Micah Richards recalls awkward encounter with Gareth Southgate in Harrogate coffee shopHarrogate council’s Tory leaders take parting swipe at Gary Lineker and BBC

Harrogate Borough Council‘s Conservative leaders took a parting swipe at the BBC, Gary Lineker and local media at the final cabinet meeting last night.

The council will be abolished in just over a week’s time to make way for the new North Yorkshire Council.

The cabinet met to accept a £2.5 million grant from central government to help buy 21 homes for Afghan and Ukrainian refugees, as reported last week.

Graham Swift, deputy leader of the council, said:

“One of the frustrating things about being a councillor in Harrogate is the amazing good things that are done by the Conservative government.

“This is another example, £100 million putting into the aid of people who really need it most and yet is ignored by the Gary Linekers of the world, the BBC of the world and media organisations in Harrogate who aspire to operate under the same principles of the BBC.”

Cllr Swift, who lost to Liberal Democrat Peter Lacey in his bid to represent Coppice Valley and Duchy division on North Yorkshire Council, added:

“I think it’s just fantastic that these sort of things are carried out. “

Council leader Richard Cooper, who did not stand for election to the new council, nodded in support of Cllr Swift’s comments and replied by saying what the government does “dun’t fit with the narrative sometime”.

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Cllr Mike Chambers, the cabinet member for housing and safer communities, added:

“It’s well known that Harrogate Borough Council over the years has always stood by those people who are in greater need than many of us.”

The money will come from the government’s Local Authority Housing Fund, which is a £500 million grant fund launched enabling English councils to provide housing for those unable to find accommodation.

In the Harrogate district, just over £2 million will go towards buying 19 homes for Ukrainians and just under £500,000 will help buy two larger four-bedroom homes for Afghan families currently in temporary accommodation.