A Harrogate district taxi driver has criticised North Yorkshire County Council over a licensing policy following a meeting with a senior councillor.

Cabbies from Harrogate, Ripon and the GMB Union met with Conservative councillor Derek Bastiman, executive councillor for open to business, over the new single zone policy in North Yorkshire yesterday.

Under the plan, the new North Yorkshire Council will create a single licensing policy for hackney carriages and private hire vehicles in the entire county.

It will mean drivers in Harrogate can operate anywhere in North Yorkshire, whereas they are currently restricted to the Harrogate district.

After the proposal was announced, drivers predicted it would cause “chaos” and called for a meeting with the council over the policy.

Following the meeting with Cllr Bastiman, drivers criticised the council over the continuing with the proposal.

Richard Fieldman, who has run his taxi company for 28 years in Ripon, told the Stray Ferret that he felt the council “did not know what it was doing”.

He said:

“The top and bottom of it is they have not got a clue what they are doing. I have said before, this is going to cause destruction for the trade.”

Read more:

• Angry Harrogate district cabbies fear ruin under new system
• Taxi licensing changes will cause ‘chaos’, says Ripon cabbie
• New council plans single taxi licensing for North Yorkshire

Mr Fieldman added that some drivers would lose out under the new system.

He said cabbies raised concern over the policy and potential new fees and fare with Cllr Bastiman.

However, Mr Fieldman said he felt that the trade was “fighting a losing battle”, but that added they would continue to oppose the changes until the new system begins next month.

In response, Cllr Bastiman told the Stray Ferret:

“I can confirm that the meeting was very cordial. 

“Driver’s comments were taken away with an assurance that following a meeting that I will arrange with the relevant officers hopefully next week, a full response will be provided to the representative from the GMBU who offered to circulate to those operators present at the meeting. 

“Those present were happy with this proposal.”

The government is to spend more than £1 million showing the coronation on big screens across the country — but the Harrogate district is not included.

Ministers revealed today a dozen sites in Yorkshire and Humber will get big screens to show the coronation of the King and the Queen Consort on May 6 at Westminster Abbey in London. Not a single one is in North Yorkshire.

The closest one to the Harrogate district will be at Millennium Square in Leeds.

Although the selection of Leeds and other major cities, including Sheffield, Bradford and Hull, is not unexpected, some smaller places such as Dewsbury and Halifax are on the list while the likes of Harrogate and Ripon are not.

The decision to choose five places in West Yorkshire — Bradford, Halifax, Wakefield, Dewsbury, Huddersfield and Leeds — and not a single one in North Yorkshire, England’s largest county, may raise eyebrows particularly as many of the places chosen are close to each other.

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• Your memories of how the district celebrated the Queen’s silver jubilee in 1977

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport announced the locations today.

Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said:

The Coronation will be a magical moment that brings people together to celebrate the best of Britain over a special weekend in May.

These big screens, in major locations in towns and cities in the four nations of the UK, will make it easier for everyone to take part and have a memorable experience to mark this exciting and historic event.

Big screens location in Yorkshire and Humber

• City Hall, Hull
• Trinity Market, Hull
• City Park, Bradford
• Piece Hall, Halifax
• St Peter’s Parish Church, Huddersfield
• Dewsbury Library, Dewsbury
• Millennium Square, Leeds
• Pontefract Castle, Wakefield
• Peace Gardens, Sheffield
• The Glass Works, Barnsley

Several Harrogate district attractions will be offering free entry in the days ahead as part of National Lottery Open Week.

The lottery has raised more than £47 billion for good causes since it started in 1994. To thank players, it runs an annual week in which organisations it has funded are invited to provide free entry and special offers.

This year’s open week begins tomorrow (Saturday) and ends on March 26.

The following offers in the Harrogate district apply to anyone who presents a National Lottery ticket or scratchcard, digital or physical.

For the terms and conditions click here, and check the venue listings for dates, times and other terms and conditions. You can search for events here.

• Fountains Abbey near Ripon — free entry from March 18 to 26
• Nidderdale Museum in Pateley Bridge — free entry tomorrow (Saturday)
• Beningbrough Hall — free entry tomorrow and Sunday and from March 22 to 26
• Ripon Museum Trust — free entry for a family or group of up to six people at its workhouse, prison and police and courthouse museums in Ripon on March 25
• Harewood House — £5 entry tomorrow and Sunday

Read more:

• Value of Harrogate district tourism up by £31m, new figures reveal
• Ripon residents get free entry to city museums on Saturday

Inspectors have raised concern over North Yorkshire Police’s ability to keep people safe and reduce crime.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services undertook an inspection of the force in October 2022 for its effectiveness and efficiency.

The report, published today, rated the police as inadequate in good use of its resources.

Meanwhile, the force was rated as requires improvement for responding to the public, investigating crime, protecting vulnerable people and developing a positive workplace.

However, it was assessed as adequate for preventing crime and managing offenders. It was rated as good for treatment of the public.

Concern over police performance

In his report, Roy Wilsher, inspector of constabulary, raised concern over how the force kept people safe and reduced crime.

In particular, he said senior leaders did not have enough oversight of human resources and IT or of the “impact that failures in these areas have had on policing services”.

Mr Wilsher said the force did not have enough trained detectives and pointed out there was  “only a limited plan to address this”.

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He added that the force should improve the speed with which it answers and responds to emergency and priority calls.

The speed of responding to 999 calls was criticised.

However, Mr Wilsher said that North Yorkshire Police worked well with other organisations to safeguard vulnerable people.

He said:

“I have concerns about the performance of North Yorkshire Police in keeping people safe and reducing crime. In particular, I have serious concerns about its strategic planning and organisational management.

“Senior leaders in the force need to ensure they have effective oversight of its enabling services, such as IT and HR functions. Failures in these areas impact the service the force provides.

“North Yorkshire Police also needs to improve the speed with which it answers and responds to emergency calls. The force is well below the national standard, with only 41.9 percent of 999 calls being answered within 10 seconds.

“However, we did find that the force works well with partner organisations to safeguard vulnerable people. We found good examples of the force working with other organisations to divert young people away from offending and to reduce the vulnerability of people who may become victims of crime.

“Although I have concerns about corporate processes, I am pleased that the force has accepted our findings and is engaging with us and other partner organisations to ensure improvements are made. I remain in regular contact with the chief constable and will monitor the force’s progress towards addressing the cause of concern and areas of improvement I have established.”

In response, Lisa Winward, chief constable at North Yorkshire Police, said the force had recently approved a £1.8 million investment in its force control room to help tackle call response times.

She said:

“The report highlights a number of areas that the force delivers well but also reports on a significant number of areas that require improvement. A number of these relate to the corporate capacity and capability of the organisation linked to workforce planning, governance, performance management, financial planning, and the overall efficiency and effectiveness of our shared enabling services.

“They told us that while the right actions might be taking place on the ground by our people, they were not able to find sufficient evidence of how this was directed and overseen through our governance structure.

“The inspectors told us that every single person they spoke to was committed, fully engaged in their work and doing a really good job in difficult circumstances. They told us that our people take pride in being part of North Yorkshire Police and that there is a strong sense of belonging in the force.

“Since we received the hot debrief from HMICFRS in October 2022, we have been working at a pace to address the issues that they have raised so we can focus on our core responsibilities to the public.

“The Organisational Improvement Plan that we have put in place focuses on achieving the standards required to deliver a good service to our communities. The force has been through a significant period of change since our last inspection in 2018, and in particular to our corporate services where our inadequate grading has been identified. We are investing heavily to make these changes.”

Commissioner ‘more than disappointed’

Zoe Metcalfe

Meanwhile, Zoe Metcalfe, the Conservative North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, said she expected to see “immediate change” in police response to call times after approving a £1.8 million investment in the force control room.

She added that she was “more than disappointed” with other findings in the inspector’s report.

She said:

“I’m more than disappointed with other findings in the report and I’m sure members of the public will be too. It’s unacceptable that North Yorkshire Police requires improvement in multiple areas, in particular its strategic planning, organisational management and value for money – clearly more needs to be done and is being done as I continue to hold the chief constable to account. Our police force needs to do significantly better.

“I’m confident that the chief constable is overseeing significant transformation work within North Yorkshire Police to improve these outcomes, and that since October 2022 has implemented a trusted organisational improvement plan that can be effective at pace.”

It’s time to join the Stray Ferret Business Club. The third in our series of networking events in association with The Coach and Horses in Harrogate is a lunch event on March 30 from 12.30pm.

Don’t miss out on this chance to network with businesses from across the Harrogate district. Get your tickets by clicking or tapping here.

The Swinton Estate in Masham has announced a raft of staff promotions

Kevin Sansom, John Lawrence and Jordan McPhillips will be taking on new roles as Samuel’s Restaurant manager, head concierge and assistant financial controller respectively.

Meanwhile, Louise Dermott and Helen Pritchard have been promoted to spa guest services manager and therapist trainer within the country club and spa team.

The estate has also hired Nicolay Araujo as Terrace Restaurant manager.

Swinton Estate said on its Facebook page:

“A huge thank you to all the team for their continued hard work and the important part they play in our Swinton family.”

Government minister visits Harrogate Bus Company

Buses minister Richard Holden (second left) at Harrogate Bus Station with (from left) Transdev operations director Vitto Pizzuti; Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones; Transdev commercial manager Matt Burley; and network manager Alex Spencer.

The government’s buses minister paid a visit to Harrogate Bus Company this past week.

Richard Holden visited the firm’s training centre in Starbeck where he spoke with trainee drivers, before visiting the bus station in Harrogate town centre.

The minister also met younger colleagues starting out in the bus industry, as well as older recruits taking up bus driving as a change of career.

Accompanied by Andrew Jones, Harrogate and Knaresborough MP, the minister then attended the operator’s headquarters with operations director Vitto Pizzuti, training manager Dale French and commercial manager Matt Burley.

Mr Pizzuti said:

“We’re delighted to have welcomed the buses minister, who saw for himself the lengths we go to during wintry weather to keep our buses on the road serving our customers.

“The minister was also impressed to learn of the success of our government-supported £2 price drop, which has helped us to attract record numbers of motorists to leave their car keys at home and choose the bus instead.”

Mr Holden said:

“Having invested more than £2 billion to support bus services since the pandemic, it’s fantastic to see so many people using the bus here in Harrogate.

“Our £2 bus fare cap is helping to turbocharge the return of passengers, and we will continue to work hard with local authorities and operators like the Harrogate Bus Company to get even more people to hop back onto the bus.”

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Visitors to the Harrogate district are staying longer and spending more than they were pre-pandemic, according to new statistics.

However, the number of visitors over the same 2019 to 2022 timeframe fell by 650,000 from 6.47 million to 5.82 million.

Destination Harrogate, the Harrogate Borough Council tourism organisation, said today visitors contributed £637 million to the local economy last year, compared with £606 million three years previously.

The organisation also said the average length of stay increased from 2019 to 3.5 days, compared with 3.3 days three years previously. This is despite the fact the UCI Road World Championships took place in Harrogate in 2019, leading to high hotel occupancy rates in September that year.

John McGivern, destination events manager at Destination Harrogate said it was “fantastic news for our local businesses and residents”, adding:

“The fact that people are staying longer and spending more aligns directly with our objectives of a sustainable tourism model, attracting more revenue into the local economy, whilst minimising the impact on the environment.

“Together with our partners, with whom we share this achievement, we can celebrate the significant impact that our visitors are making on our local economy and can we look forward to further successes going forward.”

The figures are based on a tourism economic impact modelling process called STEAM that uses local supply-side data and visitor survey data. More information on the Harrogate district data is here.

Destination Harrogate aims to grow the visitor economy to £836.7 million by 2030, however its future is unclear after Harrogate Borough Council is abolished to make way for the new North Yorkshire Council in two weeks’ time.

Rudding Park Spa. Pic: Charlotte Gale

Cllr Stanley Lumley, cabinet member for culture, tourism and sport at Harrogate Borough Council, applauded Destination Harrogate for “boosting the economic impact of visits to the area”. He added:

“Harrogate’s visitor economy is the largest driver of the local economy second only to the property sector, and its value cannot be underestimated.

“With such a positive set of results we can look forward to a prosperous future for Harrogate as a major tourism destination within North Yorkshire.”

Since its launch a year ago, Destination Harrogate has delivered activities including a health and wellbeing campaign under the Visit Harrogate brand to attract higher spending visitors to stay longer for healthy breaks, Harrogate Christmas Fayre; events on the Stray marking the Queen’s platinum jubilee and the return of Harrogate Carnival.

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• Bid begins to create new North Yorkshire tourism body

North Yorkshire Police has been urged to start recording acts which breach legislation governing the protection of wild animals and plants.

Wildlife crimes, including badger baiting and hare coursing, emerged as among the five leading concerns of North Yorkshire residents following a public consultation over the statutory police and crime plan to 2025.

A meeting of North Yorkshire and York’s police, fire and crime panel heard despite repeated requests by the watchdog for figures to illustrate how wildlife offenders were being tackled, such details had not been made available.

In response to the public identifying wildlife crime as a priority, the panel announced last July that it would be examining progress on tackling such offences in the county, and during several subsequent meetings called for evidence to show police action.

North Yorkshire has repeatedly been identified by national organisations as having among the worst records for bird of prey persecution.

Nature charity RSPB says much of the persecution is linked directly to driven grouse shooting and has called for the industry to be regulated and in 2020 found North Yorkshire had topped the UK raptor persecution table for the seventh year in a row.

The panel meeting at County Hall in Northallerton heard raptor persecution had been linked to rogue shooting estates and gamekeepers. 

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Concerns have previously been expressed by the panel that due to the difficulty of investigating and successfully prosecuting wildlife crimes “very few” offenders were being brought to justice.

The panel’s deputy chairman, Cllr Peter Wilkinson said: 

“We are still getting bad publicity nationally, where we might not be the worst geographical area, but we’re pretty high up there.”

When asked if she was happy with progress made over tackling wildlife crime and the number of people being taken to court, North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Zoe Metcalfe stopped short of either criticising or praising police action.

She said: 

“I would like to see more progress, but I think we have made significant progress going forward, but obviously we would want those prosecutions to increase.”

Ms Metcalfe did not indicate what she had based her assessment of police performance on, but the meeting heard as there were “no specific wildlife crime offences”, police would face an onerous task of analysing crime reports to find “indicators” of offences against wild animals or plants.

The commissioner told the panel she would keep “a watching brief” over wildlife crime.

Cllr Tim Grogan, a former police officer, said while he did not expect the force to use vast amounts of resources trawling back through its records to identify wildlife offences, it should be simple for officers to start recording wildlife crimes from April 1.

He said: 

“I don’t think it’s beyond the wit of man to record wildlife crime. If that’s too difficult I’m sad because it’s what my residents asked for.”

North Yorkshire County Council is estimating that its Brierley Group of companies will return to profit by the end of the financial year.

According to a performance report for the group, the businesses are forecast a £2.69 million profit before tax by the end of 2022/23.

The figure is against a budgeted profit of £2.61 million.

It comes as the companies had previously posted losses of £327,000 for the previous financial year due to the covid pandemic.

The county council puts the performance down to a “positive outlook” for sales in Brierley Homes sites and other companies performing above budget.

A report due before the council’s shareholder committee said that while revenue was ahead of budget, the group still faced cost increases, inflation and high energy and labour costs.

It said:

“Revenue remains significantly ahead of budget, however all market segments continue to experience material cost increases, with inflationary pressures in the UK acting to drive up general costs of sale.”

Read more:

• Council accused of ‘trophy investment’ for £9m purchase of Harrogate’s Royal Baths
• Harrogate’s Royal Baths: the council’s under-performing ‘trophy investment’
• Council predicts loss-making Brierley Group will return to profit

Brierley Homes saw completion of two of its housing sites last year, which is expected to see sales “fully realises this financial year”, the report added.

The sites include Woodfield Square in Bilton and Millwright Park in Pateley Bridge.

The company expects further sales for its Yew Tree Farm site in Marton-Cum-Grafton.

Meanwhile, Align Property Partners is expected to publish a profitable position with “new external client contracts being acquired” and the firm having a “significant outperformance” against budget.

The company is expected to operate on a commercial basis under North Yorkshire Council as the authority sets up a new council-owned estates firm.

However, North Yorkshire Education Services is expected to post a loss for the financial year.

The council has put this down to “ongoing issues in the education market” due to covid, including rise in food costs in school catering and low pupil attendances levels.

The report said:

“Meal uptake in schools has not recovered in many areas to pre-covid levels which has led to dis-economies of scale.”

Rail workers and teachers will be on strike in the Harrogate district today as part of the latest wave of industrial action.

More than 400,000 workers in various sectors took part in strikes yesterday in the biggest day of industrial action since unrest began last year.

They included the first of two planned teachers’ strikes by members of the National Education Union. Picket lines are expected to form outside schools in the district again today.

Today also sees RMT members at 14 train operators, including Northern, stage the first of four planned 24-hour strikes. The next one is due on Saturday.

Northern, whose services include those passing through Harrogate and Knaresborough, will run an amended strike timetable on the affected days, with a 12-hour operation on selected routes from 7am to 7pm.

Northern’s guide to services in the days ahead.

Tricia Williams, chief operating officer at Northern, urged customers to check before they travel.

Ms Williams said:

“We’re expecting the skeleton services we can run to be very busy – so customers should plan ahead and check before they travel.

“Given the reduced timetable only runs until 7pm, I’m very keen to stress that people should check their ‘last train home’ on those dates – so that customers don’t find themselves stranded at the wrong end of the line as a result of this action by the RMT.”

Junior doctors staged a picket line on Wetherby Road near Harrogate District Hospital on Monday as part of a 72-hour strike that finished yesterday.

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• Hundreds of job losses as Harrogate company goes under

Harrogate Borough Council is set to receive a £2.5 million from central government to help buy 21 homes for Afghan and Ukrainian refugees.

A report will go before the council’s Conservative-run cabinet next week that asks councillors to accept the grant and continue Harrogate’s “long and proud history” of welcoming refugees that dates back to the First World War.

Many Ukrainian families have found homes in the Harrogate district since Russia’s invasion through the government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Afghan families have also arrived through resettlement schemes but there is still a “pressing need” to provide homes for those fleeing war zones, according to the report.

The money will come from the Local Authority Housing Fund, which is a £500 million grant fund launched by the government so English councils can provide housing for those unable to find accommodation.

In the Harrogate district, just over £2 million will go towards buying 19 homes for Ukrainians and just under £500,000 will help buy two larger four-bedroom homes for Afghan families currently in temporary accommodation.

Funding from the LAHF equates to 40% of the cost of a single property. A total of £20,000 per property is also available to cover administrative and repair costs.

The government asks that local authorities secure match-funding to raise the remaining money needed to buy a property and the report says Harrogate Borough Council has come to an agreement with Broadacres Housing Association, which is based in Northallerton.

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The LAHF grant will be managed by Broadacres, which will identify and buy the homes with the council’s approval.

They will then be refurbished by the housing association so they can meet the decent homes standards.

The government says all homes should be bought and ready to be moved into by November this year.

The report says:

“Harrogate has a long and proud history of welcoming those fleeing violence and oppression in their home countries. In the past, this has included Belgium victims of the First World War and Jewish people escaping the Nazis.

“More recently the area has welcomed Syrians, vulnerable children, Afghans and Ukrainians.

“The acceptance of these funds will help the UK’s humanitarian duties to assist those fleeing war and ultimately provide a lasting legacy by increasing the supply of accommodation available to local authorities to address homelessness pressures.”