The owners of the St George Hotel in Harrogate and the Spa Hotel in Ripon have confirmed the venues will be given new names and branding.

The properties, which are being refurbished, will be renamed The Harrogate Inn and The Ripon Inn.

The Harrogate Inn is due to re-open in early summer with 96 rooms — six more than previously. The Ripon Inn is expected to reopen in midsummer with 58 rooms — 15 more than previously.

The Harrogate Inn

The two hotels have also been given new coats of arms.

The new identities reflect the brand style of owners the Inn Collection Group, a Newcastle-based company that has historic venues across the north.

Inn Collection Group venues serve food and drink all day and are styled as pubs with rooms rather than hotels.

Its other venues include Knaresborough’s Dower House, which has been renamed The Knaresborough Inn.

Zoe Cooper, marketing manager for the Inn Collection Group, said:

“As with the new names we have unveiled for other sites recently, including The Knaresborough Inn, we have looked to embrace the history of the wider area and we hope the new look will create a talking point that serves as a link to the past while the site embarks on an exciting future.

“With both sites we have adopted the name of the locale for the property, which allows us to introduce its setting more easily for potential visitors who may be considering a stay, allowing them to look further into what all these fantastic places have to offer.”

The Ripon Inn

The refurbished guest accommodation at The Ripon Inn will provide a mix of double, twin and family bedrooms, accessible rooms, suites, and dog friendly rooms.

It will have an additional 15 en-suite rooms and the reconfigurated ground floor area will include a new bar and kitchen area.

The Harrogate Inn will see six new bedrooms added on the ground floor and a “complete transformation of the venue’s hospitality spaces”, according to the owners.

Coats of arms

The Ripon Inn, set in six acres of gardens, has been closed to guests since July 2020 for extensive internal and external works.

Its new coat of arms is made up of a shield flanked by a pair of stags, linking to the historical coat of arms of the Earl and Marquess or Ripon.

The left half of the shield contains a representation of the Ripon horn in recognition of the history of the city’s wakemen and hornblowers.

Sitting on a red background — a colour scheme and motif that appear in the city’s coat of arms – this is combined with a yellow chevron which is again informed by the Earl and Marquess of Ripon’s heraldry.

The right-hand side of the shield features a stylised illustration of the grade one listed Ripon Cathedral and its early English gothic west front, dating back to 1220 and regarded as one of the best examples of its type.

The Harrogate Inn closed in January for a 16-week refurbishment.

Its coat of arms sees the left half of the shield contain a red and white asymmetrical crossed pattern taken from the town’s original coat of arms, together with the white rose of Yorkshire.

The right-hand side of the shield features a lion ‘passant’ taken from the borough council’s arms, and this is bounded top and bottom by repeating wavy lines to represent the importance of springs in the town’s history.

Supporting the shield are a pair of griffins taken from the crest of the Slingsby family, who were instrumental in bringing prosperity to the town through Sir William Slingsby and his discovered of the first spring in Harrogate, the Tewitt Well, over three hundred years ago.

Read more:

• Harrogate hotel begins recruiting — three weeks after laying off 76 staff
• New name and coat of arms for Knaresborough hotel
• Stray Views: Memories of Harrogate’s St George Hotel

A man has been jailed for a “humiliating and degrading” sex attack on a young woman at a property in Harrogate.

Andrew Reekie, 33, left the woman “haunted” and an emotional wreck following the “absolutely disgusting” assault, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Shaun Dodds said the victim tried to kick Reekie off her during the assault and told him to “get off”. She was crying afterwards and told a friend what had happened.

Reekie told her she “wouldn’t dare ring the police” but she plucked up the courage to do so.

Reekie, of Bramham Drive, Jennyfields, was brought in for questioning two months after the attack but refused to answer police questions.

He was charged with sexual assault but denied the offence, only to plead guilty on the day of trial in January. He appeared for sentence yesterday.

The court heard he had previous convictions for serious violence, public disorder, acquisitive crime, possessing an offensive weapon, robbery, criminal damage and breaching court orders.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said that “life as I knew it came to an abrupt and sudden halt” following the sex attack. She added:

“I was paralysed (with fear) and completely helpless.”

She said she was “powerless” to stop Reekie and she had felt an inexplicable but “overwhelming shame” since the incident, adding:

“I felt completely alone and unable to trust anyone.

“The sound of his voice will (continue) to play in my head. It was like a knife in my guts.”

Nightmares and shame

She said that after the attack she “couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep or socialise”.

She had nightmares of other women being sexually assaulted and she was “more and more anxious that it was going to happen to somebody else”.

She said that even reporting the attack only “intensified the shame” and she developed serious mental-health problems.

It had affected her work and she had felt “traumatised” about the prospect of giving evidence in court.

Read more:

• Rogue builder who stole jewellery and cash from Harrogate couple jailed
• New Tesco supermarket would threaten future of Jennyfields Co-op, warns report

She said that before the incident she was a “young woman full of confidence, looking forward to a bright future”, but Reekie had “took my young spirit and crushed it”.

She had sought professional help for her problems but there were still days when “I can’t get out of bed because I’m too haunted by what happened”.  She added:

“I so desperately want my life back – the life (Reekie) took from me.”

‘A humiliating and degrading attack’

Defence barrister Andrew Stranex said Reekie was a father and had since found work.

Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, described the incident as a “very nasty sexual assault”. He added:

“This was a humiliating and degrading attack.

“It has had a devastating effect on (the victim).”

He told Reekie:

“What you did was absolutely disgusting. You treated (the victim) like…your own personal pleasure ground.”

He said it was clear Reekie had refused to admit his guilt until the day of trial “in the hope that (the victim) wouldn’t have the courage to attend”.

Reekie was handed a 13-month jail sentence of which he will serve half behind bars before being released on prison licence. He was also ordered to sign on the sex-offenders’ register for 10 years.

It’s time to join the Stray Ferret Business Club. The third in our series of networking events in association with The Coach and Horses in Harrogate is a lunch event on March 30 from 12.30pm.

Don’t miss out on this chance to network with businesses from across the Harrogate district. Get your tickets by clicking or tapping here.

The future of farming is set to be debated at an event in Harrogate.

Future Farmers of Yorkshire are set to hold a debate at the Pavilions of Harrogate on Monday, March 8.

The event will focus on whether the industry can carry on farming as it has done for decades.

Among the panelist for the event will be Nikki Yoxall, a grazier from Aberdeenshire, who has an interest in collaborating with other landowners to help regenerate land.

She said:

“All farmers work to annual cycles, and being so connected with the seasons is one of the perks of the job. However, if we continue to do the same things at the same time as we have always done, in a climate that’s changing and in the face of market volatility, it stands to reason that we will come unstuck. 

“As our climate, society and ecosystems become more dysfunctional and unpredictable, we will have to look to shifting our collective mindset to one where we embrace regeneration, restoration and our capacity to adapt.”

Ms Yoxall will be joined on the Spring Debate panel by Alastair Trickett, who runs a mixed arable and sheep farm near Leeds .

Farmers Doug Dear and Bradley Sykes are also on the panel which will be chaired by Farmers Weekly Editor, Andrew Meredith.

For more information on the event, visit the Future Farmers Eventbrite page here.

Women’s business group to host networking event in Harrogate

A women’s business group is set to host another networking event in Harrogate.

Ladies Who Latte (LWL) is free to attend and is open to all women who are in employment, own a business or are starting a business.

Following a well attended meeting last month, the group is set to host another event at the Lilypad restaurant on Kings Road on March 8.

Sarah Shaw, a European strategy consultant who co-founded the group, said:

“Everyone enjoyed the relaxed, friendly atmosphere and no pressure to sell yourself or your business. 

“It was great to meet so many women from a range of fantastic businesses, and it’s fitting that our next meeting coincides with International Women’s Day.”

Meetings are held between 9.30am and 11.30am on the second Wednesday of every month at Lilypad Restaurant on Kings Road. 

It is a drop-in event with no pre-registration and those who attend can then join a closed Facebook community for further promotion and networking opportunities.

Read More: 

• Business Breakfast: Small indies to pop up on Harrogate high street
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A rogue builder hooked on gambling and cocaine stole prized jewellery from a Harrogate couple who entrusted him with the key to their house.

Sam Brotherston, 32, from Hampsthwaite, was contracted to renovate the couple’s home on Beckwith Road and was left to his own devices while the victims were out at work, York Crown Court heard.

Soon enough, the couple, who had pinned their hopes on Brotherston converting the property into their dream home, started noticing money and jewellery going missing from an upstairs bedroom, said prosecutor Sam Roxborough.

He said the couple were quoted over £13,000 for the work including building materials and labour.

Brotherston, who was self-employed, asked for £4,289 to buy materials such as a door and steel joist for work which was not only never completed, but left the couple with an open sewer in their kitchen and demolished walls. 

To add insult to injury, he never bought the materials and instead spent it on his rampant gambling and cocaine habit.

Initially trusting of Brotherston, the couple handed him the money and he began work on the property in March last year when the named victims gave him a key to their house.

But on March 18, just nine days into the job, the female victim noticed £20 was missing from her purse. Just under two weeks later, she noticed that more cash had disappeared while she was away from home.

Brotherston had helped himself to £80 in total, as well as two white gold rings, which had also been kept in the bedroom. 

The victim did her own investigatory work by visiting pawnbrokers in Harrogate to see if Brotherston had tried to sell her jewellery. She found one of her rings up for sale in a local jeweller’s.

Mr Roxborough said:

“Unfortunately, one of the rings was scrapped by the jeweller’s.”

Read more:

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Police recovered the other ring when they turned up at the jeweller’s a few days later.

Staff told officers that Brotherston had sold three other gold and silver rings at the jewellers. He stole those pieces from a friend while carrying out work at her home in Brunswick Drive, Harrogate.

The victim, who was named in court, didn’t want to press charges because she was a friend of Brotherston’s family, but he admitted stealing her rings. 

Mr Roxborough said the Beckwith Road couple were devastated to hear that Brotherston, of Hollins Lane, Hampsthwaite, had used the money deposited into his account to place bets “at various betting establishments”.

He was arrested following an investigation and charged with burglary, two counts of theft and one of fraud. He admitted all four offences and appeared for sentence today.

‘Sick to the stomach’

The female victim of the Beckwith Road offences said she and her husband had trusted Brotherston, only for him to steal from them on three separate occasions over a period of nearly a month.

She said the rings were of sentimental value and she had been left feeling “violated, scared, shocked and saddened”, and she was now struggling to sleep.

One of the rings, which was never recovered, belonged to her husband’s grandmother and one was a wedding gift. The other was a present for her 30^th birthday.

She said:

“Seeing the rings for sale in the pawnbrokers was shocking and left me feeling sick to the stomach.”

She was now scared to be alone in her home and she and her husband had changed all the locks and installed security cameras.

She said that Brotherston’s shoddy, “half-completed” work had left them with an open sewer and that walls had been knocked down which would need rebuilding. Wires were “hanging out of the walls” and the living room was left a mess. 

She added:

“This work was going to complete our dream of providing a lovely family home for my young children to grow up in.

“This is devastating. It’s going to be hard for me to trust anybody again.”

She and her husband were now faced with spending the same amount of money again to put right what Brotherston had ruined. 

‘Damaging acts of dishonesty’

Defence barrister Emma Williams said that Brotherston, a father-of-one, had been caught up in a “gambling and drug-use cycle” but that his behaviour was “out of character”. The offences had led to the break-up of the relationship with his partner. 

Judge Sean Morris described Brotherston’s offences as “very mean and hurtful and damaging acts of dishonesty”.

He told Brotherston: 

“You were snorting your way through cocaine bought with £10,000 worth of gambling winnings. No doubt having blown all that, you then decided that you needed (the victims’) money to carry on snorting cocaine and enjoying the lifestyle.

“At the same time as you were pilfering hard-earned money from that couple and not doing the work that was required, you were creeping around their house going into their bedroom and you stole some rings that had real sentimental value.

“That’s had an awful effect on the lady of the house. They will have been left in a shocking situation and that is all down to your greed and dishonesty.”

Mr Morris said the offences were “too mean” and “appalling” for there to be anything other than an immediate jail sentence.

Brotherston was jailed for 13 months. 

A former Harrogate Army Foundation College instructor has been sentenced after being found guilty of sexual assault.

Cpl Simon Bartram stood trial at Catterick Court Martial Centre in January.

He was found guilty of eight counts of disgraceful conduct of a cruel or indecent kind and one count of sexual assault.

The offences took place over a nine-month period between 2020 and 2021.

He was sentenced to 20 months detention at the Military Corrective Training Centre and five years on the sex offenders’ register.

Cpl Bartram was also dismissed from the armed forces.

The Stray Ferret approached the Ministry of Defence for a response to the case, but it did not respond.

Read more:

• Abuse allegations at Harrogate Army Foundation College raised in House of Lords
• Junior soldiers graduate at Harrogate’s Army Foundation College

Taxi drivers in the Harrogate district have said a new system for regulating hackney carriages will be bad for customers and cause cabbies to go bust.

The current limit of 148 hackney carriages in the district will be abolished when North Yorkshire Council comes into existence on April 1, paving the way for a flood of new drivers.

At the same time, a new single taxi zone allowing drivers to operate countywide rather than stick to their local districts will begin, even though 52% opposed it in a consultation.

Drivers say the single zone will lead to some places being flooded by taxis at busy times while less popular rural areas will struggle to book cars.

They also say ending the cap on the number of hackney carriages means licence plates they paid thousands of pounds for are now effectively worthless.

Supporters of the new system say it incorporates Department for Transport best practice guidance and “any negative impacts tend to level out over time”.

‘Totally destroyed’

The Ripon cabbies in Harrogate this week

Six Ripon hackney carriage drivers, who are supported by colleagues from across the district, met the Stray Ferret this week to express anger at the changes.

Katie Johnstone, of Johnstone Family Hire, said lifting the limit on the number of vehicles would ruin many taxi firms.

She said until now, people like her had paid about £20,000 to buy a plate so they could operate one of only 148 hackney carriages in the Harrogate district.

Ms Johnstone said abolishing the limit meant the plates now had no sell-on value, leaving current plate holders a combined £3 million out of pocket.

She said she took out a five-year bank loan to buy her plate as part of a career change two years ago and “it’s not worth anything now”, adding:

“I’m a single parent — I worked on minimum wage for years. I’ve invested a lot of money to try to better myself and they have totally destroyed it.”

Read more:

• New taxi fares for North Yorkshire revealed
• Council considers North Yorkshire knowledge test for taxi drivers

‘The system has worked for 100 years’

Keith Snowden, whose family has operated taxis in Ripon since 1926, said:

“It’s a ludicrous situation. The system has worked for the last 100 years — why change it?”

All the cabbies predicted many private hire drivers will get hackney licences because it would enable them to make more money by picking up customers from ranks whereas they currently have to be booked in advance.

They said this would create hotspots as drivers battled for customers in busy times in the most lucrative areas, and ignored calls from less profitable rural customers.

Anne Smith, of ANB Taxis in Ripon, said:

“Everything we have put into these plates has been completely taken away from us.”

Ms Smith tried to enlist the support of Julian Smith, the Conservative MP for Skipton and Ripon, but said he had been “absolutely useless”. Mr Smith did not reply when the Stray Ferret asked for a response.

Paul Dodds, of JPD Taxis, said he feared he and other drivers would have to “pack in” because of the changes.

North Yorkshire Council will replace North Yorkshire County Council and seven district councils, including Harrogate Borough Council, at the end of the month.

The drivers all said the new system was being introduced for the convenience of the council rather than for drivers because it was easier to manage than the current district-wide system.

Richard Fieldman

The taxi drivers said they would continue to oppose the changes until the new system begins next month.

Ripon cabbie Richard Fieldman criticised North Yorkshire County Council’s defence of the changes:

“They keep relating to Department for Transport best practice guide, but have chosen to leave bits of it out to suit them, ie it states that in areas where licence limits are in place, they should firstly conduct an unmet demand survey to see if there is any latent demand, before proceeding with the policy; they have failed to do that.

“The fact is, they have totally ignored the result of the consultation, which concluded 52% are against it.”

‘A coherent regulatory framework’

Cllr Derek Bastiman

Aldi has included Harrogate on a list of 30 priority locations for new supermarkets.

The German giant wants to increase its number of UK stores from 990 to 1,200.  It currently has supermarkets in Harrogate, Ripon and Knaresborough in the Harrogate district.

The company said in a press release today it “plans to invest more than £400 million in store development over the coming year” and published a list of 30 priority locations.

Harrogate and Scarborough were the only two North Yorkshire locations on the list.

Aldi already has a store on Oak Beck Road in Harrogate, close to the site where Tesco has planning permission to build a supermarket.

The company offers a finder’s fee for agents who recommend a site, which is either 1.5% of a freehold price or 10% of the first year’s rent for leasehold sites.

It is looking for freehold town-centre or edge-of-town sites that are around 1.5 acres and can accommodate a 20,000 sq foot store with about 100 parking spaces.

Giles Hurley, chief executive at Aldi UK, said:

“Demand for Aldi has never been higher here are still some towns and areas that either don’t have access to an Aldi or have capacity for additional stores.”

Harrogate was also included in a list of desired locations by Aldi last year.

Read more:

• Five take aways from Harrogate Tesco approval
• New Tesco supermarket would threaten future of Jennyfields Co-op, warns report

Dragon Road car park in Harrogate is set to be closed for two weeks as part of resurfacing work.

The car park will shut from Monday, March 13, until Monday, March 27.

Harrogate Borough Council has earmarked the site for resurfacing work at a cost of £140,000.

The authority said the car park needed to be resurfaced as it had become worn.

The site is currently open to drivers on a pay and display basis from Monday to Sunday between 8am and midnight.

However, it is closed on exhibition days at Harrogate Convention Centre.

Read more:

• Harrogate’s Dragon Road car park set for £140,000 resurfacing
• Plans to build 72 flats and care home in Harrogate’s Dragon Road car park

The car park had been earmarked as a potential site to create affordable flats or extra care housing.

However, senior borough councillors decided to pause the plans in November in order for the site to continue to support parking at Harrogate Convention Centre.

Cllr Tim Myatt, cabinet member for planning at the council, proposed the authority should ensure that “adequate parking for Harrogate Convention Centre associated vehicles take primacy over site redevelopment”.

He added that the council should “pause consideration of this site until it is clear that the Harrogate Convention Centre redevelopment will be able to accommodate exhibition traffic on site”.

A senior police officer has said he expects to see an increase in the use of stop and search in the Harrogate district.

Police have the power to stop and search people if they have ‘reasonable grounds’ to suspect they’re carrying illegal drugs, a weapon or stolen property or something that could be used to commit a crime.

In special circumstances, people can be stopped and searched without these ‘reasonable grounds’.

Civil liberties groups have raised concerns the technique is open to abuse, especially at legitimate protests.

At Harrogate Borough Council‘s overview and scrutiny commission this week, Cllr John Mann, a Conservative who represents Pannal asked Rich Ogden, chief inspector at North Yorkshire Police if the force used stop and search to discourage people carrying knives.

Ch Insp Ogden said stop and search “is a really effective operational tool”, adding.

“Where there is an opportunity to search somebody, whether it be under the misuse of drugs act, or for prohibited articles, such as knives, that can be used for criminal damage then we should absolutely encourage that.

“So I expect in this area to see an increase in stop and search but I want to make sure it’s obviously done ethically and appropriately because it is controversial in terms of areas of society who will challenge the police and rightly so — we are accountable for everything we do and that’s why we have to make sure everything is recorded.”

Ch Insp Ogden said local police team meetings regularly reviewed whether the technique was used appropriately and correctly.

He said:

“It’s got to be done properly and it’s always got to be recorded and the member of the public that is subject to that stop and search is always entitled to a copy of their search record.”

Read more:

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• Long-awaited £1.2m refurbishment of Ripon’s police and fire station confirmed

Social workers recruited from Zimbabwe and South Africa to help plug the social care staffing crisis in North Yorkshire have begun working in Harrogate.

Adult social care has been experiencing well documented recruitment problems in recent years, which has left some providers struggling to hire qualified social workers.

It has previously been reported that on any given day there are at least 1,000 care jobs available across the county.

To address this, a North Yorkshire County Council report said the authority ran several large recruitment campaigns in the UK for more than 30 social worker vacancies but had “very limited” success.

It found recruits were also often newly qualified social workers and not yet ready to manage more complex work.

The report said that with full-time roles unfilled, expensive agency workers have also been used.

Since August, the council has overseen an international recruitment drive with the aim of hiring 30 social workers and five occupational therapists.

Read more:

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• County council to buy Cardale Park site for care facility

The first cohort of social workers arrived in Harrogate towards the end of last year and the second cohort arrived in January and February of this year.

The new arrivals have been given three weeks of training and have also been allocated a “community buddy” to help them settle into their new country.

North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for health and adult services, Cllr Michael Harrison, who is also the Conservative councillor for Killinghall, Hampsthwaite and Saltergate, said:

“We have recruited 29 qualified social workers from South Africa and Zimbabwe using a network of specialist agencies and working alongside other councils.

“They will work across the county in what is a great opportunity to help this group of professional social workers further their career in North Yorkshire whilst filling vacancies in specialist areas where there is a national workforce shortage.

“We will monitor the success of this recruitment campaign closely, whilst continuing to advertise our current vacancies regionally and nationally.”