As an arts charity we go into 2025 with a mix of emotions. Choppy waters are ahead in terms of fundraising with a move to the new local authority and what this means for us as an organisation, as well as wider funding challenges within the festival sector.

We appreciate that times are challenging for individuals as well as organisations, and as our plans for 2025 develop across the seasons we hope that our wide-ranging work in schools, in the community and in concert halls continues to make a difference to people’s lives, bringing joy and connection to the communities we serve. 

Looking ahead to the next 12 months, we at Harrogate BID (business improvement district) are enthusiastic to build a positive relationship with the incoming town council, which we hope will represent Harrogate at a county level.

After quite a turbulent couple of years for businesses, we hope that 2025 is more consistent, with a continued strong level of footfall and spend in our town centres; that the government completes its eagerly awaited reform of business rates; and that appropriate funding is found to deliver the promised additional police resource and overall high street funding. 

We are driven by our commitment to enable and empower our disabled communities to thrive, and 2025 marks a pivotal year for our journey.

With thanks to the National Lottery, our local services will be expanding further to reach more people and provide a greater range of creative and social activities for our members to take part in.

The year will also see a focus on sustainability for us as we strengthen our overseas projects providing vital support and training in Ecuador and Peru, and engage more local businesses to support us when funding streams are more competitive than ever.

We look forward to growing our reach to those that we can lift up and sharing our impact in doing so. 

Knaresborough & District Chamber of Trade directors are positive about the town’s future, despite the challenging trading conditions and healthy competition from other towns in the area.

Our distinctive mix of independents, alongside our historic market place and unique heritage offer, make the town a place to dwell a while. 

Chamber will work tirelessly next year on all of its projects, including saving the market, finding a solution to car parking, bringing the land train, and helping the new and existing businesses. Together we can make Knaresborough great and flourish. 

Whilst the High Street may be challenging, if we all work together then we will be able to combat those challenges. I believe that communities working in harmony will have a much greater chance of success.

I would like to ask all the customers and business in Knaresborough to continue to support the small independents as they are the hub of the community. 

2024 has seen another year of impressive income growth for Harrogate Convention Centre. We have also seen costs coming down as a result of the teams’ hard work in conjunction with our colleagues at North Yorkshire Council, while maintaining an excellent quality of service. Our lettings income this year has continued to eclipse the previous year’s, which was the highest in a decade.

I am particularly thrilled about the £7 million investment recently approved by North Yorkshire Council for the transformation of tudio Two. This will see the creation of extra conference breakout space for 1,300 delegates, which will attract larger conferences to the region.

I am confident that this new investment will see the economic impact the venue drives to the region exceed £50m per year, driving business to the hotels, restaurants and bars that are vital to the town’s economy.

I am confident that the year ahead will see the convention centre continue to outperform previous years, and it will be an incredibly exciting year as we see new investment plans coming to fruition. 

As we know, Harrogate very often punches above its weight in attracting visitors to the town, and 2024 has been no exception. But I personally, think 2025 will be a challenging year for all those living or working in the local area.

The new town council is only being allocated a relatively low budget, but there will still be high expectations for it to fill the void in local representation. Those who stand, I would hope, will put Harrogate above party politics and put the health and wellbeing of locals above party agendas.

The station gateway, which may or may not start in 2025, will bring a much needed investment in the town centre and the public realm, but has been changed so much since its inception that it does not seem to achieve many of its original goals. The project in the beginning was particularly divisive, but it has highlighted the unique passion those in Harrogate have for our town. There is concern that the construction of the project, along with some necessary largescale utility work, comes at a time when retail and hospitality in the town are struggling from both the lower spend and the increase in employers' taxation, so we must ensure those businesses are supported.

But Harrogate is a resilient town and we are very lucky to live and work in such a beautiful area, so we can be confident that we will be successful, and those within the chamber of commerce will always be here to offer support to businesses and charities within the town throughout the year ahead.