120 more positive covid cases in Harrogate district

The Harrogate district has reported 120 cases of covid, according to Public Health England figures.

The district’s 7-day average case rate is 453 per 100,000 people, which is the third-highest rate in North Yorkshire.

Across the county, the average rate is 417 and the England average is 341.

No further deaths from patients who tested positive for coronavirus have been recorded at Harrogate District Hospital, according to NHS England figures.

Since the pandemic began 197 people have died with covid at the hospital.

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On Friday the gravity of the staffing crisis in social care was underlined as North Yorkshire County Council launched its biggest ever recruitment drive for the sector.

The number of people applying for social care jobs has plummeted, partly due to the introduction of mandatory vaccines for care staff.

North Yorkshire PFCC candidate launches campaign with single policy

A candidate for the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) by-election has launched her manifesto with a single policy.

Dr Hannah Barham-Brown, on behalf of the Women’s Equality Party (WEP), has written a manifesto with a single policy to end violence against women and girls.

She unveiled her manifesto today at Oatlands community centre in Harrogate before she said she would bring a revolutionary approach to the role of PFCC.

The WEP candidate then said she would work with politicians to urge them to do more for women concerned about the threats they face.

Dr Hannah Barham-Brown said:

“I am contesting this election for one reason and for one reason only: to put ending violence against women and girls front and centre in our policing and political priorities in North Yorkshire, and I challenge all of my fellow candidates to join me in this.

“So far in the campaign, I’ve seen other candidates pay lip-service to ending violence, but offering no clear plan on how they’ll do so. Enough is enough.

“While this doesn’t mean I won’t engage with residents’ concerns on a wide range of topics, it does mean I will be singularly focused on ending violence in my campaign.”

During her speech Dr Barham-Brown added that women and girls had been badly let down by Philip Allott, who stepped down as PFCC after his comments on the Sarah Everard case.

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If elected, she has pledged to fund specialist support for those who have reported abuse or sexual violence, introduce an expert scrutiny panel for rape and sexual violence cases.

Her plan also includes rooting out misogyny in the police force, addressing racism in domestic abuse cases and guaranteeing that migrant women have access to specialist support.

She added:

“This violence is not inevitable, but we are at this point because of a total failure of political leadership.

“Politicians of all parties are consistently failing to show up for women, except when it’s already too late.

“Women and girls deserve a PFCC who focuses on ending violence against women – not just managing it – every day and not just when it hits the headlines.

“I promise to deliver that. Women and girls in North Yorkshire deserve to live free from threat and fear of violence, and with the right political leadership we can make that happen.”

Other candidates for the PFCC role

The election of North Yorkshire PFCC will be held on November 25.

Group marches through Harrogate demanding climate change action

A group of over 50 people marched through Harrogate town centre this morning to demand action on climate change.

The good-natured march was organised by Harrogate resident Ian Hallett who was inspired after cycling to COP26 in Glasgow and back.

There were chants and banners with messages about climate change as curious shoppers looked on.

The group included members of Extinction Rebellion Harrogate, Harrogate & District Green Party and Harrogate District Cycle Action,

Mr Hallett said:

“[After COP] it was an opportunity to invite people along for a march.”

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The march was attended by people of all ages. At the front was a colourful banner made by Anna Bryer and her children with the message “Act on the science”.

The colours represent Met Office temperatures from 1850 to the present day and show how the planet has heated.

It was made from recycled fabric, including a prom dress and an old pillow.

Ms Bryer said:

“It’s a striking dramatic and frightening image. It’s based on scientific fact, and we can’t argue with that.

“This is about our children’s future”

Harrogate’s Got Talent: Have you got what it takes to liven up the town?

Can you hang a tune, juggle a bit maybe or do a few nifty dance moves? If so, your town needs you.

Harrogate Business Improvement District, which is made up town centre businesses, is looking for new street entertainers to liven the town up and make shopping a more upbeat experience.

Matthew Chapman the Harrogate BID manager said:

“We are looking for entertainers from all genres whether it be singers, magicians, actors or dancers – anything that will add to the shopping and hospitality  experience – the quirkier the better.”

Harrogate already has regular buskers who knock out Adele or Sinatra classics outside M&S on Cambridge Street in the hope of making money.

Mr Chapman says there’s no move to stop them. The aim is to provide a more consistent offer in the town and place entertainers in different areas, possibly at the rear of Primark on Oxford Street or at the end of Cambridge Street outside HSBC.

The BID has a small budget to support the new performers.

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If you think you’ve got what it takes and want to get involved, get in touch with the BID. Mr Chapman said:

“If people have got videos or YouTube accounts then we can see them perform – or you can email us and come in for an audition. We want to create a vibrant town centre so that people can enjoy the experience as well as the retail and hospitality offerings.”

The BID is keen to trial new performers during the Xmas period and roll it out across next year.

To contact the BID email info@Harrogatebid.co.uk

Do you know that Harrogate has a long history of street entertaining and that in Victorian times it could all get a bit raucous?  Read Harrogate Historian, Malcolm Neesam’s article on the very lively scene that existed in previous centuries. 

 

 

 

 

 

Cold Bath Road police chase leads to three drug arrests

Three people have been arrested on suspicion of dealing drugs after police chased a car through the streets of Harrogate.

The arrests took place on Wednesday afternoon after a vehicle failed to stop for the police on Skipton Road, officers chased the vehicle before it crashed on Cold Bath Road with the driver making a getaway.

Passers-by directed police officers towards him and the 23-year-old man was stopped and was arrested on suspicion of possessing cannabis with intent to supply, acquiring criminal property, dangerous driving and failing to stop.

The police searched a nearby address and found more drugs and cash. They also arrested two more male suspects, 18 and 15, who were arrested on suspicion of possessing cannabis with intent to supply.

They have been released under investigation while police enquiries continue.

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Harrogate Grandmother’s story of unbreakable love of neglected granddaughter

This article is sponsored by Berwins

 

Six days before Christmas in 2006, Elizabeth’s four-year-old granddaughter came to live with her in Harrogate.

She was wearing clothes that were too small for her and was a shadow of the little girl who had once been full of life.

Two weeks earlier Elizabeth was contacted by a social worker and asked if she knew Grace had been put into care.

Shocked and devastated, she demanded that her granddaughter came to live with her. 

She invited me to hear her incredible story of heartbreak, sacrifice, resilience, but most importantly the unbreakable bond between a grandmother and her grandchild.  In this article I have changed all the names to protect their identities.

When I met Elizabeth, I instantly warmed to her. I could tell she was tough, but also incredibly kind, by the way she told me to relax as I perched stiffly on the edge of her sofa.

As she started to tell me her heart-wrenching story, the raw emotion of the trauma both she and Grace had been through was etched on her face.

She said:

“I was contacted by social services to say that Grace had been put into care because her mother had wanted to put her up for adoption.

After a bit of toing and froing I said she could come and live with me, and on December 19, 2006, along came Grace.

She was four-and-a-bit. She was very introvert, which is a sad thing because when we were together, before she went off with her mother and this person, my granddaughter was beautiful and was full of life.”

Elizabeth explained that her daughter and Grace had come to Harrogate from Reading to live with her in 2003 after her daughter had left her partner, Grace’s father.

Her daughter eventually got her own flat, but Elizabeth regularly looked after Grace, who was born in 2002.

She said:

“Every day I used to pick them both up. Before I went to work I’d take my daughter to work and my granddaughter to nursery and then at the end of the day, I’d do it all again in reverse.”

Controlling

However, when her daughter met her new wealthy partner on the internet, she began to distance herself from her friends and family as he became more and more controlling.

And when she eventually married the man, who lived just outside Scunthorpe, in 2005, Elizabeth was completely cut out of their lives.

She said:

“The day of the wedding, the agreement was I was going to bring Grace back with me so they could go on their honeymoon. I had Grace with me and we were on a flight of stairs and I reminded him to get his rings back, as they would need them.

“It was a different person completely, he totally blanked me. He gave Grace a look that if it could have killed, it would have done. And he turned his back and walked away. Up until that point he had been fine with me. It was like Jekyll and Hyde.”

Elizabeth didn’t want to stop seeing her granddaughter and would stubbornly tell her daughter and new husband that she was going to pick Grace up.

Maniac

But when she rang she wasn’t allowed to speak to anyone and was forced to accept that she would have to close the door, as the inconsistency was doing her granddaughter more harm than good.

It later emerged Grace had been told her grandmother had moved to Spain, which was why she could no longer see her.

Elizabeth said:

“He didn’t want somebody else’s child basically. The man was a maniac. He took all of my daughter’s things. For example he gave her a very expensive leather purse for Christmas and told her to go and get her old purse so she could transfer everything into this beautiful new purse he had bought.

“Later that afternoon he took the old purse and some other items and set fire to them. So he was burning and getting rid of her past.

“She had a lot of friends in Harrogate as she was quite an easy-going girl, so he tried to rub out her past. And the only way he could see to do it was to ignore a situation or burn things.”

After a year of not seeing her granddaughter, Elizabeth received a call from a woman called Jackie Crawford, from child services in Scunthorpe. She had been given the wrong spelling of Elizabeth’s name and an old address.

‘Bring her to me’

However, Jackie, who Elizabeth described as “worth her weight in gold”, persevered and got in touch with North Yorkshire County Council to help track her down.

Elizabeth said:

“In October 2006 I was sat at my desk, I got this phone call saying ‘do you know your granddaughter is in care?’. And we went from there.

“I was shocked, angry, horrified and didn’t know what had happened as I had no background to this.

“Jackie asked if she could come and meet me and we chatted. She told me Grace was not a happy child or in a happy place and she needed to have something solid.

“And I said bring her to me, just bring her to me, I’ll look after her.”

At this stage, Grace had been put into foster care, where sadly she was not given the love and support the little girl so desperately needed.

When her grandmother went to pick her grandaughter up, she was wearing clothes and shoes that were too small for her and she had no coat.

Instant connection

Elizabeth said there had been an instant connection between her and Grace, from the moment she first met her in the hospital after she was born.

She said:

“So when I went to pick her up from the foster home she had been sent to, this poor little thing had come home from school and it was a different child. She seemed smaller.

“She had a couple of Asda bags with some stuff in it and a backpack and that was it. I had to buy her shoes and a coat as she had nothing that was decent. She came to me in her school uniform.

What soon began to unfold was that Grace had suffered at the hands of her mother and stepfather in the year Elizabeth had not been in her life.

Excluded

Elizabeth said:

“She was excluded. She wasn’t allowed to partake in family life, for example she would have to sit in a different room on her own with a sandwich and crisps while they had a family meal. If they went out she wasn’t allowed an ice cream, yet her half-brother, who was born in 2005, was allowed one.

“A lot of the toys I had given my granddaughter ended up being given to her half-brother.

Elizabeth said Grace was frightened of everybody and everything.

On Grace’s first night at her grandmother’s, after an evening playing and a bedtime story, Elizabeth was sitting in the lounge watching TV when she heard a tap at the door.

She said:

“I opened the door and she’s standing there, saying ‘I’m lonely’. I took her back to bed, read her another story and from that day on it just grew and grew.

Inseparable

From this moment, the pair were inseparable and eventually Grace started to regain her confidence and self-worth thanks to the support of her grandmother.

The little girl went on to join a local stage school, where she flourished and won all sorts of competitions.

Fighting back the tears, Elizabeth recalled:

“When Grace was five or six, she did a performance at Harrogate High School. It had to be something they wrote themselves. We wrote a poem between us called ‘what did I learn today?’.

“It was a big, dark stage with dark blue curtains. Over the speaker came ”and next is Grace with her own poem”.

“She was wearing a top with sparkles on the shoulder. The curtains opened and the light hit her. She took a deep breath and she did the poem. I just fell apart. I was so proud of her.

“These are the things the mother never saw. She will never know. The things that little girl has achieved, it has been through sheer determination.

“Her determination to prove to herself that she is worthy.

“Some of the things that the stepfather would say is “you’re not worth anything”. If she walked into a room, he would walk out.

“So she began to feel she wasn’t worth anything. And you have to build that back up again.”

Grace attended a primary school in Harrogate, where she received the headmaster’s shield for resilience, which Elizabeth proudly keeps in a display cabinet.

Resilient

She said:

“I’ve always thought Grace is very resilient. Very stoic.

“I never had any drama with her at all. She’s also had her problems. She suffers from a thing called Gastroesophageal Reflux (GER), which is when the body makes too much acid. So when she was doing her A-levels she was also attending the hospital and having cameras stuffed down her throat and she still came out with an A* and As and Bs.”

Grace, now 19-years-old, did four A-levels at a Harrogate secondary school and is now studying English Literature at university in Newcastle.

Amazing bond

Elizabeth said:

“My idea was to get her up and out and move her on because I’m an old lady and very stuck in my ways.

“She’s had to live with my rules and regulations.

“She is now sharing a house with two other girls and just loving the freedom of it.”

At this point Elizabeth’s phone started ringing and it was Grace. Even just listening to the affectionate way they spoke to each other on the phone, I could sense their amazing bond.

Sheepdog not a sheep

Elizabeth said:

“One of the things I tried to teach her, because she was so vulnerable, is you are a sheepdog not a sheep. You have a voice. Use your voice. Don’t go in antagonising everybody. Don’t go in shouting. But if something is wrong explain clearly and precisely what you expect them to do about it.

“And bless her heart, she has managed to do all sorts of things. This is the one who would stand behind me when people would stop me in the street to stay hello.

“And slowly slowly she has grown and developed. She has got her problems, like all teenagers do. Although apparently she’s an adult now!

“The upside is all the lovely times we have had together, learning to ride a bike, playing football on The Stray and her shouting “gandma [sic] gandma get your legs out. Doing all sorts of outrageous things, having picnics in the rain and, as things got tight financially, finding things we could do that didn’t cost a lot of money.”

As Elizabeth didn’t officially adopt Grace due to her being a family member, she didn’t receive any financial support from social services. Support that she would have received if she had adopted or fostered a child.

Precious time

It meant that Elizabeth eventually had to sell her car and move to council accommodation. This was after she made the decision to cut her hours at work as she didn’t want Grace to be in nursery full-time, as their time together was so precious.

Elizabeth said:

“I had no time with her. Where is the point in having a child if you spend all your time saying ‘I’ll be with you in a minute. I haven’t got time. We’re doing it later’? I wanted to enjoy her. She wasn’t something pretty to sit on a shelf. She was alive and full of mischief and full of fun.

“All that loveliness that was there when I first knew her got knocked out of her the year she lived with her stepfather. And then to come back to me, to get that back again was wonderful.”

Best friends

Elizabeth said she lost quite a few of her friends when she started caring for Grace, as she was unable to socialise with them as often.

However, this didn’t bother her as she felt her granddaughter was her best friend.

She said:

“We could sit in the room side-by-side and read books or watch a film and not say a word. Because we didn’t need to. We were just comfortable. She said one of the things she misses now being away at university is curling up with a box of chocolates and a DVD. That’s not a bad relationship to have with your granddaughter.

“I think it’s the most wonderful thing I ever did. Every morning when I opened my eyes and she had either climbed into bed with me, or I knew she was pottering around or when she was in her room, was just wonderful.

“The biggest wrench was when she went off to university to find an empty room.

“She’s such a lovely child. It sounds like I’m blowing my own trumpet, but the pleasure and joy you get from this is phenomenal.

“Yes it’s hard, but oh my God the rewards. To see a child grow and develop and get rid of all that clankiness that was hanging on them when they first arrived. To stand on a stage, to sing a solo, to paint a mural on a bedroom wall, to sit in a car when its pouring with rain, eat your sandwiches and have a laugh at what’s going on outside. Just stuff.”

Grace’s mother and stepfather, who had a second child together, a daughter, in 2007, have since moved to New Zealand and neither her, nor Elizabeth, have any contact with them.

‘Grace is my daughter’

Elizabeth said:

“I don’t want a relationship with my daughter. I’m afraid she is one of the few people I would quite happily punch. I always thought we were good friends, but apparently not.

“I think it has skipped a generation. Grace is my daughter. She calls me mum.

“So this creature of mine that I thought was my daughter, isn’t. I’ve been asked if I feel sorry for her. Sorry for a woman who packed a small bag and put it in a car and watched her own flesh and blood get into that car and be taken away by strangers? The reason she gave was there was no bond.”

We finished the interview talking about Grace’s cat, Marmaduke, who sat on the arm of Elizabeth’s chair throughout. I liked to think the pet was a source of comfort to Elizabeth and watched over her while Grace was away.

One of Grace’s favourite pictures of Marmaduke.

She is truly a remarkable woman, a strong, determined woman. I couldn’t help but be moved by her story and her incredible relationship with her granddaughter.

Amazing achievements

Elizabeth said:

“I think the thing that makes me pat myself on the back is seeing all of the amazing things my granddaughter has done. Her achievements.

“Everything we have done together has been phenomenal. And that stacked up is higher than all of the grief, the sorrow and the pain.”

Harrogate Army Foundation College instructor demoted for punching teenage soldiers

A British Army instructor who told junior recruits at Harrogate’s Army Foundation College “you’re mine now, bitches” has been demoted after being convicted of punching teenage soldiers.

Corporal Kimberley Hey worked as part of the directing staff at the college on Penny Pot Lane, where junior soldiers undergo training for six months, split into three terms of around six weeks.

Following a court martial, Corporal Hey was found to have hit one 16-year-old in the stomach on his first day of training and delivered a similar blow to another recruit because he had ‘smirked’ at her.

Reducing the 34-year-old in rank to Lance Corporal, Judge Advocate Alistair McGrigor told her that although the punches were at a ‘low level’ she had ‘abused’ her relationship with the recruits and her acts had the potential to ‘erode public trust’ in the armed forces’ training.

Cpl Kimberley Hey. Photo: Solent News and Photo Agency

Cpl Kimberley Hey. Photo: Solent News and Photo Agency

“You were a very experienced instructor in charge of junior soldiers.

“You had the interests of the junior soldiers at heart but this was an abuse of your relationship.

“It’s an extremely bad example to give young, impressionable soldiers at the start of their army life. Such behaviour had the potential to erode public confidence in training young soldiers.

“You have forfeited your rank by such behaviour.”

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Cpl Hey, who has served in the armed forces for 18 years, had denied the charges, insisting her actions only amounted to ‘mutual flicking’ that was part of ‘bonding’ with the soldiers.

But she was found guilty during a three-day trial at Bulford Military Court, Wilts, of two counts of battery relating to junior recruits Craftsman Joseph Wiggin and Craftsman Jonathan Bryan.

Jonathan Bryan. Photo: Solent News and Photo Agency

She was acquitted of six other charges of battery relating to three other soldiers including allegations that she had punched recruits for failing in tests.

‘You’re mine now, bitches’

One trainee told the court martial Cpl Hey, of 3rd Regiment Royal Logistics Corps, told new recruits, ‘You’re mine now, bitches’ shortly after they first arrived.

Signaller Hannah Harwood, who gave evidence via video link from the Falkland Islands, spoke of multiple incidents on ‘the company line’ — a line running down a corridor at the base along which recruits would line up. She said:

“Cpl Hey addressed the platoon at the beginning of the first term, when we first arrived.

“She said something along the lines of, ‘You’re mine now, bitches’.

“At the start of the second term Cpl Hey addressed the platoon again. She asked us, ‘Who thinks they’re hardest?’.

“Three people put their hands up and Cpl Hey punched them all in the stomach.”

Craftsman Wiggin told the court Cpl Hey had punched ‘everyone in the platoon’ on their first day in training, when he was just 16 years old.

Cfn Wiggin said:

“The platoon was called onto the line on the first day of training.

“Our section was on the line and we were all punched. There was no malice behind it – it was more of a sort of bonding thing.

“My arms were behind my back as we were all at ease. She didn’t say anything or give any reason, and I didn’t know she was going to punch me.

“I would have been 16 at the time.”

The Army Foundation College in Harrogate.

The Army Foundation College in Harrogate.

‘Strict but fair’

Craftsman Bryan told the court:

“Cpl Hey gave me a jab in the stomach on one occasion.

“The whole platoon were on the line. I was smirking at the time and she jabbed me in the stomach.

“I slightly anticipated it because she would do it as a joke with a few from her section.

“Cpl Hey was a good DS; she was strict but fair. She treated us more like friends and joked around with us.”

Handing down the sentence, Judge Advocate McGrigor said:

“You punched Private [Joseph] Wiggin on his first day as he stood in line with his whole platoon.

“Later you punched Private [Jonathan] Bryan because he smirked at you. The court rejected that this was ‘mutual flicking’ as you said.

“We do, however, accept that these punches were at the very low level.”

Major drop in applications for social care jobs across North Yorkshire

The gravity of the staffing crisis in social care has been underlined as North Yorkshire County Council launches its biggest ever recruitment drive for the sector.

The number of people applying for social care jobs has plummeted, partly due to yesterday’s introduction of mandatory vaccines for care staff.

A full meeting of the council next week will hear at least three of its executive members highlight concerns over the 70 per cent drop in applications for jobs in social care across the 500 providers in the county since July and providers continuing to go out of business, partly due to staff costs.

On any given day there are at least 1,000 jobs available across the county.

A high percentage of the county’s care homes are in the Harrogate district.

In an attempt to fill the vacancies, providers in the county are offering extra financial incentives to staff to take on the roles, from a £1,500 golden handshake for a care setting nursing role in Northallerton to carers being offered £2,000 for referring three friends.

Councillor Michael Harrison, executive member for adult services, said:

“We have people who have joined us from all different types of experiences, some from the entertainment sector; actors, drummers, from the travel sectors; pilots, cabin crew, and everything in-between.

“There is a great career to be had in care and great stability and we support people who join us with career development. From the word go you can make a big difference to somebody’s life in this job; the work that you do really counts towards improving lives and no two days are the same.”

There are 20,000 people in North Yorkshire working in the care sector, from the 13,000 care and support workers in 500 organisations providing services in residential care and people’s homes through to social workers, project managers and administrators.

The alerts come after the authority said it was having to intervene in a number of care homes to keep them staffed and the government undertook to provide workforce recruitment and retention funding to support local authorities and providers to recruit and retain sufficient staff over winter.

In a statement to the meeting, the authority’s leader, Councillor Carl Les, said:

“I am pleased that as the government launches a nationwide initiative we are undertaking more locally the biggest ever recruitment campaign to attract people into a rewarding and progressive career.”

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The council has recently warned the situation would only worsen with about 200 fewer care workers in the county due to rules requiring all care workers to be vaccinated.

Before yesterday’s deadline, numerous foreign-born care staff in North Yorkshire had said they would leave the UK if they had to have the covid jab to work.

Pay concerns

Care workers have also suggested the lack of pay progression, with staff with more than five years’ experience being paid just 6p more an hour than those with less than a year in the role in 2020-21 is a cause of recruitment difficulties.

In a statement to the meeting, Councillor Michael Harrison, the authority’s adult social care executive member said the county’s situation reflects fierce competition within the labour market alongside hospitality, retail, heavy goods transport and construction.

He said:

“Pressures are building within nursing, residential home and domiciliary care capacity as a result of workforce pressures within the external market, and we continue to see provider failures in the system.

“Packages of care are being handed back to the council to either re-source or find alternative solutions to keep people safe. This is putting significant pressure on and impacting our in-house provision as we try to find solutions for people or fill the gaps using staff from our services.

“This is impacting our ability to provide re-ablement and respite services. Complex care packages are being handed back at short notice alongside those requiring two carers or in more rural locations. In addition we are seeing care home providers withdraw from providing nursing care or withdraw completely from the market.”

Warning of “difficult choices” in the upcoming Budget, the council’s finance boss Councillor Gareth Dadd will tell the meeting that securing the necessary workforce remains acutely challenging.

In an attempt to ease staffing pressures, the council is working with providers and has just launched a recruitment campaign focusing on the diversity of career opportunities in care.

Coun Harrison said:

“We are working with providers and partners to look at options and ideas to work more efficiently and promote people’s safety should we not manage to recruit more people to the sector.

“A system plan is in place with short, medium and long term actions to address issues relating to workforce, which includes capacity for registered manager support to care homes, recruitment to reablement, and recruitment to NHS posts to ensure sufficient intermediate capacity is available to meet the growing demand.”

Harrogate cafe closes due to temporary staff shortages

A cafe in Harrogate has been forced to close its doors temporarily due a shortage of staff.

Staff at Caffé Nero, on the corner of Cambridge Street and Station Parade, posted a notice in the door this morning to explain why it would not be opening.

This closure highlights the ongoing recruitment crisis in the hospitality sector, which has forced many restaurants and cafes to reduce services.

The Stray Ferret asked the head office of Caffé Nero when the site would reopen. A spokesperson said it would be open “as soon as possible.”

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Meanwhile the notice in the door points customers to the second Caffé Nero site in town, which is a short walk away on Cambridge Crescent.

A spokesperson for Caffé Nero said:

“The store you’re referring to is only temporarily closed due to staff availability and will reopen as soon as possible.

“The larger store two minutes away at Cambridge Crescent is open as usual and trading normally.”

‘Station Gateway consultation a whitewash’, claim Harrogate petitioners

Harrogate residents described the Station Gateway consultation as a “whitewash” when they delivered a petition today.

Consultation on the revised plans for the £10.9 million scheme, which would see Station Parade reduced to single lane traffic and James Street partly pedestrianised, closes today.

Five members of Granvillle Road Area Residents Association took the petition to Harrogate Borough Council‘s Knapping Mount office at lunchtime today.

They are concerned that re-routing traffic off Cheltenham Parade and Cheltenham Mount through the nearby residential streets where they live will increase traffic and pollution and make it more difficult to park.

Dan Harper, executive officer economy and transport at Harrogate Borough Council, received the petition, which had about 140 signatures. He declined to be photographed by the Stray Ferret.

The residents expressed frustration over the consultation process, claiming it was difficult to get hold of information or people to address their concerns.

Catherine Ward-Brown, who lives on Cheltenham Mount, where traffic will be diverted if Cheltenham Mount is made one-way, said:

“They are trying to force commercial traffic on to residential streets and ignoring valid points made. They are hellbent on sticking to their views. It hasn’t been a consultation — it’s been a whitewash.”

Andrew Jones ‘not willing to engage’

Antonia Lowe questioned why Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, had not meaningfully replied to residents’ questions about the scheme.

“He was willing to engage with the process to relocate the post office but isn’t willing to engage with us.”

Rachael Inchboard said:

“He is passing the buck and refusing to engage. He has a duty to the Harrogate residents who voted him in to engage with this at the earliest opportunity. We would like to see him come to Granville Road.”

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The petitioners are considering paying to monitor air quality in their local streets as well as launching an online fundraising appeal to pay for an environmental impact assessment, which Harrogate Borough Council did not deem necessary.

The Stray Ferret has approached Mr Jones for comment.

What is the Harrogate Station Gateway?

The Harrogate scheme is one of three projects worth a combined £42m in Harrogate, Skipton and Selby funded by the Leeds City Region Transforming Cities Fund, which encourages cycling and walking.

They are being delivered in partnership by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council, Craven District Council and Selby District Council.

A consultation on the revised designs ends today. It is anticipated that work in Harrogate will begin by the middle of next year.

To take part in the online consultation, click here.