Who will be running the Ripon’s refurbished and extended Leisure Centre when it eventually opens?

The question arises, with construction workers back in force at the Dallamires Lane site, where a swimming pool will be part of the £10m leisure complex commissioned by Harrogate Borough Council.

The council is currently consulting on the possibility of creating a Local Authority Controlled Company or LACC, to run leisure facilities that it owns.

As reported by The Stray Ferret, Ripon Leisure Centre is among the council-owned facilities that would be run by the LACC, if the money-saving proposals go ahead, meaning that staff currently employed directly by the local authority would transfer to the new arm’s-length company – a move which Unison’s Harrogate Local Government Branch says raises concerns about jobs and the terms and conditions that would apply to employees.

The council declined to comment when approached about Unison’s concerns.

Ripon’s new six-lane 25 metre swimming pool will replace the city’s Edwardian Spa Baths, that opened in 1905. It will be part of an extended leisure centre (see artist’s impression above) with new changing rooms, community areas, two dance studios and a ‘spin’ studio. Outside, there will be new play areas, a reconfigured car park and sheltered cycle rack.

Following a shut-down caused by the coronavirus crisis, approximately 30 workers, including management, have been back on site since 30th April and Nick Corrigan, operations director for principal contractor Willmott Dixon, said:

“Work started safely in accordance with public health guidelines and adhering to the Construction Leadership Council’s Site Operating Procedures, to ensure the safety and welfare of everyone on site.”

Last week, construction was among the sectors for which the government encouraged workers to resume work, as it revised its lockdown guidance.

Construction sites have to be operated following strict procedures including travel to work, site access and egress, social distancing of employees, hygiene, use of canteens and toilet facilities.

Heavy-duty machinery and plenty of workers are on the Stray as part of drainage and reseeding works to restore the park.

Harrogate Borough Council estimates that the work will cost close to £130,000 and that it will be complete by this September.

Yorkshire 2019, the organisers of the UCI Road World Championships, has agreed to pay £35,500 to help restore the Stray.

However, two local contractors have criticised the council for outsourcing the work to Glendale Services.

Some landlords in the Harrogate district have criticised the borough council’s plan to give commercial tenants free rent during the coronavirus pandemic.

The authority made the decision back in March as part of its response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Businesses which rent from the council were given three months free rent and could also apply for emergency grants from the government.

While other authorities offered local companies in their area rent deferrals, the borough council decided to give businesses in the district a period of rent for free.

At the time, a joint statement from chief executive Wallace Sampson and council leader Richard Cooper said the council wanted to encourage others to offer support.

It said: “Our commercial tenants will be offered three months’ rent free and we’ll be doing all that we can to encourage other landlords in the district to consider what support they can offer their tenants.”

But some landlords in the district have described the decision as “unnecessary” and pointed to the fact that the authority has estimated a £15 million shortfall in its budget.

John Warren, a housing landlord in Ripon, said while some business will need help, the cost is going to eventually have an impact on the taxpayer. He said:

“My concern is as a council taxpayer.

“We have a council which is giving money away perhaps unnecessarily and no doubt in 12 months time council tax will be put up.

“I am sure they have done it for the best of reasons, but when times are hard you have to think of the greater good which is the council taxpayer.”

Mr Warren contacted The Stray Ferret and said he was unhappy after it was revealed that the borough council is expecting a shortfall of £15 million and may have to furlough some staff to address the funding gap.

Another landlord, who did not wish to be named, said: “It does not seem fair, it will screw the market.”

In response to an e-mail from Mr Warren, Councillor Margaret Atkinson, member for Fountains and Ripley, said the authority was doing all it can to support local business.

“The council has to do everything it can to help these businesses on the instructions of the government,” she said.

“The government has given Harrogate council over £40 million to issue grants of £10,000 to small businesses that meet – 1) They are in the Harrogate district, 2) They qualify for small business rate relief or rural rate relief and 3) the business occupies the property.

“They have already had over 2,000 applications.”

However, Mr Warren described Councillor Atkinson’s response to his concerns as “very unsatisfactory”.

Meanwhile, Councillor Pat Marsh, Leader of the Liberal Democrats group on the borough council, said she thought the decision was rushed.

“I think in hindsight it was maybe a decision which should have been tempered,” she said.

“For me, I think it was a bit of a rushed decision that I wish I had given more thought.”

Harrogate Borough Council has been approached for comment but had not responded at the time of publication.

Harrogate Convention Centre is not being paid any rent by the NHS for its use of halls as a temporary Nightingale hospital.

Since construction began in late March, and until the end of June, rent is not payable to the convention centre or its owner, Harrogate Borough Council.

Staff from the convention centre, as well as HBC’s property services, estates and ICT departments, have supported the transformation of the centre into the Nightingale hospital ready to be handed over and officially opened on April 21st. Documents due to be discussed by the council’s cabinet tomorrow say:

“The contract is initially in place until the end of June 2020 and work is underway to understand whether that may be extended.

“The contract does not provide for rent to be paid during the NHS occupation up to the end of June, as no planned events were being held during this period. However, should the agreement be extended there is provision for compensation in the event of the cancellation of future events.”

Harrogate Convention Centre has not commented on whether its staffing, utility and other costs are being covered, or on arrangements from July onwards. Harrogate Borough Council has also declined to comment.

The Nightingale hospital is not currently in use, but is on stand-by in case existing hospitals in Yorkshire and the Humber are unable to cope with the number of Covid-19 cases.

It has 500 beds and has occupied eight of the centre’s halls. Staff who were trained on site during April have since returned to their usual workplaces elsewhere in Yorkshire.

Further questions have been raised about the role of councils on Harrogate BID after outgoing board members said their plans were thwarted by local authorities.

After four board members including the chairman resigned last week, two of those behind the critical resignation letter have spoken out further.

Rob Spencer, who runs Townhouse Design, said he grew frustrated that the hard work of board members came to nothing when they tried to get the council to act or agree to their plans. He said:

“One of the things I’m passionate about is having our town looking great to welcome visitors and it certainly doesn’t look as good at the moment as it has done previously. Nobody can afford to be complacent.

“The town hasn’t been looked after to the standard it has been previously, yet council tax has gone up. When we presented that to the council members they were very defensive and very keen to get the BID to spend money from doing additional things to embellish the town or attract people but it shouldn’t be having to undertake basic duties to keep it to a reasonable level.

“It was met quite often with a lot of resistance when it was mentioned to council members on the BID. They would refer to other towns and say Harrogate was better and you would think, ‘that’s not relevant’.

“With our potential and history to encourage visitors, we do have a duty [to maintain a high standard] because Harrogate is a beautiful town and a spa town and quite unique. You can’t afford to think it’s going to stay successful because of that historic interest.”

His comments were echoed by fellow signatory Chris Bentley, of Hornbeam Park Developments, who said: “One of the board members volunteered to liaise with the council over street cleaning. They couldn’t get that any further forward. Now they’re trying to do it with third-party cleaners which brings another level of bureaucracy.”

Harrogate BID says it is working on initiatives to draw people back to town once the lockdown is lifted

The four board members who resigned last week were appointed after applying for the positions at the end of 2019, hoping to bring more positive action on behalf of local businesses. It followed after a difficult first year for the BID, which saw numerous board members step down and the first manager departing after less than four months in post. Mr Spencer said:

“I wanted to do some good and help the town. I had mixed reasons for wanting to come out. I run a small business and I’m involved in that day-to-day and that has to come first. Particularly at the moment, that’s more crucial than ever.”

‘Still a great town’

Last week, following their resignations, Harrogate BID issued a statement saying it was aware of the challenges facing the town and was dedicated to making improvements for the benefit of all its levy payers.

Both Mr Spencer and Mr Bentley praised the hard work of the remaining board members and some of the initiatives they had proposed, particularly to make the town centre as vibrant as possible during the run-up to Christmas, should social distancing allow.

But they said at a time when businesses were facing unprecedented challenges, they had to focus on areas where they could make the most difference, which meant spending time on their own businesses. Mr Spencer added:

“We’re still a great town and there are some great businesses. We’re in unprecedented times and I’m confident things will return and bounce back.

“Everybody in their businesses has to work very hard. When we’re investing in our businesses, we want to know that the council are doing the right things with people’s council tax and are not complacent about things.”

Harrogate Borough Council declined to comment on its involvement with the BID. The Stray Ferret approached North Yorkshire County Council for a comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.

Harrogate BID was established in the course of 2018 with the aim of giving businesses a greater say in the way their town developed.

It was always supposed to be business-led – a fundamental rule of all BIDs is that they cannot be used to replace the work of local authorities. The blurring of the lines between the BID, Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council, however, lies at the heart of today’s resignations.

Harrogate BID is a limited company and is funded through a levy that is paid by all the business rate payers within a designated BID area, in addition to the business rates bill.  The levy in Harrogate’s case earns the BID more than £500,000 a year.

Because its properties fall within the BID area, Harrogate Borough Council is a significant contributor to that income, and its leader, Coun Richard Cooper, sits on the BID board alongside NYCC’s corporate director for business and environmental services, David Bowe. With Sgt Alex Sellars of North Yorkshire Police, they fill the three public sector positions on the board of 15.

Local authority representation is recommended in the government’s best practice advice to BIDs. It says:

“It is essential that you establish a positive relationship with your Local Authority. It is important you identify a key contact at the authority and keep them informed of progress at every stage.

“An authority will have its own plans for the area and will need to appreciate the benefits to businesses and the community of having a BID. It will want to be assured that the BID arrangements complement and preferably enhance the local authority’s proposals.

“Ideally the local authority will have a seat on the BID Board. The authority and BID will need to agree the additional services the BID intends to deliver.”

According to the four who resigned today, however, that relationship has hampered Harrogate BID’s ability to progress its plans for the benefit of its levy payers. After today’s resignations, all three of the board’s positions for independent businesses are vacant.

Changes to the board

In the spring of 2019 in the BID’s first newsletter, the then chairman, John Fox, talked of “exciting projects” to help attract more footfall to Harrogate.

However, in the months that passed, the BID struggled to find a way of working: only three of the current 15 board members have been in place since this time last year. John Fox stepped down at the end of 2019 and a manager appointed last July left the post within four months.

Today’s letter of resignation by its new chairman – only appointed in March – and three other board members, all from the private sector, shows how frustrated and disempowered they felt at not being able to get things done – how BID proposals were either resisted or subject to “endless debate” about the local authorities’ work. There were arguments too over what was the council’s responsibility and what was the BID’s.

The Harrogate BID website says the aim of the BID is to “empower local businesses to tackle local issues…” Today’s letter makes clear that the Chairman and directors who resigned have no faith in the ability of the BID to tackle Harrogate’s issues – which, they say, run much deeper than its board is willing to admit.

Interim BID manager, Simon Kent

Earlier this week, the new interim BID manager, Simon Kent, told The Stray Ferret he wanted “to turn conversations and plans into real actions” and outlined its priorities. Mr Kent’s job to achieve those goals got a whole load more difficult today.

There are questions now for the two local authorities about how they have worked with the BID and how they can answer the criticism levied at them in the resignation letter.

Concluding their letter with a warning that Harrogate was struggling before the current lockdown, the chairman and directors say “the reality of the situation is becoming very serious indeed” for Harrogate town centre. There is huge pressure now on remaining board members to make levy payers feel their contribution was worth it and for the BID, despite the current circumstances, to deliver some meaningful results.

Harrogate Borough Council’s cabinet will hold its first-ever virtual meeting next week on Wednesday, May 6.

All committee, council, and cabinet meetings had been suspended since the coronavirus lockdown in March.

This is because of laws which said meetings at which decisions are made, and votes taken, had to happen face to face with elected members all at the same location.

The government temporarily changed the rules to enable council meetings to take place from April 4 and other councils across the country have been taking advantage of that.

Now Harrogate’s councillors will use Microsoft Teams for the 5.30pm meeting, and it will be combined with a live stream so the meeting can be followed on the council’s YouTube channel.

Graham Swift, cabinet member with responsibility for democratic services, said:

“We have managed to conduct business continuously throughout the pandemic but larger decision making that engages council, cabinet or committee had to be postponed. However, now that the government has introduced new legislation to permit remote meetings, we can get back to conducting our committee decisions collectively, and in public.I am grateful to our democratic services and ICT teams for the work they’ve done to make this happen.”

Yorkshire 2019, the organisers of the UCI Road World Championships, has agreed to pay £35,500 to help restore the Stray, with the council leader promising that it will be back “better than ever” in September.

Harrogate Borough Council has appointed contractor Glendale Services to start this week. They will start by breaking up and aerating the affected soil as well as treating the grass with a spray that will turn it blue temporarily.

The council said grass will be left for two weeks for the treatment to take effect before the contractors return to undertake rolling, sub-soiling, and further harrowing in preparation for seeding over a week. Seeding will take place at the end of May.

To avoid further disruption, workers will fence off badly affected areas, including the footpaths.

They will also fix uneven flagstones and address the historical drainage issues at the corner of West Park and Otley Road.

Overall, the council believes that the works will cost £129,971, broken down into:

• £38,105 for repairs to grassed areas of West Park Stray
• £65,385 for pavement, footpaths, Heras fencing, bedding and verge repairs, reinstatement of bins and benches plus any additional council work
• £20,156 to fix longstanding drainage issues
• £6,325 project management and delivery costs

That figure is based on estimates provided by the contractors with the council saying the costs for footpaths is covered by the “existing programmes of works that were held off until after the event.”

Harrogate Borough Council released these details a day after an exclusive report from the Stray Ferret which revealed that the council has set aside £150,000 for Stray repair work this year on top of the £51,000 already spent

Councillor Richard Cooper, leader of Harrogate Borough Council, said:

“It is great to see work start on West Park Stray this week. We hope, by the autumn, it will be returned to its former glory before it was affected by one of the wettest autumns since the 1970s. We have decided to use opportunity to address the historic drainage issues at the corner of Otley Road and West Park. This has been an issue and frustration to local residents for a number of years and I’m pleased to announce this is also being addressed.”

The Stray Ferret can reveal that Harrogate Borough Council will spend more than £200,000 on the Stray’s restoration after the 2019 UCI Road World Championships.

The council confirmed it has set aside “revenue expenditure of £150,000 or more” this financial year for the work. That’s on top of the £51,000 it had already spent up to the end of January this year.

Lawnmowers are out on the Stray today with scarifying and re-seeding work starting this week. The restoration work is set to continue until autumn – a year on from when the championships started.

One thing that is unclear is who will foot the restoration bill. It could be Harrogate Borough Council and so ultimately the council taxpayers, Yorkshire 2019 Ltd which was set up to run the event, or their insurers.

The Stray in March this year

What has the council done to restore the Stray?

By the end of January, the council had spent £51,000 on repair work, re-seeding on the West Park section and installing protective netting.

As of February, it had repaired damaged verges, restored bedding, repaired and opened all footpaths, and installed netting around waterlogged and unsafe areas.

The council has not released details of its restoration work since then or exactly what the £150,000 will be spent on. When asked for an update on progress, a council spokesperson said:

“We are addressing the historical drainage issues in the top corner of West Park Stray as well as re-seeding work.”

As well as repairing the damage, the work could include addressing the long-standing problem of flooding on West Park Stray, particularly if future events are being considered. Although, the council has said it is not taking bookings for the Stray until 2021.

The Stray back in October after the championships. Photo: The Stray Defence Association

There has been praise for Harrogate Borough Council over its handling of emergency business grants to keep firms afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.

A few weeks after the Government told Harrogate’s council to distribute £50 million to its 4,200 eligible businesses it has handed out £40 million, or 80%.

So far, the council has sent cash payments of £10,000 or £25,000 to 3,000 businesses.

The government released figures on Sunday to show councils across the country have been handling the business grants, with Harrogate Borough Council rated quite highly.

Of the 314 councils named in the document, Harrogate was in 88th place for the percentage of eligible businesses it had sent loans.

At that time, it had sent out £32,820,000 to 2697 businesses, which works out at 64%. That has now risen to £40 million and 80%.

Some councils had already handed out 100% of their business grants by that point but well over a hundred had only handed out 50%, which has attracted some criticism.

One of those businesses is run by photographer Paula Beaumont, who applied for a £10,000 grant after the coronavirus lockdown meant her work dried up:

“My last wedding was on the March 20. There was meant to be 100 people there and there ended up being six. The process of applying for a grant was absolutely fantastic. I applied on March 27, I had an email on April 3 to say my application had been accepted and the money was in my bank by the April 8. You have no idea how helpful this is, I can now breathe a bit.”

Photographer Paula Beaumont.

Stuart Wright, Business Growth Specialist, who has been working with a number of Harrogate businesses during the crisis said:

“I think they have done a fantastic job. My Harrogate based clients would all agree, I’m sure. Very efficient and prompt which has been brilliant for helping to create a really positive mood amongst folk who were quite panicked. Business was stressful enough with the uncertainty without the added pressure of having to jump through hoops and red tape to access the grant, so dealing with this in the way that they have has given my clients the headspace to steady their ships and create plans to come out of lockdown even stronger than they were before.”

Business Growth Specialist Stuart Wright.

Harrogate Borough Council’s leader Richard Cooper said they’re now focusing on the complex cases:

 We suspect there may be one or two companies or organisations who are eligible for the support but that haven’t come forward.  If you are a business owner in the retail, leisure or hospitality trade, please make sure you have a look at our grants information page. Our focus now is on the more complicated claims which we are working through.”