Harrogate hospital reports second coronavirus death in a week

Harrogate District Hospital has reported a second coronavirus death in a week — after going more than four months without any covid fatalities.

One patient died on Wednesday last week and the hospital reported today that another person had succumbed to the virus.

It takes the total number of coronavirus deaths at the hospital to 181.

Since lockdown restrictions were fully lifted in July, daily coronavirus cases have remained at about the 70 mark. Today’s figure is 82 and brings the total number of cases to 12,908.

The seven-day infection rate for the Harrogate district has increased to 315 people per 100,000. That is just above the North Yorkshire average of 311 and just below the England average of 330.

It was reported today that the number of patients at Harrogate District Hospital being treated for covid had risen to 10.

Elsewhere, 123,979 people have received a first covid vaccine in the Harrogate district and 111,861 have had a second dose.

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‘Moving breakdown truck drops car into fence’ in Harrogate

An eyewitness has described the moment a moving breakdown truck dropped a car, which then rolled into a fence in Harrogate near where children play.

The incident happened at about 9.20pm last night on Roberts Crescent.

A police cordon remains in place today on the street, which is just off Skipton Road, and there is also a broken fence.

The eyewitness, who asked not to be named, told the Stray Ferret:

“I walked past the field last night when a white tow truck was offloading a car as it was still driving off.

“As a result the car smashed through the fence of the field, causing a really loud noise. It’s a blessing it wasn’t an hour before because I saw kids playing there.

“The police soon turned up and taped off the smashed fence. I’m not sure of the outcome but there were lots of people out when officers investigated with torches.”

We approached North Yorkshire Police to confirm the account but received no reply by the time of publication.

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The police cordon on Roberts Crescent.

‘Dispose batteries safely’ warning after bin wagon catches fire in Knaresborough

Harrogate Borough Council has warned people to be careful disposing their household waste after a bin wagon caught fire in Knaresborough.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue responded to reports of smoke coming from the refuse collection vehicle on Manse Lane at 9.24am yesterday.

Firefighters from Harrogate and Knaresborough rushed to the scene where they worked with the binmen to tip out the waste in a safe location and extinguish the fire. Nobody is believed to have been hurt.

An investigation by the fire crews determined the cause was likely to be a chemical reaction.

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A spokesperson for Harrogate Borough Council said:

“Our crew responded effectively to the event and our thanks go to them and the fire crews for their quick actions to ensure the fire was safely contained.

“Can we remind businesses and residents to think carefully about what they are disposing of in their general waste.

“Please ensure substances and in particular batteries are disposed of safely, not in with their general waste.”

Weeds blitz in Harrogate town centre

A cleaning crew has been tacking weeds on some of Harrogate busiest shopping streets to improve the town’s appearance.

Contractors have been pulling up weeds and using herbicides for three consecutive nights on streets including Victoria Avenue, Cambridge Street, Albert Street, Crescent Road and Oxford Street.

They are acting on behalf of Harrogate Business Improvement District, which has a remit to enhance the town centre appearance.

Over the last 18 months it has also power washed pavements and street furniture, increased floral displays and brightened empty shop windows.

Matthew Chapman, manager of Harrogate BID, said town centre weeds had been a “major talking point”, adding:

“The team worked for a number of nights pulling weeds by hand, using garden tools as well as spraying them with an environmentally-safe herbicide.

“With autumn and winter just around the corner, we hope this work will mean they are kept at bay until the spring.

“For our levy payers, it’s imperative that Harrogate looks at its best at all times, and that’s what we are working hard to achieve.”

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Covid hospitalisations increase in Harrogate district and across county

The number of covid patients in hospitals across North Yorkshire has risen for the third week running.

According to figures published today, there are now 131 people in the county’s hospitals with covid, up 10 from 121 last week. Two weeks ago it was 109.

The latest figure includes 10 patients in Harrogate, eight in Scarborough, 37 in York and 76 in South Tees. Last week there were nine covid patients in Harrogate.

Nineteen of the patients are being treated in intensive care units, which is four fewer than a week ago.

In an update given to the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum, Amanda Bloor, the accountable officer for North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group stated it was important everyone comes forward to get vaccinated.

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She said:

“We know that getting the vaccination is the best thing we can all do to both help prevent spread of the disease and to reduce the number of people who become seriously unwell or die from covid.

“Vaccinations remain available to everyone.

“Recently the vaccination programme has been opened to 16 and 17 year olds who are being contacted by the NHS to book an appointment to receive their first vaccination dose.

“In addition, the vaccine will be available to those young people in the 12 to 15 age group who either live with someone who is more likely to get infections (such as someone who has HIV, has had a transplant or is having certain treatments for cancer, lupus or rheumatoid arthritis) or have a condition that means they are at high risk from covid.

“These young people are now being identified and will be contacted shortly to make an appointment to receive their vaccination.”

 

Lib Dems ‘angry about loss of Harrogate funfair and Christmas market’

The leader of the Liberal Democrats on Harrogate Borough Council has expressed anger at the loss of the Harrogate Christmas Market and the annual funfair on the Stray.

In a statement sent to the Stray Ferret, Cllr Pat Marsh asked why the council couldn’t have been more supportive of the events and pro-active in making them happen.

She also said there was a danger of the Harrogate district acquiring a “reputation of not welcoming and not being supportive of special events”.

She said:

“The Lib Dems on Harrogate Borough Council are very angry at the way that annual events are being cancelled.

“First it was the local Christmas market. That meant local artisans won’t be able to sell their products to residents.

“Now we have the annual funfair being cancelled. That is something thousands of young people have enjoyed over many, many years.

“Why has this been allowed to happen? Why couldn’t the council be more supportive?”

Cllr Marsh also said the decision to prevent the events from going ahead was not one made by all councillors. She was not allowed to attend talks between council officers and the former Christmas market organisers. She said:

“We need to ensure that all councillors are kept informed and have a chance to have an input, we are all elected by the residents to act on their behalf.”

We sent Cllr Marsh’s statement to Harrogate Borough Council for a response but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.

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What happened to the annual Harrogate funfair?

The family that stages the funfair told the Stray Ferret the event would not go ahead because Harrogate Borough Council hiked the charge for using Stray land.

Ruby Wilson, who has taken over organising the fair on behalf of her dad John Jameson, said the council had doubled the price from £5,000 to £10,000.

With additional costs on top, including VAT and a £2,000 deposit in case the Stray is damaged, Ms Wilson said the event was no longer viable. The council disputes the claims.

What happened to Harrogate Christmas Market?

Harrogate Borough Council refused a licence for the Harrogate Christmas Market due to concerns about coronavirus, overcrowding and terrorism.

After three weeks of wrangling with the council, co-organiser Brian Dunsby admitted defeat in his battle to hold the event on Montpellier Hill.

It later emerged the council had been engaged in talks with Manchester-based organisers Market Place Europe in March and has now ramped up those discussions about staging an alternative Christmas market in December.

Is Brexit to blame for Harrogate’s hospitality jobs crisis?

Some people believe the equation is simple – the 2016 referendum led to Polish bartenders or Spanish housekeepers deciding to leave Harrogate and return to their home countries. But is it that simple?

The statistics appear to back up the theory.

According to latest ONS figures, the number of non-British residents living in the Harrogate district has halved from its peak of 14,000 in December 2014 to 7,000 in December 2019 — and the covid pandemic has undoubtedly hastened a further exodus since then.

Dan Siddle is the general manager of the Crown Hotel in Harrogate which has been employing chefs, housekeepers and waiters since the 19th century.

The hotel has a workforce of 50 and Mr Siddle said recruiting currently is “the hardest I’ve ever known it” due to a perfect storm of factors, including Brexit and covid.

He told the Stray Ferret the hotel lost several members of staff from the EU that have been difficult to replace.

“Those eastern Europeans had been here a long while. They were my supervisors but they chose not to come back to the UK. That’s three or four important roles. “

However, he thinks “we don’t have to rely on people from Europe” and can employ people locally if they offer an attractive package.

The hotel has raised the hourly wage for housekeeping staff to £10 an hour, has begun to offer roles that come with accommodation and is paying transport costs from Leeds.

He says hospitality is “a fantastic, great industry to work in” but the perception of tough working conditions needs to improve to attract UK workers.

“[The jobs crisis] has given the industry a kick up the behind. We need to change the way we work. The perception didn’t come out of nothing.”

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Lisa Headford is the branch manager of Travail Employment Group, an employment agency based on Princes Street that recruits front-of-house and catering positions across the district.

She told the Stray Ferret that the office is busier than ever and they are having to turn hospitality businesses away because they simply don’t have enough employees on their books to fill roles.

“Everyone is looking for staff. We get calls every day. We have learned to say, ‘we cant help you, we’ve exhausted our resources’.”

However, Ms Headford believes it’s overly simplistic to blame Brexit on the recruitment crisis in hospitality.

She said:

“It’s not definitive. We’ve had a number of people come back to Harrogate from Poland as during the lockdown they didn’t have a permanent job, and they wouldn’t have got furlough. They are now gravitating back.

She said the lockdowns have forced many people who worked in hospitality into jobs with more sociable hours — and they’ve liked the change.

“We had a lot of casual chefs but they’ve become a delivery driver and they haven’t gravitated back.”

Ms Headford said that despite Brexit, Harrogate is still a “very multicultural town” with working families from across the EU.

“These people have been established for a very a long time and are part of our town.”

Are you looking for a job or have a job vacancy you need to promote to as many people as possible? Take a look at the Stray Ferret jobs page to see the latest jobs or to submit a new one.  Every job is placed on our homepage and posted on our social media channels. 

Tomorrow we’ll be reporting on the views of hoteliers and bars owners in Harrogate on what they think should change to attract local talent. 

Harrogate council began talks with new Christmas market organiser in March

Harrogate Borough Council began talks with MarketPlace Europe about staging a new Christmas market in March — four months before it dropped the original organisers.

The council has said it refused a licence to Harrogate Christmas Market Ltd, the previous organisers, because the emergency services had raised safety concerns about the site on Montpellier Hill.

However, Brian Dunsby, one of the previous organisers that set-up the market in 2012, has been suspicious of the reasons given and last week accused the council of “having their own agenda”.

The council, which promotes a ‘Buy Local’ message, said yesterday it began “low-level” talks with the Manchester-based events firm in March.

It said this was to ensure a contingency option was in place “in case the Montpellier Hill option was not able to proceed”.

Last week, Conservative council leader Richard Cooper said he expected the new company, which will operate a 10-day Christmas market in December, would bring a “first-class offering” to Harrogate.

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A council spokesperson told the Stray Ferret yesterday:

“Harrogate Borough Council departments speak to external organisations about various service provision matters day-in day-out. It is important to do so to ensure if events or services suffer delivery issues then a contingency option is in place.

“Therefore it should not surprise anyone that we have spoken to MarketPlace Europe, a nationally recognised market provider, as a contingency option in case the Montpellier Hill Christmas market option was not able to proceed.  This has been happening at a low level since March but has, following the refusal of the licence for the Montpellier Hill event, stepped up considerably in recent weeks.

“Bearing in mind the response from our partners to the application for the use of Montpellier Hill it is as well we do have these discussions.  Had we not done so there would be no chance to have a Christmas Market at all.  The fact that we had an open discussion with MarketPlace Europe gives us the chance to put in place an alternative now that the former organisers have decided not to proceed with this year’s Christmas market. The emphasis is on having a brilliant event that pulls people into our town.

“No officers, councillors or departments discussing the licence with the former Christmas Market organisers were involved in any early discussions about markets with MarketPlace Europe.”

The Stray Ferret has contacted MarketPlace Europe about its plans for the Harrogate Christmas market but has not received a response.

Historic Harrogate funfair cancelled after ‘council price hike’

The annual August Bank Holiday funfair on the Stray in Harrogate, which dates back to 1953, will not take place this weekend following a row over fees.

The family that stages the event told the Stray Ferret the event would not go ahead because Harrogate Borough Council had hiked the charge for using Stray land.

Ruby Wilson, who has taken over organising the fair on behalf of her dad John Jameson, said the council had doubled the price from £5,000 to £10,000.

With additional costs on top, including VAT and a £2,000 deposit in case the Stray is damaged, Ms Wilson said the event was no longer viable.

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Mr Jameson was at the first fair when the Corrigan family ran it. The Shaw family later took it on before the Jameson family stepped up. He told the Stray Ferret:

“The council did not provide any reason for such a big price hike. We just cannot afford to pay that, the fair does not make that much money.

“Our family has strong connections with Harrogate so it is sad for us to not be able to put the fun fair on. We will try again next year.

“Over the years we have been forced to give up the number of days we use the Stray and now we are facing a big price hike. It just does not feel fair.”

But the council disputed the claims. A spokesman said:

“The council have not had any contact from the organisers concerning the funfair since April this year, meaning it is now too late for them to submit an event plan for the coming weekend.

“If they contact us directly we are more than happy to discuss arrangements for future years”.

Harrogate district to get solar farm powering 15,000 homes

Harrogate councillors have today backed plans to build a large solar farm between Harrogate and Ripon.

The proposal, submitted by Elgin Energy EsCo Limited, would see Cayton Solar Farm built near the village of South Stainley.

The company says the site could generate 50 megawatts of electricity during peak operation and potentially power 15,000 homes in Harrogate with green energy. It will operate for 30 years.

A report before today’s planning committee said the farm, which will take up the equivalent size of 150 football pitches, would bring “significant renewable energy benefits” to the district and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

A total of 58 people wrote to the council to object to the application but 85 people wrote supporting it.

Councillors on Harrogate Borough Council voted unanimously to defer the plan to officers for approval at a planning committee meeting today.

Global warming

Cllr Pat Marsh, member of the planning committee, said:

“I can see the concerns of those who live close by, if it gets its permission. But, if you go down the A30 into Cornwall, there are solar panels all the way down virtually. It’s there and it exists.

“If you go into the centre of Spain, coming down the mountains into the very middle of Spain there are huge solar farms. I do not hear anybody shouting and screaming and the reason is because we have seen the impact of global warming.

“For once this district is becoming proactive.”

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Andrew Mott, agent for the developer, told the committee:

“Considerable care has been taken in the design of the development to ensure that the environmental considerations are protected and biodiversity promoted.

“There are economic benefits in terms of employment opportunities during the construction and operation phases of the proposal. There is approximately £120,000 per year in business rates.”

Sterile landscape fears

Residents that oppose the application are upset about the loss of green fields and agricultural land.

In its submission the council, South Stainley Parish Council objected to the perceived negative impact on the environment. It said:

“The area would become sterilised from an agricultural, environmental and recreational point of view.

“While maintenance staff in white transit vans will prosper, what happens to the farm workers and rural lifestyles which depend on local agriculture?”