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17
Jul
'An appalling waste of £100,000 of taxpayers' cash'
A co-organiser of the original Harrogate Christmas Market has said he is “appalled” that North Yorkshire Council is spending £100,000 of taxpayers’ money on its new festive fayre.
The original market was held on Montpellier Hill on the Stray each year until Harrogate Borough Council refused to grant a licence for it to go ahead in 2021.
The council subsequently launched its own Harrogate Christmas Fayre in conjunction with Tameside firm Market Place.
North Yorkshire Council, which succeeded Harrogate Borough Council last year, has continued the same arrangement.
The Stray Ferret revealed yesterday North Yorkshire Council has decided to allocate £100,000 of its tourism budget to ‘continue to support the delivery the Harrogate Christmas Fayre and associated activities and events’ this year.
Brian Dunsby, managing director of Harrogate Christmas Market Ltd, has continued to lobby the council to bring back the Montpellier Hill event, which was organised by local people and attracted considerably more stalls than the new fayre.
He has even suggested allowing both the market and fayre to go ahead on different dates.
But so far his requests have not been granted.
He said::
We are appalled at this waste of taxpayers’ hard-earned cash. We had no support whatsoever from Harrogate Borough Council – and certainly nothing from North Yorkshire Council.
In fact, we always paid the council a fair fee for the use of the Stray and for closing the parking spaces that we needed to keep clear on Montpellier Hill and St Mary’s Walk. But it was nothing like this figure!
We are very angry that they keep making excuses for refusing our repeated applications to run our proven and very much larger event on Montpellier Hill and St Mary’s Walk – at no cost to the council.
The new town centre fayre.
The Stray Ferret asked North Yorkshire Council to respond to Mr Dunsby's comments and to provide further details of what the £100,000 will be spent on.
We also asked if it had considered Mr Dunsby's request to bring back the Montpellier Hill event.
Nic Harne, the council’s corporate director of community development, said:
Since 2021, we have allocated up to £100,000 annually to support Harrogate’s Christmas offer.
Part of this funding helps to ensure the town remains safe for visitors through stewarding and security with the rest used to enhance the experience for visitors, including running the road train to move them around the town.
Much of this £100,000 is offset by income generated through sponsorship and fees charged to operators.
We have provided feedback to Mr Dunsby on his initial proposal, but no updated application has been made at this stage.
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