A council has denied claims its scheme to ensure high social care standards has been designed to “weed out” some care providers.

Hundreds of residential and home care providers and day services have been asked to reapply to be on North Yorkshire County Council’s approved care providers lists.

It is the first stage of a huge transformation of the social care market in North Yorkshire.

A meeting of the authority’s care scrutiny committee heard while some £160m of taxpayers’ money was spent annually buying social care services in the county, the current system allowed providers to set their own rates and give few details about their coverage.

Although many local authorities have been able to set rates for providing care as they dominate their area’s care market, about half of care services in North Yorkshire are paid for privately, so the county council has regularly been forced to watch some providers’ rates soar.

North Yorkshire County Council’s offices in Northallerton.

Councillors were told contracts with care providers would in future be based on a set of service specifications.

Jill Quinn, chief executive of Dementia Forward.

Committee member Jill Quinn, chief executive of Burton Leonard-based charity Dementia Forward, told the meeting completing the new process to be an approved provider was “onerous”.

She added the process appeared to aim to prevent certain providers from being placed on the lists.

She said:

“We understand why it needed revamping and the need for quality markers. Can we reassure people that are applying that it’s not meant to catch them out and that there will be sympathy and support, otherwise I feel we will lose some good people.

“I’m quite seasoned at this and I’m half-way through doing mine and it really is like quite a job.”

The meeting heard trying to maintain quality standards across 155 care home providers and 225 residential and nursing homes was a huge undertaking for the council.

Cllr Michael Harrison, who represents Killinghall, Hampsthwaite and Saltergate and is North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for adult services and public health, said the process aimed to identify providers who are able to give the level of service that both the 90,000 residents receiving care and the council could afford.

He said:

“We are wanting to make sure the residents who are receiving social care receive a quality that they and we are happy with. We are absolutely not wanting to weed any providers out. ”

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Cllr Harrison said setting clear standards for care was vital, adding the council had moved people out of a residential care home earlier this month after becoming concerned for their safety.

He said:

“That’s a last resort, but it’s also a good example that we’re not prepared just to take any service just because it’s available.

“It’s got to be a service that is safe and appropriate for the individuals receiving it, which include some of the most vulnerable people in society.”

Cllr Harrison (pictured above)  said the changes would ensure a transparent process for people to bid for contracts from the county council and confirm providers were getting the funding they need from the authority to be viable and sustainable, including paying their staff a decent wage.

He added:

“We need to make sure what we pay for the service is delivering what we need. Whilst we need to go through the process, we need to make sure that we don’t put providers off from coming on to our approved provider list because the process is too onerous.”

He said in response to the concerns, the council would offer support to any providers that found the process difficult.

Harrogate firefighters rescued two dogs yesterday when they got stuck in a car on one of the hottest days of the year.

The car self-locked when the owner went into the boot and was unable to get back into the vehicle shortly after 11am.

With the temperature rising, and the dogs still in the back of the car, the owner summoned help.

The fire crew was called to the incident at Harlow Carr Gardens, Harrogate.

North Yorkshire Fore and Rescue Service’s incident log says:

“Crews cooled the vehicle with one hose reel jet, then released the dogs using a glass punch and gave water to them.”

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Harrogate Borough Council has charged North Yorkshire Police over £110,000 to check and supply its CCTV footage since 2016, the Stray Ferret can reveal.

The council has a network of 212 CCTV cameras across the district to help prevent and detect crime. It has a manned control room that operates 24/7.

But it does not supply footage to the police for free and last month the Stray Ferret reported it asks the force to pay a fee of £57 per hour for the service.

We submitted a freedom of information request to the council that asked how much it has charged North Yorkshire Police in total since 2016.

The answer revealed a total bill of £114,005, which amounts to about £20,000 a year on average. The sum fell noticeably during covid lockdowns in 2021/22.

The annual breakdown is below:

• 2016/17 £23,410
• 2017/18 £19,598
• 2018/19 £20,251
• 2019/20 £18,992
• 2020/21 £13,400
• 2021/22  £18,354

Crime prevention

Ripon has been plagued by well-documented anti-social behaviour and crime in recent years.

The council operates 10 CCTV cameras in the city but Andrew Williams, the leader of Ripon City Council and the North Yorkshire county councillor for Ripon Minster and Moorside, said the charge deters police from following up crime reports.

He said:

“It is ironic that Harrogate Borough Council’s homes and safer communities team appears more interested in making commercial charges to the police, rather than working in partnership with them to help in the detection and arrest of criminals.”

Cllr Andrew Williams

Cllr Williams calculated that the £18,354 charge for the last financial year worked out at less than one hour of CCTV footage a day.

He suggested this means NYP is being selective in which footage it requests and could be missing out on catching criminals.

He added:

“When considering the size of the Harrogate district and the number of CCTV cameras installed across it, that indicates that police, with pressure on their budgets, are having to be selective in their purchasing of footage and only calling on the services of the HBC CCTV monitoring team for the most serious incidents that they are investigating.”

“At a public meeting in Ripon last month, police admitted that nobody had been arrested for the vandal attacks, in part because they could not pinpoint the exact time of each incident and would have to go through hours of footage, which would not necessarily provide the quality of footage required to identify an individual or individuals.”

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‘Shameful’ charges

Business owner Andrew Hart, who owns the Red Box post offices in Bilton and Starbeck, has previously raised concerns about anti-social behaviour in both areas.

Mr Hart has two private CCTV cameras in his post offices. He said he supplies any footage to the police for free if they ask for it and called the council’s decision to charge “shameful”.

The council currently operates one CCTV camera in Starbeck.

Andrew Hart

He said:

“We are often needing to refer back to our two CCTV systems on both police and private request. It is something we do out of a sense of duty to both the community and in our joint responsibility to fight anti-social behaviour.

“Yes, it takes time and costs us money but we all have to do our bit, surely. I think it is shameful that any council should charge our grossly overstretched police for this service.”

Council’s response

A council spokesperson said:

“CCTV across the Harrogate district, which is owned and managed by Harrogate Borough Council, has ongoing infrastructure and running costs.

“As well as the costs to maintain the service, there are also costs associated with a CCTV control room, staffing and the on-going safe storage of footage.

“Should anyone wish to obtain a copy of any footage, this would require an appropriate individual reviewing it first, followed by providing the footage securely along with a witness statement. All while adhering to the Data Protection Act 1998.

“Therefore, any third-party that wishes to view and use any CCTV footage – such as an insurance company, enforcement agency or the police – is charged to do so.”

North Yorkshire Police declined to comment.

A new fast food drive-through restaurant is set to open in Harrogate early next month.

Leon will welcome customers from “early July” to its new Wetherby Road premises, though it has not yet confirmed an exact date.

New manager Alex Parkinson said a 17-strong team is already in training and she is hoping to add three more to that number. She said:

“I love working for Leon as I love the real sense of family within the teams we create – every store I visit has its own family dynamic but you are always made to feel welcome and at home.

“I enjoy the challenge of being a general manager, but my favourite thing about the role and Leon is developing people and watching people grow. Watching my team grow and develop during training has been my favourite part of Leon so far.”

The Mediterranean-inspired restaurant will be open daily from 7am to 10pm, except Sundays when it opens at 8am. It will have a total of 70 covers, including some outdoor seating.

Its menu includes “carbon neutral” burgers, rice boxes, breakfast muffins, egg pots and cakes.

The company has built its reputation on being good for the environment as well as for people – something which is not normally associated with fast food.

Alex, 28, trained with the company in London and helped to open its first drive-through in Gildersome, Leeds. She said she believes Harrogate is ready to welcome a new take on the fast food concept:

“I think it’s something different in the community, fast food that’s good for your gut and a place to come and sit with friends or family…

“We are mindful of our environmental impact in everything we do which is why we have put a number of processes in place to ensure our drive-through [restaurants] do as little damage as possible.”

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The arrival of Leon has proved controversial from the start, long before it was built.

Planning permission was eventually given after the application was initially rejected by Harrogate Borough Council, only for the developer to launch a successful appeal.

It was initially expected to be a drive-through Starbucks, but it was confirmed in March, after construction had begun, that it would instead be a Leon, another brand owned by Euro Garages.

The following month, developers were ordered to remove an 8m advertising sign outside the restaurant which had been erected before planning permission was granted.

However, Alex said now the construction work is complete, she is looking forward to welcoming customers inside.

“I am so excited to launch Leon in Harrogate – it’s probably one of my greatest accomplishments of my career, opening a store as a general manager.

“I could not have done it without the help of my team; they are absolutely amazing.”

Business Breakfast is sponsored by Harrogate law firm Truth Legal. 

Harrogate engineering consultants expand

Harrogate-based building services engineering practice, Tate Consulting, has expanded into Belfast.

The move has created five new jobs with Belfast-born director Jim Lee set to continue splitting his time between Belfast and Harrogate.

This will be the fourth office for the company, which provides commercial engineering solutions.

It has already secured a number of contracts, including Belfast Waterside, a development of 500 homes by MODA Living and a logistics facility in Dublin.

Aaron Stevenson and Kevin Gallagher have also joined the team as associate director and mechanical associate.

Jim Lee, Tate consulting director, said:

“This expansion will give us a valuable foothold and added resource in Belfast as well as facilitating further expansion into the Dublin market.

“We’re already working on several high-profile projects and part of this success is due to us being able to attract a highly skilled team, who want to work on career defining projects. It’s great to be able to utilise the talent that exists in Northern Ireland.”

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Harrogate cafe opens deli shop

Café di Mamma Amelia on Harrogate’s King’s Road has expanded by opening a second shop a few doors down to sell deli foods and home-cooked ready meals.

Owner Antonio Cavinato said recent success had spurred him on to open a second business, similarly named Cucina di Mamma Amelia.

Both businesses are named after Mr Cavinato’s mother, who lives in Italy. The shop will sell a variety of meals to finish at home including the family’s secret recipe tiramisu, pizzas, lasagna and cannolis.

Antonio Cavinato

The new deli has allowed Mr Cavinato to hire two part-time staff and keep on his two full-time staff spreading the four staff and himself across both businesses. He said:

“When the opportunity came out of the blue to open a smaller business on King’s Road I came back from Italy and started small, but demand has soon outstripped what we could do in the small shop, and when No 148 became available, I decided to just go for it!

“Harrogate is a great town to run a business in, there is lots of support from locals for a small business, and I will now be running between the coffee shop and the deli up and down the street, so my gym will miss me!”

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The organisation that commissions local GP services has issued a strongly worded objection to a plan to build 53 homes in Bilton.

North East property developer Jomast wants to build the homes on a field off Knox Lane, in what has been a controversial and long-running planning application.

Many objections from residents in Knox and Bilton have focused on the impact of the potential new homes on roads and congestion.

Knox Lane

However, NHS North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group says GP practices in Harrogate are already over-saturated and have “very limited capacity” to accept another 123 patients that the new homes could bring.

The letter says:

“Having consulted with the local GP practices and primary care networks directly impacted we wish to strongly object to this proposed residential development.

“As primary care providers, the GPs and primary care networks are extremely concerned regarding any proposals for further residential development within Harrogate. The existing health infrastructure in Harrogate already operates above optimum capacity and has very limited capacity to absorb additional pressures.

“Primary care and community services within the area are already running at, or far beyond their existing capacity. This is further compounded by the fact that primary care networks practices are operating in substandard buildings limiting their ability to cope with the existing high patient demand.”

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The letter adds the application offers “no provision” for healthcare services for residents, but approved, Jomast should make a payment to the CCG through a section 106 agreement.

The CCG has used an NHS formula to calculate that the developer should pay £63,974, which will be spent by GP practices.

But it warns that this figure would only make up a small part of what is required by GPs.

A spokesperson for Jomast’s planning consultant Spawforths said it is currently considering the comments from the CCG and will issue a response in due course.

Latest blow

The objection from the CCG is another blow for the developer’s hopes of building the scheme in its current form.

Last month, North Yorkshire County Council said the layout of the development was ‘not acceptable’ and the plan should be refused unless the developer agrees to pay to widen the road.

An apprentice engineer working in the Harrogate district is urging more women to consider career opportunities in the sector.

Freya Osment joined Northern Gas Networks last year as an electrical and instrumentation apprentice.

To mark International Women in Engineering Day today, she has been discussing her role and why she’d recommend a career in engineering to anyone considering it – even if they are the only girl in a class full of boys.

She said:

“I always wanted to do something involving engineering. My dad was a mine engineer, and then moved into precision engineering and lathe work.

“Growing up I was kind of a tomboy, and I liked helping him out, helping fix things.

“At secondary school, I did the usual subjects but after I left, I went to college to study general engineering which I did for three years. That involved CAD, lathe work, welding.

“In my class of 30 students, I was the only girl. But I was in Army Cadets between 13 and 18, and always enjoyed doing logical things so it just felt like the right fit for me.”

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Northern Gas Networks said it is keen for more women to explore careers in the energy sector, adding to its existing workforce.

As well as apprentices, it has women working at senior levels and in green energy, such as hydrogen development manager Stella Matthews, whose role involves developing zero-carbon gas for heating domestic homes.

She said:

“My advice to girls wanting to get involved in engineering is ‘go for it’ and say yes to every opportunity. It’s such an exciting time to be involved in our industry, shaping the future of energy.

“We definitely don’t shout enough about our achievements. Role models are really needed, so girls interested in a career in engineering, or in industry, can see them and aspire to get there too. The more visible we are, the better.”

Gender decoder

Across the UK, 16.5% of engineers are women. This is the ninth year the country has marked International Women in Engineering Day, this time focusing on a theme of inventors and innovators.

NGN has a diversity and inclusion strategy to offer more opportunities to female engineers. It uses a gender decoder for its job adverts, ensuring their language suits anyone who might consider applying.

For women already employed by NGN, a women’s network community has been created to ensure women’s voices are heard across the organisation.

For Freya, there are more benefits to a career in engineering than enjoying her job. She spends her working hours travelling around Yorkshire to different ‘off-take’ sites and has days at college working towards two qualifications.

She added:

“My advice to any girl considering engineering would be to go for it, don’t worry about what people think and be yourself.

“If you like being out and about, days that are very different from each other and logical ways of working then it’s a great job to be doing.”

Pinewoods Conservation Group is to meet representatives from Harrogate Spring Water to discuss the company’s plans to expand its bottling plant.

The French-owned firm announced last month it will revert to its original 2017 planning application, which involves felling trees in a section of the Pinewoods called Rotary Wood.

However, the number of trees felled would be less than contained in plans rejected last year by Harrogate Borough Council.

Harrogate Spring Water’s new application will propose how the lost trees will be compensated for.

The meeting is set to take place within the next few weeks. It will be the first time the charity, which protects the council-owned woodland, has met the company since it announced it was pressing ahead with the expansion.

Online platform

The charity has used online polling platform Harrogate District Consensus to find out what is and isn’t acceptable to residents with the new planning application.

At the time of publication, over 420 people have given their thoughts on issues such as how many trees the company should replant and plastic pollution and biodiversity loss.

Neil Hind, chair of Pinewoods Conservation Group, said it would bring some of the most popular statements that people have submitted to the meeting in the hopes of presenting a consensus.

He said:

“We know this is a very emotive subject, so we need a way to gather some more scientific based views from our members, visitors to the Pinewoods and Harrogate residents. This system allows people to agree or disagree with statements but also add new statements to express their own feeling on the subject.

“We hope that this will form a consensus of views and even some new thinking on this issue. We would really encourage people to get involved and make their views known. These views will then be shared with the Harrogate Spring Water and Danone management when we meet and will also be used as part of our submission to the consultation process.”

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Harrogate Spring Water’s new chief executive Richard Hall recently told the Stray Ferret the company would be “much more open” about its latest plans, which are yet to be submitted to Harrogate Borough Council.

A series of meetings with local stakeholder groups are planned and there will be an open consultation event next month.

A spokesperson for Harrogate Spring Water, whose headquarters is on Harlow Moor Road. said:

“We are starting our consultation process this month via meetings with community stakeholder groups prior to an open public consultation event which we plan to hold in July.

“We will announce details of this event shortly, but anyone who cannot come along can still have their say via a dedicated webpage at https://www.harrogatespring.com/facility-extension/”

Harrogate Town will travel to Bradford for a Christmas Yorkshire derby.

Today’s fixture list revealed that Town will start with a home match against Swindon Town on August 30.

They will also end the season with a home game, against Rochdale on May 6.

But most Harrogate fans will have looked first for the matches against Yorkshire rivals Bradford City, against whom Town did the double last season.

Valley Parade holds up to 25,000 fans.

Simon Weaver’s men will entertain the Bantams on October 1. The return fixture will take place at Valley Parade on December 29, when a bumper festive crowd is likely.

The two teams played twice in 16 days last season. After defeating Bradford 2-0 at the EnviroVent Stadium, Harrogate then came from behind to win 3-1 in a thrilling encounter in Bradford.

Former Manchester United striker Mark Hughes was named as Bradford’s new manager shortly after that game.

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The only other Yorkshire team in League Two of the English Football League is relegated Doncaster Rovers.

Town will travel to the Eco-Power Stadium on December 17 then Doncaster will come to Harrogate on April 15.

The dates of fixtures are liable to change.