Staff well-being and culture have rapidly risen up the priority list for many employers. At the next Stray Ferret Business Club we’ll hear from award winning employer, LCF Law, on how organisations can ensure their teams are productive and happy.
The lunch event is lunch at Manahatta, on June 29th at 12.30pm. Get your tickets by clicking or tapping here.
A Ripon business organisation held its first networking event this past week as traders shared their concerns with the town’s MP Julian Smith.
Ripon Business Improvement District hosted the session at the Town Hall which was chaired by Stuart Gill of the Newby Hall Estate.
It included a question and answer session with Mr Smith as well as discussion over anti-social behaviour in the city, business rates and banking facilities.
Lilia Bathurst, manager at Ripon BID, said:
“Ripon BID would like to thank all those who attended, Stuart Gill for chairing the meeting and Janet Moore from Wakeman’s House Café who provided the excellent buffet lunch and looks forward to being able to host another networking event soon.”
Knaresborough firm wins award for fourth time
A Knaresborough car finance firm has won an award for the fourth time in a row.
Oracle Car FInance, which is based on Manse Lane, won the best specialist finance provider at the Credit Strategy Car Finance Awards 2023.
Staff from Oracle Car Finance at the ceremony.
Held at Lancashire Cricket Club, the event aims to recognise dealers, brokers and independent lenders in the car industry.
Oracle picked up the award after winning it in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
A spokesperson for the firm said:
“The win is a huge testament to the hard work and dedication that everyone at Oracle Finance put into ensuring that we remain the ‘gold standard for car finance’ – not our words, the words of a number of our lenders on our expansive panel.”
Read more:
- Business Breakfast: Harrogate entrepreneur wins Pride award
- Cost of living crisis prompts Boroughbridge café to close
Council’s 20mph review ‘kicking can down the road’
North Yorkshire Council‘s decision to refuse blanket 20mph zones across the county in favour of a speed limit review has been described as “kicking the can down the road” on road safety.
Councillors on the Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee requested default 20mph zones in November 2022.
However, rather than accept the request the council has now said it will draw up a speed management strategy to “guide a countywide review of speed limits across towns, villages and rural road”.
Council officials said they did not support area-wide or default speed zones on the grounds that “each area will be considered on its own merits”.
Cllr Keane Duncan, the Conservative executive councillor for highways, said the proposal would “deliver real improvements” across the county.
He said:
“The new council is taking an ambitious, proactive approach to setting speed limits, built on evidence and community empowerment.
“This will move away from setting limits in a piecemeal fashion, where we look at one road in one location at a single point in time.
“By taking a strategic view of a town or village we will ensure speed limits there are effective and be able to identify positive changes in partnership with local communities.
“We cannot review all locations immediately, and resources will need to be prioritised, but our approach will deliver real improvements across all parts of the county over time, addressing concerns, improving safety and saving lives.”
But Cllr Pat Marsh, the Liberal Democrat chair of the area constituency committee, said the move would only delay the implementation of 20mph streets further.
She added that a speed management strategy, which the council says will take six months to draw up, was not needed to implement zones immediately.
Cllr Marsh said:
“It is an issue that affects the whole of North Yorkshire, they have got to address it.
“Get the 20mph zones in first and then monitor them. It really is just kicking the can down the road.”
Read more:
- 20mph speed limits to be investigated in Harrogate and Knaresborough
- Ripon county councillors reject calls to pilot 20 mph zones
The council intends to undertake a series of planned speed limit reviews which will be “underpinned” by the speed management strategy.
It added that the move would “generate a rolling pipeline of safety improvement schemes for delivery”.
However, Cllr Arnold Warneken, Green Party member for Ouseburn, said the proposal lacked ambition and described it as “another delaying tactic”.
He said:
“There is no real substance to the North Yorkshire Council proposals. Whilst I was told to be patient as there was a comprehensive review taking place and the report would reflect this I was, and it does not, so now we have yet another example that the executive know better and show shallow concern and fake listening to the people they represent.
“We cannot keep putting off taking action to make our roads safer for everyone, we cannot keep putting off taking action to protect our environment, we cannot keep putting off taking action that will prevent life changing injuries or worse still fatalities. If not now, when?”
Ian Conlan, of the 20s Plenty North Yorkshire campaign group, said:
“There is a far better evidence base to have a default 20mph to replace existing 30mph limits, and develop an exceptions process to decide where to have higher speed limits than 20mph in a few roads in towns and villages, but only where vulnerable road users are fully protected.”
Mr Conlan urged supporters to demonstrate outside County Hall in Northallerton on Tuesday next week, when North Yorkshire Council’s executive will discuss the matter.
Starbeck Baths to close at Christmas for £29,000 heating repair workStarbeck Baths looks set to be closed over Christmas for heating repair work costing £29,000.
North Yorkshire Council has commissioned a contractor to upgrade the controls for heating both the pool and the building.
Leeds-based Westminster Controls Limited is set to carry out the work during a “planned shutdown” of the facility over Christmas this year.
Nic Harne, the council’s corporate director of community development, said:
“The contract is to upgrade the controls responsible for heating both the pool and the building.
“The replacement controls will provide significantly better automation and efficient control of the heating and ventilation systems.
“The work is due to be carried out during the planned shutdown of the pool over Christmas.”
Read more:
- Starbeck Baths to be closed until late May
- Memorial service for Starbeck pianist who ‘brought joy to the community’
The Stray Ferret has asked the council for the specific dates when the pool is planned to be closed but has not yet had a response.
It is due to be the second time this year the baths will shut for maintenance work.
The facility was closed for a month in April due to an “unforeseen mechanical failure”, which coincided with the Easter school holidays.
Brimhams Active, which was set up by Harrogate Borough Council but is now run by North Yorkshire Council, manages leisure facilities in the Harrogate district.
At the time, it said an an air leak in the pool plant equipment caused poor water clarity led to the closure.
The pool reopened on May 11.
Harrogate girl, 14, charged with causing £1,300 damage to Grand Hotel in ScarboroughA 14-year-old girl from Harrogate has been charged with causing £1,366 worth of damage to the Grand Hotel in Scarborough.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared before a youth court held at Harrogate Magistrates Court on June 23.
She was charged with causing damage to multiple rooms across multiple floors, including the reception area, of the Grand Hotel on December 30 last year.
The court listed the cost of the damage at £1,366.
She was also charged with damaging five towels at a cost of £75 belonging to the Royal Hotel in Scarborough on March 26.
Read more:
The girl was also accused of maliciously wounding with intent to do him grievous bodily harm on April 29 and stealing from a Co-op on Newlands Park Drive in Scarborough on the same day.
The 14-year-old pleaded guilty to all the offences.
The court remanded her on bail until July 14 when she will appear for another hearing.
She was also banned from entering any hotel in Scarborough as part of her bail conditions.
Business Breakfast: Harrogate entrepreneur wins Pride awardStaff well-being and culture have rapidly risen up the priority list for many employers. At the next Stray Ferret Business Club we’ll hear from award winning employer, LCF Law, on how organisations can ensure their teams are productive and happy.
The lunch event is lunch at Manahatta, on June 29th at 12.30pm. Get your tickets by clicking or tapping here.
A Harrogate entrepreneur has won an award at the 2023 Attitude Pride Awards in London.
The event, which was held at the Langham Hotel, honours those who support the LGBTQ+ community across 11 categories.
Luke Christian, who founded fashion brand Deaf Identity in 2019, picked up the community hero award for his efforts in promoting equality and breaking down barriers for the deaf and LGBTQ+ communities.
Mr Christian, who is deaf and a former Comic Relief designer, said:
“I am incredibly honoured and humbled to receive the community hero award at the 2023 Attitude Pride Awards. This honour serves as both a monument to my work and the fortitude and resiliency of the deaf and LGBTQ+ communities.
“I dedicate this honour to everyone who has ever felt silenced or marginalised, and I intend to keep changing lives for the better. Standing side by side with other community heroes and trailblazers was an absolute honour.”
Lancashire financial firm acquires Harrogate company
A Harrogate financial firm has been acquired by a Lancashire company.
Chorley-based Perspective Financial Group has taken on clients from Brigham Wealth Management as part of an acquisition of four firms.
The company has also acquired Brighter Financial Services Ltd in Halifax, Airedale Personal Financial Solutions Ltd in Holmer Green, Buckinghamshire and Granite Coast Ltd in Cambridge.
Brigham, which is based on Hornbeam Park, will retain its current offices.
David Brigham, of Brigham Wealth Management, said:
“Perspective fully shares the ethos, ethics and client focused approach of Brigham Wealth Management and we are sure this move will be of benefit to all our clients and contacts going forward.”
Read more:
- Harrogate High School ‘requires improvement’, says Ofsted
- Cost of living crisis prompts Boroughbridge café to close
Former stables and cricket pavilion to be demolished in Harrogate 480-home plan
Several derelict buildings including a cricket pavilion are set to be demolished in fields off Otley Road in Harrogate to make way for the 480-home Bluecoat Wood development.
The government’s housing agency Homes England is behind the housing scheme, which would cover 28 hectares of largely green fields. The homes would wrap around horticultural charity Horticap.
A mix of one, two, three, four and five-bedroom houses are proposed for the site. Homes England says 40% of the houses will be allocated as “affordable”.
An outline planning application was submitted last year but is yet to receive final approval.
However the developer asked North Yorkshire Council if it could demolish several buildings on the site and the authority confirmed this month that it can.
It means that five timber buildings associated with a former stables will be demolished as well as a small shed and a stone barn on the site.
A cricket pavilion formerly used by Pannal Ash Cricket Club will also be demolished.
However, under plans submitted by Homes England, the development is set to include a new cricket pitch on the site and the club will return to using it.
Documents state:
“The wider proposals for the Bluecoat Park site include a new cricket pavilion and cricket field, which will provide a new home for Pannal Ash Cricket Club and will allow them to return to the site.
“Alongside the proposed residential development and cricket facilities, a football hub is also proposed. These sporting facilities will provide much higher quality sporting facilities in this area, which will help encourage an active and healthy lifestyle.”
Read more:
The section of Otley Road approaching Harlow Hill is set to be transformed by up to 1,500 homes over the next decade.
The Bluecoat Wood site has been mooted for housing for many years and Homes England took it on after a previous plan fell through.
The former Harrogate Borough Council Local Plan, which is still binding, says that the Windmill Farm site on the other side of Otley Road can also be developed.
Plans for 770 homes and a new primary school were submitted last year by Anwyl Land and national housebuilder Redrow Homes. The site also includes space for self-build homes.
But there have been long-standing fears from residents that the services that people rely on will be put under further strain by the new developments.
The Western Arc Coordination Group is hopeful a council-led document called the West Harrogate Infrastructure Delivery Strategy (WHIDS) will go some way to ensuring investment takes place into roads, schools and healthcare before much of the homes are constructed.
But it’s faced a series of delays which has frustrated residents in the group.
Four memorial benches vandalised in Harrogate woodsFour memorial benches in Harrogate’s Pinewoods have been vandalised.
The benches, some of which were paid for by families who lost loved ones, were damaged last night (June 25).
Of those which were vandalised, two were on the path between the war memorial and Harlow Moor Road.
Another two were damaged off the path.
https://twitter.com/PinewoodsHgt/status/1673241422269390850
Pinewoods Conservation Group, which helps to maintain the 96-acre woodland, said the incident highlights an increase in anti-social behaviour and vandalism.
It described the damage as “very disappointing”.
The group added that the vandalism has also been reported to North Yorkshire Police.
Read more:
- Knaresborough banking hub could open this year
- Bank machines to be fitted in Knaresborough Library building
Man with ‘flagrant disregard for people’ jailed for crimes in Harrogate
A man has been jailed for a year for a string of offences in Harrogate, including threatening to kill a policeman.
Christopher Layton, 36, admitted carrying out the threat at Harrogate police station on June 7 this year.
He was sentenced to 26 weeks in prison for that offence when he appeared in front of magistrates in York on Tuesday.
Layton, of no fixed abode, received other consecutive custodial sentences for further crimes.
They included assaulting the same police officer and assaulting a man on Parliament Street in Harrogate on June 18. He also threatened police and paramedics.
Layton, who was subject to supervision requirements imposed after a previous jail sentence, also pleaded guilty to threatening a man on Queens Road in Harrogate on June 7, which court documents said “was motivated by hostility towards persons who are of a particular sexual orientation”.
The documents also said the offences were so serious because “the defendant has a flagrant disregard for people and their property” and involved attacks on emergency workers.
Read more:
- Muffin Break cafe coming to Harrogate?
- Jail for drug dealers caught outside Harrogate’s Valley Gardens
Wellness and gifting brand set to open Harrogate store
A new store specialising in wellness and lifestyle products is set to open in Harrogate.
SELF.UK, which already boasts other stores in Lincoln and Woodhall Spa, has taken a unit on James Street.
The company sells a range of products, from homeware, gifts, and fragrances to clothing, stationery, and children’s accessories.
SELF.UK began its journey in lockdown when founder, Suzie Bateman, began curating gift boxes for customers and corporate clients. The brand rose in popularity, built a presence on social media, and opened its first retail store only a year later in 2021.
Read More:
- Harrogate’s Great Yorkshire Show set for sell-out
- Harrogate High School ‘requires improvement’, says Ofsted
Ms Bateman who previously worked in sales and marketing, fell in love with Harrogate over ten years ago and has visited the town on the same weekend every year to Christmas shop ever since.
She told the Stray Ferret:
“I love what I do so much.
“I’m happiest behind the counter and speaking to customers in the shop.”
Shoppers can also find brands such as Plum & Ashby, Joma Jewellery, and St.Eval in store and online.
Ms Bateman aims to be in the Harrogate store at least once a week, while juggling home life and her other stores.
The Harrogate store is due to open on Saturday, July 8.
Stray Views: Stranded in Leeds thanks to shambolic trainsStray 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. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.
For my 72nd birthday, my son purchased tickets for us to attend a T20 game at Headingley on June 22.
Having consulted the timetable we found we had two options for our homeward journey to Knaresborough: the 21.34 train from Burley Park to Knaresborough or the 22.44 train from Burley Park to Harrogate.
For some strange reason only known to Northern, the 22.44 service terminates at Harrogate. Why?
To resolve this issue we decided for our outward journey we would drive to Hornbeam Park Station, park up and then get the train to Burley Park Station.
During the Yorkshire Vikings innings (they batted second), luckily my son checked on his phone and found that both of the trains we could have got home had been cancelled.
Stranded in Leeds. Car at Hornbeam Station. Possible £40/£50 taxi back to Hornbeam.
A solution was an earlier train home that hadn’t been cancelled at 20.34, which would mean missing the last hour of the game. The problem was the train departed in 10 minutes.
At 72 years of age, running to catch a train is not much fun but we made it.
How many people attending this event got stranded in Leeds by Northern Rail? I can see why they have had their franchise taken over by the government.
Did any other readers get caught out by this pathetic excuse of a train company?
They completely ruined our day out and we missed a very exciting end to the game.
Robbie Payne, Knaresborough
Boy racers at Conyngham Hall
Malcolm Wood’s letter on the A59 Badger Hill race track caught my attention. It isn’t the only race track which is a noise nuisance.
There is a big problem in Conyngham Hall car park in Knaresborough. Each evening it becomes a mecca for anyone with a souped-up engine/exhaust. They start at one end of the car park, rev up, backfire, then race to the other end where handbrake circles, skidding and revving are performed.
This happens well up to and sometimes beyond 11pm. It’s not a recent thing, it’s been happening for at least three years, together with drug usage, drinking parties and fire lighting. The police have been informed and a crime number issued, but do we see any action from them or the council — what do you think?
Jean Butterfield, Knaresborough
Bond End also a race track
I am in absolute agreement with Malcolm Wood’s letter of June 16 about speeding in Knaresborough at Badger Hill. It is a problem on Bond End too.
Noisy, modified cars and motorbikes use Bond End as a slingshot before breaking the speed limit on the dual carriageway of Harrogate Road, from Mother Shipton’s towards the golf club. This has been ongoing since spring.
The beginning of this area has a lot of pedestrians. Alas, a police presence, acting as enforcement and deterrence, is absent.
Dr. David Oldman, Knaresborough
And so is York Place…
I can concur with Malcolm Woods regarding boy racers. I live on Iles Lane, I walk my dogs every night and I can say that boy racers race in town up York Place through the High Street nearly every night between 9.30pm and 10.30pm. No police visible
Maggie Boyd , Knaresborough
Read more:
- Stray Views: Drivers use Badger Hill as ‘speed track’
- Two people robbed and assaulted on Knaresborough street
Full marks for promptness to local politician
I have no political allegiance or affiliation, but when I raised an issue concerning his ward, Matt Walker responded almost immediately. This was even though his contact page on the council website said he was on holiday at the time. Full marks, and good luck, sir!
Colin Harrison, Knaresborough
Station Gateway: we expect better from councillors
A couple of issues in particular discussed by councillors at the area constituency committee meeting on June 8 should be raised.
1 THE PETITION
A Conservative member attending this meeting queried the petition’s veracity, saying its signatories included people from as far away as South Africa. According to people who are more computer literate than I am, it is reportedly an anomaly where the IP address of people’s computers shows up on the petition rather than their postal address. So I have been told, it occurs when a virtual private network is used to provide additional security and privacy rather than that afforded by the normal internet connection.
For example, two people I know who certainly live in Harrogate had their addresses displayed on the petition as Sunderland. It therefore seems to confirm that the councillor who announced in a sarcastic manner at the North Yorkshire Council executive meeting that he had rigorously checked the petition and that it proved nothing as at least 20% of the signatories lived outside the Harrogate area was quite wrong.
Surely there must be some way in which these misleading discrepancies, fabrications and exaggerations can be taken into account as they were extremely misleading. I find it hard to comprehend the technology wizards at the council have not come across this anomaly before.
2 INTERPRETATION OF THE PETITION
Another Conservative member attending the meeting pointed out even 500 local signatures, the threshold needed to have the petition debated by the committee, were not representative of all views from local residents. Just over two years ago quite extensive coverage was given in the local media of the survey results following public consultation on the gateway project including the pedestrianisation of James Street.
A report commissioned by North Yorkshire County Council claimed the gateway project still had more supporters than detractors. I understand the overall population of Harrogate at the time was in the region of 75,000 residents, from which there were some 1,101 respondents to the online survey. This equates approximately to 1.5% of Harrogate town’s total population – some 45% of the 1,101 participants voted in favour of this proposal or in real terms somewhere in the region of 0.75% of Harrogate’s population.
So, if you adopt this councillor’s theory, it is less representative of all the views from local residents even though at the time Cllr Phil Ireland from the then Harrogate Borough Council claimed “we have EVERYBODY’S feedback and ideas to feed into the next phase of detailed design work”. And yet, they dare to trash the recent petition which reached over 2,000 signatures and continues to increase.
We do not expect this standard of behaviour form councillors who were elected to represent us the residents of Harrogate and a public apology on both issues would be appropriate.
The simple fact that the signatories to the petition may not be representative of all views from local residents rests firmly in the lap of the council. It is quite disturbing to find out even now how many local residents and businesses still have not heard of or do not know what the station gateway involves. Whilst I appreciate it will always be a problem to ensure everyone is aware, I believe the council and the highways team in particular has a history of poor consultation, ignoring the democratic process; not listening and dismissive of public comment, and hiding behind a meaningless excess of words in press releases. If only they had involved us much earlier in the democratic process more of us would have shared in ownership of a gateway project.
Barry Adams, Harrogate
Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.