Readers’ Letters is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.  

The following three letters are in response to the extreme flooding in Knaresborough earlier this week. Roads were under water, homes were flooded and residents evacuated. The council denied the conditions of the drains played a part, but some residents feel otherwise.  

Does North Yorkshire Council not know what a drain is and how they work?

I think the Stray Ferret should take a stand on behalf of all Knaresborough folk and demand that they do something about it.

I live up Ripley Road and can tell you that the drains on High and Low Bond End and Ripley Road haven’t been cleaned out properly for at least 30 years.

Steve Newbould, Knaresborough

Here on Hambleton Close we had a near miss – although both our neighbours took on water.

I have consistently notified North Yorkshire County Council (that was) about the state of drainage in Knaresborough. Each time I receive hollow words of acknowledgement, but nothing is done.

The autumn leaf-fall and the failure to sweep the roads only added to this catastrophe.

What do we pay our council tax for?

Ralph Thrower, Knaresborough

We have reported the blocked drains for years and no works seems to have been done.

Last week we were down to one working drain on our street and we directly reported it to the council.

We have issues with Waterside becoming a river even with normal levels of rainfall.

We warned the council numerous times it would flood, as the water has nowhere else to go other than through the houses.

Mark Johnson, Knaresborough

Maybe Keane Duncan’s defeat means he will ‘finally fix our roads’

This story follows the York and North Yorkshire mayoral election last week. Labour’s David Skaith took home the crown, leaving Tory councillor Keane Duncan defeated.

Thank goodness for the mayoral result, which hopefully now means we are also done with Mr Keane’s tedious photo opportunities (hopefully!).

For months he’s courted the camera and delivered on little else. Even the well-hyped ‘100 days in Peggy’ went suspiciously quiet.

Maybe now he can finally concentrate on the job he has, including fixing our roads for starters.

He might want to take Peggy for a drive down Pannal Ash Road and sample the disgraceful state of a public highway.

Simon Ewing, Harrogate

Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.

Read more:

• Readers’ Letters: Harrogate’s cycleway extension is an ‘extraordinary waste of public funds’ 
• Readers’ Letters: ‘Harrogate’s roads are deteriorating before our eyes’
• Readers’ Letters: Of course the Lib Dems won the Harrogate by-election – the candidate wore a tie!

Keane Duncan has defended his campaign for Mayor of York and North Yorkshire after the Conservatives lost the election to Labour.

Mr Duncan admitted that the national political picture “inevitably” affected his race to be mayor, but said Rishi Sunak should stay on as Prime Minister.

Labour’s David Skaith won the election by 14,794 votes on a disappointing day for the Tories.

Speaking after the result at Harrogate Convention Centre, Mr Duncan was magnanimous in defeat and defended his campaign, which included ambitious pledges such as buying the Grand Hotel in Scarborough.

He said:  

“I am proud that I got to stand in this election. I am proud of my campaign. I thank everyone who has supported me in every corner of York and North Yorkshire.”

When asked whether he felt he overpromised on the Grand Hotel and if he regretted the pledge, he said:

“No, I’ve focussed on the coast. I think the coast is very important.

“I’m not going to have the opportunity now to deliver on my pledges and my promises. But I feel proud of the campaign that I have been able to run.”

Mr Duncan added that he did not feel that he could have done anymore with his campaign. When asked if the national political picture affected his race to be mayor, he said:

“I think the national picture has inevitably affected this campaign.”

He added that he would stay on as a North Yorkshire councillor and said he felt Mr Sunak should remain as Prime Minister, despite the election defeat.

Read more:

• Labour’s David Skaith pledges to ‘get basics right’ as mayor
• Tense day ends in clear victory for Labour’s Harrogate-born mayor

Labour’s David Skaith won the inaugural mayoral election with 66,761 votes.

Tory candidate, Keane Duncan, came second with 51,967 votes and Felicity Cunliffe-Lister, Liberal Democrat, finished third with 30,867.

Meanwhile, Green Party candidate, Kevin Foster, won 15,188 votes and Keith Tordoff, independent, finished fifth with 13,250 votes.

Harrogate independent, Paul Haslam, won 12,370 votes.

The turnout for the York and North Yorkshire mayoral election was 30%.

Senior Conservative councillors could be asked to reconsider the decision to close Fountains Earth primary school in Nidderdale.

North Yorkshire Council’s executive met last month in Northallerton to approve the closure following a consultation.

The school in Lofthouse, near Pateley Bridge, faced dwindling pupil numbers in recent years and had no pupils on its books.

The council’s executive member for education Cllr Annabel Wilkinson said “nobody wants to close a small school” and it was “a very hard decision”.

The decision to close the school was controversial in Nidderdale, with some former parents and local Liberal Democrat councillor Andrew Murday pleading with the authority to delay its decision.

At the time, they unsuccessfully argued that an investigation should take place into the leadership of Upper Nidderdale Federation which controls the school.

At a meeting tomorrow in Northallerton, councillors on the children and families overview and scrutiny committee will meet to discuss ‘calling in’ the decision to close the school.

This would involve the committee referring the original decision back to either the executive or to a full meeting of North Yorkshire Council where all councillors would take a vote on the closure.

A report prepared for the meeting tomorrow gives three reasons for calling in the original decision. These are related to pupil numbers, educational standards and the financial situation at the school.

The report said:

“If the issues that led the parents to withdraw their children from the school were to be resolved, then pupils would return. There is a strong belief amongst the parents and the local community that conditions in the school deteriorated in order to depopulate it.

“The school received a ‘good’ rating on inspection in June 2022. It was strange, therefore, that the governing body of the Upper Nidderdale Federation requested a month later that North Yorkshire County Council should consider closing the school. Although that request was withdrawn, it spread the seeds of doubt, so that parents considered thereafter that the school was under threat. This rating is difficult to reconcile with the view that the education standard provided at the school was inadequate, another reason given for the closure.

“At the time of closure, the school had no permanent teaching staff. The cost of maintenance of the buildings over a relatively short period of time until it reopens would be minimal. Compared to this, the costs of home-to school transport from Lofthouse to other schools in Nidderdale will be substantial and will outweigh the maintenance cost. The burden for the children, some as young as 4 years old, of travelling many miles each day to attend a distant school will be considerable.”

The meeting will take place at 2pm on Wednesday at County Hall.

Read more:

• Concerns raised about leadership at Nidderdale primary schools
• Drivers face delays as four-week gasworks start