No.3: Harrogate Spring Water’s bid to expand in the Pinewoods

In this article, which is part of a series on the 15 stories in the Harrogate district that shaped 2021, we look at the controversy surrounding Harrogate Spring Water’s expansion plans.

January saw one of the most controversial planning applications in Harrogate for years.

Harrogate Spring Water applied to expand its bottling plant from 0.77 hectares to 0.94 hectares, which would have meant destroying public woodland planted by local families in the area of Pinewoods known as Rotary Wood.

To compensate, the company offered to replant trees, create scrubland and build a pond on private land behind RHS Harlow Carr.

But the idea of felling trees to create more plastic bottles generated anger and triggered a wider debate around how businesses should operate in the age of climate change.

Articles appeared in the national press and there was high-profile intervention from TV presenter Julia Bradbury, who urged the company to think again.

Harrogate Spring Water

Harrogate Spring Water’s headquarters.

Hundreds of people watched a livestream of Harrogate Borough Council planning committee when it voted on the application on January 26 — considerably more than the usual 20 or 30 viewers for a council meeting.

They heard passionate interjections from councillors and residents opposing the plans, as well as representatives of Harrogate Spring Water saying the expansion was needed to grow a thriving local business and that felled trees would be replaced on a 2-to-1 basis.

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‘Not just any wood’

Sam Gibbs, the Conservative councillor for Valley Gardens, called Rotary Wood “not just any wood” and said he had spoken to many local residents who were “confused, upset, or angry” about the application.

Neil Hind, chair of Pinewoods Conservation Group, a charity that preserves the Pinewoods, said the “world has changed” since covid, which “has shown the importance of our green spaces”.

In the end, eight councillors on the council’s 12-person planning committee voted to refuse the plans, and four abstained.

After the meeting, Conservative councillor Jim Clark said he hoped the debate around the bottling plant had shown that local issues can be “at the forefront of climate change”.

What happened next?

Campaigners, such as Harrogate woman Sarah Gibbs, who had dressed as a tree outside the council offices each week to protest against the plans, were jubilant. But the vote wasn’t the end of the matter.

Harrogate Spring Water signalled its intention to submit fresh expansion plans.

James Cain, managing director, said in July.

“Our vision is to create a sustainable future for our business as one that supports high quality jobs, drives prosperity in the town and looks after nature.”

Harrogate Spring Water plant

The company already has outline permission dating back to 2016 to expand its bottling plant, but the company said it was working on a completely new application and the old application would be disregarded.

But several months on, no new planning application has been submitted.

Organisations such as Pinewoods Conservation Group and the Rotary Club, which planted the trees in Rotary Wood, are still awaiting Harrogate Spring Water’s next move.

A spokesperson for Harrogate Spring Water said:

“Harrogate Spring Water is still in the process of talking to all relevant parties. We will communicate any update as and when it happens.”

No. 12: Harrogate Town — a year of history and milestones

In this article, which is part of a series on the 15 stories in the Harrogate district that shaped 2021, we look at another remarkable year for Simon Weaver’s men.

Harrogate Town spent 2021 making history and setting new milestones.

Covid restrictions had prevented Town fans from watching their team at Wembley in 2020 and gain promotion to the English Football League for the first time ever.

So when the season began in August, thousands flocked to Wetherby Road to see the next chapter in the fairytale.

FA Trophy winners

Fans, however, were denied a second trip to Wembley in May for the FA Trophy final against Concord Rangers.

The final had been delayed for a year due to covid and Town were favourites because they had gained promotion in the period since the match was due to be played.

Josh Falkingham scored the only goal as Town ran out 1-0 winners to life the silverware,

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As the saying goes, winning becomes a habit and such was the case under head coach Simon Weaver that the club tied him down to a long-term contract in July.

The contract would see Weaver’s time at the club extended to 15 years if seen out, a feat which cannot be said for many of modern football clubs. He is already the longest serving manager in English football.

The consistent progress the team has made under Weaver continued when the new season began.

A good start, which put the club among the play-off positions, climaxed with a 6-1 hammering of Scunthorpe United in October in front of a record home crowd of 3,180.

Harrogate’s league form subsequently fell away, but a strong second half could yet see them feature in the play-offs.

FA Cup heroics

But the club has compensated for some poor results in the league with a sensational FA Cup run, which has seen it book a place in the third round for the first time in its history.

A last minute winner against two-time winners Portsmouth at Fratton Park had fans dreaming of a Premier League side visiting Wetherby Road.

But it was not to be. Instead the club will try to write history once again by playing Luton Town for a place in the fourth round.

If 2022 is half as exciting, Harrogate fans can look forward to another 12 months of milestones.

No. 15: Shops that opened and closed in 2021

It has undoubtedly been a tough year for businesses across the Harrogate district as the effects of the pandemic have continued to be felt.

There have been a number of closures over the year. However, 2021 has also seen some businesses buck the trend, with new shops opening in the district.

Here is a look back at some of the notable business closures and launches in the last year.

Debenhams, Harrogate

The HArrogate branch of Debenhams, which has filed for administration

For generations, the Debenhams building on Parliament Street has been one of the major retail landmarks in Harrogate.

But sadly at the start of 2021, as the country was in the grip of a third lockdown, the retail giant announced the town’s branch would not be reopening.

The site had been a retail unit on Parliament Street for over a century. Before Debenhams, it housed the Buckley’s and Busby’s stores.

The building has stood empty ever since its closure.

However, in December the Stray Ferret revealed that developers have submitted plans to demolish it and build 50 apartments on the site, along with two commercial units.

Aldi, Knaresborough

Knaresborough Aldi

Knaresborough Aldi

A new Aldi supermarket opened its doors to customers in Knaresborough on January 28.

The 8,000 square metre site was built on Swallowtail Way, near the Manse Farm housing development on York Road, after plans were approved in May 2020.

Solita Food Hall, Harrogate

Solita Food Hall

Harrogate’s first food hall opened its doors in May with an aim to serve up a range of different cuisines under one roof.

Solita Food Hall, on Parliament Street, was located in the former Jamie’s Italian building and was set over two floors, including a rooftop terrace.

Under the Shoot the Bull brand, it housed Rupert’s Coffee House, Rotisserie & Grill, Solita Wagyu Burger, Slice Me Nicely Pizza, Cure & Pour Wines and Solita Fish Bar.

However, it wasn’t around for long, closing after just six months in November.

Tomahawk Steakhouse, which had been planning to move into the empty Bistrot Pierre restaurant on Cheltenham Parade, is now planning to move into the large building.

Cut by Farmison & Co, Ripon

Farmison & Co’s boutique butcher shop, Cut

Cut, online butcher Farmison & Co’s first physical shop, opened at the company’s Bondgate Green head office in Ripon in July.

The boutique butcher’s is aimed at showcasing “the crown jewels” of Yorkshire heritage breed meat and allows customers to select from the online range and collect within an hour of placing an order.

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Fi:k, Harrogate and Knaresborough

Vicky Somerville and Luke Morland of Fi:k outside the new café in Harrogate

A Swedish-inspired coffee shop opened its doors in Harrogate in August with ambitious £780,000 plans to roll out the concept across Yorkshire.

Fi:k has renovated 1 Montpellier Gardens, which used to be the home of furniture business Covet.

In December it opened a café on Knaresborough Market Place.

Hotel Chocolat

Queues at the launch of the new Hotel Chocolat store

Queues formed on James Street for the opening of the new, relocated Hotel Chocolat store. Around 30 people waited for the store to open on October 22, with staff serving hot chocolate to them whilst they waited.

The new store is almost opposite the old one, but is larger with a café that can seat 30 people at the back of the shop. The chocolate chain has seen rapid growth in recent years and the new store has had up to 15 staff in the run up to Christmas — double the number of the previous store.

Crimple, Harrogate

Crimple Food Hall

Harrogate’s huge new £6m food hall in Pannal, which overlooks the Crimple Valley, opened its doors in November.

The 48,000 sq ft building, which is simply called Crimple, includes a butchery counter, an in-house bakery and patisserie, a floristry and a 160-seat restaurant.

Crimple has been owned by Graham Watson since 2013. With a personal investment of £4m for the construction, plus £2m for the fit-out, the business-owner created the town’s latest foodie destination in a bid to showcase all the amazing produce the district has to offer.

Previous visitors to Crimple Valley will remember the former antiques centre at the site. This has been completely knocked down and the food hall and restaurant has been built in its place. The garden centre remains and the existing restaurant and terrace has become an events space.

Fattorini, Harrogate

A. Fattorini the Jeweller which has been on Parliament Street since 1859.Harrogate’s oldest independent shop, A. Fattorini the Jeweller announced it will close after 190 years of trading

Thought to be the oldest independent jeweller in Harrogate, A. Fattorini, has been located on Parliament Street since 1884.

The announced closure of the Harrogate institution was marked by a closing down sale, which saw people queuing down the street.

It is set to close on January 8, 2022.

63rd+1st, Harrogate

The Manhattan-style cocktail bar at 63rd+1st

Harrogate’s answer to a Manhattan cocktail bar opened its doors in November, with the launch of 63rd+1st.

Decked out in trendy dark blue and gold, and featuring lots of greenery, the restaurant, lounge and bar on Albert Street is aimed at customers who might just want a nibble and a drink after work or a meal out with friends.

The venue was developed by Hostmore PLC, which also includes TGI Fridays as part of its portfolio.

Harrogate’s branch was the third to open in the UK, behind Surrey in May and Glasgow in September.

53 Bo Grove, Harrogate

Kyrensa Bentley when she opened a pancake shack (left) with a general view of 53 Bo Grove

Bohemian Harrogate cafe, antiques and garden centre 53 Bo Grove, on Grove Road, just off Kings Road, closed in December, after more than two years of business.

The business became a vital hub for residents during the early coronavirus lockdowns by staying open at a time when many supermarkets were struggling for stock.

Owner Kyrensa Bentley attempted to improve business by opening a pancake shack and a farm shop on site.

Ms Bentley, who opened the business in September 2019, told the Stray Ferret she made the decision to close after struggling on a number of fronts, including the difficult location and the impact of the pandemic.

She will continue to operate Bo Grove at Oxford Street, which opened in November 2020.

Harrogate’s top crime-writing prize down to shortlist

Readers have whittled the potential winners of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award down to six authors.

Organised by Harrogate International Festivals, the award is widely regarded as the most prestigious in crime fiction.

The shortlist is designed to celebrate the best of crime writing and transports readers around the world from Calcutta to California.

Author Chris Whitaker hopes to claim the trophy on his first ever nomination with We Begin at The End, which is a story of crime, punishment, love and redemption in California.

Sunday Times bestselling author Rosamund Lupton’s Three Hours tells the story of gunmen opening fire on a school in Somerset and explores white supremacy and radicalisation.

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Elly Griffiths is hoping that her seventh prize nomination, The Lantern Men, lead to the title. The story sees Ruth Galloway return to the fens to hunt down a serial killer.

Trevor Wood’s meteoric rise continues with his novel The Man on the Street, which provides insight into the story of a homeless Falklands veteran with severe PTSD turned criminal investigator.

Scottish-Bengali author Abir Mukherjee’s Death in the East is a mesmerising portrait of India, Assam and East End London, which could be a case of third nomination lucky.

The final title on this year’s shortlist is Northern Irish author Brian McGilloway’s The Last Crossing, which looks at The Troubles from the perspective of a view of former operatives.

People can vote for the winner here.

Simon Theakston, executive director of T&R Theakston, said:

“This is it: the crème de la crème of crime. This shortlist really does showcase the breadth and depth of the genre.

“It’s going to be a fiercely fought prize this year so make sure you vote for your favourite.”

The winner receives £3,000 and a handmade, engraved beer barrel from Theakston Old Peculier.

The full shortlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2021 is:

Harrogate Christmas Market set to go ahead this year

Plans are being made to ensure Harrogate Christmas Market can return to the town centre in 2021.

The market, which first took place in 2012, had to be cancelled last year as changing covid restrictions made it impossible for organisers to plan a safe event without risk of last-minute cancellation.

However, following the government’s ‘road map’ out of lockdown which could see all restrictions lifted in June, the committee of organisers is preparing to meet for the first time to put firm plans in place for this year.

Organiser Brian Dunsby said:

“The aim is to review the market plans and agree changes needed – depending on the precautions required during November – if any!

“In the meantime we hope to start inviting applications from our established market traders based on the same layout and prices that were agreed for 2020 before it got cancelled.”

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The market has been held at the bottom of Montpellier Hill in Harrogate since it was founded. After growing rapidly, for the last few years it has reached what organisers say is capacity, with around 200 traders and a focus on Yorkshire produce and products.

In previous year, the market has drawn crowds of up to 60,000 people across its four days. As well as their own traders, organisers say one of the key aims of the market is to drive footfall into the town centre to support local businesses in the run-up to Christmas.

This year’s event will be held from Thursday, November 18 to Sunday, November 21.

It is the latest event in the Harrogate calendar to confirm plans to proceed this year. This week, Harrogate International Festivals announced its crime writing festival would open in July, while Birstwith Show is also planning to go ahead.

Strayside Sunday: Good riddance 2020 – but what awaits us this year?

Strayside Sunday is our weekly political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party. 

Goodbye and good riddance 2020.

As the new year begins we can reflect on the tumultuous events that none of us could have predicted 365 long days ago. Covid-19 has become an ever-present spectre in our national life, threatening our health, grievously damaging our economy and sharpening the grindstone of everyday living.

From the collectivist blitz spirit of spring when we all agreed to “Stay at home. Save lives. Protect the NHS,” through a summer of cancelled exams and educational turmoil for our young people, to a late autumn second national lockdown and into a winter of new, more transmissible variants, remembering the “before times” brings to mind the universal human luxuries of social and physical contact, the democratic luxuries of liberty and freedom of movement and the relative financial luxuries (for some but by no means all) of economic stability.

There have been bright spots of course. The way the nation rallied publicly in support of healthcare and other front-line workers; clapping from our doorsteps as one, draped in the colours of the rainbow. Captain, (now, deservedly, Sir) Tom Moore’s valiant one hundred lap trek around his back garden on his walker to raise over £30m for the NHS. Myriad examples of local and voluntary support groups organising to ferry food and kindness to the isolated and alone. This was and is truly the best of British.

Our behaviour hasn’t been flawless. Injunctions against gathering and socialising were increasingly ignored as compliance fatigue set in.  This was perhaps understandable for reasons valid, for example choosing to prioritise our mental health and, for reasons less so, as a reaction to the ever-changing government-imposed restrictions, broken promises (the five-day Christmas being just the latest example), confused guidance and mixed messaging.

Fundamental trust in the Conservative government’s actions and motives has been damaged too. From the scandal of eye-wateringly large contracts awarded, without due process, or even prior qualification, to the Chumocracy to supply flawed PPE; to its tone deaf refusal to provide free school meals for children who needed them; to the latest example, a national NHS Test & Trace programme (actually run by Public Health England) based initially on the idea that a single technology, developed at the centre, could meet the hugely diverse character and needs of the British population; one worries that our government, just over a year into its term, is in office but not in power.

And they are spending staggering sums of our money in the process; over £10bn was spent on PPE; Test & Trace, the latest failed attempt to build a national technology system, has so far cost the taxpayer £22bn, yes, that’s £22 BILLION!. Only when council leaders reacted with fury at the Test & Trace system’s unfolding and predictable inefficacies did the project pivot to work with and exploit the knowledge and existing networks of local authorities.

Scratching the surface reveals that Serco, one of the private companies leading the effort, have themselves subcontracted twenty other private businesses to help deliver the work. It has been a fiasco and a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money. Come the revolution heads should roll but it is nonetheless rumoured that Dido Harding, the head of Test & Trace, will be rewarded with the position of NHS England Chief Executive on Sir Simon Stevens’s impending retirement. I kid you not.

My hope is that, if anything, the events of the past year will cause us to look again at the type of country we want to build. One in which the public good becomes paramount, one in which health and wellbeing (particularly for the less well to do) become the North Stars guiding politicians and policymakers in their actions, one in which we define anew what constitutes, in both conception and implementation, the affairs of state. If not a bigger state then a more activist state. A state that understands and acts on its obligations to care for its people first and one that recognises that capital does not, as we have seen yet again, a soul possess.

However, I suspect that with a Brexit deal now signed, whatever you think of it on the merits, the government will charge ahead with policies designed to stimulate business and trade. From free ports to enterprise zones, from tax incentives to fiscal stimulus, the government has to rebuild a battered economy. If it is to do so and return itself to our electoral (or at least opinion poll) affections, then it must demonstrate that it has “levelled up” the economy while delivering humane social improvements.

I wish you all a happier, more contented and above all healthy 2021.  With mass vaccinations now underway, I very much hope that will be the case, so that when spring comes around again, we will experience the rebirth, rejuvenation, renewal, resurrection and regrowth that the season usually promises.

Let’s hope too that the bright, sunny, international trading uplands long promised by the Brexiteers comes to fruition and that the Conservative “levellers” spend the spoils on the areas and initiatives that need it most.

That’s my Strayside Sunday.

My year: Zero Carbon Harrogate on hope for the environment

One of the few positives taken from the coronavirus lockdowns has been a focus on the environment and a recognition of how our actions impact on climate change, writes Jemima Parker, chair of Zero Carbon Harrogate.

“Can you hear me? Am I on mute?” have been some of the most uttered words of 2020.

For me, however, it was a year when the climate adaptation message has come off “mute” and a more meaningful conversation began about how we move to become a thriving zero-carbon society.

Perhaps it’s because covid has reminded us all that humanity is still vulnerable to natural forces. If a tiny virus can take down a global society then global heating, leading to sea level rise, extreme weather and the collapse of ecosystems, has to be taken seriously.

If you have truly looked at the impact of climate change you will have felt that vulnerability. It is something I have grappled with for years but felt alone.

However, as we come to the start of a new year, I am more hopeful about the future. The pandemic has given us a painful insight into what it is like to live in an emergency, but it has also shown us how our local culture and economy can rapidly adjust to deal with a new reality.

A vision of Harrogate in a zero-carbon future. Credit – James McKay.

What brings me hope is the ingenuity and resilience that has been seen across the district. Pop-up neighbourhood support groups, repurposing of businesses, cafes, charities and Harrogate Borough Council’s services and financial support taken to a new level.

It is this creativity and determination that we will need to enable Yorkshire to transition effectively to a low carbon economy, ensuring no one is left behind. Earlier this year it gave me great pleasure to publish the Zero Carbon Harrogate vision and strategy document, Becoming a Net Zero Carbon District by 2030, which sets out what a flourishing Harrogate District could look like, if we do it right. We could see cleaner air, new jobs, lower energy bill and a resilient local economy.

To help make this happen I’ve been working, with others from Zero Carbon Harrogate, to support the Harrogate District Climate Change Coalition, bringing together businesses, community groups and the Council to form an independent body to coordinate this transition.

We were unprepared for the pandemic, which resulted in a response that has been a disorderly stop-start sprint, trying to understand the science, assess the risks and implement appropriate mitigation measures.

In contrast, decarbonising our district will be a marathon but the science is clear, the risks are clear and we know what action to take to mitigate them. Now I’m excited about how we take things forward here in Harrogate.

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