Tory-run North Yorkshire Council has accused the Department for Education of “extremely slow” action and unfair funding of school spaces for vulnerable youngsters with special educational needs.

An officers’ report to leading members of the council highlights the government awards the county just 61% of the national average figure for special schools building schemes.

At the same time, the council faces a shortfall of about 100 places from September and 350 places over the next three to five years.

The report states using DfE data and criteria for specialist provision funding, North Yorkshire ranked 118th out of 150 councils.

Officers said this academic year had seen “a very marked increase” in requests for pupils to be assessed for SEN.

So while 700 new assessments had been a reasonably stable level for a number of years, forecasts of the likely number of requests for this year were between 980 and 1,090.

In addition, the report states resources available to the council to invest in key maintenance projects have reduced significantly in recent years, so North Yorkshire Council only receives about £6.3m to maintain 200 schools.

Exacerbating this, all of the council’s applications to secure government rebuild programmes at its special schools have been unsuccessful.

Officers said capital funding from the government for high needs pupils had been “significant but disappointing in comparison to other authorities”.

Pupils in Kensington and Chelsea get five times more

They said they had “significant concerns” about how the DfE allocated £88 per pupil in North Yorkshire compared to £483 per pupil in Kensington and Chelsea.

The report states several schools are in pressing need of repairs and Welburn Hall School, near Kirkbymoorside, has been identified as being “at risk of catastrophic buildings failure”.

However, the report states the authority has insufficient funding to tackle “significant concerns about the suitability and condition of our special schools”, adding its “overarching priority with the limited capital resource envelope available is to respond to create more classroom spaces”.

The report adds although the DfE approved the council’s bid for funding to create a Special Free School four years ago, the latest estimated opening date for the school was 2025.

The officers wrote:

“Whilst we were successful in securing the Selby Free School through the DfE Special Free School programme, DfE’s delivery of the school has been extremely slow.

“This is disappointing given that the 100 places that the school will create are urgently needed to address overlap capacity shortfalls and provide access to a local provision to families from the Selby area.”

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A government spokesperson said delays in delivering the proposed new Selby school had included reaching agreement with the council for its contribution to the access road and abnormal works, and an unsuccessful procurement of a contractor to build the permanent school.

The spokesperson said it had strived to distribute high needs provision capital funding fairly and efficiently between local authorities based on both their size, and their share of estimated growth in demand for high needs provision between academic years

She added:

“Every child deserves to have access to education that meets their needs. Our recent improvement plan will reform the support system for children with special educational needs and disabilities, prioritising earlier intervention and creating consistent high standards across the country.”

Plans have been submitted for a further expansion of the Harrogate 47 business park next to the A1 (M) near Knaresborough.

Described as a “sustainable employment development,” the site is off junction 47 of the motorway and once completed will include employment space for office, hi-tech and logistics businesses.

It’s one of the key employment sites in the former Harrogate Borough Council Local Plan with the potential to bring 2,000 jobs to the district.

The development is being brought forward by Flaxby Investment LLP, which is a joint venture between Opus North and Bridges Fund Management.

The developer won planning permission from Harrogate Borough Council to develop part of the site last year.
It is bringing the development forward in stages and is now seeking permission to build nine further warehouses with a total size of 129,953 sq ft.

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The first four warehouses would be located close to the Flaxby roundabout that was completed in 2014. These will be smaller starter units for business with a size of under 5,000 sq. ft each. The remaining larger units would be situated close to the Ilke Homes factory which produces modular homes. The plans include 72 car parking spaces that would also be added to the site.

Speaking previously about the scheme, Ryan Unsworth, development director at Opus North said:

“This development is key for the Harrogate and wider North Yorkshire economy due to its capacity to transform vacant land into office and industrial space for local, regional and national occupiers, and the vast job-creating potential it has.

“The delivery of Harrogate 47 will allow local companies to expand and grow within the region in addition to attracting inward investment into the district.”

The application will be decided by North Yorkshire Council at a later date.

The new North Yorkshire Council is beginning its annual surface dressing programme — but it doesn’t include any roads in the Harrogate district.

Hundreds of miles of roads across England’s largest county are to be treated this spring and summer.

The work makes roads more skid-resistant and waterproof. It also prevents potholes, and can extend the life of a road by up to 10 years.

Cllr Keane Duncan, North Yorkshire Council’s Conservative executive member for highways and transport, said £8 million of surface dressing would be carried out this year — £2.6 million more than last year.

But Harrogate is the only district in North Yorkshire not to be included in this year’s programme.

Work is due to begin mid-April in the Hambleton, Selby and Scarborough districts.

It is due to carry on in Ryedale and Richmondshire in May and finish in the Craven district in early June.

Cllr Duncan said:

“Careful prioritisation of works, additional investment and close cooperation with our contractors means we will be delivering an extra £2.6 million worth of surface dressing schemes this year, the equivalent of an extra 60 miles.”

In this year’s Budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt awarded North Yorkshire £6.5 million from a £700 million fund to tackle potholes.

Details of North Yorkshire roadworks are available here.

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Hospital food in Harrogate is the worst in the country, according to patients.

Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust received the lowest rating of all the hospital trusts assessed in the NHS survey.

Patients awarded the trust, which runs Harrogate District Hospital, 72% for food quality.

The next lowest was Mid-Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with 74%, closely followed by York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Private provider Bupa rated the highest with 100%.

NHS Digital published the figures as part of its 2022 Patient-Led Assessments of the Care Environment programme.

PLACE assessments are an annual appraisal of the non-clinical aspects of NHS and independent/private healthcare settings.

Harrogate fared better on cleanliness, ranking 53rd of the 222 organisations with a score of 99.49%.

But it was a lowly 192nd on privacy, dignity and wellbeing with a score of 81%.

Hospital issues apology

A Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said:

“We strive to provide the best possible levels of service for those people in our care and we are extremely disappointed that we were unable to meet the expectations of our patients when the assessment took place.

“We would like to apologise to anyone who has been dissatisfied by the service we provided.

“It is important that we learn lessons from these findings as food is an important part of a patient’s hospital experience. The quality of food provided to our patients has always been high, but there is the opportunity to improve on the levels of service.

“We take such assessments extremely seriously and have already started to make improvements to address the concerns that have been raised.”

“These improvements have already had a significant impact and we will continue to make further changes to ensure we are meeting our patients’ expectations.”

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Councillors have called for tougher parking enforcement in towns and villages in North Yorkshire.

North Yorkshire Council’s transport, economy, environment and enterprise scrutiny committee heard yesterday some visitor hotspot villages were examining how parking restrictions could be introduced as it was impacting on residents’ quality of life.

One elected member claimed “nothing seems to be done about people parking on pavements”, while others highlighted issues resulting from people parking in residential areas to avoid payments.

The meeting heard North Yorkshire has a forecast £3m annual parking enforcement surplus.

It also heard claims that an unfair proportion of the resources generated had been pumped into Harrogate-based projects in recent years.

An officer’s report to councillors revealed how the the lion’s share of the surplus had been used to reimburse bus operators for pensioners’ concessionary fares, boost the road repairs budget and improve the A1(M) junction 47 between Harrogate and York.

Councillors expressed concerns that while parking enforcement surpluses in some areas had been used to bolster general council “rainy day” funds, Harrogate Borough Council had put forward a lengthy wish list of transport and road projects for its area.

Committee chairman, Cllr David Staveley, a Conservative who represents Settle & Penyghent, said:

“It does feel slightly inequitable to other areas that have possibly contributed quite substantially to that fund. It does some of our areas are getting slightly short-changed.

“I think going forward we are one council. All residents should get a fair crack of the whip.”

Labour Cllr Melanie Ann Davis, who represents Selby West, said enforcement in Selby, which had received a “derisory” three per cent of the parking enforcement income, was “very poor” due to a lack of wardens.

She said:

“I think we need an assurance that there is going to be a new look at this to see that there is a much more uniform service.”

The meeting heard although the parking enforcement surplus had been collected from across the county, there had been an agreement that Harrogate and Scarborough councils be consulted on how it was spent.

Councillors were told while the authority’s position would remain focused on encouraging off-street parking to reduce congestion, the launch of the unitary authority and the unification of off-street and street parking responsibilities at the new council presented an opportunity to review policies and investment priorities.

The authority’s corporate director, Karl Battersby, said the surplus was currently being spent on an “eclectic mix” of legally permissable projects.

He added the review would examine the county’s “mixed bag of charges, policies, enforcement”, and links between parking and active travel. He said:

“Going forward we are going to have a proper look at what this budget should and shouldn’t fund.”

North Yorkshire Council has banned the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok from staff devices over security fears.

The move means people working for the new council are not be allowed to use the app on any work devices.

Staff have also been “strongly discouraged” from using the app on personal devices that are also used for work purposes.

It follows the lead of parliament, which banned the app last month.

A council spokesperson said the ban came into effect from April 1, which was the council’s first day of existence.

TikTok has over 1.5 billion users around the world and allows people to create and share short-form videos.

However, there have been growing fears over what the company does with the personal data it collects from users.

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has strongly denied allegations that it shares data with the Chinese government.

Assistant director of technology for North Yorkshire Council, Madeline Hoskin, said:

“North Yorkshire Council does not allow the media sharing app TikTok on any of its corporate devices and it is not approved to be used for any work purpose.

“In addition to this, we would strongly discourage any use of the app or website on personal devices that are also being used for work purposes.

“We have made this decision because both the TikTok app and the website collect a lot of personal and very detailed information that is stored outside of the UK, and though currently this data is predominantly used for targeted advertising, the volume and depth of the data being captured and stored poses a potential risk we do not believe is acceptable.”

‘Fundamental misconceptions’

A TikTok spokesperson said:

“We believe recent bans are based on fundamental misconceptions and driven by wider geopolitics, in which TikTok and our community around the world play no part.

“We remain committed to working with governments and partners to address any security concerns, but ask to be judged on facts, not fears, and treated equally to our competitors.

“We have already begun implementing a comprehensive plan to further protect our US and European user data, building on the principles of local data storage and introducing third-party independent oversight of our approach.”

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Cooplands has closed its bakery in Boroughbridge after little more than two years.

The company, which is the second largest bakery chain in the district, opened a shop on the town’s High Street in February 2021.

But a sign appeared in the window recently saying the shop had now closed permanently and the nearest branch was on Beulah Street in Harrogate.

The Harrogate shop

The Stray Ferret asked Cooplands why it had closed its Boroughbridge branch and how many staff were affected.

A spokesperson said:

“Following an in-depth review of the business, we have proposed to make some changes to both our retail and bakery operations, to help better position the business for the long-term and sustainable growth.

“This has been done to ensure that our store estate and broader business are fully aligned with our ‘modern bakery food-to-go retailer’ strategy.

“As a result, we have entered into a consultation process with a number of colleagues. We appreciate that this may be unsettling for colleagues and our priority is to support them fully throughout this process.”

The spokesperson declined to comment beyond the statement.

Cooplands started as a single shop in Scarborough in 1885 and now has more than 160 shops in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and the North East.

It was bought in 2021 by the EG Group.

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Provenance Collection has appointed two new senior staff at the  Punch Bowl Inn in Marton-cum-Grafton.

Brian Furey is to be the new general manager and Ian Matfin has been appointed head chef.

Provenance Collection has nine sites across North Yorkshire and employs more than 150 people. Last year, The Punch Bowl Inn was awarded Best Food Offer in the Publican Awards.

Brian Furey commented:

“This is an exciting opportunity to work within a team so committed to offering the best in hospitality. Our chefs work with nature, creating seasonal menus, sourcing from local and regional suppliers, this is a family that has a set of values to deliver exceptional customer experience, which is something I live by, too.”

New head chef, Ian Matfin has worked at some of the UK’s leading restaurants including Le Manoir aux Quat’Saison, Claridge’s, and more recently at North Yorkshire’s Devonshire Arms.

Mr Matfin said:

“I have worked in kitchens large and small and with all manner of teams and have seen success at its best. Having the skillset in the kitchen is one thing but having the drive and the values of this group is something I am relishing. The field to fork mentality, the access to our own kitchen garden at Mount St. John, the incredible local artisans I get to work with make every day a new opportunity.”

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Fat Badger named county’s best pub

The Fat Badger in Harrogate been named as the best pub in North Yorkshire at the National Pub & Bar Awards.

A total of 94 pubs and bars were recognised as county winners in the awards which aim to highlight the positive and inspiring work being carried out across the UK’s hospitality sector.

“We’re delighted to have been considered for this amazing award, but to go on and win our county category is just wonderful and a real testament to the hard work all of my team put in to making the Fat Badger the friendly and welcoming place it is.

“The team are buzzing from the announcement and can’t wait until the overall national winner is announced as we really feel we deserve a shot at it!”

“I’m so proud that the Fat Badger has been recognised like this.  Whilst I’m probably biased, I do believe we deliver something special in our pub and have made the brand a well known one in recent years with people travelling from far and wide to experience the first class food, ales and of course service that we offer.

“We can’t wait to find out who will pick up the national pub of the year in June, but in the meantime, are delighted to be the overall North Yorkshire winner”.

Plans have been submitted to build a new early years children’s nursery at Minskip, near Boroughbridge.

Ben and Emma Mosey, who run Yolk Farm and Minskip Farm Shop on Minskip Road, have applied to North Yorkshire Council for the scheme.

The nursery would be situated on the farm and offer 74 full-day places for children aged 0 to 5. It would be open for 51 weeks a year.

The nursery would create 18 jobs and be based around the curiosity and forest school approaches, which encourage independence through outdoor learning.

Documents state the owners have diversified the farm in recent years with a cafe, farm shop and dog walking area but they and want to add a nursery “to create an experience which is safe, fun and educational for children”.

The intended manager of the nursery, Tracey Roberts of Tiddlywinks Private Day Nurseries, has over 20 years in the early years sector and has achieved an outstanding Ofsted rating at Tiddlywinks’ York and Easingwold nurseries.

According to the application, there is a high demand for early years places in the area because there are 229 nursery-aged children in Boroughbridge but only 85 spaces.

UK childcare is among the most expensive in the world and the government announced last month it will expand free childcare for working parents in England by September 2025 to help more parents get back to work.

Planning documents state:

“The subject proposal continues the established trend of successful diversification at Minskip Farm which plays host to a popular café, farm shop and dog walking field.

“Indeed, the provision of an on-site nursery will support the sustainability of extant commercial operations on site, drawing additional footfall to increase trade.

“It is considered that the subject site represents the optimum setting for the establishment of a children’s day nursery, providing children with access to nature and farming activities within a safe, controlled environment, parents with access to the dog walking, café and shopping facilities associated with Yolk Farm, and being accessible from Boroughbridge by public footway, with a bus stop also nearby.”

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