Harrogate Borough Council has approved plans to convert space above shops on Cambridge Street into apartments.

Aegon Property Income Fund lodged the proposal to create five flats on the upper floors of 6-14 Cambridge Street.

The ground floor of the properties is currently occupied by the Card Factory and two empty units which were formerly the Phone Doctor and Smiggle. For many years the site was home to Carphone Warehouse.

Under the proposal, the upper floors would be converted into three one-bedroom and two two-bedroom apartments.

Read more:

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• Plan approved to demolish Harrogate social club for flats
• Plan to build 26 homes on former Masham livestock mart

The developer said the flats would be designed with “modern living” in mind. They will be open plan and include dining and kitchen arrangements.

In documents submitted to the council, the developer said:

“The site is in a highly sustainable location within the town centre, accessible by a range of sustainable modes of transport including train and bus as well as walking and cycling.

“The proposal creates additional accommodation within the town centre which will help to contribute to an improved range and distribution of housing and will increase activity in the town centre beyond the normal working day leading to greater natural ‘surveillance’ through a more vibrant after work environment.”

Rudding Park Hotel in Harrogate is launching a 10km multi-terrain race to raise money for the Queen’s platinum jubilee initiative to plant more trees.

The Rudding ParkRace, as it will be known, will take participants through 300 acres of parkland.

Profits from the race will be donated to The Queen’s Green Canopy, an initiative that encourages people to plant a tree in honour of the jubilee.

The race will be held on Tuesday, May 10 and the 18th century hotel will act as a backdrop for the finish line.

Simon Mackaness, owner of Rudding Park, said:

The NHS trust that runs hospitals in Harrogate and Ripon is to maintain visitor restrictions while coronavirus case rates remain high.

Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust imposed restrictions at Harrogate District Hospital and Ripon Community Hospital on December 23 amid concerns about the Omicron variant.

It means visitors are only allowed for patients on end of life care, patients with a learning disability or severe cognitive impairment such as dementia. Parents or carers of children and birthing partners are also permitted.

Read more:

• Number of covid patients at Harrogate Hospital increases sharply to 34
• Harrogate district reports 278 covid cases as rate continues to rise

At the time, the hospital said it would review the restrictions regularly and relax them “at the earliest opportunity”.

However, although the government removed all Plan B measures a week ago, the trust has yet to say when regular visits will resume.

A spokesperson for the trust said today:

“Visitor guidance has not changed since December 23, 2021, although it is regularly reviewed.

“While infection rates remain at the current levels, we need to maintain the current restrictions on visitors to our wards for the safety of our patients and staff.

“These restriction also still apply to those people wanting to accompany outpatients to their appointments.

“Anyone entering our hospital will also need to wear a mask, ensure they sanitise their hands and maintain social distancing.”

Another 339 covid infections were recorded in the Harrogate district yesterday, bringing the seven-day average to 1,305 cases per 100,000 people — the highest in North Yorkshire and considerably above the England rate of 1,048.

For some it can be a ringing in their ear, for others it could be a buzzing or even a hissing noise.

Tinnitus can be a particularly annoying condition as it causes a person to hear sounds that are not generated by the outside world – so the noises can’t just be switched off.

Fortunately, most get used to the sound, with it fading into the background as they go about their daily lives.

But for a small group, it can be distressing, and these people are often told there is little that can be done to help them.

Structured approaches

However there are structured approaches that can give back control.

Speaking ahead of Tinnitus Week, which takes place from February 7-13, Emily Balmer, founder and lead audiologist of The Hearing Suite, Harrogate, said:

“A lot of people say they have got tinnitus and it doesn’t bother them. It’s almost just like the soundtrack to their lives, which is totally fine.

“It’s that little group that it’s bothersome for and is distressing and upsetting for that need help.

“But it doesn’t always have to be distressing. There are things people can do to have it and live well with it.”

Emily, who specialises in tinnitus, explained that all her patients described the condition differently.

She said:

“It’s usually a ringing or a buzzing, but some people do get music. Some people say it’s like a twinkly sound.

“If it’s there and they are happy, we are happy. The only time we would start digging a little bit deeper is if it’s only in one ear, if it sounds like a heartbeat, if it’s stopping them sleeping or driving them to distraction.”

British Tinnitus Association

About 30 per cent of people will experience the condition at some point, according to the British Tinnitus Association, with approximately 13 per cent of UK adults living with persistent tinnitus.

Led by the British Tinnitus Association, Tinnitus Week is aimed at helping people to find out more about the condition, who it affects and ways to live well with it.

Emily said:

“Tinnitus awareness week is really good, because it is run by the British Tinnitus Association and they are amazing.

“They are a charity, they do events which raise awareness, and publish research. If ever there was a cure for tinnitus, it would be them who shouted it from the rooftop.

“While there isn’t a cure, it’s about managing it. There are things you can do, but unfortunately there isn’t a tablet that will just make it go away.”

Take back control

At The Hearing Suite, Emily said she and fellow tinnitus specialist, Laura, work through three main areas to help people take back control:

Education

“Before we can start to manage someone’s tinnitus, we have to understand why it is there. We need to understand what else was happening when it started, how long its been present, how healthy each part of the ear is, and the pitch of the tinnitus itself.

“From there we can decide if we need further investigation from our ear, nose and throat consultant. Then is looking at the resources and learning that might benefit the individual.”

Sound enrichment

“If there is hearing to build back in we always do that first. If we can stop someone straining to hear then it takes pressure from the auditory system. A trial of one of our invisible hearing aids like Lyric is often a great place to start.

“If the hearing is perfect we can start to explore things like ear level maskers with fractal tones or notch therapy.”

Stress management

“We often find that stress is intrinsically linked to tinnitus. Getting people to restart a hobby, or take a little time for them is often hugely beneficial. There is also a strong evidence base for mindfulness and other types of relaxation reducing tinnitus. We tend to recommend based on the motivations and interests of the individual.”

Free events

The Hearing Suite will be hosting three complimentary events during Tinnitus Week.

Emily said:

“The week helps to raise awareness of the condition. Say if someone has tinnitus, when would you be in the circumstances where you would tell someone?

“You might feel like you’re the only person in Harrogate for instance, when actually when you’re in a restaurant, there are probably five other people in there who have got it.

“It’s a bit of solidarity and driving people to good resources.”

Emily carries out a consultation at The Hearing Suite.

The free Tinnitus Week events at The Hearing Suite are as follows:

Tinnitus: An Introduction Monday, February 7, 3pm – 5pm

This event will provide an overview on the subject on tinnitus, including what causes and contributes to tinnitus, how it impacts quality of life, and an introduction to some treatment options.

Tickets available here

Tinnitus and Stress Wednesday, February 9, 1pm – 3pm

Tinnitus and stress are known to be closely linked. This event will offer insights into the relationship between tinnitus and stress, and how stress management can in turn help to reduce the perceived intensity and burden of tinnitus.

Tickets available here

 Tinnitus: Options in 2022 Thursday, February 10, 10am – 12pm

Management of tinnitus often requires a multifaceted approach. This event will provide education on the evidence-based tools and treatment options currently available for tinnitus.

Tickets available here

• The Tinnitus Week events will be hosted at The Hearing Suite, on East Parade, which is now in its fourth year.
• Places will be limited to six per event. Please note attendees will be required to wear a face covering. Team members at The Hearing Suite wear visors to allow for clients who lip read.
• If you would prefer a private consultation to talk about your tinnitus, you can book in with Emily here.

A Harrogate furniture reuse charity has helped to furnish four properties for female survivors of domestic abuse.

Essential Needs, on Leeds Road, has partnered with Independent Domestic Abuse Services (IDAS), which is the largest specialist domestic abuse charity in Yorkshire.

The homes in the Harrogate area will be used by women moving away from violence and abuse.

Essential Needs provided four of each of the following items; sofa, bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers, bedside drawer, kitchen table and chairs, coffee table, TV and TV unit, microwave, kettle, toaster and vacuum.

Lee Wright, manager at Essential Needs said:

“Essential Needs wanted to support IDAS as their work is lifesaving and the pandemic has made conditions for victim-survivors even worse.

“It was great to be able to partner in a way that drew on both our strengths as charities, supporting people who really need the help and to give them the best chance of living a life free from abuse and violence.”

Lucinda, a fake name, is one of the survivors that has moved into one of the properties. She said:

“The flat is lovely and homely, it is great to have the freedom to be able to go for walks again. The staff have been really lovely, and kind and it makes me feel safe to know that they are just a phone call away.

“I was so worried about how I would do this on my own but now all my worries about moving have gone away. I am safe.”

Read more:

• Charity Corner: Combating furniture poverty across the Harrogate district
• Harrogate domestic abuse charity sees referrals triple due to covid

Essential Needs sells donated furniture at low prices at its Leeds Road warehouse.

IDAS said all the properties now have residents that are getting the support they need to recover from their experience and rebuild. It added it was always looking to accommodate and help more survivors of domestic abuse so will likely partner with Essential Needs again.

Mel Milner, project officer for IDAS dispersed housing and safe havens in Harrogate and district area, said:

“We are very grateful for the generosity of our partners at Essential Needs. When survivors escape abuse, it’s so important that it represents more than just a roof over their heads, so we work hard to furnish our properties with everything you would need to have the best fresh start.”

There are fears that many first-time buyers will still struggle to afford the Harrogate district’s high property prices despite a new national scheme offering up to 50% discounts.

First Homes aims to support the sale of new homes to people in the district, which is one of the most unaffordable places to live in England, with average house prices around 11 times average incomes.

Discounts of at least 30% can be knocked off market prices under the scheme, but councils can increase this to either 40% or 50% if they can “demonstrate a need”.

The scheme has been hailed by government as a move to help people get on the property ladder, many of whom will be key workers such as NHS, care home and supermarket staff.

But with the average property price paid in Harrogate last year rising to £395,526, there are fears that the current housing boom and years of rising prices will mean home ownership will still be out of reach for many – even with the top discounts.

Conservative-controlled Harrogate Borough Council has backed the scheme but described it as “problematic” and said it is “highly unlikely” that first-timer buyers will be able to afford new builds in the district.

There are further concerns that the scheme will slow the delivery of much-needed rental homes, which around 1,800 Harrogate district households have registered for.

This is because First Homes requires housebuilders to nominate a proportion of their properties for sale discounts – and this could mean renters miss out.

People needing rented homes ‘will lose out’

Councillor Pat Marsh, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrat group on the council, said it is these households which can only afford to rent that are in the greatest need:

“Our residents needing affordable rented homes will lose out and Harrogate will suffer from not having the mix of residents that will sustain our economy and fill our important key worker roles.

“We question whether this is the most effective way of meeting overall needs if it displaces other tenures which are needed.”

The scheme is for first-time buyers only and does restrict some households with a combined annual income of more than £80,000 from applying.

There are also price caps which mean that after the discount has been applied, the buyer cannot be required to pay more than £250,000.

Those who can afford to buy a First Home without a mortgage are not eligible, and there are further measures aimed at preventing people buying the homes as an investment.

Read more:

• Harrogate council should have acted quicker on Dunlopillo housing plans, review finds
• Harrogate council housing company Bracewell Homes won’t pay any dividends this year

The scheme launched last year and has recently been backed by Harrogate Borough Council, which said it would publish more information online and use it as a tool to decide planning applications.

Speaking when the scheme launched, former Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said:

“First Homes will offer a realistic and affordable route into home ownership for even more people who want to own their own home.

“These homes will be locked in for perpetuity to first-time buyers and key workers from their local area – making them an asset to both their owners and the wider local community.”

Police and firefighters rescued a “man in distress” who climbed scaffolding in Harrogate last night.

A concerned eyewitness called the police when they saw the man make his way to the top of the three-storey building next to Harrogate Homeless Project on Bower Street.

Officers attended the incident at around 7pm and managed to convince him to make his way back to the ground after about an hour of negotiations.

The man, who has not been named, was then taken to Harrogate District Hospital for treatment and support.

Read more:

• School bus involved in minor collision near Harrogate
  
• Jail for drug dealers who boasted of Harrogate street earnings

A spokesperson for North Yorkshire Police said:

“North Yorkshire Police received a report of a man in distress who had climbed scaffolding on Bower Street in Harrogate just before 7pm yesterday.

“Officers attended and spoke to the man, who came back down at about 8pm. He was taken to hospital to receive the support and treatment he needs.”

A spokesperson for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue said:

“Fire crews from Harrogate along with the aerial ladder platform attended an incident to assist police and paramedics with a male, who was left in their care.”

A school bus was involved in a minor collision this morning in the Harrogate district.

The incident involving students from Harrogate Grammar School happened on the A658 Harrogate Road, close to Leathley Farm Shop and Cafe at about 8am.

No children were hurt.

The incident led to rush hour delays from Pool-in-Wharfedale to Huby.

A Harrogate Grammar School spokeswoman confirmed three children were on the bus at the time and that none sustained injuries.

The spokeswoman described the incident as a “mild shunt” and said the bus company acted promptly to get the children safely to school.

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The Stray Ferret understands the crash involved one other vehicle.

North Yorkshire Police said there were no reports of injuries but declined to give further details.

Two drug dealers who bragged they were making so much money they would soon need a “counting machine” have been jailed for a combined four years.

Notorious thug Sirus Alexander, 21, and Robert Varela, 26, immersed themselves in the “dark world” of the Harrogate narcotics trade in which money and hard drugs were so easy to come by that they treated four-figure profits as “minor” financial gains, York Crown Court heard.

They were finally caught thanks to eagle-eyed security staff and Harrogate Borough Council’s CCTV operators who spotted them engaging in a shady transaction in a red Audi with two “unknown men” behind an Early Learning Centre in the town centre, said prosecutor Michael Cahill.

Alexander and Varela scuttled off to a nearby Travelodge where they stashed over 60 wraps of heroin and cocaine in their room.

Police turned up at the hotel just after midnight, but Alexander and Varela had vanished.

A search of the room revealed a major cocaine and heroin stash worth about £2,575 — as well as a machete and digital weighing scales.

At about 4am the following morning, police received another call from CCTV operators who spotted the pair going into Asda in the town centre.

Officers swooped on the supermarket and arrested the two men. Varela was found with a large hunting knife in his jacket and about £300 cash. Alexander threw his mobile phone underneath a car just before his arrest.

Varela, formerly of Harrogate but lately of Bradford, and Alexander, from Elland, each admitted two counts of supplying a Class A drug with intent to supply. Varela also admitted carrying a blade.

£1,200 for cocaine a ‘minor’ amount

They appeared for sentence on Tuesday but only Varela was in the dock. Alexander appeared via video link from Hull Prison where he is currently serving a 10-year jail sentence for robbery and wounding following a stabbing incident in Harrogate just two months after he was arrested for the drug offences.

Mr Cahill said that security guards at the Early Learning Centre spotted the pair and the two unidentified men on the afternoon of April 23, 2019 in what was patently a drug transaction.

Alexander’s phone showed he had been dealing since 2017. It appeared that Varela had only been dealing in the days before his arrest.

Read more:

• Man jailed for biting Harrogate police officer and spitting at another
• Harrogate councillor calls for campaign to make class A drugs ‘shameful’

In one of the messages on their phones, they bragged that £1,200 – the “going rate” for an ounce of cocaine” – was a “minor” amount and that “we can smash this thing and that 46 (drug wraps) went in one hour”.

In another exchange, they boasted that they were “making so much money we are (going to) need a counting machine”.

Laced drink with bleach

Both men had previous convictions but it was Alexander whose criminal record was the most “worrying”.

He had previous convictions for violence, possessing a knife, racially aggravated harassment and vehicle theft, and one for administering poison in 2016, when he laced someone’s drink with bleach.

By far the most serious of his 26 previous offences was the incident in June 2019 when he robbed three men at knifepoint in Harrogate town centre while wearing a skull mask.

Alexander stabbed two of the victims in the thigh with a carving knife after ambushing them in Harrogate town centre. He told the “terrified” men they were “going to die” and ordered them to empty their pockets.

Alexander, who was a heavy cocaine user and fan of violent video games, was jailed for 10 years and nine months in February 2020 after he admitted two counts of robbery and two of wounding with intent.

The victims had been making their way home from a night out when Alexander pounced near the Asda store on the corner of Mayfield Grove and Strawberry Dale.

He took some cash, tobacco and a rucksack containing items including a mobile phone after slashing out with the large kitchen knife. The victims suffered “gaping” wounds and deep psychological harm.

Branded with hot knife

Harry Crowson, for Alexander, said his client still had another three years to serve of the 10-year jail sentence for the robberies.

He said that Alexander, who had spent his entire childhood in care, had been exploited by county lines drug bosses following a traumatic upbringing.

Christopher Haddock, for Varela, said his client had started dealing to feed his “expensive” drug habit and pay off debts to his suppliers.

He said that in October last year, Varela was hospitalised after his drug overlords “branded” him with a hot knife. Varela refused to disclose the identity of these men.

Judge Simon Hickey told the defendants:

“You know dealing in Class A drugs on our streets brings misery, degradation and death. You were both effectively street dealers in the middle of Harrogate.”

Alexander, of The Grove, Idle, was jailed for two years. He will serve half of that sentence behind bars, consecutive to the jail term he is already serving.

Varela, of Huddersfield Road, Elland, was jailed for two years and three months.

There are reports of a major accident near Huby this morning on the A658 Harrogate Road.

The crash happened close to the Leathley Farm Shop and Cafe around 8am this morning with delays from Poole in Wharfedale to Huby.

It is unclear at this time how many vehicles were involved at this time. We have asked North Yorkshire Police for a response.

The Stray Ferret has changed the way it offers Traffic and Travel alerts.

We will now notify you instantly through app notifications and flash tweets when there is an urgent alert. This could include heavy traffic, dangerous weather and long delays or cancellations of public transport.

The alerts are sponsored by The HACS Group.