The contract for Harrogate’s Nightingale hospital has been extended for two weeks to allow for talks between the NHS and the council to continue.

The NHS contract was due to expire last Friday, July 31, with no announcement made at the time about whether it would be extended or the field hospital would be decommissioned.

Now, Harrogate Borough Council has said it is continuing talks with the NHS over the future of the site. If the hospital moves out, Harrogate Convention Centre would be able to host events and conferences over the winter, in line with covid guidelines.

A council spokesman said:

“We continue our discussions with colleagues from the NHS about their future plans, and a two week extension has been granted to the current agreement to allow those discussions to continue. However, at this stage, nothing has been decided.”

The delay is likely to cause concern among businesses in the town. Andrew Manby, a director of events company Joe Manby Ltd, previously told the Stray Ferret the NHS needed to make a decision to enable local businesses to plan for the future.

Hospitality in the town, including hotels, restaurants and bars, is heavily reliant on people visiting the convention centre for trade and public events. As the rest of the country begins to reopen, Mr Manby said Harrogate could be left behind if the Nightingale continues to occupy the whole venue.

The convention centre owners and managers are still planning ahead for future events whilst the future of the Nightingale is uncertain

The convention centre team, meanwhile, have been preparing measures to enable events to go ahead safely as soon as they are possible. Additional space could be offered free of charge, one way systems introduced, and even cameras allowing organisers to measure crowd density around the halls.

Longer days and additional dates could also be offered to event organisers to allow more people to visit over longer periods, supporting social distancing.

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The two-week extension comes after the Prime Minister announced a £3 billion fund to support the seven Nightingale hospitals until the end of March. Since then, however, the one hosted at Birmingham NEC has been scaled back, allowing the venue to resume events from October with a smaller standby hospital in another part of the site.

The Harrogate Nightingale Hospital is yet to treat any coronavirus patients, but has been used as a facility for outpatient CT scans since early June. The NHS is not paying any rent to the council for use of the convention centre.

The Stray Ferret has previously reported the convention centre is under financial strain. The council is this week due to vote on a £1m investment which would pave the way for a £46.8 million renovation project.

Strayside Sunday is our weekly political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party. 

Harrogate Borough Council has been up to its usual incompetent, vainglorious tricks this week and looks set, at the next full council meeting, to greenlight a staggering £1m – yes that is a cool £1m – consultancy project to design and plan a £46m (gasp) renovation of the loss-making lemon that is Harrogate Convention Centre.

In its 2014 town plan, the council made much of the fact that the activities of HCC contributed £57m to the town’s wider economy each year.  Now, to support its case for new investment in the centre, the council tells us that the convention centre contributes £35m to our local economy.  The explanation – a different way of compiling the figures. The lower figure produced with methodology set by an external body, Visit Britain. What a whopping discrepancy from figures the council had previously been in control of compiling. It doesn’t inspire confidence in its ability to now get the maths right with the eye-watering sums it  proposes spending.

So, having presided for years over the centre’s demise as a desirable destination conference venue, the council now seems set to absolve itself of the guilt of its previous underinvestment and mismanagement with profligate and horribly misguided public spending.  The question for Councillor Cooper is why, when you have so clearly been asleep at the wheel, should we trust you to spend a penny more, let alone the millions you plan?

Instead, the centre should be sold to specialist private enterprise, as large conference venues in Manchester and Birmingham have been, to great financial effect.  This would serve to secure the undoubted wider economic benefits of a successful conference centre for the town, away from political interference and leave the council free to focus on serving residents better.

Such a sale would yield significant and sorely needed investment capital for a truly progressive and innovative council to reimagine Harrogate town centre, or to promote independent local business, or to deliver much and never more needed services.  However, as former Harrogate Liberal Democrat MP Phil Willis said in these pages this week, the councillors involved are “amateurs”.  They should not be trusted to run any business of scale with public funds. Harrogate Council is simply unable to articulate what it is for and lurches from one expensive vanity project announcement to the next. Crescent Gardens, Knapping Mount, now this. It catches the eye, but for none of the right reasons. The sooner Harrogate council is folded into a single, devolved North Yorkshire Unitary Authority, the better. It’s fair to say that Harrogate council’s leadership don’t welcome the prospect, choosing Yorkshire Day, August 1, to announce the launch of an alternative devolution bid campaign.  And I’ll return to this subject in detail next week.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps dropped another clanger this week; heading off to a family holiday in Spain just hours before the air bridge back to the UK was closed – by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps – thereby condemning himself and his family to a 14-day quarantine on return to the United Kingdom.  Shapps arrived in Spain on Saturday and, at a virtual meeting with departmental and devolved colleagues the same day, was presented with new covid-19 infection figures that suggested a Spanish second wave.  Closing the bridge, he promptly boarded a return flight home to begin a fortnight of self-isolation.  Left in situ on their own in Spain, I suspect Mrs Shapps and their three children are not best pleased that Dad has made a bit of a prat of himself again.

The tragi-comic quality of episodes like this have been described as part of the continued “Graylingisation” of British Politics; so named by journalist Gavin Esler, in honour of poor old Chris “Failing” Grayling, who must surely go down as one of the most spectacularly incompetent British Cabinet Ministers in living memory.  The hapless MP for Epsom and Ewell has most recently been in the news for failing to secure the Chairmanship of the Parliamentary Intelligence Select Committee, despite the fact, or more likely because of it, that he was Boris Johnson’s preferred candidate.  So sure was he that he would emerge victorious, Grayling missed the manoeuvres of Julian Lewis MP (who is highly respected in parliament for his intelligence, his Intelligence expertise and his principle).  By the time Grayling realised he was being gazumped, it was too late and Mr Lewis won the Chairmanship of the committee at a canter.  In a fit of petulant and retaliatory pique, BoJo stripped Mr Lewis of the Conservative whip, at once earning the ire of parliament and reminding us all that what seems to matter in contemporary politics – nationally and locally – is not competence and probity, but patronage and blind fealty.

Finally, I’d like to recognise that, in respect of his vote, mentioned in my last column,  for the “continuity” Trade Bill and against several amendments to the bill seeking protections for the NHS from foreign trade, Ripon MP Julian Smith made a public statement this week.  Mr. Smith would still have us take as an item of faith the government’s claim that it will not sell out the NHS, but none the less I very much respect his willingness to spell out his position transparently.  It builds trust and understanding between people and their elected representatives, especially if mediated, on the record, through the fourth estate.  Trust has never been needed more.  Andrew Jones MP, why haven’t we heard from you?

That’s my Strayside Sunday.

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There is still no confirmation from the NHS over the future of the Nightingale hospital in Harrogate with just hours to go until the contract expires.

NHS England had agreed to use Harrogate Convention Centre until the end of July for its temporary field hospital.

However, with the clock ticking to the end of the agreement today, there is still no confirmation of what will happen next. A spokesperson for the NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and the Humber said:

“We are tremendously grateful to the people of Harrogate for their support and we continue to work closely with our colleagues at NHS England and Harrogate Borough Council to agree the next steps for our regional temporary hospital at Harrogate Convention Centre.”

Read more:

• Harrogate Nightingale cost £15m – but still no news on its future
• Harrogate businesses back £47m conference centre renovation

The NHS has not confirmed what arrangement is in place after midnight tonight for the hospital to be removed, should it fail to agree a new contract with the centre’s owners, Harrogate Borough Council.

The Nightingale hospital cost £15m to build and was officially opened in April by Captain Tom Moore, who has since been knighted by the Queen.

It took three weeks to build but has never been used to treat Covid patients. Instead, since early June, it has provided CT scans to help the NHS catch up on tests delayed during the height of the crisis.

Last week, calls were made for the future of the Nightingale hospital to be confirmed in order to allow local businesses to plan for the coming months. If the hospital is decommissioned, Harrogate Convention Centre will be able to reopen for events, which bring significant money to the town’s hospitality businesses.

A £46.8 million renovation of Harrogate’s Convention Centre moved a step closer this evening.

Paula Lorimer, director of the centre, told the meeting the investment was necessary for the success of the district.

A full council meeting next week will now have the final say on whether to spend £1.1 million on detailed designs, a feasibility study and full economic impact assessment of the benefits of renovation.

Ms Lorimer said:

“We need this redevelopment not only to drive more conferences, but for the district and the community.

“We run school events, remembrance events, entertainment, orchestras and community groups.

“We do a great deal to support the community and the revenue we provide goes back into the council.

“What comes into us ripples out into the district. We need a successful HCC.”

Paula Lorimer, director of Harrogate Convention Centre.

A confidential cabinet report leaked to the Stray Ferret warned the centre “will not survive” unless councillors approved the project.

Read more:

• £60m or £35m: What is the value of Harrogate Convention Centre to the district?

• District businesses’ ‘dismay’ over plans for £46.8m convention centre upgrade

• EXCLUSIVE: Leaked report reveals dire financial state of Harrogate Convention Centre

While the move to invest in the centre has been welcomed by local businesses and borough councillors, others have criticised the decision.

Eamon Parkin, Mayor of Ripon, said the investment would not benefit people in the city and twas a waste of money.

In an exclusive interview with the Stray Ferret, Phil Willis, former MP for Harrogate, called on “amateur councillors” to step back from involvement in the centre.

Harrogate Borough Council’s cabinet is due to meet at 5.30pm tonight with just one item on the agenda: the renovation of the town’s conference centre.

The council is likely to vote to proceed with plans to invest £46.8m on a major overhaul of the 40-year-old centre.

A full renovation would be one of the council’s biggest ever financial decisions. The proposal has been welcomed by the town’s business community but criticised by politicians and business representatives in Ripon, Knaresborough and Pateley Bridge, where the benefits would be felt less.

John Gallery is a former Harrogate hotelier. He is chairman of the Business Visits & Events Partnership’s research and business intelligence group, a former chair of VisitYork and a former vice-chairman of the Meetings Industry Association, He currently works as a business tourism consultant.  

We put a series of questions to Mr Gallery: 

How does Harrogate rank as an events venue?
Harrogate’s conference centre does need to raise its game as it has lost out to a number of destinations with newer facilities. The sums seem huge, but in the market it is in, it will continue to decline if it does not keep pace with, or indeed, get ahead of these shiny new competitors.

What difference would a £46.8m renovation make?
As has been seen in other locations, investment makes a difference, not only to the fortunes of the venue but also to the wider local and regional economy. The value must be judged in that wider context and not just on the profit and loss of the centre. If the centre were simply to break even then it would be doing its job as a lever for all the other benefits. Better of course, that it also makes profit so that investment can continue over the long term.

Read more:

• EXCLUSIVE: Leaked report reveals dire financial state of Harrogate Convention Centre
• District businesses dismay over plans for £46.8m convention centre upgrade

Is the council best placed to provide investment?
A private sector operator would probably be better. Ownership could remain in the public sector but hand operations to a private operator with a dynamic profit motive and things would change quickly. Having said this, Harrogate has probably relied too heavily on the conference market for the 40 years since the centre was developed. Too often there is feast or famine in terms of demand for hotels, bed and breakfasts, restaurants etc. It was like this when I first worked in the hotel business in Harrogate in the 1980s. So Harrogate Borough Council should also focus on stimulating demand with a stronger, more broad-based appeal that would attract visitors throughout the year.

£46.8m is a huge sum but is it enough to revive the centre?
It’s a large sum but in terms of the market the centre operates in, it needs it. It was controversial when it opened but some of the new plans do seem to make sense in terms of linking directly to the Royal Hall and re-imagining the space outside the main building. I don’t think it is a lost cause but £46.8m will probably be just enough to regain a strong place in the market. It needs to be a co-ordinated effort with the hotels and other accommodation providers, local travel companies and so on to make the best impact.

What should the long-term strategy be?
The centre should be the focus for events but be part of a bigger picture. The centre should work together with the Yorkshire Event Centre to attract bigger, international co-located events. Harrogate should up its game. The competition is overseas as well as Brighton, Bournemouth, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh etc. Think of Barcelona, Geneva, Frankfurt, Las Vegas, New York, Sydney, etc. Some of the money announced recently by Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, to improve transport in the north should be chased by Harrogate. Improve the direct rail link to York and Leeds for example. With the canny Yorkshire approach I am sure they can do it.

How badly has covid affected the events sector?
The £70bn per year UK events sector has been one the worst affected and it is likely that demand will not return quickly in the short-term. Harrogate can look this year at the loss of so many events at both the convention centre and the Yorkshire Event Centre due to covid but the impact this has had on the other parts of the economy in these businesses is also severe.

How should the town respond?
Counter-intuitively this may be the opportunity to pivot the centre to be part of a broader tourism offer that still attracts conferences but with greater emphasis on the leisure and pleasure offerings in the district. For example, introduce delegate incentives to bring partners and families. Be more adventurous about what can be done. It’s a spa town so it should be attracting people for this purpose as it did when it was first invented as that. The convention centre could be the hub of the town’s tourism sector and business done at the centre might steer more towards the family market at weekends and holidays and business events midweek. There are a lot of possibilities. It needs a broad vision for both business and leisure.

Harrogate business leaders have urged the local authority to press ahead tomorrow with plans for a £46.8m renovation of the town’s convention centre.

Harrogate Borough Council’s cabinet will recommend spending £1.1m on a detailed feasibility study and a full economic impact assessment, according to confidential cabinet documents seen by The Stray Ferret.

The prospect of this leading to such a huge investment in the centre of Harrogate has alarmed some people in Ripon, Knaresborough and Pateley Bridge, who fear their locations won’t reap the benefits.

But businesses in Harrogate have said investment is necessary for the survival of the town’s hotels, restaurants and bars.

Simon Cotton, managing director of the HRH Group, whose properties include the Yorkshire Hotel, the White Hart Hotel and the Fat Badger pub, said the visitor economy was “massively driven” by the centre, which is currently being used as a Nightingale hospital. He added:

“The hotels are really feeling the effects of it being closed. Some are asking whether they can afford to stay open.

“I absolutely support investment. I don’t see an alternative.”

Read more:

• EXCLUSIVE: Leaked report reveals dire financial state of Harrogate Convention Centre
• District businesses’ ‘dismay’ over plans for £46.8m convention centre upgrade

A spokesperson for Harrogate Hospitality & Tourism Association said redevelopment “will help Harrogate attract new events and drive even more business to the town, which is great for local restaurants, retailers and the hotel and accommodation sector”.

Sandra Doherty, chief executive of Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce, said the “backbone of the town” would change if Harrogate lost the centre.

But Ms Doherty said the centre was “far behind its rivals, which offer more adaptive space to include breakout rooms, the ability to offer smaller conference space and the technology to support it”. She added:

“The need to invest should be part of a rolling programme rather than years of little to no investment, which results in the big ticket option we are faced with today.”

Sara Ferguson, acting chair of the Harrogate BID, said:

“It’s vital we have a modern facility, one that will continue to attract major clients from not just within the UK, but from abroad too.”

A trade show usually held at Harrogate Convention Centre in September has announced it will stay in Harrogate, with new dates released.

With the future of the NHS Nightingale still unconfirmed, The Flooring Show has struck at deal with Yorkshire Event Centre to use its halls from February 28 to March 2 next year.

It is good news for the town’s economy, keeping visitors in the area to use hotels, guesthouses, restaurants, bars and more during the event. Organisers said they will put on a free shuttle bus for delegates to access the town’s “unique charm and plentiful amenities”.

Heather Parry, Managing Director of Yorkshire Event Centre Ltd said:

“We are delighted to be able to host The Flooring Show at the Yorkshire Event Centre and ensure that the UK’s biggest national flooring event remains here in Harrogate.

“Harrogate continues to be an ideal destination to hold events, in keeping with the latest government advice on social gatherings. We are pleased to play our part in supporting the local economy.”

Event director Alex Butler said:

The Mayor of Ripon has denounced a £46.8 million investment in Harrogate Convention Centre as a waste of money which will not benefit people elsewhere in the district.

It comes as senior councillors on the borough council will decide on Wednesday whether to spend £1 million to develop plans for the upgrade and spend £155,000 over three years to appoint a project manager.

A confidential cabinet report leaked to the Stray Ferret warns the HCC “will not survive” unless councillors approve a £46.8 million project, which includes full renovation of the venue.

Read more:

• Council considers £47m redevelopment of Harrogate Convention Centre
• EXCLUSIVE: Leaked report reveals dire financial state of Harrogate Convention Centre
• £60m or £35m: What is the value of Harrogate Convention Centre to the district?

But, the decision has raised concern among those in the wider district who feel that the investment is centred on what economic benefit can be increased in Harrogate and not in the surrounding areas.

Cllr Eamon Parkin, Mayor of Ripon.

Cllr Eamon Parkin, independent mayor of Ripon, said the city and its residents will not benefit from the investment. He added that few visit the convention centre.

Cllr Parkin said:

“It’s an obscene amount of money.

“We never benefit from it here in Ripon. In my opinion, there is never anything worth going to.

“My background is in entertainment and a building like that should be attracting big names, but there is never anything on. I think it is shambolic.”

He added that the HCC suffered from better events and entertainment being held at Leeds Arena.

Meanwhile, opposition Liberal Democrat councillors said years of underinvestment has damaged the HCC and council officials need to “bite the bullet” and invest in the venue.

Pat Marsh, leader of the Lib Dems and board member at the HCC, said the future of the centre was a stark decision between spending money on the centre and walking away from it.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Cllr Marsh said people will still want to meet at events in person and attend conferences which the HCC needed to be prepared for.

But, she added that any move to spend money on the centre needed to be value for money for taxpayers.

Cllr Marsh said:

“It is a stark decision between investing in the centre or selling it and walking away.

“It is valuable to the local economy. We have to bite the bullet and unless someone can come forward with another way, I cannot see any other way than investing for our people.

“What we need to do is make sure that there is value for money. We have got to make sure that this investment is key for the taxpayer.”

Harrogate Borough Council was approached for comment to respond to the concerns of those in the wider district, but did not respond.

However, the authority has always maintained that the venue has a benefit to the district and that the renovation will help to improve the economy.

Cllr Graham Swift, cabinet member for economic development, said last week:

“Harrogate Convention Centre makes such an important contribution to the district’s economy.

“It is central to the viability of many hundreds of businesses and our recent experience of lockdown shows just what a positive difference it makes locally.

“Redeveloping the centre will make it a much more flexible space that can attract a broader customer base and will have the potential to substantially increase its economic contribution.

“It will also enable us to create a unique facility we can all be proud of which also attracts new events to Harrogate, the district and North Yorkshire.

“I hope my fellow councillors will support this initial investment that will enable us to get the ball rolling on design and construction plans.”

The construction of Harrogate’s Nightingale hospital cost almost £15m, government contract figures reveal.

The Department of Health and Social Care spent £14.89m delivering the field hospital through Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in April.

The contract was given to Dutch construction firm BAM, an existing supplier to the NHS. The Nightingale hospital in Exeter, also constructed by BAM, had a similar set-up cost of £14.7m, while Manchester came in at £10.35m under Integrated Health Projects.

Read more: 

• EXCLUSIVE: Leaked report reveals dire financial state of Harrogate Convention Centre
• Call for clarity on Nightingale’s future as hospitality industry hangs in the balance

And with just four days to go until the end of the agreement between the NHS and Harrogate Convention Centre to use the site, no announcement has been made about whether the Nightingale hospital will remain.

Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a further £3bn of funding for the NHS to maintain the additional hospital facilities around the UK if needed over winter. However, since then, the NHS has announced it is decommissioning two of the Nightingales, in London and Birmingham.

The NEC in Birmingham is set to reopen for events on October 1, in line with changing government guidance for the industry. However, the venue’s owners have agreed with the NHS to support a small non-Covid stand-by facility until March 2021, offering additional space for routine work in case existing hospitals have to deal with a second wave of the virus over winter.

Meanwhile, London’s ExCel centre will also reopen for events, with only a small percentage of its space set aside for equipment storage for the NHS Nightingale.

Harrogate’s Nightingale hospital takes up eight of the Harrogate Convention Centre’s halls and has not yet been used to treat any Covid patients. Instead, since early June, it has been offering CT scans to help the NHS catch up with appointments delayed through the coronavirus crisis.

At the time of publication, the NHS’s agreement with Harrogate Borough Council for use of the convention centre is set to expire on Friday, with no new contract in place.

Last month, The Stray Ferret reported on preparations being made to reopen the centre for events as soon as legislation allows. Measures being made ready including deep-cleaning, introducing one-way systems, and allowing events to use more space free of charge in order to enable social distancing.

Business representatives in Knaresborough, Ripon and Pateley Bridge have reacted with “dismay” to news that Harrogate Borough Council could spend £46.8m renovating the town’s convention centre.

A confidential cabinet report leaked to The Stray Ferret has urged councillors to support the huge investment in the 40-year-old centre this week.

The news is likely to be welcomed by businesses in Harrogate but the wider district is less convinced of its merit.

Stephen Teggin, president of Knaresborough Chamber of Trade, said:

“I’m somewhat dismayed about this.

“It’s all about Harrogate. We are struggling like mad to keep Knaresborough going and attract tourists and the council finds £50m to keep something going that already loses money. It’s unfair.”

Stephen Teggin of Knaresborough Chamber of Trade called for fair investment in the district’s markets

Mr Teggin called on the council to find £50,000 a year to keep markets in Ripon and Knaresborough going.

“The markets are what pull in coaches for us, just like the convention centre does for Harrogate.

“They must spend the same amount of money, pro rata, on tourism here.”

Stephen Craggs, co-director of Ripon home appliances store G Craggs, said he wouldn’t begrudge Harrogate receiving such a huge sum but questioned the wisdom of spending it on the centre.

“That ship sailed 20 years ago. The centre is not big enough to compete with the likes of Manchester and the NEC in Birmingham. They’re flogging a dead horse.”

Mr Craggs suggested the centre would be better utilised as an indoor shopping centre.

Read more:

• EXCLUSIVE: Leaked report reveals dire financial state of Harrogate Convention Centre
• £60m or £35m: What is the value of Harrogate Convention Centre to the district?

Tim Ledbetter, chair of Nidderdale Chamber of Trade in Pateley Bridge, said it was “less than impressed” by the council’s plan.

Mr Ledbetter said there was no overall business vision for the district and added it was “debatable” whether Pateley businesses reaped any benefits from events in Harrogate.

The council has said there is a “very real risk that the venue will not survive” if councillors do not agree to press ahead with plans for renovation on Wednesday. It says the centre attracts 157,000 visitors a year, has an economic impact worth £35m and supports thousands of jobs across the district.

Stuart Holland, co-chair of Harrogate Civic Society, said the 1960s-style centre was “nothing to be proud of” architecturally and welcomed the opportunity for improvement.

Mr Holland added any renovation should be sympathetic to the society’s attempts to develop a cultural quarter in Harrogate.