Harrogate cyclist rides 288 miles in under 24 hours

A Harrogate cyclist has completed a 288-mile charity bike ride in under 24 hours in memory of his aunt.

Simon Gregory embarked on his journey on Friday and raised over £11,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

His journey took him from Harrogate to Southampton. He smashed his 24-hour target, arriving at his destination with over 2 hours to spare.

https://twitter.com/MacmillanYorks/status/1406171644691992579

Simon completed his fundraiser in memory of his aunt, Reverend Ruth Scott, who died from cancer in February 2019.

She was a presenter on BBC Radio 2 show Pause for Thought for 25 years and one of the first female vicars in the country.

She embarked on similar challenges, including cycling from Rome to Jerusalem without any training.

Simon chose the charity Macmillan Cancer Support as it supported his aunt during her illness.

You can still donate here.

 

‘Drab’ Harrogate town centre street to get colourful makeover

Harrogate residents and businesses are being asked to submit ideas to help give Cambridge Place a colourful makeover.

Harrogate Business Improvement District is working in partnership with Oxford Street-based charity, Artizan International, to install mosaics in the nine, blocked-out windows, on the side of the Boots building.

Each window space will spell out Harrogate — and the two organisations are looking for inspiration on what might go on the individual backgrounds.

Harrogate BID manager Matthew Chapman said:

“Cambridge Place is an extremely popular pedestrian cut-through between Cambridge Street and Oxford Street, yet one of the drabbest in the town.

“Now, in partnership with Artizan International, we want to give this street a real lift by installing nine colourful and eye-catching mosaics in these nine blocked out windows.

“Whilst each one will feature an individual letter to spell out Harrogate, we are asking for suggestions to create the individual backgrounds. The only proviso being it must be representative of the town itself.

“This could be its spa heritage, iconic buildings, or famous names and businesses associated with the town. We will leave it up to individuals, then choose nine different ideas.

“These will then be turned into mosaics by the Artizan International team, giving this much used thoroughfare a real splash of colour.”

Read more:

Ideas can either be emailed to Harrogate BID at info@harrogatebid.co.uk, or left with Artizan International, at their shop located at 39 Oxford Street, Harrogate.

The closing date is Friday, July 2.

Harrogate Food Festival coming to the Stray this weekend

Harrogate Food and Drink Festival is set to arrive on the Stray this weekend for two days of food, drink, live music and cooking shows.

The outdoor event will be held on the Oatlands Drive area from 10am on Saturday June 26 to 7pm on Sunday June 27.

Visitors can expect about 100 stalls selling all types of produce, from jams and cheeses to Lebanese food, as well as artisan crafts.

Despite a four-week delay to the end of restrictions the event can still go ahead with its current measures. It will be encouraging social distancing, have hand sanitising stations around the site and provide extra toilets, tables and chairs.

Social distancing means the event does have a limited capacity, but organisers said tickets were still available. Each ticket is given an entry time to stagger arrivals through the day.

A festival spokesperson said:

“We are lucky to be a naturally socially distanced event with limited indoor areas. However, this year we have brought the entire festival outdoors, apart from the cookery theatre, which is in a marquee with the walls removed.”

Read more:

It will be in the same area in which the town’s bonfire and fun fair is usually set up.

In 2019, the event was based in Ripley Castle for three days. It will return there for a second event on this year’s August bank holiday weekend.

Green field on Bogs Lane could be sold for housing

An unnamed housing company is in negotiations to buy a field in Bogs Lane in Harrogate with the intention of building new homes, the Stray Ferret understands.

The Kingsley area is already one of Harrogate’s main pressure points for housing – and could see more than 650 new homes eventually built. A local residents’ group said the area has reached a “saturation point” for new homes.

The field is between Henshaws College and Long Lands Common, where thousands of local people raised £375,000 to purchase 30 acres of land to plant trees and protect it from development.

Local estate agent Lister Haigh is marketing the land as a “rare opportunity” to buy a greenfield site that could be used for a potential residential or commercial development.

The Stray Ferret has seen an email sent by the estate agent to a person who enquired about the land. The person asked not to be named, but the email confirms that negotiations are already under way with a housing developer.

The email says:

“Currently negotiations are ongoing with a commercial housing development company who want to build houses on the site.”

Read more:

The site, which is 1.4 hectares, is not allocated for development in Harrogate Borough Council’s Local Plan. This is a guide for where commercial or residential development can take place in the district until 2035.

Similar sites in the Local Plan have been allocated for between 30 and 40 homes.

John Hansard from the Kingsley Ward Action Group was alarmed at the news that the Bogs Lane field could be sold for housing.

He told the Stray Ferret that residents will fight any potential planning application for the land.

He said:

“In any new development area, there has to come a time when you reach saturation point, beyond which the area cannot continue to function as neighbourhood community and simply becomes a soulless conurbation, an out-of-town sprawl of housing, lifeless, with no community spirit or indeed willingness to create such a spirit.

“I feel so sad and afraid that in this area we are already at that tipping point, if not beyond it and that unless this mindless devastation of our green spaces stops, we will be at the point of no return for our community.”

Harrogate to York trains set to be doubled to two an hour

Northern is proposing to double the number of trains from Harrogate to York to two an hour.

The publically-owned rail operator has opened a consultation for a new timetable for May 2022 that it hopes to implement.

Currently, trains to York leave Harrogate Station at five minutes past the hour during the week. They stop at Starbeck, Knaresborough, Cattal, Hammerton and Poppleton.

A spokesperson for Northern said:

“We have plans to operate more frequent services in the future between York and Harrogate following recent infrastructure upgrades. We are consulting with stakeholders about these plans and more details will be released in the near future.”

Read more:

Meanwhile, LNER is planning significant changes to its Harrogate to London route.

It has also launched a consultation on a new timetable that would see trains leave Harrogate earlier in the morning but also leave London earlier.

The operator estimates that travel times between Harrogate and London would be about 10 minutes faster.

Stray Views: Do something about these awful bins!

Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. See below for details on how to contribute.

Do something about these awful bins!

I totally agree that the large commercial waste bins that seem to be permanently kept in Princes Street are an eyesore.

These bins obstruct the highway (carriageway and footway). A loading bay marked on the carriageway is surely for use by vehicles loading and un-loading, not for waste bin storage.

The county council highways department is surely responsible for ensuring that the highway is not obstructed. The business owners are also responsible for removing their bins to their premises immediately they have been emptied. If these owners do not remove their bins they become liable to prosecution for obstruction.

The county council commercial waste management must manage its waste collection service much better to avoid this public health situation.

Angus Turner, Harrogate

Cycling to work? No, thanks

The whole point of cycle lanes is being missed.

Cyclists will, of course, like them. The issue is that the lanes need to encourage non-cyclists to start riding bikes.

I rode my bike to work from near Harrogate Grammar School to ICI when I was on Hornbeam Park for about three years, every working day, in all weathers.

The difference between cycling and riding a bike to work is immense. If you cannot have a shower on arrival at work you WILL stink all day. If it’s raining you will have, at a minimum, wet legs for half a day.

Once I had a car I only rode my bike for fun, and it can be fun. But as a means of daily travel for work, shopping and the rest? Not for me thanks.

Chris Knight, Bilton

Roads used as race tracks 

I live in a house on East Parade in Harrogate and the road from Bower Road to Skipton Road is used as a race track in the evening for noisy cars.

I can’t understand why all the other roads around East Parade, eg Chudleigh Road, have a 20 mph limit while East Parade, where two cars can’t even pass, has a 30mph limit.

The antisocial driving is well in excess of that 30 mph limit.

Vicky Taylor, Harrogate

Cut the verges

I have noticed on my travels around Ripon, Harrogate and various other North Yorkshire areas the lack of cutting of the grass verges on all types of roads.

There is now a situation on some roads where the height of the grass is impeding the view of oncoming cars, cyclists and motorcyclists

Peter, Ripon

Read more:

Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.

 

Did you know a Hollywood film star died in Harrogate 50 years ago this month?

Hollywood star Michael Rennie, most famous for playing an alien in the 1951 sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, died in Harrogate 50 years ago this month.

He suffered an aortic aneurysm on June 11 1971, aged 61, when he was visiting his mother’s home in the town. His ashes are interred at Harlow Hill cemetery.

The Bradford-born actor had a lively and diverse career, starting out with an uncredited role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Secret Agent.

He appeared in 20th Century Fox blockbusters alongside Orson Welles, Richard Burton and Clark Gable.

His most recognisable role was as the friendly alien Klaatu, which landed on a spaceship in Washington DC. It made famous the phrase “Klaatu barada nikto!”, which has left fans guessing its true meaning ever since.

He also made appearances in several hit TV shows during the 1960s, including opposite Adam West’s Batman as the dastardly villain the Sandman.

Film fans in Harrogate during Rennie’s era were spoiled for choice, with several cinemas showing the hits of the day, as Harrogate historian Malcolm Neesam wrote in a recent Stray Ferret article.

Read more:

Mr Neesam told the Stray Ferret that whilst there are not many celebrities interred in Harrogate’s cemeteries, there are some notable names.

Also at Harlow Hill is the Royal Academy artist, Bernard Evans, RA, whose studio was on Park Parade.

Grove Road cemetery has Fridel Dalling-Hay, who was an immigrant from Nazi Germany and became the first person in the world to circumnavigate the island of Britain in a canoe.

Sergeant Major Robert Johnston, one of the gallant 600, who was in the charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War, is also buried at Grove Road.

Did you know that the Stray Ferret has teamed up with Malcolm to produce audio walking tours of Harrogate? The walks are sponsored by the Harrogate Business Improvement District (BID) and take you back to the Golden Age of the Harrogate Spa and a walk through the Commercial Heart of Harrogate.  

Why not take a walk back in time and learn about Harrogate’s glorious past.. They’re easy to do and a great day out. For more information click here. 

Harrogate district reports 21 covid cases today

Another 21 cases of covid-19 have been reported in the Harrogate district.

According to Public Health England figures, it takes the total cases confirmed since the start of the pandemic to 8,012.

No further covid deaths have been reported at Harrogate District Hospital. The last death was recorded on April 11.

There are currently no covid patients being treated at the hospital, according to latest Public Health England statistics.

Read more:

The Harrogate district’s seven-day covid rate currently stands at 62.2 per 100,000 people. The North Yorkshire average is 56 and the England rate is 85.1.

Meanwhile, after six months in operation, Harrogate’s Great Yorkshire Showground vaccination centre will give its final jab today.

Property Gold: What are you really paying an agent for?

Property Gold is a monthly column written by independent bespoke property consultant, Alex Goldstein. With more than 17 years’ experience, Alex helps his clients to buy and sell residential property in some of the most desirable locations in Yorkshire and beyond. This month, Alex explains what an estate agent is really paid for.

 

 

The sceptics out there will say this sounds like an oxymoron; however it has never been more important to have a rock solid agent that is correctly remunerated to keep their motivation.

Let’s be clear about something – getting your property on to the market with high quality photographs, floorplans, brochure and web entries is easy. You do not need to be the best agent to do this.

Matters then step up a gear when it comes to viewings and the general administration of your sale. Again, you do not need to be a great agent for this.

So where then does your estate agent commission go and what are you actually paying for? The answer lies with once you have found a buyer, or you think you have found a buyer.

Current property law means that a buyer or seller can withdraw from a transaction at any point up until the point of exchange, without any financial penalties or otherwise. It is therefore vital to keep the time between Under Offer and Exchange as tight as possible, whilst ensuring you are agreeing terms with a reliable party.

Importantly, do remember that getting the best offer from a buyer doesn’t necessarily mean running with the person who puts forward the most amount of money. One has to weigh this up with the reliability and security of the buyer – in other words, will we transact with this buyer or not?

An experienced agent will instinctively know the tell-tale signs if a buyer is serious, get the most money from them without pushing too far and losing them, ensure the foundations of their offer are robust, plus know where the monies are coming from and the situation behind the façade.

Whilst the Yorkshire market continues to charge along for the time being, getting from Under Offer to Exchange of Contracts remains incredibly demanding – arguably the most difficult I have known it in 19 years.

One of the main reasons for this is the length of time everything takes. Keeping the attention of buyers and sellers during this time, whilst pushing conveyancing solicitors and the several other associated professionals in the right direction, plus keeping timeframes to an absolute minimum in order to reach Exchange is a tall order.

If the sale falls through, then it is the buyer and seller who pick up the pieces. The extra often notional amount of money on agents’ fees, will mean that your transaction gets over the line first time and on time.

Your agent needs to have the time, experience, detective skills, relentless persistence and clout in order to see transactions through. After all, going Under Offer is only step one.

If you have any comments or questions for Alex, please feel free to contact him on alex@alexgoldstein.co.uk.

Read More: 

 

‘Nerve wracking’ decisions for Harrogate International Festivals

Harrogate International Festivals has said the lack of certainty around the roadmap has dampened its confidence and raised questions about future events.

The four-week delay to the roadmap means Harrogate International Festivals (HIF) is having to decide whether to gamble or play it safe.

The charity’s headline event, Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, is set to go ahead from July 22 which is three days after the new date for the end of restrictions.

So the HIF faces a dilemma – does it stay with a smaller event in line with current restrictions or does it gamble on all restrictions being over by then and sell more tickets.

But without insurance to cover any losses another change to the roadmap could mean HIF loses its investment.

With a “significantly lower” number of tickets sold and the extra costs to make it covid-safe, the event is already expensive for the charity.

Read more:

Sharon Canavar, chief executive said:

“I’ve been nervous since we went back into lockdown in December. We didn’t really trust the June 21st date so we’ve set up the festival in line with restrictions from May 17th. But now we have to decide whether to stick with what we have or expand capacity. It’s nerve wracking making these decisions.”

HIF isn’t alone with many event companies, across the country, having to make difficult decisions.

Ms Canavar said it will wait for government assurances before adjusting its tiered ticket structure to increase capacity.