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08
Jun 2024
Why was Harrogate's D-Day effort so poor?
The city of Ripon and many local towns and villages made a big effort to commemorate the fallen on the 80th anniversary of D-Day this week.
By contrast, Harrogate merely lowered the Royal British Legion flag and observed a two-minute silence at 11am at the war memorial.
Thursday's lack of activity didn’t go unnoticed in a town that has an army college.
An article about the D-Day anniversary in Harrogate on the Stray Ferret prompted a raft of comments on social media, including “a complete disgrace” and “was that really the best Harrogate could do?”.
One person said:
There were more who attended the service at Holy Trinity Church in Dacre Banks and the lighting of Peace Light at Summerbridge war memorial last night.
While another person commented:
Thank goodness we have Knaresborough and Ripon on our doorstep to be able to show our respect.
Knaresborough mayor Margy Longhurst addresses hundreds of people in Knaresborough.
The Last Post was played in front of a small gathering in Harrogate.
Ripon and Knaresborough each organised a full day of activities. Jack Churchill, grandson of wartime leader Sir Winston, visited Ripon while hundreds of people attended the lighting of the beacon in Knaresborough Castle grounds.
Several local villages also joined in the national lighting of beacons at 9.15pm — but not Harrogate.
So why was Harrogate left in the shade by smaller nearby places — do they just have better community spirit and organisation?
As charter mayor of Harrogate — the town's first citizen — Councillor Chris Aldred might have expected a busy day on Thursday but the dearth of activities left him free. He commended the Harrogate branch of the Royal British Legion for organising the brief event at the war memorial but said he was “disappointed that Harrogate did not seem to be doing a lot”.
He added:
There didn’t seem to be much else happening in Harrogate itself, whilst in other towns and villages across the district, communities got together to arrange much more extensive commemorations than in Harrogate, as the Stray Ferret has extensively reported.
Cllr Aldred is a strong supporter of creating a town council for Harrogate, which he feels could provide a focus for future civic activity.
I note that events in Knaresborough, Ripon and Pateley Bridge were coordinated by their respective town and parish councils – obviously Harrogate hasn’t got one at the moment and I think the lack of D-Day activities in Harrogate provide another example of what a town council could be doing for our community, at relatively little additional cost.
Hopefully the ruling executive at North Yorkshire Council will allow Harrogate the opportunity to have its own voice and make it much easier to coordinate town-wide events and commemorations at the earliest possible opportunity – like they said they would when the new unitary authority was formed two years ago.
Elections for a Harrogate town council are expected to take place in spring next year.
North Yorkshire Council ran a consultation this year on whether the council should have 19 councillors from 19 wards, based on the former Harrogate Borough Council boundaries, or have 19 councillors from 10 wards, based on the current North Yorkshire Councils.
But whether it goes ahead — and, if it does, whether it makes a difference to future civic activity — remains to be seen.
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