Harrogate council chief receives OBE medal at Windsor Castle

Harrogate Borough Council chief executive Wallace Sampson collected his OBE medal yesterday from Prince Charles.

Mr Sampson was awarded the OBE in the 2019 New Year’s Honours list for services to business and the community in Yorkshire, but he had been unable to receive the award in person due to covid restrictions.

He was presented with a medal by the Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle.

Mr Sampson has worked in local government for over 35 years and became chief executive of Harrogate Borough Council in 2008. He was previously a director at Bradford Council for eight years where he helped to support regeneration programmes in some of the city’s most deprived communities.

Mr Sampson said the day was made “extra special” as he was accompanied by his proud mum.

“I was honoured to attend the investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle to receive the OBE award from HRH the Prince of Wales. It was an occasion that will live with me for the rest of my life, made extra special by the fact that I was accompanied by my very proud mother.”

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£10.9m Harrogate Station Gateway will ‘boost business’

The £10.9 million Station Gateway will boost Harrogate businesses by enhancing the town centre, according to those leading the scheme.

An online consultation event last night gave people the first chance to ask questions about the scheme, which aims to transform the area around the bus and train stations and encourage more people to walk and cycle, since the latest designs were revealed this week.

The current proposals would see traffic on Station Parade reduced to single lane and James Street pedestrianised between Princes Square and Station Parade.

Work could begin next summer and last up to a year, causing major disruption to the town centre and reduced parking, which concerns some businesses still trying to recover from covid.

In response to a question about what assessment had been made about the impact of the scheme on businesses, Matthew Roberts, economy and transport officer at Harrogate Borough Council, said it was a case of “short-term disruption for long-term gain”.

He said case studies from similar schemes had shown they could boost trade by up to 40 per cent by making the town centre more attractive and making it easier to access for non-car users.  Mr Roberts said:

“Behaviours are changing and the town needs to evolve with it.

“The mixture of case study evidence and local evidence has led me to believe this will firmly benefit the town’s economy.”

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In a video message to the event, county councillor Don Mackenzie, executive member for access at North Yorkshire County Council, which is leading on the scheme, said the Station Gateway would provide a “great economic boost to the town centre but also boost sustainable travel”.

Chris Harris, who is leading the design team on the project, said changes to James Street would “significantly the feel of the street for people shopping and moving around on foot” and also enable more features such as trees and plants.

He said the scheme would also “make more of a feature” of the Victoria monument by making it more visible.

Mr Harris added the project had a “tight window” but there was “still an opportunity to update things as we move forward”.

What happens next?

A second online consultation event will be held from 6pm to 7pm on Thursday next week.

People can meet members of the project team face-to-face to discuss the plans at the Victoria Shopping Centre on October 27, October 29 and November 5. There is also a business-only event on November 1.

People can also fill in a form online giving feedback.

Details of the consultation, which runs until November 12, are available here.

Councillor Mackenzie will discuss the scheme with Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce on November 8.

Following the consultation, a final business case will be prepared before approval is sought to deliver the schemes.

What is the Harrogate Station Gateway?

The Harrogate scheme is one of three projects worth a combined £42m in Harrogate, Skipton and Selby funded by the Leeds City Region Transforming Cities Fund, which encourages cycling and walking.

They are being delivered in partnership by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council, Craven District Council and Selby District Council.

It is anticipated that work in Harrogate will begin by the middle of next year.

Second solar farm plan unveiled in South Stainley

Developers are consulting on proposals for another solar farm in South Stainley 

Infraland Ltd and Boultbee Brooks Renewable Energy Ltd have unveiled plans for a farm on 19 hectares of land between South Stainley and Wormald Green.

The proposals would see photovoltaic panels laid out in rows running east to west on the site. The plan has yet to be submitted to Harrogate Borough Council.

According to the plans, the site would generate 10 megawatts of power which would be able to power up to 3,000 homes.

The developer said in its proposal:

“The solar panels will be fixed on a pile-driven metal mounting frame securely fixed to the ground with posts. The height of the panels will be at a maximum of 3.087 meters from ground level.

“The panels will be installed at around 25 degrees from the horizontal, around 5.0m apart and would be fixed in that orientation.”

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LanPro, planning agent for the developers, is holding a consultation on the proposal online until October 24. Residents can give their views on the plan here.

Meanwhile, South Stainley with Clayton parish is set to host a meeting on November 1 to discuss how to respond to the solar farm.

It follows Harrogate Borough Council approving a similar development in the village in August.

Elgin Energy were given permission to build a 200-acre solar farm, despite concerns from villagers about the loss of green fields and agricultural land.

Green light for 1,000 solar panels on Harrogate Convention Centre roof

More than 1,000 solar panels are to be installed on top of Harrogate Convention Centre in a bid to reduce the building’s carbon footprint.

Harrogate Borough Council has approved its own plans for 1,077 solar panels on several buildings at the venue, which is the largest energy consumer of all buildings in the district.

The solar panels will save 24 tonnes of Co2 each year and be paid for with £375,000 of decarbonisation funding from the government.

Energy efficient lighting, air source heat pumps and insulation will also be installed at the venue, which hosted a business conference event as part of the first Harrogate Climate Action Festival on Friday.

A council spokesperson said:

“The grant is enabling the delivery of a fully-funded carbon reduction scheme, supporting the proactive delivery of our carbon reduction strategy and reducing the council’s annual carbon emissions by 70 tonnes per year.”

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Using cash from the same decarbonisation scheme, 420 solar panels and air source heat pumps will also be installed at the Hydro swimming pool in Harrogate in a move that could reduce the venue’s annual Co2 emissions by 577 tonnes.

Harrogate District Hospital also received £14m to reduce its carbon footprint by 25%, while North Yorkshire County Council was awarded just under £2m to improve the efficiency of its buildings.

How the solar panels will look on top of the Harrogate Convention Centre.

Meanwhile, Harrogate Borough Council is pushing ahead with plans for a potential £47m redevelopment of Harrogate Convention Centre after warning it may not survive without major investment.

The 40-year-old venue was struggling financially before the pandemic and was used as a 500-bed NHS Nightingale hospital for almost a year.

It did not treat a single coronavirus patient and the facility was dismantled earlier this year.

Harrogate thalidomide campaigner defends animal testing firm Labcorp

A Harrogate thalidomide campaigner has defended local firm Labcorp Drug Development in the row over animal testing.

Guy Tweedy said if thalidomide had been tested on animals in the 1950s, thousands of people such as himself might have been spared birth defects caused by the drug.

Mr Tweedy, who is one of 447 beneficiaries of the Thalidomide Trust, as well as a trustee of Harrogate-based charity Disability Action Yorkshire, said thalidomide was barely tested before it went on sale.

He added:

“If there had been better testing on animals before thalidomide came out in the UK between 1958 and 1962, it might have shown they could have been born with deformities, which would have prevented the same thing happening in humans.”

Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservative MP Andrew Jones is lobbying the government to help the company, previously called Covance, to expand. About a third of the American firm Labcorp’s 4,000 UK staff are based in Harrogate.

The site on Otley Road is frequently targeted by animal protestors. Harrogate Borough Council heard this month that live animals, including Beagle puppies, non-human primates. rabbits, mice and mini-pigs are experimented on in Harrogate.

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Cllr Victoria Oldham, the Conservative representative for Washburn, recently called for a moratorium on animal testing in the Harrogate district.

Her motion was rejected but councillors did agree to visit the site.

Mr Tweedy said he was an animal lover with several pets, including a dog and rabbits, but he nevertheless understood the necessity of testing for non-cosmetic purposes.

“At the end of the day they are doing tests for scientific purposes. If they had done the same for thalidomide I wouldn’t still be campaigning 60 years later.”

Primarily marketed under the brand name Distaval, thalidomide was sold to pregnant mothers in the UK for less than four years before it was withdrawn.

New designs of Harrogate town centre after £10.9m project revealed

James Street will be partly pedestrianised and Station Parade reduced to single lane traffic in updated designs published today for the £10.9m Harrogate Station Gateway project.

The ambitious scheme aims to encourage cycling and walking and make the town centre more attractive. It has led to concerns from businesses about loss of parking and slower traffic, which could deter shoppers.

Today’s proposals, which are based on previous consultation feedback, say full pedestrianisation of James Street received the strongest public support but this had “the potential to significantly delay the delivery of the scheme”, which could jeopardise funding.

“As such, full pedestrianisation is not considered viable at this time.

“We have therefore decided to progress with a part-time pedestrianisation proposal which restricts vehicle access to ‘loading only’ and at limited times.”

It means non-delivery traffic will be prohibited from Princes Square to Station Parade on James Street at all times.

Today’s proposals say the potential to make all of James Street fully pedestrianised in future “would remain an option”.

How the roundabout near the Odeon would look.

Station Parade reduced to single lane

Plans to make Station Parade single lane and create a cycle lane will go ahead as intended.

Improvements to Station Square and the One Arch underpass will be taken forward and the Victoria Monument will remain in its current location after the initial consultation generated a “mixed response” to the idea of relocating it.

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Don Mackenzie, executive member for access at North Yorkshire County Council, told the Stray Ferret a lot of people instinctively didn’t like change but the scheme would make Harrogate town centre a more pleasant place for people to visit using all forms of transport.

He said the advice he’d received suggested peak afternoon travel time on the southbound A61 would be extended by just 53 seconds if the northern section of Station Parade is reduced to single lane.

Cllr Mackenzie said:

“I believe that small increase in travel time is well worth other improvements that will make the gateway area to Harrogate far more attractive.”

Station Gateway design

An artists’s impression of how the junction of Station Parade and James Street will look.

What is the Station Gateway scheme?

Today marks the start of the latest round of consultation on the the Harrogate scheme, which is one of three projects worth a combined £42m in the pipeline for Harrogate, Skipton and Selby.

They are being delivered in partnership by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council, Craven District Council and Selby District Council.

The schemes are being funded by the Leeds City Region Transforming Cities Fund, which aims to “transform gateways to towns and cities across the region by making it easier to walk, cycle and use public transport”.

Online events will take place from 6pm until 7pm on October 21 and October 28 for the Harrogate scheme.

Members of the project team will be available to discuss the initiative at the Victoria Shopping Centre on October, 29 October and November 5. A business-only meeting is scheduled for November 1.

Following this consultation, which ends on November 12, a final business case will be prepared before approval is sought to deliver the schemes.

It is anticipated that work will begin by mid-2022 and be completed by March 2023.

A video showing the proposed changes is available here.

You can take part in the online consultation here.

 

 

Harrogate Starbucks: no agreement on appeal costs

No agreement has been reached over the appeal costs for a new Starbucks drive-thru on Harrogate’s Wetherby Road.

Euro Garages, the developer behind the coffee shop, took Harrogate Borough Council to appeal over its decision to refuse the proposal.

The government’s Planning Inspector approved the development in July and also awarded costs against the council.

Euro Garages said the authority “demonstrated unreasonable behaviour” when refusing the application.

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However, a spokesperson for the council said an agreement had yet to be reached over appeal costs.

In May, council bosses decided not to challenge the appeal over concerns that losing risked legal costs of over £50,000.

Work on the drive-thru has since started and diggers have moved in to demolish the former dental surgery which will make way for the Starbucks.

When complete, there will be a coffee shop with 19 car parking spaces close to the Woodlands junction on the busy road.

New twist in bitter fight over derelict Kirkby Malzeard pub

The acrimonious struggle over the former Henry Jenkins Inn in Kirkby Malzeard has taken a new twist.

Last week campaigners handed a 500-plus name petition to Harrogate Borough Council calling for part of the closed-down and derelict premises to be re-listed as an asset of community value (ACV).

But now Justin Claybourn has taken the property off the market and informed the Henry Jenkins Community Pub campaign group (HJCP) he will not sell to them ‘at any time or any price’.

Mr Claybourn, whose successful planning appeal in December 2020 gives him permission to create a single dwelling in the part of the building that he owns, is now going to press ahead with plans to convert it to residential use and create a family holiday home.

Campaigners to save the Henry Jenkins pub in Kirkby Malzeard, who were in Harrogate yesterday.

Campaigners collecting names for their petition in Harrogate.

His business associate and agent David Fielder, who owns the pub group Fielder Holdings, told the Stray Ferret:

“Since 2018 Mr Claybourn has owned the old joiner’s shop, previously known as the eastern annex of the Henry Jenkins.

“The pub closed more than 10 years ago and Mr Claybourn has become increasingly annoyed with the campaign group’s actions, in particular their third attempt to have his property listed as an ACV even after his successful planning appeal.

“He directly holds HJCP responsible for the cost of defending the three ACV applications but further in his opinion the cost of his planning appeal. These costs exceed £25,000.”

Mr Fielder added:

“Over the past 10 years, nobody, including HJCP, has made a bid meeting the criteria that the property was on offer for — i.e. backed by hard cash, not pledges.

“With this in mind, following the latest move by HJCP, my client asked me to formally instruct them that his property has been removed from sale and will not return to the market.

“I was also instructed to advise them that due to their actions and costs they have made Mr Claybourn incur he would never consider a sale of his property at any time or at any price to HJCP.”

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Richard Sadler, press spokesman for the Henry Jenkins Community Pub group, said:

“This statement comes as no surprise to us and changes nothing:  The only reason the Henry Jenkins has stood empty for the last 10 years is that Mr Fielder — and latterly his associate Mr Claybourn — have refused to sell it to anyone.

“We have submitted to the council statements from three prospective private buyers who wanted to buy and refurbish it as a pub and restaurant — including a Michelin two-star trained chef —  but they were told either that the asking price had been vastly inflated or that the pub had been sold.

“The Henry Jenkins Community Pub group has since made five offers to buy the pub at or above the price set by an independent valuer – but all these offers have been refused.”

“Despite this – and despite previous statements by Mr Fielder saying he would never sell the pub to us – we remain open and willing to discuss terms for a purchase of the Henry Jenkins as a community facility.”

 

 

Council accused of ‘whitewash’ over investigation into ‘massaged’ planning report

Campaigners who spent 25 years fighting plans for a motorway service station have accused Harrogate Borough Council of a “whitewash” after it published its findings into an investigation.

The council launched the probe after it emerged a planning officer sent emails saying he “massaged” a key report on the A1(M) service station near Kirby Hill which was approved at appeal in April despite seven previous refusals since 1997.

A council statement previously said the investigation concluded “no irregularities” took place – and the findings have now been revealed in full to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The findings say the reference to “massaging” was “simply a poor choice of wording” and was in the context that the officer had amended the landscaping report to ensure it was “acceptable”.

However, the two planning officers involved in the emails were not interviewed as they had left the council and their previous messages were also deleted as “standard practice” to manage storage limits.

‘Deeply suspicious and disturbing’

Gareth Owens, chairman of campaign group Kirby Hill RAMS (Residents Against Motorway Services), said: 

“This so-called investigation and report amounts to a council whitewash of a deeply suspicious and disturbing episode in the planning department.

“This was not an independent investigation therefore – it was the planning department investigating itself.

“Little wonder, then, that the report concludes there were ‘no irregularities’.

“We now need a thorough, independent investigation of this matter and I call on the council to instigate one.”

The landscape report presented to councillors is significant because it said the impact of the service station on the area was “not substantive”.

This assessment was described by campaigners as a “complete U-turn” from a previous council report which warned the plans would cause “significant harm”.

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Despite a recommendation of approval from officers, members of the council’s planning committee still rejected the service station in November 2019.

However, campaigners believe the officer’s recommendation and “massaged” landscaping report still had a major impact on the outcome of the appeal which followed.

Mr Owens said:

“Members of the planning committee should remain very concerned about officers’ behaviour in this matter, particularly since the inspector at the public inquiry went along with the ‘massaged’ recommendation.”

Mr Ownes also raised questions over a verbal statement made by the planning officer to councillors.

The investigation findings state it was “unclear” whether the officer said “two landscape officers have judged the proposal and the proposal did not consider it caused significant harm” as this was not recorded in a transcript.

Gareth Owens, chair of the Kirby Hill RAMS, speaking against the application at Harrogate Borough Council’s planning committee in 2019. Picture: Kirby Hill RAMS

However, an audio recording of the meeting shared by Mr Owens reveals the officer did say those words.

Mr Owens said: 

“The evidence of this recording shows that the planning committee was misled.

“We feel that the investigator owes Kirby Hill RAMS an apology for trying to cover this up by stating as fact in their report that ‘the transcript has not accurately recorded the statement’ when they had not even listened to the recording.

“This concern could of course have been discussed with us during the investigation. It was not.”

‘Poor choice of wording’

The investigation was headed by Kathryn Daly, head of place shaping and economic growth at the council, who concluded:

“The use of the word ‘massaged’ in the email sent by the principal landscape officer to the planning officer is far from ideal, but my conclusion is that this was simply a poor choice of wording.

“For completeness, it would have been helpful to see whether there were additional emails between the two officers. However, corporate restrictions on Outlook storage mean that it is standard practice to delete historic emails.

“If this deletion is not done, the email account quickly goes above the storage limit and cannot be used.”

A council statement also previously said: 

“We can confirm that, following allegations that a report was ‘massaged’, an investigation was carried out.

“This investigation found no irregularities in the preparation of the officer report for the planning committee.

“As was stated at the time, officer recommendations are fair and impartial, and carefully considered against local and national planning policy, case law, consultation and anything else considered to be ‘material’ to the decision.”

Former Ripon pub to be converted into apartments

A former Ripon pub is to be converted into apartments.

The proposals, submitted by Leeds-based NRG Homes (Yorkshire) Ltd, will see the former Ship Inn, in Bondgate, converted into five apartments with car parking.

The plan will also see a further five homes built next to the former public house.

Harrogate Borough Council has given the go-ahead for the development.

As part of the proposal, five two-bed apartments, two three-bed houses and two two-bedroom homes will be built.

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Fourteen car parking spaces will also be provided.

The developer said in documents submitted to the council that the new homes will help to benefit “local enterprises in Ripon”.

It said:

“The site is now better suited for residential use, which help bring a more appropriate residential feel for the community, limited to scale and type which does not cause nuisance.

“The provision of new residents will potentially have some benefit to local enterprises and will add to and consolidate the general activity of Ripon.”