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:

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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.

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

Almost half a million pounds of taxpayers’ money is being spent on halving the number of litter bins in the Harrogate district.

Council staff are replacing 1,500 old bins with 775 new, larger bins.

Some dog walkers are upset because bins on popular routes have been taken away and replaced by ones alongside main roads that are easier to empty.

A freedom of information request by the Stray Ferret to North Yorkshire Council revealed the new bins cost £478,000.

The council said the cost of replacing the old bins would have been £339,000.

It estimated it will save £16,000 a year by no longer having to buy 240,000 bin liners because the new receptacles don’t require them.

It also expects to save between £17,000 to £19,000 a year because the new bins can be handled more efficiently by bin wagon. The council also expects to save an unspecified sum on fuel, because there are fewer bins to empty.

A new bin in Knox.

The freedom of information response by North Yorkshire Council said the management board at the now-defunct Harrogate Borough Council signed off the new system.

A spokesperson from the council’s environment directorate said:

“The main aim of the project was to reduce the number of duplicate journeys between different services.

“This does provide a level of savings, coupled with a benefit to the environment, through a reduction in annual mileage and almost eradicating the need for the 240,000 single-use liners used on the smaller bins.”

They added:

“It provides further benefits by allowing the streetscene team to provide a more proactive service in regard to littering, fly tipping, and the clearance of detritus.

“To achieve this, the old infrastructure, totalling close to 1500 bins, is being replaced with 775 new bins. With the greater capacity, fewer bins are required which helps reduce street furniture, particularly in locations where two bins may have been placed close together.”

Dog walkers in Knox, Jennyfields and Knaresborough have contacted the Stray Ferret with concerns about the new system.

A new bin on Jenny Field Drive.

In Jennyfields, where new bins have been sited on main roads rather than in the field near the leisure centre, Elizabeth Horner said “the amount of rubbish from having no bins in the area has got disgusting”.

Another dog walker, Diana Salama, said there was now “nowhere to easily dispose of poo”.

Under the new system, dog waste is no longer classified as hazardous waste and can be placed in any bin. This means dog waste can be placed in owners’ general waste bins.

Read more:

• Call for urgent review of new bins after dog poo bags litter Jennyfields
• Harrogate’s ‘inner-city school’ is improving, says headteacher

Fink grocery store in Boroughbridge has new owners.

Co-owner Hugh Fink announced at the weekend he and Sharon Longcroft, who took over the business when it was the Fruit Basket in November 2013, had sold to London retailers Vikas Patel and Miraz Mehta.

The new owners will take over the shop on Boroughbridge High Street on October 2.

Mr Fink said he will continue to support Mr Patel in the months ahead while Ms Longcroft will focus on her picture framing business.

The Fruit Basket was owned by Chris Thompson for 21 years before it was acquired by Mr Fink and Ms Longcroft a decade ago.

It rebranded as Fink in 2016 and two years later was named local shop/village store of the year at the national Farm Shop and Deli Show in 2018.

Mr Fink said:

“It has been a pleasure to have served the people of Boroughbridge and beyond and we are delighted to have found a buyer with such a strong understanding of the market we serve.

“With his vast retail experience and energy, we look forward to seeing him develop Fink to the next level.”

Mr Patel, who until recently managed a general store in Chelsea, added:

“When my wife Miraz and I came to Boroughbridge, met some of the people and saw the shop, we immediately knew this would be a great place to settle and bring up our son Aarish.

“Having moved from London we know there is a lot to learn but we look forward to meeting new people and learning to speak Yorkshire!”

Read more:

• Plans for motorway services between Ripon and Boroughbridge approved
• Ofsted says Boroughbridge High School ‘requires improvement’

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.

Why have 20mph where it isn’t needed? 

Diesel trains? 

Why are diesel trains still being used to Harrogate, when Skipton and Ilkley have had electric multiple units since the 1960’s?

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.

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• 10 schemes proposed to reduce congestion in Harrogate
• ‘Collective will’ at council to rescue £11.2m Harrogate Station Gateway
• Harrogate Grammar School head says 20mph zone should include Otley Road

Leisure centre visitors in Harrogate, Ripon and Knaresborough have been as likely to wear hard hats as swimming costumes in recent years.

All three sites have undergone lengthy projects to refurbish or replace council-owned facilities.

Those in charge probably wish they too had hard hats to protect themselves from the flak caused by soaring costs and delays. The nine-month delay refurbishing the former Harrogate Hydro meant it reopened two days before the end of the school summer holidays.

But finally there is something to cheer.

The new Harrogate Leisure and Wellness Centre has already attracted almost 2,000 members. It has an eight-lane pool and diving boards, a well-equipped gym twice the size of its previous incarnation and three plush exercise studios.

The pool at Harrogate.

One of three studios at Harrogate.

Elsewhere, the partially-open Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre will eventually provide Ripon with a gym and pool on the same site; Knaresborough is weeks away from a new leisure centre and the gym at Pateley Bridge has been refurbished.

Mark Tweedie, managing director of Brimhams Active, the council-owned leisure company that runs the sites, admits the delays have been frustrating but says the benefits of the £46 million investment will soon be felt across the district. He says:

“We will have an estate that will be the envy of North Yorkshire. The investment that’s gone in is unprecedented and significant.”

Harrogate Leisure and Wellness Centre is certainly a cut above the average council leisure centre.

Monthly membership, which provides unlimited access to gyms, pools and classes at all Brimhams sites, is £44.95. That isn’t as cheap as Pure Gym or Coach Gyms but they haven’t got pools. Gym-only Brimhams membership is £33.

Mr Tweedie argues they also don’t have the same focus on community health as Brimhams, which he says is “reinventing conventional leisure services to a more impactful, person-centred health and wellbeing service”.

To underline this, the rather soulless ‘leisure and wellness’ moniker has been slapped across the names of all its sites.

Sinkhole saga

But although Harrogate is fully open, work continues elsewhere.

Ripon, which was the first to reopen as the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre in March last year, appears locked in some sort of sinkhole groundhog day of never-ending work on a “void” beneath the old part of the site, which remains closed.

The Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre

Remedial work is expected to continue until spring. Mr Tweedie says the centre is “looking to reopen the first floor gym in April next year” with the ground floor studio following in summer.

In the meantime, customers will continue to use the temporary gym in the car park and attend group classes at Hugh Ripley Hall in the city centre.

Knaresborough has been less troublesome than Ripon and Harrogate, although it might not seem like it to residents who currently have nowhere in town to swim since the old pool closed a few weeks ago.

How the Knaresborough site will look.

Delays meant the seamless transition from old pool to new site didn’t quite happen, but from November people will have access to a six-lane pool, a fun pool with a slide, plus — for the first time — a studio, gym, steam room and sauna.

While others get upgrades, the beautiful Starbeck Baths feels like the forgotten ugly sister. Rumours abound the Victorian pool will be closed and Mr Tweedie’s comments don’t provide much succour:

“The council is reviewing all its leisure sites at the moment. That’s a natural process because it’s just been formed as a unitary council. It will ask for evidence on how its sites perform and the opportunities for development.”

Starbeck Baths

The audit will be followed by a strategy. Does he think Starbeck Baths will still exist in 10 years?

“That’s a decision for councillors. But what I can say is there has been no feedback to me about planning to close Starbeck.”

Membership figures

Brimhams, which employs the full-time equivalent of about 160 staff and has a turnover of £8.4 million, was set up by Harrogate Borough Council in August 2021. But it has been run by the new North Yorkshire Council since April.

Mr Tweedie says Brimhams “was set up to be commercially effective but also to deliver better health outcomes for the community”.

The council currently provides a £1.7 million annual subsidy, which is due to reduce to £1.2 million when the new centres are complete.

The early commercial signs at Harrogate are encouraging. Membership was 600 when the Hydro closed. The new site has 1,800 members — above the 1,750 target for the end of the month.

Ripon, which has less gym competition than Harrogate, has 1,200 members and Nidderdale has 700.

When we last interviewed Mr Tweedie staff shortages was a huge issue but he says this has eased.

Mark Tweedie outside the Harrogate site.

Brimhams is the only council-owned trading company in North Yorkshire. A private company called Everyone Active provides services in Ryedale and Scarborough; Richmond Leisure Trust runs facilities in Richmond and a charity called Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles oversees sites in Selby. The former district councils in Craven and Hambleton ran leisure sites.

Brimhams is due to take control of Selby’s services, which includes Selby Leisure Centre and Tadcaster Leisure Centre, in September next year.

That decision appeared to be a vote of confidence in the Brimhams model but uncertainty remains about how leisure services will be managed long-term in the county once North Yorkshire Council has completed its review.

But in the short-term, it’s all about growing membership — and getting Knaresborough and Ripon sorted.

Read more:

• Ripon leisure centre halts price increase due to ongoing work
• Harrogate Hydro delay will see no change in £13.5m project budget, says council

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.  

One of the upsides of British summer is the opportunity to go to festivals, and I love that there are so many food festivals in Yorkshire.

Each one has a different vibe, and you can never quite anticipate what the experience will be with Yorkshire weather. Luckily, this year, the weather was fantastic.

The RHS launched The Festival of Flavours in 2022 to celebrate the produce from its gardens and encourage us to grow some of our own food. It was a huge success and this year’s festival offered even more traders and chef demonstrations.

Both seasoned and amateur gardeners and foodies turned out in their droves for the event, which included children’s cooking classes, kitchen garden tours, live music performances and a wide variety of food to try.

The festival was backdropped by the colourful grounds of Harlow Carr and I was excited to be on stage cooking two dishes alongside many other local chefs.

Fig and raspberry clafoutis

A personal highlight for me was using seasonal ingredients; I used white currants as part of my sweet dish, which was fig and raspberry clafoutis, with a white currant and raspberry whipped cream. It was my first time using the berry and I was excited to learn about the flavour profile.

The clafoutis.

Traditionally made with cherries, clafoutis is a French classic that is a staple in many homes. Methods behind the dessert can be varied – some simple and others much more complicated.

The former calls for all ingredients to be mixed in a blender before pouring over the fruit in an oiled dish.

The more complex recipes, however, call for the egg whites to be beaten separately – to form soft peaks – before being added to the yolks which have been beaten with sugar. Melted butter is also drizzled into it before folding in the flour.

Having tried different recipes, I have concluded it doesn’t make much difference to the end result, so I would recommend keeping it simple!

I sometimes use brown butter (beurre noisette) to get a nutty taste and add some almonds for a bit of crunch.

The cooking stage

The cooking stage featured some incredible chefs, including 2022 MasterChef winner, Eddie Scott, and contestants Afsaneh Kaviani and Owen Diaram. The RHS’s own Joe Lofthouse was also there, as well Gilly Robinson from The Cook’s Place in Malton, Ian Wilkinson from Yolk Farm, and Bobby and Minal Patel from Prashad, Leeds.

(L) Yolk Farm’s Ian Wilkinson and Yemi

David Atherton, who won the Great British Bake Off in 2019, taught a masterclass on scones. I am still dreaming of his lemonade scone, but we still don’t know if the cream or jam should go first.

Lots of local businesses were also there, including the district’s own Harrogate Tipple and Jack in a Box, as well as The Yorkshire Pasta Company which is based in Malton.

How to reduce food waste

I left with some fantastic tips on reducing food waste. These include always writing a shopping list; never go shopping when hungry; avoid going shopping too frequently; do a weekly fridge raid; get creative to use what you have at home and store your ingredients in the right way to extend their shelf lives.

9.5 million tonnes of food are wasted annually in the UK alone – despite 8.4 million people being in food poverty.

We all need to try and grow some of our own food, have an appreciation for ingredients and reduce waste as much as possible.

Next week, I will be visiting Baltzersens Café and Coffee shop.

Read more:

• Yemi’s Food Stories: the Yorkshire distillery that makes vodka from apples
• Yemi’s Food Stories: A ‘sweet day’ at Bettys Cookery School

The chief constable of North Yorkshire Police has announced she will retire after more than 30 years in uniform. 

Lisa Winward will step down from the £154,000-a-year role at the end of March 2024; her successor has yet to be named. 

She said she was “immensely proud to have been a police officer and public servant for 30 years”, adding:

“It was a very difficult decision to make but I feel that the time is right for me to retire.

“I will still be here for several months and look forward to saying goodbyes in person to as many people as possible who I have had the privilege to meet during my time in policing.”

Chief constable Winward began her policing journey as a volunteer special constable in York.

Following service through the ranks of constable through to chief inspector for Humberside Police, Lisa resumed her service to North Yorkshire in 2008, serving the City of York as chief inspector, superintendent and commander between 2009 and 2013. 

She has served in key roles at the heart of North Yorkshire Police including executive officer to the then-chief constable, head of uniformed operations, major crime, specialist operations, criminal justice, and force intelligence.

After leading the local policing portfolio as assistant chief constable throughout 2016, in February 2017 she became deputy chief constable at North Yorkshire Police. In August 2018, she was confirmed as chief constable. 

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A statement issued by North Yorkshire Police said: 

“Her vision and passion for understanding and addressing the root causes of crime and disorder in communities has been a hallmark of her tenure as chief, positioning North Yorkshire Police to play its part in early intervention, and working seamlessly with partner organisations to help the residents of York and North Yorkshire be safe and feel safe.” 

Chief constable Winward is a graduate of the FBI’s National Academy development programme in leadership and policing, and during her time as a chief officer has been the lead on a number of national portfolios, including citizens in policing, women’s health, and menopause. She is a trustee for the Police Treatment Centre and the chair of the British Police Symphony Orchestra. She currently leads for the National Police Chiefs’ Council on intelligence, local policing and senior assessment, and in 2022 was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for distinguished policing service. 

Paying tribute, North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Zoë Metcalfe said: 

“Her dedication of over 30 years of public service and collaboration has shone through whilst serving as a leader here at North Yorkshire Police and I feel privileged to have spent time working alongside such a remarkable individual.

“I know all of us here in York and North Yorkshire wish Lisa well in her future plans.”

Councillors have approved the latest plans for a motorway service station near to Kirby Hill.

Applegreen Ltd submitted amended plans for the scheme between junctions 48 and 49 of the A1(M) northbound, between Boroughbridge and Ripon.

It would see a Welcome Break built at the site, as well a filling station and 364 car parking spaces created.

The proposal already has outline permission after the government’s Planning Inspectorate approved the plan on appeal in April 2021.

At a meeting last week, councillors on North Yorkshire Council’s strategic planning committee approved the amended proposal.

Applegreen, which is based in Dublin, applied for amendments to its plan, including an extension to the length of the slip roads and increasing the permissible height of the eastern dumbbell roundabout by up to 1.25 metres.

In documents submitted to the council, the company said the changes were “limited design amendments”.

But, Gareth Owens, of Kirby Hill Residents Against Motorway Services, told the committee that the plan did not amount to minor amendments.

He said:

“Minor amendments would not warrant an officer’s report that runs to 110 pages.”

Mr Owens added:

“What we have here is an applicant who misrepresented to an inspector at a public inquiry what it is possible to achieve on this site.

“They are now having to row back from that position and ask your permission for a much more harmful scheme.

“Let’s not be taken in by the claim that these are minor amendments.”

Cllr Nick Brown, who represents the area on North Yorkshire Council, said he knew of no other local issue which residents felt more strongly about.

He added the scheme was “materially different” to what was approved by the government’s Planning Inspectorate.

Nick Roberts, who represented Applegreen at the meeting, said the need for a motorway service station at the site was established by a planning inspector after a three-week public inquiry.

Read more:

• Government approves A1 service station after fourth appeal in 25 years

• Harrogate council paid £45,000 in Kirby Hill and Ripon service station legal fees
• Residents object to latest Kirby Hill service station plans

The move comes after the government approved plans for the service station following a series of public inquiries and planning battles.

In a saga which has spanned a quarter of a century, Applegreen’s application has been before multiple council planning committees, faced four public inquiries and been turned down twice by the Secretary of State and the High Court.

The inquiry, which was held by planning inspector David Rose and streamed onto YouTube, lasted two weeks and included multiple testimonies from residents, campaigners and developer Applegreen.

In a decision notice, Mr Rose said after considering the evidence that the benefits of a service station would outweigh the harm.

North Yorkshire’s transport boss has spoken of his optimism that all existing bus services will be saved and the network expanded over the coming years,

Cllr Keane Duncan, the Tory candidate to become North Yorkshire and York’s first elected mayor, said nearly 80 routes were close to being wiped out a year ago.

But Cllr Duncan has now said the county’s public transport services has undergone a reversal of fortune after landing a £2.9m government grant and a £2 price cap being introduced on local and regional journeys.

He told a meeting of North Yorkshire Council’s executive this week many of the county’s bus services were “more popular than ever” and some services had even become “too popular”.

He said the Department for Transport funding would serve as “a lifeline to services” without which “many services would have ceased” and that having achieved survival, anyone elected to become mayor would face the challenge of reversing the erosion of bus routes in the county.

Bus campaigners said they hoped the statement marked “a significant milestone” for public transport services in the county, which shrunk by one of the largest amounts in the country over the last decade.

Since the North Yorkshire Rural Commission recommended the county’s transport bosses “take up the opportunity to provide more innovative passenger transport” in 2021, there has been little progress on increasing coverage of rural areas, partly due to the failure of the demand-responsive Yorbus service that covered Ripon and Masham.

Last summer, Cllr Duncan warned of a “grave” situation facing public transport in North Yorkshire, with about a third of the network — 79 routes — being under threat due to passenger numbers remaining low following the pandemic.

Read more:

• North Yorkshire transport boss warns bus network faces ‘really grave situation’
• North Yorkshire Council to review bus services support, says transport chief
• Bilton bus services to merge under new route changes

It came just three months after it emerged the authority’s £116 million Bus Back Better bid had been rejected in its entirety by the government, which claimed the bid had lacked “sufficient ambition”.

However, Cllr Duncan said the Department for Transport grant of £2.9m, which the government has stipulated must not be used to replace existing council support for public bus services, would help ensure all services are maintained until after the launch of a mayoral combined authority.

The meeting heard existing service levels would be maintained, “based on local circumstances and need”, over the next two years.

The funding will be spent on what the council considers “are the best overall outcomes in growing long-term patronage, revenues and thus maintaining service levels, whilst maintaining essential social and economic connectivity” for communities.

Cllr Duncan told the meeting he was delighted to be reporting “a much more positive picture” as a result of the council’s action plan to work closely with bus operators.

Harrogate bus service lost

After claiming that “not a single service had ceased as a result of becoming commercially unviable”, fellow Conservative councillor Paul Haslam, who represents Bilton and Nidd Gorge, told the meeting a Harrogate bus service had been lost over commercial viability.

Cllr Duncan replied the authority had “supported changes to timetables to help the viability of several routes across the county”.

He added the achievement of the council’s passenger transport team could not be underestimated and the £2 fare cap had been “immensely successful in getting passengers back on to services”.

Cllr Duncan said: 

“We are hopeful that we can continue to support all the services across the county over the coming months and years. It gives us the solid foundations we need to support those lifeline services.

“It gives us a solid foundation for building that network back in the coming months and years.”