A toaster fire at Harrogate District Hospital proved to be just the start of an incident-packed day for local firefighters yesterday.

Crews from Harrogate and Knaresborough were called to the hospital on Lancaster Park Road at 8am.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service‘s incident report said:

“The fire originated in an industrial rotating toaster, and caused 25% fire damage to the kitchen, and light smoke logging to a communal area.”

It proved to be the first of several call-outs yesterday.

Teen rescued from car

At 11.07am, firefighters from Boroughbridge and Ripon rushed to a single vehicle car crash at Skelton Road in Boroughbridge where a Peugout 206 had careered off the road.

Crews used an electric saw to get into the vehicle through the windscreen and free a female driver. who was described as “approximately 17” in the incident report. It added:

“The female was uninjured and left in the care of the air ambulance service.”

Two-car crash on A1

The A1 at Boroughbridge

At 12.14pm, crews from Ripon, Boroughbridge and Northallerton responded to reports of a Hyundai and an Audi colliding between junctions 48 and 49 on the northbound A1(M).

The incident report said:

“All occupants of the vehicles were out on arrival. The female driver of the Hyundai, aged approximately 40s, suffered superficial injuries only.

“The male driver, and female passenger of the Audi, both aged approximately 50s, were uninjured. Crews used a turfer winch to remove the vehicles to a safe location.”

Barn fire in Spofforth

At 1.59pm, Harrogate firefighters were back out again. This time they were joined by a crew from Wetherby to a barn fire at Park Lane in Spofforth.

Water bowsers from Tadcaster and Boroughbridge also responded.

The incident report said the barn, which measured about 40 metres by 20 metres, contained straw and the incident was still ongoing by late afternoon.

Read more:

• Harrogate firefighters rescue man dangling headfirst from ladder
• Top mechanics open Porsche repair shop in Boroughbridge

Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.

Your recent article [Council spends £478,000 on halving number of litter bins] highlights the scandalous and wasteful irresponsibility of the new council. Blaming the defunct Harrogate Borough Council for making the decision is lazy – North Yorkshire Council didn’t have to action it.

Key points/questions that need exploring/asking:

1. How many of the ‘old’ bins actually needed replacing?

2. £478,000 will take 14 years to recover from the alleged savings. Will the new bins even last that long?

3. What are the respective capacities of the bins? The new ones would have to be significantly bigger (at least double) to make meaningful travel savings. In any event, there will be more travel required to clear up fly tipping which itself is an environmental hazard! – which will also reduce the actual savings achieved by the council.

4. The previous bins were presumably sited with the experience of public activities. Re-siting them merely for the convenience of the council was asking for trouble.

5. If the council had consulted the public beforehand they might have learnt valuable information from everyday users of the bins, to inform eventual decisions and facilitate community ownership of the final decisions who’d have a vested interest in the practical outcomes. It would also have been a valuable opportunity to explore the idea of dog walkers taking their dogs’ waste home to save money. And show how those savings could be invested in the local community.

6. What does Ms Wallis mean by saying “The main aim of the project was to reduce the number of duplicate journeys between different services.” ? What services were making the same journey to the same bins and why were they doing that?? If this was the main aim, what are the expected savings? If this statement is true, it’s everything to do with management of staff and nothing to do with numbers and sizes of bins.

7. Ms Wallis also refers to improving the street scene with this initiative. How is this improved with less bins or no bins at all? – leading to more overflowing waste in high footfall areas that previous bins couldn’t cope with and fly-tipped waste where bins have been removed altogether?

Alice Woolley

Let’s have empathy for the homeless

I have been reading with some sadness the conversations on here about homelessness in Harrogate, especially the rough sleepers around the Crescent Gardens, and how people find this disturbing.

What I find more disturbing is how nobody has mentioned the plight of those homeless people and why they are rough sleeping in the first place. It’s not like it’s a life choice. These conversations remind me of “tidying up“ the streets of Windsor before the last royal wedding.

How awful that poor people with drug, alcohol and mental health problems make the place untidy and have nowhere to live. The wealth of Harrogate sits amidst absurd house prices, unaffordable rent, and the gig economy. But the visible consequences make us uncomfortable.

Life for the poor is getting worse, we need to help them, not demonise them.

Penny Robinson, Harrogate

20mph is correct 

I can’t support Mark Fuller’s view [Stray Views: Why no 20mph limit outside my children’s primary school?] that we need the the evidence of a child death before a 20mph speed limit is applied outside Willow Tree School on Wetherby Road.

The sheer weight of traffic should be reason enough.

Senior figures at Harrogate District Hospital have said they want to learn lessons from the Lucy Letby murders to prevent similar crimes from happening in Harrogate.

Letby is a former neonatal nurse who murdered seven infants and attempted to murder six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016. She was sentenced to a whole life order last month.

Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust’s board met on Wednesday at the Crowne Plaza in Harrogate where the Letby case was top of the agenda.

Emma Nunez, director of nursing and Jacqueline Andrews, executive medical director, gave a presentation that outlined what procedures the hospital has in place to spot patterns of behaviour and how it listens to concerns from staff.

Ms Nunez said:

“It’s difficult to stand here and say we are completely assured that it couldn’t happen here, there’s not an organisation in the country that could say that. However, through our good governance and staff engagement we are in a very good place.”

Read more:

• Harrogate hospital roof contains crumbling concrete
• Harrogate hospital defends new parking charges
• Similarities seen in Yorkshire to how Lucy Letby whistleblowers were treated

She added that the trust has spent time looking at its quality governance, which has included establishing an end-of-life mortality committee to review deaths and prioritising its safeguarding committee. 

Ms Nunez said: 

“Mortality review is something nationally we’ve been asked to look at and how we monitor unexpected deaths.”

Ms Andrews reassured the board that the hospital has the resources to identify anomalies in mortality data which could lead them to investigate potential crimes.

She said: 

“We get a lot of mortality data, we have easily accessible data and we get a monthly alert on any mortality that’s an outlier. We do a deep dive into every one of them.”

Several doctors in Chester who worked alongside Letby said they tried to raise the alarm with hospital managers but were ignored.

Ms Nunez said the trust holds weekly talking sessions with staff where they can speak to managers.

She said she believes the trust fosters a culture where staff are able to voice concerns but she admitted there were still members of staff that were difficult to reach.

She said:

“We have quite a flat structure where it’s not unusual to see staff openly have concerns with executive team. At back of mind, what about the ones who are more difficult to reach? 

“That’s the question we need to ask ourselves, how do we reach those people?”

Yemi Adelekan is a food writer and blogger who was a semi-finalist in last year’s BBC TV’s Masterchef  competition. Every Saturday Yemi will be writing on the Stray Ferret about her love of the district’s food  and sharing cooking tips– please get in touch with her if you want her to review a restaurant, visit your farm, taste the produce you sell or even share a recipe.

If you’re looking for a friendly and welcoming coffee shop, Folk Coffee House in Harrogate is the place for you.

As the name implies, it is designed to be the heart of the community. Whether you prefer outside seating for (rare) sunny days or a cosy interior, it is a perfect hang out space for friends, colleagues, or families.

When my boys were growing up, one of the things I looked forward to each day was meeting up with other mums for coffee. This coffee shop took me right back to that time; I could see myself unwinding there with friends and sharing ideas.

Folk Coffee House serves great coffee, homemade cakes, and light bites.

I ordered the carrot cake – as it was apparently the best cake a customer had ever had — and with such endorsement, I had to give it a go. The cake was packed full of nuts with a comforting toasty-ness and lovely plump raisins. The topping, which was made from a mixture of cream cheese, whipped cream, and icing sugar, was delightfully light.

It’s safe to say I was not disappointed!

There is also wide range of delicious gluten free options available, including a Bakewell blondie, double chocolate brownies and sugar free breakfast muffins.

Owner Sally proudly told me she focusses on balancing the cost and the quality of the in-house baked goods. She added she is passionate about zero waste and uses a daily ordering system to support this.

Folk Coffee House is proudly Yorkshire; it patronises local businesses for their produce and serves award-winning teas and coffees.

When it comes to tea, nothing but Canton Tea will do! The tea is served at many high-end venues including The Savoy, The Ritz, and The Mandarin Oriental. Now, it’s available to you right here in Harrogate! I had the berry and hibiscus tea with notes of rose hip which was delightful.

Local artists also display their work on the walls, and a new artist is featured every month. It creates a gallery-like space and no doubt contributes to the community feel.

Customers were also keen to recommend their favourites on the menu, so I will be heading back to check them out.

Folk Coffee House embraces the local community and wants people to feel welcome with a coffee in hand.

The tag line – ‘a place for all folk to meet, eat, drink, and create’ — says it all.

Read more:

• Yemi’s Food Stories: a lesson on plot-to-table cooking and food waste at Harlow Carr
• Yemi’s Food Stories: the Yorkshire distillery that makes vodka from apples

Two mechanics with finely-tuned skills have opened a specialist Porsche repair shop in Boroughbridge. 

Flat 6 Automotive – named after the six-cylinder engines typically found in Porsches – will focus on fixing, restoring and rebuilding the engines of the German sports cars, but will also take on all kinds of everyday repairs on cars of all kinds. 

Director Richard Nicholson was a workshop manager at an independent Porsche garage for seven years, and business partner Will Mann completed an engineering degree with the McLaren F1 team. They both worked at a local prestige car specialist for several years and have now decided to branch out together. 

Mr Nicholson said: 

“I’d always wanted to work for myself. I had my day job but I was also doing engine rebuilds on the side. I was working till 11 at night, and I was so busy that I thought I should just take the plunge. It was really a hobby that turned into something much bigger.” 

The pair have expanded into a 2,000 square foot unit with three ramps – a fourth is due to be installed by the end of the year – and are building a new waiting area. They have also invested in modern equipment, including £5,000 in state-of-the-art diagnostic kit. 

Mr Nicholson added: 

“We’ve already got customers across Yorkshire and as far afield as Slough and Glasgow and we also prepare cars for sale for a couple of specialist dealerships, so we’ve been very busy since we opened.

“If this goes well, I’d love to grow the company and open new branches. The sky’s the limit.”

Read more:

• Harrogate couple’s dismay after tree crashes on Porsche for second time
• Harrogate dealership switches car brand after owners sign new contract
• Ripon car dealership to close after Fiat restructure

The Conservatives have strengthened their grip on North Yorkshire Council with a by-election win.

Egg farmer David Hugill took the Hutton Rudby and Osmotherley division yesterday with 48 per cent of the vote.

Liberal Democrat Duncan Russell, a former army major, was second with 38 per cent and Green Party candidate Allan Mortimer received 12 per cent of the votes.

Yorkshire Party candidate Lee Derrick got about one per cent in the by-election, in which 39 per cent of the 5,077 electorate turned out.

Last night’s official results.

The result, which appeared to come as a huge relief to party members attending the count at Northallerton Civic Centre, means the decades-long Conservative control of County Hall, with half of the 90 elected members, is re-established.

The Tories have shored up support this year by entering into an agreement with three independent councillors, including Ripon Minster and Moorside Cllr Andrew Williams.

Mr Hugill had been a Tory councillor for part of the division for many years, but lost out in a party selection to fellow Conservative Hambleton District councillor Bridget Fortune ahead of the May 2022 election, which saw him lose by 249 votes to Mrs Fortune.

Read more:

• Andrew Jones MP: climate policy shift ‘practical and pragmatic’
• Harrogate and Ripon to provide more homes to Afghan refugees

The by-election was triggered by the resignation of Cllr Fortune, amid allegations over her treatment by some members of the party.

Senior council officers are still considering a complaint over an incident in the council chamber in May, in which Lower Wensleydale councillor and Conservative whip Tom Jones was said to have tried to prevent Cllr Fortune from voting.

Leading North Yorkshire Conservatives, including North Yorkshire Council leader Carl Les and the party’s mayoral candidate Cllr Keane Duncan warmly congratulated Mr Hugill on his victory after the late-night count.

In his acceptance speech, Cllr Hugill said the campaign had “been dominated by so-called Tory in-fighting” and called for it to be ended.

Restaurants across the Harrogate district will be offering discount deals next month, when Visit Harrogate Restaurant Week returns. 

The week-long event runs from Monday, October 9, to Sunday, October 15, and will see at least 15 participating restaurants and food outlets offer set-price dining deals for £10, £15, £20 and £30. Big names taking part include Bettys, The Ivy, Hotel du Vin and the Clocktower Brasserie at Rudding Park.

This October’s Restaurant Week runs for longer than last year’s inaugural event, and incorporates Sunday, October 15, to capture the weekend visitor footfall and coincide with the Harrogate Music Weekender organised by Harrogate BID. 

The weekend of October 13-15 will see live performances, street entertainers and special offers driving further footfall to Harrogate’s town centre hospitality venues. 

Harrogate BID is supporting the week-long event by providing free parking in the Jubilee Car Park in Harrogate from 4pm daily until it closes. 

The purpose of Restaurant Week, which is organised by Destination Harrogate, is twofold. Pre-fixed prices help diners to plan what to spend in advance, encouraging them to discover new places to eat.

It also offers businesses in the food and hospitality industry an opportunity to raise their profile. Following the first Restaurant Week in February, many participating businesses reported an increase in bookings and in footfall for the week – while also showing interest for a follow-up event later in the year. 

Read more:

• Harrogate set to host three-day music weekender
• Refugees set up Harrogate district’s first Afghan pop-up restaurant
• New bar and restaurant to open in Knaresborough

Helen Suckling, partnership and commercial manager for Destination Harrogate, said:  

“The feedback we received from February’s event was very positive and, in extending the time that diners are given to enjoy Restaurant Week, we’re also extending the opportunity to boost business for our food and hospitality trade at a traditionally quieter time of the year.” 

Customers can take advantage of the lower priced menus and food deals by visiting participating restaurants, cafés and food outlets and quoting the offer. 

Gemma Rio, head of Destination Harrogate, said:  

“Excellent food and drink is one of the Harrogate area’s tourism strengths and, through Restaurant Week, we’re showcasing the diversity of our dining offer. 

“Restaurant Week also supports our commitment to sustainable tourism. In finding new ways to attract visitors and spread footfall across the whole year, we’re offering new opportunities to our local businesses, along with great deals to our visitors and residents alike.”  

Businesses can sign up to the initiative via the Destination Harrogate website.  

For information on menu offers and the dates on which they are available, see the Visit Harrogate website. 

Visit Harrogate is the official tourism website for the Harrogate area of North Yorkshire. It is operated by Destination Harrogate, which is part of North Yorkshire Council.  

A former Harrogate High School student has been appointed to lead the set-up of the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority.

James Farrar, who grew up in Huby, will take up the position as interim director for transition.

Mr Farrar is is currently chief operating officer of the York & North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership, a public-private partnership that drives economic growth.

The combined authority is due to be established this year but will begin operating in May.

An order will be laid before parliament in the autumn, which will include provisions for powers and funding tied to a devolution deal as well as paving the way for the creation of the authority.

The combined authority, which will be overseen by a directly election mayor, is expected to have powers to make decisions on matters such as economic development and transport.

Mr Farrar said:

“I am working closely with colleagues from both councils, the Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, and the York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership. 

“We are all committed to a smooth transition into a new combined authority, ensuring that we all continue to deliver our services to the public without any interruption. Together, we will ensure it is an organisation that is ready to hit the ground running as soon as a mayor is elected.”

Cllr Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire Council, said:

“Devolution is a long-held ambition for York and North Yorkshire, and will provide a host of benefits for hundreds of thousands of people.

“James has a great deal of experience and will be key in delivering the benefits of devolution and ensuring the combined authority runs as efficiently as possible, and I am looking forward to continuing to work with him closely at what is such an important time for York and North Yorkshire.”

Read more:

• Conservatives select highways councillor Keane Duncan to stand for North Yorkshire mayor
• Explained: What is North Yorkshire’s combined authority?

The proposed devolution deal includes a £7 million investment to drive green economic growth towards the ambition of York and North Yorkshire becoming the country’s first carbon negative region.

There is also proposed investment of up to £2.65 million to deliver affordable low-carbon housing, and £13 million for the building of new homes on brownfield land during 2023/24 and 2024/25.

The elected mayor will make decisions on investments in strategic priorities such as for transport, housing, and adult education.

The mayor will also have responsibilities for community safety and strategic responsibility for the totality of policing, fire and crime for York and North Yorkshire.

They will appoint a deputy mayor to carry out many of the powers and duties of the role currently known as police, fire and crime commissioner.

An election for the mayor will be held in May 2024. 

The succession of rural primary school closures across England’s largest county are “only likely to get worse”, a meeting has heard.

Andrew Smith, the Diocese of York’s director of education, issued the bleak warning facing many communities in North Yorkshire as councillors were told some 16 primary schools had closed in the last six years.

The list includes five in the Harrogate district: Woodfield Community Primary School in Harrogate, Burnt Yates Church of England Primary School, Kell Bank Church of England Primary School near Masham, Baldersby St James Church of England Primary School and Skelton Newby Hall Church of England Primary School.

Woodfield Community Primary School closed last year.

The other 11 were at Drax, Horton in Ribblesdale, Rathmell, Ingleby Arncliffe, Swainb, Ings, Arkengarthdale, Clapham, Whitby,  Weaverthorpe and Hovingham.

Mr Smith told a meeting of North Yorkshire Council’s children and families scrutiny committee the diocese was keenly aware of the vulnerability of many rural schools. Dozens of Church of England schools co-run by North Yorkshire Council have fewer than 100 pupils and many have declining pupil numbers.

Councillors heard financial pressures on the county’s smaller schools were rising, with the average school deficit soaring from £16,400 in 2015 to £57,900 this year. Also, the number of primary school age pupils was set to fall in every area of the county except the Selby and Craven areas.

The meeting heard, governors and headteachers were  often forced to make cutbacks to balance the books. This led to decisions that could result in an ‘inadequate’ rating from Ofsted, which automatically triggers moves to convert schools into academies.

Mr Smith said:

“We have known for some time we are going to be facing an oversupply of places and therefore there needs to be a planned way of working to think what happens to schools going forward where we have got over-capacity.

“Over-capacity brings its own financial challenges and that begins a downward spiral with regards to finances.”

Read more:

• Former child protection officer at Harrogate district private school jailed for sexual assault
• Ofsted praises ‘welcoming and friendly’ Scotton school

He said as academies legally could not underpin their budgets with deficits as the council could, they were reluctant to take on smaller schools.

Mr Smith said:

“We are in a position where we have to have a closure process for schools because there is no other alternative.

“We are highly reactive in the system and don’t necessarily have a plan for it.

“I think it is only likely to get worse because where the financial projections are going it is likely we are going to face more school closures.

“It is a strategic, systemic problem in a fragmented system.”

Council officers then told the meeting Mr Smith had summed up the situation excellently.

They said the council was examining how it could encourage schools to work together to create “strength in numbers” to prevent the most vulnerable ones finding themselves without an academy sponsor.

Councillors urged the authority to give struggling schools more back office support.

After councillors also called on the authority to intervene earlier, such as when a school was seen to be making cutbacks on spending such as music lessons, officers said they were holding “a series of quite challenging discussions with governing boards over this autumn term where there are financial challenges”.

An officer told members:

“We are having those early discussions so governors are aware of what the risks are.”

A weather warning has been issued from noon tomorrow until 7am on Thursday as Storm Agnes approaches.

The Met Office has forecast “a spell of strong and disruptive winds through Wednesday afternoon into early Thursday” for most of Britain.

In Harrogate, gusts of up to 44mph are predicted, with the worst of the wind expected tomorrow evening.

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning, which is less severe than amber and red warnings.

It said power cuts, damage to building and travel disruption are possible.

Read more:

• Stunning photo of Northern Lights over Ripon this morning
• Harrogate man to say ‘I do’ on Married At First Sight UK tonight