What are the options for Harrogate Convention Centre?

In an anonymous-looking office in south-east London, a handful of thirtysomethings are racking their brains to come up with a sensible plan for the future use of Harrogate Convention Centre (HCC). 

The exercise to “explore opportunities in the marketplace and appraise the best options for taking the venue forward” comes after North Yorkshire Council (NYC) decided last month to abandon the proposed £57 million development of HCC, citing complexities and costs. 

The centre needs investment, and it currently relies on a £2.7 million subsidy. Two applications for grant funding from the government have failed, so new thinking is needed.  

As the Stray Ferret revealed this week, North Yorkshire taxpayers are handing the team from London consultancy 31ten £23,000 plus VAT for the “soft market testing” project, which is due to conclude by “late spring”. So what might the consultants suggest? 

A report for the council’s ruling executive that took the decision to ditch the redevelopment stated: 

“Options may include, but are not limited to, alternative delivery and funding models, partnership working, alternative uses for parts of the site, and asset ownership.” 

In other words the council, which is looking to make serious savings over the coming years, is open to pretty much any suggestion, so long as it sounds viable. Everything, it seems, is on the table. 

Harrogate Convention Centre, which is earmarked for a £47 million renovation.

In January, the Stray Ferret discovered the council had already spoken to private companies about the possibility of selling the convention centre. 

Council chief executive Richard Flinton told Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce that the council wanted to “understand private sector interest in the building” although he added “that doesn’t necessarily mean the council will look to offload it”. 

A more likely scenario could see parts of the site sold off, rather than the whole thing. That’s an option Simon Kent would be tempted to take. Mr Kent worked at Harrogate Convention Centre for 15 years from 2004, leaving in 2019 after more than six years as director. He told the Stray Ferret: 

“The main part of the convention centre is integrated, with parts of it underground, so you couldn’t knock bits of it down. But the exhibition halls are different. If some events were moved elsewhere, those could potentially be sold and redeveloped for other uses.  

“So perhaps there could be an option to move some of the events to the Great Yorkshire Showground and connect them to Harrogate via a shuttle bus. Whatever happens, we need to keep events coming to the town, even if they don’t come to Harrogate Convention Centre. From an economic point of view, the business would remain in Harrogate, so the impact would still be there.

“Clearly, the business is important to the town, so we have to be creative and make sure it stays in the town.” 

The business is indeed important to the town – it’s estimated to be worth £45 million a year to the local economy – which is why the council is looking at some radical options. 

Not many are as radical as the one suggested to the Stray Ferret by Andrew Williams. As North Yorkshire councillor for Ripon Minster and Moorside, he’s long been vehemently opposed to using public money to prop up the convention centre, which he believes is of no benefit to taxpayers beyond Harrogate. He told us: 

“I very much welcome North Yorkshire Council’s decision not to go ahead with investing £57m – more than the original £33m cost of building it – in what I think is a white elephant. It would be very helpful to get some private equity investment in so that it wasn’t as much of a drain on public finances.” 

He thinks the convention centre should put its money on a more imaginative approach. He said: 

“When conventions aren’t taking place, it should be used for more leisure activities. I’ve always thought a casino would be a good idea. 

“York has considerable trade in bachelor and hen weekends – go out in York on a weekend evening and it’s packed with young visitors – but Harrogate doesn’t have any of that, because there’s nothing to attract them. 

“Harrogate should be marketing itself as a destination for leisure activities in a way it clearly isn’t at the moment.” 

The idea of repurposing some of the site already has currency, albeit not yet in the form of casino chips. Paula Lorimer, director of the the convention centre, would like to reconfigure some of the conference rooms to create breakout space, a move she believes could bring in an extra £1 million a year. 

The Stray Ferret contacted Ms Lorimer – who, with an annual salary of £121,818 was recently revealed to be one of this district’s best paid public servants – for this article many times over the course of more than a month, but she did not reply.

Photo of Paula Lorimer outside Harrogate Convention Centre.

Paula Lorimer, director of Harrogate Convention Centre

Failing these options – selling it off, selling off parts of it, or repurposing it – there is another route the consultants could go down. Partnership working can yield benefits all round, allowing each party to play to their strengths. It’s an approach tentatively favoured by Kim Wilson, co-owner of The Camberley B&B, which is just across King’s Road from the convention centre. She said: 

“Parts of the convention could possibly be run by other bodies – for example, the Royal Hall could easily be run by Harrogate Theatre – so we’ll just have to see what’s out there. 

“It really comes down to what we want the convention to be. Is it a public asset with government support, or is it better as a privately-owned venture that goes out chasing business more aggressively? 

“My husband thinks it should be a protected asset, but I’m less fixed in my view. If it does get a partner in, they’ll have to be very careful when they’re choosing them – it’s about getting the right fit.” 

For Paula Lorimer and her team, what to do with a convention centre faced with unprecedented competition from – among others – London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Brighton and Blackpool is clearly a conundrum worth spending money to solve. 

But for Simon Kent, who has been entrusted with the archives of late local historian Malcolm Neesam, it all seems quite familiar. He said: 

“This isn’t the first time the convention centre has come to this point – there have been lots of exercises like this. In 1990-91, it looked at getting private-sector investment – it was the first thing the Liberal Democrats did when they got in. Then in 2000 there was another effort to get funding through Yorkshire Forward.

“People often think it all started in 1982 when the conference centre opened, but we were doing conferences and trade fairs in Harrogate as far back as the 1880s, so it was the natural thing to invest in that as the spa industry declined.

“It’s still a viable business, and people clearly still like coming to Harrogate, so it must have something. It’s just a matter of understanding what that is and capitalising on it.”

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Exclusive: Council spent £1.9m on consultants for scrapped Harrogate Convention Centre plans

Almost £2 million of taxpayers’ money has been spent on consultants to come up with plans to upgrade Harrogate Convention Centre that have now been scrapped.

North Yorkshire Council and its predecessor Harrogate Borough Council have hired various consultants since 2016 as part of the long running saga to redevelop the convention centre.

So far none of the work has been carried out and last month North Yorkshire Council revealed it had abandoned previous plans drawn up by Harrogate Borough Council and recruited another firm of consultants called 31ten to carry out ‘soft market testing’ on the future use of the events and exhibition complex.

North Yorkshire Council refused to reveal at the time how much it had paid the 31ten — prompting the Stray Ferret to submit a freedom of information request.

We asked not only how much had been awarded to the London firm but also how much had been spent on consultants for all work involving the possible upgrade of the convention centre.

The response said 31Ten had been paid £23,000 plus VAT for work that is expected to be concluded by ‘late spring’. This figure pales in comparison to the overall sum awarded to consultants since 2016.

The freedom of information response said besides funding awarded to 31Ten “the remaining £1,948,590 relates to historic spend committed by Harrogate Borough Council”.

Harrogate Borough Council was abolished a year ago and succeeded by North Yorkshire Council.

The response added:

“It is North Yorkshire Council’s intention to use internal resource to support future proposals for Harrogate Convention Centre, and minimise spend with external consultants, wherever possible.”

‘More affordable’ way forward

North Yorkshire Council’s Conservative-controlled executive agreed last month to scrap a two-phase development plan for the building drawn up eight years ago after being told the cost of the first phase had soared to £57.2 million.

Instead it agreed to come up with a “more affordable” way forward. Centre director Paula Lorimer, who last year called for the refurbishment, said she had now changed her mind and agreed with the new approach.

The way forward will be guided by 31ten’s findings. The freedom of information response said:

“The aim of the soft market testing is to assist North Yorkshire Council in assessing the options for the future development and operation of Harrogate Convention Centre. Options may include, but are not limited to, alternative delivery and funding models, partnership working, alternative uses for parts of the site, and asset ownership.”

North Yorkshire Council currently subsidises the convention centre to the tune of £2.7 million a year.

The centre opened in 1982 and has a 2,000-seat auditorium and 13,000 square metres of exhibition space.

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Harrogate hospital spends nearly £1 million on staff cover for strikes

Harrogate District Hospital has spent £923,000 on staff cover for industrial action since April.

The hospital has been hit by numerous strikes in the last five months, with consultants and junior doctors staging walkouts in disputes over pay.

In a report due before a trust board meeting today, Jonathan Coulter, chief executive of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, said a “significant cost” had been spent covering for striking staff members.

In total, between April 1 and August 31, the trust spent £923,000 on bank and internal staff to cover for junior doctors and consultants. 

Bank staff are temporary workers who agree to work flexible shifts with a hospital trust. Some trusts keep a record of their own bank staff to call upon for shifts.

The trust said no agency workers were used to cover staffing during the strikes.

The Stray Ferret asked the trust how it intended to recoup the money spent during the industrial action.

A spokesperson for the trust said:

“The trust is in ongoing discussions with NHS England on the expectations regarding funding and managing this pressure.”

It comes as both junior doctors and consultants are set to carry out further walkouts in October.

Members of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association and British Medical Association will strike from 7am on Monday, October 2, until 7am on Thursday, October 5.

In his report, Mr Coulter said it was important to remember staff were in dispute with the government, not the hospital trust.

He added:

“We need to always remember the impact that this industrial action is having and the cost for patients who have services disrupted and delayed, the actual financial cost of cover, and the more significant opportunity cost, as management time is necessarily taken up with planning and managing these periods of strike action safely.”

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Harrogate hospital cancelled 117 appointments due to consultants strike

Harrogate District Hospital was forced to cancel 117 appointments as a result of last week’s consultants strike.

Members of the British Medical Association walked out for 48 hours on July 20 in a dispute over pay.

Consultants carried out what was described as Christmas Day cover, which meant most routine and elective services were cancelled but full emergency cover remained in place.

At the time, Dr Vishal Sharma, chair of the BMA consultants committee, said consultants had been left with “no option” but to strike after years of pay cuts.

Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust confirmed 117 outpatient appointments were cancelled across a range of hospital services due to the walkout last week.

Among the areas affected included breast surgery, trauma, orthopaedics and general surgery. Neurology and gynaecology also saw cancellations.

A spokesperson for the trust said:

“Appointments were re-arranged as a matter of priority with many being re-arranged at the time of cancellation.”

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The hospital is set to be hit by further strike action next month.

Yesterday, junior doctors voted to walk out for four days in August amid an ongoing dispute with government over pay.

Members of the BMA will stage the industrial action from 7am on Friday, August 11, until 7am on Tuesday, August 15.

The organisation is calling for a 35% pay rise in order to restore pay to 2008 levels after below inflation increases.

Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairs of the BMA junior doctors committee, said:

“It should never have got to the point where we needed to announce a fifth round of strike action. 

“Our message today remains the same: act like a responsible government, come to the table to negotiate with us in good faith, and with a credible offer these strikes need not go ahead at all.”

Operations and appointments at Harrogate hospital to be cancelled amid consultants strike

Operations and appointments at Harrogate District Hospital look set to be cancelled after consultants announced strike action.

Members of the British Medical Association voted on Tuesday to walk out for 48 hours in a dispute over pay.

The strike by consultants will take place on July 20 and will follow a five-day demonstration by junior doctors.

Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust said it will have to make changes to outpatient and theatre services on the days of industrial action.

Consultants will carry out what is described as Christmas Day cover, meaning most routine and elective services will be cancelled but full emergency cover will remain in place.

The move come as the BMA urged the government to come forward with a credible offer in order to avert strike action.

Dr Vishal Sharma, BMA consultants committee chair, said:

“Consultants don’t want to have to take industrial action, but have been left with no option in the face of a Government that continues to cut our pay year after year.

“However, it is not too late to avert strike action and the Government simply needs come back to us with a credible offer that we can put to our members.”

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In response to the decision, a spokesperson for Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust said the hospital will draw up plans to ensure “essential services can be maintained on strike days”.

However, they added that some outpatient appointments and operations will have to be rearranged.

The spokesperson said:

“To prioritise emergency care and to keep all our patients safe we will have to make changes to some of our outpatient and theatre services on the days of industrial action. 

“As we have during previous strikes we will have to cancel outpatient appointments and elective operations, however we will be re-arranging any postponed appointments as a priority.”

Council spends £2m on consultants for Harrogate’s Station Gateway

More than £2 million has already been spent on outside consultants to work on Harrogate’s controversial Station Gateway scheme, figures reveal.

The £11.2 million active travel project will transform the area outside Harrogate Station to make it more friendly for cyclists and pedestrians.

It’s being led by North Yorkshire Council, which replaced North Yorkshire County Council, which previously led on the project, in April due to local government reorganisation.

To develop the project the council hired global consultancy firm WSP to draw up its business case and preliminary and detailed designs.

Following a freedom of information request submitted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, North Yorkshire Council has revealed just over £2 million has been paid to WSP so far with the majority going towards design costs.

In a statement, the council argued that its use of consultants for the scheme is commonplace and typical of large-scale active projects across the country.

It also said consultants can help when there is not the required expertise within the council.

But the public sector’s increasing reliance on consultants, often to plug gaps created during austerity, has troubled some with a Guardian editorial published in March stating consultants are a “symptom of shrinking faith in the public sector”.

‘A money pit’

Liberal Democrat councillor for Knaresborough West, Matt Walker, who is a critic of the Station Gateway scheme, told the LDRS that the amount spent on consultants is a signal that the project “is shaping up to be a money pit“ for taxpayers.

Mr Walker, who will be standing for the Lib Dems in next month’s Selby and Ainsty by-election, said:

“That is a huge amount of public money to spend on consultants, more than 15% of the cost of the scheme. It’s a money pit that is not part of a wider strategic plan for active travel and one which does not have the full backing of the local community, or businesses.

“The cost of building materials has already sky rocketed since the original costing for the scheme was done. Are we going to cut back on what is delivered or pour money tax payers money into this scheme?

“What Harrogate needs is real investment, as part of a strategic plan to deal with congestion. Innovative and exciting options for active travel not costly consultants.”

‘Increased consultation pushed up costs’

The council said the sum paid to WSP has increased due to the additional public consultation which led to designs being changed.

Karl Battersby, the council’s corporate director of environment, said:

“Consultants have only been used where there is not sufficient in-house resource or very specific expertise within the council. This is a common occurrence with consultants used for almost, if not all, Transforming Cities Fund projects across the country.

“The cost includes survey work as well as individual disciplines – landscaping, highways, traffic modelling, signals, drainage, lighting – consultation support, planning and Traffic Regulation Orders, and project management, including business case development, risk reviews, programming and attendance at meetings.

“The design cost has increased where additional works have been identified, such as revisions to landscaping or additional consultation engagement.”

Background to the scheme

Among the proposals include redeveloping the area outside Harrogate Station, making Station Parade single-lane to add cycle and bus lanes and part-pedestrianising James Street.

But it’s divided the town with the results of the third and final round of public consultation, published in January, suggesting the Harrogate public are narrowly against it.

It’s still to receive final approval but won the backing of senior councillors in Northallerton at a meeting last month.

The predicted cost of the scheme is now £11.2m — a sum that has risen considerably from the £7.9m initially suggested by council.

Council appoints London consultants to draw up North Yorkshire growth strategy

An £89,537 contract to draw up a strategy to grow the economy in North Yorkshire has been handed to a London company.

North Yorkshire County Council has commissioned Steer-ED to carry out the work on behalf of the upcoming North Yorkshire Council.

The new authority will come into force on April 1, 2023.

The Stray Ferret asked the county council whether it had considered local companies for the work and if the strategy could have been drawn up by its own staff.

Cllr Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council, said:

“The advent of the new North Yorkshire Council provides us with an opportunity to create a county-wide strategy to drive forward economic growth and support existing businesses while attracting new enterprise.

“Working with council officers, Steer-ED will produce a new county-wide economic growth strategy which will be guided by extensive consultations and engagement with a number of key organisations. This will help us maximise North Yorkshire’s economic potential and drive inward investment across the county.

“Steer-ED was appointed following a competitive procurement process, and the contract was awarded in accordance with the procurement framework requirements. The framework consists of 41 consultants from across the country, and all were invited to tender for the contract.

“Our economic development teams will work very closely with Steer-ED. The decision was taken to recruit consultants to provide an important external perspective as well as ensuring there is additional capacity so the work is completed soon after the launch of the new North Yorkshire Council on April 1 next year.”

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The move is the latest contract to be awarded to a national firm as the county council transitions towards the new North Yorkshire Council.

In July, the Stray Ferret revealed that four consultancy companies were awarded £5 million for “reorganisation support for North Yorkshire Council”.

The contract was awarded to KPMG, Price Waterhouse Cooper, PA Consulting Ltd and Capita Business Service Ltd.

However, councillors on the authority criticised the move as a “waste of money” and questioned whether it could have been better spent elsewhere.