Stray Ferret videos of Prince Charles in Harrogate get 200,000 views

Exactly one week ago, Prince Charles and Camilla were in Harrogate to attend the Great Yorkshire Show.

The enduring appeal of the royal family has been highlighted by the fact that two Stray Ferret videos of their visit have been viewed almost 200,000 times.

We were live at the Great Yorkshire Show last Thursday to capture the couple’s arrival.

The clip, filmed live on Facebook, showed The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall happily chatting to exhibitors and the public as they made their way around the showground. It has currently received 92,000 views.

Another video of the royals leaving The Stray via helicopter has proved even more popular, having been viewed 107,000 times.

Their departure coincided with the end of the school day at about 3.45pm and scores of St Aidan’s Church of England High School pupils waved them off.

The videos have been enjoyed across the world and even shared by people in countries including Thailand, Algeria and Denmark.

Did you meet Charles or Camilla during their trip to the show? Email contact@thestrayferret.co.uk

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New gin bar to open at historic Harrogate hotel tomorrow

The St George Hotel in Harrogate is set to launch a new bar, which will exclusively stock gin.

Paul Donkin, the hotel’s new general manager, first floated the idea of a gin bar in a story on the Stray Ferret. It received lots of interest so he has decided to follow through with it.

The Duck in Gin Lounge, which opens tomorrow, will have about 40 different brands of gins on offer.

Besides gin, the bar will also have a series of quirky bar snacks called ‘duck feed’ created by the head chef.

The snacks include salt and vinegar scraps, maple bacon popcorn, raspberry and white chocolate and more. That menu will change over time as well.

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Mr Donkin told the Stray Ferret:

“When I first got here that bar was a nice space but it was under utilised. Surprisingly, considering the popularity of gin, there are no dedicated gin bars in Harrogate.

“We are lucky to have this space. Like I said I spoke to your colleague and made an off-hand comment about a gin bar.

“But the amount of interest we got made us realise that actually we needed to go for it.”

Becky Edmundson, sales manager, also told the Stray Ferret:

“We are definitely looking forward to opening. I think we thought as well that following coronavirus people are feeling quite anxious about going to bars.

“Whereas in here you can come and sit down and be a bit more distanced from people. Now that things are opening up we are getting lots of enquiries now.”

Harrogate landmarks built in Lego for summer family trail

Harrogate landmarks including Bettys, the Turkish Baths and the Great Yorkshire Showground’s main ring have been built in Lego bricks for a new town centre trail this summer.

The trail, created by Harrogate Business Improvement District, will run from Saturday July 31 until Sunday, August 22.

It includes ten mini-models at the following locations:

The models are being made by Fairy Bricks, a charity that donates Lego sets to children’s hospices and hospitals, and will be completed next week in time for the launch.

Other models include Harrogate Town’s mascot Harry Gator and Hogwart’s School from the Harry Potter books.

At 10am on July 31 and August 1, people can watch a white rose being built of Lego at the Victoria Shopping Centre.

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There is also a competition with 500 Lego prizes to be won. To enter, participants need to download the LoyalFree app and ‘check in’ at each venue using the QR code displayed.

The prizes will be collected from Toyland in the Victoria Shopping Centre.

Harrogate BID Manager Chapman Matthew Chapman said:

“With the school summer holidays already here we wanted to create a trail that would really appeal to families.

“With restrictions now lifted, this is one that can be enjoyed by people of all ages, and will be a fun way to spend a few hours visiting different parts of the town.

“As a child I loved Lego, and so do my two sons. And as you will see from these creations Lego can be anything but child’s play. I’m really excited to say that we have commissioned a number of models that will be unique to our trail.

“One of our key remits is to drive footfall into the town centre, and we hope our Lego trail will help us to achieve this.”

Harrogate and Knaresborough to get community grocery shops

Resurrected Bites is set to reopen its cafes for the first time in more than a year and launch what it calls community grocery shops.

The volunteer group, which specialises in turning food destined for the bin into nutritious meals, has delivered food to more than 15,000 people during coronavirus.

Michelle Hayes, the founder of Resurrected Bites, is proud of what her team has achieved but she feels that now is the right time to re-open its cafes.

While the group is well-known for turning food into meals, it is now preparing to launch its own shops at Harrogate’s New Park Primary Academy and at a yet-to-be-finalised location in central Knaresborough.

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The shops are intended to help anyone struggling to buy food. For between £3 and £5, people who sign up as members of the shop will be able to pick up a large amount of fresh and frozen food.

If the shops, which will be opening around September to October, go well then Ms Hayes has plans to open a third in the Fairfax area of Harrogate. She told the Stray Ferret:

“Community groceries are different from food banks because people pay a small amount rather than relying on vouchers.

“Anyone who needs it can pay a small amount for quite a lot of food. That small costs also gives people dignity.”

To get the projects off the ground, the group has started a fundraising campaign with a target of £2,000. Click or tap here to donate.

Resurrected Bites’ cafes are expected to return in the second week of September.

The cafe at Gracious Street in Knaresborough will be open on Tuesday and Friday from 10am to 2pm. The group has also moved the Wednesday cafe in Harrogate from St Mark’s Church to West Park United Reformed Church.

Boris Johnson welcomes first event back at Harrogate Convention Centre

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has welcomed news that the Harrogate Convention Centre has held its first events after being used as a Nightingale Hospital.

The Home and Gift Buyers’ Festival and the Manchester Furniture Show finished yesterday. Organisers said the four-day events attracted more than 10,000 visitors and had a projected economic impact of £750,000.

They were part of a government pilot scheme to gather evidence on the covid risks of holding large scale events safely.

All of those who attended had to provide proof of either having had two vaccinations at least a fortnight prior to the event or a negative lateral flow test within 48 hours.

They did not need to wear masks or observe social distancing rules, which were still in place across the UK for the first day of the event.

In a letter of support to Harrogate Convention Centre, Mr Johnson, said:

“The Harrogate Convention Centre is a great asset to the local economy, and I am so glad to hear that it is now back and ready to take part in the Events Research Programme pilot.

“The past year has been an immense challenge for the whole country and now, with the aid of events like this, we will all be one step closer to normality.”

Paula Lorimer, director at Harrogate Convention Centre, said:

“We’ve been waiting a long time to open venue doors and give people the opportunity to meet, network and do business.

“We were particularly delighted that it was the Home and Gift Show as our first major event, as it celebrates 60 years in Harrogate — it’s a real Harrogate success story.”

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Ms Lorimer added the convention centre has more than £15m of economic impact on its books between now and March.

Gemma Rio, head of destination management at Harrogate Borough Council, said:

“It was fantastic to see the buzz at Harrogate Convention Centre and across the town over the past few days.

“These two events, along with other recent events such as the Great Yorkshire Show are significant first steps in the event industries recovery.”

Combine harvester catches fire in Harrogate

A build up of dust is believed to have been responsible for a combine harvester fire in Harrogate last night.

Firefighters from Harrogate, Knaresborough and Boroughbridge were summoned to Kingsley Road to deal with the blaze at 7.30pm last night.

Wearing breathing apparatus and using thermal imaging cameras, they used doused the flames using mechanical foam.

Fortunately, the combine was slightly away from the standing crop.

In a separate incident at 2.20am this morning, firefighters from Ripon responded to reports of wheelie bins on fire outside a house on Priest Lane.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s incident summary said:

“The crews found the bins had been extinguished by a resident prior to their arrival and used the residents garden hose to dampen to the area.

“The cause is believed to have been accidental.”

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Harrogate council asking residents to donate saplings to plant around district

Harrogate Borough Council is asking residents to donate oak or sycamore saplings that might be in their gardens.

Once the trees are big enough, the council will plant them across the Harrogate district to enhance woodland areas.

It has asked residents to bring the saplings to the council’s nursery on Harlow Hill between 10am and 3pm from Monday to Friday.

The council tweeted:

“We need your help! If you have any oak or sycamore trees in your garden, we’d love it if you could dig up any saplings you might have, making sure they have a good root system and are placed in in a plant pot or wet newspaper.”

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HBC is involved in the White Rose Forest, which is one of 10 community forests being created in England. It will span North and West Yorkshire.

The forest will consist of pockets of woodland rather than huge expanses and is part of the government’s commitment to increase UK tree planting to 30,000 hectares a year by 2025.

An HBC report in September 2020 identified 17.2 acres of council-owned land that could potentially be used to plant trees for the White Rose Forest.

Harrogate Town fan groups locked in bitter dispute over new supporters trust

Two groups of Harrogate Town fans are locked in an increasingly bitter dispute over the launch of a new supporters trust.

Last year Town ascended to the English Football League for the first time in the club’s history and chairman Irving Weaver has ambitions to fill the club’s newly improved Envirovent Stadium on Wetherby Road with 5,000 fans.

But the club’s success and increasing professionalism on the field is being accompanied by growing pains off it.

In recent weeks, a group of Town fans has launched a trust called the Harrogate Town Supporters Trust to give supporters a voice.

Other football league clubs, such as Sheffield Wednesday and Bradford City already have fans trusts, which are democratically run and governed by the Financial Conduct Authority.

However, members of the Harrogate Town Supporters Club, which has been running for several years, believe the trust is an attempt to undermine their work.

Leaflets about the newly-formed trust were circulated to Town fans at Sunday’s pre-season friendly against Newcastle United under-23s at Wetherby Road. This alarmed many members of the supporters club, with some accusing the trust on Facebook of underhand tactics.

There was also anger that the newly-formed trust plans to put on coaches for away games, which supporters club committee member Jordan Ford has organised for many seasons.

However, the chair of the trust has said alternative away travel is needed because some fans’ drunken behaviour deters some families and fans from travelling.

Pain and heartache

Phil Holdsworth is the fan liaison officer at Harrogate Town. It’s a volunteer position aimed at improving relations between the club and fans.

He told the Stray Ferret that the trust, which says it is independent of the club, will help the club appeal to a wider supporter base and attract new supporters from as far afield as Malaysia and Vietnam.

Much of the supporters club’s anger towards the trust is due to a disagreement over when it learned of the trust being set up.

On Monday, the supporters club committee issued a statement saying it had only become aware of the trust’s formation six weeks ago.

However, Mr Holdsworth said he had a meeting with members of the supporters club in November last year when he explained how it could apply to become an affiliate of the FSA , the national body that represents football supporters.

He claims the supporters club decided not to proceed with the idea.

He said:

“I assumed they would consider it but I never heard or saw anything, Why are they not giving their members the full picture?”.

Mr Holdsworth was also advising a different group of fans on how to become a trust, which led to the formation of the new organisation. He said the fallout has led to “aggressive” criticism of him online.

He praised Mr Ford, of the supporters club, for organising away game travel but said many fans “don’t appreciate their drinking habits”.

He added he hoped the two sets of fans’ differences could be resolved:

“Nobody wants this pain and heartache. Animosity will cause division. It’s in everyone’s interests to work together.”

Best interests of the club

Clare Bridge, chair of the newly formed trust, told the Stray Ferret she too hoped the two groups could put aside their differences for the good of the club.

However, she said she would not take her 12-year-old son on the supporters club’s bus due to what she called “drunken behaviour”.

She said:

“Lots of families are being put off. I would never, ever, get on the bus.”

Ms Bridge said members of the trust were approached by Harrogate Town about forming the organisation and a more collective voice would give fans greater influence in how the club is run.

“It’s happening so it would be nice to work together. There’s always a solution.”

Lack of communication

Supporters club committee member Katherine Swinn released a statement on behalf of the committee on Monday that aimed to assuage fears the group would be replaced.

She told the Stray Ferret members were unhappy about a “lack of communication” over the way the trust had been set up.

She said:

“[It was] essentially due to the lack of communication, the way it has been set up and the continued insistence that we were informed in advance prior to the meeting in early June.

“The supporters club was not approached at any stage about becoming a trust either by Phil Holdsworth, the club or anyone else.”

She said there was “room for both” a supporters club and a trust.

“It is common for league clubs to have both trusts and supporters clubs. They are able to exist and run side by side. Ultimately whether it’s a supporters club or trust the main aims are to support the club, look after the fans and also grow the fan base too. There is room for both.”

Ms Swinn said for the past three seasons the club has put on family-friendly coaches alongside its usual coach for many away games. For the upcoming season, this will also include most games in the north of England.

“Our supporters are fully aware that they are representing both the club and the supporters club when travelling to away matches and the committee will act on behaviour which we consider to be inappropriate and/or which may impact on the reputation of the club, or supporters club.”

Harrogate Town declined to comment.

Harrogate district bucks trend of rising covid hospital patients

The number of covid patients in North Yorkshire hospitals has increased by 40 per cent in the last week — but just three are in Harrogate.

A media briefing today revealed there are currently 112 covid patients in the county compared with 80 a week ago.

There are three patients in each of Scarborough and Harrogate hospitals, 19 in York and 87 in South Tees.

Coronavirus rates have soared to record levels. Harrogate’s seven-day average rate of infection is now 511 cases per 100,000 people, surpassing the previous January peak. But the number of hospital patients being at Harrogate District Hospital is well below the 67 seen in February.

The North Yorkshire average rate of infection is 570 and the England rate is 520.

Locally, Ripon south and east has become the new covid hotspot, with 69 infections in the last seven days.

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Richard Webb, North Yorkshire County Council’s director of health and adult services told the media briefing of the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum there had been no cause for celebration following Freedom Day on Monday. He said:

“As we meet today it is quite a bleak and depressing record even though we have had on Monday the lifting of restrictions.

“The current county average across North Yorkshire is 570 per 100,000 and that is the highest recorded figure that we have had in North Yorkshire.

“We have the highest figure we have ever had in Scarborough, higher now than the surge that we had in November.

“So that is quite stark in terms of the situation that we are currently facing.”

Mr Webb added there had been a “significant spread of the virus amongst younger people”. However, case numbers were increasing in all age groups. He said:

“I would ask you to continue to wear your face mask, to keep your hand hygiene and to keep ,where you can, to a distance from other people.

“You may feel confident personally, however, other people may be anxious and they may not feel confident and they may be worried about the spread of this virus.”

Harrogate woman appeals ‘unfair’ disc zone parking fine

A Harrogate woman has sent an appeal to Harrogate Borough Council after a parking warden fined her for parking in a disc zone area.

Laura Vance took her son to King James’s School in Knaresborough for an induction session yesterday morning.

She had left her disc, which entitled her to park for free for two hours, in another car so wrote a note.

The note, which she left on her dashboard, stated that Laura had parked at 9am.

She headed to a shop to pick up another disc after dropping off her son but when she returned to her vehicle 40 minutes later she found she had received a penalty notice, which gave her 14 days to pay a reduced fine of £25 or £50 if she leaves it for up to 28 days.

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Ms Vance, who is waiting for a reply from the council, told the Stray Ferret:

“I thought that because I left a note that would be enough for the parking warden. I do think it is quite unfair.

“What is the difference between my note and the disc? Both just say what time it was when you parked up.

“It is just a bit rubbish. It’s not going to put me off going to Knaresborough because I love it there but I can see how it might put some people off.”

Disc parking is common in the Harrogate district. The discs are free and entitle users to park for free for a period of time stated on the street.

The Stray Ferret contacted Harrogate Borough Council for a response. A council spokeswoman said:

“If a customer believes that have received a penalty charge notice in error then they should follow the appeal process provided.”