Care homes in the Harrogate district have now reported more than 100 coronavirus deaths among their residents. It is a grim milestone for the local care sector.

The latest ONS data, which only accounts for deaths up to July 3, revealed that there have been 104 deaths. That number is where coronavirus is mentioned on the death certificate.

It is different from the NHS England data from hospitals where the deaths are only added to the tally when coronavirus is deemed to be the cause of death.

Read more:

• How Harrogate Christmas Market could still get the green light
• No coronavirus deaths reported in Harrogate for six days

Currently, Harrogate District Hospital has recorded 81 coronavirus deaths. That is according to NHS England data from yesterday.

This new ONS data revealed that there have been four extra deaths at the hospital. That difference is where coronavirus is on the death certificate but not necessarily the cause of death.

It also revealed that there have been five deaths at homes, one death at hospices, and two more deaths at “other communal establishments.”

Despite spending millions, Harrogate Borough Council still faces problems with its new civic centre. 

The amount of parking on offer has been controversial from the outset and results in staff having to park elsewhere – taking up valuable commercial spaces and clogging residential streets. 

While HBC argued its move to the new civic centre would save £1m a year, this would have been true no matter which site the council chose for its new headquarters. 

The building itself has no mayor’s parlour for civic occasions, a choice which was queried by groups including Harrogate Civic Society, leaving nowhere to host visitors.

The council also made the move knowing that changes could lie ahead for local government, with the future shape of local government in North Yorkshire being debated at the time. Now, with HBC having only been in the civic centre for two years, even the existence of district councils is up for debate as North Yorkshire prepares for devolution.

Why is parking a problem? 

From the outset, the amount of parking was controversial.  

• Previously, 266 spaces were available across HBC’s five sites 
• Knapping Mount has just 95 spaces for staff and visitors 
• 561 staff are based there (though not all are there five days a week) 

As a result, the council is using spaces at the nearby Harrogate Convention Centre as overflow parking. In its plans for using up to 130 of these spaces, HBC acknowledged that it could result in a reduction in the £150,000 annual income from the public using the HCC car park 

When events are held, staff can park free in the Victoria multi-storey car park, using permits issued by HBC.  

• Usual cost of £11.70 for nine hours 
• Annual parking pass costs a member of the public £1,512 
• 786 parking spaces available 
• 698 parking passes have been issued to staff 

While it is unlikely they would all be used at the same time for the full day, there is no limit on how many spaces in the Victoria Car Park can be taken up by council staff. 

Not only does this mean that staff are being given free parking in a prime spot for shoppers who could be supporting local businesses, but it also limits the potential income for the council from parking spaces. 

The new civic centre car park has 95 spaces, with 561 staff based there

A report to HBC’s cabinet in November 2014, before building work began at Knapping Mount, rejected the multi-storey car park as an option. It said: 

“The use of Victoria Car Park as a potential location for employee parking has been considered, however feedback suggests that this may not be well utilised by employees due to the facility being more distant from the Knapping Mount site.” 

However, staff are now given passes for that car park when the convention centre is in use. If they do, as predicted, feel it is too far, the only option left to staff who drive is to park on surrounding streets. 

North Yorkshire County Council, which looks after on-street parking, warned during the planning process that it would have to enforce residents’ parking zones if neighbouring streets became congested. It said it would review the situation annually for five years after the new civic centre was occupied, in December 2017. 

The county council told The Stray Ferret it was working with HBC to monitor the situation, but follow-up surveys to its initial report have not been possible during the pandemic and would not give a representative picture of normal working days. Allan McVeigh, NYCC’s head of network strategy, said:

“Harrogate Borough Council is not only obliged to monitor how staff travel to the civic centre and where they park, it has also committed to promoting sustainable travel and encouraging staff, councillors and visitors to reduce their car use.

“The borough council has provided us with a draft monitoring report that contains the results of a travel survey, an update on agreed travel plans as well as a number of initiatives to promote sustainable travel to the civic centre.”

The full report will be published on HBC’s website once finalised.

Read more:

• The Stray Ferret reveals the civic centre cost taxpayers £17m
• Expensive design choices as council sought to ‘express nature of democracy’
• The alternative site that could have saved £7m

What savings have been made?

An ambitious savings target of £1m per year was set by HBC when it planned its new civic centre, which the ruling Conservative party said would mean the £5m spend would pay for itself in five years. 

Taken from a Conservative leaflet distributed in 2014

In its 2019 annual report, HBC said:  

“Savings of £909k from our move to civic centre have been built into the base budget and approved budget for 2019/20.” 

According to the council, this is made up of: 

• Senior management review – £269,000 
• Running costs – £265,000 
• Facilities management and support services – £134,000 
• Reduction in annual provision for print equipment replacement – £13,500 
• ICT – £227,000 
• TOTAL – £908,500 

The same could have been achieved by a move to any modern building. Knapping Mount did not have to be chosen in order to reduce staff numbers and streamline IT.  

A move to any single site would have delivered the same results – so a site and build which cost millions less would have paid for itself much sooner. 

If the new civic centre is no longer needed

When the public consultation over the Knapping Mount proposal was held in 2015, concerns were raised about future changes to local government.  

At the time, Harrogate Chamber of Trade and Commerce said a potential move to a unitary authority in the coming years could mean Harrogate no longer has a council, being replaced by a single authority for the whole county. 

The chamber argued that the decision over a new office should be delayed until the future of local government was clearer. However, HBC’s response at the time was that, should a move to unitary authority be made, a new civic centre would put Harrogate in an ideal position to become its headquarters.  

With discussions about unitary authorities and devolution still going on, the council’s civic centre may not be needed in the next few years

Even with that level of uncertainty, HBC chose to spend millions on a new headquarters. Its five offices could have lasted a few more years until the future of local government had been confirmed. 

If it had deemed the move essential at the time, a more traditional building design would have been pragmatic: the council could have extended or sold the building, or even leased part of it to a commercial tenant, if its needs changed. 

As it is, one local expert told The Stray Ferret that the council’s choice of a round building has restricted its adaptability for re-use or sale in future, meaning it is less valuable than it might have been.  

Five years later, the issue of changes to local government is still being debated. North Yorkshire County Council leader Carl Les told The Stray Ferret last week that discussions are still being held about forming a combined authority for North Yorkshire – and Unison has issued a statement raising concerns about the situation. 

The future of local government in Harrogate is still uncertain – meaning the new civic centre may no longer be required just a few years after it was built.

Next:

• The questions still remaining over Harrogate’s civic centre

More than two-and-a-half years after HBC moved into its new civic centre, there are still question marks over some of the logic and decision-making involved.

After our in-depth investigation, The Stray Ferret would like to know: 

• Full details of which other sites were considered and how the costs of these were calculated 
• Why the council didn’t apply for planning permission for homes at Knapping Mount to assess its true market value 
• Why a town centre base was deemed essential – even though Knapping Mount is in a largely residential area 
• Why such an unusual design was chosen and whether more traditional options were costed up before the decision was made 
• The detail of the financial claim made by Harry Fairclough Ltd to HBC, which the authority disputes 
• The full costs on top of the build, including all fixtures and fittings – IT, flooring, furniture and other essentials 
• Why the publicly discussed cost of the project not take account of the value of the land on which the civic centre was built 

In its preparations, HBC said the new civic centre represented “good value and careful use of public money”. Our investigation calls into question whether that was the case. 

It is now for the public to decide whether £17m really represents the best possible use of public funds. 

Read more:

• Revealed: The true cost of Harrogate’s civic centre
• The design choices that pushed up the price of Harrogate’s civic centre
• The option dismissed by HBC that could have saved £7m
• Parking, efficiencies and devolution: is the civic centre delivering value for money?

As the council faces unprecedented financial challenges and a possible £15m deficit, with inevitable cuts to services ahead, could more prudent choices over the civic centre have placed it in a better position to support local residents?  

And with the looming possibility of changes to the structure of local government in North Yorkshire, was it prudent for the council to invest so much money in a headquarters that may not be needed within just a few years of being completed?

The National Audit Office, which examines local councils’ use of taxpayers’ money, says: 

“Local public bodies are required to maintain an effective system of internal control that supports the achievement of their policies, aims and objectives while safeguarding and securing value for money from the public funds and other resources at their disposal.” 

The council’s external auditors have signed off the accounts for the years when those decisions were made.

So we ask taxpayers: was it worth it?

The Stray Ferret has today asked Harrogate Borough Council for a response to our investigation and will publish this when it is received.

Since publication of our first reports yesterday, the council has posted a series of tweets responding to our findings and questioning our sources.

In the course of our investigation, The Stray Ferret contacted and interviewed a number of established, independent estate agents, architects and quantity surveyors. Each gave us their honest opinion based on their expertise but, as they all work in the local area, they asked us not to identify them in our reports.

Organisers of the Harrogate Christmas Market are planning to go ahead with the event this year with social distancing measures in place.

Currently, the event is still on for November 12 to 15, 2020 on St Mary’s Walk and Montpellier Hill.

They will ask all traders and visitors to bring a mask or face covering in all parts of the market and to observe the rules of the day.

There will be hand sanitiser stations at every entrance, a one way system around the craft and gift marquee and no food and drink marquee.

Read more:

• How a land exchange could pave the way for a new cycle path in Harrogate
• Where 180 homes could go in Harrogate

Around 180 stalls have already signed up for the event but the organisers will not take any fees until they get the green light – something they hope to get in the next month.

One of the concerns for the organisers is the coach travel industry. They fear for the 9000 people that use coaches to get to the event if coaches cannot carry more people.

Brian Dunsby OBE, Harrogate Christmas Market, told The Stray Ferret:

“We are hopeful that we will get the approval from the authorities. We normally get around 80,000 people but we are not expecting anything like that this time. I think that Harrogate needs this market to go ahead, the retailers would definitely miss it.”

Unlike other Christmas markets around the country, the Harrogate Christmas Market focuses on Yorkshire traders. It bucks the trend of French and German markets elsewhere in the UK.

The line-up for this year’s Great Yorkshire Show has been announced ahead of the first day today.

For the first time in history the show will be broadcast online from the Great Yorkshire Show website and will feature a packed schedule which celebrates farming, food and the countryside.

Some top attractions include a behind the scenes tour with Olympic show jumper Graham Fletcher, a Q&A with stars of The Yorkshire Vet and a performance from East Yorkshire based TV stunt performers Atkinson Action Horses.

Read more: 

• Great Yorkshire show goes virtual for the first time ever 
• Market traders in Ripon and Knaresborough face rent increase 

Charles Mills, the show’s director, said:

“Never before has the Great Yorkshire Show been celebrated as a virtual event and so we are incredibly grateful to everyone who has contributed to bringing the show to life in this way. There will be something for everyone to enjoy online over the show’s three days and we dearly hope that you will join us for what promises to be a very special showcase…”

Charles Mills, Show Director.

The show, which normally welcomes more than 130,000 visitors and 8,500 animals was cancelled in March due to the pandemic. In previous years the show has generated large amounts of traffic through Harrogate.

The organisers were determined that “the show must go on” and instead encourage people to enjoy the event from the comfort of their own home.

To view the full schedule visit – https://greatyorkshireshow.co.uk 

North Yorkshire theme park Lightwater Valley will be welcoming visitors back as it reopens this weekend.

The theme park will be operating with reduced capacity and all visitors will need to pre-book tickets online. The park will have an increased cleaning regime along with floor markings and hand sanitiser stations.

Read more: 

• Recovery plans launched to save local tourism 
• Ripon charity set to expand despite coronavirus 

The general manager at Light Water Valley, Colin Bowes, said:

“We are delighted to be able to start welcoming visitors back but we also know how crucial it is that they feel safe. For this summer, to help us manage visitor numbers and keep everyone safe, we are focussing on running the rides and parts of the park which are more suited to a younger family audience.”

Lightwater Valley has been closed for over 3 months.

Most of the rides will be open but The Ultimate, Raptor Attack and Apollo remain closed. Indoor play areas will also be closed and food will be take out only.

Fresh plans have been submitted for housing at the former Police training centre on Yew Tree Lane.

The site is now owned by the government’s housing agency, Homes England, who wants to build 164 new build homes on the land whilst converting North Lodge, Headmasters House, Kensington House and Library into an additional 16 homes.

In 2018, Harrogate Borough Council granted planning permission for 161 homes to be built on the site. However, since then, the land has been transferred from the Home Office to Homes England who now wants to add an extra 19 homes to the development, which is also above the 160 allocated for the site in HBC’s Local Plan.

The development would keep some playing fields which Homes England says could be used by local football teams and potentially adopted and managed by HBC.

Read more:

• Harrogate loses ‘feel-good factor’ due to new housing

• Harrogate council wins contentious planning case at Court of Appeal

Homes England said the extra homes would “better suit the profile of local housing needs emerging from the recently adopted Local Plan evidence base.”

A consultation of residents found that 73% of respondents either strongly disagreed or disagreed that an increase of 19 homes with a broader mix of house sizes will help to meet local housing needs, with just 13% agreeing and 13% neutral.

Homes England is now inviting expressions of interest from developers.

For decades police recruits from all over the UK came to Harrogate to train, however the site was closed in 2011 due to cost-cutting. In 2006, HBC gave the green light for the site to be turned into housing but these plans never materialised.

Harrogate District Hospital has not reported any new coronavirus deaths for the last six days.

The last time the hospital recorded a death was on July 7. That came after more than two weeks without any deaths.

It means that Harrogate District Hospital remains on 81 deaths and 139 patient discharges after treatment for coronavirus.

Read more:

• A Harrogate woman’s account of coronavirus four months on
• How many coronavirus deaths Harrogate care homes have recorded

England’s hospitals reported that a further 11 people had died with coronavirus in today’s NHS figures.

Patients were aged between 72 and 95 years old. All patients had known underlying health conditions.

Harrogate Borough Council is set to consult on three plots of land to be designated the Stray as part of a land swap to make way for the Otley Road Cycle Route.

The building of the cycle route means that verges classed as Stray land have to be removed. As part of the Stray Act, a suitable plot of land must be offered in exchange.

The council will now consult on the three areas of land before settling on one to exchange.

The three areas identified are:

• Wetherby Road land next to the war memorial (preferred option)
• St James Drive verges
• Arthurs Avenue verges

Senior councillors on the borough council’s cabinet are expected to approve the public consultation on Wednesday.

It comes as North Yorkshire County Council’s looks to press ahead with a multi-million cycle route on the stretch of road between Harlow Moor Road and Beech Grove.

Read more

• The agony of getting a single cycle route built in Harrogate
• 26 cyclists a year injured in collisions in Harrogate
• Cyclists groups must “remain realistic”, says county council

The scheme has been marred by delays and, with less than a mile of the route being built, the county council has been criticised over a “lack of ambition”.

Now, highways bosses will hope that the consultation will lead to a solution to its latest stumbling block and prevent any further setbacks.

The preferred area of land outlined in Harrogate Borough Council documents earmarked to be exchanged as part of the Otley Road cycle route.

Lengthy negotiations with the Duchy of Lancaster over the use of Stray land on the footpaths and verges between Cold Bath Road and Beech Grove delayed the second phase of the project from going ahead.

The borough council’s preferred option would see a plot of land behind Harrogate District Hospital which adjoins the end of Willaston Road offered in exchange.

While the land has a covenant which states that it is intended for recreational and open space, the council said it would not prevent it from being used as exchange land.

However, the Stray Defence Association (SDA) raised concern over the amenity value of the second and third options outlined by the council.

Judy D’Arcy Thompson from the SDA said:

“Land taken from the Stray to build roads, footpaths etc remains forever Stray land, belonging ultimately to the Crown.

“However, as everything on the surface of the Stray belongs to the people of Harrogate, any land utilised for any purpose must be given back to Harrogate’s people as ‘payback land and be of the same amenity value to them as their original Stray.

“What concerns us about the latest proposals from HBC and NYCC is just that. Of what ‘amenity value’ are the verges along Arthurs Avenue and St James Drive going to be for local people?

“Are people going to picnic there, sit and read a book there, play football, cricket, or any other game there? We think not. Therefore, what actual ‘amenity value’ does the land being offered have?”

Andy Barnsdale has taken over the helm of The DoubleTree by Hilton Harrogate Majestic Hotel & Spa.

He is the top hotel’s new general manager and said that the hospitality sector is facing a “very tough” next 12 months.

The Majestic was just a week away from officially opening its new £2 million spa and wellness centre, called The Harrogate Spa before the coronavirus lockdown.

Read more:

• Rudding Park’s take on the chancellor’s hospitality boost
• When there was a rush to book nail appointments in Harrogate
• How 50 Harrogate sewers made 7,500 masks

That new project has still not been given the go ahead to open but, in the meantime, they have opened a new dining concept called Majestic Weekends.

It had remained open throughout the pandemic for key workers before it reopened to the general public on July 4.

The DoubleTree by Hilton Harrogate Majestic Hotel & Spa.

When Mr Barnsdale started his role 90% of the staff were on furlough but now they are bringing them back. He said:

“Thanks to the Cairn Group’s significant investment, The Majestic has regained its place as one of the finest hotels in the Harrogate District. Coronavirus has had a major impact on the hospitality sector, and we are facing a very tough 12 months. However, I believe we are well placed to pull through; we have a fantastic product and the Hilton brand is recognised and respected worldwide. Events and conferences are rebooking, and guests are coming back.”

Andy Barnsdale started his career in hospitality 25 years ago with Haven Holidays and over the next 11 years, he worked at six different holiday parks at general manager level before he moved onto hotels – namely Nidd Hall for six years.