Harrogate diving club prepares to jump back in

Harrogate District Diving Club is planning to resume training in April following this week’s government roadmap out of lockdown.

Outdoor pools and lidos can reopen from March 29.

Indoor pools can reopen for individual use or within household groups from April 12. Indoor children’s activities, including diving club sessions for under 18s, can also resume from this date.

But organised indoor adult sport, including diving, is not allowed to resume until May 17.

This means divers aged up to 18 will be jumping back into the pool from April 12.

Leanne Jalland, the club’s chair, said lockdown had highlighted the club’s mental health benefits and members were looking forward to returning.

She said:

“One of the most important things we have learnt from this pandemic as a club is how diving as a sport benefits both the mental and physical wellbeing of our divers.

“Therefore, we are keen to bring those benefits to others in our community and make diving accessible to all.”

The club hopes to introduce a disability diving squad in April.

It ran, in conjunction with Harrogate Borough Council, one of only two disability diving schemes in England but these haven’t taken place since March last year.

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The diving club is working with Brimhams Active, which is the new company brought in by the council to run leisure facilities, to ensure diving has a future in the district.

Mark Tweedie managing director of Brimhams Active said:

“We are working with our clubs to produce a long term development plan for aquatics.

“This plan will ensure we make the most of the opportunity presented by the multimillion pound council investments to improve the district’s leisure centres over the next three years.”

Harrogate business groups want Station Gateway cash spent elsewhere

Three Harrogate business groups have come together to ask for some of the money set aside for cycle lanes on Station Parade to be spent elsewhere.

North Yorkshire County Council and Harrogate Borough Council launched a four-week public consultation on the Harrogate Gateway Project today.

The councils set out plans last week to pedestrianise James Street, build cycle lanes on Station Parade and improve cycling facilities in the town centre.

Under the government’s Transforming Cities Fund, the county council secured £7.8 million in ring-fenced funding.

Now that the public consultation has started, the Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce, Harrogate BID and Independent Harrogate have had their say.

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The groups suggested East Parade and Cambridge Street as places they feel the money would be better spent.

However, Harrogate Borough Council has said the funding can only be spent improving the bus and train station area only and has to be focussed on transport-related activity.

Sandra Doherty from the chamber, Robert Ogden from Independent Harrogate and Sara Ferguson from Harrogate BID said:

“The challenge we are facing is how do we achieve a net-zero carbon town centre economy and simultaneously create a trading environment in which todays’ businesses can thrive?

“The Harrogate Gateway project gives us the opportunity to start the job of achieving this.

“While we welcome measures to reduce traffic congestion on Station Parade, we feel East Parade would be best placed for the new cycle lanes.

“We also believe that money would be better spent enhancing Cambridge Street, as this is very much the ‘gateway’ into Harrogate town centre from both the bus and railway stations.

“Also, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that previous studies have revealed that between 70 per cent and 80 per cent of visitors to Harrogate arrive here by car.

“Considering Harrogate’s role in Bicycling Touring Club, the Tour de France Grand Depart and the UCI World Cycling Championships, the town has somewhat lagged behind others.

“If this project is about making Harrogate accessible to more sustainable forms of transport, we particularly need to encourage visitors with electric and hybrid vehicles.”

Call for inquiry into Harrogate’s Nightingale hospital

A health scrutiny board could investigate the building and use of the Nightingale hospital in Harrogate.

The West Yorkshire Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee will consider next month whether to accept calls for it to hold an inquiry into decisions made about the facility.

Cllr Jim Clark, who represents Harrogate Harlow division, spent 10 years as chair of North Yorkshire’s scrutiny of health committee and now sits on the West Yorkshire equivalent, ensuring a voice for people in the Harrogate district who are treated at its hospitals.

Speaking to the committee yesterday, he said:

“This was a tremendous success, building the Nightingale hospitals, and the one in Harrogate was built in about four weeks after 10 years of bed closures in North Yorkshire…

“This has always been a campaigning committee and I have been proud to be a member of it… But I think we need a public inquiry into why did we never use the Nightingale hospital? They say now that it was an insurance policy, but if we had needed to use it, could we have used it?

“I wrote to the secretary of state in 2018 saying that we were so short of staff in the Harrogate CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group) at that time that it was affecting performance. So if we had needed the Nightingale hospital there wouldn’t have been people there to man it.”

The health scrutiny committee wrote to the NHS twice last August calling for the Nightingale hospital to be kept open, and again in November suggesting it be used for vaccinations. Cllr Clark praised the work of those running the Great Yorkshire Showground site, but said the awarding of contracts and the ability to make any use of the Nightingale hospital needed to be scrutinised.

He said the example of trouble at Welcome to Yorkshire which was only revealed years after the 2014 Tour de France served as a warning about the need for close scrutiny at the right time.

“We need to get this done now. I would welcome any help you can give me to get a proper public inquiry and it shouldn’t affect the on-going work of the pandemic.”

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Scrutiny committee chair Cllr Helen Hayden told Cllr Clark that a working group meeting in March would decide whether to take his call for an inquiry forward.

Responding to Cllr Clark, Anthony Kealy, NHS England director in West Yorkshire, said the Nightingale was still being used for diagnostic scans and its future beyond the end of March was yet to be announced by the government. He added:

“We have regarded it largely as a success that we have never had to use the Nightingale for in-patient care. It was, as Cllr Clark suggested, developed as a bit of an insurance policy agains the NHS being overwhelmed.

“The Nightingale programme was rolled out very rapidly at the point where we were looking at northern Italy and its health services being overwhelmed. If the NHS had got to that point in April, the Nightingale would have certainly opened, but we managed to avoid that.”

He said while it was true to say it would have had to bring staff in from existing hospitals from the system, that was to be expected. Staff were busy in their daily roles, as would be expected, and would have been redeployed from routine care to run the Nightingale.

However, committee member Cllr Betty Rhodes said “robbing Peter to pay Paul” with staff moving from hospitals to the Nightingale would not have been a workable solution. At the time, she said, the hospital trusts were looking at cutting routine services and could not have spared staff.

She also supported calls for an inquiry, including into the procurement processes used during the pandemic to ensure they represented value for money.

Cllr Hayden added:

“This discussion will go on about procurement, about the Nightingale hospital… We will discuss as a board, looking back at the pandemic and assessing what went right, what went wrong, what do we need to learn from it. It’s going to be an on-going process.”

Harrogate hospital coronavirus patients down by 19 in a week

Harrogate District Hospital still has more coronavirus patients than during the peak of the first wave but the number has started to drop sharply.

It was revealed at the weekly North Yorkshire coronavirus media briefing today the hospital had 48 coronavirus patients yesterday. Last week there were 65, only a couple away from the record number of 67.

The hospital is the only one in North Yorkshire treating more patients than during the first wave but the situation appears to be heading in the right direction.

It was also revealed today that one more person died at the hospital after testing positive for coronavirus. The latest death, which happened on Sunday, brings the total to 156.

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The Stray Ferret asked today’s briefing whether public health officials were concerned about the high number of patients shortly before lockdown measures ease.

Amanda Bloor, accountable officer for North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group, said in response:

“Last week one of my colleagues reported that the numbers had not come down but they have dropped this week from 67 to 48.

“They are still higher than the first wave so we are keeping an eye on it but in terms of the lockdown easing, that is obviously a national decision.

“But we are pleased that the number of coronavirus patients in Harrogate is starting to come down.”

Public Health England confirmed another 13 covid cases in the Harrogate district today.

The district now has a seven-day rate of infection of 89 people per 100,000, which is just above the North Yorkshire average of 83 but below the England average of 117.

Campaign against Oatlands one-way scheme ramps up

A move to make Oatlands Drive one-way would have a “devastating effect” on students and make surrounding roads congested.

Residents and a student at St Aidan’s and St John Fisher’s Associated Sixth Form got in touch with the Stray Ferret to express their concerns about the scheme ahead of a consultation closing today.

It comes as a leaflet campaign was launched in the area which encouraged residents to send e-mails to local councillors, media and council officers objecting to the plan.

North Yorkshire County Council received £1,011,750 for cycling improvements and outlined three cycle route projects in Harrogate.

Highways bosses have launched a consultation into the plan which would make the street one-way southbound, limit the speed limit to 20mph and create a new segregated cycleway.

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In an e-mail to the Stray Ferret and his headteacher, Thomas Adamson, a year 12 student at St Aidan’s and St John FIsher’s Associated Sixth Form, said the move would have a “negative effect” on his learning and his journey to school.

Thomas, who travels to school from Wetherby, said it would add a further 20 minutes onto his bus journey as Wetherby Road was already “notoriously busy”.

He said:

“While I understand the motivation behind the one-way system, there are already usable bike lanes on Oatlands Drive and two wide pavements for pedestrians and I must think about my own future and the futures of those who must use public transport

“In conclusion, If you allow the building of this new one-way system, it will not only be a waste of public funds that could be used elsewhere to improve Wetherby Road or to provide technology for online learning to those less fortunate than I am, it also have an actively negative affect on my learning in a year that has already had so much disruption and yet is still pivotal for my future.”
Oatlands Drive, Harrogate

Oatlands Drive, Harrogate.

Meanwhile, Philip and Julia Clarke, who live on Park Edge, told the Stray Ferret that they strongly object to the proposal as it would affect their journey to the town centre.

They said:

“In order to drive northwards from our home into Harrogate and beyond, we would have to turn right (southwards) at the end of our street and then find a route to travel north.

“To access businesses and facilities in the town centre or in the northerly part of the town and beyond, which we regularly do, would involve a more circuitous and longer journey.

“That would mean using Wetherby Road or Leeds Road, which would add to the congestion on those roads.”

However, cyclist groups have welcomed the scheme and said it was time that roads were shared with drivers.

Kevin Douglas, chair of Harrogate and District Cycle Action, told the Stray Ferret previously that the measures fit into a wider vision for the town.

He said:

“The main aim is to get people cycling for short journeys into the town centre. We hope to have segregate cycle lanes on all the arterial routes.

“Some think that we want the roads to be car free but we just want to be able to share the roads safely.

“Even the most experienced cyclists feel unsafe with big lorries passing them close by and would feel much safer with a segregated lane.”

Other schemes under consideration include:

People can give their views on the projects here.

Harrogate mother crowdfunds £10,000 for breast reduction

A Harrogate mother has crowdfunded money for breast reduction surgery after “suffering for years”.

Kelly Michaud only set up set a gofundme page five days ago and has since raised over £10,000.

Her aim was to raise the sum for private surgery but, after surpassing her target, she wants to use the extra cash to help campaign for breast reduction surgery to be more accessible.

Kelly’s fundraising page has gathered so much attention she has started working with an agency to handle all the media requests.

Ms Michaud, 26, only weighs 10 stone but has size 34H breasts, which have caused back and shoulder pain. Her bra has caused sores around her breasts.

She has received unwanted attention from a young age and had to change several outfits to avoid “showing them off”.

After years of being refused surgery on the NHS, and losing almost two stone in an effort to reduce the size of her breasts, she decided as a last resort to go private.

Kelly Michaud

Ms Michaud says she can’t wait to have the operation, adding “It is going to have a huge impact on my life”.

She said she has been “blown away” by the response, not only by the amount raised but also by the number of women who have come forward with similar stories.

She said:

“I didn’t expect this, I didn’t think I would raise anything. It’s also helped to raise awareness for others, I want to help other women. I don’t think people understand the impact.”

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Ms Michaud hopes to reduce to a DD cup size but has yet to have a consultation. She says the reduction would change her life in so many ways and allow her to play with her children without feeling pain.

She added:

“I have also set up a petition to campaign for breast reductions to be more accessible.

“I understand getting it fully on the NHS might not work but even just some financial support to cover it would help lots of women.”

Harrogate district vaccine boost as over 50s prepare for jab

The Harrogate district is to receive a vaccine boost this week, as inoculations are set to be rolled out to the over 50s.

A vaccination site in Knaresborough, which will be able to administer jabs to 1,000 people a week, is due to open in the town’s former Lidl on Saturday.

It means the district, which now has vaccination sites in Harrogate, Ripon and Knaresborough, is on track to achieve the government target of offering all over 50s the jab by April 15.

The Knaresborough site is run by Homecare Pharmacy Services, which is based in the town.

Amanda Bloor, accountable officer for North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group, said today it was likely other community pharmacies could start offering the vaccine in North Yorkshire as the rollout filters down to everyone over the age of 18 by the end of July.

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Speaking at a media briefing today. Ms Bloor said the Knaresborough site would administer 800 vaccines next week and had the capacity to give up to 1,000 jabs per week. She added:

“This is just part of the wider rollout across the country. I think it is likely other community pharmacies will start to come on stream.

“As of yesterday, North Yorkshire and York reached 249,000 first doses of the vaccines. So it’s significant progress and the teams are doing a fantastic job.

“We have moved further down the priority list, so we are working on the over 65s. There’s no need to contact your GP. You will be contacted directly.”

Government to build 800 homes in Harrogate and Ripon

The government’s housing agency, Homes England, announced today it will build over 800 homes in Harrogate and Ripon after the previous developers pulled out.

Homes England said it has bought the 450-home Bluecoat Park site off Otley Road in Harrogate and the 390-home West Lane site in Ripon.

It said the two developments had stalled for various reasons, including the “associated enabling costs” and that their planning permissions were due to lapse imminently.

Homes England now has a major presence in the district: it is already working on a 1,300 scheme at Ripon Barracks and 200 homes at the former Police Training Centre site on Yew Tree Lane, Harrogate.

Bluecoat Park, Harrogate – 450 homes

In February 2016, Harrogate Borough Council granted planning permission to HTH Harrogate LLP to build the homes.

It followed an earlier refusal of permission on the grounds of road safety and traffic flow problems.

The site is off Otley Road, opposite Cardale Business Park and Harrogate Police Station.

The proposals included retail units, a new primary school and a village green.

However, the developer since put the site up for sale to potential developers.

With planning permission due to lapse, Homes England said the homes would not be built unless it stepped in. It plans to submit a new planning application later this year.

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West Lane, Ripon – 390 homes

In 2018, Harrogate Borough Council granted permission to Barratt Homes on appeal for the development.

It was previously rejected in 2017 for being a “substantial intrusion into the open countryside” and its impact on nearby Studley Royal and Fountains Abbey.

However, last summer Barratt Homes pulled out of the scheme.

The developer told The Stray Ferret that the decision was not related to the lockdown but in a year-end trading update, the company announced its revenue had fallen by 30% due to the coronavirus pandemic.

‘Fantastic news for Harrogate’

Both schemes are set to include 40% affordable housing, which Harrogate Borough Council asks developers to include in most developments.

Housing Minister Christopher Pincher said the acquisitions were “fantastic news” for the district.

“This is fantastic news for Harrogate and a realisation of this government’s mission to deliver quality, affordable homes, that are fit for future generations.”

Trevor Watson, director of economy and culture, Harrogate Borough Council, said:

“We welcome Homes England’s involvement in seeking to bring forward and unlock these stalled sites.

“They are important in helping to deliver our strategic objective to provide new homes that meet the needs of the district.”

Horrible Histories car park show heading to Harrogate

Horrible Histories is heading to Harrogate in April for a car park show at the Yorkshire Event Centre.

The centre, which is based at the Great Yorkshire Showground, will host Barmy Britain shows at 2pm and 5pm on April 3.

The event will also take place at Harewood House on April 5 at 11am.

It will feature the stories of Queen Boudica, King Henry VIII, Guy Fawkes, Dick Turpin, Queen Victoria and more.

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Families sitting in cars will be able to watch actors on stage and on a large screen while listening on their radios.

The audience can get involved by honking horns, flashing lights and turning on their wipers.

Neal Foster, actor and director at Birmingham Stage Company, said:

“I’m over the moon to be back on tour with Barmy Britain after its hugely successful tour last summer.

“It’s weird and wonderful to be performing in car parks and to see the audience having fun behind their windshields. We can’t wait to get back out there.”

The Birmingham Stage Company has produced 18 different Horrible Histories shows and taken them around the world.

Tickets are available here for the Harrogate and Leeds shows and cost £42.50 per car or £62 per car on the front row.

Harrogate builder left £30,000 conversion ‘in such a state’ it was demolished

Harrogate builder James Moss has been ordered to repay a customer after a court heard a £30,000 garage conversion was so poor it had to be partly demolished.

Karen Macgillivray-Fallis, from Burton Leonard, told a virtual hearing at Harrogate Justice Centre yesterday that in 2018 she paid Mr Moss to create a living space for her mother-in-law.

Unhappy with the quality of work, she asked Mr Moss to either reimburse the money or continue working. He then ended contact with her.

She said:

“We heard nothing from you. My elderly mother-in-law was very poorly at the time. The build took five months not four or five weeks like you had said. We just wanted the thing finished. Despite various attempts to communicate, you never responded.”

District Judge Helen Wood ordered Mr Moss to pay Ms Macgillivray-Fallis £9,586 plus costs. The small claims court has a £10,000 upper claims limit.

The judge accepted this would mean that Ms Macgillivray-Fallis “is going to be out of pocket”.

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Chartered quantity surveyor Peter Slater told Judge Wood that Mr Moss’ work on the extension did not comply with building regulations. Mr Moss disputed this.

The half-finished extension.

Mr Slater said there were problems with the plumbing, plastering, insulation and electrics and recommended that the extension was demolished.

He added.

“Works were in such a bad state that you would have to demolish the extension and rebuild it.”

Defending himself, Mr Moss said he was only an employee of Yorkshire Outdoor Design, the company contracted to do the work.

The sole director of the company, which has now been dissolved, was Mr Moss’ wife.

Judge Wood struck out this defence and said Mr Moss “had provided no evidence” that he wasn’t the frontman of the company.

The case was originally due to be held in December 2020 but was adjourned after Mr Moss told the court he was self-isolating.