A house in Jennyfields has been closed amid concerns about anti-social behaviour.
Harrogate Magistrates Court granted a closure order for 46 Bramham Drive on Thursday.
The order bans people from entering the property for three months.
Harrogate Borough Council applied for the order under section 80 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.
The closure order on the door of the property.
A copy of the order, attached to the door of the property, said the court was satisfied there were either concerns about “disorderly, offensive or criminal behaviour on the premises”, the house being used for “serious nuisance to members of the public” or nearby disorder related to the premises.
The document also says “access to the premises is prohibited by all persons” until February 3 except by an authorised council officer and one other named person.
The Stray Ferret has asked the council for further details of why it applied for the order. A spokesman said:
“We applied for the closure order following concerns about drug use and anti-social behaviour.”
In May, the council successfully applied to magistrates for a three-month closure order on a house on Cawthorne Avenue, in the Fairfax area of Harrogate following claims a drug-dependent woman was being exploited by drug dealers.
Last year the council and police also secured the three-month closure of two homes on Avenue Grove in Starbeck.
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Travellers expected to move on from Stray this week
Harrogate Borough Council says it expects a group of Travellers will move on from the Stray “in the next couple of days” after it obtained a court order.
An encampment appeared on a section of the parkland between Oatlands Drive and Stray Rein towards the end of August.
Several vehicles are there and the council has provided bins for them to use.
Many Gypsies and Travellers travel the country staying at different places in order to earn a living. In most cases, it has been a way of life for generations.
But the law states that if they camp on private land, the landowner can obtain an order through a county court to remove them. The Stray is managed by Harrogate Borough Council.
A HBC spokesperson said:
“We had a court hearing [yesterday] for a possession order so anticipate they will move on in the next couple of days.”
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No. 7: The bedsit murder at Harrogate’s ‘house from hell’
On a Friday night in March, Daniel Ainsley went to Asda in Harrogate, bought a set of kitchen knives, then dumped all but one in a bin outside the store.
He walked to 38 Mayfield Grove, where his friend Mark Wolsey had been letting him stay in his bedsit, and stabbed him 15 times.
Eight months later Ainsley, 24, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for murder.
The incident sparked revulsion for Ainsley and sympathy for Mr Wolsey, 48 — but it also triggered anger in a neighbourhood with long-standing crime concerns.
Daniel Ainsley (left) and Mark Wolsey
38 Mayfield Grove had been dubbed the house from hell as far back as 2005 when a court granted a three-month closure order after a crossbow was held at a resident’s head.
A Stray Ferret investigation this year revealed that between April 2008 and July 2021, North Yorkshire Police received 255 reports about 38 Mayfield Grove from the public.
People wanted to know why the police and Harrogate Borough Council had not done more to tackle activities at the house.
Homeless payments
They were particularly incensed that the council had transferred £2,112 in 2017 and £5,424 in 2018 to John Willis Properties Ltd, the company that owns the house.
The council said the payments were “to help customers assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness to access private rented accommodation”. There is no suggestion of illegal activity by either party.
Locals said it beggared belief that the council had paid for homeless people to stay in a house that had been divided into six bedsits and where many tenants had multiple issues, such as drug and alcohol addictions and mental health problems, as well as backgrounds of homelessness and crime.
Read more:
- Investigation: Murder at Harrogate’s House from Hell
- Mayfield Grove: house at centre of crime concerns allowed to re-open
- Harrogate man Daniel Ainsley found guilty of murder
They said it was difficult to think of a more dangerous scenario than housing people with multiple needs together in a terraced home on a busy street, and this problem should have been identified and tackled.
Daniel Neill, who until recently lived on Nydd Vale Terrace, a street parallel to Mayfield Grove, said:
“The entire set-up is a recipe for trouble. It doesn’t take a genius to work it out. The worst thing you can do with addicts is put them alongside other addicts.”
The closure notice at 38 Mayfield Grove
Three houses closed
After the murder, the police and the council applied for a court order to close 38 Mayfield Grove, which meant tenants had to find alternative accommodation.
On June 28, magistrates granted partial closure orders against two other properties let as bedsits by John Willis, at 19 and 31 Avenue Grove, Starbeck, due to crime concerns.
Mr Willis later told the Stray Ferret he let 10 properties in Harrogate and was passionate about helping disadvantaged people, unlike many other housing providers, and did everything he reasonably could to protect them. He said:
“Other landlords cherry pick the best tenants and sadly that leaves a disadvantaged group. Homeless hostels are full. I try to help them.”
He said he’d taken many tenants from the council and partner agencies, such as Harrogate Homeless Project on Bower Street, close to Mayfield Grove, during his 31 years as a landlord.
Besides the closure orders, the police and council organised a residents’ summit and a community engagement drop-in session to discuss 38 Mayfield Grove and to reassure people that ‘the Harrogate district remains a safe place to live and any anti-social behaviour is taken very seriously’.
Police and council staff at the community engagement drop-in session.
But residents said the flurry of activity since the murder contrasted sharply with years of inertia that allowed crime to scar the neighbourhood and blight residents’ lives and called for action to prevent a repeat.
The police and council issued a joint statement after Ainslie’s conviction saying they had responded to and dealt with issues at Mayfield Grove “quickly and effectively”, and adding that criminals “will be held to account for their actions”.
Residents, however, continue to be concerned, particularly after a flurry of police activity on the street near the end of the year.