Kimberley Hotel owner goes into liquidation amid £3.5m debts

The owner of the Kimberley Hotel in Harrogate has filed for liquidation amid over £3.5m debts to local companies as well as HM Revenue and Customs.

Insolvency firm Booth & Co was appointed to wind up Denison 2 earlier this week.

In December 2020 the hotel announced it had permanently closed due to the impact of covid.

Its sole director, Stewart Lewis, is still a director of several other hospitality and property companies that are still trading.

There are 80 entries on Denison 2’s list of creditors totalling £3.5m. £2.6m of this is to its sister company Denison which has the same registered address in York.

Other creditors include HM Revenue and Customs for £338,935 and Harrogate Business Improvement District (BID) for £1,380. Almost £27,000 is also owed to staff in holiday pay.

The Stray Ferret emailed Mr Lewis for a response and for information on the future of the hotel but we did not receive a reply.

Read more:

The 70-bedroom, four-star hotel, close to Harrogate Convention Centre on King’s Road, had been welcoming guests for over 50 years.

A post on the hotel’s social media channels in December said:

“It comes with a heavy heart that we have to tell all our loyal guests and friends that due to the financial position caused by covid, we unfortunately have to close the hotel.

“We sincerely thank everyone, customers and staff alike, that have supported us over the years and regret deeply that covid placed us in a situation that we cannot recover from.”

The Kimberley Hotel opened in the 1960s when five townhouses dating back to the turn of the 20th century were converted.

It benefitted from the opening of what was then called the Harrogate Conference Centre in 1982, which is a short walk away.

The properties were originally built as homes for some of the wealthier families in Harrogate during its Victorian expansion.

Hundreds attend free war graves tours at Harrogate’s Stonefall cemetery

Tours were held throughout the day at Stonefall cemetery in Harrogate yesterday as part of the first war graves week, which was organised by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Stonefall, which has more than 1,000 graves, is one of the largest war grave sites in northern England and one of only five directly maintained by the commission. About two-thirds of the dead are Canadian.

The cemetery was created in 1914 but most burials are airmen who died during the Second World War when bomber command bases were established in Yorkshire.

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones, Lieutenant colonel Simon Farebrother, commanding officer of the Army Foundation College in Harrogate, Harrogate mayor Trevor Chapman and Johanna Ropner, the Lord-Lieutenant of North Yorkshire were among those attending the tours.

They heard the stories of some of the dead, including Isikeli Komaisavai, 24, believed to be the only Fijian who flew with the British Royal Air Force and two 17-year-old Canadians who lost their lives.

War graves week gave those unable to travel to burial sites in Flanders and Normandy because of covid the opportunity to discover the war heritage on their doorsteps.

It is hoped it will become an annual event.

The commission, which is funded by governments in six Commonwealth countries, maintains more than 12,500 war grave sites in virtually every town and city in the UK.

Read more:

To coincide with the week, it launched a postcode search function to enable people to search online for more than 4,000 war dead. It is available here.

Claire Horton, director general of the commission, said:

“By simply entering your postcode on our website you can take the first step towards making a new connection.

“We want people to share the stories they find and download a tribute for the men and women from their communities and display it in their window for War Graves Week.”

Ms Ropner said:

“I would encourage everyone to find out more about the men and women commemorated by CWGC here at Stonefall and indeed around the world.”

More than 100,000 electric cars in Harrogate by 2050

New data from Northern Powergrid predicts a major uptake in electric vehicles in the Harrogate district over the next 30 years.

There are currently only 861 electric vehicles (EVs) in the district currently, according to their Distribution Futures Energy Scenarios project (DFES). Their projections suggest that this number will rise to 123,000 by 2050.

DEFS data suggests that Harrogate currently has more electric cars than Craven, Richmondshire and Calderdale, but less than Leeds and York.

For context, latest Department for Transport figures show that at the end of 2020 there are were 90,500 cars licensed in the Harrogate district.

Northern Powergrid use the DFES data to identify potential paths towards achieving carbon neutrality. It works by collecting local data on adoption of green technologies, such as EVs, solar power and heat pumps.

A website has been developed to visualise the local uptake of green technologies in the North East. Northern Powergrid worked with Element Energy, the Open Data Institute Leeds and Data Mill North to produce it.

READ MORE:

Jim Cardwell, Northern Powergrid’s Head of Policy Development, has said:

“The value of this data cannot be underestimated. As a regional enabler of decarbonisation we need to know when and where to expect rapid uptake of low carbon technology and renewable energy to plan our network accordingly.

“Millions of homes and businesses over the next decade will be decarbonising and green policies like the petrol and diesel vehicle ban and heat pump rollout will accelerate this process.”

 

Harrogate library turns back time on town landmarks

Volunteers from Harrogate library have been turning back the clock on the town’s historic landmarks.

The team have worked with a local photographer to compare what Harrrogate looked like in the early 1900s to today.

Most of the work is currently on display at the library and will be until the end of July but the volunteers have also shared others on social media.

Our featured image shows the boating pool in Valley Gardens, which was taken by a Mark E. Mitchell in 1930.

It shows a few small sail boats in the water, which has clearly captured the imagination of visitors to Valley Gardens.

Today’s image, which was taken by Jonathan Turner, captures a much quieter boating lake in October 2020. The project has also captured life in the coronavirus lockdown.

Read more:

The below image shows the former J.Chippindale & Co shop taken by Asquith & Son in the early 1900s.

Today’s image shows how the building is now occupied by the Cardamom Black restaurant, with cars replacing the scores of bicycles on display.

The building has stood the test of time.

The Then and Now project was funded by a £5,000 grant from Libraries Connected Yorkshire and Humber.

Using photo editing software freely available on the library PCs, volunteers were able to produce side-by-side and composite images.

Cllr Greg White, the executive member for libraries, said:

“We’re really pleased with how the project has developed at Skipton, Scarborough and Harrogate.

“I understand that feedback from the groups was extremely positive.

“They all enjoyed learning about the history of their town and connecting with its past, and gained new skills using the free photo-editing software.”

Did you know that the Stray Ferret has teamed up with Harrogate Historian Malcolm Neesam 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. 

Stray art installation opens to help people reflect on covid dead

A giant art installation has opened on the Stray today to help people reflect on those who have lost their lives through coronavirus.

The piece, called In Memoriam, measures 36 metres in diameter and features more than 100 flags made from hospital bed sheets.

As well as a memorial to those who have died, it is also a tribute to those who have been on the frontline trying to save lives.

It’s been designed by award-winning artist Luke Jerram and will be on West Park Stray until June 7. After that it will move to Edinburgh, Fleetwood and Weston-super-Mare.

There is no entry fee and Harrogate International Festivals has commissioned a reflective piece of music called ‘A Moment of Time’, which you can find here.

Read more:

This is the first in a series of installations and events delivered in the months ahead by Harrogate International Festivals, which this year celebrates its 55th anniversary.

In Memoriam is being supported by Hornbeam Park Developments Ltd, Harrogate BID, and Swainsons Funeral Directors.

Sharon Canavar, Harrogate International Festivals chief executive, said

“Two years ago, we were lucky enough to bring Luke’s Museum of the Moon to St Wilfrid’s Church, which was one of the highlights of that summer’s international festival, and was visited by more than 10,000 people.

“As an arts charity delivering festivals and events, we were first to close and will be the last to open, but we can’t just open the doors on our venues and go straight back to normal.

“We wanted to create something unique in Harrogate that acknowledged the last year whilst allowing us to create a safe, outdoor event for the town.

“We don’t want people to just look at In Memoriam from afar, we want people to experience it; we want individuals, families and friends to walk into the heart of it; we want them to sit under the flags and quietly reflect the events of the last 15 months.”

Bank holiday weekend train travellers face delays and replacement buses

Northern will be running a limited service this weekend, despite the bank holiday and forecasts for better weather.

Passengers wishing to travel to Leeds this Sunday will need to use a replacement bus service between Horsforth and Leeds.

This is expected to add 20 minutes to journey times.

Engineering work on the York – Harrogate – Leeds line will take place on Sunday May 30.

Timetable changes across the Northern network this weekend are the result of engineering improvement works around Leeds, Manchester and Warrington. Full details are available on its website.

The company asked passengers to be “flexible with their journey”.

A spokesperson said:

“We’ll be adding extra carriages where possible but, with amended timetables in place in many areas, we will have fewer trains operating than on a normal weekend.

“We need our customers to plan carefully for any rail travel this weekend and be prepared for services to be much busier than they have been recently.”

READ MORE:

 

Harrogate residents: ‘Act before someone is killed’

Residents near one of the main house-building sites in Harrogate have called for urgent road safety action after a lorry and car collided.

About 600 homes are due to be built near Kingsley Drive and Kingsley Road.

Kingsley Ward Action Group, which campaigns to protect green spaces in the area, is angry because it claims safety fears are being ignored.

A video showing last week’s collision, which led to the car being written off, prompted the group to write to highways authority North Yorkshire County Council.

The email said:

“We have repeatedly stated that Kingsley Road is not suitable for this type of heavy construction traffic.

“Only luck prevented this being even worse and watching the video should make you grateful you don’t have to risk living on this road.”

The council’s response, seen by the Stray Ferret, says extra traffic is “unavoidable” when developments are being built.

The council added it would “ensure that the concerns of Kingsley Ward Action Group are made known to the housing developers that are currently using hauliers for the movement of bulk materials” but the lack of specific measures has angered the group.

It replied:

“Your response to our grave concerns backed up with hard video proof does not fill us with confidence that you are in fact acting in our interests at all.

“There is a clear danger here.

“From the response we have had to this near tragic incident it is clear only a multiple fatality will actually have any impact on the current truck activity.”

John Hansard, a member of the group, told the Stray Ferret it wanted the council to enforce a 20mph speed limit for site traffic and take tough action against lorries with uncovered loads.

Emily Mellalieu, development management team leader at the council, told the Stray Ferret:

“We are conscious of the disruption to residents that inevitably accompanies large-scale residential development such as that in the Kingsley/Bogs Lane area.

“We are liaising with housing developers in the Kingsley Farm area about the impact of their operations and complaints received from residents, councillors and action groups.

“At all times, we place the highest priority on road safety.

“Concerns raised recently have been forwarded to the developers for their attention and we will continue to work with the developers to ensure operations are undertaken as efficiently and safely as possible.

“The developer was required as part of the planning process to produce a construction management plan to mitigate the impact of its operations.”

Crime commissioner to visit Stray tomorrow to discuss dog theft

North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Philip Allott will address growing concerns about dog theft in a public meeting on the Stray tomorrow.

The session will be held between 1pm and 2pm on the section of the Stray near Harrogate District Hospital.

Dog owners will be able to air their feelings and find out more about what is being planned to tackle the problem.

Mr Allott, who lives in Knaresborough, said tackling dog theft would be one of his top priorities during his campaign to become the new commissioner.

He highlighted a survey showing dog thefts increased by 250% last year due to gangs cashing in on the demand for puppies during lockdown.

Sought-after breeds, such as French bulldogs, can sell for more than £5,000 and a litter can fetch £35,000.

Read more:

 

Two more Harrogate schools report strangers harassing children

Parents are being urged to be vigilant after two more schools in the Harrogate district reported recent incidents of children being harassed on the way home.

Police revealed yesterday that an 11-year-old girl was sexually assaulted while walking home from school at the junction of King’s Road and Chatsworth Grove in Harrogate on Tuesday.

The girl, whose school has not been revealed, was upset and shaken by the incident.

It has since emerged that a man in his early 20s chased year seven pupils on their way home from Harrogate High School last night.

The pupils, who were walking on Skipton Road, hid and the man ran past.

Lucy Greenwood, head of school at Harrogate High School, wrote to parents last night alerting them to the news. Her message said:

“It is worth reminding your children to be extra vigilant and to make their way directly home.

“We have reported the incident to the police and we will be making all students in school aware and to remind them to be extra vigilant on their way home.”

A school spokeswoman told the Stray Ferret the incident happened shortly after 2.25pm.

Read more:

Willow Tree Community Primary School has also reported two incidents to police that occurred late last week.

One involved a man dressed in black following people home and another involved a black Jeep driving backwards and forwards past a small group of pupils travelling to and from school.

Helen Davey, headteacher of Willow Tree Community Primary School, wrote to parents:

“I have been in touch with the police today to get further information about their response to this.

“They  have asked that anyone who is concerned that they have seen something suspicious should ring 101.

“Although they are able to have officers in the area, anything of concern should be reported so they can build a picture of what is happening.”

Ms Davey told the Stray Ferret the incidents took place in a ginnel near Saint Andrew’s Road at the back of the school.

“It’s a shock and a bit of a wake-up call.”

She added she did not know if there was any link between all the reported incidents.

Police advice

North Yorkshire Police has not issued any further updates and did not say whether it believed the incidents were linked.

Sergeant Alex Sellars from the Harrogate Neighbourhood Policing Team said yesterday that “incidents of this nature are rare in North Yorkshire”.

Sergeant Sellars added:

“There are some very simple steps that we can all take to help us feel safer when we’re walking home, such as walking in a group or with a friend, letting someone know what route you’ll be taking, when you are leaving somewhere and when you expect to be home and walk along main routes and well-lit areas.

“Please be assured that we take reports of this nature very seriously and our officers are committed to ensuring public safety.”

Five arrests in Harrogate during county lines action week

Police made five arrests in Harrogate as part of last week’s national operation on county lines drug dealing.

The arrests began on May 17 when plain clothes officers on patrol around Avenue Grove in Starbeck found class A drugs on a man behaving suspiciously.

That arrest led them to a nearby property, where they found and searched three other men. The officers found drugs stashed in a mattress, £200, drug paraphernalia and three phone.

On May 22, a man in his 40s who had breached his prison licence was arrested and returned to jail.

Later the same day, police arrested a man in his 30s on Otley Road, who officers thought was driving erratically.

The suspect failed a roadside drug wipe and was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs and possession of class A drugs. He was released under investigation.

Read more:

County lines is where drug dealers from urban areas exploit vulnerable people, including children, and force them to deal drugs is smaller towns and cities.

It takes its name from the mobile phone lines used by dealers to communicate between towns and advertise their drugs for sale.

North Yorkshire Police also made arrests in York, Whitby, Thirsk, Scarborough, and on the A1 motorway.

Police also made 87 welfare visits to 95 vulnerable people.

Officers seized a total of £10,000 plus heroin, cannabis, pregabalin and a large quantity of suspected cocaine believed to be worth several thousands of pounds.

North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Philip Allott said he welcomed the action taken, adding:

“But we should be under no illusions about the scale of the challenge we face from these organised criminals who bring tragedy to communities and scar our society.

“Ensuring we take prompt action to educate and enforce is one of my priorities as commissioner.”

Chief Inspector Lorraine Crossman-Smith coordinated North Yorkshire Police’s involvement in the action week. She said:

“I hope the people of North Yorkshire are reassured that we mean it when we say drug dealing is a priority and that we will take action when they report information to us.”