Harrogate BID is set to launch its campaign for a second term at a meeting of its members later this month.

The business improvement district, funded through a levy on business rates for commercial premises in the town centre, was first voted in in January 2019.

Its first five-year period will end at the beginning of next year – but its manager and board are hoping to win support for a business plan for another term.

Harrogate BID chairman Dan Siddle said:

“Harrogate is a key visitor destination and working with our members, BID ensures the town centre excels as a place for business, to shop, visit and enjoy.

“The work of the team over the past five years has been focused on the delivery of five key areas: marketing, promotions and events; access and car parking; safe, clean and welcoming; business plus; and evening and night-time economy.

“The new business plan will see these five areas re-focused on three all-encompassing objectives, with even greater scrutiny of the return on investment in relation to each one.”

The new business plan will be presented to BID members at the Majestic Hotel on Wednesday, April 26. As well as showcasing the draft business plan, it will be an opportunity for the BID to highlight its achievements since it was established.

Among those are events in the town centre designed to draw visitors in, such as a lego trail last summer and attractions over the Christmas period.

It has also carried out regular deep-cleaning of streets, and added floral and artistic installations to make the town centre more attractive to visitors and residents.

It has employed a street ranger and used hosts to welcome visitors to town and give directions, as well as sponsoring free parking and free bus travel on selected routes to boost footfall in the town centre.

The ballot for the BID will open on June 1 and members will be asked to cast their votes by June 28. The result will be announced the following day.

Mr Siddle added:

“I am confident that the offering of our new five-year business plan and streamlined objectives will see a positive vote for the BID – from which we look forward to continuing our work in support of our members to make Harrogate thrive long into the future.”

Any BID members wishing to attend the event at the Majestic on April 26, which runs from 5pm to 8pm, can sign up by emailing the BID.

Read more:

• New chair to take the reins at Harrogate BID
• Harrogate firms prepare to vote on whether to continue funding business group

A training centre for the hair and beauty industry in Harrogate is set to be wound up after its director said she could no longer work in the “broken” education system.

Intuitions Ltd, previously based in Tower Street before moving to Station Parade, had been working with salons to train hairdressers for almost three decades.

However, Michelle Oliver said she closed the company in January after the Education and Skills Funding Agency reduced funding by 23%.

She said Intuitions had been heavily subsidising functional skills funding for a number of years, and the government had now removed funding for some areas of training including induction, initial assessments, and formal assessments of skills.

Ms Oliver added:

“Despite almost 30 years of trading, gaining a ‘good’ Ofsted result in July 2022 and an excellent relationship with our local employers, I no longer wanted to be part of what I feel is a broken education system with layer upon layer of meaningless bureaucracy that appears to have been put in place to prevent small independent training providers from succeeding.”

Intuitions had moved to Station Parade from Tower Street

The last Ofsted report praised Intuitions’ move to a salon-based approach, offering one-to-one and small group training. As part of this, the company had moved to an office in shared workspace Wizu on Station Parade.

However, Ms Oliver said the number of apprenticeships on offer with local salons had fallen since the covid pandemic, having an impact on the number of students training with Intuitions.

Ms Oliver is one of two remaining directors of Intuitions Ltd, having taken up the post in March 2000, alongside company secretary Berenika Wilkins. The company was founded in summer 1993 by John and Sheila Morton, who resigned as directors following Ms Oliver’s appointment.

She said former Intuitions employees had been given paid notice or made redundant and all had found jobs elsewhere.

Trainees and their employers, meanwhile, were supported to find other training providers.

A meeting of creditors has been called for April 11 at 10am, when liquidators are expected to be appointed.

Read more:

• Ofsted praise for Harrogate training centre’s new salon-based approach
• The Harrogate school providing children with additional support

An alternative Easter window display is catching the eye of shoppers and passers-by in Harrogate.

Art collector Mark Hinchcliffe has curated the display at West Park Antiques, which hosts 40 independent traders on West Park.

Mr Hinchcliffe, who owns The Chapel on Grove Road, has created a window that combines taxidermy with Easter eggs.

A white peacock, a golden eagle and a black swan are among the star attractions.

Easter eggs and taxidermy

Mr Hinchcliffe, who is keen to shake-up Harrogate’s art and cultural scene, said the idea was to combine birds and eggs to promote the life-affirming Easter message in an original and less obvious way.

He said:

“It’s a left-field and Victorian gothic alternative to Bettys Easter window.”

West Park Antiques

Lisa Hawksworth, who owns West Park Antiques, said:

“We always do our own window theme and Mark approached us about doing something new. We’ve known him for years and know he’s creative.

“Mark has a great eye and knowledge of design and when you see what he has achieved at The Chapel, it was an easy decision to let him do it.”

The display is expected to remain in place until April 17.

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Councillors have criticised North Yorkshire Council after it confirmed not all meetings will be live streamed online.

North Yorkshire Council replaced the seven district and borough councils, including Harrogate, as well as North Yorkshire County Council on Saturday.

It is the largest council area in England, spanning over 3,000 square miles with most of its meeting taking place at County Hall in Northallerton.

During the covid pandemic, the government passed legislation to allow council business to continue online. Meetings took place on apps such as Microsoft Teams and were live streamed for residents to watch on YouTube.

Since pandemic restrictions were lifted, Harrogate Borough Council continued to live stream all of its meetings whereas North Yorkshire County Council only routinely live streamed executive and full council meetings.

Following a question by a councillor, a senior officer at the new council confirmed in an email that the previous North Yorkshire County Council live streaming arrangement will continue.

County Hall in Northallerton

This means that at the moment, the only chance residents will get to see what is happening in a host of other meetings, including those concerning public health, education and transport, is if they travel to Northallerton.

However, meetings in Harrogate, such as planning committee, licensing committee and area constituency committee, will be streamed using equipment bought by Harrogate Borough Council.

But they will no longer include developments affecting Ripon, Masham and Pateley Bridge as meetings in Harrogate will cover the Harrogate and Knaresborough parliamentary constituency.

The email concludes by saying the new council is reviewing “what is possible and practicable” regarding live streaming meetings in the future.

Three-hour round trip

In some parts of Craven such as Ingleton or Bentham it’s a three-hour round trip to County Hall.

Andy Brown, Green Party councillor for Aire Valley, said residents should not be expected to travel to Northallerton to “watch democracy in action.” He added:

“Working online can save hours of travelling and make the meeting more efficient. It is crazy that I am travelling for 90 minutes to attend meetings that could be done online.

“It is wrong that meetings which could be steamed into the homes of every interested member of the public are not conducted as openly as possible.”

Andy Solloway, Independent councillor for Skipton West and West Craven said:

“The outgoing Craven District Council have been recording meetings for years, and live streaming them, especially decision making ones, would be a good thing for local democracy and for public participation and engagement.”

Read more:

• The Harrogate district councillors saying goodbye
• Plan to demolish Harrogate tempietto approved

Arnold Warneken, Green Party councillor for Ouseburn, also said he was in favour of the council live streaming all meetings:

“Someone should be able to open their laptop in their house and see what the council is up to. Sometimes it’s like watching paint dry but you can have it on in background. That is transparency and engagement.

“The meetings should all be streamed if we’re serious about carbon and the impact we make ourselves. There’s a lot of support for it.”

What the council says

North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for democratic services, Cllr
David Chance, said:

“We are committed to ensuring that the new North Yorkshire Council has local
communities at its heart, despite serving such a vast area across the county.

“The online streaming of council meetings has been an important way of making sure that access is available as widely as possible to both councillors and members of the public.

“Meetings of full council and the executive will be routinely streamed online, and we will continue to record and broadcast planning and licensing meetings that were previously overseen by district and borough councils.

“We will consider broadcasting or recording other meetings when there is a strong public interest or where there are facilities in place that enable it to be readily done.

“The new council is the third largest in the country, and now oversees services that were previously delivered by eight authorities in North Yorkshire. There are therefore a significant number of meetings each year, which is in the region of 200.

“We are reviewing what is possible and practicable regarding the recording and broadcasting of meetings, taking into account the facilities which are available across the county, the IT and democratic support that is needed as well as investment in IT infrastructure.”

It’s time to join the Stray Ferret Business Club. The fourth in our series of networking events, with Banyan Bar & Kitchen, is a breakfast event on April 27 from 8am.

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

Harrogate’s Adler and Allan has completed the acquisition of a Lancashire sewer monitoring company.

The environmental firm has acquired Detectronic, which is based in Colne, which specialises in helping customers prevent flooding and pollution.

The company said the move would help it to position itself strategically in the utilities sector and provide asset maintenance, environmental monitoring, and emergency pollution response.

It comes as Adler and Allan agreed a similar deal with Aqua Consultants in February this year.

Henrik Pedersen, chief executive officer at Adler and Allan, said: 

“This is our fourth acquisition in the utilities sector, and sixth overall in the last 18 months. It is a further step in the Group’s ambitious growth plans to support customers with a broader set of environmental challenges including trade effluent, wastewater management and the hugely divisive and the high-profile topic of CSOs. 

“With this latest acquisition, we are cementing our position as a strategic partner to the water industry to manage and monitor their assets through the full lifecycle.”

Neil Butler, managing director at Detectronic, said:

“We are delighted to be joining the Adler and Allan Group.

“The services Adler and Allan offer, combined with its established position in the utilities market, allows us to extend our expert monitoring and management solutions to more companies.”

New showhome in Green Hammerton

A housing company has opened a new showhome at a development in Green Hammerton.

Avant Homes is currently building a £21.5 million 80-home development in the village off the A59 called Ambretone Park.

The Avant Homes showhome at Green Hammerton.

The scheme is set to see a range of three, four and five bedroom homes built.

Now, the company has opened a showhome on the site and at its 154-home development in Easingwold.

Both homes include open-plan living space, kitchen with integrated appliances and boutique bathrooms complete with designer tiling and contemporary sanitaryware.

Dan Hardcastle, Avant Homes North Yorkshire head of sales, said: 

“Following the successful launch of our regional operation, we’re pleased to have opened our first showhomes in North Yorkshire for buyers to view.

“Our developments in Green Hammerton and Easingwold are already making great progress and we would encourage potential purchasers to come and experience our new showhomes first hand.”

For more information on the new homes, visit the Avant Homes website.

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Harrogate Fire Station demonstrated the capabilities of its aerial ladder platform in an exercise at York Minster today.

The platform, which is the longest in North Yorkshire, was utilised on Saturday during a chimney fire at the Castle Inn in Knaresborough.

It was in action again today as part of a training exercise in which Harrogate firefighters were joined at the minster by crews from York, Huntington and Acomb.

According to North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Risk and Reward Model 2022-2025, which describes how fire resources will be deployed, the only other aerial ladder platforms in the county are based at Huntington, near York, and Scarborough.

However, the other two are only capable of extending 32 metres, whereas Harrogate’s can reach 45 metres.

The platform can extend to 45 metres.

Read more:

• Firefighters called to Knaresborough pub
• Three months of roadworks on A61 from Harrogate to Ripon set to begin

A plan to demolish Harrogate town centre’s ‘little temple’ to make way for the £11.2 million Station Gateway scheme has been approved.

An application was tabled by North Yorkshire County Council in November last year to remove the tempietto in Station Square.

The proposal was approved by Harrogate Borough Council prior to its abolition on Friday.

However, a county council spokesperson told the Stray Ferret previously that the structure would only be removed if the Station Gateway goes ahead.

The council’s Liberal Democrat-controlled Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee is due to vote on the scheme on May 5, and the council’s Tory leadership has indicated it will abide by its decision.

The tempietto, which is inside Harrogate Conservation Area, was built between 1988 and 1992 as part of the redevelopment of the area to create the Victoria Shopping Centre.

Made of Jedburgh sandstone, its classical design was based on the work of 16th-century architect Andrea Palladio’s basilica at Vicenza in Italy.

The government-funded gateway scheme would see major changes to the public realm opposite the train station to make the gateway to Harrogate more attractive to visitors and more accessible to cyclists and pedestrians.

Read more:

• Transport chief faces Harrogate businesses on Station Gateway
• Local Liberal Democrats could determine fate of £11.2m Harrogate Station Gateway

It would also see part of Station Parade reduced to single lane traffic to accommodate cycle routes and James Street partly pedestrianised. Business groups and residents have voiced concerns about the impact on trade and traffic.

Cllr Keane Duncan, executive councillor for highways at North Yorkshire Council, said:

“Planning approval for the removal of the tempietto does not pre-judge the final decision on the overall Harrogate Station Gateway scheme. Local Harrogate and Knaresborough councillors will have their say on this at a special meeting of the area constituency committee on May 5.

“Removal of the tempietto is key to our plan to create a welcoming and attractive public space in Harrogate town centre. It will only be removed if the overall Gateway scheme receives support and goes ahead.

“We are aware that there is some interest from other organisations in relocating the tempietto and we are looking to understand if this could be achieved should the decision be taken to implement the Harrogate Station Gateway project.”

In a letter to the county council, Matthew Roberts, economy and transport officer at now abolished Harrogate Borough Council, said the borough council also supported the move.

He said:

“Evidence suggests that town centres are at risk of decline in the medium term. Consumer behaviours and expectations are changing and towns must diversify and advance to maintain healthy and vibrant visitor economies.

“The removal of the tempietto from Harrogate Station Square will open the space to provide flexibility for events (e.g. markets) that, in turn, will support town centre diversification and vitality.”

However, Henry Pankhurst, of Harrogate Civic Society, told the council in a letter that no proposal should be approved until the final plans for Station Gardens under the gateway scheme are agreed.

He said:

“We agree that demolition of the tempietto would result in less than substantial harm to the conservation area, but surely no application for demolition should be approved before we know what the final plans are for Station Gardens.

“Demolition in the conservation area must surely be accompanied by knowledge of what its replacement would be.”

Roadworks are set to bring three months of disruption to motorists travelling between Ripon and Harrogate.

The A61 will be dug up as part of fibre optics company City Fibre‘s £46 million digital infrastructure upgrade in Harrogate, Knaresborough and Ripon.

Work has been completed in most areas. However, signs have gone up on the A61 Ripon Road warning that nighttime work will take place between April 17 and July 13.

Kim Johnston, regional partnership director at City Fibre said:

“From April 17, we will be starting work on the A61 between Harrogate and Ripon.

“This work will last for approximately three months and will require traffic management on one side of the road.

“Works will take place 7pm to 6.30am, Monday to Friday, with the road returned to two-way traffic every morning.”

Traffic lights will be in place during these hours, and no detours are planned.

A City Fibre spokesperson added “there may be a small amount of weekend work, subject to confirmation with highways”, adding:

“If this is the case, City Fibre will actively avoid any weekend with a major local event like Harrogate Flower Show.”

The entire length of the A61 between Ripon and Harrogate will be affected.

Ms Johnston said:

“CityFibre is investing £46m in transforming Harrogate and Ripon’s digital infrastructure and bringing next generation full fibre connectivity to almost every home and business in the area.

“This is a major undertaking, which is why we work closely with our build partner, local authorities and the council’s highways team to manage disruption as best we can and ensure works are delivered quickly, and always to our high standards.”

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All Creatures Great and Small star Samuel West has poked fun at the number of brightly coloured warnings that greet commuters at Harrogate train station.

People using the stairs to cross platforms are greeted by a raft of brightly coloured messages imploring them to do everything from use the handrails to keep to the left.

West, who plays Siegfried Farnon in the Channel 5 remake of the drama series about vets, expressed his sensory overload on social media after a recent visit to the station.

The actor and narrator tweeted to his 104,000 followers:

https://twitter.com/exitthelemming/status/1642619635194372100

The post has attracted 4,500 likes and 249 retweets.

One person replied that it looked like a “seriously bossy set of steps” while another described it as “a sensory nightmare”.

Somebody else said:

“A frustrated copywriter finally given a platform… so to speak!”

Several commented they would be too worried about tripping to read all the messages.

A spokesperson for rail operator Northern said:

“We carry out regular inspections of the stations across our network and we’ll certainly take this into consideration.”

Read more:

• Fare dodging falls on Northern trains after fines increase fivefold
• Harrogate Christmas Fayre extended to 18 days

Harrogate Christmas Fayre will be extended to 18 days this year.

The market will take place in the town centre from December 1 to 17, over three weekends rather than two as previously.

The move comes after calls from hoteliers and businesses to extend the fayre beyond its original 10 days.

Destination Harrogate, which organised the event with Market Place Europe and the now-defunct Harrogate Borough Council, confirmed the news today.

It also said the event will see the return of fairground rides and attractions but did not give specific details.

John McGivern, destination events manager for Destination Harrogate, said: 

“We’re delighted to support our local businesses by giving them just what they’ve asked for – an extended Christmas offer that provides an excellent opportunity to boost our visitor economy even further at a crucial time of year.”

Dan Siddle, chair of Harrogate Hospitality and Tourism Association and general manager of the Crown Hotel, said occupancy levels increased in December 2022 “and a lot of our business was based on the new Harrogate Christmas Fayre”. He added:

“We were in favour of the market being extended and it’s fantastic to hear that visitors will have even longer to enjoy the Christmas fayre during a festive break in Harrogate in 2023.”

James White, manager at Victoria Shopping Centre, also welcomed the news, saying the “increased footfall is very much welcomed by local business”.

Nick Rhodes, chief executive of Market Place Europe, said it was looking forward to “bringing an exciting variety of traders into Harrogate town centre” and

Those wishing to be stallholders and traders at this year’s Harrogate Christmas Fayre can register via email at info@mpel.co.uk.

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