Local Harrogate News & Views around the district - Page 545 of 1164

Harrogate businessman spared jail for sexually assaulting woman in street

A Harrogate businessman who sexually assaulted a woman in the street has been spared prison.

Paul Harper, 41, touched or “groped” the young woman on an intimate part of her body while the victim was walking hand in hand with her boyfriend in Harrogate town centre, York Crown Court heard.

Harper, a married father-of-three, denied the offence but a jury found him guilty following a trial.

He appeared for sentence yesterday for his inexplicable and “predatory” act which occurred at night, in a crowded street “in the middle of Harrogate”, in August 2021.

The court heard that Harper, of Hollins Lane, Hampsthwaite, “brazenly” walked off after the bizarre act, leaving the Harrogate woman “aghast, shocked and distressed”.

Prosecutor Michael Morley read out a statement from the victim, who described the dramatic effect the incident had had upon her.

She said she found the experience “shocking” and described Harper’s behaviour as “outrageous, disgraceful and predatory”.

She couldn’t understand what she had done “which had attracted this man’s attention” and said she had been treated like an “object”. It made her feel “less secure” in a town where she had previously felt safe. Mr Morley said:

“She regarded Harrogate as a fairly safe town and never felt there were problems there, but she feels less safe in her home town now…and upset that her parents saw the state she was in (when she returned home).”

The victim said her “outrage and bewilderment” had been compounded by the fact that incidents such as this in Harrogate and elsewhere appeared to be “commonplace” now, or “just one of those things girls have to deal with”.

She had undergone therapy since the incident to deal with feelings of “anxiety and sadness”.

Defence barrister Helen Chapman said Harper’s business and his employees would suffer if he were sent to jail. He was a man “of some means” and his family were dependent upon him.

Community order

Judge Simon Hickey told the disgraced businessman:

“In a crowded street in the middle of Harrogate, you decided to (sexually assault) a young woman…then you brazenly walked off, leaving that woman aghast, shocked and distressed that she could go out in a public street and still be molested.

“You said at trial, ‘I’m not some seedy guy who goes around imposing myself on young (women)’. I’m afraid that’s precisely what you are and that’s why you decided you could grope a woman when she was simply holding her boyfriend’s hands.”

The judge said he had noted the “significant” effect the attack had had on the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

However, he said he wasn’t going to lock Harper up, “although many women may feel that that’s exactly what should happen to you”.

Mr Hickey said he could veer away from a jail sentence because of the effect this would have on Harper’s family.

Instead, Harper was given a two-year community order and placed on the sex-offenders’ register for five years. He was also given a 10-year restraining order banning him from contacting the victim.

In addition, he was ordered to complete up to 43 days of a sex-offenders’ group work programme, 80 hours’ unpaid work and a 55-day rehabilitation course. He was also made to pay £3,135 prosecution costs.

Business Breakfast: Last remaining days for Stray Ferret Business Awards entries

Now is your time to shine with the Stray Ferret Business Awards. We are encouraging businesses of all sizes from right across the Harrogate district to enter for our awards and get recognition from our top panel of judges. Entries close on January 16.

There are only a few days left to send in entries for the Stray Ferret Business Awards as the closing date approaches.

The Stray Ferret Business Awards, sponsored by Prosperis, is on March 9 at the Pavilions of Harrogate and will celebrate success and excellence in the business community across the district.

The closing date for entries for the 10 categories is on Monday 16th.

The judging panel will meet a week today so submissions cannot be accepted after the closing date.

The event promises to be a celebration of local business – the key note speaker is the Chief Executive of the new North Yorkshire Council, Richard Flinton.

New forager to be showcases at Ripon Farm Services show

Ripon Farm Services is set to showcase its new forager at its new year show next week.

The John Deare 9700 will be unveiled at the event at the Great Yorkshire Showground on Wednesday, January 18.

The show will be held over two-days and showcases leading agricultural machinery.

Geoff Brown, managing director of Ripon Farm Services, said:

“We can’t wait to welcome our customers and guests for what promises to be a very busy event, for the first time since the global pandemic hit three years ago, our show is back to normal, without any covid-related restrictions.

“We are absolutely delighted to be showcasing John Deere’s pioneering self-propelled 9700 forager harvester model. We are confident this new machine, following on from the success of John Deere’s 8000 Series, will prove a very popular attraction.

“In addition, we are featuring the latest innovations from our Technology Team to help our customers reduce input costs and improve profitability through more efficient production.”

For more information on the Ripon Farm Services new year show, visit the company website here.

Harewood House to close bird garden in face of ‘£4m bill’

A popular tourist attraction on the edge of the Harrogate district is set to close one of its main features.

Harewood House has announced its bird garden will close this year, in the face of growing costs and a £4 million refurbishment bill.

The Harewood House Trust said it could not justify spending the money in order to bring the 50-year-old site up to scratch.

Trust chairman Emily Shard said:

“It is with huge sadness that the trustees have reached the conclusion that the bird garden must close.

“Harewood and the Lascelles family have long been committed to the care and conservation of wildlife and nature, but the wellbeing of the birds is paramount. The investment needed to create a modern zoo and maintain this each year is too much for the trust to afford.

“We therefore realise that we must make this change and focus on the long-term ambition of this wonderful place, and on the opportunities that Harewood has to support our environment, represent the people and the communities that live in this area today, and to continue to develop Harewood, to serve its best purpose into the future.”

The trust said its latest zoo inspection had found the birds were well cared for, but that their environments were not up to modern standards.

Its birds will be rehomed over the next six months to more suitable environments and the final closure date of the bird garden will be confirmed later in the year.

Harewood plans to retain its farm experience and said it will look at ways to improve the area around its courtyard for visitors, opening up new views of the estate. The bird garden will be replaced with a new woodland garden encouraging native wildlife, including red kites, otters and water birds.

A spokesperson added:

“We realise that many of Harewood’s visitors love the bird garden and have children who love it too.

“It has been an incredibly difficult conclusion to reach but it is the most responsible and ethical decision to make, to ensure the health and care of these beautiful creatures, but also to ensure Harewood can stand the test of time and be here for as long as it has stood already.”

Harewood is reliant on income from grants, including from organisations like Arts Council England, as well as membership and visitor entry money, to continue operating.

The estate is owned by the Lascelles family and is run by a charitable trust.

Council leader faces call to drop £11.2m Harrogate Station Gateway if public oppose it

The leader of North Yorkshire County Council has faced a call to drop Harrogate’s Station Gateway project if the results of a consultation this week reveal public opposition.

Cllr Carl Les and council chief executive Richard Flinton spoke to business leaders at a Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce meeting at Rudding Park last night.

After a presentation by Mr Flinton about the new North Yorkshire Council, the two answered questions from the audience when the topic of the Station Gateway came up.

The £11.2 million project has been in development for three years after funding was won from the government’s Transforming Cities Fund.

It aims to make the town centre more accessible to cyclists and pedestrians and has been welcomed by those who want more active travel in the town. But some aspects of the scheme, such as reducing Station Parade to single-lane traffic and a part-pedestrianisation of James Street have proved to be unpopular with some business owners.

The results of a third round of consultation were expected to be published before Christmas but were delayed after the council received over 5,000 individual comments. Mr Flinton told the meeting the results of the consultation will be published in a report on Friday.

Drawing some gasps from the audience, the chamber’s chief executive, David Simister, asked Cllr Les if the council would drop the project should a majority of those who took part in the consultation oppose it.

In response, Cllr Les said:

“There’s a possibility of a huge amount of investment coming to in the town, we don’t want to lose sight of it”.

If the report is approved by the council executive, it will be discussed at a Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee meeting in spring before the Conservative council’s executive makes a final decision in June.

Cllr Les suggested the opinions of councillors sitting on the area committee, which has a majority of Liberal Democrats, could be influential in deciding whether the project goes ahead. He said:

“I think whatever decisions the executive wants to make about the Transforming Cities Fund, leaving aside the fact that it’s a huge amount of money that could benefit the town, I would want to be guided by them [on the area committee] as well. I would not want to be doing something that is not in step with my colleagues”.

Second consultation to be held on whether to form Harrogate town council

A second consultation is to be launched into the creation of a Harrogate town council.

North Yorkshire County Council will write to households across Harrogate as part of an eight-week survey starting on February 20.

Harrogate and Scarborough are the only parts of North Yorkshire which do not have a parish or town council.

The second consultation is expected to be more detailed than the first one, which merely invited people to say whether they supported the idea.

Residents will be sent information including the number of councillors, assets and reasons for why it is needed.

A further survey on the matter was approved by senior county councillors today.

The areas in Harrogate which would fall under the new town council.

Cllr Michael Harrison, the Conservative executive member for health and adult services who represents Killinghall, Hampsthwaite and Saltergate, said while he supported the second consultation, he had reservations over the town council.

He said:

“Members will be aware of my concerns more generally about proceeding to the next stage of consultation. I have made my views both informally and on a one-to-one basis.

“We are removing a layer of local government by moving to a unitary authority and we are immediately going to be replacing it in the Harrogate area with another, so there is an underlying concern there.

“We are creating a likely future tax liability on a population without any real idea of what that tax would be or what the residents would get for paying that tax and I think that was one of the comments that came back in the consultation.”

However, Cllr Harrison added he understood it would be “an anomaly” to leave an unparished area in a county full of parish areas.

He said:

“I do acknowledge that there is an aspiration for double devolution with the new unitary council which clearly you could not achieve without a town or parish council for Harrogate.”

The consultation is set to be held instead of a local referendum, which the county council said was not “legally possible” after a request from Harrogate Borough Council.

The county council added it could not “fetter its discretion” to hold a referendum and that a further survey of residents may elicit a similar outcome.

Cllr Harrison told senior councillors that it was “vital” that every household was written to as part of the consultation in the absence of a referendum.

River Island to close in Harrogate as landlord plans apartments

A town centre shop in Harrogate is set to close in just over three weeks’ time.

River Island is holding a closing down sale as it prepares to close its doors on Cambridge Street for the last time on February 4.

A spokesperson for River Island said:

“The closure is due to change of use of the building by the landlord.”

Plans were approved in summer 2020 to refurbish the ground floor of the building and convert the first floor, as well as adding a roof extension, to create 14 apartments. Work would need to begin on the building by June this year to comply with the terms of the planning permission.

The building is owned by a Santander pension fund.

Last summer, Cosy Club opened in the same stretch of units, becoming the first bar along the street. Sainsbury’s Local and Skipton Building Society also opened branches earlier in the year.

Further east on the same street, plans were approved last February to convert the upper floors of some retail units into flats.

Today, York-based property company Grantside announced it had acquired the 10,000 sq ft building and was intending to use the flats as holiday lets.

Steve Davis, chief executive of Grantside, said:

“This is a great opportunity and a brilliant location – in the heart of Harrogate town centre.

“Our vision for the building is to bring it back into full use through the conversion of the upper floors into apartments, which will be used as holiday accommodation and help the town’s economy.”

Rain highlights concerns about state of Harrogate district drains and gullies

Heavy rain in recent days has heightened concerns about the state of drains and gullies in the Harrogate district.

The Stray Ferret has been contacted by residents in separate parts of the district frustrated about how quickly flooding occurs because of blockages in the drainage infrastructure.

Huby resident John Chadwick said flooding caused by blocked culverts, drains and ditches was a major problem in Huby and Weeton and concerns raised by the parish council had brought “minimal results”. He said:

“There is a particularly serious issue at the moment at the junction of Woodgate Lane, Crag Lane and the main A658.

“When there is even little rainfall, water cascades off the fields on the north side of the A658. Because the ditches are blocked, water flows down over the main road and then down onto Woodgate Lane. Recently this froze over causing a risk to life. This is not an exaggeration, a vehicle could easily have skidded.

“I walk my dog regularly in the area and even as a complete novice in the subject, I can see that the problem would be easy to solve by clearing ditches, gulleys and drains.”

A drain in Huby

Mr Chadwick urged North Yorkshire County Council, the highways authority, to do more to tackle the problem, particularly as a school bus stop is located at the junction.

Sharow resident James Thornborough sent photos of Sharow Lane, which he said flooded within an hour of heavy rain on Saturday.

“The blind bend road was flooded where the sewage operation is running 24/7. It took just one hour of torrential rain to achieve the pictured lake. The electric power packs for the traffic lights were submerged in water.

“Yorkshire Water jetted the drains about six weeks ago, which is not a sustainable solution because every other drain on Dishforth Road is blocked, offering a downhill runway.

Sharow Lane last weekend

North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for highways and transportation, Cllr Keane Duncan, said:

“Funding for the upkeep of drains and gullies is part of our annual highways maintenance budget of around £55 million which covers planned maintenance programmes as well as responding to problems as they arise.

“Over the last financial year we invested an additional £500,000 to improve how we maintain road drainage systems across the county.

“We have in-house high-pressure jetting capability on our gully cleansing machines which assist in unblocking drainage systems and ensuring they are operating effectively.”

Talks to save 24 bus from Pateley to Harrogate as cull looms

Talks are taking place to maintain the 24 bus route between Pateley Bridge and Harrogate.

The service provides a lifeline for many people in rural parts of Nidderdale, including Birstwith, Darley and Summbridge.

But North Yorkshire County Council said today its survival was in the balance — amid uncertainty over the future of 80 bus services in the county.

Until October 2022, all Monday to Saturday journeys on the 24 were operated commercially by the Harrogate Bus Company, which is owned by French transport firm Transdev.

But in October the company announced the service was no longer commercially viable and it intended to withdraw most journeys, which prompted the county county to prop it up until April this year.

North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for highways and transportation, Cllr Keane Duncan, said today:

“We are currently seeking costs from operators to continue service 24 after April in the hope it can be maintained at a similar level. We will update the public on the future of the service as soon as possible.

“The issues affecting the 24 service come at a time of immense pressure for bus services both nationally and across North Yorkshire.”

Cllr Keane Duncan

Cllr Duncan said passenger numbers were currently on average about 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. In addition, operating costs have increased and there is a national shortage of drivers. The Conservative politician added:

“Combined with government grant funding coming to an end in March, around 80 routes are at risk of needing to reduce their frequency or cease altogether.

“While we already use £1.6m of council funds each year to support services that are not commercially viable, this funding is likely to become increasingly stretched given the scale of the challenge we are facing across the county.

“We continue to work closely with operators to encourage more people to choose the bus. We are supporting the government’s £2 fare cap, which applies to the 24 and tens of other services in North Yorkshire.

“We meet regularly and are sharing information in a bid to ensure we are doing everything we can to protect as much of the network as possible through this difficult period. This will ensure we have the best basis for building services back in the future.”

Bus fares charged by the Harrogate Bus Company and Connexions Buses were capped at £2 for three months from the start of this year as part of the government-funded Help for Household scheme.

Michael Harrison, a Conservative who represents Killinghall, Hampsthwaite and Saltergate on the county council, said the 24 route, which passes through his division, was highly valued by many people. He added:

“I’m hopeful we will be able to keep the service running in the new financial year. In the meantime I would really encourage people to to take advantage of the £2 bus fare cap to demonstrate there is a demand for it.”

New council chief questions future of Harrogate Convention Centre

The incoming chief executive of the new North Yorkshire Council has raised questions about the future of Harrogate Convention Centre.

In a significant change of tone, Richard Flinton refused to commit to a £49 million redevelopment of the venue proposed by Harrogate Borough Council, which will be abolished at the end of March.

Mr Flinton also questioned the future use of the site, saying the conference and events venue needed to be vibrant and relevant in the face of competition from a new venue in Leeds rather than “an enormous drain on public finances”.

Speaking at Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce‘s monthly meeting at Rudding Park last night, Mr Flinton said the council had “inherited issues we didn’t expect” about the centre and decisions were not “straightforward”. He said:

“The level of investment the conference centre needs to make sure it’s a relevant venue is something we are facing up to.

“£50 million into one place is a big investment ask. We will need to understand how the conference centre earns its way, faces up to the challenge from Leeds and is a strong investable asset for the new council.”

Mr Flinton at last night’s meeting

Harrogate Borough Council has consistently defended the loss-making centre on the basis that the thousands of visitors it attracts benefit the town’s hotels, bars and restaurants and bring a wider economic benefit to the district as a whole.

But control of the venue will transfer to North Yorkshire Council on April 1, when it comes into existence and Harrogate Borough Council ceases to exist.

The new local authority, based in Northallerton, could find it harder to justify to residents in places such as Scarborough and Selby the merit of spending almost five per cent of its annual £1.2 billion budget on a single building in Harrogate.

In his speech last night, Mr Flinton also cited diversification as one of the new council’s business aims for Harrogate and said there were questions about the town’s over-reliance on the centre.

Michael Schofield, a Liberal Democrat who represents Harlow and St George’s on North Yorkshire County Council, asked whether the new council would consider “repurposing the HCC to make it a viable business”.

Mr Flinton reiterated that it needed to be vibrant rather than a drain on public finances.

Cllr Carl Les and Richard Flinton last night

Carl Les, the Conservative leader of North Yorkshire Council, said:

“We have to consider it again with a fresh pair of eyes.”

In October, Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council formed a working group to discuss the convention centre’s £49 million redevelopment plan and how it could be funded, as well as how the venue should be run in the future.

New council will use Harrogate’s multi-million pound headquarters

North Yorkshire Council will deploy staff at Harrogate Borough Council’s Civic Centre, its chief executive has confirmed.

The Civic Centre at St Luke’s Avenue opened in December 2017 after HBC sold its offices in Harrogate, including Crescent Gardens for £4m, to help fund the move.

HBC said the move would lead to savings of £1m a year due to reduced maintenance and energy costs.

But with the impending abolition of the authority, there has been a question mark over what would happen to the building.

All of Harrogate Borough Council’s staff, except chief executive Wallace Sampson who is set to receive a redundancy package worth £101,274, will transfer over to the new authority on April 1.

North Yorkshire County Council chief executive Richard Flinton, who will become the boss of the new council, told business leaders in Harrogate last night that the new authority “has no intention of sucking people into a ‘super HQ’ based at County Hall (In Northallerton)”.

He was speaking at a Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce meeting at Rudding Park alongside Cllr Carl Les, Conservative leader of NYCC and future leader of the new authority.

Mr Flinton said:

“We want a main office in every district area, We will be keeping the new office building in Harrogate and basing staff there. All the planners, development and housing people — all the main people that businesses and the public need to engage with — will be based in Harrogate.”

There had been concerns that, through the devolution process, the newly-built, bespoke council headquarters would no longer be needed as services were centralised across North Yorkshire.

The project was initially forecast to cost in the region of £9m, with £4m of that paid for by the sale of its other buildings. A contract of £11.5m was awarded to construction firm Harry Fairclough Ltd which has since gone into administration

HBC has since said the overall cost of the civic centre was £13.1m. However, an investigation by the Stray Ferret revealed the actual cost, including the value of the land which had not been included by the council, was in fact at least £17m.

Mr Flinton last night said preparations are ongoing to ensure a smooth transition from April 1. He compared the situation to the new millennium in 2000 when there were fears that technology would stop working when the clock struck midnight.

He said he wants local government reorganisation “to be the new millennium bug”.

“There was hype, worries and concern then it was a damp squib. There’s a million and one concerns but I hope it’s a millennium bug scenario and services are enjoyed by residents as they continue to be now.”

He added:

“There will be a lot of lifting and shifting of teams from the districts to the new unitary. That restructuring will carry on for the next year or so. Bear with us through that period.”

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