Harrogate council to promote Christmas with social media influencers again

Harrogate Borough Council‘s tourism body, Destination Harrogate, will use social media influencers again this year to promote the town’s Christmas festivities.

Julia Lumley, place marketing manager at Destination Harrogate, gave a presentation to Harrogate BID members at the Yorkshire Hotel on Thursday. She described how the body will be trying to attract visitors to the town during November and December.

Initiatives include a dedicated Christmas website where businesses can upload events, a printed guide, online campaigns, videos and photography, as well as competitions.

Ms Lumley also confirmed Destination Harrogate will be paying influencers to visit the town throughout the Christmas period.

The aim is for influencers to help reach audiences in a way that is more organic and personal than traditional advertising campaigns.

Last year, the Stray Ferret revealed Destination Harrogate paid influencer Heather Cowper £700 to make several posts about Christmas in Harrogate.

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But her posts performed poorly, raising questions over whether the fee represented value for money. A Liberal Democrat councillor branded the spend a “waste of money”.

However, the criticism hasn’t put Destination Harrogate off using influencers again.

On Friday, it Tweeted that it recently used vlogger Amy Berry to promote the town. She has 135,000 followers on Instagram.

Ms Berry’s video about a trip to Harrogate has proved to be popular. It includes visits to the Turkish Baths and Rudding Park and has been liked over 1,200 times in 24 hours.

Although Destination Harrogate will return to using social media influencers over Christmas, another campaign from last year won’t be returning.

Following a question from a member of the audience at the BID meeting, Ms Lumley said the £5,000 snow globe at Kings Cross will not be used again.

Record number of homes sold above £1m in the Harrogate district last year

The booming housing market in the Harrogate district led to a record number of homes sold above £1million last year.

Land Registry data reveals 84 property deals passed the seven-figure threshold, more than any other previous year.

The number includes all detached and semi-detached homes as well as apartments.

The most expensive part of Harrogate is an area off Leeds Road —Fulwith Mill Lane, Fulwith Grove, Fulwith Drive and Fulwith Road — where five homes sold for over a million in 2021.

The Harrogate district beats large metropolitan areas in the North (Leeds, 55, York, 27, Manchester, 17) when it comes to bumper property deals.

Knaresborough

The two most expensive homes sold last year in the district were in Knaresborough.

Staveley Court in the village of Staveley sold for £3m and a property on Lands Lane went for £2.9m.

Staveley Court. The most expensive property in the Harrogate district last year

In a sign of just how buoyant the property market is currently, the website Move Market suggests Staveley Court’s value has increased by a whopping £449,000 since it was sold in January 2021.

Its price tag has trebled in two decades. It was sold in 2001 in a deal worth £950,000.

Peter Lacey is from Knaresborough Community Land Trust, a not-for-profit organisation that is hoping to develop a site in the town into affordable housing.

He said the record year for million pound houses indicates the market is currently imbalanced:

“The pace in which affordable housing is growing is being outstripped by the rate we are selling million pound houses.

“It’s a product of supply and demand, but an awful lot of people, including my own kids, can’t get on the property ladder.

“We haven’t got the balance right but you can’t criticise anyone for buying or selling house at market value.”

Mr Lacey said he is worried that expensive property deals will inflate the market and make it even more unaffordable for people earning average wages to buy a home here.

He added:

“That’s what id be concerned about. If market is distorted, that becomes an issue.”

Booming market

David Waddington, director at Linley & Simpson, described the current housing market in the district as a “frenzy”.

He said the average value of a property in Harrogate is going up by 1% a month.

He added:

“There has been really strong activity over the last three years. Selling homes for over a million is not uncommon nowadays.”

“Increasingly, buyers are wanting houses with all the bells and whistles, but to be able to afford a million, Harrogate is the jewel in the crown.”

Last week The Sunday Times named Harrogate as one of the best places to live in the UK.

Judges cited the town’s schools, parks, shops, cafes and restaurants as among its attractions, describing it as “all the fun and fresh air of Yorkshire without any of the gritty bits”.

Mr Waddington said around 25% of Linley & Simpson’s sales are from people moving up to the district from down south, which he said could be pushing prices up.

He expects a downturn in the market later this year but for those who can afford a £1m price tag, he said they are less likely to be affected by factors like the cost of living crisis and inflation.

Harrogate district covid rate more than doubles in 12 days

The rate of covid in the Harrogate district has almost doubled in just 12 days.

Latest data published by North Yorkshire County Council shows the seven-day rate of infection was 691 per 100,000 people on March 13.

On March 1, the rate was 343 per 100,000 people, the lowest it had been since September 2021.

The Harrogate district has the highest infection rate in North Yorkshire. Ryedale is the next highest at 632. The England average is 661.

The government no longer publishes daily data on how many people have caught the virus.

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Instead, it publishes the number of infections over the past seven days. In the Harrogate district, this was 1,207 people, a rise of almost 50% on the previous week.

NHS England figures show that the most recent covid-related death took place at Harrogate District Hospital on February 28.

There have been 232 covid-related deaths at the hospital since the pandemic started almost two years ago.