A former Harrogate Army Foundation College instructor has been sentenced after being found guilty of sexual assault.

Cpl Simon Bartram stood trial at Catterick Court Martial Centre in January.

He was found guilty of eight counts of disgraceful conduct of a cruel or indecent kind and one count of sexual assault.

The offences took place over a nine-month period between 2020 and 2021.

He was sentenced to 20 months detention at the Military Corrective Training Centre and five years on the sex offenders’ register.

Cpl Bartram was also dismissed from the armed forces.

The Stray Ferret approached the Ministry of Defence for a response to the case, but it did not respond.

Read more:

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Taxi drivers in the Harrogate district have said a new system for regulating hackney carriages will be bad for customers and cause cabbies to go bust.

The current limit of 148 hackney carriages in the district will be abolished when North Yorkshire Council comes into existence on April 1, paving the way for a flood of new drivers.

At the same time, a new single taxi zone allowing drivers to operate countywide rather than stick to their local districts will begin, even though 52% opposed it in a consultation.

Drivers say the single zone will lead to some places being flooded by taxis at busy times while less popular rural areas will struggle to book cars.

They also say ending the cap on the number of hackney carriages means licence plates they paid thousands of pounds for are now effectively worthless.

Supporters of the new system say it incorporates Department for Transport best practice guidance and “any negative impacts tend to level out over time”.

‘Totally destroyed’

The Ripon cabbies in Harrogate this week

Six Ripon hackney carriage drivers, who are supported by colleagues from across the district, met the Stray Ferret this week to express anger at the changes.

Katie Johnstone, of Johnstone Family Hire, said lifting the limit on the number of vehicles would ruin many taxi firms.

She said until now, people like her had paid about £20,000 to buy a plate so they could operate one of only 148 hackney carriages in the Harrogate district.

Ms Johnstone said abolishing the limit meant the plates now had no sell-on value, leaving current plate holders a combined £3 million out of pocket.

She said she took out a five-year bank loan to buy her plate as part of a career change two years ago and “it’s not worth anything now”, adding:

“I’m a single parent — I worked on minimum wage for years. I’ve invested a lot of money to try to better myself and they have totally destroyed it.”

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‘The system has worked for 100 years’

Keith Snowden, whose family has operated taxis in Ripon since 1926, said:

“It’s a ludicrous situation. The system has worked for the last 100 years — why change it?”

All the cabbies predicted many private hire drivers will get hackney licences because it would enable them to make more money by picking up customers from ranks whereas they currently have to be booked in advance.

They said this would create hotspots as drivers battled for customers in busy times in the most lucrative areas, and ignored calls from less profitable rural customers.

Anne Smith, of ANB Taxis in Ripon, said:

“Everything we have put into these plates has been completely taken away from us.”

Ms Smith tried to enlist the support of Julian Smith, the Conservative MP for Skipton and Ripon, but said he had been “absolutely useless”. Mr Smith did not reply when the Stray Ferret asked for a response.

Paul Dodds, of JPD Taxis, said he feared he and other drivers would have to “pack in” because of the changes.

North Yorkshire Council will replace North Yorkshire County Council and seven district councils, including Harrogate Borough Council, at the end of the month.

The drivers all said the new system was being introduced for the convenience of the council rather than for drivers because it was easier to manage than the current district-wide system.

Richard Fieldman

The taxi drivers said they would continue to oppose the changes until the new system begins next month.

Ripon cabbie Richard Fieldman criticised North Yorkshire County Council’s defence of the changes:

“They keep relating to Department for Transport best practice guide, but have chosen to leave bits of it out to suit them, ie it states that in areas where licence limits are in place, they should firstly conduct an unmet demand survey to see if there is any latent demand, before proceeding with the policy; they have failed to do that.

“The fact is, they have totally ignored the result of the consultation, which concluded 52% are against it.”

‘A coherent regulatory framework’

Cllr Derek Bastiman

There may be snow in the forecast, but Harrogate’s Stray is proving that spring is certainly on the way.

A sea of white, shades of purple, and splashes of yellow is carpeting the edges of the Stray as the district braces for a predicted cold snap next week.

Harrogate is well-known for its impressive display of thousands of crocuses each spring – many of them planted in recent years by local volunteers.

Bilton Conservation Group was one of several organisations to help plant the bulbs almost three years ago, along with Horticap and Open Country, in a project organised by Harrogate Borough Council.

Bilton Conservation Group chairman Keith Wilkinson said:

“It’s great news that they’re doing so well this year. It was a good turn-out on the day of the planting.

“The mixture we put in was the Harrogate mix — the pale, white with the vertical purple stripe. It was a special commission from Holland.”

The displays have improved in the years since the bulbs were planted in autumn 2020, and are likely to increase further in future as they self-divide.

Visitors have been enjoying the scene this week as the crocuses get into full bloom.

Young Emma, who turns two on Sunday (pictured above), was staying in Harrogate for a few days with her parents and took the opportunity to explore the flowers – and pose for photos.

Read more:

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Councillors have approved the transfer of Harrogate Borough Council’s wholly-owned companies to the new North Yorkshire Council next month.

HBC’s Conservative-run cabinet met last night at the Civic Centre to discuss a report written by the council’s head of legal and governance, Jennifer Norton.

The report recommends that leisure company Brimhams Active and housing company Bracewell Homes are passed over to the new council on April 1.

Harrogate Borough Council will be abolished on March 31 after being in existence since 1974.

The next day, a new unitary council for the whole of North Yorkshire will be created to deliver all the services currently delivered by Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council.

Wholly-owned companies

Brimhams Active launched in August 2020 when it took over control of leisure centres and swimming pools in Harrogate, Starbeck, Ripon, Knaresborough and Pateley Bridge.

It has overseen major projects such as the redevelopment of the Harrogate Hydro swimming pool and the construction of new facilities in Ripon and Knaresborough.

The new council will add Selby’s leisure services to the Brimhams Active portfolio from September 2024.

This will be whilst it undertakes a £120,000 review of leisure services with the aim of creating a countywide model for delivering leisure and sport by 2027.

Bracewell Homes was set up in 2019 with the aim of turning the council a profit and delivering affordable homes.

It is expecting to deliver 43 homes by the end of 2023/24, which will exceed its target of 40 homes by 2024.

North Yorkshire County Council already has a housing company called Brierley Homes and what will happen to Bracewell inside the new authority is unclear.

‘They’ve done very well for Harrogate’

At last night’s meeting, Conservative council leader Richard Cooper said the two companies have done “very well” for the soon-to-be abolished authority. He said:

“This to me seems very much like a tidying-up exercise, things that we need to do, belt and braces, in order to make sure that the transfer of borough council-owned companies transfers smoothly to the new North Yorkshire Council.

“I hope they will look after them because they’ve done very well for Harrogate Borough Council thanks to the expertise of the officers who have been guiding them.”

Cabinet members Sam Gibbs and Stan Lumley did not take part in the discussion or vote as they sit on the Brimhams Active board.

Aldi has included Harrogate on a list of 30 priority locations for new supermarkets.

The German giant wants to increase its number of UK stores from 990 to 1,200.  It currently has supermarkets in Harrogate, Ripon and Knaresborough in the Harrogate district.

The company said in a press release today it “plans to invest more than £400 million in store development over the coming year” and published a list of 30 priority locations.

Harrogate and Scarborough were the only two North Yorkshire locations on the list.

Aldi already has a store on Oak Beck Road in Harrogate, close to the site where Tesco has planning permission to build a supermarket.

The company offers a finder’s fee for agents who recommend a site, which is either 1.5% of a freehold price or 10% of the first year’s rent for leasehold sites.

It is looking for freehold town-centre or edge-of-town sites that are around 1.5 acres and can accommodate a 20,000 sq foot store with about 100 parking spaces.

Giles Hurley, chief executive at Aldi UK, said:

“Demand for Aldi has never been higher here are still some towns and areas that either don’t have access to an Aldi or have capacity for additional stores.”

Harrogate was also included in a list of desired locations by Aldi last year.

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Shadow minister Alex Sobel has claimed Harrogate District Hospital‘s use of agency staff is a “disgrace” that is harming patient care.

Alex Sobel, Labour MP for Leeds North West and the party’s shadow environment minister, told a Commons debate on the NHS this week a constituent called Marjorie Dunn spent just over seven weeks at the hospital last year.

He added:

“In that time she saw NHS nurses leave the service and she was treated predominantly by agency staff — mistreated, I have to say, by agency staff. It is a disgrace.

“When she was eventually moved to a recovery hub run by Leeds City Council she got excellent treatment there.

“She had broken her pelvis and been told she would never walk again, but it was the council physiotherapist who got her up and walking again. Is it not right that we should be supporting local authorities such as Labour-run Leeds to get such facilities as well as the NHS?”

Wes Streeting, Labour’s shadow health minister, said Mr Sobel was “absolutely right about the impact of the churn of staff on a ward”, adding:

“It can be quite distressing for patients to see the faces and names change every day and to constantly be explaining once again what their experience in the hospital has been, if indeed the staff have time to stop and talk.”

The Stray Ferret asked Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservative MP Andrew Jones if he wished to respond to Mr Sobel’s comments but he did not respond.

‘Workforce challenges’

Asked to respond to Mr Sobel’s comments, a Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said:

“We pride ourselves on providing the best possible standards of care for our patients, wherever that care may be being delivered. On the rare occasions when this has fallen below our expectations or those of our patients, we have procedures in place to identify this and ensure we continuously improve.

“Workforce challenges in the NHS are well documented. As a trust, we monitor recruitment, retention, turnover and staff wellbeing closely and have a bank of the trust’s own nursing staff, who are available to support where we have short- term absence. These staff are familiar with Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust and our standards of care.

“On occasion, we do need to use the services of agencies to support nursing gaps, however we expect all staff working at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust to provide the same standards of care for our patients, and we will address this if it is found not to be the case.

“Maintaining the health and safety of those people in our care is our main priority and we would like to apologise to anyone who has found that their experience has been below what they would expect. In addition, Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust work collaboratively across health and social care to ensure that care and services are delivered to our population in the right place, by the right professionals, which means there are occasions where this is a multi-agency approach to ensure the care be delivered as close to the person’s own home as possible.”

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Dragon Road car park in Harrogate is set to be closed for two weeks as part of resurfacing work.

The car park will shut from Monday, March 13, until Monday, March 27.

Harrogate Borough Council has earmarked the site for resurfacing work at a cost of £140,000.

The authority said the car park needed to be resurfaced as it had become worn.

The site is currently open to drivers on a pay and display basis from Monday to Sunday between 8am and midnight.

However, it is closed on exhibition days at Harrogate Convention Centre.

Read more:

• Harrogate’s Dragon Road car park set for £140,000 resurfacing
• Plans to build 72 flats and care home in Harrogate’s Dragon Road car park

The car park had been earmarked as a potential site to create affordable flats or extra care housing.

However, senior borough councillors decided to pause the plans in November in order for the site to continue to support parking at Harrogate Convention Centre.

Cllr Tim Myatt, cabinet member for planning at the council, proposed the authority should ensure that “adequate parking for Harrogate Convention Centre associated vehicles take primacy over site redevelopment”.

He added that the council should “pause consideration of this site until it is clear that the Harrogate Convention Centre redevelopment will be able to accommodate exhibition traffic on site”.

A senior police officer has said he expects to see an increase in the use of stop and search in the Harrogate district.

Police have the power to stop and search people if they have ‘reasonable grounds’ to suspect they’re carrying illegal drugs, a weapon or stolen property or something that could be used to commit a crime.

In special circumstances, people can be stopped and searched without these ‘reasonable grounds’.

Civil liberties groups have raised concerns the technique is open to abuse, especially at legitimate protests.

At Harrogate Borough Council‘s overview and scrutiny commission this week, Cllr John Mann, a Conservative who represents Pannal asked Rich Ogden, chief inspector at North Yorkshire Police if the force used stop and search to discourage people carrying knives.

Ch Insp Ogden said stop and search “is a really effective operational tool”, adding.

“Where there is an opportunity to search somebody, whether it be under the misuse of drugs act, or for prohibited articles, such as knives, that can be used for criminal damage then we should absolutely encourage that.

“So I expect in this area to see an increase in stop and search but I want to make sure it’s obviously done ethically and appropriately because it is controversial in terms of areas of society who will challenge the police and rightly so — we are accountable for everything we do and that’s why we have to make sure everything is recorded.”

Ch Insp Ogden said local police team meetings regularly reviewed whether the technique was used appropriately and correctly.

He said:

“It’s got to be done properly and it’s always got to be recorded and the member of the public that is subject to that stop and search is always entitled to a copy of their search record.”

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It’s time to join the Stray Ferret Business Club. The third in our series of networking events in association with The Coach and Horses in Harrogate is a lunch event on March 30 from 12.30pm.

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 district plant nursery has trained up 12 potential new managers as part of a company training programme.

Johnsons of Whixley, which is based in Kirk Hammerton, has partnered with BHP Consulting to enrol some of its team onto the leadership scheme.

The programme, designed specifically to meet the commercial nursery’s needs, is part of Johnsons’ long-term commitment to providing opportunities for growth and progression within the horticulture industry.

The company also runs a rising stars programme, which looks to train workers to take on senior roles at the company in the future.

Luke Richardson, sales director at Johnsons of Whixley, said: 

“As the business continues to grow and transitions to the third generation of family ownership, we believe that investing in and developing our management team is more important than ever, and we are committed to providing long-term opportunities for people in the horticulture industry.

“As a company, we have worked closely with BHP board advisor and training provider, Mark Roberts, for four years. Mark is well-versed in our entire operation and perfectly positioned to deliver the training.”

Mark Roberts, training provider and board advisor at BHP Consulting, added: 

“We developed the programme to specifically help support the managers in their current roles. It included practical hints and tips that can be used in their daily business activities, we also had the opportunity to discuss some of the current challenges and develop some new ideas and potential solutions.

“Throughout the sessions, there has been a very high level of engagement from all participants, and it shows the business has a management team in place to support its future growth.”

Harrogate College hosts passive house course

Construction businesses are invited to find out how to create energy efficient buildings as part of a free course at Harrogate College.

Called Passive House for Construction Professionals and Management, the scheme is fully funded by government and lasts for four weeks as part of a one-day a week programme.

It aims to teach professionals about passive houses, which are built to rigorous energy efficient design standards to help them maintain an almost constant temperature.

The course will be run by Leeds-based passive house specialists Pure Haus.

Kevin Pratt, director of Pure Haus, said: 

“Building energy efficient homes and retrofitting homes to make them more energy efficient is the future.

“I’m so pleased that Harrogate College has embraced the future of the construction industry and this course is a really exciting project for us to be involved in.

“We’re looking forward to installing a ‘mini pure haus’ at the college, too; it will be a real eye-opener for students and help educate them about how we need to build homes to play our part in tackling climate change.”

Danny Wild, Harrogate College principal, said: 

“Creating more energy efficient buildings, and improving the efficiency of the ones we already have, is an important part of the fight against climate change.

“We are delighted to be partnering with local businesses and community groups to raise awareness of, and offer training in, skills like passive house building and retrofitting.

“It is such practices that we all need to adopt, as organisations and individuals, if we are to make real change, reduce our collective carbon footprint and, of course, save money.”

The course starts on Tuesday, March 7. For more information on the scheme and how to apply, visit the Harrogate College website here.

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Social workers recruited from Zimbabwe and South Africa to help plug the social care staffing crisis in North Yorkshire have begun working in Harrogate.

Adult social care has been experiencing well documented recruitment problems in recent years, which has left some providers struggling to hire qualified social workers.

It has previously been reported that on any given day there are at least 1,000 care jobs available across the county.

To address this, a North Yorkshire County Council report said the authority ran several large recruitment campaigns in the UK for more than 30 social worker vacancies but had “very limited” success.

It found recruits were also often newly qualified social workers and not yet ready to manage more complex work.

The report said that with full-time roles unfilled, expensive agency workers have also been used.

Since August, the council has overseen an international recruitment drive with the aim of hiring 30 social workers and five occupational therapists.

Read more:

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• County council to buy Cardale Park site for care facility

The first cohort of social workers arrived in Harrogate towards the end of last year and the second cohort arrived in January and February of this year.

The new arrivals have been given three weeks of training and have also been allocated a “community buddy” to help them settle into their new country.

North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for health and adult services, Cllr Michael Harrison, who is also the Conservative councillor for Killinghall, Hampsthwaite and Saltergate, said:

“We have recruited 29 qualified social workers from South Africa and Zimbabwe using a network of specialist agencies and working alongside other councils.

“They will work across the county in what is a great opportunity to help this group of professional social workers further their career in North Yorkshire whilst filling vacancies in specialist areas where there is a national workforce shortage.

“We will monitor the success of this recruitment campaign closely, whilst continuing to advertise our current vacancies regionally and nationally.”