Local Harrogate News & Views around the district - Page 557 of 1470

Knaresborough woman awarded palliative care award at national care awards

A Knaresborough woman has won the palliative care award at the national finals of the Great British Care Awards.

Karen Crampton is live-in carer from Carefound Home Care, Harrogate. The company is a provider of local home care services that enable older people to live at home and has branches in Wilmslow, West Bridgford, Harrogate and York.

As a professional live-in carer, Ms Crampton provides round-the-clock care to her clients in their own homes. The role enables patients to remain at home, including at the end of life.

The Great British Care Awards celebrate excellence across the care sector and took place at the ICC in Birmingham on March 22.

Ms Crampton was named as the national winner of the palliative care award, recognising the end-of-life care she provides to older people in their own homes. She previously won the regional award at the Yorkshire & Humberside event at the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

TV celebrities Rylan Clark and Steve Walls presented the award to her at the awards ceremony.

Ms Crampton said:

“I feel a little overwhelmed, but winning this national award was just really wonderful. I really do love my job and even though it’s challenging and hard work at times, the joy I get out of giving such personal care when it truly matters outweighs it all. I truly care for my clients and their families and want them to feel safe in the knowledge that everything will be taken care of with dignity and respect for all involved.

“I have worked at Carefound Home Care for almost seven years now and giving such personal, one-to-one care is so rewarding and I can honestly say it’s the best feeling of job satisfaction I have known.”

Karen Crampton and Leonnie Martin from Carefound Home Care at the Great British Care Awards

The judges of The Great British Care Awards said:

“Karen’s exceptional compassion and understanding of the importance of love and quality experiences shine brightly. Going beyond the norm, she helps individuals create lasting memories, including outings in her motorhome. Her remarkable outlook on death is a gift to those facing it, making her a true inspiration.”

Carla Hainsworth, registered branch manager at Carefound Home Care in Harrogate, added:

“We’re incredibly proud of Karen for this national recognition of the outstanding care she provides to her clients. She has demonstrated a passion for providing palliative care at home and helps families to experience sensitive and dignified care at the end of life.

“We know that over 70% of people would prefer to die at home (according to Dying Matters, 2017) and Karen’s well-deserved award is a great example of how live-in care can make this happen and avoid unnecessary admissions to hospital.”

Woman rescued from side of road at 2am in Harrogate

Firefighters rescued a woman from the side of the road in Harrogate in the early hours of this morning.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service‘s overnight incident report said the woman was “believed to have collapsed at the side of the road”.

It said a crew from Harrogate located her at 2.01am, adding:

“Crews liaised with the female and assisted her to walk to the nearby hospital. The female was left in the care of hospital staff.”

It was part of a busy night for local firefighters. At half past midnight, an appliance from Harrogate responded to a report of water flooding through a light fitting at a house on Starbeck High Street.

The incident report said:

“Crews found the source of the water was an overflowing bath. Crews isolated the water and electrics to the affected lighting circuits and advice was given to the occupier.”

At 3.10am, firefighters were called to Whiteway Head, off Bland’s Hill in Knaresborough, to make the road safe after a two-vehicle car crash.

The incident report said:

“Crews checked vehicles with a thermal imaging camera and left in care of police.”

MPs Watch: Spring Budget, Kex Gill and Rwanda Bill updates

Every month the Stray Ferret tries to find out what our local MPs have been up to in their constituencies and in the House of Commons.

In March, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced the Spring Budget, which included plans to cut national insurance contributions by a further 2p, and North Yorkshire Council reported a rise in local hate crimes following the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Here’s what we know about analysing their online presence.

Andrew Jones, Harrogate and Knaresborough MP.

In Harrogate and Knaresborough, here is what found on Conservative Andrew Jones:

On March 11, Mr Jones attended Parliament’s Commonwealth 70th Anniversary Ceremony.
He also spoke in the House of Commons about the Spring Budget, which he said he “supported”, on March 12.
The Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservative Association received a £3,000 to donation from an individual on March 13.
On March 18, Mr Jones voted in favour of all ten amendments to the Safety of Rwanda Bill.
He also met members of the Community Security Trust, Antisemitism Policy Trust and Jewish Leadership Council to discuss the antisemitic incidents report.
On March 21, Mr Jones asked the Leader of the House for a debate to discuss the Prime Minister’s announcement about apprenticeships.

When we contacted Mr Jones for comment, his office sent details of March engagements.

These included meeting with business leaders in Harrogate town centre, as well as asking the Health Ministers about boosting dental capacity and the role of dental centres of excellence.

Mr Jones also held an AGM for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Transport.

In addition, he asked transport ministers about ensuring train driver vacancies are filled and “appropriate training prioritised”.

Julian Smith, MP for Ripon and Skipton.

In Ripon, here is what we found on Conservative Julian Smith:

Mr Smith made no spoken contributions in the Houses of Parliament in March.
He voted in favour of amendments one to eight of the Safety of Rwanda Bill.
On March 14, Mr Smith met with the chief executive of North Yorkshire Council about the latest closure of the A59 at Kex Gill.
He welcomed news of government funding into grassroots sports in Skipton and Ripon reaching nearly £300,000.

We contacted Julian Smith for comment, but his office directed us towards the press releases on his website.

They included visiting Ripon’s Prison and Police Museum to mark English Tourism Week.

Mr Smith welcomed a £60 million government package to help businesses create more apprenticeships, which would be delivered across his constituency.

He also supported news of more than £530,000 of funding to the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Service, which will go towards adult social care.

Mr Smith also visited Whittaker’s Gin, in Dacre, and signed a whisky cask.

Keir Mather, Selby and Ainsty MP.

In Selby and Ainsty, which includes parts of south Harrogate, here is what we found on Labour MP Keir Mather:

Mr Mather updated his Facebook page nearly 30 times this month. None of the updates related to areas of his constituency which fall in Harrogate.
On March 12, he spoke at his first Budget Resolutions debate in the House of Commons. He felt the Budget failed to grasp the “economic opportunities of our time”.
Mr Mather voted against all ten amendments to the Safety of Rwanda Bill.
On March 4, he also made a spoken contribution to a debate on farming.

When we contacted Mr Mather for comment, his office sent a list of some of his March highlights.

These included visiting Kirk Hammerton Primary School to speak to students about Parliament.

He also welcomed the Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper MP, to speak to constituents about rural crime.

New café and bistro opens on Harrogate’s Albert Street

The latest addition to Harrogate’s hospitality scene has opened on Albert Street.

Clementine Café and Bistro, which has taken over the former Suzetta unit, opened its doors last week.

The new site serves a range hot food, including fresh fish and meat dishes, pasta, hot sandwiches and soups.

In addition, it will also offer hot and cold drinks, alcohol, desserts and cakes.

When the Stray Ferret approached Clementine Café and Bistro for comment, a spokesperson said in response:

“We are not just a cafe; we are also a bistro. We offer great lunch deals, as well as a variety of cakes and savoury bakery items.

“In the evenings, we feature a chef’s special daily. Our chef boasts experience from renowned hotel chains, ensuring that customers enjoy fresh food paired with fine wine and gourmet dishes.”

It will open Monday to Saturday, from 11am to 9pm.

Harrogate hospital to review staff miscarriage support

Harrogate District Hospital is set to review its staff policies after the NHS announced plans to give paid leave for miscarriages.

This month, officials at NHS England revealed proposals to offer 10 days paid leave to staff who miscarry in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The move comes as part of the organisation’s new pregnancy and baby loss policy.

Angela Wilkinson, director of people and culture at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, said it already offered support to staff, including paid leave, in the event of losing a baby.

However, she added that the trust would review its policies in light of NHS England’s new guidelines to see what further support it could offer.

She said:

“The health and wellbeing of our colleagues is extremely important to us at HDFT. A miscarriage is a traumatic experience and any colleague who sadly loses a child is treated with care and compassion, and offered the support they need at such a difficult time.

“It is important that we give someone who experiences a miscarriage time to grieve and process what has happened. The policies we have in place at HDFT currently do provide specific support and paid time off in the event of baby loss.

“We will review NHS England’s new pregnancy and baby loss policy to assess how we can further strengthen the support we currently offer those colleagues who sadly experience such a tragedy.”

The move to roll out the policy by NHS England comes after it was first introduced by Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust in May 2023.

The trust, which provides health services in Hull and East Yorkshire, said it implemented the policy as a “compassionate move” for its staff.

Council applies for cash from chewing gum firms

The drive to clean chewing gum off the county’s streets has taken a step forward following a decision by North Yorkshire Council.

The local authority has agreed to apply for a grant of up to £27,500 from Keep Britain Tidy to purchase specialist chewing gum removal equipment.

Keep Britain Tidy is administering the grants on behalf of the Chewing Gum Task Force, which brings together some of the UK’s major chewing gum producers, including Mars Wrigley, which makes Orbit and Extra, and Italian-Dutch firm Perfetti Van Melle, best known as the maker of Fruit-tella and Smint, in a partnership to remove gum litter from UK high streets and prevent future littering.

Participating firms have pledged to invest up to £10 million over five years to achieve two objectives: cleaning up staining caused by gum and changing behaviour so that more people bin their gum. This is the third year that grants have been available, but this is the first time that North Yorkshire Council has applied for a grant from the fund.

The grants are supplemented by fully-funded gum litter prevention packages for each council, including targeted behaviour change signage and advice, designed and produced by social enterprise Behaviour Change.

Last year, 55 councils across the UK benefitted from the grant fund, and the £1.65 million distributed helped clean more than 100 acres of urban streets.

By combining targeted street-cleansing with specially designed signage to encourage people to bin their gum, participating councils have seen reductions in gum littering of up to 80% in the first two months, with a reduced rate of gum littering still being observed after six months.

However bad North Yorkshire’s gum problem is, many other places have it far worse. Mexico City, for example, employs an army of full-time gum-cleaners, and New York – dubbed the “gum splotch capital of the world” by the New York Times – has been waging a well-publicised but losing war against discarded gum since the 1930s. Singapore even banned chewing gum in 1992, and people spitting it out onto the street risk fines of up to $1,000.

North Yorkshire Council’s decision to apply for the grant was only approved by the its Corporate Director, Environment and Assistant Director, Resources on Wednesday (March 27), but the deadline for grant applications to Keep Britain Tidy fell at midday today.

The Stray Ferret has asked North Yorkshire Council whether the deadline was met.

Yemi’s Food Stories: Easter baking with cupboard staples

Yemi Adelekan is a food writer and blogger who was a semi-finalist in the 2022 series of BBC TV’s Masterchef competition.

Every Saturday Yemi writes on the Stray Ferret about her love of the area’s food and shares cooking tips – please get in touch with her if you want her to review a restaurant, visit your farm, taste the produce you sell or even share a recipe.

Easter season is here which means it’s time to make a mess and bake with the little ones, from hot cross buns to no bake creations.

Many of us have a bit more time on our hands and often need to entertain adults and children during the holidays. You might find yourself wondering what to cook or bake during the school holidays or when you have guests without having to go to the supermarket.

I love looking through my cupboard and fridge to see what is available there. Ingredients that I usually can always find include canned pineapple chunks – I use Del Monte – oats, flour, butter, sugar, almond flour, chocolate chunks and coconut milk.

With these staples, I can create my favourite drinks or bake some goodies from cookies to cakes.

Here is a recipe using ingredients that most of us should have at home. It’s cheap, cheerful and delicious – costing only 56p per serving, the recipe will be enough for 16 servings and ready in just over an hour.

Pineapple white chocolate cake with salted brown sugar glaze

Preparation: 20 mins

Cooking time: 45 mins

Before baking

Ingredients:

Cake:

200g unsalted butter
200g golden caster or granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
200g ground almonds
100g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g white chocolate chips
1 x 435g tin pineapple chunks in juice, drained (reserve the juice)
A few sprigs of fresh thyme

Salted brown sugar glaze:

Reserved juice from 435g tin of pineapple chunks s in juice
2 tbsp light brown sugar
¼ tsp sea salt

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 170c and line a round, 20cm-diameter loose-bottomed cake tin with baking parchment.
Cut the butter into chunks and place in a large bowl with the sugar. Whisk with an electric whisk (or in a stand mixer) until fluffy (about 3-4 minutes).
Add in the vanilla extract, then whisk again whilst adding in the eggs, one at a time.
Fold in the ground almonds, flour and baking powder.
Stir in the white chocolate chips then spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin. Level the mixture with the back of a spoon.

After baking

Arrange the drained pineapple chunks on top of the cake and push in very slightly.
Place the cake in the oven to cook for 35-40 minutes – until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
While the cake is in the oven, make the salted brown sugar glaze. Pour the reserved pineapple juice from the drained pineapple into a small saucepan.
Bring to the boil, then simmer for 8-10 minutes until reduced by half and slightly thickened.
Add the brown sugar and stir together until the sugar dissolves, then stir in the salt.
Turn off the heat and leave to cool to room temperature. It will thicken further as it cools.
When the cake is done, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.
Remove from the tin and remove the baking parchment. Brush or drizzle the salted brown sugar glaze on top (you can warm the glaze back up if it’s thickened too much).

Read more:

The auction house where Mouseman sits alongside Ikea

For some of us, auction houses are regarded as niche and expensive, the kind of places you might look for a unique piece of vintage jewellery, antique furniture or a collector’s item.

But what is perhaps less well known is that alongside these higher-end auctioneers are auction houses that offer more affordable and everyday pieces.

Thompson’s Auctioneers in Killinghall is one such place. While the odd piece of furniture goes for over £1,000 – and a sideboard 12 years ago went for £8,000 – the average is about £80 to £100. Well-known names such as Mouseman and Ercol pop up now and again, but the saleroom is largely made up of reasonably-priced furniture, household and garden items, and gold and silver jewellery.

Lots in Thompson’s auctions, held every Friday, usually carry estimates of between £20 and £800.

And not all of it is vintage or antique. Ikea rugs and Emma Bridgewater bowls sit alongside Victorian necklaces and 1960s drop leaf tables. There are collections and trays of assorted jewellery, glassware and coins, and even some white goods. Each weekly sale opens up a new Aladdin’s Cave, and you never know what you might find there.

Ercol and Vanson

It’s this element of discovery that is one of the things Thompson’s director Kate Higgins loves about her job. As well as leading the auctions, she spends her week sifting through items at house clearances and valuations. She said:

“It’s exciting. I love it, I like going to look at a job. I’ve been to house clearances where you can barely get through the front door and you have to go through all of it but it’s worth it because of what you might come across.”

Among the pieces that Kate occasionally finds and sells are pieces by the famous Kilburn furniture maker Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson and the ‘Yorkshire Critters’ group of makers who were inspired by him. A Beaverman oak table and six chairs went for £1,500 a couple of weeks ago, while a Mouseman ashtray and set of nested tables was in the most recent sale. Kate said:

“They are quite desirable. We get quite a lot of 1960s teak furniture which is very popular. People are paying decent prices for that. We’ve had a nice Ercol blond elm table and four chairs for £380 and a Vanson teak sideboard for £300.”

Changing times

The auction house was started in 1989 by Brian Thompson. Kate has been at Thompson’s for 25 years and when Brian retired in 2012, she and another employee, Colin Evans, bought the business. Kate had started doing the auctions a few years before after remarking to Brian how easy it looked, to which he had answered, ‘Get up and do it then.’ She did, and found she loved it.

Thompson's Auctioneers auction house in Killinghall

Kate Higgins, director of Thompson’s Auctioneers.

But times have changed. Since Thompson’s were forced to take their auctions online during the pandemic and it’s stayed that way, Kate now finds herself leading the sale by “staring at a computer and talking to myself. It’s not quite the same but you have to move with the times”.

But she recognises the benefits that being online brings in reaching a wider audience and enabling more lots to be sold. Each week, about 500 lots are listed in the auction, and it takes around four hours to get through them all. Bids can come from far and wide, and items are shipped anywhere as long as the customer pays for the costs. Kate said:

“Ninety-nine percent of people have been absolutely fine with us being totally online, even the older generation. There’s still the chance for buyers to view the lots between 3pm and 7pm on Thursdays, and people can drop off and collect items on Saturdays and Mondays. But most people are happy to buy from the website without viewing the piece in person.

“We were shut for a year during the pandemic, and it took a while to get going again. We are actually selling more now than we were pre-covid. We are so busy that we are looking for more staff to help collect furniture – there’s currently a four-week waiting time for us to collect items from sellers.”

Period drama props

Among their customers are regulars that come in for a browse every week, while others visit for specific items. She’s seen an increase in customers looking for affordable household goods while others are after a little project. They even have two or three TV companies looking for authentic props to use in period dramas.

While the trend for ‘shabby chic’ has died down and people are no longer looking for cheap furniture to paint, original pieces that can be restored and reupholstered are in demand. Kate said people will go away and research items and are happy to buy them with faults such as woodworm or damage if it’s the kind of thing they are looking for. And the popularity of items can also change as fashions come and go. She said:

“At the moment antiques are not very popular because nobody wants dark mahogany anymore, they want the lighter colours such as beech, ash and elm. Years ago, people would collect pieces of crockery and display them in cabinets but they don’t do that any more. People are buying second-hand furniture and watching what they spend.”

Editor’s Pick of the Week: Bettys Easter egg, sewage and new offices

Easter is a time to ponder the big questions in life, such as: what happens to the giant egg in the window of Bettys in Harrogate?

Reporter Lauren Ryan has been tracking down the answer. Look for her article on Sunday.

The Stray Ferret is now a stone’s throw from Bettys — we moved into our new office on Cambridge Crescent on Monday. I may have a claim for the best view from office in Harrogate. It’ll look even better if the sun ever comes out.

Talking of throwing things, my Wednesday morning routine was abruptly cut short this week when I heard Harrogate’s Parliament Street was closed die to a police incident.

I hotfooted it to the scene in time to find a shocking number of broken windows in the buildings above shops. The ages of the boys arrested was even more hard to believe.

Some of the smashed windows on Parliament Street.

Political shenanigans are hotting up in a year of elections of ever-increasing magnitude: there’s the Stray, Woodlands and Hookstone council by-election in April, the North Yorkshire mayor election in May and a general election further down the track.

The Lib Dems were reported to the police this week when their by-election candidate sent out a leaflet falsely claiming the Green Party wasn’t standing. Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, wrote to Lib Dem leader Ed Davey claiming the local Lib Dems had “totally gone rogue”, which drew a sharp retort that he was “out of touch”.

The political wrangling continued when the Environment Agency released its latest data about sewage discharges, which made unpleasant reading for those of us living close to the Nidd and Ure, i.e. everyone in the former Harrogate district.

Mr Jones and his Lib Dem rival Tom Gordon had vastly different takes on the results.

Politics is a dirty business — and with elections looming, it’s only likely get murkier.

What the UK’s top climate scientist wants from the next government