Residents in Harrogate’s Kingsley ward say construction traffic has left them worrying about harmful dust and air pollution — but a “weak” Harrogate Borough Council has done little to clamp down on developers. 

Over 700 homes will eventually be built in the ward by five different developers but Kingsley Road and Kingsley Drive are accessed off the busy Knaresborough Road.

This has led to lorries and trucks driving through residential roads to get to the building sites.

Residents say the construction traffic has resulted in vast amounts of dust and dirt from lorries ending up on roads, cars and houses. They say it’s so bad they worry they’ll have to wear masks to protect themselves.

Gary Tremble, from Kingsley Ward Action Group (KWAG), said:

“We have complained for over three years yet to this day the wagons travel down our residential street spewing out dust in summer and dirt in winter, we now even have fully laden uncovered wagons taking dirt into the developments.”

Mr Tremble believes the dust is made up of PM10, an air pollutant typically seen on building sites. When breathed in, it can penetrate deep into the lungs.

Exposure to high concentrations of PM10 has been linked by scientists to asthma attacks, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes.

‘We’ve been ignored’

When a development receives planning permission from HBC, conditions are attached that stipulate how housebuilders will minimise the impact of issues including dirt and dust.

This sometimes involves making sure there are onsite wheel cleaners and covering wagons that are carrying materials or waste.

Mr Tremble added:

“We’ve made hundreds of complaints to Harrogate Borough Council but enforcement but are weak. They don’t do anything and we’ve been ignored.”

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The issue of how effective the council’s planning enforcement team was raised at a council meeting this week.

Conservative councillor for Old Bilton, Paul Haslam, said he and other councillors had received complaints from KWAG accusing the council’s planning enforcement team of not ensuring that conditions were being upheld.

Conservative councillor for the Washburn ward, Victoria Oldham, asked Cllr Haslam if he thought HBC’s planning enforcement team was acting on complaints from residents “in a timeous manner”.

Cllr Haslam said he was concerned that enforcement officers “don’t have enough support”. He said:

“Quite clearly, guidelines are being flaunted [sic] by the developers. We need to make sure we are seen to protect our residents.”

‘Addressing the concerns’

In response to KWAG, a Harrogate Borough Council spokesperson said:

“We are aware of concerns relating to dust from HGVs entering and exiting the development(s) on Kingsley Road and have allocated a case officer to address these concerns.

“We have discussed the matter with the county council and the developer and have reminded them of actions they must maintain as per the conditions of the planning permission.

“These actions have been actioned – as well as some further recommendation, including road sweeping – by the developer and we will continue to closely assess this situation to ensure they continue to do so.”

Starbeck Tennis Club is staging a fun day this weekend to celebrate its 65th anniversary.

A vintage tennis tournament, live music, barbecue and bouncy castle are among the planned activities.

The club, which has three all-weather artificial grass courts on Bogs Lane, offers competitive match tennis in the Harrogate and York tennis leagues as well as friendly tennis.

Founded in 1957, it currently has about 100 members.

Club secretary Abbé Steele said:

“We are a really social club and often get around 20 members on our weekly mix-in nights where anyone can come along of all standards and play.

“We are in desperate need of a clubhouse face lift so the money raised on the day will be going towards this.”

Everyone is welcome to attend Sunday’s event, which lasts from noon until 5pm and includes a tournament using vintage tennis rackets.

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Harrogate Borough Council has agreed to sell a plot of land next to Oak Beck retail park.

The land, a former quarry extending to a third of an acre, was put up for sale by the council in order to encourage economic development.

It sits next to the retail park off Skipton Road, where Aldi and B&Q are based.

Council officials said the authority received six offers for the site after it had been put on the market. Senior councillors agreed to the sale at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, though it was not revealed who the buyer is.

Cllr Graham Swift, cabinet member for resources at the borough council, said the cash received from the sale would help fund major projects, such as the planned redevelopment of Harrogate Convention Centre.

He told the meeting:

“This summarises the fact that in our asset management strategy, we have taken the opportunity to sell off small parcels of non-strategic land which enables us to then fund very considerable investments that viewers and residents will be hearing tonight around the HCC, leisure complexes and the significant investment we’re making in enhanced services.

“So it speaks such a lot of sense and it’s a very clear, fair market programme and I am very happy to move the project.”

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The best of the Harrogate district’s allotment produce will be on show in the town’s Valley Gardens this weekend.

The annual Harrogate District Allotment Show will see keen growers submit the results of their hard work for judging.

Taking place for the 61st time, the event is held in the Sun Pavilion and is free to attend. Judging will be held on Sunday from 10am before the Mayor of the Borough of Harrogate, Cllr Victoria Oldham, officially opens the show.

It is organised by Harrogate and District Allotment Federation, which has 16 member allotments in its group, sharing tips and knowledge to improve their results.

Secretary Angela Dicken said:

“Entries are slightly down on last year, but I think that’s to do with the weather. We will be a bit weather-hit this year, particularly because the entries had to be in 10 days ago when it was very hot.

“The entries for the flowers show have been quite badly hit. But we have still got a good selection for judging and for people to see.

“There are some people who enter every year, but we always get some new allotment holders entering too. Sometimes people think you have to be a real expert gardener to take part, but really you just need some nice veg.

“I would always encourage people to come and have a look if they are thinking of entering next year, to get an idea of what it’s all about.”

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As well as viewing the exhibits, visitors can buy cakes, produce, plants and books donated by plot holders from across the district. A tombola and raffle will be held, alongside stalls from local organisations and charities.

Live music will be provided from 1.30pm when Stray Horns take to the bandstand.

Produce from the show will be donated to food waste charity Resurrected Bites, while proceeds from any sales will be given to Woodlands Community Garden.

In his garden in Harrogate, James Clark looks through a telescope to millions of light years away, almost all the way back to the start of the universe.

He explains why astronomy fires his passion:

“It’s the wonder of the universe and how small we puny humans are I suppose, it makes you realise how irrelevant we are.”

Now retired, Mr Clark grew up on Star Trek and even had Professor Steven Hawking as a lecturer when he studied maths at Cambridge University.

He’s only been stargazing for a year but has already captured an impressive line-up of planets, nebulae and galaxies through his telescope.

He said:

“I’ve never done any photography before but I’ve always been interested in physics. I realised the quality of picture you can get from your back garden as the technology has developed to such an extent. Once I started I was hooked.”

The Whirlpool Galaxy

As well as studying the stars from his garden, he enjoys packing up his equipment and heading out to a remote spot far, far away in the outer reaches of the Harrogate district.

His favourite place is Thruscross Reservoir car park due to its pitch black skies. He said:

“Astronomy is really great for mental health and communing with nature.

“Sitting outside listening to the wild animals and spotting the occasional meteor in a dark sky is just heaven.”

Saturn and Jupiter. Credit – James Clark

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Mr Clark has been inspired by Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope, which cost billions of dollars and has recently started to beam back lustrous images from space back to earth.

But he said technology for the amateur astronomer is now relatively affordable. He uses the same software as that at Nasa, bought for just a couple of hundred pounds.

“My favourite picture is of the Whirlpool Galaxy, 30 million light years away. We’ve had some printed up and have a few around the house.”

The Moon. Credit – James Clark

He started out using a cheap Canon DSLR but since upgraded to a telescope that cost over a thousand pounds. To help him develop his skills, he interacts with an active community of “astros” on Twitter who support each other.

With so much time spent looking up at the stars, he said he sometimes ponders the age-old question of whether we are really all alone whilst we float in space.

“Absolutely I believe that we are not the only intelligent life out there.”

Whilst most of us are dreading the shorter days and longer nights that come with winter, the budding astronomer is looking forward to being able to spend more time in the darkness, exploring the endless expanse.

The Squid Nebulae. Credit – James Clark

A cyclist remains in hospital more than a week after he was involved in a serious collision with a car on Harrogate’s Cold Bath Road.

A section of Cold Bath Road was closed for several hours following the incident at the junction with West Cliffe Grove on the afternoon of Friday, August 12.

An air ambulance landed on West Park Stray to treat the man, who was taken to hospital.

The crash, on one of the main roads in Harrogate, was witnessed by numerous distressed bystanders, but details since have been scant.

The Stray Ferret asked North Yorkshire Police for an update yesterday.

A police spokesman said:

“All I can confirm is that the investigation is ongoing and the cycle rider, a man aged in his mid-50s from the Richmond area, continues to receive treatment in hospital.”

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A windscreen repair ‘pod’ could be installed in the car park at Morrisons in Harrogate if planning permission is granted.

The supermarket has applied for consent to create the facility, which would be run by Autoglass, in the south-west corner of the car park close to Currys.

At 70m sq, the storage unit and canopy would take up 15 of the 875 parking spaces on the site. In supporting information submitted with the application, Morrisons’ architect Whittam Cox said:

“The reuse of just 15 spaces will have a less than significant impact on the capacity and safe function of the car park. There will be no adverse impact on the capacity of the car park including during peak trading periods such as Christmas…

“This proposal is not seeking any illumination for any of the proposed advertisements. Overall, the application site makes use of brownfield land, within the urban area.

“The proposal’s design, scale and use are appropriate for the area, and the layout and design of the windscreen-repair pod make the proposal a small-scale development.”

The proposal states that the pod can be removed and used elsewhere in future when it is no longer needed at the Harrogate store.

To view or comment on the application, visit Harrogate Borough Council’s website and use reference 22/03034/FUL.

A second application has been submitted for vinyl coverings on the pod, under reference 22/03035/ADV.

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A 35-year-old man appeared in court this week charged with assaulting a staff member at Sainsbury’s in Harrogate.

Skyler Zienlinski, of Fern House, Spa Lane, pleaded not guilty to assault by beating at the store on Cambridge Street on August 1, 2022.

Mr Zienlinski, who appeared before Harrogate Magistrates Court on Thursday, also denied carrying a dismantled scissor blade in a public place without reasonable excuse.

He admitted stealing £40 worth of bottles of wine and Desperados from Sainsbury’s and causing criminal damage to property belonging to the store on the same day.

The court set a trial date of November 21 in Harrogate for the alleged assault and carrying an offensive weapon.

Mr Zienlinski was released on bail under the condition that he does not enter the Cambridge Street store.

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No trains will operate in the Harrogate district today due to the latest rail strike.

The strike will cause disruption for people travelling to the final day of the Ebor Festival at York Racecourse.

Today’s Sky Bet Ebor is the richest flat handicap in Europe and always attracts huge crowds.

A spokesman for the racecourse told the Stray Ferret

“It’s not our dispute – it’s frustrating and disappointing for lots of people that the two parties don’t seem to have reached a resolution.

“We will leave the car parks open and unlocked so people can leave their cars and come back to collect them on Sunday.”

The spokesman said Harrogate had good bus connections with York and racegoers from the town faced fewer travel problems than those from many other places.

He added free shuttle buses operated throughout the day between York train station and the racecourse on Knavesmire Road.

Today’s national strike is the second in three days. The Rail, Maritime and Transport union also called a one-day strike on the underground in London yesterday over jobs and pensions.

Transport Secretary Grants Shapps has threatened to limit union power and force through legislation for changes to the railways if the strikes are not settled.

Machines are Harrogate station urging people not to travel today.

A woman who headbutted a nightclub manager, busting her nose open, has been spared jail.

Jodie Milburn, 19, butted the victim with such force that blood “soaked” the wall outside the Viper Rooms in Harrogate town centre, prosecutor Eleanor Durdy told York Crown Court.

CCTV captured the moment Milburn repeatedly slapped the named woman, who was assistant manager at the popular nightclub, situated in the Grade II-listed Royal Baths building in Parliament Street.

With her arms restrained, Milburn, of Mayfield Grove, Harrogate, then head-butted the victim who was bleeding profusely.

Ms Durdy described the drunken attack, on August 15 last year, as “prolonged and persistent”.

A witness said there was “lots of blood, so much so that the blue wall was soaked in it”.

The victim’s clothes were also covered in blood and she was said to be “stunned”.

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Milburn set upon the manager after what she claimed was an incident inside the club involving a man and one of her family members, but this “wasn’t supported by the evidence”, the court heard. 

It was initially suspected that the victim’s nose was broken but this didn’t prove to be the case. 

Milburn was arrested and charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm but denied the offence. 

A jury found her guilty following a trial earlier this month.

She appeared for sentence yesterday when her barrister Andrew Stranex said that an immediate jail sentence would scupper her hopes of working abroad.

He said she had a troubled upbringing but had done well at college, had good references from her employer and had a new job lined up overseas.

‘Disgraceful piece of behaviour’

Judge Simon Hickey described the attack as a “disgraceful piece of behaviour”.

He told Milburn: 

“What you did…was throw your head back when (the victim) was simply doing her public duty…and head-butted her on her nose. 

“She reeled backwards and blood poured out of her nose and onto her clothing. A witness said (the victim) was stunned and remained stunned for quite some time. It was a nasty injury (and) you were clearly in drink.”

However, Mr Hickey said the incident was “clearly out of character” and Milburn had “strong personal mitigation” including good character reports.

The judge said that for those reasons, he would not be locking her up and preventing her taking up her new job abroad.

Instead, Milburn was given a nine-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay the victim £1,000 compensation “for the hurt and the pain” caused to her.