Bilton by-election on May 6 after death of councillor

Harrogate Bilton and Nidd Gorge is to elect a new county councillor after the death of Geoff Webber.

Mr Webber died this month at the age of 75 after a short illness.

He was involved in local government for 28 years, leading the Liberal Democrat group on North Yorkshire County Council and serving as leader and mayor of Harrogate Borough Council.

The election is scheduled to take place on May 6. Nominations must be submitted by April 8.

The Conservative-controlled county council currently has 53 Conservative councillors, four Labour councillors and four representing the Liberal Democrats. There are also eight North Yorkshire Independent and three independent councillors.

The by-election is being run on behalf of the county council by Harrogate Borough Council.

Read more:

Councillors will stand outside the former Harrogate Borough Council offices on Crescent Road in Harrogate to pay their respects to Mr Webber on Monday at 11.45am.

More details of the notice of election can be found here.

Independent Harrogate fears Station Gateway could damage economy

A group representing 187 Harrogate businesses has expressed concern the proposed £7.9 million Station Gateway could damage the local economy.

In its submission to the gateway consultation, which ends tomorrow, Independent Harrogate said it was ‘broadly supportive’ of the scheme’s aim to promote sustainable transport.

But it added Harrogate’s hospitality and retail sector was in a ‘fragile and critical state’ and it had ‘serious concerns’ about the scheme’s economic impact.

Robert Ogden, writing on behalf of Independent Harrogate, said it therefore opposed plans to reduce traffic on Station Parade to one lane, or to pedestrianise James Street. He added the group believed East Parade to be the best location for cycling lanes.

The submission said the town needed an updated infrastructure masterplan rather than ‘pocket planning’. Such a plan should include park and ride schemes, numerous electric car charging points and extensive cycling routes, it added.

It said Harrogate Borough Council‘s current masterplan, devised in 2016, was out of date and doesn’t cater for outlying villages, which don’t have regular bus services and don’t benefit from the focus on cycling. The submission said:

“Both North Yorkshire County Council and Harrogate Borough Council are effectively discriminating against village residents and creating a playground for Harrogate residents only, many of whom will happily get into their cars and drive to work in Leeds and other areas.”

Read more:

The submission said Independent Harrogate was not anti-cycling, adding it would support initiatives such as Cycling Sundays, whereby some central Harrogate streets were closed to traffic to encourage walking and cycling. It added:

“This cautious approach would help gauge the appetite for cycling in Harrogate without too much detrimental economic impact.”

But overall it said town centre visitors arriving by car ‘need easy access and somewhere convenient and close to the shops/cafes/restaurants to park’, adding:

“To ignore the considerable income that visitors bring will be hugely damaging and they should not be excluded from any surveys, which sadly appears to be the case at the moment.”

The government’s Transforming Cities Fund has provided funding for the gateway project, to improve the design of the town and encourage more sustainable transport.

North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority are delivering the initiative.

Read the full letter from Independent Harrogate here.

Harrogate to host three-week climate change festival

A three-week climate change festival will take place in Harrogate in October.

The Climate Action Festival (CAFé) is being set up by the Harrogate District Climate Change Coalition  in the run-up to COP26, which is a major UN climate conference that will come to Glasgow in October.

HDCCC plans to organise three CAFé events during the festival and work with local groups, schools, businesses and organisations to inspire people into climate action.

The group has pencilled in a launch event on October 1 as well as separate events for businesses and families.

Read more:

Kirsty Hallett, communications lead for HDCCC, said she hopes the events will be fun and encourage people to act to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, help to limit climate change, and benefit nature and wildlife.

Ms Hallett added:

“We aim to involve the skills, energy and ideas of as many of our fabulous local people and organisations as possible.

“We hope the CAFé becomes an exciting period of climate focussed events which reach multiple audiences and inspire a wide range of climate actions.”

Contact email@hdccc.info if you’d like to support the festival.

Police close house in Harrogate after man dies

Police and council officers have closed a house on Mayfield Grove, Harrogate where a man died this month.

North Yorkshire Police said in a statement today it and Harrogate Borough Council had carried out a joint investigation following ‘concerns about crime and anti-social behaviour at the multi-occupancy address’.

Mark Wolsey, 48, died on Mayfield Grove this month. A suspect has been charged with murder and is remanded in custody pending trial.

A court approved the closure for an initial period of three months. Entry to the premises is now a criminal activity.

The police statement said the closure would give officers ‘an opportunity to work with the landlord and residents in the premises’.

Read more:

Inspector Nicola Colbourne, of North Yorkshire Police said:

“It’s really important that we support our communities who expect to be able to live in a safe environment.

“This approach demonstrates one way we can do that in a proportionate and effective manner.

“We’ve worked closely with Harrogate Borough Council, and this work continues to ensure we strengthen our communities for everyone and help the most vulnerable people.”

Dean Richardson, head of safer communities at Harrogate Borough Council, said in a statement:

“It is imperative that residents across the Harrogate district feel safe in their homes and their community.

“Anyone who doesn’t feel safe should report their concerns to us or North Yorkshire Police, giving as much detail as possible.

“Where there is sufficient evidence to support any reports, we will work with the police and partner agencies, to act accordingly.”

Plans in for 2,000-job business park near Knaresborough

The developers behind a new business park near Knaresborough that could create up to 2,000 jobs have formally submitted proposals.

Opus North and Bridges Fund Management have sent plans to Harrogate Borough Council to transform a 45-acre site into a mixed-use development designed to support offices, logistics operators and tech firms.

The site – to be called Harrogate 47 – is located at Flaxby near junction 47 of the A1(M) and was acquired by the developers in October last year.

It is allocated as the main strategic employment site in the council’s Local Plan and already has existing planning permission for more than half a million square feet of employment space.

The new plans include up to 130,000 sq ft of office accommodation, about 75,000 sq ft of tech starter units and approximately 430,000 sq ft for logistics and warehouses.

A spokesperson for the developers said the existing planning permission allows for the commencement of the site’s enabling works so it can be made “oven-ready” for the main construction to start as soon as the new consent is granted.

Guy Bowden, a partner at Bridges Fund Management, added:

“As Harrogate 47 is such an important site with immense potential to make a significant economic contribution to the local area, we are keen to maintain momentum and as such are commencing preparatory works.

“The work being undertaken will ensure that the plots are ready for construction to begin, which could be as early as summer 2021, and our appointed agents are already in detailed discussions with potential occupiers who have expressed an interest in the scheme.”

The appointed industrial agents for Harrogate 47 are CBRE and Gent Visick, with the office enquiries directed to the office agency teams at CBRE.

Read more:

Oliver Freer, from CBRE’s northern planning team, which prepared the planning application, said:

“The new masterplan for Junction 47 responds to the market demand for employment accommodation for office, hi-tech/hybrid and logistics uses in this location, and is in accordance with the land allocation of the site.

“A successful consent would allow much-needed commercial space to be delivered, enabling local companies to stay and attracting new inward investment into the district, whilst unlocking the potential for some 2,000 new local jobs.”

Ryan Unsworth, development director of Opus North, added:

“We have been working hard with our appointed consultancy team and key stakeholders since we acquired the site to progress a masterplan that would maximise the job-creating potential of the site whilst addressing current and anticipated regional demand for sustainable office and industrial accommodation.

“We are confident that our application captures these aspects and look forward to seeing the initial works start on site to facilitate development.”

Harrogate Civic Society calls for Station Gateway to remain two lanes

Harrogate Civic Society said today that plans to reduce traffic to one lane on the town’s Station Parade could be detrimental without a clear traffic plan for the rest of town.

The society, which campaigns to protect the town’s character, issued its comments as part of the consultation into the proposed £7.9 million Station Gateway proposals.

Concerns over traffic, which the highways boss at North Yorkshire County Council seems to share, is one of the key aspects of the consultation, which closes on Wednesday.

The society’s planning and development sub-group says it has a ‘strong preference’ for the two-lane option on the £7.9 million Station Gateway Project.

Read more:

The society also called for a study on the impact of making West Park and Parliament Street two-way, something it said would mitigate for the problems created by changes on Station Parade.

Its response said:

“There is a problem with making comments on these specific options when there is no indication of these being part of a longer-term, integrated traffic policy for the wider area.

“As with previous proposals there is the very real possibility that, without a clear traffic policy for the whole of the town, these changes will in the future be seen as having been unnecessary or detrimental.

“The society would like to see a study of the impact of re-opening West Park and Parliament Street to two-way traffic. This could relieve many of the problems that have been identified as the reasons for these present proposals.”

The society also said the re-location of taxis away from Station Parade would be ‘seriously detrimental’. Taxis, it says, ideally should be accommodated in the station forecourt. The response says:

“Taxis need to be immediately available for those arriving at the station and bus station; they cannot sensibly be re-located to James Street.”

Ambitious bid to reinstate Harrogate – Ripon – Northallerton trainline

Plans to reinstate a trainline Harrogate, Ripon and Northallerton are once again back on the table.

Dr Beeching axed the line in the late 1960s but it is a candidate in the government’s new ‘Restoring Your Railway Fund.’ The Department for Transport (DfT) launched the fund in January.

Harrogate – Ripon – Northallerton is one of 195 bids. So far 25 have been successful. It means that those projects will be given money towards feasability studies.

The government announced on Friday that it will deliver on the first Restoring Your Railways scheme in Devon.

If the plans went ahead it could be one of the biggest ever investments in the Harrogate district. Some expert estimates put the potential cost as high as £500 million.

This is not the first time that these proposals have cropped up and it may prove to be problematic. Homes have been built on some parts of the track and on Ripon’s former train station.

Former Ripon mayor Dr Adrian Morgan is a keen supporter of the plans. He has been fighting for reinstatement for the last 34 years and told the Stray Ferret:

“I will keep slogging away at this but it probably will not happen in my lifetime. Back in 2006 it would have cost up to £46 million but that price has gone up since then.

“Now it costs around £20 million per mile of track so we are looking at around £500 million to reinstate the Harrogate – Ripon – Northallerton line.

“This might sound like a lot but when you start rebuilding bridges, embankments and laying track the cost soon adds up.”

Read more:

The project has broad support from North Yorkshire County Council, Ripon City Council and Kevin Hollinrake MP.

Cllr Don Mackenzie, executive member for access at North Yorkshire County Council, also told the Stray Ferret:

“There has been a campaign to restore the Harrogate – Ripon – Northallerton line for many years, we would be supportive of that.

“It would not be a small job. It is a medium to long term project so it would take between five and 30 years.

“Any move to take traffic off of the busy roads would be good news. But we do need realistic, it would take a lot of work.”

Cllr Andrew Williams, leader of Ripon City Council, told the Stray Ferret how this line could be good news for Ripon in particular:

“This certainly has the broad support of the city council. It would be economically beneficial.

“The lack of a train line was cited as the main reason why Ripon lost the teacher training college in the 1990s.

“It would be also very important as a way to bring more tourists in the city. I say broad support because it would be unfair if it impacted those who had homes on the line.”

Kevin Hollinrake, the MP for Thirsk and Malton, also said:

“I am very supportive of the bid to re-open the Leeds to Northallerton Railway Line, a section of which would run through my constituency of Thirsk and Malton.

“Local transport connections are key to boosting regional economic activity by attracting new business and creating new jobs in the region.

“It would make the journey from Leeds to Northallerton 13 miles shorter and could also provide an emergency diversion between York and Northallerton.”

Growing support for meetings to remain virtual post-Covid

There is growing support amongst Harrogate councillors for meetings to remain virtual post Covid in a move which could mean almost all decisions are made online.

Emergency regulations which allow local authorities to meet remotely were introduced in March last year. Harrogate Borough Council has since held all of its full council, cabinet and committee meetings online.

The rules are due to expire in May but as the government is said to be considering making them permanent.  The council is now looking into how remote meetings and live streaming could continue in the future.

Liberal Democrat councillor Chris Aldred, who has been pushing for the live streaming of meetings since before the pandemic, told the council’s general purposes committee on Thursday that Covid had shown there is a “clear” interest in people being able to watch meetings online.

He pointed towards recent meetings which have had more than 100 views on YouTube, and said:

“People are clearly interested in the deliberations of their local council and we ought to continue to give them the opportunity.

“For me, one statistic sticks out above them all. On 26 January there was the planning committee debate on the Harrogate Spring Water application. 800 people viewed that as it was happening.

“You can’t get 800 people into the civic centre. You can hardly get that number of people into the Harrogate Convention Centre.

“If you then look at how many people viewed it over the next fortnight – 2,200. That one statistic proves we need to be giving people the opportunity to continue to view these meetings at a time and place of their choice.”

Read More:

Ripon Independents councillor Pauline McHardy added:

“We shouldn’t exclude members of the public that do want to listen into meetings but are too far away or perhaps don’t drive.

“These are supposed to be public meetings and we should be open, transparent and always above board.”

Liberal Democrat councillor Phillip Broadbank also said:

“It is time to do this. People really want to take part and see what their local authority is doing.”

A previous vote against streaming meetings

Before the pandemic struck and in January last year, Harrogate councillors voted against an idea of live streaming in-person meetings because of claims it would have been too expensive.

The costs were not initially made public but later revealed as ranging between £5,000 to nearly £48,000.

At the time, councillor Richard Cooper, leader of the Conservative-run council, said he could not justify spending the money when predictions of online viewership were low, but he now believes there should be a place for both remote and face-to-face meetings when lockdown is lifted.

He said there would be environmental benefits from councillors, officers and members of the public making fewer car journeys.

It was agreed on Thursday that the council would look into how decisions should be made in the future which could involve councillors only coming together for some in-person meetings.

A report to the general purposes committee said: “The view of councillors seems to be that larger, more complex meetings such as council and planning committee are better held in person.”

Census Support Centre open in Pateley Bridge today

It’s Census Day and Nidderdale Plus in Pateley Bridge will be open today to provide help and advice.

Filling in the form, which takes around ten minutes, can be done on paper, smartphone, tablet or computer.

It is a legal requirement.

The census helps local and national government to obtain a snapshot of the entire population at one point in time.

This helps in future planning for services such as healthcare, education and transport.

Assistance is being provided to those people who have queries about filling in the form, those who do not have a computer or are not confident about going online.

This is through Census Support Centres across the UK and Nidderdale Plus Community Hub is the centre selected for the Harrogate district..

Based in Station Square, King Street, it will be open from 10am until 1pm and will be observing social distancing requirements for people wanting to drop by.

Photo of the Census 2021 letter

Millions of households across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, received the letter calling for information for the 2021 Census

Some people who already knew who would be in their household today, completed their forms in advance.

Nidderdale Plus executive director, Helen Flynn, said:

“Advice can be provided at the door, or an appointment to visit the centre can be booked by calling 01423 714953.”

Census support advisers Sandra Walker and Heather Blundell, have been trained by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to deliver this service in a Covid-safe and confidential way.

They can provide help face to face or over the phone.

Mrs Flynn, pointed out:

“We have already helped lots of people from Nidderdale and Harrogate to fill in their form.

“We are very proud to be the only Census Support Centre operating in Harrogate district, playing a role in this important information gathering process.”

Read more

Census facts and figures

This year marks the 22nd Census.

It has been held every ten years, except for 1941, when it did not take place because of World War II.

The first Census was held in Great Britain in March 1801.

It recorded the combined population of England, Wales and Scotland at 10.9 million,  living in 1.8 million houses.

By the 2011 Census, the UK population – which also includes Northern Ireland – had grown to 63 million, of which 32 million were female and 31 million were male.

The census in Scotland has been held up by the covid pandemic and will take place next year.

Harrogate county lines drug runner jailed

A Harrogate drug runner linked to the county lines trade has been jailed for 20 months after he was stopped by plain-clothed officers.

Christopher Hollowed, 54, who has a long criminal history, had been dealing heroin and crack cocaine on the streets of Harrogate under the auspices of his drug bosses, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Matthew Collins said under-cover officers in an unmarked police car spotted Hollowed and another man approaching each other in the street.

They exchanged, “by way of a short handshake” known as a “hand-off”, a drugs packet.

Read more:

The officers approached the two men, but they ran off in separate directions. They recognised Hollowed immediately and caught up with him, seizing cash.

The other named man was detained and officers found two wraps of heroin and crack cocaine on him.

Hollowed’s fingerprints were later found on the drug wraps, suggesting he had sold the drugs to the other man.

Police searched a local block of flats where Hollowed lived as part of a wider investigation into county lines drug-dealing and so-called “cuckooing”, the practice by which drug dealers take over the homes of addicts and use them as bases for their dealing operations.

One such “vulnerable” man, who lived a few flats down from Hollowed, was found in one of the rooms along with Lee Bavin, a county lines dealer.

Bavin was found with several wraps of heroin and crack “similar in type, consistency and amounts” to the ones exchanged in the earlier street “hand-off”, said Mr Collins.

The prosecutor added:

“It’s clear that this means that Mr Hollowed was acting as a runner, moving drugs (from that flat) to the..street.”

In January, Bavin, of Manchester Road, Bradford, was jailed for 21 months for his part in this street-dealing operation and received an extra 43 months consecutively after being convicted of further drug-dealing offences as part of a wider county lines network. He is now serving a total five-year jail sentence.

Read more:

Bavin, who had been active since at least 2018, was snared as part of North Yorkshire Police’s Operation Expedite. He was part of a wider network of Bradford-run dealers and drug runners targeting Harrogate and flooding the town with heroin and crack cocaine. He was initially arrested in September 2018 as he travelled in a white Mercedes heading for Harrogate.

Hollowed, of Mount Parade, ultimately admitted two counts of supplying a Class A drug following his arrest on January 9 last year. The court heard he had 105 offences on his record including 10 for drug possession.

Imran Khan, for Hollowed, said his client had an “entrenched” drug addiction dating back over 20 years which had taken a heavy toll on his health.

He claimed that Hollowed was a “vulnerable” man who had been exploited by drug suppliers higher up the chain and had played a lesser role in the dealing operation.

Recorder Alex Menary said that county lines dealing “in this part of North Yorkshire is something of increasing prevalence”.

He added that, “unhappily, the buying and the supply is carried out by known, vulnerable drug users like (Hollowed)”, while the main players “kept their hands clean”.

He told Hollowed:

“In the pre-sentence report you made plain that that is your life now. You were a (drug) runner.

“Anyone who involves themselves in dealing Class A drugs in broad daylight must expect a custodial sentence.”

Hollowed will serve half of the 20-month sentence behind bars before being released on licence.