Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.
Woodfield’s school’s planned closure a sad reflection of times
Woodfield Community Primary School is going through a consultation process to close at the end of this year. There is to be a public meeting on Wednesday 15th June at 6pm at the school.
Woodfield is, as the name suggests, a community primary school which serves the local population. It has been extensively refurbished over the last few years, has a large playground and extensive playing fields, It has a community library and children’s centre at the same site.
Why then is it closing? This is, like many things, complex. It is to do with poor management by North Yorkshire County Council, inexperienced acting headteachers, social media, Harrogate parents exercising their ‘choice’ to go to the ‘better’ schools, and finally Ofsted rating the school in 2020 as ‘inadequate’.
The Ofsted rating was the death blow for Woodfield. It meant the school had to join an academy but no academy wanted to take it on, due to small pupil numbers, leaving the school in a catch- 22 situation.
There was no attempt to alter this situation by the education authorities, who could have stepped in at this point as far as I am aware. The school is now almost certain to close.
Many people do not know of the existence of Woodfield. Many people will not be bothered. It is not the school that the affluent of Harrogate send their children to, it was a good, caring school around the corner with teachers and teaching assistants that cared for the children, but didn’t get the best SATs results.
I think it is important sometimes to reflect on what do we really want for our children.
Vicky Lack, Bilton
Read more:
- Public meeting next week over future of Woodfield school
- ‘We just want to make a living’: Harrogate cabbies hit out at new rules
Trying to order a drive-through coffee without a car
Yesterday whilst walking past Costa Coffee in Pannal I decided to go for a coffee. The restaurant part was closed due to lack of staff.
Upon walking away I noticed that the drive-through was open so I decided to ask for a coffee at the drive-through whilst there were no cars queueing. I was informed that due to not being in the car I could not be able to get a coffee. How does that work ??
Needless to say, I accepted that I was not driving a car. My options would have been to pretend I was driving a car or jump in the next car and ask to be a passenger.
We live in a seriously mad world where common sense has gone totally out of the window.
Amanda Finney, Pannal
Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.
Stray Views: Harrogate fire service cuts will cause ‘safety blackspot’Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.
Cuts to fire service will cause ‘safety blackspot’
Harrogate with its many large and old hotels has the largest concentration of overnight accommodation in North Yorkshire.
With only one fire engine at the first attendance the crew have little chance of saving lives, let alone commencing to fight a fire.
These large rambling buildings are a tragedy waiting to happen with no turntable ladder at the first attendance. What has happened to the risk determining the attendance to all properties?
The police and fire commissioner and the chief officer can quote their 26% of fires during the night hours but that is when these hotels are most full of guests and also most at risk and quoting 26% as a reason to reduce to one engine at night only means that Harrogate as a conference centre will not cause sensible companies to want to come here. It will become a safety blackspot.
Brian Hicks, Pateley Bridge
Sun Pavilion Grade-II listing welcomed
The Civic Society welcome the addition of the Sun Pavilion and Colonnade and hope that additional funding may become available to restore the colonnade to its former glory – with glazed roofing and windows to the rear to provide a weather proof facility.
Of course, Valley Gardens are themselves Grade II as a listed Park and Garden.
Stuart Holland, Harrogate
Read more:
- Stray Views: Harrogate potholes ‘worse than Cairo’
- Stray Views: Harrogate Town FC should get a new stadium
New Harrogate Town stadium a good idea
I agree with Pat Marsh’s views on Harrogate Town. Good idea to speak to the council to see what could be done.
Although consultation with Harrogate Borough Council may be obsolete now, it may be necessary to consult with the new North Yorkshire Council I suppose.
Richard Blackshaw, Harrogate
Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.
Stray Views: Harrogate Town FC should get a new stadiumStray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.
A new stadium for Harrogate Town?
It is excellent news about Harrogate Town having £3.5m to improve their ground on Wetherby Road. Isn’t this just throwing good money into a bad issue. The ground cannot expand, has no parking and few facilities for visiting fans.
The solution is not good money after bad it is about thinking much more strategically. Why don’t Harrogate Town talk to Harrogate Borough Council and instead of leasing land on Wetherby Road ask to look at leasing Council Land on Leeds Road between Harrogate and Pannal to build themselves a stadium to be proud of and fit for purpose and would be amazing if more success comes their way.
There could be on site parking and not just using Residential streets around the ground as a car park. There is nowhere for coaches to park for visiting fans. The site is sustainable being served by a very regular bus service, the 36, and also being close to Pannal Station. It would be a win, win for everyone.
Then to add to those wins the council could give the Harrogate Town site to the hospital for car parking for their staff, again removing hospital parking from many, many roads and making it safer for staff especially on night shifts.
I would be happy to meet with the football club to discuss this and to hear other peoples views.
Cllr Pat Marsh, leader of the Liberal Democrats on Harrogate Borough Council
Read more:
- Stray Views: Harrogate potholes ‘worse than Cairo’
- Stray Views: Boris Johnson has paid the fine – it’s time to move on
36 route should include railway station
It would be useful if the 36 included the railway station in its peregrinations in Leeds even if there is a double stop at the bus station, otherwise there is an off putting hike in between.
As a postscript, back in the pre-Beeching days the 36 used to visit the Ripon Railway station between stops at the bus station. Just goes to show not much is new.
Trevor Dale, Harrogate
Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.
Stray Views: Harrogate potholes ‘worse than Cairo’Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.
Harrogate’s potholes worse than Cairo
Might I suggest that North Yorkshire County Council either furthers its skills in excavation or takes classes in road repairs.
I return from Cairo, Egypt regularly to visit my home town and many of the roads are a disgrace. St Mark’s Avenue, to name but one. I dare say many are in far worse states than the roads here in Egypt, and ours are bad.
I have watched St Mark’s Ave become like a major dig for some Harrogate archaeological treasure.
Please direct money, repairing many of the roads, to keep cars from becoming premature jalopies and saving the elderly from accidents who will then need emergency repairs, while crossing treacherous roads.
Harrogate should be beautiful and well kept, everywhere.
Janice Walker, Heliopolis, Cairo
Read more:
- Stray Views: Turnout for this week’s local election ‘disgusting’
- Stray Views: Boris Johnson has paid the fine – it’s time to move on
Harrogate needs flexible travel choices
I write this as someone who visits old friends in Harrogate regularly, with a flexible approach to travel choices, since I might ‘step off a train’ at Skipton, Kirkstall Forge, York or Leeds, and then get a bus, train or cycle (there’s a neat connection option Headingly-Kirkstall Forge this way – less good uphill though).
So to hear the rumblings about loss of late and early trains with Northern makes me wish that there was scope for a formal deal with the 36 and Transdev’s Harrogate Buses. As a more flexible traveller, I’ve done this mix & match a few times, when an event in Leeds ended in the evening ‘hole’ in the train service, or after the last train.
So Alex, (boss at Starbeck) how might the deal work, no handy train, eg with a through ticket for an early Leeds-London service or similar, then show your rail ticket and pay £1 to use the 36? Some might even switch for more trips?
Of course the deal might work even better with a public bike hire scheme in Leeds and Harrogate – less than five minutes on a bike gets you from Leeds Bus Station to Leeds City Rail Station, and two-wheels in Harrogate on a bad day is practically immune to traffic jams, or allows me to cut over from Bilton to Starbeck with the ‘short cut’ to catch a train for York (and its cheaper too with fares pricing).
From a bike you’d be shocked at what you’ll see drivers doing as you ride past – I saw an estate agent doing paperwork on a clip board balanced on the steering wheel as she slowly drove along in the queue and mobile phone use is as bad as it ever was, despite the more severe penalties
So instead of Northern also having the expense of running a separate bus (or several?) for those trains, work with the local bus service, and perhaps an eight-seater to deal with stations just too far away from the bus route (perhaps Pannal-Headingley?) and the smaller number of passengers for those connections?
I last owned a car 46 years ago, but for nearly five years have been able to drive a near-new electric car whenever I need to, but in that time my total spending on ‘motoring’ has been less than £200, and the wide choice of other options isn’t coloured by that ton or two of 4-wheeled indulgence that I’m paying for 24/7, but the surveys show sits idle for over 22 hours in every 24, easily costing £12-£20 per day in finance, insurance, servicing, depreciation.
Many poorer households have worked out that it’s cheaper to get a taxi to get home with their weekly shopping, and use buses (less than £2 per day unlimited travel with a bus pass) where they have worked out exactly how to get around with. Its an even better deal once you’re old enough for a bus pass, and drive a lot less.
Dave Holladay, Glasgow
Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.
Stray Views: Boris Johnson has paid the fine – it’s time to move onStray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.
Boris Johnson fine: get over it
Ask those complaining about the Prime Minister who they voted for. Give him a break; he’s had to deal with Brexit, a covid pandemic plus having covid himself.
There are many families who aren’t with loved ones when they die; I wasn’t with my son when he drowned.
Do these people not consider that there are more important things to deal with now? It’s done, he’s apologised and paid the fine, get over it.
Susan Mitchell, Harrogate
What has Nigel Adams done as MP?
Nigel Adams, the Conservative MP for Selby and Ainsty, has announced he will be standing down at the next election, so possibly not until 2024. To quote his own website, this is what he is supposed to do: “…to represent the interests and concerns of all the people who live in their constituency, whether they voted for them at the General Election or not”.
Yet this MP does nothing and represents no one unless it be himself or to benefit himself. His senior parliamentary secretary must have a difficult job – they reply to almost all the letters I have ever sent, either having to defend the indefensible on his behalf e.g the Owen Paterson issue or they are generic responses that miss the points being made.
Yet Mr Adams has accepted well over £30,000 from a former Kremlin-related oligarch, Alexander Temerko (previously associated with the arms trade in Russia and who, according to Catherine Belton, author of Putin’s People, has praised senior members of the Russian security establishment, including the Russian security council chief Nikolai Patrushev).
Read more:
- Harrogate district MP Nigel Adams to step down at next election
- Harrogate district MPs silent on Boris Johnson’s future
- Private hospital introduces GP services in Harrogate
What due diligence was done to establish the money was ‘clean’? He has also accepted £11,350 from Sanjeev Gupta, who had links with Greensill Capital, the company which collapsed in March 2021 and has been at the centre of a financial and political scandal.
His Twitter account consists mostly of re-Tweets but he has also happily accepted thousands of pounds of hospitality from gaming and betting organisations to attend the football Euros during the pandemic – then tweeted about it. Yet he has remained silent on any of the many substantive, ethical issues which have occurred under the Johnson government, including even Partygate.
Hansard records show that he almost never mentions any of his own, specific constituents’ problems or issues (merely using the word ‘constituents’ in general) and the Stray Ferret itself has shown month after month in its MPs Watch articles just how little trace there is of what exactly this MP does. A particularly memorable note was made that in July 2021, Nigel Adams tweeted that a dog had visited his office.
What a difficult life.
He should go now so his constituents can have a by-election. Why should the public purse continue to finance this ‘career’ until the next election?
Friedy Luther, Spofforth
Government ‘prioritises self-indulgence over social responsibility’ with covid
Three weeks ago, I left these shores for the first time since 2019: a three-day visit to Madrid. Covid was still rife, but few people inside the terminal at Leeds-Bradford were wearing masks in spite of the signs.
On the plane, however, masks were mandatory except when refreshments were served. They were much in evidence during transfer at Schipol airport and then at Adolfo Suárez. On the metro to Madrid centre, everyone wore masks and did their best to leave free seats between passengers. Madrid was buzzing, but on the wide streets, well over half of the people were masked, a higher number still in crowded areas.
In the bars and restaurants, customers scrupulously replaced their face coverings when moving around the establishment. In the hotel lift, signs urged guests not to mix households when using them. At my appointments, masks were worn even during business. I found this eminently sensible and reassuring, under the circumstances. The complaints and worries I heard were not about restrictions but about non-compliance and what might happen when guidelines were relaxed.
Back in England 15 days later, having dodged covid since the start of the pandemic, I tested positive. The next day my partner did, and six days later, my younger daughter. That, I suspect, is what happens when, under the pretext of returning to ‘normal’ and unshackling the economy, a government prioritises the right to self-indulgence over social responsibility.
Glyn Hambrook, Harrogate
Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.
Stray Views: Andrew Jones MP should communicate betterStray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.
Our ‘sunshine politician’ should update us more
I notice on Andrew Jones MP’s website that as of the March 25, the News and Campaigns section was last updated on January 19 with a criticism of the behaviour of the Prime Minister.
Since then, we have had the ‘Russian cash for something’ the Conservative Party has welcomed from oligarchs connected to Putin. Also, the arrival of Russian troops in the Ukraine carrying out an attack on a country and risking the possibility of world war. Not to mention the murderous bombing and shelling of civilians.
As the Conservative Party has the funds to cover MPs’ expenses, why would this website not be covering such important issues that should be reported to constituents by every means possible?
The definition of a sunshine politician is here clear to see.
Andrew Williams, Harrogate
Read more:
- Andrew Jones MP urges Northern to ‘rethink’ cuts to Harrogate trains
- Fire dancers and art installations take over Harrogate’s Valley Gardens
Shops should close their doors to preserve heat
I’m amazed by the number of shop doors open and heating on full blast in the shops. Some particular promoting their green policies but letting expensive heat out of the door.
Rachel Rawlings, Harrogate
Thanks to my lovely helpers
Please would you convey my grateful thanks to all the people who came to my aid when I had an accident in Springfield Avenue on a recent Friday. It’s heartwarming to know there are such lovely people around. I am recovering well.
Joy Garratt, Harrogate
Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.
Stray Views: More houses in Harrogate district should mean lower council taxStray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.
New houses should mean lower council tax
Not only do we have thousands of new houses in the district but 1,700 extra have been built! I cannot, therefore, understand why our council tax is going up rather than coming down!
I would assume a surfeit, especially with so many being in the higher bands.
Janet Palmer, Knaresborough
Why are roads constantly being dug up?
Leadhall Lane in Harrogate has been a shambles of a road for many years, with deep potholes causing hazards for motorists and cyclists.
At the same time, numerous gas leaks have been excavated and repaired, to the cost of Northern Gas Networks and the exceptional inconvenience of local road users.
The potholes caused considerable crashes and bangs into the road from school buses and lorries. Hurrah! It was relaid in 2021.
Yesterday there was a gas stink in Leadhall Lane. Today there is a big hole in Leadhall Lane. Northern Gas Networks is digging it up again.
Why do we have to suffer this continual under-performance from the council in relation to controlling the actions of privatised utility companies? Are they incompetent or not?
David Graham, Harrogate
Read more:
- £72 rise in Harrogate district council tax bills set to be confirmed
- Swift action to tackle Sharow’s pothole plight
- Woman visiting daughter’s grave issues dog fouling plea
Stray Ferret penalised for reporting facts
It comes as no surprise that your reporter was refused access to Ripon’s new pool when other media was allowed.
You are being penalised for reporting the real facts about the farcical events surrounding the pool and its build not forgetting the extra money we gave the construction firm.
Myself and thousands of others applaud you The Stray Ferret for all your news articles released to us.
Maranda Harling, Ripon
Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.
Stray Views: Dog mess in Harrogate cemeteries ‘a wider problem’
Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.
Response to Knox Lane housing
Regarding the joint response by Spawforths and Jomast to your article on a proposed housing development on Knox Lane in Bilton.
The consultation by Harrogate Borough Council was held in 2017 for all additional sites proposed for inclusion in the Local Plan. The site in question (H2) was subsequently reduced in size prior to inclusion.
Steve Hesmondalgh & Associates held two consultations in 2018. The first was held on February 15 during half term with little notice given to residents. The second held March 22 was a result of complaints by residents who were unaware or unable to attend due to the short notice given for the first. The consultations were held on behalf of Wakefield and District Housing Association who wished to build 73 (100%) affordable homes on the whole site, including that which had been removed. A planning application was not submitted at that time.
A pre-application meeting was held between Jomast and HBC on the September 30, 2019. Apparently due to covid and the uncertainty to the length of any lockdown, the scheme having already been consulted on and the site now an allocation in the Local Plan, it was considered appropriate to submit the application rather than delay until meaningful consultation could be carried out at an underdetermined time in the future.
In April 2020 an application for 73 homes was submitted. The country was at that time in lockdown. It included some private homes due to HBC not wanting 100% affordable but still left 86% affordable. 23 (100%) of affordable homes were on the unallocated land. Hardly a mixed community with only 10 of the properties of the homes on the allocated land being open market. A revised application has now been proposed for 53 homes on the land with the number of affordable reduced to 56%.
HBC should keep to their agreed policy of 40% affordable homes, which is not only significantly higher than the NPPF 10% guideline but is applied consistently across all sites. It was what our elected representative voted for when they approved the Local Plan.
Local residents rightly still have some concerns. The transport assessment for the site was carried out by interrogation of the TRICS database using the assumption 75% of the homes would be affordable/local authority tenure. The number of residents vehicles was assessed at 30 which would disperse between Ripley Drive and Crab Lane and therefore the impact on the wider network would be negligible in practice.
I doubt in reality the number would be so low nor does it take into consideration the adjacent H69 site which the developer of H2 has to provide access to. The images below highlight congestion problems on Crab Lane.
There is an impact on local wildlife including protected species, nett loss of biodiversity since gardens do not count and could in the future be paved, also mature woodland trees.
According to the Landscape and Visual Impact Statement submitted by the developer with the original application, some homes in close proximity to the site will experience major negative visual intrusion during the construction phase, year 1 of the development and in the long term after 10 years. The numbers of homes affected may reduce slightly due to the revised application but are still disproportionate to the number of homes to be built.
HBC currently does not have a problem meeting the Government’s Housing Delivery Test.
2016 – 2019 1,641 homes, 155% of 1058 required Published 13 February 2020
2018 – 2020 2,355 homes, 229% of 1026 required Published 19 January 2021
2018 – 2021 2,628 homes 266% of 987 required Published 14 January 2022
Harrogate Borough Council has according to their latest report published in April 2021 a land supply of 7.42 years.
Catherine Alderson, Knox Lane
Read more:
- Residents say 53 homes at Knox Lane will ‘decimate’ idyllic scene
- Nursery rises from the ashes of Smarties in Ripley
‘The Prime Minister should have resigned weeks ago’
I couldn’t agree more with Paul Baverstock’s recent article on the disgraceful behaviour of the Prime Minister and his Conservative Party. Boris should have resigned weeks ago and to add insult to injury I understand he will not be completing truthfully the Metropolitan Police survey into parties etc at No 10. This should come as no surprise but just adds to the appalling situation.
I have voted Tory all my life but won’t be at the next general election.
Andrew Jones should show some commitment to his constituants by calling for a vote of no confidence in the PM.
It is an absolute shambles.
Judy Rowson, Harrogate
Dog mess in cemeteries a wider problem
I was shocked to see your piece about the amount of dog fouling at Grove Road cemetery. Today I visited my parents cremation plaques at Stonefall and found the wreath had dog dirt over part of it and around it. This is both upsetting and shocking that people do not respect the cemeteries. This is obviously a wider problem than just one cemetery.
Patricia Chapman, Harrogate
Stray Views: It’s time Killinghall had a bypassStray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.
It’s time Killinghall had a bypass
It’s time Killinghall had a bypass. We live in Killinghall on the A62. The noise/air pollution/risk to life and limb on this road is now a serious problem.
Lives and health are worth more than minimal loss of green space. The planners have allowed thousands of new builds in this village, using up suitable routes and causing additional congestion to the already heavy commercial traffic on the A61, without making any provision.
John Hirst, Killinghall
Another historic Harrogate tunnel
Thought the Brunswick Tunnel story was very interesting. I don’t know if you are aware there is a tunnel on Knox Lane. Harrogate. It was the Old Gasworks Line Bilton to New Park, the old abandoned railway embankment is in the opposite field.
Susan Wrightson, Harrogate
‘Horrific’ walk in Ripon
What a horrific walk in Ripon. ten dog mess, three trolleys, six road signs and two open bags of rubbish. Ripon councillors and the mayor should be held to account. That’s just 100 yards of river walk and Ripon should be ashamed.
I lived in Ripon all my life when I was small and love fishing on the River Skell. However today’s visit really shocked me the full length of the river from Williamson’s bridge to Fisher Green is a disgrace to everybody that lives in Ripon. I am contacting Harrogate Borough Council, the dog wardens need to film and fine heavily. It is a disgrace to think tourists would come to Ripon and leave with those images in their mind.
Paul Taylor, Ripon
Read more:
- Stray Views: Doubts remain about Harrogate Station Gateway
- Stray Views: Harrogate Tesco would be ‘horrendous’ for nearby residents
Can you help reunite a family with a long-lost relative?
We’re hoping that your readers can help us trace a long-lost relative as part of our increasingly complex task of reuniting descendants of 8 brothers born in Aberdeen just over a century ago.
What started as a favour to my mother-in-law during lockdown to help rediscover her Scottish family has included the formation of a private Facebook group where members can share and exchange all sorts of information, and this is helping to gradually fill in the many gaps.
One of these unknowns is Fred Smollet – one of my mother-in-law’s cousins – who would be around 74 years old, and whose last known address and contact details – although proven to be now out-of-date – show that he lived in Franklin Mount, Harrogate in the 2000s.
Fred lost his mother at a young age and spent a lot of time with his uncle Lewie and aunt Maisie, and his cousins Alistair (sadly no longer with us) and Ronnie (who recalls smoking together as teenagers).
Our research, primarily carried out using the resources accessible via the Ancestry and ScotlandsPeople websites, indicates that Fred married his first wife Catherine in the Claro area of the Yorkshire West Riding in 1968, and subsequently emigrated Down Under.
Reaching out to Facebook members with the Smollet surname has recently unearthed Fred’s two daughters, who were born, and still reside, in Australia. They have said to us that they would understand if he didn’t want to make contact, however if they knew that he was alive and well at the very least then that would be OK.
Fred, Catherine, Jackie and Jane returned to the UK in the late 1980s, but by the early 1990s they had divorced, with Catherine and the two girls returning to Australia, where she passed away in 2020.
Fred remained in the UK and later married, but then separated from, his second wife Patricia in the early 2000s.
The photo (above), taken at my mother-in-law’s grandfather’s funeral wake in Aberdeen in 1966, shows the eight Smollet brothers with their recently widowed mother Barbara.
Back Row (left to right): Fred (Senior, Fred’s father), Jock, Lewie, Jim (my mother-in-law’s father) and Doug; Middle Row (left to right): Dod, Don and Bill.
Fred’s father, also called Fred, lived for some time in Knaresborough, and passed away in the early 1980s, so there are apparently no family members in that branch of the tree other than Fred – hence this appeal for information!
We are happy to act as intermediaries if he doesn’t wish to have direct contact with his daughters.
Lee Everitt, Southampton
Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.
Stray Views: Harrogate’s John Shackleton deserves an honourStray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.
John Shackleton deserves an honour
I’ve just watched John Shackleton’s interview on BBC feature stories. I know him from St. Robert’s Church in Harrogate, he’s a dear friend and a great supporter of the youth.
I think what he’s done over these years is remarkable and extraordinary. He has served not only our local community but also our European neighbours especially those in need.
John is an amazing person who has touched and changed so many lives and it’s time he is recognised for his bravery, selflessness, generosity and service. I would like to make an appeal to nominate him for the Queen’s honours.
I tried to apply online but I wasn’t very successful. He deserves the gratitude not just from us but from the world. If we are all a little bit like John, the world would be a much better place to live.
Joy O’Brien, Harrogate
Objections to proposed mosque
We live very close to the proposed development and have canvassed our neighbours, none of whom have received one piece of paper through our letterboxes opposing this development. I should also point out there has not been one piece of publicity supporting this development.
No one who lives near this development supports it, but the reasons for this are not based on race or religion. This development is surrounded by residential properties and a primary school on three sides then joined to a retail premises on the fourth, all of which have to cope with horrendous traffic and pollution as it is.
Traffic from two hotels, two pubs, a 24 hour gym, a primary school, the Alms houses and a church already pass our doors at all hours of the day and night.
Does anyone really think adding to this with a community building that opens 24 hours, catering for up to 200 people a day together with the attendant traffic will in some way improve the quality of life and air pollution and congestion in this small area of Harrogate?
I also note that of those who support this plan, not one of them lives in the area so would not be affected by it.
Brian Preston, Harrogate
Read more:
- Stray Views: Doubts remain about Harrogate Station Gateway
- Stray Views: Harrogate Tesco would be ‘horrendous’ for nearby residents
Influencer post has more channels
Commenting on your council influencer story. Facebook is not the influencer’s primary channel. A two-minute tally of Instagram shows 300 likes for her Harrogate post series (eight posts) and 5,000 video views across two Harrogate/ North Yorks videos.
I’m not suggesting that is good value (at 7p per like or view on insta) or that the council’s mico-influencer strategy is correct, but I normally find the Stray Ferret a lot more accurate and feel that’s really important when reporting on public spending.
If we slate every penny the council spends, when they really misspend the public’s ears will be closed to it and we only really have the Stray Ferret to shine a light on this matters.
Kate Garrett, Harrogate
Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.