The owner of the Royal Oak pub in Dacre Banks has warned that there will be a “massive” knock-on effect if local pubs close this winter after he revealed that the pub now faced an energy bill of £65,000 a year.
Speaking to The Stray Ferret, Steve Cock said he was “absolutely distraught” when he realised what the cost would be.
The pub will now have to increase its prices to try and meet the rising costs.
On Tuesday, industry group the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) asked for government intervention to help small businesses in the face of “out of control” bills.
It warned that there could be “real and serious irreversible” damage if nothing was done.
Until this year, the Dacre Banks pub paid between £13,000 and £15,000 for energy.
It will start paying its £65,000 bill next month after entering a three-year deal to reduce the cost down from the initially proposed £100,000 a year.
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Steve and Anna Cock have run the Royal Oak pub in Dacre Banks for 24 years (photo: Royal Oak)
“We love the village; we love the people.”
The pub has also been hit by suppliers asking for higher prices for products including oil, meat and vegetables.
Mr Cock hopes that the Dacre Banks community will come together to support it through the winter. He said:
“We’ve been here at the pub for 24 years… We love the village; we love the people – lots of nice people come in here.”
However, the Royal Oak’s owner warned that it was not the only small business facing hardship:
“If businesses don’t get help, it’s not just us: it’s restaurants, it’s fish and chip shops, it’s little village shops. The high street will see shops closing one by one.”
The number of pubs in towns and villages has already reduced in recent years. According to real estate consultancy Artus Group, more than 7,000 have closed across the UK since 2012, bringing the total remaining open to just under 40,000 earlier this year.
The BBPA’s chief executive, Emma McClarkin, said:
Are petrol prices being pumped up for Ripon motorists?“If we lose [local pubs], we not only lose businesses and the jobs that go with them, but also the beating heart of communities across the country where people gather in times of need. We need an energy cap for businesses before it’s too late.”
Ripon motorists are paying up to 11.2 pence more per litre for unleaded petrol than their Harrogate counterparts, while those driving diesel cars, vans and lorries are paying on average 8 pence a litre more at the pump.
This morning, at the Morrisons Esso station on Harrogate Road a litre of unleaded was being sold at 179.9 pence.
But 12 miles away in Harrogate, Asda’s price for a litre of unleaded had reduced to 168.7 pence.
It means a motorist adding 40 litres of unleaded fuel to their vehicle would pay an extra £4.48.
On Saturday the Morrisons petrol station in Harrogate was selling the cheapest unleaded in town at 170.4 pence per litre, but by contrast, the petrol station at its Ripon store site was charging 178.9.
Morrisons’ Esso petrol station on Harrogate Road, Ripon, where a litre of unleaded was 11.2 pence more than Asda and 9.5 pence more than at its Harrogate store.
Ripon resident Stewart Readman, who contacted the Stray Ferret to point out the difference in prices, said:
“I have an app that gives details of petrol and diesel costs in the area and further afield and would have thought that at a time when some people are struggling to get by, that the petrol station operators would be a bit more even-handed when they are in a position to reduce prices.”
When asked how it justifies the price difference between its petrol stations in Harrogate and Ripon, a spokesman for supermarket giant Morrisons, said:
“In the UK petrol prices vary from town to town and even neighbourhood to neighbourhood and we will always strive to be competitive in each local area.
“Occasionally this can mean price differences between different areas open up. We continually review our prices and will look to reduce this difference as soon as we can.”
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Have the district’s glamping sites benefitted from foreign travel chaos?
In the past few years high end camping or “glamping” as it is more commonly known, has become increasing popular, with a number of new sites springing up in the district.
Now as families weigh up whether to risk airport and port chaos to go abroad or remain in the UK, how is this relatively new holiday industry faring?
Some providers in the Harrogate district have reported an increase in trade, others have seen a downturn.
This has been put down to an increase in the cost of living, as well as last year’s demand being “unprecedented” due covid travel restrictions.
The local glamping industry
Tom Sterne, owner of Yurtshire, between Ripon and Pateley Bridge, said advance bookings for the luxury glamping and wellness retreat have been growing by the day.
He said:
“Since the news about flight cancellations and chaotic scenes at airports hit the media, the number of enquiries we have received has increased markedly.
“When we opened last July, we benefited from the sudden switch to staycations, from people across the Harrogate district and further afield, who would normally fly off to the sun and we are witnessing a repeat this year.”
A break in Nidderdale
Lindsay and Chris Morrell, whose annual summer holidays in Tuscany have been on hold since the covid lockdowns began in March 2020, have booked Italy next year.
But the couple, who used to live in Harrogate and have since moved to Northumberland, decided to take a break in Nidderdale for their 2022 getaway.
Ms Morrell said:
“With the problems people are encountering at airports, we didn’t want to risk booking for Tuscany this year and hope that issues affecting overseas travel will be sorted out by the time we are ready to venture abroad.”
Chris and Lindsay Morrell
For friends Carroll Shaw and Annie Brown, who live in Ripon, overseas holidays are no longer on the agenda.
Ms Shaw said:
“Why would anybody who lives so close to the gorgeous Nidderdale countryside, want the hassle of flying thousands of miles to lie on a crowded beach?”
A slow start
Louise Pullan co-owns the Breaks Fold Farm camping and glamping site in the Washburn Valley, next to Thruscross Reservoir, in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
She told the Stray Ferret that the beginning of the year had been very quiet, but it had started to pick up.
Breaks Fold Farm.
Ms Pullan, who runs the site with her husband Richard, said:
“It has been a very slow start.
“We were 60 per cent down in May and June based on our 2019 bookings.
“However we have seen a rapid uptake in bookings into July and August in all our accommodation.
“People are watching their finances and holidays maybe aren’t top of their priority lists.
“We have noticed we are getting a lot of local guests from Harrogate and Skipton, so maybe the fuel prices are also having an impact on people’s choices.”
Ms Pullan said the campsite’s main customer base is short stays of two to three nights.
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A difficult financial time
She said the price had been kept the same for the last three years, with discounts on longer stays to try and help people out during what is a difficult financial time.
She said:
“This is difficult as we as a business are now seeing increasing costs. For example our waste emptying costs have gone up 30 per cent, a bottle of gas has gone from £55 to £85 and our business insurance is double last year’s.
“We can’t afford to employ somebody this year due to soaring inflation, which is putting a huge pressure on us as a two-man band.
“Energy prices are just completely unbelievable and some of our fellow owners are up on 57p per kw, seeing their energy bills over double on previous years.
“We are only going to be able to absorb this for so long, unless hospitality businesses are offered some form of relief such as a VAT cut, like they were through 2021.
“Some sites have tried massively to capitalise on the staycation boom from 2020 and have made their prices unreachable for some.”
Cutting back
Claire Jones, owner of Strawberry Safari shepherds huts, in Wormald Green, between Harrogate and Ripon, said she had also seen a quieter year compared to last year.
Strawberry Safari.
She said:
Help for Ripon residents confused about energy rebates“We believe this is due to a combination of people going abroad and also cutting back on short breaks in between their main holidays, due to cost of living increases.
“That said, last year’s demand was unprecedented and so it’s hard to compare the two.
“We have still seen some lovely guests this year, many of whom are here to enjoy the many events happening in and around Harrogate.”
Some of Ripon’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens are at risk of missing out on payments designed to help them keep their heads above water in the current cost of living crisis.
That’s the view of Pat Clark, a church leader at the Salvation Army on Lead Lane, who is concerned that some are slipping through the net, by not claiming what is owed to them in the allotted timescale.
To assist families and individual to receive funds that they are entitled to, help is now on hand at drop-in sessions at the church hall.
These will be held on the first and third Tuesday of each month, between 9.30am and 11am. The sessions are open to people of all or no religion and the next one will be on August 16.
Ms Clark, who advises on issues of social justice, told the Stray Ferret:
“I have been investigating how residents not paying council tax by direct debit access the £150 rebate and the bad news is that in these cases they have to apply directly through the Harrogate Borough Council website.
“This requires an email address to register an HBC account, which some people simply don’t have and there was no correspondence about this process until recently.
“Another problem with the process is that it throws up random errors which would deter most people.
“Many people don’t own a computer or a smart phone and they also get worried when an official-looking letter drops through their letterbox, assuming it is a bill, rather than information that can help them.”
Referring to a number of recent cases, she said:
“When I phoned the council, on a client’s behalf, to ask why his application had been turned down, I was told that it is happening randomly from time-to-time and each account had to be investigated and individually fixed.
“I have also been helping a client respond to an invitation to receive money from the Household Support Fund operated by North Yorkshire County Council.
“Again, the application process is online, requiring an email address and a smart phone or printer to access the e-voucher which can be spent at a supermarket.”
Ms Clark suspects that similar issues will arise when it comes to people receiving their £400 energy grant and she recommends people living in houses of multiple occupation speak with their landlord at the earliest opportunity.
Surge in demand for e-bikes as petrol prices continue to rise across the district
More people are ditching their cars in favour of electric bikes as petrol prices continue to soar, according to Harrogate district retailers.
As the average cost of diesel has almost hit the £2 per litre mark, people are increasingly looking at more wallet-friendly ways to get around.
Local e-bike suppliers say there has been a notable shift in the number of customers now moving to pedal and e-power, opting to save their fuel for longer journeys.
Kurt Davison, manager of the Electric Bike Shop, on Leeds Road, Harrogate, said:
“We have definitely noticed a rise in sales. This isn’t surprising given that you are looking at £2 a litre for fuel and you also have to factor in road tax and insurance.”
Mr Davison said 65 per cent of journeys made in the UK were less than five miles, so more people were choosing e-bikes for shorter commutes.
He said:
“We hear it a lot from people. The cost of fuel is too high. So they want to use an e-bike to get to work rather than running a car.
“We also recently sold a cargo bike to a family who are using it for the school run.”
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Andy Crawley, who has owned Harrogate Electric Bikes – CorCoach, on St John’s Terrace, Harrogate, for 10 years, said he had noticed a rise in the number of returning customers wanting to get back on their bikes.
Andy Crawley, owner of Harrogate Electric Bikes – CorCoach.
He said:
“They are using their bikes more and I have seen an upturn in servicing existing bikes. They are coming back and saying they haven’t used it for a while and they want to use it more due to the cost of petrol. It hurts when you fill your tank up now!
“I do a lot of conversions where I convert bikes to electric bikes. I have definitely seen a surge in this, as then customers are not having to pay thousands of pounds for a brand new model. The cost of living crisis means many people can’t afford a brand new e-bike.”
He added that many people were still too nervous to cycle on the district’s roads and while improvements have been made, there needed to be a better infrastructure in place.
Tony Robertshaw has owned North Yorkshire Electric Bikes, in Bond End, Knaresborough, for a decade.
He said while his customer-base had always traditionally fallen into an older age bracket due to having more disposable income, he had noticed an increase in younger customers buying e-bikes.
He said:
“People are wanting bikes to commute on, rather than using their cars. Customers do say that petrol prices are too much.
“There are also a lot of benefits to investing in an e-bike. There are the health benefits and the cost benefits.
“Most of my bikes last a good 10 years, so if you work the cost out per year, it is relatively cheap. You would get through £300 of petrol in no time.
“You also don’t have to pay insurance or road tax. So it’s definitely cheaper than running a car.”