‘Let’s make the best of it’: Hopes and fears for 3000-home Maltkiln settlement

Heated public meetings, protests outside council offices and legal challenges in the high court couldn’t stop Harrogate Borough Council from deciding that 3,000 homes should be built around the villages of Cattal, Green Hammerton and Kirk Hammerton.

The decision was mired with suspicion and ill feeling but now residents are trying to look ahead to how the project can work for them and the people who will eventually live there.

The cold-sounding “new settlement” has been given the more homely title of Maltkiln and a draft document has been published that outlines how the the 3,000 homes along with roads, schools, shops and public spaces will develop over the next few decades.

‘Inevitable’

Since 2016 the name Green Hammerton became synonymous with the new settlement, usually in debates that pitted the merits of developing land there versus Flaxby, which is closer to Harrogate and Knaresborough.

The council’s preferred option for the settlement is now centred around Cattal railway station, on the other side of A59 from Green Hammerton.

Chris Hay and James Veitch are shareholders of Green Hammerton’s Post Office, which also serves as a shop, newsagent and soon-to-be cafe.

The two have a grudging acceptance that the homes will be built but are concerned that Maltkiln will erode the village’s identity, which stretches back to Domesday times.

Green Hammerton

They have already seen Green Hammerton, population 675, swell with three new build housing schemes in recent years.

Mr Veitch said:

“The word inevitable comes to mind but you have to be grown up and make the best of it”.

Not a village

A development plan document (DPD) drawn up by Harrogate Borough Council includes a vision for what Maltkiln will eventually become, which is a “garden village with a distinctive identity where people want to live, work and spend time”.

It conjures up a pastoral scene but with an eventual population larger than Boroughbridge, calling Maltkiln a village is misleading to some.

Mr Veitch said:

“They call it a village don’t they? How on earth can you call a 3,000 development a village? It’s a town, not an insignificant one at that. It will be big enough to create traffic jams on the A59”.

3,000 new homes is likely to result in at least 6,000 cars. Mr Veitch fears that much more investment in Cattal Station is required if commuters are going to leave their cars at home.

Cattal Station

He added:

“There will be a lot of commuting, that’s the bottom line. The A59 will be busy and the railway will not increase its capacity much more than what it is. I don’t buy the argument that it’s a hub where you can transport 10,000 people to anywhere.

“People will still use their cars, anyone who suggests otherwise is naive.”

Fresh blood

Keith Welton and his wife Val have lived in Cattal for 16 years, close to the railway station that the developer Oakgate Group hopes will be one of the unique selling points of Maltkiln.

With homes set to be built in green fields that currently surround the family home, Mr Welton might be forgiven for feeling negative or even bitter about the development.

However, he’s taking a pragmatic approach and sees several benefits that it could bring to the area and the people who live in the villages.

Serious infrastructure investment is promised in the DPD, including improvements to the dangerous Whixley crossing on the A59. Cattal Station already saw £10m of investment in 2020 to increase the number of trains to Harrogate and York.

Kirk Hammerton will also be impacted by Maltkiln

Mr Welton has seen his children and their friends priced out from living locally and he hopes affordable housing can inject some younger blood into the area.

He also hopes the new North Yorkshire Council will be firm with the developers and ensure that affordable housing genuinely is affordable.

Mr Welton said:

“There’s an acute need for affordable housing. Many of our young people come out of university and want to go to Leeds, Manchester or London. They settle down, and they want to come back. We need to capitalise on that talent and make housing available for them.”

“I’m 74 and you can’t have a village full of 74 year olds!”

‘Make the best fist of it’

A criticism of HBC for choosing Green Hammerton over Flaxby was a perception that its residents will be heading in one direction towards York for work and leisure.

But Mr Welton said the majority of his family’s trips are to Harrogate to visit restaurants or the theatre.

He believes Flaxby is “one of the most desirable commercial sites in the whole of North Yorkshire” and that homes built next to a noisy motorway would have made it a poor choice for housing.

He added:

“I do think the location for Maltkiln makes sense. It’s now up to people to make the best fist of it. It’s easy to be negative. We should turn those energies around to get the sort of development that will be an exemplar and people think, wow”.

Climate emergency

The DPD for Maltkiln is 88 pages long and the words ‘climate change’ are mentioned on 36 of them.

It’s clear that HBC hopes the settlement will differ from every other large housing scheme in the district it has approved in recent years that have done little to tackle the climate emergency or help the council reach its emission reduction goals.

The government is set to ban gas boilers in new build homes from 2025. It means the homes in Maltkiln should be powered by renewable energy sources such as heat pumps or solar panels.

The document also claims the development will offer a “biodiversity net gain”, which is a planning phrase that means it will leave the environment in a better state than it was before the homes were built.

But when Maltkiln will involve concreting over vast swathes of green fields, it’s an ambition that could appear impossible.

Land in Cattal earmarked for development

Arnold Warneken, Green Party councillor for Ouseburn on North Yorkshire County Council, said he hopes the developer can be influenced to ensure go further than government regulations around the environment.

He said:

“It’s really, really important we don’t get into lip service and tokenism around biodiversity but it’s going to happen so let’s make sure it happens for best of our community, not just stand back and say I don’t agree with it.”

He added:

“The solution is not to concrete over it, but then the scenario is where do you build the houses? Some people say brownfield but people underestimate the biodiversity of brownfield sites, nature gets everywhere”.

Council’s legacy

Harrogate Borough Council will cease to exist in less than a year’s time but arguably the biggest decision it made during its existence was deciding to change the face of Green Hammerton, Kirk Hammerton and Cattal forever with the new settlement.

How successful Maltkiln will turn out could be HBC’s ultimate legacy.

Woman bids farewell to pub industry to open Harrogate tanning salon

A Harrogate woman has swapped the bar for beds after leaving the pub industry and opening her own tanning salon.

Jade Lacey, 27, launched Be Bronze & Beauty…Ful, on Skipton Road, this week.

The new salon, which is above McCanns barbers, has three sunbeds and offers a range of beauty treatments, including  lashes, brows and spray tans.

It has been completely refurbished, thanks to her “handy” dad, and she hopes to employ a nail technician in the coming weeks.

Ms Lacey decided to take the leap and open her own business after working in hospitality for many years.

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She was a familiar face at So! Bar and Eats in Harrogate and Knaresborough, as well as the Devonshire Tap House, on Devonshire Place, and the Caravan and Motorhome Club site in Scotton.

But after completing a number of beauty courses during the pandemic, she decided to launch the salon after her dad’s friend offered her the premises.

Inside the salon, which has been refurbished.

Ms Lacey said:

“This came up and I thought why wouldn’t you want to be your own boss? It was a bit daunting completely changing careers, but now I’m up and running, I’m really loving it.”

The irony of opening a sunbed shop on the hottest day of the year was not lost on her.

She laughed:

“I had to close the sunbeds on Monday and Tuesday as it was too hot!”

Popular pub landlords say farewell to Christies

It’s the end of an era for pub landlords Marik Scatchard and Jo Jarvis who have left Christies Bar in Harrogate after over 14 years.

The couple had a leaving party this week to toast the end of their time at the pub, which is opposite Harrogate Convention Centre on Kings Road.

The watering hole has now closed for a refurbishment that is expected to take around six weeks.

The couple said:

“Thanks to all the customers over the years.”

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Bettys celebrates new Railway Children movie with steam train display

Bettys Café Tea Rooms in Harrogate has created a new window display celebrating the release of The Railway Children Return movie.

The front window features a biscuit version of the steam train featured in the film, hand-decorated at Bettys Craft Bakery.

As the sequel to one of the most beloved family films of all time, The Railway Children Return stars some of the original cast and is described as “an adventure for a new generation”.

Like the original film, it is set in West Yorkshire with scenes shot in and around the countryside of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway .

The movie is currently playing in cinemas and has received generally favourable reviews with the Guardian concluding it’s “an amiable and ingenious tribute to the innocent, good-natured spirit of the original”.

In partnership with the film, Bettys has created a limited-edition gift box, filled with a selection of treats.

Bettys’ waitress Rose Seddon with the limited edition gift boxes

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Transport chiefs urged not to lose focus on improving Harrogate bus services

Transport chiefs have been urged not to lose focus on improving buses in Harrogate after warnings that services are facing a “potential cliff-edge” due to more funding cuts.

North Yorkshire County Council’s bid for £116 million from the high-profile Bus Back Better scheme was rejected in April when the government claimed the plans to upgrade buses and infrastructure across the county lacked “sufficient ambition”.

And now there are warnings that bus services could be at risk of being axed when other government funding comes to an end in October.

Conservative councillor Keane Duncan, executive member for transport at the county council, said in a report that services are already facing “significant pressures” ahead of the cuts which “presents a potential cliff-edge in terms of the future profitability of routes our residents rely upon”.

He added a review was underway to identify the risks and “keep as many of our vital services running as possible”.

At a full council meeting on Wednesday, Liberal Democrat councillor Chris Aldred said the loss of services was all too familiar following years of austerity cutbacks.

He said:

“We have got this deregulated system where as soon as a service isn’t making a profit in the eyes of the provider, it gets lost.

“In our urban communities of Harrogate and Knaresborough, we have suffered from this in recent years.”

Councillor Aldred – who represents High Harrogate and Kingsley – also made a political dig at the Bus Back Better scheme as he urged the council to keep pushing for improvements, particularly in urban areas.

He said:

“I would be worried – appalled even – if I was presenting a scheme for funding from a Conservative government to a Conservative council and the comeback was that the plan was unambitious.

“However, we are where we are and I note that we are assessing the support the council can provide at the moment.

“I would just plead that as well as looking at rural buses – which we all agree are a problem to provide regular and reliable services – we don’t forget urban services as well.”

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The council’s Bus Back Better bid included £23 million for new bus lanes, £74 million for other infrastructure changes and £14 million for support for services.

However, North Yorkshire was one of many areas across the country which did not receive any funding.

In total, just 34 of 79 areas which applied were successful.

The council previously said some of its plans could still go ahead without government support, including an expansion of its on-demand bus service, YorBus, which is being trialled in Ripon, Bedale and Masham.

The possibility of a Harrogate park and ride scheme is also still being assessed, although progress has been slow and questions remain about how this would be funded.

Meanwhile, there has been success in a separate council bid for £7.8 million to make Harrogate Bus Company’s fleet all-electric with the delivery of 39 zero-emission buses

The project will cost almost £20 million in total, with more than £12 million being invested by the company’s parent firm Transdev.

At Wednesday’s meeting, councillor Duncan repeated disappointment over the Bus Back Better bid, but added the council would not be deterred from applying for future funding.

He said:

“Unfortunately our bid wasn’t successful and we didn’t receive the funding.

“That was an immense disappointment to the team that worked on the bid and we are trying to ascertain from government how we can ensure bids in the future are successful.”

Councillor Duncan also said he was keen to see the YorBus scheme rolled out across other parts of North Yorkshire following the trial.

He said:

“The feedback we have received has been very popular… but we do need more time to consider how we can roll out what I believe is an innovative scheme across other parts of the county.”

Three-storey boutique ‘wellness venue’ set to officially open in Harrogate town centre

A three-storey boutique “wellness venue” is set to officially open in Harrogate town centre tomorrow.

Ebru Evrim will offer daily classes and workshops in yoga and Pilates in the former Laura Ashley premises, on James Street.

It follows a 4,000 sq ft refurbishment thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign, which saw more than £300,000 raised.

A launch party, featuring food from Hustle & Co, took place at the venue last night and guests were given a tour around the building.

The third floor.

Ebru Evrim is the name of the brand’s founder and owner, who moved over from Istanbul in 2015.

She began to teach  yoga and pilates in village halls in the Yorkshire Dales, before launching her first studio in Skipton.

Apparatus in one of the studios.

Following its success, Ms Evrim looked to Harrogate as a vibrant spa town already famed for championing wellness.

Ms Evrim, who also runs wellness holidays and yoga retreats, said:

“I’m so happy I think we are unique and I’m super excited to bring some healthy living to Harrogate. And I’m excited to introduce ourselves, our teachers and our services. I think it’s going to be great. I can’t wait.

“I was so lucky to find this place. We still have some work on the building to complete, but it has all been done by local tradesmen.

“The location is amazing. I’m so grateful to be given the opportunity to open this venue. Life is short and I want to give something good to this place.”

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On the ground floor shop-front, Ms Evrim’s own-branded boutique fitness clothing is on sale.

On the second floor, state-of-the-art Pilates reformer apparatus will be in place. The machines are being made in California and were expected in April. However, they are now unlikely to arrive until September as a result of shipping delays.

Apparatus in one of the studios.

The apparatus will be alongside a space for working with clients requiring specialist therapy for conditions such as lower back, scoliosis, arthritis and osteoporosis. The floor also features showers and changing rooms.

The third floor, complete with industrial-style exposed brick walls and ambient lighting, provides space for yoga and Pilates classes with 30 mats and underfloor heating.

There will also be a cafe on the ground floor, offering snacks and healthy food, which is set to open in a month’s time.

Classes will begin tomorrow from 9am.

Ex-Harrogate headteacher denies making indecent images of children

A former Harrogate headteacher repeatedly denied in court making more than 3,000 indecent images of children.

Matthew Shillito, 42, pleaded not guilty to making 20 Category B images and 3,829 Category C images between December 3, 2012 and December 31, 2015.

Mr Shillito was appointed headteacher of Western Primary School in 2019.

He was previously headteacher across the Goldsborough Sicklinghall Federation of schools.

None of the alleged offences related to his employment.

During the case, “making” was defined as knowingly accessing a site that contained an indecent image.

The court was told that there was no evidence that Mr Shillito downloaded the alleged material onto his laptop.

The prosecution opened proceedings at Harrogate Magistrates Court yesterday and said the alleged indecent images were found on the cache in Mr Shillito’s computer, which could have only have got there had he accessed sites with those images.

Philip Morris, prosecuting, said there were “indicative” terms found on Mr Shillito’s laptop which showed intent to access the alleged images.

Searches were ‘legitimate’

However, Kevin Blount, defence, told the court that while the terms found on the computers may have been indicative, they were “not conclusive” as they could also bring up legitimate results.

Mr Blount said that a Russian image website named in court, which was accessed on Mr Shillito’s Dell laptop, contained legitimate images, such as travel pictures, as well as illegal ones.

He added that cached images could have been stored on the laptop from parts of a web page which Mr Shillito did not look at.

Addressing the search terms found on the laptop, Mr Blount said that the terms could bring up “legitimate images”.

He pointed to terms such as “Nabokov Lolita”, which he said could have been a legitimate search for the 1955 novel by Vladimir Nabokov.

He said:

“All of those search terms are capable of bringing back legitimate material.”

Cross examination

During cross examination of Mr Shillito, Mr Blount asked him whether he had visited the named Russian site.

Mr Shillito said:

“I visited it a lot. It was just that it was a website full of photographs.

“It was a moderated site. It was a site that had rules.”

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Mr Shillito told the court that he used the site to look for images he was interested in, such as travel after visiting Croatia in 2011. He said he had also used it for teaching material.

He told the court that while the website was Russian, it was loaded in English and was recommended by technology companies such as Apple as a site to use.

When asked by District Judge Lower if he had seen any indecent images of children, Mr Shillito replied “no”.

He repeatedly denied under cross examination that he had made the alleged indecent images of children.

Summaries of four police interviews with Mr Shillito were also read out in court where he denied the allegations.

iPad disposed

Prosecutor Morris asked Mr Shillito about an iPad mini, which was not recovered by police but a backup was found on a silver MacBook Pro.

Mr Shillito confirmed that he had disposed of the iPad because it was “not updating” and had a crack down the screen. He added that he threw it out during a clear out of his address.

Mr Morris put it to Mr Shillito that he had thrown the iPad out two days before police arrived to arrest him because “he was rumbled”. He denied this and said he was he was not aware that police were coming to his address.

When asked about the number of times he visited pages which were “indicative” of the alleged indecent images, Mr Shillito said he “could not imagine” visiting some of them.

Mr Morris told the court that it was “not just one” occasion that the defendant visited the site.

He said:

“In some cases, you have visited not just once or twice but 30 times.”

The trial was adjourned until August 10.

Motorists set for six weeks of delays on Harrogate’s Grove Road

Motorists face six weeks of delays on Harrogate’s Grove Road from Monday due to gas works.

Work is being carried out by Northern Gas Networks to replace ageing pipework with plastic pipes.

Temporary three-way traffic lights will be in place at the junction of Grove Road and Skipton Road from July 25 for two weeks.

These will then become two-way lights for four weeks as work progresses.

Parking will also be restricted along Grove Road while work is carried out.

Northern Gas Networks said in a statement that although most work will be carried out on the road, engineers will need access to customer properties to complete the project and ensure the continued safe and reliable supply of gas.

Russ Kaye, business operations lead for Northern Gas Networks, said: 

“We would like to apologise in advance for any inconvenience caused during these essential works. However, it is vital we complete them in order to continue to maintain a safe and reliable gas supply to the residents of Harrogate.

“We want to assure residents and road users that we will be working hard to complete this essential scheme as safely and as quickly as possible.”

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Much loved Harrogate headteacher retires after 18 years

Linda Mortimer, the executive headteacher of Saltergate Schools in Harrogate for the past 18 years, retired today.

Ms Mortimer has worked in primary education for 34 years and today the school said it would like to thank her for all her “hard work, positivity, dedication, devotion and resolve over the 33 years at Saltergate”.

As headteacher Ms Mortimer has seen the introduction of a children’s centre, gateways, nursery, and the atelier area at Saltergate.

More recently in 2015, she was instrumental in the process of federating Saltergate Infant and Junior schools.

Mark Walker, chair of governors, paid Ms Mortimer this tribute:

“As headteacher she has ensured that personal development at Saltergate Schools is exceptional and that pupils benefit from a happy, safe, and caring environment, in which each individual is respected and valued.

“She has always gone above and beyond to ensure that pupils have access to a wide, rich set of experiences and opportunities to develop their talents and interests.”

Deputy headteacher Judith Hollywood added

“The development of our challenging, stimulating, broad and balanced curriculum led by Mrs Mortimer has ensured it is accessible to all and brings out the very best in our children.

“She has always led by example and worked with everyone within the school community to achieve our shared aims enabling us to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.”

The school said Ms Mortimer will be missed and wished her all the very best for a “long, happy and healthy retirement”.

Red Arrows Harrogate district flight postponed until tomorrow

The Red Arrows have postponed their Harrogate district fly over until tomorrow.

The RAF aerobatic team was due to fly from their base at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire to Prestwick today.

According to a military airshow website, the Red Arrows were due to fly over north west of the district this afternoon at 3.36pm and also pass York and Morecambe Bay as part of the fly over.

The times and route were weather dependant and the site later said the fly over had been postponed by 24 hours.

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