Union bosses fear jobs could be under threat at leisure centres across the Harrogate district as the council plans to create a new company to run the services.

Harrogate Borough Council has proposed to create a new company, which it would own, to run leisure and community centres in the district.

The authority said the plan would help to save around £400,000 a year by bringing in more income and making savings.

It comes as the council has estimated a £15 million shortfall as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

If given the go-ahead, it would mean facilities such as Harrogate Hydro, the Turkish Baths and Ripon Leisure Centre would be run by the new company.

The Turkish Baths, Harrogate.

Known as a Local Authority Controlled Company (LACC), staff who currently work in leisure and sport would be transferred over from the council to the new company.

Some 200 workers would fall under the LACC, but Unison said it feared those staff would not necessarily be on the originally agreed terms and conditions as with the council.

It added that a number of staff have already been redeployed to support other services during the coronavirus pandemic, such as waste and recycling, and now have concern over their original roles because of the council’s plan.

A spokesperson for Unison Harrogate Local Government Branch said:

“Unison are aware that Harrogate Council is currently consulting with residents about its proposal to convert its sport and leisure service into a Local Authority Controlled Company (LACC), which it will own.

“Whilst the council says that by doing so it could do more with sport and leisure and innovate the way it works, there should be no doubt that the aim will be to reduce costs and save money.

“Staff who move over to the new company would not necessarily be on the nationally agreed terms and conditions as those in the council they leave behind and our experience of other LACC’s tells us that cuts to terms and conditions but also to real term pay, often occurs soon after.

“Currently, there are a number of sport and leisure staff who, due to the coronavirus lockdown, have been redeployed in to other services, such as refuse and recycling, who are continuing to give their all for the community.  

“They now see their real jobs under threat and this is a big concern for them.

Harrogate Borough Council declined to comment.

The authority is currently consulting with residents on the new leisure company. You can fill out the survey here.

Residents in Harrogate have expressed concern about the confusing advice in the government’s changes to lockdown rules, after reports of rising numbers of people and cars on the streets.

Harrogate resident Paul Dutton said he worried that people who were already feeling more relaxed about restrictions would be encouraged to go even further in disregarding social distancing.

“I could see in the last week the roads were getting busier, there were more people out and about. We’ve been told not to go out unless we needed to. This will open the gates even further.

“I think people will push the boundaries, go to the coast, visit the sites of Yorkshire, take picnics and barbecues, walking through the fields. We just need to stay how we are.”

With his wife working as a GP in Leeds and his youngest son home from university, Mr Dutton said the family has been living as separately as possible within the house in order to reduce the risk of contamination. If people begin mixing again, he fears the family’s hard work to stay safe will be undone by another spike in cases which could bring it into their home through his wife’s work, no matter how careful they are.

Need for childcare

As a former Harrogate Grammar School teacher, he said he feels sorry for schools trying to find ways to meet the need for childcare if parents are pressured into returning to work. Suggestions of smaller class sizes would help with social distancing, but would be impractical for schools to implement, he said.

“If you are going to invite six or seven students back, which are they going to be? Are you going to rotate it? Are schools able to staff it in that way? It’s a huge conundrum. how do you resolve that? I really wouldn’t want to be in that situation now. I just feel if we waited another couple of weeks to see how the situation panned out, we could phase it in a different way.”

Social distancing will be almost impossible in schools, according to former teacher Paul Dutton

His concerns were echoed by Andy Johnson, a health and safety advisor mainly working on film and television projects, who said he has only had one job since the lockdown began. Not expecting his work to re-start properly until at least September, he is now offering his services to businesses which are looking at ways to re-open safely. However, as a widowed father with a teenage son at home in Harrogate, he is nervous about the risks of going into workplaces:

“It would depend on each individual case. If I was asked to go into a closed factory and do a risk assessment prior to it re-opening, as long as I could maintain social distancing, wear barriers, do my job and get out, I would be reasonably happy to do that. But not while people are working there.”

Mr Johnson said the “viral load” was a critical factor. People who come into contact with several people who have the virus on more than one occasion seem to become more seriously ill, he said, which meant opening workplaces and encouraging more travel could lead to a rise in the number of severe cases and deaths.

Lack of PPE

As a community first responder, he works alongside some paramedics and emergency medical technicians who also volunteer in their spare time. He said two of them are now suffering with coronavirus symptoms, including one admitted to hospital:

“They had what they thought was adequate protection. They think they’re safe, but they haven’t been safe. How can you ensure in a workplace that it’s safe? Chances are, you can’t. All you can do is what’s reasonable in the circumstances.”

However, with PPE in high demand, he questioned whether people going out to work would be able to find adequate protection for themselves, and whether workplaces could provide it for employees.

Cycling campaigners and environmental groups in the district have called for “pop up”  temporary cycle lanes and lower speed limits to encourage people to continue cycling and help walkers with social distancing.

Jemima Parker of Zero Carbon Harrogate said the group has written to Andrew Jones MP and David Bowe, the county council Corporate Director Business and Environmental Services, asking for temporary changes.

Zero carbon Harrogate would like to see a 20mph speed limit in urban areas, more street space allocated for “active travel” (pedestrians, mobility scooters and cyclists) and encouragement for cars to be parked on the road rather than the pavement.

Harrogate District Cycle Action has published a list of “post-lockdown travel improvements” that, amongst others, include:

• Closing streets to cars at school drop off and pick up times
• Add temporary cycle lanes by putting up barriers and making streets one-way
• Close off town centre roads to cars
• 20mph limits in built up areas and “car free weekends”

In Knaresborough, town councillor Hannah Gostlow has urged the County Council which is in charge of highways to reduce the speed limit to 20mph between King James School and High Bridge in Knaresborough and around the towns schools, as well as increasing cycle lanes in the town.

“Our High Street is usually a fast and busy road that discourages cyclists, narrows our footpaths for pedestrians, and disconnects shops from the town centre, this scheme aims to let our town recover and breathe again. As well as a 20mph scheme I would also like to see cycle lanes where possible, and local businesses encouraged to take a lead on green transport initiatives”

The calls for parking bays to be made into cycle lanes in Harrogate are at odds with Independent Harrogate, the body which represents the town’s independent retailers. It’s called for free parking to be kept indefinitely to encourage more people to come into Harrogate by car when the shops finally open.

The Stray Ferret has asked North Yorkshire County Council for a comment. It said it was working to give a response as soon as possible.

No further deaths have been reported by Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust in the data released by NHS England today. 32 deaths were reported across the North East and Yorkshire region.

The total number of deaths at the hospital stands at 51, with 82 patients discharged after treatment for Covid-19.

The last death confirmed by the trust was on Monday, May 4th. However, it can take several days for deaths to be confirmed and added to official figures, particularly over weekends.

Today’s figures show a further 178 deaths confirmed across England, bringing the total of 23,149

Statistics released by NHS England only cover patients who were treated and died in hospitals. A further 39 people had died in the community across the Harrogate district until April 24, according to information released by the Office for National Statistics this week.

This column is written for The Stray Ferret by Jemima Parker, Chair of Zero Carbon Harrogate*

When we started to go into lock-down I knew that Covid-19 would bring significant carbon emissions reductions for the District. Cutting our greenhouse gases and playing our part in the global response to climate breakdown is something I have been advocating for years. But not like this. Not with the shutdown of our amazing local businesses and heartache of lives lost to the virus.

Sure I, like many, have been enjoying waking up to a quieter world each morning without the roar of traffic out of the window; being able to hear the birds in the Valley Gardens; breathe clean air on Skipton Road and soak up those clear blue skies across the Stray without contaminating contrails.

It feels like a little window into a low carbon world, but it’s missing the vibrant economy that can go with it.

Strangely, I have found the pandemic crisis a levelling experience, with my own world of living in a continual state of climate emergency (10 years left to radically reduce our carbon emissions or millions more die), now shared in some ways with my friends and family.

Working from home has been normalised. Having food deliveries – as my family have done for years (from the lovely local Organic Pantry) – is all the rage and even creatively eating up all the bits and bobs at the back of the fridge is now obligatory.

In these difficult days, pockets of hope have surprised me. I was cheered by how quickly we got it, we acted, the science of the virus was understood, the risks evaluated and the radical changes required in our behaviour adopted. Next stop climate science, risk assessment and adaptation?

It has been a joy to see a resurgence of localism, neighbours walking to the local shops and others out exploring previously neglected footpaths – why wouldn’t you, we live in God’s own county?

I have been overwhelmed by the plethora of community groups that sprung up from nowhere to provide support, from Pannal to Pateley, Bilton to Boroughbridge. This community resilience, this coming together to support each other, will help as we adapt to the changes required to prevent the worst extremes of climate change.

How many of these positives can we capture and take forward as we begin the long and difficult task of rebuilding the local economy? We can’t go back. Can we go forward investing in more resilient local, low carbon businesses, creating green jobs, valuing all our key workers and giving a true value to the natural world that sustains our very existence?

*Zero Carbon Harrogate is an organisation dedicated to making Harrogate District a net zero carbon community by 2030 in order to secure a sustainable future- for more information click here.

Harrogate Neighbours overcame the problem of social distancing to put on a special day of VE Day celebrations for the residents of The Cuttings in Starbeck and Heath Lodge in Harrogate. Drake’s Fish and Chips in Knaresborough arrived with an appropriately-dressed team to deliver lunch.

Police have named a man found dead in Harrogate this week as Aaron Atkinson.

The 38-year-old’s body was discovered at a property in Harrogate in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Two men, aged 46 and 40, arrested on suspicion of murder and robbery, have now been released on bail.

North Yorkshire Police said investigations into the death are continuing and further forensic tests are being carried out, but detectives are treating it as suspected murder. Officers have reassure the public that it was an isolated incident.

A Harrogate veteran who survived the D Day landings was the star of one of the town’s VE Day celebrations yesterday.

Sergeant John Rushton, known as “Jack” among friends had his spirits lifted as residents on his street went to great lengths to make his day special.

Jack is 95 years old and has been inside his house on Beech Road in Harrogate since lockdown started. But thanks to Vic- Smith Dunn, who lives on his street and runs the Oatlands community group, there was socially distant celebrations.

There was a heartwarming performance from 14-year-old Lucy Hall, who was playing the bagpipes as well a visit from Lieutenant Col Richard Hall who is the commanding officer at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate.

Jack leant out his window to watch all the goings-on throughout the afternoon.

Jack was ready to celebrate.

Merryfield cul-de-sac off Hartley Road in Harrogate where they had decked the road out in red, white and blue..

Alistair Ratcliffe (above) from the Oatlands Community Group prepared tea parcels to give out to the elderly and vulnerable. The group delivered around 150 today. One of the happy recipients who raised a glass to the group to say thank you….

Along Mallinson Oval there was a carnival atmosphere…

The residents of Tewitt Well Road in Harrogate came out in force this afternoon to sing the National Anthem and raise a glass to commemorate VE Day..

Here are more images from a noisy, happy road enjoying the day: