct and sexual assault over a nine-month period between 2020 and 2021.

Meanwhile, Corporal Kimberley Hey was demoted in rank in November 2021 after being convicted of punching teenage soldiers at the college.

This past week, Lord Browne of Ladyton, a former minister in the MOD under the last Labour government, asked Baroness Goldie what steps the government had taken to improve the inspection of welfare and safeguarding at the college.

Lord Browne pointed out the college itself had recorded 72 complaints of violence by staff between 2014 and 2023, of which 13 cases had been proven.

He said:

“How can the Ministry of Defence be comfortable with this? 

“What steps, if any, is it taking to improve the inspection of welfare and safeguarding at the AFC?”

Baroness Goldie described the incidents as “profoundly regrettable and utterly unacceptable”.

Read more:

• Parents call for Harrogate army college to be closed after abuse claims
• Harrogate Army Foundation College instructor demoted for punching teenage soldiers
• Former Harrogate Army Foundation College instructor sentenced for sex assault

However, she added the college had learned from the incidents and “introduced important changes” which were reflected in an Ofsted report in 2021.

Baroness Goldie said the MOD had also introduced new policies to deal with sexual offences, which had helped to improve the situation at the college.

She said:

“The MoD has introduced new policies and changes to deal with sexual offences and unacceptable sexual behaviour below the criminal threshold. 

“It has taken steps to improve the complaints system, has created the Defence Serious Crime Unit and has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual offences and sexual relationships between instructors and trainees. 

“All of that now reflects a much-improved climate at the college.”

Referring to Bartram, she confirmed the former instructor had been dismissed from the armed forces and added the government had taken “significant steps” to prevent similar incidents happening again.

She said:

“Sadly, we cannot ever eliminate the prospect of something unacceptable happening, but significant steps have been taken to try to reduce that possibility.”

It’s time to join the Stray Ferret Business Club. Our next networking event is after-work drinks at Manahatta, on May 25th at 5:30.

Don’t miss out on this chance to network with businesses from across the Harrogate district. Get your tickets by clicking or tapping here.

A Harrogate law firm has announced it has extended a partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society for another year.

LCF Law, which is based on Station Parade, will work with the charity to help create wills for people who wish to donate to the society in their will.

The firm has worked with the Alzheimer’s Society for several years and works with dozens of people every year to draw up their will for free, in exchange for a donation to the charity.

Neil Shaw, head of personal law at LCF Law, said: 

“After promoting this partnership to many organisations and community groups throughout Wharfedale, we have had plenty of interest from local people keen to donate or leave a bigger legacy in their will to the charity.

“We also have a similar partnership with Cancer Research and it’s a great way of supporting two charities that make a real difference to so many people.”

Harrogate Town awarded family excellence status

Harrogate Town has been awarded English Football League Family Excellence status for the first time.

The scheme recognises the continuous improvement and best practice that emerges across the league and rewards clubs for their efforts in attracting and retaining young supporters.

It will see the club receive two visit assessments each season, in order to determine the quality of the family matchday experiences they provide.

On the award, Hamilton Mattock, fan engagement manager, said:

“We are really pleased to receive the Family Excellence status; this is a testament to all the hard work everyone within the club has put into making Harrogate Town a family friendly experience on a matchday.

“This is only the beginning of the journey as we strive to continue to improve our supporters match day experience while continuing to improve on our facilities and touchpoints.”

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Three historic hotels in Harrogate, Ripon and Knaresborough have announced details of when they plan to reopen.

The St George Hotel in Harrogate, the Spa Hotel in Ripon and the Dower House in Knaresborough are all currently closed.

They have been acquired by the Inn Collection Group, which has 32 venues in northern England, and are undergoing major refurbishments.

They have also been renamed as the Harrogate Inn, the Ripon Inn and the Knaresborough Inn.

An Inn Collection Group spokesman revealed today the Harrogate Inn will reopen on July 3. It will have 96 rooms, six more than previously. The six extra rooms are all ground floor suites.

The former St George Hotel, Harrogate

The Ripon Inn will reopen on August 20 with 58 rooms, compared with 43 previously.

The Knaresborough Inn is expected to be the second of the three venues to re-open. A date has not been set but it is expected to be early August. It will have 57 rooms, compared with 38 previously.

The Harrogate and Ripon inns are both accepting bookings now.

The Dower House has a new name and look

The spokesman said:

“The three sites have have undergone significant refurbishment and investment.

“All three will have new look bar and restaurant areas on reopening, and also have had additional rooms added to their stock.”

As part of the reopening activity, all three sites are running a free dinner promotion for guests.

Read more:

• St George Hotel in Harrogate to close at end of month
• Ripon’s Spa Hotel to reopen following sale
• New opening dates for Harrogate and Knaresborough leisure centres revealed

Thirty-two solar panels will be installed on Harrogate’s Coppice Valley Primary School after the council gave the go-ahead to the proposal.

Red Kite Learning Trust, which runs the school, tabled the plan with North Yorkshire Council last month.

It will see the panels installed on the school’s roof to generate 13.6 kwp of renewable energy. 

The council has since approved the proposal.

In documents submitted to the council, the trust said it felt the panels would help to enhance the character of the building.

It said:

“It is considered that the proposed solar panels would be complementary to the character of the building.

“The visual appearance of the solar panels on the roofed area is considered appropriate for the school building, thereby enhancing the visionary appearance of the site as an up-to-date centre for learning, creating responsible citizens for tomorrow’s world with an appreciation for their surroundings and a duty of care for the environment.

“It is considered that the panels could have a positive impact on the character of the building and no overall detrimental impact on the surrounding area.”

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