Live: Harrogate district traffic and travel

Good morning and welcome to our traffic and travel service, which is designed to keep the Harrogate district moving.

Whether you travel by car, bus or train we will keep an eye out for any possible disruption to your journey. All brought to you by The HACS Group.

It’s Connor again back on the travel desk from 6.30am. Spotted an accident or a road closure? Send your updates to contact@thestrayferret.co.uk.

If traffic is moving well or it’s at a standstill then we will let you know with our updates every 15 minutes.

Full update – 9am

Thanks again everyone for checking out the Stray Ferret’s traffic and travel service today. I am now heading over to the newsdesk but will be back again from 6.30am tomorrow.

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Full update – 8.45am

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Full update – 8.30am

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Full update – 8.15am

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Full update – 8am

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Full update – 7.45am

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Full update – 7.30am

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Full update – 7.15am

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Full update – 7am

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Full update – 6.45am

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Full update – 6.30am

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Ripley Castle awarded £343,000 to repair garden buildings

Historic England has awarded a grant of £343,000 to Ripley Castle to carry out a series of much-needed repairs of its garden buildings.

The money will go towards to repairs of the Grade II listed orangery and a number of adjoining buildings in the grounds of the 15th century country house.

The Fire Engine House, pavillions and bothies, shelters, will also be repaired.

This group of garden buildings are thought to have been designed in around 1785 by York-born architect William Belwood for Sir John Ingilby.

It is hoped, once completed, the works will ensure the buildings are removed from Historic England’s heritage at risk register. Owners say this will secure the buildings for future generations.

The castle owners have said specialist craftsmen and contractors will be used to complete the works. Once repaired, the buildings will be used for educational and leisure activities.

Sir Thomas Ingilby, owner of Ripley Castle, said:

‘‘The restoration of these buildings will be a big step forward in the ambitious programme to restore the walled gardens at Ripley Castle to their former glory.

We are enormously grateful to Historic England for their help and support for this project, which will, when completed, help a lot of people to overcome the financial and mental trauma of the Covid-19 pandemic’’

Read more:

Giles Proctor from Historic England said:

“These handsome historic garden buildings form the centrepiece of Ripley Castle’s beautiful grounds. Their restoration will improve the experience of the tens of thousands of people who visit every year, as well as provide educational and leisure opportunities.”

Firefighters rescue Parka-wearing climber from Almscliffe Crag

Firefighters rescued a climber who got stuck up Almscliffe Crag on Saturday.

Crews from Knaresborough attended the incident on Crag Lane, North Rigton in the afternoon.

They used a ladder to help the Parka-wearing climber back to safety.

Almscliffe Crag, which is made of Millstone Grit, is a popular landmark for climbers and walkers.

A spokesperson for Knaresborough Fire Station said the person was not injured but had “a little bit of hurt pride”.

One comment on the fire station’s Facebook post accused the unnamed climber of “irresponsible behaviour” during a lockdown.

North Yorkshire Police has frequently warned people not to travel for exercise during lockdown.

Read more:

But Paul Metheringham, Knaresborough watch station manager for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, told the Stray Ferret:

“The young man was local to the area so he was not breaking any coronavirus restrictions.

“He thought he would climb up with his friend and realised that he had got himself stuck at about five metres up.

“Luckily no injuries, just a little bit of hurt pride and hopefully a lesson learned.”

 

Great Yorkshire Show set to go ahead in July

The organisers of the Great Yorkshire Show announced today this year’s event will go ahead in Harrogate.

The Yorkshire Agricultural Society said last week’s government roadmap out of lockdown paved the way for it to plan to stage the three-day show from July 13 to 15.

This will be the 162nd show, which showcases farming, food and the countryside at the Great Yorkshire Showground.

The 2019 event attracted over 135,000 visitors. Last year’s was cancelled due to covid.

If the roadmap stays on track large events should be able to go ahead by the end of June.

YAS said in a statement it was looking into ways to hold the show safely and that further updates, including ticket sales, would be out on its website and social media.

Charles Mills, honorary show director of the Great Yorkshire Show said:

“Following the publication of the government’s roadmap we are pleased to confirm that we are planning to hold the Great Yorkshire Show on 13-15 July 2021.

“This will, of course, have to be reviewed regularly and is based on the assumption that the whole country successfully moves from the current lockdown to step 4 in the government’s roadmap on June 21.

“We will only go ahead with the show if we can do so safely for all concerned.”

Read more:

The 2020 Great Yorkshire Show was held virtually.

It was the first time the entire show had been cancelled since the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001.

The last two days in 2012 were cancelled due to flooding.

The Yorkshire Event Centre at the showground is currently being used as a vaccination centre. It is not clear what impact, if any, today’s announcement will have on this.

Harrogate primary school joins catholic academy trust

St Robert’s Primary School has today become the third school in the Harrogate district to join a catholic academy trust based in Leeds.

The primary school, on Ainsty Road in Harrogate, is now part of the Bishop Wheeler Catholic Academy Trust. 

St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Harrogate and St Mary’s Catholic Primary School in Knaresborough already belong to the trust, which now has 11 schools in north and west Yorkshire.

St Robert’s has 276 pupils, aged 5-11. Although many are catholic, it admits children of all faiths.

Headteacher Jill Collins said:

“The support and care we have been given over the last year shows how the trust will enable St Robert’s to continue providing an outstanding Catholic education to our children.”

The school was rated ‘outstanding’ in its latest Ofsted inspection. Chair of governors, Dr Matt Blackamore said:

“We are so pleased to be joining our fellow Catholic schools in the Bishop Wheeler Trust and we are looking forward to working closely with them to continue providing great education together.”

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Darren Beardsley, interim chief executive of the trust, said bringing another school into the trust helped to fulfil the vision of the Bishop of Leeds, the Right Reverend Marcus Stock, of a family of schools working together to share resources and raise education standards.

The trust is named after Bishop William Gordon Wheeler, who was Bishop of Leeds from 1966 to 1985.

It is one of five multi-academy trusts in the Diocese of Leeds. It plans to expand in the next few years to include 18 Catholic schools in the area.

Masked robber jailed for terrifying Harrogate couple

A masked robber who terrorised a woman and her elderly partner in their Harrogate home has been jailed for over four years.

Michael Palmer, 41, broke into the couple’s flat while the victim and her 60-year-old partner were asleep, York Crown Court heard.

The woman was woken by the sound of glass smashing and got out of bed to investigate. She was confronted in the hallway by two masked men who had broken in by smashing a pane of glass in the front door, said prosecutor Andrew Finlay.

The two men were wearing face coverings or balaclavas and one was wearing a camouflage jacket. They pushed the woman into the living room and demanded money.

One of them, thought to be Palmer’s cohort, told her to get down on the floor and demanded she tell them where she kept her money as he stood over her.

“She said she didn’t have any,” added Mr Finlay.

“The (unnamed male) continued to shout (at) her, standing over her.”

The intruders went looking around the flat and one of them went into the bedroom where the woman’s partner, who was ill, was laid in bed.

They came back into the living room where the woman had grabbed a phone to try to call for help.

Palmer, who was on hard drugs at the time, demanded the phone from the woman, but she refused to hand it over, whereupon the duo left the flat empty-handed.

Home-made balaclava

The woman, who had been living temporarily at her partner’s flat, called police and gave them a description of the two men.

After a search of the area, they found Palmer and his cohort as they were emerging from a local property and were about to get into a taxi. They were both arrested.

The property was searched where police found a bag containing a crowbar, gloves, a home-made balaclava and a black jacket, which had been worn by Palmer during the break-in. The balaclava had been made out of a sleeve with eyeholes cut into it, said Mr Finlay.

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Glass fragments from the balaclava and jacket were found to have come from the point of entry, namely the smashed door pane, and DNA evidence was found on the clothes in the bag.
The two victims, who were named in court, said they had been “extremely scared about what happened and what (the robbers) were going to do”.

The male victim said he had been having nightmares about the break-in. He and his partner were now very nervous when they went to bed and panicked “at every noise”.

‘Horrific offence of random violence’

Palmer, of Butler Road, Harrogate, refused to answer police questions following his arrest, but ultimately admitted attempted robbery, which occurred at about 3.30am on February 22, 2019.

The court heard that Palmer was a career criminal with over 100 offences to his name, including burglaries, violence, intimidating a witness, shoplifting, public disorder and damaging property.

Defence barrister Ian Hudson said Palmer was hooked on crack cocaine at the time and also had an alcohol problem.

Mr Recorder Preston condemned Palmer for a “horrific offence of random violence inflicted on completely innocent people (who) were not young”, adding:

“This was planned, this was violent in its execution and caring not one bit that these two people who had done nothing to you were left traumatised.”

Mr Preston told Palmer:

“The male (victim) was unwell and was confronted in his bedroom with one of you two (intruders). He’s been having nightmares.”

He criticised Palmer for his “appalling recorder of dishonesty and violence”.

Palmer was jailed for four years and seven months, of which he will serve half behind bars before being released on parole.

Harrogate set to get its own chocolate factory cafe

Harrogate is to get its own chocolate factory cafe this summer staffed by people promised to be more talented than Willy Wonka.

The Harrogate Chocolate Factory cafe is due to open at the end of May in the former Big Red Bike Company building, near the Odeon cinema.

Learning disability charity Harrogate Skills 4 Living Centre (HS4LC), which is behind the initiative, has spent £100,000 renovating the building.

The charity, which was set up in 2010, helps adults with learning disabilities and autism.

Many of the people it supports have been unable to get work experience during the pandemic.

As a result, HS4LC set up its own business making chocolate in the kitchen of its offices on North Park Road, Harrogate.

Demand grew quickly and the charity sold 500 chocolate hampers before Christmas.

This encouraged it to set up a cafe as a social enterprise, selling chocolate made in the chocolate ‘factory’ beneath its offices.

Currently the Harrogate Chocolate Factory only sells a 70% dark chocolate bar made from Peruvian cocoa beans but a vegan milk chocolate bar is in the works.

Michael Horn, enterprise manager for the chocolate project, told the Stray Ferret:

“There are a few reasons why you can feel good if you buy this chocolate. It supports charity, it’s sustainable and it doesn’t have any nasty allergens.

“Coronavirus has made it a tough year for everyone. We are still here to help young adults with learning difficulties.

“Our charity is there to be like the final step to help our clients get into the world of work. It gives them another choice.”

Read more:

Hadyn Moorby-Davies, chief executive of HS4LC, said:

“It will be fantastic to see the cafe when it opens, I am really chuffed with how it has been working so far.

“The students are also really excited about it. The Harrogate Chocolate Factory has been in planning for a couple of years.

“We know that York has a strong connection to chocolate but why can’t Harrogate have that as well? Maybe this could be the start.”

Live: Traffic and travel in the Harrogate district

Good morning and welcome to the start of a new week and to our live updates on traffic and travel in the Harrogate district.

Whether you travel by car, bus or train we will keep an eye out for any possible disruption to your journey. All brought to you by The HACS Group.

It’s Connor again back on the travel desk from 6.30am. Spotted an accident or a road closure? Send your updates to contact@thestrayferret.co.uk.

If traffic is moving well or it’s at a standstill then we will let you know with our updates every 15 minutes.

Full update – 9am

Thanks for checking in with our traffic and travel live blog this morning. It’s been Connor keeping an eye out for any disruption and I will be back tomorrow morning from 6.30am.

Roads

Trains

Buses

Full update – 8.45am

Roads

Trains

Buses

Full update – 8.30am

Roads

Trains

Buses

Full update – 8.15am

Roads

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Full update – 8am

Roads

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Full update – 7.45am

Roads

Trains

Buses

Full update – 7.30am

Roads

Trains

Buses

Full update – 7.15am

Roads

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Full update – 7am

Roads

Trains

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Full update – 6.45am

Roads

Trains

Buses

Full update – 6.30am

Roads

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Buses

 

MPs watch: vaccines, coup d’etats and aphrodisiac takeaways

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 February the vaccination programme galloped ahead and prime minister Boris Johnson announced the UK’s roadmap out of lockdown.

We asked the district’s Conservative MPs- Harrogate & Knaresborough’s Andrew Jones, Ripon’s Julian Smith, and Selby and Ainsty’s Nigel Adams if they would like to highlight anything in particular that they have been doing this month, but we did not receive a response from any of them.

Here is what we know after analysing their online presence.

Andrew Jones, Harrogate and Knaresborough MP.

Andrew Jones, Conservative Harrogate and Knaresborough MP.

In Harrogate and Knaresborough, here is what we found on Mr Jones:

Read more:

Julian Smith, MP for Ripon and Skipton.

Conservative Julian Smith, MP for Ripon and Skipton.

In Ripon, here is what we found on Mr Smith:

Nigel Adams, Conservative MP for Selby and Ainsty which includes rural Harrogate.

In rural south Harrogate, he is what we found on Mr Adams:

Your Harrogate set to launch tomorrow

Your Harrogate is set to launch its online radio service tomorrow with familiar faces from Stray FM.

The show on Monday at 8am and promises to offer the “best of life in Harrogate.”

Currently Your Harrogate is only available online and people can listen on their phones through an app or through a smart speaker.

Your Harrogate will launch with an all-male lineup who are all former DJs on Stray FM, which closed last year.

Read more:

Nick Hancock will be on breakfast duty and promises to set listeners up for their day with local weather, travel and school news.

Pete Egerton will be on daytimes, Ricky Durkin on weekday afternoons, Alex Cann on weeknights, Will Smith on weekends and David Whittle on weekend afternoons.

Stray FM broadcast its final show at the end of August ahead of a merger with national station Greatest Hits Radio.

Bauer Media, the owners of Greatest Hits Radio, promised to keep the show as local but there have been complaints on social media that it has not delivered.

The full line up is as below:

Weekdays
6am Early Breakfast
7am Nick Hancock
10am Pete Egerton
2pm Ricky Durkin
6pm Alex Cann

Saturdays
7am Ricky Durkin
10am Will Smith
1pm David Whittle

Sundays
7am Alex Cann
10am Nick Hancock
1pm David Whittle