This article is sponsored by Berwins

With Halloween falling during October half-term, there is a seriously spooky theme to this year’s family activities across the district.

And with last year’s Halloween celebrations being pretty much cancelled due to the pandemic this year’s spooky season is bigger and better than ever.

So whether you fancy a trip to some dark, scary caves, some pumpkin picking on a farm or some ghostly fun in Harrogate town centre, we’ve put together a list of five places to take your little witches and wizards for some Halloween fun.

Birchfield Farm Pumpkin Festival

Pick your own pumpkins at Birchfield Farm.

When Birchfield Farm launched its Pumpkin Festival on October 2, I think most of Harrogate visited. My social media feeds were jam-packed with pumpkins in wheelbarrows and smiling faces.

Fortunately there are plenty of pumpkins to go around and you can visit everyday until Halloween.

A firm favourite with families across the district, including my own, there are also lots of activities to do on the farm so you can make a morning or afternoon of it.

After you have picked your pumpkin from the patch – and there really is a huge selection of all shapes and sizes – you then have the option of visiting the farm for £5 per person. Then take your kids for a homemade ice cream at the farm’s café, which is currently serving takeout food and drinks.

Activities include:

• A huge carving barn where you can create your pumpkin masterpieces
• Bouncy castles
• Play equipment
• A 6-acre maize maze
• Woodland and den building
• Animals
• A giant bale mountain

Enter Harrogate town centre if you dare this half-term…

• A supernatural-themed interactive trail on the loyalfreeapp
• A mysterious pop-up photobooth in the Victoria Shopping Centre
• Ghostly street entertainment
• A sinister, live radio show with Your Harrogate
• Petrifying prizes to be won throughout

Mother Shipton’s is hosting The Witching Hour over half-term.

Go on a Halloween trail at Stump Cross Caverns.

Stockeld Park has a new skeleton trail this half-term.

Stockeld Park is another firm family favourite and the Halloween festivities are always great fun.

A group of Knaresborough businesses walked out of this week’s chamber meeting after tensions rose over the rejected BID.

Last week businesses in the town voted narrowly to reject forming a BID. The outcome caused a wave of acrimonious allegations about the process from both sides.

Outgoing chamber president, Steve Teggin who was pro-BID, wrote a letter accusing a small number of business of influencing votes which led to its rejection.

At Wednesday’s meeting these businesses strongly rejected claims they had changed the minds of voters.

One business owner who was there reported that around 16 people walked out with another saying it felt “very divided”.

Read more:

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• Bar and restaurant planned for former Knaresborough bank

Peter Lacey, membership secretary of the chamber, said:

“Time was spent talking about future opportunities but recent history like the BID was also brought up. There were some heated exchanges and towards the end there was a group of people that left.

“We need to move on from that there is a future for chamber to talk about. We need to move forward.”

The chamber had earlier discussed filling vacancies on its senior board. There are five vacant positions after Mr Teggin and Bill Taylor – secretary and treasurer of the chamber – stepped down.

The vacant positions are; president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and social secretary.

The positions weren’t filled on the night as chamber rules state people must be nominated to take on the roles. Instructions on how to nominate will be sent out next week.

He said the 80-member strong chamber is looking ahead to working with the town’s businesses on future projects.

Kelly Teggin, chamber member and business owner, said:

“I am looking forward to new people joining chamber and we had some great idea’s at the AGM that will make Chamber more up to date. New leaders and new members will bring a new beginnings.”

Steve Teggin has criticised “anti-bid activists” as he steps down as president of Knaresborough Chamber of Trade.

In a letter he described as “frank and honest” to businesses ahead of the chamber’s AGM tomorrow, Mr Teggin said he felt “totally shamed and embarrassed” by the activists in the wake of the vote against setting up a Business Improvement District.

He said he had “failed” the town by not delivering the BID and said a small minority opposed to it had infected others.

The letter said:

“I should have steered the BID working group and task force in a much more positive way particularly when it came to dealing with trolls and anti-bidders, allowing this very small minority of businesses that only want to take and not give back to infect others.”

Mr Teggin, who has been chamber president since 2015 and a member since the 1970s, said he had delayed his retirement as president in the hope of helping to establish a BID and securing a “great trading future” for Knaresborough.

Instead he said he would leave the chamber “with a divided business community who will have no representation for the whole of the businesses in our town.”

80-73 votes against BID

The vote to create a BID, which would have seen businesses pay a compulsory levy to support initiatives that increased footfall in the town, was lost by 80 votes to 73. Harrogate and Ripon traders have both voted in favour of setting up BIDs.

The benefits of a BID, said Mr Teggin’s letter said, would have included:

“Not just saving our market but to expand it, help finance our now extinct tourist information hub, support our endangered library etc, all of which and much more for the cost of which is the equivalence to a couple of cups of coffee a week.”

He said the voices of those against it were louder than those in favour and other businesses were taken in by them. He added:

“I have been totally shamed and embarrassed by this group who along with fellow business owners we will have to depend on to represent our town traders so what does the future hold?”

“Not the way to bring the town together”

Natalie Horner, from printers Sid Horner and Son, had previously raised concerns about the BID. In response to the letter she said:

“That letter was not the way to bring the town together to move forward.

“Knaresborough did not want a BID and we are not a struggling town as it is made out we are, business is better than ever and we will be perfectly fine moving forward and have much more to offer as a town than those with Bids so personally I am not concerned.”

Read more:

• 30,000 poppies to cover Knaresborough castle for Remembrance Day
• Green Shoots: Knaresborough mum sells eco alternative to clingfilm

Ian Gill, owner of independent bar Six Poor Folk, said:

“I’m committed to this town, and I voted for the BID because it was my contribution to see the town develop further. I am sad we didn’t get it, but business will continue and the town will go on as it did before.”

Mr Teggin had been due to retire two years ago but stayed on during the pandemic, but now, at 67, he said he felt it was the right time to step down.

He insists he will still be involved in the town and the Chamber but will take on a “behind the scenes” roll.

Knaresborough Castle is to be covered in 30,000 knitted poppies as part of this year’s Remembrance Day commemorations.

The Knaresborough branch of the Royal British Legion has organised the poppy display to mark the armed forces charity’s centenary.

Last year’s remembrance commemorations were reduced due to covid so the Knaresborough branch was determined to do something big this year.

The 30,000 knitted poppies have been collected over the past two years from local women’s institutes, craft groups and individuals who have spent hours supporting the project.

The poppies will be installed onto the castle from November 2 and remain there until November 15.

Children from five Knaresborough primary schools are making 1,500 poppies using recycled petals from last year’s wreaths.

Large scale silhouette figures of the classic British ‘Tommy’ and modern service personnel will also be displayed along with a dog, to commemorate the sacrifice animals have played in conflict.

The lamppost poppies and flags will also make a comeback to the Market Square.

Read more:

• Harrogate hospital charity seeks Christmas hamper donations
• Sharow school plants tree in honour of Queen

This year also marks to return of Poppy Appeal collectors, who raise funds for the RBL. The Knaresborough branch has put out a plea for more volunteers to sell poppies in Lidl and Marks & Spencer.

Knaresborough branch may not survive

Previously, the branch has warned it may not last much longer if more members can’t be found.

David Houlgate, the vice chair of the Knaresborough branch, said:

“There is a real danger that the branch in Knaresborough may not see out another five years, let alone another 100.

“The branch is now down to just a handful of active members and the concern is that the Knaresborough ‘standard’ that is strikingly visible at Remembrance events and the annual Remembrance parade through the town, will have to be laid up if new members cannot be found.”

Mr Houlgate emphasised that anyone can join the RBL, they don’t have to have served in the military.

To volunteer or become a member call Alan Pitchfork, chair, on 07984700429.

Knaresborough mum-of-three and musician Clare-Lucy Pascall is releasing an album of songs about the trauma of miscarriage.

Baby Loss Awareness Week, which is taking place for the 19th year, aims to offer families who have suffered pregnancy and baby loss a supportive space to share their experiences and feel they are not alone.

Ms Pascall, who suffered a miscarriage in 2018, said writing music has helped her come to terms with her experience.

“It sounds terrible, but I call it creation from devastation. That’s where it comes from. When you’ve gone through trauma, creating something worked so well so I could come to terms with it.”

‘An awful moment’

In 2018, Ms Pascall went for her 12-week scan, which she said had “always been the fun part” of pregnancy as it had been the first time she and her husband Harry could see and hear their new child.

But the couple were dealt the devastating news that the baby had no heartbeat.

She said:

“It was a weird, awful and a nothing moment. I could see her. That was the hard part. She still looked like a baby.”

Ms Pascall then had to go through months of uncomfortable hospital procedures.

“My body didn’t play ball. I spent April to July going to hospital visits, having scans and doing things you don’t want to do when you know you’re not having a baby.”

A naturally outgoing and gregarious person, Ms Pascall said she was “physically speechless” and unable to speak to anyone about what she’d been through.

“I didn’t give myself a chance to grieve the loss. I locked it away and put it on the backburner. I couldn’t cope with it.”

“At the same time I was doing everything i normally do, and not telling anybody.”

Read more:

• Charity Corner: Harrogate baby loss charity stops families feeling ‘alone’
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Ms Pascall said her husband Harry was “her rock” throughout the period but it took a year before she was ready to go to a counsellor to help her through the emotional trauma.

To remember her daughter, she takes flowers to Stonefall Cemetery, which is where babies that have miscarried are cremated.

“Remembering sounds like such a random thing when you didn’t get through a pregnancy. But I could see the scan, she was there, I knew she existed.”

Debut album

Ms Pascall’s debut album, which is called “Dear Friend, Who Am I?” will be released on Amazon, iTunes and Spotify.

She said:

“In my music and my songs, she comes out in them all the time. It feels like an imagined memory, what it would have been.”

Ms Pascall will hold an album launch party at Fashion House Bistro on November 8th — the date that would have been her daughter’s third birthday.

“The 8th was her due date, so it’s quite a big thing.

“It’s awareness and acknowledgement [about miscarriage] but also about the creativity that has risen from that devastating loss.”

Listen to her album here.

The former Natwest bank in Knaresborough could be turned into a bar and restaurant.

Under licensing plans submitted to Harrogate Borough Council, the Claro Chambers building on the town’s High Street would be converted into a “casual eating and drinking destination”.

Harrogate’s Major Tom’s Social and Knaresborough-based Turning Point Brewing Co have submitted the application as part of a collaboration between the two businesses.

The building has been vacant since NatWest bank moved out in October 2017.

In a statement, Major Tom’s and Turning Point said the project was in its early stages.

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They added that they had been working together for five years and took the opportunity to create the bar when the building became available.

Major Tom’s and Turning Point said:

“This project is currently in the early stages; we do not yet have a premises license for the venue, so we wanted to wait until we had that and the keys before officially announcing anything.

“We (Major Tom’s Social and Turning Point Brew Co.) are looking to collaborate on a bar in Knaresborough town centre. 

“Our aim is to create a casual eating and drinking destination in the Claro Chambers bank building on High Street, bringing the best of each business to the table. 

“We have an established relationship of working together for almost five years, and when the opportunity to create a unique venue in Knaresborough presented itself, we couldn’t wait to get to started. 

“We fell in love with the building at first sight and saw its potential to be restored into a thriving and well utilised space, and a great addition to the town for locals and tourists alike.”

The borough council granted planning permission to change the use of the building from a bank to a bar and restaurant in August last year.

If approved by the council’s licensing committee next week, the proposal would see the bar open from midday until 12.30am.

The application also seeks permission for recorded music and films.

A “lack of engagement” and “vague plans” led to a proposed Knaresborough Business Improvement District being rejected, say businesses.

Local traders voted down the plan this week by 80 votes to 73, with 153 votes cast overall.

BIDs, which already exist in many towns and cities, including Harrogate and Ripon, aim to improve footfall in towns and cities.

Businesses in areas that vote for creating them have to pay a levy to fund their activities.

But traders in Knaresborough said they felt the plans for the town were unclear.

Read more:

• Council backs Knaresborough BID plan with 28 votes
• Knaresborough firms raise concerns about proposed new BID
• Knaresborough businesses vote against setting up a BID

Annie Wilkinson-Gill, who owns The Crystal Buddha, said the organisation could have been good for the town had the BID task group engaged more.

She said:

“The BID could have been a good thing for the town, 

“But the lack of engagement from the BID team and directors with the town’s businesses and lack of transparency is why it wasn’t successful, 

“The plan was completely vague and had very little information within for us to want to invest in it.”

‘The town will continue to flourish’

Ashleigh Lambert, who owns Cenheard at Conyngham Hall in the town, said:

“I feel the plan from the BID lacked direction and failed to engage local businesses with the impacts, positive or negative.

“Knaresborough businesses have come together against the odds of votes stacked against them to vote for what they wanted for the town. I’m confident the town with continue to flourish with the support of groups and the council.”

The Stray Ferret contacted Bill Taylor, secretary and treasurer of Knaresborough Chamber of Trade and Commerce and a member of the BID task group for a response to the ballot but he declined to comment.

More than 300 firms were eligible to take part in the vote, which started in September and ran until October 8.

For the BID to succeed, a simple majority of those who vote, representing more than half the total rateable value of all properties, must be in favour.

But although Harrogate Borough Council threw its 28-strong block vote behind the scheme, it was unable to muster enough support.

North Yorkshire Police officers stopped suspected poachers in Knaresborough in the early hours of this morning.

The force was contacted by members of the Rural Watch scheme at 11.15pm last night. They suspected poaching was taking place in a Subaru Forester on land at Arkendale, near Knaresborough.

Poachers normally travel in groups with dogs, using 4×4 vehicles. They typically hunt brown hare or deer.

The Subaru became stuck in the mud before making its way across farmers’ fields and onto the roads.

Officers stopped the vehicle and found two male occupants inside. They also noticed a large amount of blood.

After letting the men go, the suspects became stuck for a second time in the evening and the vehicle was seized. Enquiries are ongoing.

Inspector Clive Turner, of North Yorkshire Police’s rural taskforce, said:

“Our officers, some of whom have farming backgrounds, know the terrible impact poaching can have on rural communities.

“Farmers and landowners are often intimidated or even threatened with violence if they challenge offenders, leaving them feeling vulnerable to further crimes, particularly in isolated areas.

“On average, we’re called to more than 50 incidents of suspected poaching in North Yorkshire every month. Incidents tend to increase significantly from August onwards, during and after harvest time.”

Read more:

• Video appears to show Harrogate police officers punching and kneeing man
• Police commissioner apologises for Sarah Everard comments after backlash

Philip Allott, the Conservative North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, reiterated today that he does not intend to resign.

Mr Allott was interviewed on BBC Look North this lunchtime in what was his first public appearance since his controversial comments about the Sarah Everard murder last Friday.

Back then, he said women “need to be streetwise” and that Ms Everard “never should have submitted” to arrest.

Since then more than 9,000 people have signed a petition calling him to go.

Mr Allott told the BBC today:

“I’m deeply sorry for the comments I made. They’re not the kind of language I would usually use. I’m just so horrified how my comments have been seen.”

When asked if he would resign, Mr Allott said he had “reflected” on his position and intended to stay.

He added:

“Because it’s more important that I carry through the mandate I was elected to do.

“83,000 people voted for me in North Yorkshire and York. That’s more than any Member of Parliament.”

Watch the interview below:

A North Yorkshire police boss who claimed women "need to be streetwise" after the Sarah Everard case has said he will not resign.

Philip Allott added he was "deeply sorry" for the comments he made.

Read more here: https://t.co/OgtNI9hr2Q pic.twitter.com/1K9c2SuBkQ

— BBC Yorkshire (@BBCLookNorth) October 8, 2021

Read more:

• Philip Allott: ‘I have much to learn’ but no resignation
• Harrogate protesters tell Philip Allott to go over Sarah Everard comments

Local fallout

Knaresborough resident Mr Allott has faced widespread criticism in the Harrogate district over the past week, including a protest at the war memorial in Harrogate last Saturday.

Harrogate LGBTQ+ non-profit organisation Pride in Diversity and business group Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce both withdrew invitations for him to speak at events.

The Harrogate & District Law Society also released a statement that said trust in Mr Allott had been “irretrievably lost” and he should resign.

Harrogate Borough Council Liberal Democrat leader Pat Marsh said Mr Allott “should do the honourable thing and resign” and Conservative council leader Richard Cooper said his comments were “very wrong”.

North Yorkshire police, fire and crime panel, which holds the commissioner to account, is due to meet on Thursday next week and Mr Allott’s comments will be on the agenda.

The meeting will begin at 10.30am and will be available to watch online via North Yorkshire County Council’s website.

The leader of a Knaresborough group fighting to stop a new swimming pool being built on a green field has described the plans as “environmental vandalism of the highest order”.

David Hull set up Not on Fysche Field (Not Off) when Harrogate Borough Council proposed a new Knaresborough leisure centre and suggested it could be built on the park alongside the current site.

Mr Hull handed in a 600-name petition to the council last night opposing the plans and read a strongly worded statement.

He said:

“This proposal to build on Fysche field park has been a complete shambles from day one.

“Harrogate Borough Council have behaved in a totally selfish and arrogant fashion by deliberately withholding information and not being honest with the public.

“The people are speaking and need to be heard. They don’t want or need this environmentally destructive development on Fysche field.

“Building a brand new pool right next to a perfectly functioning one is environmental vandalism of the highest accord.”

Mr Hull’s petition calls for any new leisure centre to be built on the existing footprint rather than moving it onto the green field adjacent.

The council’s current favoured plan is to build the new leisure centre on the play area to the side of the leisure centre rather than the green space. But the threat to the park remains.

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During his presentation last night, Mr Hull read comments from individuals who he said supported the campaign. One questioned whether councillors were “getting rich” from this development.

This drew a strong rebuke from council leader Richard Cooper, who said councillors shouldn’t be “slighted or demeaned” in this way.

Speaking to the Stray Ferret today, Mr Hull said:

“We wanted to demonstrate that the community is not saying no to the development. We support a sensitive development but it needs to be sympathetic to the local area.”

Mr Hull added that greater transparency from the council would stop people holding so many negative opinions.