Harrogate Borough Council has spent £408,000 on overtime for bin workers over the last three years.

The Stray Ferret sent a freedom of information request to the council after a refuse collector got in touch to express concerns about overtime spending.

The council spent £138,246 on overtime in 2019, £135,636 in 2020 and £134,196 in 2021. The figures do not include casual workers.

The council, which will be abolished in just under six months, employed 93 waste and recycling drivers and loaders in 2020, compared with 95 in 2021 and 100 in 2020.

David Houlgate, secretary of the Harrogate local government branch of public sector union Unison, said the council had been “in a recruitment and retention crisis for some time”, adding:

“There are a number of factors for this crisis but primary it is, in our view, because of pay freezes and below inflation pay rises for over a decade or more as a result of chronic under-funding from central government who do not appear to care about public services.

“Consequently, some services such as environmental services have endured staffing issues for a number of years.  Your readers may have noticed on some occasions that their refuse or recycling collection has been late or not happened at all, as a result.

“Staff may have been asked to work overtime to alleviate the problem but more concerning is that there has been an over-reliance on agency workers to deliver some services.”

Mr Houlgate said Unison submitted a freedom of information request around the costs of agency workers in 2019 and later wrote to the council’s overview and scrutiny commission asking it to look into the “excessive” sums.

The committee agreed to undertake a review but this was delayed by covid and in July this year Unison was informed it was “unlikely that the agency workers piece of work will be undertaken”. Mr Houlgate said:

“The staffing situation has arisen because council staff have been underpaid and undervalued for well over a decade and the situation now with the cost of living crisis has reached a breaking point.”

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The Stray Ferret asked the council what the overtime pay rate is for waste and recycling staff and whether it was able to manage the service better to reduce costs.

A council spokesperson said he didn’t have an answer for the pay rate but added:

“Our waste and recycling service has around 30 rounds out per day collecting household waste, recycling, garden waste and trade waste from the 500 square miles of the Harrogate district.

“There are a number of reasons why overtime is required to support the delivery of this service.

“On a day-to-day basis this could range from roadworks, delays or breakdowns leading to rounds finishing late and employees working over their contracted hours. Short or longer term driver and staff shortages also require additional time to be worked by employees to ensure the delivery of this service.

“It is fair and right that additional time worked by employees over contracted hours – that equates to less than five per cent of the overall delivery of the service – is paid at the appropriate rate in-line with our overtime policy. Equally, where hours are worked on bank holidays to ensure rounds are completed, overtime is rightly paid to employees.

“Without the good will and support from staff to work these additional hours we would struggle to deliver the existing quality of service that our residents and business customers expect to receive.”

Business Breakfast is sponsored by Harrogate law firm Truth Legal. 

More than 1,000 people attended a business conference in Harrogate yesterday.

Brand Yorkshire held its 12th annual business conference at Pavilions of Harrogate at the Great Yorkshire Showground. Nearly 60 businesses had stalls at the event.

Staff from companies all over the country networked at the event, which attracted many local firms.

Georgina Pogge-von Strandmann, solicitor and branch manager at Ison Harrison in Harrogate, told the Stray Ferret:

“The event has been great to attend. We’re here to explain all of the services we can offer at our new Harrogate branch as a full-service law firm. We’ve spoken to a lot of people, everyone is really friendly.”

Sally Bendtson, who owns Limelight HR, said:

“It’s been really good so far, there is a nice mixture of people we know and people we haven’t worked with yet. Last year we just had a stand but this year we’ve got a stand and I’m doing a talk.”

Brand Yorkshire has been holding business events for more than a decade. They are run by Richard and Mona Norman.

Ms Norman told the Stray Ferret:

“People are still wanting to meet people face to face, especially in Harrogate. We have more than a thousand booked to attend.

“What is music to my ears is when the stand holders come to me, even when the day hasn’t finished yet, to say they are already getting business from the event.”

Boroughbridge chamber holds networking event

The Crown Hotel

Boroughbridge Chamber of Trade is to stage business networking event on Tuesday next week.

The event will also feature a presentation from Kevin Charity, the new chief executive of The Coaching Inn Group, which recently bought the town’s Crown Hotel.

Coaching Inns took over the historic 37-bedroom hotel in February after its parent company, RedCat Pub Company, purchased the building from Best Western for an undisclosed fee. It is investing about £450,000 in refurbishing the site.

The event takes place at the Crown Hotel from 5.30pm to 7pm. Non-chamber members are welcome.

Staff at Yorkshire Ambulance Service are set to vote on strike action over a government pay offer.

The service employs 7,200 staff and covers all of North Yorkshire, including the Harrogate district.

The GMB Union, which represents 1,500 ambulance workers, said it held a consultative ballot over strike action which saw 90% vote in favour of a walk-out.

Turnout for the vote was 80%.

It comes after the government offered staff a 4% pay increase.

Following the outcome on the consultative ballot, Unions are now set to move towards holding a formal vote on industrial action.

Deanne Ferguson, GMB organiser, said:

“Ambulance staff should not be worrying about how they’ll heat their homes this winter or feed their families, whilst carrying out a crucial service across our communities.

“The service is crumbling, and it is having an impact on everyone – it is only surviving because of the amazing workers holding it together, through goodwill.

“GMB members have had enough, they are angry – and that’s why they want to move to a formal ballot for strike action.

“They’ve made history with their turnout and vote.

“GMB Union will stand shoulder to shoulder with our members as we fight for an above inflation pay rise for our NHS heroes.”

Dates for the formal ballot will be announced in the “coming days”, the union said.

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Harrogate Borough Council has refused to say whether its chief executive will receive a payout package when the authority is abolished in April.

Questions over possible payments to Wallace Sampson were raised after a proposed redundancy package of around £225,000 for Hambleton District Council’s chief executive was criticised by “dismayed and angry” union officials.

But when asked if its most senior officer would receive something similar, Harrogate Borough Council only provided the following statement:

“We respect the contractual rights of all our employees, and relevant employment law.

“This applies to all employees irrespective of their salary or position.”

Mr Sampson, who is paid a £118,447-a-year salary, will along with the other district council chiefs in North Yorkshire see his role scrapped when a new unitary authority covering the whole county launches in April.

County officials have repeatedly insisted that most staff will be transferred across to the new North Yorkshire Council.

However, there have been some uncertainties over job security which has led to an increase in staff quitting ahead of the eight existing councils merging into one.

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Unison – which represents over 6,000 local government workers in North Yorkshire – said it was seeking clarity from the existing councils after Hambleton’s proposal which it said “will not go down well” with staff and taxpayers during the cost of living crisis.

The union said in a statement:

“We have already had contact from our members who work for Hambleton District Council to express their shock and disgust at this proposal.

“We will also be writing to the other district and borough councils across North  Yorkshire to make sure they are not tempted to do the same.”

‘Inappropriate expenditure’

The comments come after Harrogate Borough Council was last year told to change its rules on payouts for departing staff after auditors raised concerns over what they described as “inappropriate expenditure”.

Figures published in the council’s annual statement of accounts showed £354,000 was paid out to 19 former employees in 2019/20.

This was an increase from the previous financial year when £278,000 was agreed for 15 staff.

The statement of accounts also showed one member of staff received a £62,000 exit package in 2019/2020, although it is not known what job title they had or how much they were earning before they left their role.

The only member of staff who was named was former director of community Paul Campbell who was paid £55,065 in compensation for loss of office.

It was later agreed that all payments – which can also include allowances and hardship cash – have to be approved by the borough council leader and chief executive, and reported on an annual basis.

Any payments over £100,000 now also require approval from full council.

Previously, the payments were signed off by a monitoring officer and only those made to senior staff were reported annually.

Meanwhile, North Yorkshire County Council’s chief executive Richard Flinton was earlier this year appointed to carry out the same role on the new unitary authority at a crucial time of change for the county.

He will earn up to £197,000 a year with responsibility for an annual budget of £1.4 billion and a workforce of 10,500 staff.

Local environmental group, Zero Carbon Harrogate, is set to hold its annual Walk to School Day for 2022.

The event will be held on Friday (October 7) with a focus on “building good transport habits”.

A further five walk to school days will be held in November, February, March, May and June.

This year, Zero Carbon Harrogate has changed the format of the walk to focus on taking part and building good transport habits, rather than calculating winners.

A spokesperson for the group said:

“This year, our strategy is slightly different. Instead of calculating winners and announcing our leaderboard, the event simply focuses on taking part, building good transport habits – ideally on a daily basis – and spreading the word.

“At the end of the 2022-2023 school year, we will present gold, silver and bronze certificate awards to all participating schools in the area, depending on the number of events they took part in over the academic year.”

The 28 schools taking part in the event on Friday are:

• Admiral Long Church of England Primary School
• Ashville College (Pre, Prep & Senior)
• Aspin Park Academy
• Bilton Grange Primary School
• Birstwith Church of England Primary School
• Coppice Valley Primary
• Follifoot Church of England Primary School
•  Green Hammerton Church of England Primary School
• Harrogate Grammar School
• Highfield Pre & Prep School
• Holy Trinity Church of England Infant & Junior School
• Killinghall Church of England Primary School
• Oatlands Community Junior School
• Oatlands Infant School
•  Outwood Primary Academy Greystone
• Pannal Primary School
• Richard Taylor Church of England Primary School
• Ripley Endowed (Church of England) School
• Rossett Acre Primary School
• Sharow Church of England School
• Skelton, Newby Hall Church of England Primary School
•  Spofforth Church of England VC Primary School
• St Mary’s Catholic Primary School
• St Peter’s Church of England Primary School
• St Robert’s Catholic Primary School
• Tockwith Church of England Primary Academy
• Western Primary School
• Willow Tree Community Primary School

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A six-week consultation has begun on the Harrogate district’s proposed new town.

Maltkiln is expected to be built in the Hammerton and Cattal area and include between 3,000 and 4,000 homes, two primary schools, shops and a GP surgery.

With an estimated population of up to 10,000, it is likely to be bigger than Richmond and similar in size to Thirsk.

The development moved a step closer this week when Harrogate Borough Council opened a consultation on its draft new settlement development plan document, which sets out a 30-year vision and policy framework on how Maltkiln is designed and developed.

The consultation documents cover issues such as the impact of the development on flood risk, heritage sites and climate change.

A section outlining the council’s ‘vision’ for Maltkiln describes it as “a garden village with a distinctive identity” that is “developed around convenient rail access to Harrogate, Leeds and York” and “people are not dependent on a car”.

People have until November 14 to make comments on the proposal. You can do so online or at the council’s Civic Centre in Harrogate or at libraries in Harrogate, Ripon, Knaresborough, Boroughbridge and Poppleton.

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The Liberal Democrats could take Harrogate and Knaresborough off the Conservatives at the next general election if people vote tactically, a poll suggests.

The New Statesman published an article today about the impact of tactical voting at the next election.

The findings are based on questions put to 2,500 voters a week ago by polling company Redfield & Wilton Strategies.

It forecasts tactical voting would lead to a Labour landslide and reduce the Conservatives to just eight seats in northern England — with Mr Jones among the victims.

Data by New Statesman and Redfield & Wilton Strategies

The article says Conservative Andrew Jones is currently set to win in Harrogate and Knaresborough for the fifth consecutive time, taking 35% of the vote compared with 32% for the Liberal Democrats and 25% for Labour.

But with tactical voting, the Liberal Democrats would win with 42% compared with 37% for Mr Jones. Labour’s vote would slump to 13%.

The figures are extrapolated from YouGov polling in May, which revealed 50% of Labour voters would consider voting for the Liberal Democrats — but just 13% would consider voting for the Conservatives. The article says:

“Tactical voting would see some voters switch to the Conservatives, without doubt, but the overwhelming majority who would change their vote would change it against them.”

Applied nationally, both for Con-Lib marginal seats and Con-Lab marginal seats, three to four dozen seats would change hands.

The Conservatives would win just 117 seats overall, the Liberal Democrats would win 41 and Labour would end up with 408 seats.

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The article warns:

“These types of polling questions come with a health warning about hypothetical data, but they can aid us in modelling the next election.

“They let us look at seats where the Lib Dems are in second and gauge how many Labour voters might switch to help them over the line.”

The Liberal Democrats upgraded Harrogate and Knaresborough to a target seat this year, which prompted the selection process for its next prospective parliamentary candidate to be restarted.

North Yorkshire Police has urged people not to support online child abuse activists and said it will not work with them.

The constabulary issued a statement today saying the number of online vigilante groups had increased in the county but they risked hampering prosecutions and often targeted innocent people.

Such groups often use a decoy victim – an adult pretending to be a child – to snare suspected child abusers.

They then live-stream or post videos on social media of them confronting suspects, often calling the police at this stage.

The statement said:

“We have specialist teams working hard around the clock to identify and bring offenders to justice and all too often these groups put the lives of innocent people in danger, interfere with our ongoing investigations and risk the course of fair justice.”

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Detective Inspector Paula Eccles, from North Yorkshire Police’s safeguarding team, said:

“The police service does not endorse online child abuse activist groups and we will not work with them.

“Unlike our highly-trained officers in the online abuse and exploitation team and the digital forensics unit, they operate without any procedures to keep people safe.

“Accused people can become vulnerable to self-harm and there are cases around the country of people dying by suicide because of the action of such groups.”

‘Cause cases to collapse’

Det Insp Eccles added some groups operated as a cover for crimes like blackmail and extortion and there was “no way of making sure that these groups act on reliable evidence”.

She added:

“The standard of evidence that is gathered is also often poor, there are issues with legal disclosure, and the way the groups share their evidence publicly online before it has been tested at court.

“Some evidential issues can even cause cases to collapse. This is completely unacceptable.”

Police nationally arrest more than 400 people for child sexual abuse and protect more than 500 children from harm each week.

North Yorkshire Police said its specialist teams “have the expertise and experience to carry out thorough, complex and intelligence-led investigations, as well as preparing evidence that can stand up to scrutiny by the Crown Prosecution Service”.

It urged anyone concerned about indecent images of children and sexual abuse to report it online via its website or by calling 101, or 999 if it’s an emergency.

A three-year project to create a planetarium in the Harrogate district could come to fruition next month.

The planetarium is based at the Lime Tree Observatory at Grewelthorpe, near Ripon.

The observatory, which opened to the public in 2016, has a 24-inch telescope, screen and sound system and hosts presentations for up to 25 people

Self-confessed planetarium geek Martin Whipp and several other enthusiasts are now close to finalising their latest ambitious venture. It will be one of only about 20 fixed planetariums in the country, and the closest for miles around.

A barn has been converted but the electricity supply needs upgrading before the project can start, and Mr Whipp said he hoped this might happen by mid-November.

Mr Whipp has been to about 100 planetariums around the world and even booked a cruise on Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 because it has a planetarium.

Martin Whipp

He said the one at Grewelthorpe would be an interactive facility rather than “one where someone just presses play and you watch”.

But because all those involved are volunteers, it will be open mostly for private bookings at set times.

The observatory is holding three Halloween-themed events during half-term at the end of the month as part of the Dark Skies Festival.

All three have sold out, but the observatory plans to stage three more Christmas-themed events on December 19, 20 and 21.

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