North Yorkshire County Council has decided to postpone a temporary pedestrianisation of James Street in Harrogate.

In an email to businesses, David Bowe, director of business and environmental services at the county council, said the authority will not pedestrianise the street before Christmas.

It comes as the authority had planned a trial pedestrianisation which would have blocked off the street to cars for up to six months.

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Business managers, landlords, Harrogate BID and Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce met virtually with the the council earlier this week where some raised concerns over the issue. They said the timing was poor, as the run-up to Christmas will be particularly vital for them this year after losing trade through lockdown for several months.

Now, Mr Bowe has told traders that their concerns were heard “loud and clear”.

He said in an email:

“In conclusion having discussed the matter with Cllr Don MacKenzie, the leader of the council and the chief executive I would make the following proposal. That we agree not to introduce the experimental order before Christmas and that NYCC officers will engage with representatives of your group to develop a detailed proposal for an experimental part closure of James Street to best advantage.

“I recognise that you may still have reservations about the plan and they will be taken into account when a report for a decision is subsequently presented.

“I believe the response above demonstrates that we have listened to the points you have raised and have noted them. Whilst the final decision on this has yet to be taken, we do now offer you assurance that any experimental closure will not be implemented before the New Year.”

The temporary closure of the street to traffic was requested by Harrogate Borough Council for “social distancing and safety purposes”. Cllr Don Mackenzie, NYCC’s executive member for highways, backed a temporary, partial pedestrianisation, saying such moves had proved popular with residents and businesses elsewhere in the country.

However, landlords and businesses on the street continued to voice concerns about the potential impact on trade.

A local care organisation has started an initiative to support staff who have endured months of hard work and pressure during the pandemic.

Harrogate Neighbours’ Care for Carers scheme will provide regular wellbeing workshops and other support to its care staff.

The initiative aims to address any anxieties or mental health issues brought about by the pandemic.

The group works with elderly people in Harrogate, offering fresh meals and social interaction while trying to keep them in their own homes.

As winter sets in, there are concerns that groups like Harrogate Neighbours will have more pressure on services.

JK Change Work, a local therapeutic coaching company, will provide the workshops. It says the sessions will offer support and emotional coaching, improve wellbeing resilience and teach people how to deal with ongoing challenges.

Sue Cawthray, chief executive of Harrogate Neighbours said:

“With restrictions and guidelines changing almost daily, care staff across the country are feeling the pressure and often find it hard to cope day to day. It’s more important than ever that we support and look after their mental and physical wellbeing.

“We also have plans to reach out to the wider care community in Yorkshire to care for all carers who are sacrificing so much in these uncertain times.”

The first session was held last week. Staff were in bubbled in groups of six for a happiness and laughter session.

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Harrogate Town’s fairytale ascent into the English Football League will be the subject of a major TV documentary tonight.

Proud To Be Town will be premiered on BT Sport at 10pm and will be available on the BT Sport app on Saturday.

BT Sport is billing the 90-minute programme as the first full-length documentary to highlight the “profound impact” of the Covid pandemic on football.

Filming for the documentary began in June when the club began preparing for the National League playoffs after the season had been curtailed in March due to the lockdown. Town went on to win a historic Wembley playoff final against Notts County 3-1 in August.

The behind-the-scenes film traces the club’s exploits on the pitch as well as exploring how coronavirus hit the club’s finances.

Read more:

• Harrogate Town prepare for another trip to Wembley

• Harrogate Town faces ‘cliff edge’, warns chairman

Simon Green, head of BT Sport, said:

“This is not just the story of one club. It reflects aspects of almost every football club in the country amid the Covid pandemic.

“A large proportion of the film was self-shot by members of the team and club staff on phones and tablets, who enthusiastically recorded their experiences of lockdown, getting back into action and making their historic bid for promotion.

“We are grateful for the club’s collaboration.”

Residents on Whinney Lane have said lights used to brighten a temporary footpath at night are so intense they are like “a Leeds Bradford airport runway”.

Whinney Lane in Pannal Ash is closed to traffic until February 28 while work on the 130-home Castle Hill Farm housing development is carried out.

A temporary footpath has been created through a field that bypasses most of Whinney Lane.

The Squinting Cat pub requested developer Stonebridge Homes installed lights on the footpath to make it safer for people walking to-and-from the pub at night.

One resident, who did not wish to be named, said the lights have been in operation since Monday. He praised Stonebridge for installing them but said the brightness was “totally over the top”.

He said the lights were good for safety but added:

“It’s lit the footpath up but it’s also lit our bedroom up. I’ve had enough of it.”

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Another resident Mike Newall, who is a former pilot, said the lights reminded him of his flying days. He welcomed them being installed but described the brightness as “overkill”.

North Yorkshire County Council said it had not received any complaints from residents about the lights.

The Stray Ferret contacted Stonebridge about the brightness but had not received a response at the time of publication.

Just seven weeks remain to raise a further £115,000 to build a community woodland between Harrogate and Knaresborough.

So far, the volunteers behind the Long Lands Common project have raised £186,000 towards their £300,000 goal.

If they manage to pass that figure by November 20 they will consider trying to raise another £75,000 to improve access to the woodland.

Long Lands Common is 30 acres of open farmland surrounded by fields and hedgerows between Bilton Triangle and The Avenue in Starbeck.

A duck pond, wildflower meadow, sensory garden and woodlands craft area are all included in the plans.

Read more:

• Public support vital for Harrogate’s first community woodland
• Take a look at what might be Harrogate’s first community woodland

It is an ambitious target but the organisers behind the project remain confident they will reach it.

Chris Kitson, one of the organisers and a teacher, told the Stray Ferret:

“We are confident but we are not complacent. It is going very well but we need people to buy more shares. There are 700 people who have put down a pledge but not yet bought any shares.”

To increase support, the organisers plan to deliver 48,000 leaflets and have asked volunteers to come forward.

Anyone interested in volunteering can email Long Lands Common by clicking or tapping here.

Shares in Long Lands Common need to be bought by people aged over 16 in £50 lots, with the minimum amount set at £50 up to a maximum of £37,500.

To learn more and buy shares, go to the Long Lands Common website.

The project received help recently in the form of £35,000 match funding from the Community Shares Booster Programme.

A further 19 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the Harrogate district.

Daily figures from Public Health England show the increase takes the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 1,056.

A total of 56 cases were confirmed across the whole of North Yorkshire today.

Read more:

• Daily covid cases reach three-week high in Harrogate district
• First covid death at Harrogate hospital in two months

The weekly rate of infections county-wide up to September 28 stands at 55.2 people per 100,000 population, according to NHS figures.

Dr Lincoln Sargeant, director of public health at North Yorkshire County Council, has said the authority did not expect Harrogate to be added to the government’s covid watchlist this week.

However, he added that it does not mean the situation could change in the coming weeks.

The chairman of Harrogate Town has warned the club faces financial difficulties as fans continue to be banned from grounds.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said current Covid restrictions could last for six months.

For football clubs like Harrogate Town, this means having to face up to the prospect of empty stadiums for the foreseeable future.

This presents a big financial challenge for Town chairman Irving Weaver.

Mr Weaver said the uncertainty meant Town and other clubs faced a “cliff edge scenario”.

He said:

“When crowds mean 30% of revenue that’s a black hole. The furlough scheme was a big help but in the next six months we are looking at a problem that all clubs need help with.

“The subsidy grant we received was really helpful and the income from our games on TV wasn’t budgeted for so these two things have got us on our way. Our streaming figures are growing too, which we also didn’t budget for. All of this has helped make up for a loss of crowds.”

The club has has raised its concerns about the impact of playing without fans for a further six months.

The club’s recent promotion to the English Football League was its second in three seasons. But fans have only been able to celebrate the club’s recent successes at home or socially distanced in pubs, and missed out on a trip to Wembley.

With no idea when fans will next be able to attend, Mr Weaver is concerned some may not return.

He added:

“We need to grow our fans, especially if we want to attract players who want a big crowd.

“We are probably worrying more than most, but missing all this excitement is a big loss for fans. I think the solid fans will stay but we also want new people, which becomes difficult when they can’t experience the roar of a crowd at a match.”

Read more:

• The Chairman describes this time as “cliff edge” as clubs prepare for another six months without fans.
• The club is heading to Wembley .. again

Mr Weaver assured fans that these tough times will be overcome. He said:

“I want to say that ‘we are still kicking and we really want you to come back!’

“We will keep going and keep the atmosphere. We want to maintain our desire to succeed”

Harrogate is not expected to be added to the government’s Covid watchlist this week, according to North Yorkshire’s public health bosses.

However, they said the situation could change if the number of infections is not brought under control.

Scarborough and Selby districts are currently on the watchlist as “areas of concern” and neighbouring Leeds was put into local lockdown last week.

Further restrictions were announced elsewhere in the north today, including Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Warrington and Liverpool.

Dr Lincoln Sargeant, director of public health at North Yorkshire County Council, said the county had asked for a cautious approach to putting districts on the watchlist after Scarborough and Selby were added to it even though other districts that are not on the list have higher infections rates.

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He added:

“As the national system is revised in terms of where the whole country is, we will probably get some more detailed guidance about how the watchlist system will work in the future. That may or may not come out this week.

“But we have no expectations that Harrogate will be added this week. That does not mean that situation may not change for next week.”

Meanwhile, Richard Flinton, chief executive of the county council, said yesterday in a council newsletter that the transmission of infections was mainly between households.

Latest Public Health England data shows 519 new cases in the county in the past two weeks at a weekly rate of 36 per day.

Harrogate saw 16 new coronavirus cases yesterday and hit a three-week daily high of 19 on Tuesday.

Mr Flinton said the county’s infection increase was in line with the national picture.

He said:

“We are studying the data carefully and can clearly see that the majority of cases can be linked back to household and social transmission. 

“This is important, because what it also tells us is that our schools are safe places to be. That, in turn, is testament to all the hard work schools, colleges and childcare setting have put in to plan for a safe return for pupils.”

Harrogate TSB will close next month, with the bank attributing the move to a shift in customers to online banking.

The branch on Oxford Street, which was part of the first wave of 82 TSB closures announced last year, will close on November 27 .

TSB has since announced a further 164 branch closures as part of plans to save £100 million by 2022.

When the Harrogate branch closes, the nearest TSB bank will be in Leeds.

Read more:

• Central Harrogate bank to close by December
• Knaresborough’s only bank to remain open for time being
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A TSB review into the use of the Harrogate branch found 73 customers visited it regularly each month.

It also revealed weekly transactions had gone up in 2019 compared to the same time in 2016.

A notice in the bank’s window.

Debbie Crosbie, chief executive of TSB, said:

“We are reshaping our business to transform the customer experience and set us up for the future. This means having the right balance between branches on the high street and our digital platforms, enabling us to offer the very best experience for our personal and business customers across the UK.”

Another central Harrogate bank, The Co-operative Bank, is due to close by December 1. The Co-op also blamed a drop in footfall for it closure.

Killinghall CE Primary School is set to close today after someone at the school tested positive for coronavirus.

The school, on Otley Road in Killinghall, sent a letter to parents this morning asking them to pick up their children at staggered times according to year groups, starting at noon.

The letter, written by headteacher Sarah Bassitt, said the school will open again tomorrow and all children are expected to attend unless they develop Covid symptoms.

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The letter said the school, which has just over 100 pupils, had identified a “very small” number of staff who had “close contact” with the individual concerned. It says:

“We have been advised by Public Health England that there has been a confirmed case of Covid within the school community. I appreciate that you may be concerned by this information.”

The Stray Ferret approached the school and North Yorkshire County Council for further information. The school declined to comment but the council has not yet responded.