A Knaresborough councillor has said double devolution could be a “fundamental gamechanger” for the town.

It follows a meeting of Knaresborough Town Council this week where town councillors backed submitting an expression of interest to North Yorkshire County Council to become part of a pilot scheme that could eventually see the town council run Knaresborough’s Wednesday market.

Knaresborough has held a weekly market since 1310, which it claims makes it the longest continually-run market in the country.

It’s currently run by Harrogate Borough Council but that will all change from April 1 when control will be handed to the new North Yorkshire Council unitary authority.

If the expression of interest is successful, the town council would work with officers at North Yorkshire Council to develop a business case for potentially running the market.

This process would take around 12 months before a final decision is made by on whether Knaresborough is one of six pilot double devolution projects.

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr David Goode said developing a business case would be an important experience to understand the processes, procedures and skills required to make double devolution bids.

He pointed to the example of Falmouth Town Council in Cornwall, which was not running any services 20 years ago but now employs 42 people and is a multi-million-pound operation.

He said:

“That’s the sort of massive change we’re looking at but it won’t happen overnight.”

Cllr Goode was keen to stress that if the town council were to ultimately run the market it would not necessarily mean an increase in its council tax precept.

Read more:

• County council to set up new estates company
• Opposition North Yorkshire councillors criticise ‘community networks’ plan
• Knaresborough Town Council to consider bid to run market

The North Yorkshire Council budget for the market would be transferred to the town council as part of a legal agreement. This would commit the council to maintaining at least the same level and standard of service currently delivered on a permanent basis.

If the town council wanted to make enhancements to the market, it may have to meet the associated costs, but Cllr Goode said it would ask Knaresborough residents for their opinion before any decision was made.

He believes that good consultation will crucial if double devolution is to be a success.

Cllr Goode said:

“I firmly believe that if there is an enhancement to the market, that needs to be a ground-up decision from the community and not at the whim of councillors.”

Harrogate’s Victoria Avenue could lose a number of parking spaces and its central refuges as part of plans to create a cycleway.

North Yorkshire County Council this week identified Victoria Avenue as its priority cycling scheme of three in the pipeline. The others are on the A59 Harrogate Road at Knaresborough, and in Richmond.

Victoria Avenue would see segregated cycle lanes 1.5 metres wide and buffer zones created on both sides of the avenue.

The West Park junction and kerb line would be remodelled to improve the crossing and new traffic lights installed. The pedestrian crossing would also be upgraded and pay and display meters would be removed or relocated.

A report to councillors says “some existing parking and central refuges” would be removed but doesn’t specify how many. When the Stray Ferret has asked the council for the number, a spokesperson said:

“The designs of the Victoria Avenue scheme are still to be finalised, so the reduction in parking spaces is yet to be confirmed.”

The Victoria Avenue scheme, which is part of the council’s plans to encourage active travel, is budgeted to cost £1.57m and is likely to go ahead because funding is already secured.

The council has £492,000 from tranche two of the Department for Transport’s active travel fund remaining. This, along with £1.08 million the DfT has awarded in tranche four, will cover the cost.

The council has also been invited to bid for an additional £2.16 million and whether the schemes in Knaresborough and Richmond proceed will largely depend on this.

Read more:

• Harrogate cycling group: ‘We need delivery, not just bids’
• Council bids for £3m for cycling projects in Harrogate and Knaresborough

Rail operator Northern has issued 10% fewer penalty fares in the first month since the government increased the fine to £100.

The government raised the penalty fare from £20 to £100 on January 23 amid concerns the figure was too low and was no longer an effective deterrent to fare evaders.

In the month since then Northern, which runs services passing through Harrogate and Knaresborough, has issued penalty fares to 3,831 people caught travelling without a valid ticket or ‘promise to pay’ notice, compared to 4,261 in the same period last year.

Northern, which provides 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations in northern England, revealed adult passengers accounted for 81% of the penalty fares issued, with under 18s making up the remaining 19%.

Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, said:

“A sudden 10% reduction in the number of penalty fares being issued would suggest the increase to £100 has been effective in terms of a deterrent. Of course, this is only the first month – but it is definitely a step in the right direction.

“Upwards of 95% of our customers do the right thing and buy a ticket before they travel – and having invested in the largest network of digital ticket infrastructure of any train operator in the country, Northern has made it easier than ever to buy a ticket via our app, website or one of more than 600 ticket machines across the network. There really is no excuse.”

Industry body, the Rail Delivery Group estimates that every year around £240 million is lost through fare evasion on British railways.

The £100 penalty fare forms part of The Railways (Penalty Fares) (Amendment) Regulations 2022. Penalty fares are reduced to £50 if paid within 21 days.

Read more:

• Man accused of sex offences at Harrogate train station
• Council bids for £3m for cycling projects in Harrogate and Knaresborough

A Harrogate cycling group has said North Yorkshire County Council needs to “deliver” cycling schemes after years of promises.

The council revealed yesterday it planned to bid for £3.19 million to help fund projects in Harrogate and Knaresborough.

Both schemes — on Victoria Avenue in Harrogate and Harrogate Road in Knaresborough — were previously announced in 2020.

Now the council needs to await the outcome of its bid to tranche four of the Department for Transport’s active travel fund before knowing if either initiative can go ahead.

It follows the council’s decision to abandon phase two of the Otley Road cycle route in Harrogate and the closure of nearby Beech Grove to through traffic, as well as ongoing uncertainty over whether the £11.2 million Harrogate Station Gateway will go ahead.

The Otley Road cycle route

The initiatives were part of a wider ambition to create a linked off-road cycle route from Cardale Park to Harrogate train station.

Plans to improve cycling on Oatlands Drive were also shelved.

Kevin Douglas, chair of Harrogate District Cycling Action, said:

“We welcome the fact that the council is continuing to bid. But what we would like to see is some delivery.

“Standalone cycle schemes are not going to work. We need a single, segregated, joined-up cycle route to make sure people are safe.”

Read more:

• Council bids for £3m for cycling projects in Harrogate and Knaresborough
• Cycling group questions commitment to active travel in Harrogate district

Mr Douglas described as “slightly embarrassing” yesterday’s comments by Councillor Keane Duncan, the Conservative executive member for highways at the council, that the latest bid was “another significant milestone in our efforts to deliver a more balanced approach to travel in the county”.

Mr Douglas said the only new active travel scheme had been the first phase of the Otley Road cycle route, which he said remained incomplete and unsafe, adding:

“There have been no new schemes here. Now they are seeking additional funds for schemes they have already announced.

“I’m not sure how they can talk about their track record for delivery.”

Victoria Avenue, which is the council’s priority scheme, would see improvements to public spaces, pedestrian crossings and segregated cycleways. Parking spaces would be removed.

A decision on bids submitted for the active travel fund is expected from the government on March 17. 

Construction must begin on successful projects before March 31, 2024.

Businesses and voluntary organisations in North Yorkshire are being invited to apply for a share of £16.9 million made available this week.

The government has allocated £2.6 billion nationally to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which is part of its levelling up agenda that aims to tackle inequality. It replaces the old EU structural funds.

A total of £16.9 million of the sum has gone to North Yorkshire.

North Yorkshire County Council, which is distributing the funding, this week invited expressions of interest from organisations that may wish to bid.

It said in a press release the fund “covers a wide range of activities and investments and is available to almost all formally constituted organisations and businesses for projects ranging from small community-based initiatives to larger capital projects”.

The North Yorkshire funding will be delivered against five themes designed to tackle challenges and priorities identified across the county. These are: addressing rurality and inequality; building pride in our places; boosting productivity; decarbonising communities and businesses; and supporting an active labour market.

Groups in Knaresborough will be submitting a bid covering a number of local priorities identified in the recent Knaresborough Voice initiative.

Peter Lacey, chair of community support organisation Knaresborough Connectors, said:

“It is being put together as a single collaborative set of proposals by a number of local groups including Renaissance Knaresborough, the Knaresborough Museum Association, Knaresborough Connectors, the civic society and Chain Lane Community Centre.

“The proposals will seek to develop the town’s museum offer in collaboration with the new North Yorkshire Council; work to improve town connectivity in both the short and long term; and to build on the economic dashboard that will both steer and evidence the impact from any investment into the town and the surrounding area.”

‘Town connectivity’ could include examining the idea of setting up a road train that would help people navigate the steep slope between the town centre and Waterside.

Read more:

• Knaresborough Town Council to consider bid to run market
• Business case to be drawn up for Knaresborough road train

Open webinars for all interested parties will be held at noon on Thursday, February 23, and at 3.30pm on Tuesday, February 28.

Details of how to join will be online here along with a copy of the prospectus, investment plan and expression of interest form. All enquiries should be submitted to ukspf@northyorks.gov.uk

Cllr Carl Les

Councillor Carl Les, the Conservative leader of North Yorkshire County Council, said:

“Communities across our county face diverse challenges, and each also presents its unique opportunities. This funding application invitation offers a chance for local organisations who understand and live with the challenges facing their towns and villages to come forward with solutions.

“We want to see this fund used to maximum effect to enable communities to build the foundations for their own economic development, to help businesses to thrive and to reduce the barriers people of any age might face in entering and progressing in work or education.”

Parish councils near a waste incinerator near Knaresborough have questioned whether a decision over setting up an asphalt manufacturing facility on the site should be taken out of a council’s hands.

The parish councils represent numerous villages surrounding the Allerton Waste Recovery Park off the A1(M).

They claim North Yorkshire County Council lied to them about the impact of the incinerator, and that its councillors had pledged the rural area would not see further industrial-type developments.

The comments follow numerous communities across the county accusing the Conservative-run authority of putting big business interests above those of residents.

They have been lodged in response to Tynedale Roadstone’s application to the county council to create an asphalt manufacturing plant across a 2.1-hectare grass and scrubland site at the waste recovery park.

The site, which is an existing and partially complete and restored landfill, features other uses such as a concrete batching plant and the processing of 320,000 tonnes of waste a year from York and North Yorkshire councils.

The firm said the site had been chosen because plastic from the waste recovery plant would be used in the production of the final asphalt road surfaces product, cutting transportation, while its proximity to the A1(M) meant vehicles could enter and exit the site without having to pass through villages.

Planning documents submitted by the firm said the site is “extremely well screened from view” and locating the plant there would “protect” other employment sites in the area.

Read more:

• Plans to build asphalt plant beside controversial Allerton Park incinerator
• Environment Agency calls for Allerton Park asphalt plant to be rejected

It said:

“The application proposes a land use that is wholly in-keeping with the nature of this site and complements those existing land uses currently operating on the park.”

However, some residents have said they are as concerned about the impact of the proposed asphalt plant, particularly due to the potential of dust unintentionally spilling from the site, while mixing of hot bitumen could allow the release of a pungent, acrid smell.

‘A one-off isolated proposal’

In objections to the scheme, parish councils said when the incinerator had been approved in 2014 they had been assured by the county council that it was “a one-off isolated industrial proposal” in what was acknowledged as a rural location.

In its response, Arkendale Coneythorpe and Clareton Parish Council has highlighted how councillors went on record to say the incinerator would not be the stimulus for further industrial ribbon development along the A1(M) corridor.

A parish spokesman said: 

“If this development is allowed to proceed what the county council promised these local communities will have been proven to be false and we would be right to feel let down by the democratic process.”

In its objection, Goldsborough and Flaxby Parish Council said as the county council had past and present interests in the site, an independent consultant with no specific interest in the plant should be commissioned to assess its impacts.

The parish council’s objection said it questioned “the legitimacy of this planning application being reviewed and considered by North Yorkshire County Council planning authority”.

The parish council said:

“North Yorkshire County Council officers made a big thing about how little the nearby incinerator would impact visually, with it being located in a quarry.

“Plainly that was a lie or at the very least a highly optimistic assessment. The incinerator can be seen from miles away including the east side of Harrogate and up the Yorkshire Dales.”

In response, Cllr Derek Bastiman, whose executive portfolio includes waste disposal, said:

“The application for the Allerton Waste Recovery Park was thoroughly debated at the time and the planning process was rigorously followed. Full consideration was given to any environmental impact on nearby residents and the surrounding landscape.

“The application now submitted by Tynedale Roadstone is entirely separate and relates to an area of land separate to the AWRP lease area. Like any planning application, it will be considered in accordance with planning policy.”

Knaresborough Town Council could bid to run the town’s weekly market.

Town councillor David Goode will ask members at a meeting this evening to back his plan that would see the council take control of Knaresborough Market as part of a devolution pilot scheme.

The market is currently run by Harrogate Borough Council but this will all change from April 1 when the new unitary authority North Yorkshire Council is created.

A central pledge in the case for local government reorganisation was that town and parish councils would be handed more powers if they could make successful business cases — a policy known as ‘double devolution’,

Some councillors in Knaresborough, like in Ripon, are hoping to grasp a rare opportunity to take back assets that were handed over to Harrogate the last time reorganisation took place in 1974.

Weekly market since 1310

Knaresborough has held a weekly market since 1310, which it claims makes it the longest continually-run market in the country.

Each Wednesday, traders sell fruit and veg, cheese, cakes and clothes and more—plus there’s a boisterous weekly address from town cryer Roger Hewitt.

There have been previous attempts by groups in Knaresborough to take control of the market but Cllr Goode told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that “the time is right” thanks to local government reorganisation.

He said:

“The market is the beating heart of the town and it’s a jewel we should be protecting. Running it at a local level has a better chance of it being successful than in Northallerton.”

Read more:

• County council to set up new estates company
• Opposition North Yorkshire councillors criticise ‘community networks’ plan

If he’s backed by his fellow councillors tonight, an expression of interest will be submitted to North Yorkshire County Council next month.

Knaresborough Town Council charges a precept on residents’ council tax.

If it took control of the market, Cllr Goode said it could mean an increase in this precept. However, he added that “shoving money on the precept is totally the wrong mindset” when it comes to double devolution.

Traders and Harrogate Borough Council have had a difficult relationship in recent years but Cllr Goode said the town council would be able to give the market a clearer focus and help to reinvigorate it.

He added:

“I’ve been down the last two Wednesdays and the market place is half-full, but it’s part of the rich story Knaresborough has to tell.

“There’s a lot more that we could do. For example, we should be doing more for the elderly and people on low incomes to show them what advantages they can receive by shopping at the market.”

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones has described criticism of his record on sewage as “ridiculous”.

Mr Jones was one of 265 Conservative MPs who voted to stop Amendment 45 to the Environment Bill in October 2021, which would have forced water companies to reduce the amount of sewage they discharged and pay for its environmental damage.

He subsequently supported a government amendment to make water companies provide “costed plans” on how to reduce the amount of sewage.

This has led to claims, especially from the Liberal Democrats, that he and his party are allowing too much sewage to pollute rivers.

Mr Jones said on his Community News website that “the recent spate of US attack-style campaigning over sewage in water… stands the truth on its head” and needed challenging.

He said untreated sewage had been discharged into waterways when sewers were overloaded since Victorian times.

He added overflows were happening more frequently due to severe weather and more items like wet wipes being flushed down drains and the focus should be on changing this. He said:

“If we shut the overflows today sewage would have nowhere to go when sewers are overloaded and would back up into our homes. To suggest that we should do so and I should have voted for that is ridiculous.

“Do you want your sewage and that of your neighbours backing up the pipes into your home? Of course not.”

Read more:

• Andrew Jones MP ‘confident’ of achieving bathing water status for River Nidd
• Lib Dems confirm Harrogate and Knaresborough candidate for next election

Mr Jones said removing the overflows would cost up to £593 billion — the equivalent of closing the NHS for over three years. He added:

“These are the reasons why reducing the use of storm overflows must be part of a costed plan. The proposition that storm overflows can be closed today is just false.

“Portraying my support for this costed plan as voting to continue dumping sewage in our rivers is nonsense. It is the stuff of political game-playing and that isn’t something that interests me.”

Mr Jones with the owner of Knaresborough Lido on the River Nidd.

Mr Jones also highlighted his campaign to have the River Nidd in Knaresborough designated as bathing water as evidence of his willingness to tackle water quality.

The Stray Ferret asked the Harrogate and Knaresborough Liberal Democrats if it wished to comment but has not had a response.

When Peter Kavanagh gave up a career in finance to set up a wind energy company 13 years ago, some thought he had lost his marbles. He says:

“A lot of people said to me ‘you are wasting your time, wind turbines don’t generate money, you’re crazy’. I wanted to prove them wrong and it felt like the right thing to do for the next generation.”

Mr Kavanagh, 44, now runs Knaresborough firm Harmony Energy, which employs 33 staff and acts as the ultimate advisor to London-listed Harmony Energy Income Trust PLC, which is valued at £274 million.

The company operates wind, solar and battery energy storage systems and has relationships with companies like Tesla.

It has schemes in New Zealand and France as well as the UK, where one of its projects involves developing a battery storage facility at Wormald Green, between Ripon and Harrogate, which will have the capacity to power 9,000 homes. Work on the site is due to start this year and the firm would like to also build a solar farm there.

Not only has Mr Kavanagh proved the doubters wrong, he has also given investors the chance to behave ethically while generating a return on their money.

But for all the talk of the climate crisis and soaring energy bills, the battle to establish renewable energy has been far from straightforward.

Mr Kavanagh cites connectivity to the grid as the main ‘blocker’. He says a lot of development projects fail simply because the grid is full and they can’t connect.

Grid connection, planning issues and land agreements are the three essential issues when choosing sites, he says. Harmony negotiates sites and employs four project managers plus experts in fields such as law, finance and asset management to oversee progress.

Harmony Energy’s battery energy storage system at Pillswood, near Hull.

There’s also the slight matter of trying to wean the nation off fossil fuel companies, which continue to generate billions of pounds of profit and benefit from relationships built up with government over years.

Harmony has shifted its focus from wind to battery energy storage systems because of a change in the political climate since it was founded. Mr Kavanagh explains:

“Because of planning rules in England it’s almost impossible to build a wind farm in England now.

“In 2016 we were submitting planning for a completely unsubsidised development but pulled it because at the time David Cameron changed the rules on planning which pretty much made that sort of development impossible, which is frustrating because had we and others been able to develop at the time then going into this energy crisis England would have been in a much better position.”

He admits wind is “contentious” but says recent survey since the war in Ukraine started suggests more people support it, adding:

“If I was in government — obviously I’m slightly biased — I’d be saying ‘let’s build as much unsubsidised renewable energy as we can, look at land use, but look at it as a whole’. Even if we used up all the land for large scale solar requirements, for example, the stats published by national bodies say we would only use three per cent of the overall land mass.

“It makes sense because we desperately need energy bills to come down because businesses are going bust left, right and centre.”

Battery energy

Battery energy is the main focus now. So far, Mr Kavanagh has overseen the development of 500 megawatts of battery energy storage systems in the UK with the Harmony group. Harmony is Tesla’s biggest customer in Europe, having been ordering its batteries since 2016.

Harmony’s largest scheme is at Pillswood, which employs a Tesla two-hour megapack system that has the capacity to store up to 196 megawatt hours of electricity in a single cycle. This is enough electricity to power about 300,000 UK homes for two hours.

He says batteries are “the key to unlocking the potential of other renewable technologies, including solar” because they enable electricity to be stored until it is needed by the grid.

Because wind and sunshine aren’t predictable, they produce intermittent energy. Batteries can stabilise and balance this outflow of electricity and ensure it is used more effectively.

Read more:

• 200 acre solar farm could be built near Burton Leonard
• Knaresborough groups seek funding to progress road train idea

Harmony uses lithium batteries, made of 93% recycled content, says Mr Kavanagh.

The company was floated on the London stock exchange in November 2021 with a market capitalisation of £210 million. Its value has since soared to £274 million.

Its latest set of accounts, for the year ending December 31, 2021 showed a £33m profit compared to a £1m loss in the previous year.

Mr Kavanagh acknowledges this financial transformation was largely due to the stock market listing but adds 2022 was “another good year for us” and talks about hiring more staff and exploring new markets in Germany, Italy and Poland.

‘Not all about the money’

It is easy to be cynical about combining ethics and profit but Mr Kavanagh insists he is “100% not all about money”. He says investors appreciate the chance to support renewables and it’s hard to dispute the fact the planet needs change to survive.

He says the company tries to behave ethically in other ways, for instance it did not furlough any staff during covid and refused business rate relief from Harrogate Borough Council during the pandemic.

“I said ‘you should not be handing free rates out willy-nilly. Morally I felt it was the right thing to do and I wish others had done the same because the bill from covid will cripple the economy.”

Harmony, which is based at Conyngham Hall and also had an office in London’s Bond Street, supports various local good causes, including Henshaws, Candlelighters and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. It sponsors the Harrogate 10k race — an event keen runner Mr Kavanagh took part in last year. The firm also has a community fund supporting green schemes in areas where it operates.

Harmony is based at Conyngham Hall in Knaresborough.

Mr Kavanagh, a father-of-two, also tries to live ethically. His home in Birstwith is “predominantly powered by solar”, he owns an electric vehicle and travels by train when possible.

He also follows a plant-based diet, although this is partly a legacy of being diagnosed with bowel cancer when he was 29.

That experience played a major role in his change of career direction after a decade in finance. He says:

“You can make a return but do it in the right way. That’s the ethos we are trying to get through on Harmony. We are trying to build infrastructure without any support from the UK taxpayers, that’s as green as it possibly can be so it’s not only environmentally sustainable but from a financial point of view.”

Mr Kavanagh is also a director of Jones Food Company, Europe’s largest high care hydroponics facility now majority owned by the Ocado Group, and is an early-stage investor in several green tech companies outside of Harmony.

Despite the challenges. he says the tide is turning and he is optimistic about the future of renewable energy.

“We are minnows compared to big boys like EDF but a key advantage is that we are nimble and can move quickly.

“That’s why our focus will always be primarily on energy storage because it’s such a huge need. Anywhere that has a lot of intermittent energy will require lots of storage.”

He says if you can build a solar farm in North Yorkshire without any taxpayers’ support you can build one anywhere in Europe and it was looking to work with “trusted partners” in new areas on the continent. He says:

“The UK will always be our core market but we see lots of potential in Europe.

“Being a small part of the solution is what drives us. If we can be 10% of the market in 10 years time I will be very happy.”

This story is sponsored by Knaresborough Golf Club.

One of the Harrogate district’s best golf clubs is urging newcomers to take up its winter taster membership before an expected influx of new members in the spring. 

Throughout the winter, Knaresborough Golf Club has been offering a discounted membership rate which is now £125 from February until the end of March.

Anyone taking up the offer who then renews their membership in April, gets the fee discounted from their annual subscription.

The club has three tiers of membership – Gold, Silver and Bronze – which determine when members may play. 

For example, the Bronze annual membership which allows play seven days a week after 12.30pm starts at just £270 for 19 to 23 year olds!

Club general manager Jason Thornton said: 

“We always see a spike in new members in the spring, so now is a good time come along before the rush – the offer only lasts a few more weeks.

“Golf is seeing renewed interest from female members, and we’ve also been getting more enquiries from younger people interested in playing.

“There’s been a real upswing in people joining since the end of lockdown – it’s a great way of exercising and socialising in a socially-distanced way.”

The club has three tiers of membership – Gold, Silver and Bronze – which determine when members may play.

Knaresborough Golf Club was founded in 1920 and for over 100 years has remained true to the original aim of a club run on “modest, unpretentious lines and devoid of class and clique distinction”. 

Its vibrant clubhouse hosts regular events, such as tribute nights, quizzes and games, and diners are drawn by the popular Sunday carveries and “Around the World” evenings, where members get a restaurant passport and “travel the world” through food. 

Jason said: 

“It’s notoriously difficult to get catering right at clubhouses, but now that we have, we are absolutely delighted. Our catering team, led by Gavin and Amie Farrar, do a fantastic job.”

Get that hole in one feeling with the membership taster offer.

Knaresborough Golf Club has recently been carrying out improvements to both its clubhouse and course – which includes one of the longest holes in Europe – all with sustainability in mind.

Single-use plastics are being phased out, new wildflower meadows will allow insect and bird life to flourish, and the club is working towards GEO certification, putting its environmental and social responsibility on a par with world-famous courses such as Gleneagles and St Andrews. 

Jason said: 

“We’ve got a stunning course, a fabulous clubhouse, and a range of affordable membership options.

“Whether you’re brand-new to the game or already smitten by it, the offer at Knaresborough Golf Club isn’t matched by any other club in the area.” 

Find out more:

If you’d like to try out Knaresborough Golf Club’s Winter Taster membership offer, or if you’re interested in annual membership options, visit the club’s website at www.knaresboroughgolfclub.co.uk or call 01423 862690.