Ripon’s last remaining high street bank has closed until December 13 for “essential maintenance”.

Diane Whelan (pictured), 86, was one of many disgruntled customers who arrived at the branch on the corner of High Skellgate and Westgate today to find it closed. 

A sign in the window advises customers that the nearest branch is in Harrogate town centre. It adds that people can access remote banking online and on the HSBC mobile app.

The bank closed on Thursday (November 30) for essential maintenance.

Diane Whelan.

Ms Whelan told the Stray Ferret: 

“This could not be more inconvenient, with Christmas just over three weeks away.

“Why couldn’t this work have been done at some other time?”

Ms Whelan has been an HSBC customer for more than 60 years and was calling to get a statement. 

She said: 

“I’m afraid I don’t do online and I’m sure other people like me will feel the same.”

The closure of Halifax in November 2022 left HSBC, which has no external cash machine, as the city’s only remaining bank.

Read more:

• Halifax closure leaves Ripon with one remaining bank
• Harrogate and Ripon survive today’s cull of HSBC branches

Belmont level crossing on Forest Lane in Harrogate is to close overnight twice this week, Network Rail has confirmed.

The crossing will be shut to allow maintenance teams to carry out a rail corrosion inspection from 11.20pm tomorrow (Tuesday, November 28) to 6.25am on Wednesday, November 29, and at the same times between November 29 and Thursday, November 30.

A spokesperson for Network Rail told the Stray Ferret:

“This means that there will be no disruption to train services, as the crossing will close and re-open between the last and first services.”

However, although rail services will not be affected, North Yorkshire Council has confirmed there will be signposted diversions overnight for road traffic using Hookstone Chase, Wetherby Road (A661) and the A59 between Starbeck and Harrogate.

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Moss Healthcare Harrogate has announced it is to close its Killinghall practice.

Dr Nick Taylor, a senior partner at the company, wrote to patients today informing them of the news.

He said the landlord had decided not to renew the lease and the surgery will close in October next year.

The letter said:

“Moss Healthcare Harrogate is sorry to advise our patients that the branch site operating on Ripon Road in Killinghall will have to close in October 2024, when the current lease on the premises terminates, as the landlord has recently advised there is no option to renew the lease.

“We are currently working with the local NHS integrated care board, who commission health care services, and other partners to identify options for ensuring seamless future care to all our patients.

“We will keep patients informed as we work through this process.”

The Killinghall practice is one of three operated by Moss Healthcare Harrogate, which also has sites on King’s Road in Harrogate and in Jennyfields.

Villagers — especially those who find it difficult to travel — have long feared its demise.

In May this year Moss Healthcare Harrogate announced the surgery would temporarily close in the afternoons due to “staffing issues”.

The site has a sizeable car park in the middle of a village where parking is at a premium. It is next to the Greyhounds Inn, which has been closed for several years.

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A riverside footpath in Ripon has been closed  for public safety after sections of supporting stonework collapsed into the fast-running Skell.

The stretch of path between Iron Bridge on Bondgate and the bridge at Bondgate Green, was deemed unsafe by North Yorkshire Council highways engineers, who assessed the damage this morning.

Part of the collapsed section of footpath

They were alerted to the collapse by Ripon City Council leader Andrew Williams, who told the Stray Ferret:

“This is a popular riverside route for walkers and people exercising their dogs.

“With parts of the path in a perilous condition, the decision to close was taken until necessary repair works can be carried out. In the meantime, I would urge that members of the public obey the closure signs and do not put themselves at risk, particularly at this time when the River Skell is running so high and fast.”

A member of the highways team who assessed photographs taken at a number of locations along the path, said:

“Looking at the images it is the right decision to close the unstable footway until the stone can be retrieved from the river when levels are lower and the repairs can be undertaken.”

The path will be under regular monitoring and remain closed until the extent of repair work required has been established.

Main picture: Stonework that was supporting the footpath can be seen in the water

High Bridge in Knaresborough will be closed to nighttime traffic for the next 11 days from this evening due to resurfacing.

North Yorkshire Council posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, today that the closure will be in effect from 7pm until midnight daily until Friday, November 17.

It added a “fully signposted diversion” will be in place.

The grade two listed bridge over the River Nidd, which passes Mother Shipton’s Cave, is the main route into Knaresborough from the Starbeck direction.

Councillor Matt Walker, a Liberal Democrat who represents Knaresborough West, said it was a standard resurfacing project and he wasn’t aware of any concerns.

But he added:

“What the council haven’t done is put new lights over the bridge yet.

“This funding was put in place prior to us being elected and we keep getting a push back on when it will happen.”

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The succession of rural primary school closures across England’s largest county are “only likely to get worse”, a meeting has heard.

Andrew Smith, the Diocese of York’s director of education, issued the bleak warning facing many communities in North Yorkshire as councillors were told some 16 primary schools had closed in the last six years.

The list includes five in the Harrogate district: Woodfield Community Primary School in Harrogate, Burnt Yates Church of England Primary School, Kell Bank Church of England Primary School near Masham, Baldersby St James Church of England Primary School and Skelton Newby Hall Church of England Primary School.

Woodfield Community Primary School closed last year.

The other 11 were at Drax, Horton in Ribblesdale, Rathmell, Ingleby Arncliffe, Swainb, Ings, Arkengarthdale, Clapham, Whitby,  Weaverthorpe and Hovingham.

Mr Smith told a meeting of North Yorkshire Council’s children and families scrutiny committee the diocese was keenly aware of the vulnerability of many rural schools. Dozens of Church of England schools co-run by North Yorkshire Council have fewer than 100 pupils and many have declining pupil numbers.

Councillors heard financial pressures on the county’s smaller schools were rising, with the average school deficit soaring from £16,400 in 2015 to £57,900 this year. Also, the number of primary school age pupils was set to fall in every area of the county except the Selby and Craven areas.

The meeting heard, governors and headteachers were  often forced to make cutbacks to balance the books. This led to decisions that could result in an ‘inadequate’ rating from Ofsted, which automatically triggers moves to convert schools into academies.

Mr Smith said:

“We have known for some time we are going to be facing an oversupply of places and therefore there needs to be a planned way of working to think what happens to schools going forward where we have got over-capacity.

“Over-capacity brings its own financial challenges and that begins a downward spiral with regards to finances.”

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He said as academies legally could not underpin their budgets with deficits as the council could, they were reluctant to take on smaller schools.

Mr Smith said:

“We are in a position where we have to have a closure process for schools because there is no other alternative.

“We are highly reactive in the system and don’t necessarily have a plan for it.

“I think it is only likely to get worse because where the financial projections are going it is likely we are going to face more school closures.

“It is a strategic, systemic problem in a fragmented system.”

Council officers then told the meeting Mr Smith had summed up the situation excellently.

They said the council was examining how it could encourage schools to work together to create “strength in numbers” to prevent the most vulnerable ones finding themselves without an academy sponsor.

Councillors urged the authority to give struggling schools more back office support.

After councillors also called on the authority to intervene earlier, such as when a school was seen to be making cutbacks on spending such as music lessons, officers said they were holding “a series of quite challenging discussions with governing boards over this autumn term where there are financial challenges”.

An officer told members:

“We are having those early discussions so governors are aware of what the risks are.”