Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.
Are you already thinking of how to reward your employees this Christmas? Why not choose the Harrogate Gift Card?
The Harrogate Gift Card can be spent in over 100 businesses in Harrogate town centre including retail, hospitality and leisure, whilst keeping the spend locked into the local economy.
Complete a corporate bulk order of over £250 and receive 15% discount from November 1 to 15 with the code ‘HGT15’.
Matt Turton has joined the historic 18th century Wild Swan inn at Minskip, near Boroughbridge.
Mr Turton has worked at a variety of venues in Harrogate and with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay when he opened his Heddon Street restaurant in Soho.
Alex Bond, who along with Stephen Lennox bought the Wild Swan in 2021, said:
“Matt’s appointment is crucially important for the future of the Wild Swan. He has a superb reputation in Harrogate and the surrounding area and we are in no doubt that he will take the Wild Swan to a completely new level in terms of the quality and the presentation of our food.”
Mr Turton has had stints at the Fat Badger and the Yorkshire Hotel and as head chef at Jesper’s Bar and Kitchen in Harrogate, as well as working on the set of ITV soap Emmerdale.
He said:
“I have had such a wonderful welcome from the village. I am determined to give Minskip and the surrounding district, an inn to be proud of.
“I have completely revamped the menu and am determined to create enjoyable and imaginative food at competitive prices.”
Charity football tournament
Pantera Property in Harrogate raised more than £5,000 for charity by holding a charity football tournament.
The money will be split and donated to Saint Michaels Hospice in Harrogate and The Leeds Hospital Charity’s fund to create The Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Centre.
Established in 2016, Pantera Property is a family-run firm of chartered surveyors, with offices in London, Harrogate, Leeds and Essex.
Read more:
- Business Breakfast: Manufacturer featured on BBC’s DIY SOS special
- Business Breakfast: Lucy Pittaway to host ‘meet the artist’ event at Harrogate gallery
- Business Breakfast: Ripon introduces loyalty scheme to boost Christmas sales
Stray Views: £10.8m junction 47 upgrade on A1 was ‘gigantic misuse’ of public money
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.
Thank you for the article on junction 47. We felt all along that this was a project too far.
At a time when humanity is facing existential crisis due to fossil fuel emissions, we should be slowing traffic down, not trying to speed it up…so the project is a gigantic misuse of public money in our view.
It is on a par with the race to cover fields with inappropriate housing – designed to make profits for developers and their friends in government.
Also, please can we hear what happened to the newts? They really can’t expect us to believe that the newt relocation was that costly!
Shan Oakes, Knaresborough
Hospitality firms should contribute to Harrogate Convention Centre’s rebuild
The hotels and restaurants of Harrogate will be disappointed that the loss-making conference centre is not in line for a multi-million pound upgrade.
The rest of us will be relieved that such profligacy is to be avoided.
As the hospitality industry would be the only beneficiary of a new look conference centre I suggest that the hotels, pubs, restaurants and cafes of Harrogate all contribute, on a pro rata basis, towards its rebuild.
Dr Christopher Bennett, Ripon
Read more:
- Stray Views: ‘Shame’ on councillors who voted for allowance rise
- Stray Views: Government should clamp down on homelessness tents
A bypass would be more effective in south Harrogate
What is the purpose of the proposed Killinghall bypass road? Is it to take traffic that is going from east/west and getting around town in the shortest way?
If so, the Killinghall idea doesn’t make any sense since that isn’t where most of the traffic is. Traffic is much worse on the south side of Harrogate.
If the bypass was put in nearer to Pannal and then Beckwithshaw and on to the A59, there would seem to be a better chance to get more of the traffic off the roads.
Fred Hicks, Bilton, Harrogate
This year’s Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal is to raise £30,000 for a much-needed minibus for Dementia Forward in the Harrogate district.
The appeal is kindly sponsored by Vida Healthcare.
Please give generously to support local people and their families living with dementia. Let’s not forget those that need help this Christmas.
Today, Flora spoke to a couple who go to the wellbeing café.
Before Pauline Brown’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, she was a volunteer at Dementia Forward’s wellbeing café. Now she and her husband John, who is her carer, attend the café for a different reason.
Pauline tells us her story.
“People didn’t believe me when I was diagnosed. I was talking the way I am now, and people needed convincing.”
Pauline began volunteering at the wellbeing café – which takes place every Tuesday – 10 years ago. She spent eight years supporting those living with dementia and their carers.
“I loved volunteering.
“I just enjoyed helping people and chatting to them – I liked feeling needed.”
However, the couple began to see symptoms of dementia around four years ago and received her diagnosis two years ago. Pauline said:
“Nobody told me I couldn’t volunteer anymore, but I didn’t think it was right.”
Luckily, the couple knew just where to go following the diagnosis and Pauline swapped her volunteer badge for a game of snakes and ladders. She added:
“I love playing games here – snakes and ladders, dominoes, Jenga.
“You just meet people and chat things over – you need to get out of the house.”
John, who also volunteered at the café for three years, said being surrounded by people who understand each other has helped them both.
“We have a laugh.
“We talk to people who are in similar circumstances who pass on their own stories and experiences.”
Pauline and John lean on each other for support, but every type of dementia comes with its own set of challenges. He said:
“You’ve got to be a team – we care for each other.
“I have a few problems myself, but I would never swap them for Alzheimer’s.
The wellbeing café has provided a lifeline for the Browns and hundreds of other families across the Harrogate district.
John added:
“Unless you’ve been involved with someone with dementia – when you’re slowly losing someone – you can’t appreciate these services.
“Help people when they need help – it’s a family.”
The Dementia Forward team eases the pain as much as it can – but can only continue to do so with the help of charitable donations.
Every donation to our campaign will go directly to Dementia Forward, helping us hit our £30,000 target to buy the charity a new minibus and bettering the lives of those living with dementia and the people around them.
Dementia Forward’s current bus is old and urgently needs to be replaced. The charity would seriously struggle to afford a new one, which is why they need your help to keep this vital service going.
Without it, many people living with dementia wouldn’t be able to access the help and support they need.
Please click here to donate whatever you can – you never know when you, your family or your friend may be in need of Dementia Forward’s help too.
Thank you.
The NHS found that one in 11 people over the age of 65 in the UK are living with dementia. If you need urgent help or have a dementia-related enquiry, call 0330 057 8592 to speak to a helpline adviser.
Car on roof after two-vehicle collision in MinskipA car flipped onto its roof following a two-vehicle collision at Minskip, near Boroughbridge, this afternoon.
Roads policing sergeant Paul Cording alerted people on social media at 1.20pm about the incident on the A6055, which is the main road through Minskip.
Sgt Cording said one person involved in the collision was taken to hospital with “minor injuries”.
The road reopened at 1.47pm.
No further details, including the status of the other vehicle and passengers, have been revealed.
Read more:
Business Breakfast: Lucy Pittaway to host ‘meet the artist’ event at Harrogate gallery
Are you already thinking of how to reward your employees this Christmas? Why not choose the Harrogate Gift Card?
The Harrogate Gift Card can be spent in over 100 businesses in Harrogate town centre including retail, hospitality and leisure, whilst keeping the spend locked into the local economy.
Complete a corporate bulk order of over £250 and receive 15% discount from November 1 to 15 with the code ‘HGT15’.
Lucy Pittaway is hosting a ‘meet the artist’ event this weekend at her Harrogate gallery.
The Yorkshire-based artist, who is known for her colourful depictions of the county, will be at the Prospect Place gallery to sign and discuss her work.
Her homeware and gift collections will also be available to buy.
The event will take place from 1pm to 4pm on Saturday, November 25.
Read more:
- Business Breakfast: Ripon introduces loyalty scheme to boost Christmas sales
- Business Breakfast: Investment to supercharge growth at Harrogate firm
Tockwith-based Pink Moon to offer “all-in-one” events service
The UK’s largest supplier of festival tents and equipment, Pink Moon, is to offer a new events service.
The Tockwith company, which has the largest collection of accommodation structures in the sector – about 5,500 – currently services up to 45,000 customers a year at events such as Formula 1 at Silverstone and music festivals.
It is now offering all-in-one events services to businesses,
Pink Moon managing director Harry Lister said:
Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal 2023: How dementia led two carers to become best friends“Pink Moon Events is an all-in-one events solutions company.
“It is not just the tent that we can provide, we can also provide everything else.
“We can provide a restaurant and bar on site, toilets and showers, mobile charging, pamper parlour and coffee stands.”
This year’s Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal is to raise £30,000 for a much-needed minibus for Dementia Forward in the Harrogate district.
The appeal is kindly sponsored by Vida Healthcare.
Please give generously to support local people and their families living with dementia. Let’s not forget those that need help this Christmas.
Today, Flora spoke to two women who met at the wellbeing café.
“It’s about knowing there’s someone at the end of the phone who understands what we’re going through.”
Cynthia Storie and Eileen King’s are both carers for their husbands, who are living with dementia, and have found comfort in each other through Dementia Forward’s wellbeing café.
Before their husbands’ diagnosis, Cynthia was a secretary and Eileen was a nanny. They were just like anyone else. But two years ago, everything changed.
Cynthia said:
“Your livelihood is taken from you – it’s a shocking blow.”
She was given a Dementia Forward leaflet following her husband Mike’s diagnosis. Eileen used the helpline service to work out their next steps.
Cynthia added:
“I wanted to make sure Mike could still socialise – he was so used to doing everything for himself.
“He didn’t want to come at all, but after I’d convinced him, and someone brought him a cup of coffee, he was chatting away. Two years later, he’s still here.”
The women said the café is an environment where their husbands feel understood. It combats the loneliness those living with dementia can often feel.
Carers can breathe a sigh of relief knowing their loved one is safe at the café, and can share their experiences with with others facing similar challenges.
She continued:
“You find that friends who you have spent so long going out for dinner and socialising with are so sympathetic at first, but after they realise they don’t understand, you become so isolated.”
The café has helped Eileen and her husband more than she could have imagined. She said:
“It helps so much coming here. It’s frightening – you don’t know what’s around the corner.
“It means I’ve got support, and you can offload to people that understand. The staff here don’t judge at all, and they take the guilt away from the carers.”
The women also call each other regularly to check in, visit each other for a cup of tea, and even bake cakes for each other.
Eileen said:
“We, as carers, put on a front. When you’re on your own, you pick up the phone and tell a friend that you need to talk.
“It’s nice when somebody says, ‘how are you?’.”
Dementia has been life-changing for both ladies and their husbands, but the café has brought them some level of peace.
Cynthia added:
“We want people who are reading this to know it takes courage to walk through the door of somewhere like this, but they’re not alone and it’s so worth it to come to these groups.”
Thousands of local families are fighting a long battle with these horrible diseases – and they need your help.
Every donation to our campaign will go directly to Dementia Forward, helping us hit our £30,000 target to buy the charity a new minibus and bettering the lives of those living with dementia and the people around them.
Dementia Forward’s current bus is old and urgently needs to be replaced. The charity would seriously struggle to afford a new one, which is why they need your help to keep this vital service going. Without it, many people living with dementia wouldn’t be able to access the help and support they need.
Please click here to donate whatever you can – you never know when you, your family or a friend may be in need of Dementia Forward’s help too.
Thank you.
The NHS found that one in 11 people over the age of 65 in the UK are living with dementia. If you need urgent help or have a dementia-related enquiry, call 0330 057 8592 to speak to a helpline adviser.
Police begin clampdown on uninsured drivers in North YorkshireNorth Yorkshire Police began a week-long blitz today on motorists driving without insurance.
Officers on patrol will use automatic number plate recognition and in-car technology to find offenders.
The activity is part of the national police campaign Op Drive Insured.
A North Yorkshire Police statement today said:
“In a three-hour window in the York area, our officers have already seized four vehicles and arrested one uninsured driver on suspicion of drug driving.
“At a time when austerity is high, vehicle insurance is not a cut back you can afford to make.”
You can check if your vehicle is insured here.
Read more:
- Harrogate street closure: police investigation ‘ongoing’
- Harrogate ice rink installation gets underway
Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal 2023: ‘Carers are losing their loved ones before their eyes’
This year’s Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal is to raise £30,000 for a much-needed minibus for Dementia Forward in the Harrogate district.
The appeal is kindly sponsored by Vida Healthcare.
Please give generously to support local people and their families living with dementia. Let’s not forget those that need help this Christmas.
Today, Flora spoke to people at the wellbeing café.
“People are here for three hours of fun, no matter what stage they’re at with this horrible illness.”
This is how Gordon, a volunteer at Dementia Forward’s wellbeing café, described the weekly group.
The café takes place every Tuesday at Christ Church in Harrogate. It provides a safe space and good company for those living with dementia, as well as some much-needed respite for carers.
People enjoy a bowl of soup, coffee and cake followed by a range of activities. Some members played table tennis and curling, while others painted their nails and tackled jigsaws.
Margaret Kingston, a regular at the café, said:
“My son found out about the café for me. I come every Tuesday now.
“I like to play table tennis and draw – it’s helping people that maybe don’t have any family.”
Many people battling dementia can feel extremely lonely, even with their loved ones by their side. The café, along with Dementia Forward’s other social groups, helps to combat that isolation.
Another member said:
“I try to come every week – I like to be involved. I’ve made friends since coming here.”
The café also offers a place for carers – often a spouse or offspring – to discuss the devastating effects of this evil disease: a place to feel understood.
Sheila, who has volunteered at the café since 2018, added:
“The carers need as much care as the clients.
“The team have fun and the clients and carers all recognise that.”
Members of the wellbeing café.
The Dementia Forward team work tirelessly to improve the lives of those living with dementia and those around them.
The wellbeing café is one of many amazing services on offer. Gordon said:
“Carers are losing their loved ones before their eyes – it is the most wretched thing to see. They are the bravest people.
“That’s why they need the support.”
Thousands of families across the Harrogate district are fighting this evil disease every day. Dementia Forward eases the pain as much as it can – but can only do so with the help of charitable donations.
Every donation to our campaign will go directly to Dementia Forward, helping us hit our £30,000 target to buy the charity a new minibus and bettering the lives of those living with dementia and the people around them.
Dementia Forward’s current bus is old and urgently needs to be replaced. The charity would seriously struggle to afford a new one, which is why they need your help to keep this vital service going. Without it, many people living with dementia simply wouldn’t be able to access the help and support they need.
Please click here to donate whatever you can – you never know when you, your family or a friend may be in need of Dementia Forward’s help too.
Thank you.
The NHS found that one in 11 people over the age of 65 in the UK are living with dementia. If you need urgent help or have a dementia-related enquiry, call 0330 057 8592 to speak to a helpline adviser.
Campaigners step-up fight against Allerton asphalt plantMore than 1,000 residents have now objected to plans to build an asphalt plant next to the Allerton waste incinerator, between Knaresborough and Boroughbridge.
Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, joined about 100 campaigners fighting the proposal at Marton cum Grafton village hall on Saturday.
Mr Jones told the meeting organised by Communities Against Toxins he too was against the proposal, adding:
“The reasons are two-fold and to do with both head and heart. The heart brings the community together to show this is not welcome, and the head tells you that the dangers of pollution – both air pollution and water pollution – are major risks.
“Campaigners have done an incredible job marshalling the arguments and I hope when councillors come to consider the application they act on these concerns and turn the application down.
“This is the wrong idea in the wrong location.”
Campaign organiser Michael Emsley (left) talks to Andrew Jones.
Campaigners at the meeting.
Tynedale Roadstone Ltd plans to build the asphalt plant at the Allerton Waste Recovery Park.
A 22.5-metre exhaust stack would emit fumes containing carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and lead.
The group fears people living within a three-to-nine kilometre radius of the site would be affected by potentially harmful pollutants.
Communities Against Toxins organiser Michael Emsley wants to put pressure on North Yorkshire Council to scrutinise the proposal’s environmental impacts assessment.
He said:
“We do not believe this plant should be built in this location and we will continue to do all that we can to fight it.
“We will not stop. We will make sure that when North Yorkshire Council sit down to make its decision, they are in no doubt as to what the local communities think and that our concerns regarding the EIA have been addressed.”
Read more:
- Campaign launched against asphalt plant proposal near Knaresborough
- Briggate roadworks likely to last ‘several months’ in Knaresborough
Kirk Hammerton furniture firm plans 24 flats for over-55s
A developer has lodged plans to build 24 new flats for people aged over 55 in Kirk Hammerton.
The scheme would see the flats built on the Geoffrey Benson and Son Furniture Showroom site on York Road in the village.
The showroom, which would remain open, has been on the site since 1992 when it moved from York. It is a distinctive feature on the A59 between Harrogate and York.
Under the plans, which have been submitted to North Yorkshire Council by the furniture company, a further four two-bedroom apartments would be created in the first and second floors of the existing showroom building.
In documents submitted to the council, the company said:
“The applicant has established through dealing with a particular sector of customers that there is a huge gap in current planning policy for dwellings for purchase for over-55s and there is a large demand and need in this area for high quality freehold apartments with 2 bedrooms for the over-55 age group.
“They are by and large people who already live locally and do not wish to move to a town away from their friends and relations.
“These people do not necessarily require affordable dwellings but well designed and appointed quality spaces with fewer responsibilities and maintenance requirements of larger a property.”
North Yorkshire Council will make a decision on the plan at a later date.
Read more:
- Developer tables plan for 55 retirement homes in Kirk Hammerton
- Developer withdraws plan for 55 retirement homes in Kirk Hammerton