Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. See below for details on how to contribute.
Harrogate is in trouble and needs to wake up
I can only say what I see. I am originally from Birmingham and still have my business there. We lived in Cottingley, near Bradford for 11 years before moving to Starbeck in 2018 to be near our daughter and grandkids.
Since living here, I don’t see any difference between Harrogate, Bradford or Birmingham. In fact, Starbeck is a lot worse. It’s certainly the worst place we have lived in for over 40 years and most of that time was around Birmingham, including Erdington, Longbridge and Bournville — where my business is.
The drug problem here is horrific (like everywhere), and almost everywhere I can smell pot smoking. Harrogate is overcrowded, and the roads into the town are ridiculously busy, as bad as the big cities, mainly due to the poor planning of the town over the decades.
I lived in Redditch in 1989-1990 and Harrogate compares to that time, but probably worse. Prospect Road area is now renowned for drugs, antisocial behaviour, supermarket trolleys everywhere daily, and broken glass and litter strewn everywhere, and if it is cleared up it’s back the same within days.
Harrogate town centre is just like any other which is struggling, and no one is doing anything about it other than seemingly making things worse with wrong decision after wrong decision. Don’t get me wrong, it is still nice, but the spiral is seemingly downwards and it needs radical common sense thinking to turn the town around.
Is Harrogate in decline? It seems it’s been in decline for a long time, and the town needs to wake up because as an outsider if this is my experience of it then the town is already in trouble.
Martin Morris, Starbeck
Harrogate is clean, tidy and beautiful
I read some of the comments about “is Harrogate in decline”? I recently moved to Harrogate after spending over 20 years living and working in Northampton. To me Harrogate is a lovely place to live.
It is clean, tidy, mostly well organised and has beautiful buildings and parklands. The hospitality industry is excellent. I am so happy I moved here and the locals are genuinely so friendly.
A note of caution: I went back recently to Northampton for a few days. They are one of the towns / cities trialling e-scooter hire schemes. They should be avoided at all costs until proper well informed regulations are in place and enforced. Scooter riders are a law unto themselves, riding on pavements with no helmets and multiple riders. They are then just abandoned on pavements until they’re next hired, causing blockages and generally look a mess and tacky.
I hope Harrogate resists such schemes until proper regulations are in place and enforced. You have a lovely town and i am very happy to be part of it now.
Peter Hannon, Harrogate
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Devolution will lead to more waste and incompetence
Any councillors expressing regret over the government’s decision to choose to have a super-council for North Yorkshire should focus instead on their own faults for backing the present arrangements, which have never worked very well anyway.
Now we have a proposed local authority, which will be even more unaccountable to the public and which will only consult on its own terms.
Experience shows that there are no savings with large unitary bodies, only more waste and incompetence in handling larger revenues. You only have to listen to the regular facts uncovered by the TaxPayers’ Alliance and similar to see what we are in for now.
Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, has overruled many public concerns and is going the wrong way here too. It’s up to councillors and MPs to make him realise there are no advantages to Joe Public — only poor control of costs
John Holder, Harrogate
Another 74 covid cases reported in Harrogate district
The district has recorded another 74 new covid cases in the last 24 hours, according to today’s Public Health England figures.
Meanwhile, the district’s seven-day covid rate has fallen to 285 cases per 100,000 people.
Elsewhere, the North Yorkshire rate stands at 290 and the England average is 304.
Harrogate District Hospital has not reported a covid-related death in three-and-a-half months.
Read more:
- Ripon Racecourse vaccine centre closes after giving 27,000 jabs
- Harrogate Christmas market cancelled
It means the covid death toll at the hospital since March 2020 remains at 179.
However, latest figures show that the hospital is treating nine covid patients compared with just three a week ago.
Elsewhere, 122,817 people have received a first covid vaccine in the Harrogate district and 103,654 have had a second dose.
Harrogate district covid rate falls below 300 per 100,000 peopleThe Harrogate district’s seven-day covid rate has fallen below 300 cases per 100,000 people for the first time since the start of July.
The rate now stands at 294 having declined rapidly from a high of 534 just 11 days ago.
Elsewhere, the North Yorkshire rate stands at 311 and the England average is 321.
The district has recorded another 79 new covid cases in the last 24 hours, according to today’s Public Health England figures.
Harrogate District Hospital has not reported a covid-related death in three-and-a-half months.
Read more:
- Ripon Racecourse vaccine centre closes after giving 27,000 jabs
- Number of covid patients at Harrogate hospital triples
It means the covid death toll at the hospital since March 2020 remains at 179.
However, latest figures show that the hospital is treating nine covid patients compared with just three a week ago.
Elsewhere, 122,628 people have received a first covid vaccine in the Harrogate district and 103,445 have had a second dose.
Harrogate district covid rate continues to fallThe Harrogate district has recorded 69 new covid cases in the last 24 hours, according to today’s Public Health England figures.
It means the district now has a weekly average of 307 infections per 100,000 people, compared with 534 just 10 days ago
The North Yorkshire rate stands at 340 and the England average is 350.
Harrogate District Hospital has not recorded a covid-related death in three-and-a-half months.
Read more:
- Ripon Racecourse vaccine centre closes after giving 27,000 jabs
- Number of covid patients at Harrogate hospital triples
It means the covid death toll at the hospital since March 2020 remains at 179.
However, latest figures show that the hospital is treating nine covid patients compared with just three a week ago.
Elsewhere, 122,607 people have received a first covid vaccine in the Harrogate district and 103,352 have had a second dose.
Harrogate’s Otley Road set for yet more roadworksFive weeks of travel disruption on Otley Road in Harrogate will begin on Monday due to work by Northern Gas Networks .
Work will take place around the Otley Road/Harlow Moor Road junction and is scheduled to finish on Friday September 3.
The news is unlikely to be welcomed by commuters or businesses that have had to contend with an almost continuous set of roadworks on the road since January.
Yorkshire Water dug up the surface to re-lay water pipes and Northern Powergrid did the same to relocate electricity infrastructure.
Next week’s works are to prepare for the delayed Otley Road cycle route.
Read more
- £827,100 contract to start work on Otley Road cycle path in September
- Delayed Otley Road cycle path set to begin in August
North Yorkshire County Council told the Stray Ferret that work on the cycle route will begin on September 6.
Nigel Smith, head of highway operations at the council, said:
Harrogate district records 31 covid cases as rate drops dramatically“Utility works by Northern Gas Networks and Northern Powergrid remain to be completed before work can begin on phase 1 of the Otley Road cycle scheme.
“Northern Gas Networks is scheduled to be on site between August 2 and September 3, and Northern Powergrid between August 16 and 27. BT has confirmed its works can be carried out during the Harlow Moor Road junction improvement.
“The anticipated start date for phase 1 of the Otley Road cycle scheme, which includes the Harlow Moor Road junction improvement, is September 6 this year, subject to the above utilities completing their work.”
The Harrogate district has recorded 31 covid cases in the last 24 hours as infection rates continue to decline sharply.
It is the joint lowest daily figure since June 20, when 15 infections were recorded.
According to the latest seven-day figures, the district has an average of 348 covid cases per 100,000 people. It was as high as 534 just nine days ago.
The North Yorkshire rate stands at 376 and the England average is 373.
Harrogate District Hospital has not recorded a covid-related death in three-and-a-half months.
Read more:
- Ripon Racecourse vaccine centre closes after giving 27,000 jabs
- Harrogate district bucks trend of rising covid hospital patients
It means the covid death toll at the hospital since March 2020 remains at 179.
Latest Public Health England figures show that the hospital is treating three covid patients.
Elsewhere, 122,555 people have received a first covid vaccine in the Harrogate district and 103,213 have had a second dose.
Harrogate district coronavirus rate falls for first time after record highsThe Harrogate district’s coronavirus infection rate has fallen sharply for the first time this summer after last week reaching record levels.
In an encouraging trend that is mirrored across North Yorkshire, the borough’s weekly rate has dropped to 441 cases per 100,000 people after peaking at 533.
The latest rate equates to an average of just over 100 new infections per day. Just 57 cases were recorded today by Public Health England.
Unlike previous waves, high case rates have not translated into large numbers of infected people being admitted to hospital, with just three patients in Harrogate hospital as of last Wednesday.
That figure has remained low thanks to high levels of vaccine take-up – and there has not been a covid-related death reported by the hospital in over three months.
Read more:
- Crimple Valley red kite wood sculpture vandalised
- Harrogate district on flood alert as Met Office issues storm warning
A total of 122,457 people in the Harrogate district have now received their first vaccine dose and 103,067 people their second.
Meanwhile, the infection rate across North Yorkshire as a whole now stands at 472 per 100,000 people, ahead of the England average of 446.
The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for thunderstorms in the Harrogate district, which could lead to flooding.
Following weeks of warm weather in the UK, storms are expected to affect the district from 9am tomorrow until 6am on Wednesday.
A Met Office yellow weather warning is in place from Newcastle to Yorkshire and as far south as Birmingham.
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Similar recent storm warnings in the south of England left some roads and tube stations flooded.
The Met Office said in a statement:
Lorry fire causes morning delays on A1 (M)“Spray and sudden flooding could lead to difficult driving conditions and possibly some road closures.
“Where flooding or lightning strikes occur, there is a chance of delays and some cancellations to train and bus services.
“There is a small chance that homes and businesses could be flooded quickly, with damage to some buildings from floodwater or lightning strikes.”
One lane of the A1 (M) northbound between junctions 44 and 45 remains closed following a serious lorry fire this morning.
The lorry, which was carrying milk, caught fire shortly after 3am this morning, causing rush hour delays of 40 minutes.
Firefighters from Tadcaster were called to the scene near Boston Spa, where the milk cartons had spilled on the highway.
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service‘s incident summary stated:
“The lorry was engulfed in flames on their arrival and was extinguished by fire crews using at least four hose reels and four breathing apparatus.
“No persons reported injured and cause for the fire not known at this time but believed to be vehicle related.”
The road reopened at about 7am but one lane remains closed and delays are still occurring, although the situation is improving.
Northbound traffic from before the M1 interchange is affected.
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The Harrogate district reported 78 covid cases yesterday, according to Public Health England figures.
The reporting of government statistics for July 24 were delayed due to problems with processing data.
Meanwhile, the district’s seven-day covid rate has dropped to 485 cases per 100,000 people.
The North Yorkshire average is 525 and the England rate is 498.
Read more:
- Ripon Racecourse vaccine centre closes after giving 27,000 jabs
- Harrogate Council warns of disruption to services due to staff self-isolation alerts
Figures on the number of covid deaths at Harrogate District Hospital will be reported on Monday. Data is no longer published on a weekend.
But, the hospital has so far gone more than three months without reporting a death from a patient who tested positive for covid.
Latest NHS England figures show that the covid death toll at the hospital since March 2020 remains at 179.
So far, 122,325 people have received a first covid vaccine in the Harrogate district and 102,626 have had a second dose.