Plans to convert former Lower Dunsforth pub into flats

Plans have been submitted to convert a former pub and restaurant in Lower Dunsforth into three flats.

Stonefield Developments has applied to Harrogate Borough Council to convert the building, which was most recently a restaurant called The Hideaway Kitchen. Before that it was a pub called The Dunsforth.

The village is four miles from Boroughbridge.

The restaurant closed last year. Planning documents cite a “lack of customer trade and consequent viability issues” as the reason.

The documents add it was recently re-marketed as a restaurant but received no interest.

The upper floor of the building already has three existing flats, so if approved the building would have six in total.

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Two other nearby village pubs have had applications to convert them into housing over the past year.

In March 2021, Harrogate Borough Council approved plans to turn the former Green Tree pub in Little Ouseburn into housing.

The pub, which is on the main B6265 from Green Hammerton to Boroughbridge, closed in late 2019.

In the same month, the council also approved a plan to turn The Crown Inn pub in Great Ouseburn into a five-bedroom home.

Boroughbridge flood defences get £50,000 government boost

Boroughbridge’s flood defences are set to see a boost after the government offered £50,000 as part of a national investment into flood and coastal defences.

The investment will go towards the refurbishment of the Boroughbridge Pumping Station and flood defences. However, construction is not set to start until 2025.

The government has launched a Flood and Coastal Erosion Investment Plan in which £5.2 billion is being invested over the next six years to protect homes and business across England.

The plans for Boroughbridge is one of 1,000 schemes to benefit.

Boroughbridge has been a local hotspot for floods for years with new housing estates and local businesses fighting floods in recent months.

Boroughbridge business owner Malcolm Angus, owner of Canal Garage said:

“Flooding is a real problem here and the answer is to slow the water down. It’s coming down from the Dales too fast and the rivers down here then fill up. It’s a catch 22 because if you manage to slow it in one area it’ll only end up somewhere else.

“It used to be more infrequent but now its four to five times a year.”

This year alone the fund will invest an extra £40 million compared with last year for schemes in Yorkshire and the Humber.

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Following the investment announcement, environment secretary George Eustice said:

“We are standing by communities and will bolster defences against flooding across England with many thousands more properties better protected by 2027.

“It’s important we take action right across the system. Our comprehensive plan will achieve this by tightening planning procedures, helping more people access insurance and making homes more resilient to the effects of flooding.”

Quick-thinking Little Ouseburn farmer averts field fire

A quick-thinking farmer averted a potentially major field fire yesterday when a straw baler went up in flames on land near Little Ouseburn.

Firefighters from Knaresborough and Acomb were summoned when the baler caught fire at about 2pm yesterday.

When the fire crews arrived, the farmer had already managed to unhook the tractor from the baler and another farmer had ploughed a fire break around the flames to prevent the fire spreading.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service‘s incident log said the quick intervention prevented the fire spreading throughout the field. The farmers involved are not named.

The incident log said the cause of the fire was believed to be a mechanical fault. It added:

“The crews extinguished the fire using two hose reel jets and three breathing apparatus.”

In a separate incident yesterday, an unattended barbecue is believed to have been responsible for a fire in Harrogate’s Great Yorkshire Showground, which spread to a tree, causing minor damage before it was extinguished.

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Harrogate district cat owners ‘heartbroken’ after deaths linked to food

Two cat owners from the Harrogate district have spoken of their heartbreak after their pets ate food which has been linked to hundreds of deaths across the UK.

Both cats Albert and Tina had been eating Sainsburys Hypoallergenic Recipe before they became seriously ill earlier this month.

The Food Standards Agency has recalled a number of cat foods by Applaws, Sainsburys, Ava from Pets at Home and Wilko.

No definitive evidence exists at this stage confirming a link between the cat food and a potentially fatal bone marrow condition called feline pancytopenia but recalls have been issued voluntarily as a precaution while an investigation takes place.

While a vet confirmed that Tina died from pancytopenia, which has been connected with the recalled food, Albert’s death is only a suspected case of the same disease.

The Royal Veterinary College is aware of 506 cats with the disease in the UK. Of these, 62.5% have died. Usually there is only one case in the UK in a year.

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Vivienne Cameron, who is from Pateley Bridge and was the owner of Albert, told the Stray Ferret:

“All I want to do is raise awareness. I had no idea when I bought the cat food that it could lead to Albert’s death.

“He was a really greedy, mummy’s boy. Albert would eat anything. He would probably try to eat you if you sat in his bowl.

“Albert had been eating that food for a few weeks. In the space of a week he stopped eating food, became quite lethargic and then died.

“I miss him. People cannot imagine how much I miss him.”

Liz Chambers, who is from Helperby, near Boroughbridge, and was the owner of Tina, said:

“When we took Tina to the vets they told us it was either cancer or pancytopenia. They said the best of the two would be cancer.

“We tried everything we could but she was not in a good way by the end. It was all very distressing.

“She was always there for us, whether it was by my side putting the clothes out or comforting my eldest when she was upset. It just feels empty in the house now.”

 

Boroughbridge care home residents cheer on England heroes

Residents and staff at Boroughbridge Manor care home enjoyed watching last night’s Euro 2020 final, despite the heartbreaking result for England fans.

Throughout the tournament, the home has been decked out with flags and residents have been enjoying all the action.

The residents would remember the last time England reached a major final in 1966 and everyone at the home appreciated seeing Gareth Southgate’s men make their way through the tournament, especially after a tough year with covid restrictions.

Staff put on football-inspired snacks for the residents whilst they watched the games together.

Krzysztof Bialczyk, general manager, said:

“We have loved watching the Euros, we have watched pretty much all the matches – lots of our residents are footie fans.  It has been fantastic to be able to cheer on all the home sides and especially England, we did amazingly well to get to the final.”

Thomas, a resident at Boroughbridge Manor, said:

“Although we didn’t win tonight, it has been a brilliant few weeks of football.  The lads did us proud and made it all the way to the final, they played their hearts out.  At least we haven’t got long to wait until the World Cup next year!”

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Free entry to Aldborough Roman site this weekend

The Aldborough Roman Town Site will be free for all residents in the YO51 postcode tomorrow.

The initiative agreed by The Friends of Roman Aldborough and English Heritage is to encourage locals to learn about the site on their doorsteps.

Two thousand years ago Aldborough was the most northerly regional capital in the Roman Empire. It was called Isurium Brigantum and was a major administrative and trading centre for the Romans.

This discovery has only been made in recent years as archaeologists from the University of Cambridge continue to delve into the area’s history.

As well as the vast Roman ruins, visitors can explore the recently updated museum on site. It includes the new analysis by the Cambridge team, as well as artefacts found during their digs.

Sir Andrew Lawson-Tancred, chairman of The Friends of Roman Aldborough (Fora), said:

“This offer is the result of collaboration between Fora and English Heritage, who have recently upgraded their museum at the site. These are exciting times as the importance of Aldborough In Roman times is only just starting to be understood in a new light and I highly recommend a visit to the site.”

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YO51 residents will need to book via the English Heritage website using the promotion code PASS21 and produce evidence of residence in the area on arrival.

Entry fees are usually £5.50 for adults and £3.30 for children aged five to 17, with family tickets available.

Kirby Hill campaigners call for review of service station decision

Campaigners against a planned motorway service station in Kirby Hill have called on the government to review a decision to approve the development.

Gareth Owens, chair of Kirby Hill Residents Against Motorway Services, said the decision made back in April “does not make sense”.

It follows a 25 years of public inquiries and planning battles over the service station which is earmarked for a site between junctions 48 and 49 of the A1(M) northbound, between Boroughbridge and Ripon.

David Rose, the planning inspector who oversaw the latest inquiry, gave approval for the plan submitted by Dublin-based company Applegreen.

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Campaigners have called into question one of the policies used in the inspector’s report to approve the site, which says that the distance between motorway service areas (MSA) should be “no more than 28 miles, but it can be shorter”.

Mr Owens said the policy “appears to have been plucked out of thin air” and called for a review of the decision.

He said:

“The government should admit that it made a mistake in approving the Vale of York motorway services and should announce a review of this controversial decision.”

Mr Owens added that the service station was an example of developers pushing through applications and that proposed planning reforms had “gone too far”.

He added:

“Boris Johnson and his Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick, need to realise that their reforms of the planning system to make approval easier have already gone too far.

“People are outraged that controversial major developments, such as the proposed Vale of York motorway services, are being imposed on them.”

Julian Smith, MP for Skipton and Ripon, wrote to the government on behalf of residents to raise concern over the inquiry process.

In response, Eddie Hughes, minister for rough sleeping and housing, said while he understood the  “disappointment felt” by residents, the inspector took “full account” of representations made by them.

He said in a letter to Mr Smith:

“I understand the disappointment felt by Mr Owens and the other constituents you mention, that the outcome of these appeals was not what they were hoping. 

“However, it is clear from the decision that the Inspector took full account of representations received from interested local residents and, in particular, the evidence submitted by Kirby Hill Residents Against Motorway Services group. 

“Their representations are referred to and assessed by the Inspector throughout the decision.”

Continuing the best-known name in the Harrogate district

There are few better known names in the Harrogate district than Theakston.

Robert Theakston started brewing beer in Masham in 1827 and his great-great grandson Simon continues the tradition today.

Simon is joint managing director of T & R Theakston, one of two major breweries in the picturesque market town. His cousin, Paul, is in charge of the other one — Black Sheep Brewery.

Despite his strong Masham connections, Mr Theakston is well placed to appraise recent developments in the wider Harrogate district: he lives near Boroughbridge, went to school in Harrogate and represented the Conservatives on Harrogate Borough Council for four terms. He was also chairman of Yorkshire Agricultural Society, the agricultural charity that organises the Great Yorkshire Show, from 2008 to 2016.

But nothing in his long career prepared him for the potentially ruinous overnight impact of covid when the first lockdown began in March. He says;

“We had cellars full of beer that people couldn’t buy and ended up pouring it away.

“Overnight we lost 80% of business. That required us to rethink our business model, baton down the hatches and put ourselves in a position where we could survive as long as possible.”

The furlough scheme saved jobs and the company rapidly converted its visitor centre at the brewery into a fulfilment centre for online orders — something a company that prides itself on tradition had not overly pursued until then. He says:

“Online orders have gone up by a factor of 100, albeit from a modest base.”

Family tradition

The visitor centre is due to reopen on June 21 if the lingering restrictions on pubs are lifted. Monday’s decision will be critical for the industry. Mr Theakston, who is married with two grown-up children, says:

“It’s nice having people going into gardens and seated at tables but it’s much better when people can move freely in pubs.”

Nevertheless, so far the company has survived covid with its 35 staff still intact. It seems a surprisingly low number of employees for an organisation that sells into 20 countries but the business model involves collaborating with other firms, such as Heineken, which handles distribution.

Mr Theakston describes the company as “a medium-sized traditional family brewing company.” And, for all the difficulties of the past year, he remains optimistic.

“Our industry has been through difficulties in the past. We’ve come through two world wars, revolution in Europe, the great crash of the 1930s and all sorts of issues since the Second World War and it just goes to show the robustness of what we do.

“As long as individuals want to meet other people, the role of the pub will continue to be the centre of society.”

Local politics

The future for Harrogate Borough Council, however, is less secure. The local authority, on which he represented Harlow Moor until 2018, is set to be abolished as part of the national government’s devolution agenda. Mr Theakston supports the single council model for North Yorkshire championed by North Yorkshire County Council rather than the east-west split favoured by his former council colleagues in Harrogate. He explains:

“North Yorkshire County Council currently provides about 80% of our services so it wouldn’t be a massive change for it to pick up the pieces. I’m not a fan of lots of layers of bureaucracy.”

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Harrogate Borough Council is pursuing numerous active travel plans, such as the £7.9m Station Gateway project and the pedestrianisation of James Street, to reduce traffic and encourage people to walk and cycle. The plans have proved controversial — does he support them?

“I don’t want to see Harrogate being completely pedestrianised because it will end up like any other town in the country. The idea of being able to pop into town is appealing to people like the elderly. Let’s have a bit of pedestrianisation but not lose the ability to drive into town.

“Harrogate’s such a special town and everything we did during my time on the council was to maintain it as special.”

It has been a difficult year for another organisation close to Mr Theakston’s heart — Yorkshire Agricultural Society — which decided to proceed with the Great Yorkshire Show next month when many other events have been cancelled. Was he surprised?

“The Yorkshire Agricultural Society is nothing if not pragmatic. They will be responding to the demands of exhibitions and members of the public who want to go. It’s more than an agricultural show — it’s our county show.”

Crime and cricket

The Theakston name has also become synonymous with the annual crime writing festival organised by the arts charity Harrogate International Festivals. Under its sponsorship, the festival brings many of the leading names of the genre to the town each year.

Arts and brewing may seem an unlikely match but Mr Theakston talks of beer “providing the social lubricant that lets people enjoy being with other people” and the ventures the company supports also encourage people to mingle convivially.

Recently it has also sponsored poet Ben Taylor, also known as Yorkshire Prose, to wax lyrical about the a pint being a metaphor for social interaction.

Mr Theakston is a huge cricket lover so it’s perhaps no coincidence his company sponsors the Nidderdale Amateur Cricket League and the annual National Village Cup in which some 340 villages compete for the chance to play in the final at Lord’s.

It’s little wonder the name Theakston perhaps vies with Bettys as the most well known in the district — and at least we know for certain the Theakstons exist.

There was a time when its familiarity may have faded. The family relinquished control of the business in the 1990s before buying it back in 2003, and Mr Theakston pledges it will remain in the family, in the heart of Masham.

Can he foresee the day when the business no longer consumes his professional life?

“I haven’t thought too much about when I retire. It’s still a huge passion.”

Serious accident closes A1 southbound between junction 47 and 48

The A1 southbound between junction 47 and 48, near Boroughbridge, is closed following a serious accident.

North Yorkshire Police has said emergency services are at the scene of the incident that happened at 7.48am this morning.

The driver and passengers are believed to have serious, but not life threatening injuries. The accident involved a single vehicle.

The closure is in place on the southbound carriageway between junction 47, with exits to Knaresborough and the A59 and junction 48, for Boroughbridge.

Delays of over 30 minutes are being reported.

The police is asking for any witness to call 101 and press 1 and pass any information of the force control room.

They have also urged drivers to avoid the area.

J47 and J48

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Drug driver who fled police through Harrogate district at 130mph jailed

A drug driver has been jailed after speeding through villages in the Harrogate district at more than 130 miles per hour while trying to evade police.

William Geoffrey Mann, 22, was found to have used cocaine and was several times over the limit when arrested in September last year.

He reached speeds of up to 137 miles per hour while trying to evade officers on rural roads.

Mann failed to stop in Kirk Deighton near Wetherby before speeding through Hunsingore, Cattal, Whixley, Aldborough, Boroughbridge and Bishop Monkton.

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North Yorkshire Police pursued Mann through the villages around Wetherby and Boroughbridge, where he reached 90 miles per hour in a Mercedes.

Officers closed in on him in Burton Leonard, where Mann crashed into an unmarked police car and was arrested.


Mann, a delivery worker from Wetherby, was taken into custody and charged with drug driving, dangerous driving and failing to stop.

He pleaded guilty and was jailed for eight months at York Crown Court today. He was also banned from driving for a year and will have to take an extended retest.

Sergeant Julian Pearson, of the force’s Roads Policing Group, captured the pursuit on his police in-car video system and led the investigation against Mann.

He said: 

“Mann made a conscious decision to fail to stop for the police, his judgment clouded by his recent drug usage. This, combined with dangerous high speed driving, is a lethal combination.

“This was a prolonged, determined and dangerous attempt to evade capture for drug driving, putting himself, his passengers, other road users and the police at serious risk.”

Sgt Pearson added:

“When a vehicle is requested to stop and the driver refuses, the police have no idea why. It could be for a multitude of reasons and in Mann’s case it was for drug driving. Had he stopped then he would have been dealt for that offence and most likely not in prison as he is today.

“We make absolutely no apologies for catching drivers like Mann  – we regularly see the carnage and heartbreak they cause innocent people. So I’m glad the courts have taken another dangerous driver off our roads and have protected our communities.”