The temporary bollards put up to widen James Street in Harrogate to help give space for social distancing have served to reignite fierce opposition to a plan to permanently widen the pavements by losing the on street car parking.
A £7.8m pot from the Transforming Cities Fund was secured in March to create a “gateway” to connect the bus and railway stations with the town centre making it easier for walkers and cyclists.
The plan fits into a wider strategy for Harrogate drawn up by the borough council in its 2016 Town Centre Strategy and Masterplan. It states:
The council’s preferred option is for the full pedestrianisation of James Street. This option will serve to link the public realm schemes at Prospect Square and Station Square.
The gateway scheme though is still subject to extra funding by the county and district councils and further consultation.
Artists impression of the station square and the top of James St from the town centre masterplan 2016
The loss of on street parking or any pedestrianisation of James St is fiercely opposed by retail group, Independent Harrogate. Yesterday in its mission statement, it argued the plan is out of date and that, post coronavirus lockdown, the town is facing such a serious economic crisis, reducing any on-street parking would be a disaster. It urged the councils to:
listen to their business rate payers and to address the damaged fundamentals of Harrogate before proceeding with their long-term vision; and then do so in consultation with Independent Harrogate’s members and all businesses who trade there.
Cllr Don Mackenzie, the county council’s Executive Member for Access told The Stray Ferret that their aim was to keep everyone onboard and to make it easier for shoppers:
“North Yorkshire County Council and Harrogate Borough Council both know that when you talk about pedestrianisation some people get anxious. Some are in favour, others see it as terrible. At this stage re-allocation of the road means taking away car parking spaces and widening the pavements.”
When the consultation starts it’s hard to see how either council will be able to win Independent Harrogate over without significant changes to the proposals.
The money awarded to the project in March has to be spent within 3 years.
Harrogate district schools left to decide if it is safe to reopen
Individual schools in the Harrogate district will be left to decide whether it is safe for them to reopen next month.
North Yorkshire County Council said it will give schools their full support and bespoke advice. Each school will need to take a risk assessment.
It comes after the Government set out its road map which involved schools welcoming back some classes from June 1.
Some schools in the Harrogate district may be ready to reopen by then but the council thinks that many will stagger their openings.
There will not be any punishments for parents who decide against sending their children to schools.
More than 200 schools across North Yorkshire have stayed open to vulnerable children and the children of key workers during the coronavirus lockdown.
Stuart Carlton is the Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Service at North Yorkshire County Council.
He said: “We are advising schools to prepare to be open from June 1 at the earliest, awaiting Government confirmation that they will.
“We are here supporting schools and headteachers as best we can to make the correct and safest decisions in line with Government advice.”
Some councils have taken a different view. Calderdale, Bury, Liverpool, and Hartlepool have all advised against a wider school reopening.
If you are a parent, teacher, or headteacher and have concerns about the schools reopening then please get in touch with the Stray Ferret by sending us an email.
Jobless claims in Harrogate district soared by 150% at start of lockdownThe number of jobless claims in the Harrogate district soared by around 150% at the start of the coronavirus lockdown.
ONS data shows that on March 12 there were 1,010 claims in Harrogate and Knaresborough and that increased to 2,570 by April 9. Ripon and Skipton saw a similar rise from 745 claims to 1,935.
In the UK, the claims rose at a record month-on-month rate by 69.1% to 2.1 million from March 12 to April 9, 2020.
That’s according to new data from the Office for National Statistics, which can be found here.
Both the Harrogate and Knaresborough as well as the Skipton and Ripon constituencies saw a much higher rise of 150% in claims than the UK average.
Harrogate and Knaresborough MP, Andrew Jones, warned on his website that the unemployment figures could rise as more data becomes available.
“It would be wrong to view these figures as a one-month phenomenon. As the effect of lockdown continues to run through our local economy, as furloughing ends and as lockdown eases we are likely to see more shocks in the unemployment figures.”
It comes as the number of people using Harrogate’s food bank more than doubled when the coronavirus lockdown was introduced.
It’s a secret paradise – inside a closed up Harlow CarrThe RHS Chelsea flower has been cancelled for the first time since World War Two.
Instead there will be a virtual flower show about “sharing gardening knowledge” which will go online to the public tomorrow.
With this in mind, The Stray Ferret gained access to the RHS garden at Harlow Carr to provide a virtual tour of the secret paradise that lies behind closed doors.
Parking restrictions imposed in town centres as authorities aim to discourage crowds
Parking restrictions have been introduced across the Harrogate district, with signs suggesting they could be applied for more than four months.
James Street, Commercial Street and parts of Albert Street in Harrogate town centre have been roped off, along with parking bays on Knaresborough High Street. Pateley Bridge’s High Street and Ripon’s High Skellgate and Westgate have been reduced in width to a single lane.
North Yorkshire County Council’s signs say the restrictions are designed to enable social distancing and are in place until the end of September. However, the authority confirmed on Twitter the parking bays will be closed this weekend, with monitoring in place to determine how effective the measures are.
While shops, cafes, bars and restaurants are not currently allowed to open, the government has said the restrictions could be eased in the coming weeks. NYCC has not confirmed whether the weekend’s restrictions will be extended, though the signs suggest they could be in place until the end of September.
The notices on James Street suggest restrictions could be in place until the end of September
Richard Flinton, chief executive of NYCC, said in a message to residents:
“We are doing our best to limit crowds in those places where lack of space is particularly concerning such as Whitby, Filey, Scarborough and Harrogate.
“We are closing a number of streets, shutting certain car parks and suspending parking in a number of areas. We will also have highways crews looking out for any issues of concern over the weekend and ready to take the action open to us, to respond.”
If restrictions on town centre parking remain in place after shops are allowed to re-open, they are likely to cause concern for businesses already affected by declining footfall before lockdown began. Independent Harrogate, which represents small businesses in the town, has been campaigning for free parking to encourage more shoppers to visit and bolster the local economy.
Environmental campaigners argue the quiet roads and increase in cycling and walking over recent weeks should be part of the Harrogate district’s plans for the future. Zero Carbon Harrogate has said now is the ideal time to improve infrastructure for low-carbon transport and encourage people to choose options other than cars.
More visitors were seen in Harrogate’s Valley Gardens today
Visitor attractions
Fears had been raised that, over the first weekend since changes to lockdown advice from the government, crowds could descend on town centres and attractions, making it very difficult for people to keep their distance.
Harrogate’s Valley Gardens today appeared much busier than it has been over recent weeks, with no parking restrictions nearby. Organisations including Yorkshire Water and the Yorkshire Dales National Park issued advice against travelling to potentially busy places.
Mr Flinton added:
“We hope this is reassuring, but you all have a part to play in this, too. Of course, enjoy the outdoors; there is no finer place than our county in my, perhaps biased, view.
“But, please, access open countryside rather than paths, narrow lanes or town and village centres. If you can do so close to your home all the better, and be prepared to change your mind if where you are heading looks busy. Protect yourselves and your family by avoiding crowds and encourage anyone you know who is thinking of coming – to wait until we can offer them a real North Yorkshire welcome in the future.”
What are your experiences of the new restrictions and social distancing across the Harrogate district this weekend? Email us with your views.
‘I was meant to walk down the aisle today’Bride to be, but when?
Julie Yeoman, was meant to be walking down the aisle today to marry her fiance, Troy Scott. However, due to coronavirus, they are left in a ‘waiting game’, with no real certainty of when the ceremony will be.
Julie and Troy who live in Harrogate were due to get married at St John’s Church in Bilton today, then on to the reception which was to be at the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate.
However, with all weddings put on hold because of the ban on gatherings of more than two people to stop the disease spreading, their big day can not go ahead.
Julie told The Stray Ferret that it has been one long waiting game:
Harrogate dentists prioritise emergency patients“We spent a lot of time waiting to see what would happen as if we cancelled ourselves we would have to pay… Once the church and venue cancelled, we postponed it to February next year, but we have since found out that our marriage licence runs out at the end of June this year.”
Dentists in Harrogate have been hit hard by lockdown restrictions and some fear that social distancing measures at surgeries will be place for a long time to come.
Dr Tim Doswell, who is a dentist at the Raglan Suite in Harrogate, said dentistry will not be able to “go back to normal” and that surgeries will have to prioritise emergency procedures.
He said non-essential areas, such as cosmetics, will have to be seen as less important and appointments may remain limited for some time to come.
Meanwhile, patient appointments may have to be spaced out which means some dentists will be forced to remain open longer in order to see them.
Dr Doswell said the industry will have to adjust to life after the coronavirus pandemic.
“The problem with dentistry there is a lot of aerosol-generating procedures and it has been shown that this can stay in the environment in the surgery for up to three hours, so this then puts the next patient at risk,” he said.
“So in the new world when we do go back to work it’s going to be very different until we get a vaccine.
“Appointments will have to be spaced out which is going to limit availability, so non-essential dentistry is going to be very limited for a long time as dentists will have to prioritise emergencies.”
At the moment, dentists can only see patients for emergency appointments.
This includes life threatening infections, trauma caused by accidents, severe pain that cannot be controlled by pain killers or a fractured tooth which has exposed the nerve.
Other patients are triaged over the phone and offered advice or prescribed medicine, such as pain killers or antibiotics.
Anne Benson, who works as a carer for St Margaret’s, told the Stray Ferret that she would not have been able to get back to work without the swift work of her dentist:
“The day after the lockdown came into place I started to have really bad toothache. After a few courses of antibiotics prescribed by my dentist did not seem to be doing the trick he booked me in for another appointment. He carried out an x ray and then drained the abscess. He was in full PPE along with his assistant the whole time, it was absolutely brilliant. If I didn’t get the care from my dentist then I would not be able to do my job looking after vulnerable people.”
Jade Edwards and Henry Stam were meant to tie the knot on May 9, at Rudding Park, but due to coronavirus, their big day has been postponed.
To make matters worse the couple weren’t even able to spend their ‘not wedding day’ together as Henry works as a doctor in A&E at Harrogate Hospital. Jade told the Stray Ferret that the whole thing has been very sad:
It was meant to be such a special year, it’s just so sad… Henry has moved into an apartment in Harrogate as he is very much on the front line of the pandemic and we have an 11-month-old daughter so he didn’t want to put her or me at risk, so we couldn’t even spend the day together… a few other couples we know got dressed up and had a nice meal at home, but we couldn’t do that.
Henry isn’t very emotional, but even he said that at 1pm last Saturday he was looking at his watch thinking about where we should have been… But it’s out of our control, we will just have to look forward to next year.
The couple initially postponed the ceremony to the 4th July, but as time went out they realised that, even if it could go ahead then, that it wouldn’t be the wedding they wanted.
I didn’t want everyone to be in face mask or for my older relatives to not be able to come, so we thought it was best to just push it back until next year… The venue have been brilliant, they have just dealt with the whole thing for us, nothing was an issue.
Laura Lindsay who is a wedding planner in Harrogate, usually organises 50 weddings between April and September. She told the Stray Ferret that this is not something the industry ever imagined having to go through :
Everything up until august is out of the window for most of my brides… and anyone who is holding out is looking at a different style of wedding day… this is no longer 100 guests it’s on a much smaller scale.
2020 brides will have bought their products, personalised them with their dates date, sent out invites… they are now having to do this twice which is an added expense.
With the majority of weddings this year being moved over to 2021 Laura advised that people secured their dates quickly. She went on to say:
I just want to remind you all when you’re feeling down that your wedding will happen and when it does it is going to be an amazing celebration, there will be people that won’t of seen each other in such a long time and the whole day will be valued so much more.
Harrogate school steps up to make PPE for care homes
Staff from Ashville College in Harrogate have been busy making scrubs and other PPE for two of the town’s care homes.
The volunteer group makes the items for Heath Lodge, on Pannal Ash Road, and Berwick Grange, on Wetherby Road.
It comes after the college donated around 200 pairs of safety glasses from its science department to frontline hospital staff treating patients with coronavirus.
The volunteers are led by Caroline Beer, Annie Wilcockson, Sarah Mansfield, Helen Thompson, Elizabeth Pennington, and Lynn Conway.
Collectively, the team has made scrubs, scrub bags, face masks, and headbands, to keep health workers’ ears comfortable from hours of mask wearing.
They have also produced artwork of fictional characters to support children’s storytelling at Harrogate District Hospital.
Caroline Beer said: “We all bring different skills to the mix and our pooled talents are benefitting employees and residents at Heath Lodge and Berwick Grange, and young patients at Harrogate District Hospital. We have set up a ‘gofundme’ page to help pay for materials.”
The materials produced so far have been created using donated fabrics and now the team has also set up a gofundme page to raise money for more materials. The Busy Bees plan to continue production for as long as possible to provide vital PPE items to local care homes in need.
Following a donation this week of items to staff at Berwick Grange, Administration Manager, Phoebe Rahtmell said:
No coronavirus deaths at Harrogate hospital with 15 more discharged“I would like to say a huge thank you for the uniform bags and head bands that were very kindly made and donated to Berwick Grange Care Home. This was a very thoughtful gesture and I would like to pass on our gratitude to everybody involved as I imagine a vast amount of time went into making them all.”
Harrogate District Hospital has not reported any more coronavirus deaths and has this week discharged 15 more patients.
In total, the hospital has now released 97 people who have recovered from coronavirus but 54 people have died at the hospital since the start of the pandemic.
Weekly data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also reveals how many people have died outside of hospitals. That number has been rising higher in recent weeks and is close to overtaking Harrogate hospital’s deaths.
This data goes up to May 1 and shows that there have been 48 deaths outside of hospitals. Of those, 43 deaths have been in Harrogate’s care homes, with the others in private homes or “other communal establishments.”