The ease in travel restrictions does not go far enough to reboot the industry, a local travel agent has claimed.

Last Monday, eager holidaymakers were finally allowed to get on a plane after the ban on non-essential overseas travel was loosened.

But for Peter Cookson, group managing director at Spear Travels, Boroughbridge, the green list was “a bit of a joke”.

Current rules have placed 12 countries including Portugal, Iceland and Gibraltar on the green list, meaning travellers are required to take covid tests before they leave and before they return to the UK and again within two days of their arrival, but do not need to quarantine.

A further 173 countries are on the amber list, which has tighter restrictions. Travellers to these destinations must take an additional covid test on day eight after they arrive back and isolate at home for for 10 days.

Spear Travels, in Boroughbridge, has not seen a boom in 2021 bookings

For the travel industry to truly get back on its feet, Mr Cookson said the restrictions have to change as the expense of covid testing is discouraging people booking trips.

He has confidence that “pent-up demand” exists but has only received a “handful” of bookings for Portugal and none for amber-list countries.

Mr Cookson expects this low level of interest to continue while strict measures to prevent the spread of covid are in place.  and said people are already re-booking their holidays for next year.

He said

“I think the main thing putting people off are the covid tests, for a family of four it could be around £500. The green list is a bit of a joke, people don’t want to spend that extra money.

“Until we get other countries like Spain, Italy and Greece on the green list, bookings will be slow. We’ve only had a handful of holidays to Portugal.”

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Looking forward he is hopeful for a return to pre-covid levels but said this might not be until 2023.

For now he said his team is focusing on re-booking people’s holidays for later dates and crossing their fingers for changes to the rules.

Spear Travels runs 12 shops across the country, which have reduced their opening hours to keep staff on furlough while bookings remain low.

Have you booked a holiday to an amber-listed country? Tell us about your holiday plans via contact@thestrayferret.co.uk.

There is a flood warning in place near Boroughbridge after several days of heavy rainfall and drivers are being urged to avoid low-lying roads.

The River Ure at Westwick Lock is expected to peak at around 1.5 metres this afternoon.

As a result, the flood information service has said flooding is “expected/possible” today in the Roecliffe Caravan park area.

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A spokesperson for the flood information service said:

“The flood warning for the River Ure at Roecliffe Caravan Park has been issued due to rising river levels following recent rainfall.

“The river level at Westwick Lock is currently 1.4m and is forecast to rise steadily, peaking at approximately 1.5m this afternoon.

“Consequently, flooding is expected/possible today in the Roecliffe Caravan Park area. Our incident response staff are closely monitoring the forecast.

“Please plan driving routes to avoid low-lying roads near rivers, which may be flooded.”

It is currently the only place in the UK where a more serious flood warning is in place.

There are also six flood alerts in place, which means flooding is possible rather than expected.

Two of the alerts are in place at the Lower River Ure near Ripon and the Lower Dunsforth Access.

Aldborough and Boroughbridge Agricultural Show has become the latest major event in the Harrogate district to fall victim to covid this year.

This year’s show, which would have been the 107th, was due to take place on July 25 at Newby Hall.

The event includes animal judging as well as craft tents and stallholders selling food and drink.

This is the second year the show has been cancelled due to covid.

The show committee announced the decision on Facebook. It said:

“It is with an exceptionally heavy heart that the committee have decided to cancel the show this year.

“This has not been a decision that has been taken lightly and all considerations and options have been considered.

“We are still discussing the possibility of a virtual event or perhaps something later in the year, however at this time I can confirm that our full show will not be going ahead on July 25.

“We will confirm next year’s date shortly and we really do hope that that show will be our best one yet.”

The event follows the likes of Ripley Show and Masham Steam Engine and Fair Organ Rally in being cancelled for a second year running.

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Four crews from North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service were called to the A1 (M) near Boroughbridge this morning after a tanker caught fire.

Crews from Harrogate, Knaresborough, Boroughbridge and Tadcaster rushed to the incident at 01.32am this morning.

The brakes and tyres of the tanker, which was carrying sugar, had set on fire. The crews were able to detach the trailer from the cab, which luckily didn’t set alight.

A section of the A1 (M) near junction 47 and 48 was closed for 90 minutes.

In its incident summary, the fire service said:

“Crews used two breathing apparatus sets and two hose reel jets.”

Highways England said it was called at the same time to patrol the traffic.

All lanes were reopened by 2.57am. The last of the fire crews left the scene at 2.45am.

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One of the Harrogate district’s biggest employers has completed a multi-million pound expansion.

Reed Boardall, which stores and delivers frozen food to UK supermarkets, employs 800 staff at its Boroughbridge site and operates a fleet of 196 vehicles 24 hours a day.

It delivers 12,000 pallets of frozen food daily.

The company has finished a 110,000 square foot expansion to one of its cold storage units at its 55-acre site in Boroughbridge, which will help it meet increased customer demand.

Prior to the pandemic, the company put plans in place to increase its storage capacity to 168,000 pallets. It started the 12-month project in March 2020 along with Leeds-based building contractors Marshall.

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Marcus Boardall, chief executive of the company, said:

“Despite intense pressure on the supply chain in 2020, we were able to undertake and complete the extension project on schedule.

“From the turmoil of the pandemic to uncertainties around Brexit, we and our customers have faced some real challenges over the last year, and this latest investment makes us well-placed to continue to swiftly and efficiently respond to our customers’ changing logistics requirements.”

Andrew Baldwin, managing director of Reed Boardall cold storage division, said:

“Our customers’ ongoing organic growth has resulted in increased storage and distribution needs and we are happy to invest in the infrastructure which will enable us to continue to look after their best interests and to grow alongside them.”

Are you a train enthusiast wanting to get your career on track? Newby Hall is advertising for a new full-time driver for its miniature railway.

The stately home and gardens between Ripon and Boroughbridge is looking for a full-time driver and engineer to run its narrow-gauge railway.

The railway has 1.2km of track taking nearly 50,000 passengers each year through the estate’s gardens.

Newby Hall said in a statement the successful applicant needs to be enthusiastic about trains and engineering and have relevant experience. They will have to drive along the steam, battery and gas-powered track and be in charge of train, track and station maintenance.

If your childhood dream was to be a train driver then operations director, Stuart Gill, says this is the ideal job for you:

“This is a chance to perhaps turn your hobby or childhood dream into a career, particularly if you feel your job aspirations have been shunted into the sidings.

“We need someone who has a real passion for trains and engineering, preferably with previous relevant experience, and they also need to be great at managing our team of amazing railway volunteers.”

The successful applicant will also be responsible for the interactive Tarantella water fountain in the children’s play area.

To find out more about the job, click here.

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An inquiry has been launched after emails revealed a Harrogate council officer “massaged” a key report on now-approved plans for a controversial motorway service station on the A1(M) near Kirby Hill.

Emails seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service show that Barrie Gannon, former principal landscape architect at Harrogate Borough Council, made changes to a landscape report in 2019 when the council’s planning department went against three previous refusals to recommend approval.

Mr Gannon said he hoped the changes would make the report “read better” – although it is not yet known what was amended.

What is clear though are the report’s conclusions. It said the landscape impact of the service station was “not substantive” in what campaigners have described as a “complete U-turn” from a previous council assessment, which warned it would cause “significant harm”.

The revelations have sparked questions over why a change of stance was taken, as well as concerns over impartiality within the planning department.

Gareth Owens, chair of Kirby Hill Residents Against Motorway Services, said:

“It is a mystery to us how officers made a complete U-turn on the landscape assessment. Landscape harm has been the main reason for refusal of a motorway service area at this site for 25 years.

“We do not understand how or why this position changed.”

The proposals put forward by Applegreen were most recently rejected by councillors in 2019.

However, that decision was overturned at an appeal this month as the developers won approval at the fourth time of asking.

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Mr Owens, who gave evidence during the appeal, said the landscape report played a key part in the planning inspector’s decision to grant approval, which made it even more important to understand why the council had changed its conclusions.

He said:

“The officer’s report was not only presented to the planning committee. It was relied on by Applegreen at the public inquiry, who told the inspector that he should accept the view of the council’s professional planning officers, which he duly did.

“The planning inspector went along with the planning officer’s conclusions on landscape, so we think it is important to understand how they were arrived at.”

In the email dated November 2019, Mr Gannon said to a colleague: “I’ve massaged the landscape section 9.56 – 9.69 which hopefully reads better.”

Robert Windass, the Conservative councillor for Boroughbridge and one of the planning committee members who previously rejected the service station, said he had “serious concerns” about the email after he made calls for the inquiry last week.

Speaking at a full council meeting, he asked the council’s cabinet member for planning councillor Tim Myatt:

“Will you undertake a full inquiry into this matter to ensure that all reports presented to the planning committee in future are factual, truthful and unbiased?”

In a statement, councillor Myatt later said he was “confident” that officers always made “fair and impartial” assessments of planning applications.

He said:

“Officer recommendations are formed based on their assessment of information available about the application, including information submitted by the applicant, internal and statutory consultees, and the public.

“I am confident that officer recommendations are based on a fair and impartial assessment of that information.

“Together with officers, I have met with councillor Windass to discuss his concerns regarding the landscape assessment included in the officer’s report to committee.

“I agree with councillor Windass that there is a need to provide residents with reassurance that our planning processes were followed correctly, and I have agreed with councillor Windass that we will look into the specific concerns he has raised before providing a report to councillors.”

An unsupervised candle is believed to have caused a fire that badly damaged a house in Minskip in the early hours of this morning.

Firefighters from Boroughbridge, Knaresborough and Harrogate using and aerial ladder platform and breathing apparatus rushed to the scene just after 1am.

Nobody was injured but the fire, which started in a bedroom, left the home in Roecliffe Drive uninhabitable.

The first floor suffered 100% fire damage and there is smoke damage throughout the building.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s incident report said:

“Crews used six breathing apparatus sets, two hose reel jets, door enforcer, 9 metre ladder, thermal imaging camera and small tools.

“They also gained access to a neighbouring property to check for fire spread.”

A spokeswoman for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service told the Stray Ferret the adjoining semi-detached was not damaged and it was fortunate nobody was hurt.

Minskip is about a mile from Boroughbridge.

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The deputy leader of Harrogate Borough Council has said he is “extremely optimistic” about high streets recovering from the covid crisis as he revealed positive economic data boosted by the reopening.

Cllr Graham Swift, who is also cabinet member for resources, enterprise and economic development, said the percentage of vacant shops across the district had fallen to 6.8% in March – a “significant improvement” from 8.6% around this time last year.

He added data on people’s movements showed the number of visitors to rural areas had returned to pre-pandemic levels, although Harrogate, Knaresborough and Ripon had not yet reached this point.

Cllr Graham Swift, Harrogate Borough Council

Speaking at a meeting on Wednesday, Cllr Swift said:

“I’m extremely optimistic. The rural areas are already seeing traffic flow of people movements, as measured by Google, back to pre-pandemic levels.

“The three major conurbations are not back to pre-pandemic levels yet but the fact is retail is looking extremely positive and I’m very hopeful we will see a strong bounce back in the economy.”

Shops classed as vacant are those not paying business rates to the council.

Cllr Swift said the strongest performing areas for this currently are Boroughbridge, which has just one vacant shop, and Pateley Bridge, which has a vacancy rate of 2.5%.

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His comments followed a question from Boroughbridge councillor Robert Windass, who said members of the public were “curious” over the current state of high streets during the pandemic.

Cllr Swift responded:

“We are now seeing considerable extension of the opening up and unlocking of the country. Last week we saw the opening up of non-essential retail on April 12.

“I went into Harrogate on that morning and was overwhelmed by the innovation and creativity that is going on, particularly around the bar and hospitality sector who have used limited spaces to create exciting opportunities to open up.

“I was very, very impressed by the sector but most important to this question is what is going to be happening in the near future.”

He added:

“There has been a lot of talk over the last few months about Harrogate as a district and how its towns and city have responded to retail sector closures.

“A lot of people count the stores to see which ones are open or closed. In a case where we are in lockdown, it’s obvious that people will see things closed and think they have withdrawn from the site.

“But in actual fact, what we record are the business rate activities of these retail sectors and I’m extremely heartened by the fact that as of March 2021 our retail sector has improved.”

The latest unemployment figures for the district show a slight increase with 3,625 people claiming out-of-work benefits in February, according to the Office for National Statistics.

This equates to 3.8% of the population aged 16 to 64 and is up from 3,460 in January.

Meanwhile, the number of people in the district who were furloughed from their jobs was 12,300 in February, according to the latest HM Revenue & Customs figures.

This was an increase from 9,100 in December, before the third national lockdown began.

Plans for a new community centre in Boroughbridge have been unveiled as the town looks to serve its growing population.

Boroughbridge Town Council is behind the proposals for near the car park on Back Lane. It has asked residents to fill in a survey before May 14 to determine demand.

Such a project has been debated for many years. The council has said that it is now starting to become more of a reality.

While there is no timescale or cost just yet, the council hopes that government will help to fund it.

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The plans include a small sports hall, community event room, kitchen, public toilets, a new home for the council and tourist information point.

Boroughbridge Town Council has promised to build it in an eco-friendly, energy efficient way and also to not lose car parking spaces.

Cllr Peter Phillips, who has been working on the plans for the past year, told the Stray Ferret:

“Boroughbridge is a rapidly expanding community due to the accelerated home building programme in our area.

“Our population is expected to almost double over the next few years and we have no central community facility to cater for this.

“We need to ensure that these proposals are indeed what our community wishes to have.

“There are some fears and concerns which are fully understandable, but overall the feedback so far looking at around 80% in favour.”