Boroughbridge news from the Boroughbridge district - Page 134 of 201

Plan for community networks in North Yorkshire labelled ‘crackers’

Plans to create about 30 unelected community networks in North Yorkshire following the abolition of district councils have been criticised as “crackers” and “an academic exercise”.

Councillors from across the political spectrum have voiced a plethora of concerns about North Yorkshire County Council’s proposals to form forums based around market town areas.

The authority has pledged its successor unitary council would be committed to keeping services local and give communities a bigger say in services from April 1, 2023.

Under the proposals, local priorities will be decided by around 30 community networks, based around market town areas.

Made up of community and business groups, town and parish councils and representatives from other local groups and public services, including local councillors, the council claims community networks will act as local agents for economic and social change.

A meeting of the Tory-run council’s corporate scrutiny committee heard councillors brand the proposed forums as unnecessary, while others have said they would be toothless or poorly attended as they could not make financial decisions.

Conservative Cllr Nick Brown, who represents Wathvale and Bishop Monkton, said while elected members would be obliged to attend networks in the division to which they were elected, as the proposed 30 networks did not follow division boundaries, they would need to attend networks outside their division too.

He said elected community representatives needed more consideration in the proposals, which he described as “unpractical” and an “academic exercise”.

Cllr Brown said:

“We have a job to do and we’re not really mentioned. If I’m having to go to meetings in somebody else’s division it seems a nonsense to me.

“It’s bad enough with 16 parish councils in my division, but if you are having to go to further meetings in someone else’s area because it’s a community hub covering the whole of several divisions, it’s crackers.”

Hunmanby Cllr Michelle Donohue-Moncrieff, an independent member, told the meeting there was a consensus among parish councils in her area that community networks would undermine their role in the community.

She added:

“They feel they allow individuals who don’t have or are not honestly representative of the wider community to pursue their own projects.

“One thing that really has annoyed people, and it annoys me as a parish councillor, is that we are expected to do all the work and take responsibility, yet someone can now waltz onto the community network and have more influence than the average parish councillor.”

After the meeting, the authority’s leader, Councillor Carl Les, said he recognised there were a range of concerns being raised about the community network proposals, but they remained “very much a work in progress” and were being shaped by a range of views.

He said the idea was to bring people together to discuss services and priorities in their areas and would not downgrade parish councils’ influence.

Cllr Les said:

“In that respect I think it’s a worthy ambition to talk to people. In no way are they meant to negate the work or replace parish or town councils, or of the elected member. I appreciate the value of parish councils. I was a parish councillor for well over a decade.

“This is about working in clusters and the network might cover areas that are not covered by a parish council, but by a parish meeting, which only meet as and when they need to.”

He said such community networks had been in place across North Yorkshire for some time, with Community Engagement Forums in Selby district and Area Partnerships in Richmondshire.

Cllr Les added:

“I have got great hope for these networks.”

Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal hits £5,000 target in less than a week

There’s been an overwhelming response to the Stray Ferret’s Christmas Appeal for local food charity, Resurrected Bites.

Our target of £5,000 was reached over the weekend – less than a week after we launched the appeal. Public donations now stand at £7,638.

With Harrogate firm Techbuyer generously match funding the first £5,000 of public donations – it means our overall total is now £12,638.

Many of the donations have been given anonymously so whoever you are, we would like to thank you and everyone else who has generously given money in these difficult economic times.

THANK YOU!

But we keep going. As we have a few weeks to go before the appeal ends at midnight on Christmas Eve, we have now raised the overall target to £20,000.

This would give Resurrected Bites almost three months of operating costs, as each month costs the charity a minimum of £7,500 to run the cafes and grocery stores. If you want to know more about the charity please read the stories below.

Michelle Hayes of Resurrected Bites says to hit the target so quickly is amazing:

“I am blown away by the generosity of so many people who have got the total to £7,558 in under a week. This equates to a month’s basic operating costs and with Techbuyer’s amazing donation of 5k match funding on top, we are heading towards covering our costs for two months. We have a lot of anonymous donors and so I have not been able to thank them directly but please know that every penny means so much.

I know there was a significant amount of anxiety amongst some of our service users when they saw the headline that Res Bites might close and I said at the time, I was determined to ensure we wouldn’t close as we know so many rely on our services.

In the same way that we need to talk about mental health more, we also need to talk about food poverty more..I hope these articles [on the Stray Ferret] help to end the stigma and encourage more people to come forward for help as we don’t want anyone to go hungry.”

Please don’t let anyone go hungry this Christmas — Resurrected Bites needs your support.

The more money raised, the more people it can feed at a time of rising demand for its services.

Thank you again. To donate click here.

Business Breakfast: Harrogate marketing agency get sore feet for mental health charity

Business Breakfast is sponsored by Harrogate law firm Truth Legal

A team from Harrogate marketing agency, Big Bamboo, has raised more than £2,500 for the mental health charity, Mind.

Staff completed the 23-mile-long Harrogate Ringway trek and also walked barefoot across red-hot embers on the Leeds Mind firewalk.

Some of the bolder members of the group spent a hour training and then walked across the red-hot embers. The company said the challenge was more mental than a physical, and felt it was an appropriate way to raise money for a mental health charity.

Jen Winterschladen, Operations Director at The Big Bamboo Agency, said:

“We are thrilled to have exceeded our fundraising target for this year, raising £2,572 for Mind…

“..The fundraising challenges we undertook emphasised the importance of mental health: walking in the countryside around Harrogate took us away from our screens and gave us a chance to have a proper talk, while the firewalk was a lesson in the power of the mind and believing you can do anything you put your mind to.

“We felt Mind was a truly fitting charity to support, and we look forward to supporting another amazing charity in 2023.”

ASE Computer Services Ltd is to sponsor the Digital Innovation category at the Stray Ferret Awards 2023.

The award ceremony on March 9 at the Pavilions of Harrogate will recognise excellence in a wide range of business practices with 10 coveted awards. The judging panel comprises some of the most influential business leaders in the district.

Chris Dickinson Managing District ASE said:

“As an IT consultancy with support services, ASE works in a wholly the digital space. We’re delighted to sponsor the Digital Innovation category in the Stray Ferret Business Awards 2023.

“Technology moves so fast that keeping up and making it bring benefits to a business can seem daunting. We’re here to help with that.

“So celebrating and sharing digital best practice, new ideas and creativity is something we are very interested in promoting, both for our clients and the wider Harrogate business community “

Entries are open now until mid January. Put your business or team forward for an award that recognises their achievements.

North Yorkshire leaders set up devolution decision making body

An ambition to create a devolved mayoral combined authority for North Yorkshire and York has reached a milestone as the local authorities pursuing it launched their first joint decision-making body.

In a turn of events that highlighted geographic and transport issues a combined authority for the vast area will face, the inaugural meeting of North Yorkshire and City of York Council’s joint devolution committee started more than half an hour late due to committee members travelling to central York being delayed on public transport.

With two of the leading executive members from each councils and being co-chaired by the councils’ leaders, the committee bears a close resemblance to the proposed mayoral combined authority executive.

However, it also includes non-voting members, such as the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner and the chair of the local enterprise partnership.

The meeting heard the committee was being launched despite the public having yet to decide having a mayoral combined authority as part of the proposed devolution deal is acceptable, with a consultation under way.

North Yorkshire’s monitoring officer Barry Khan told members:

“This is in no way trying to pre-determine or pre-judge that process.

“If the councils agree to submit a proposal for a mayoral combined authority then this committee can transform into a shadow combined authority to set up that arrangement.”

Nevertheless, James Farrar, the enterprise partnership’s chief officer, told he meeting the councils needed to start taking joint decisions or face losing nearly £20 million of funding the government had agreed to give under the proposed devolution deal.

Mr Farrar said:

“The rules are very stringent and inflexible.”

He said the government had set a deadline of March 2025 to complete two major projects it was funding.

The schemes include £7 million to enable the area to drive green economic growth, creating the country’s first carbon negative region, and £12.7 million to support the building of new homes on brownfield land.

He said with a potential date of creating the combined authority in December next year it left a very tight timescale to complete the projects, leading councillors to approve a move to invite firms to submit interest in potential schemes this month.

Mr Farrar said even if devolution was not progressed the authorities would have created a pipeline to challenge for “increasingly competitive” funding from government.

City of York Council leader Cllr Keith Aspden issued an appeal for as many residents and businesses as possible to respond to the consultation ahead of its December 16 deadline.

The meeting was told the committee would “exercise executive functions”, but its remit could be widened to “a joint committee that exercises both council and executive functions”.

The county council’s leader, Cllr Carl Les, said he was hopeful the consultation would come back in favour of creating a mayoral combined authority.

He added:

“It’s a first step and of course we have been very keen to say to people that devolution is an iterative process.

“I really welcome the fact that the brownfield fund also covers the rural areas, not just urban areas, and also that we are getting some help with net zero activities because that is highly topical at the moment.”

Public control of North Yorkshire bus network ‘not realistic’, says transport chief

Public control of North Yorkshire’s bus network is not a “realistic answer” to the system’s current woes, says the county’s transport chief.

Cllr Keane Duncan, executive member for highways and transport at North Yorkshire County Council, said such a move would be too expensive for the authority to take on.

It comes as officials at the county council have warned passengers that some services may be scrapped if not enough people use them.

Cllr Duncan told an executive meeting that bringing the network under public authority ownership – often referred to as franchising – would lead to “20 to 30 thousands pounds of subsidy” per passenger every year.

He said:

“I think that no matter what political party you may come from in North Yorkshire County Council and beyond, or whatever political persuasion you might be, you’re looking at those figures at potentially subsiding per passenger per year at ten, twenty, thirty thousand pounds and it just doesn’t stack up.

“The case is not there. We know we have got some unique times in North Yorkshire and we have got to work through those. It is potentially more difficult than just ‘lets have public authority control’, that is not going to be a realistic answer to the problems we face.”

Local control is ‘better value’

Matthew Topham, of the Better Buses for North Yorkshire campaign group, said that bringing the county’s network under local control was “common sense”.

Mr Topham said a franchising model – which Transport for London and Greater Manchester operate under – would be better value for passengers.

He said:

“Far from being “unrealistic,” taking buses into local control is the only common sense answer. It’s better value. It’s popular. It unlocks unique powers to improve services.

“Findings from London show franchising is a more efficient use of public money. In Jersey, it helped the council add routes while cutting costs by £800,000 a year. Imagine if we had it here!

“Polls show over two-thirds of the public back local control. Experts from the Countryside Charity CPRE, levelling up think tank IPPR North, and even the UN agree: local control is the way forward.

“If the mountainous areas of France or Switzerland all find it cheaper to coordinate services through local control, we can trust that North Yorkshire will too.”

The network’s woes come as seven months ago the government rejected North Yorkshire County Council’s bid for a £116m share of Boris Johnson’s high-profile Bus Back Better initiative, saying the local authority’s plans lacked ambition.

Since then, local politicians have raised concern over the future of services in their area.

Nigel Adams, MP for Selby and Ainsty which includes rural Harrogate, said he feared up to 80 services could be under threat across the county.

Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat councillor for Pateley Bridge, Andrew Murday, said residents of his division faced having just two services a day to Harrogate.

He said:

“We just have to do something about bus services, and encourage more people onto buses. We need to know how we are going to go about discouraging people from driving and encouraging people on to buses, so bus services can thrive.”

Firefighters called to Pannal business

A faulty storage heater caused a fire at a business in Pannal today.

A member of staff dialled 999 when they noticed smoke at the commercial premises on Station Road.

Firefighters from Harrogate and Knaresborough were summoned to the scene at 8.43am and entered the building wearing breathing apparatus.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s incident log says they discovered a “small fire to a storage heater”, adding:

“Firecrews extinguished the heater, which had developed an electrical fault, and cleared the premises of smoke with a positive pressure ventilation fan.”

The fire, at the unnamed business, was the first of two incidents in the Harrogate district today.

At two minutes past midday, fire crews from Boroughbridge and Knaresborough were called to the A1 southbound near Boroughbridge to deal with a car fire.

A Vauxhall Zafira had caught fire following an engine fault. Firefighters using breathing apparatus dealt with the incident.

The incident log adds:

“Occupants had left scene, believed to have been picked up by another vehicle prior to arrival of emergency services.”

County council bosses raise concern over social care reform

Officials at North Yorkshire County Council have raised major concerns about social care funding reforms, including that it could leave the local authority needing to find tens of millions of pounds every year.

A report to a meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s care scrutiny committee on Tuesday states the new system, in which an £86,000 cap could be introduced on resident’s care costs, would mean recruiting more staff in a sector already facing a recruitment crisis.

While the government has delayed the scheme to help make expected reductions of over £30bn a year in spending, Whitehall officials this week told county council bosses charging reform was still government policy and had only been delayed until October 2025.

The scrutiny meeting also comes just days after Healthwatch North Yorkshire called for immediate and significant action to deal with the growing social care crisis and underlined concerns for the future of services in the county.

Its chief officer, Ashley Green, said:

“Despite the hard work and commitment from those delivering care and who commission services, the significant lack of qualified and available staff is having a devastating impact on the provision of care for those people who most need it most.”

The council report states the significant increase in the number of social care and financial assessments required with the new system would mean an increase in staffing, which it says would have been difficult to recruit.

North Yorkshire had been due to be part of a “trailblazer” project from January, along with four other authorities around the country, to implement the policies and test the system before it was rolled out further.

The report adds its calculations, echoed by other councils, showed a significant potential gap between funding from the government and costs, running into tens of millions of pounds on an annual basis.

It said:

“We made it clear that any final decision on our participation in the Trailblazer project was dependent on central government recognising and filling the funding gap, or at least underwriting any excess costs.”

Outlining the an array of measures the council had launched to ease pressure on the NHS and social care services, the authority’s executive member for adult social care, Cllr Michael Harrison, said:

”We are reliant on the government to champion reform of the sector.”

He said challenges the council faced included increases in hospital discharges, high occupancy in residential care settings resulting in low availability, continuing low availability in the home care sector and an increase in requests to the authority for financial support from social care providers.

He said:

“We are operating waiting lists for social care in a way that we probably wouldn’t have done pre-pandemic.”

Cllr Harrison said positive interventions by the authority had led to some reductions in waiting times, and over the past few months included 41 “hardship” payments, costing £1.8 million, to care providers, compared to just four a year ago.

He said the authority had prevented numerous struggling care homes from closing by dispatching its quality improvement team and through improvements in recruitment, including attracting care workers from overseas and promoting apprenticeships and increasing pay for frontline staff.

Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal: Ukrainian refugees relying on Resurrected Bites for food in Knaresborough

This year’s Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal is for Resurrected Bites in Harrogate and Knaresborough. Today, Vicky meets a Ukrainian family who have relied on its support this year. Please give generously to support local people who are struggling this Christmas. They need your help.

“We thought we would come here for a year, then we would go back to Ukraine. Now… I don’t know.”

Andre and Irina left their home near Kyiv after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They arrived in Knaresborough with their two daughters – then aged three and 11 months – in late May.

With few possessions and no income they were directed towards Resurrected Bites. Andre said:

“Before September, I was looking for work. In September I started a course at Harrogate College in electrical engineering.

“I have a university degree in electrical engineering. I had a good job. UK wiring systems are different, so the course means I will be able to get a job here.”

Both he and Irina, who has been a full-time mum since their children were born, have also been learning English as a second language.

Their eldest daughter, now four, is enrolled in a local pre-school and is becoming more settled every day. Her younger sister will, hopefully, sign up after she turns two next year.

The family have been living in rooms at a local pub, arranged through the government’s Ukraine programme, but this was only for six months. They have recently been forced to find a new home in order to continue receiving support from the programme for the next six months.

He said:

“After this time, we will have to pay rent. I have no job and I will only be able to find a job after my course ends in July.

“How will I pay for our accommodation until then?”

Not only have the family been supported by Resurrected Bites, they have also become part of the community at Gracious Street Methodist Church, practising their Christian faith and getting to know others in the area.

Andre has begun volunteering in the community grocery on his day off college, giving back support to the organisation that has helped his family.

They are permitted to stay here for three years and to find jobs, but those three years don’t count towards any future citizenship application. That would require a further five years in the UK.

The future remains uncertain for them in so many ways. Returning to Ukraine would not be simple either: the population of the capital city is less than half what it used to be and Andre said it took many years to rebuild after the devastation of the Second World War.

Some of Andre’s family members are now living elsewhere in the UK, but Irina’s parents are still in Ukraine. She said:

“They are OK, but very afraid. It’s a very hard life for them.”

The family still see Ukraine as their home, but at the moment it would be impossible to return. Andre added:

“There’s no electricity – only for a few hours a day. Russian forces destroyed the electricity station. There’s no water.

“It’s winter in Ukraine and it’s freezing. I don’t know how many people will die, because the freeze is very dangerous.”

They are just one example of the Ukrainian refugees living in the Harrogate district who are being supported by Resurrected Bites.

The organisation is a lifeline to people who have fled the war and are trying to build a new life for themselves in the Harrogate district.

Like Andre, many are retraining and hoping to find employment – but the ticking clock of the government’s year-long support hangs over them all.

In the meantime, organisations like Resurrected Bites are ensuring none of them go without food this winter.

Nobody in the Harrogate district should go hungry this Christmas.

It costs £300 to run the community grocery for one day. Please help to keep it open for everyone who relies on it.

Click here to contribute now. Thank you.

Guide to Christmas fairs and markets in the Harrogate district

Christmas markets are taking place across the Harrogate district.

Here’s our guide to what’s taking place. If you know of one that isn’t included, let us know and we will add it. Email us at contact@thestrayferret.co.uk.

RHS Harlow Carr, Bath House Gallery: Christmas Crafts

10am, Thursday, October 20 to 4pm, Friday, December 23

Country Living Christmas Fair, Harrogate Convention Centre

10am, Thursday, December 1 to 4pm, Sunday, December 4

Great Yorkshire Christmas Fair, The Yorkshire Events Centre at the Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate

9.30 to 5am Thursday, December 1 to Sunday December 2022 (4.30pm finish on Sunday)

Harrogate Christmas Fayre, Harrogate town centre

10am, Friday, December 2 to 4.30pm, Sunday, December 11

Pateley Bridge and Bewerley late night shopping, Pateley Bridge High Street

December 2, 5.30pm

Little Bird Artisan Market, Valley Gardens, Harrogate

Saturday, December 3, 10am to 5pm, and 10am to pm on Sunday, December 4

Knaresborough Christmas Market, Knaresborough Market Place

10am, to 5pm Saturday, December 3 and 10am to 4.30pm on Sunday, December 4, finishing with firework fiesta over the viaduct at 4.30pm

Knaresborough Artisan Market, Gracious St Methodist Church, Knaresborough HG5 8AN

10am to 3pm, December 3

Copt Hewick Christmas Fair, Copt Hewick village hall and church

11am to 3pm, December 3, cash-only event, Santa arrives at noon and carols at 1.30pm

St Luke’s Church Parish Christmas Fair, St Luke’s Church, Franklin Square, Harrogate

10.30am to 1.30pm on Saturday, December 3

Belmont Grosvenor School Christmas Fair, Belmont Grosvenor School, Birstwith

Saturday, December 3, £3 entry for adults, free for children

Minskip Christmas Gift Fayre, Minskip Village Hall

Saturday December 3, 1pm to 4pm – all gifts priced at under £10

Nativity Festival, St Cuthbert’s Church Pateley Bridge

Saturday December 3, 10.30am to 2.30pm. Followed, at 7pm by Christmas carol singing accompanied by local choirs. (Tickets for the carol concert cost £5 and will be available on the door or from church members)

SYD* Christmas Craft, Vintage & Collectables Fayre, Masham Town Hall

10am, Sunday, December 4

* Saving Yorkshire’s Dogs

Knaresborough Winter Fayre, Knaresborough Market Place

10am to 4pm, Saturday, December 10

Little Bird Artisan Market, Valley Gardens, Harrogate

Saturday, December 10, 10am to 5pm, and 10am to pm on Sunday, December 11

Award for woman who saved lorry driver’s life on A1(M) at Boroughbridge

A woman has been recognised for bravery after saving a lorry driver’s life on the A1(M) at Boroughbridge.

Evie Armitage intervened after the driver suffered a heart attack and crashed into the central reservation on the morning on December 9, 2021.

For 11 minutes, she provided life saving CPR before paramedics arrived.

The driver was taken to hospital for urgent treatment and made a full recovery.

Evie and four North Yorkshire Police officers were recognised by the Royal Humane Society for bravery this month.

Lisa Winward, chief constable at the force, said:

“These commendations recognise the bravery and selflessness of those who put themselves at risk to save the lives of others.

“The courageous actions of the recipients are an inspiration to us all, and I was proud to be able to honour them in this way.”

Evie was recognised alongside PCSO Felicity Wilkinson, who was first on the scene following reports of a man in distress on the wrong side of a bridge over the A1(M) near Scotch Corner on August 3, 2021.

She made the scene safe and spoke to the man, before PC Michael Smith, PC Steven Gardner and PC Alan Fenney arrived, and they grabbed hold of him to prevent him falling.

They held on to the man for 10 minutes while further officers made their way to the location. They were eventually able to pull him on to the right side of the bridge, and he was taken to hospital.

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Local control is ‘better value’

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