Two police community support officers were left seriously injured following an attack in McDonald’s in Harrogate.

North Yorkshire Police is appealing for witnesses and mobile phone footage of the incident which took place at around 7pm on Friday evening on Cambridge Road.

Three girls, aged 13, 14 and 15-years-old, have been arrested in connection with the attack and remain in custody for questioning.

The officers attended the McDonald’s after reports that the girls had entered the restaurant despite being banned due to anti-social behaviour earlier in the evening.

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The group refused to leave when asked by officers and an altercation took place.

One of the PCSOs suffered a suspected broken nose and the other had tissue damage to the cheek. Both remain in hospital for treatment for their injuries.

Neighbourhood Delivery Inspector Phoebe Southall said:

“No one deserves to go to work and be assaulted, especially as they work to protect the public and keep our communities safe. It is not just ‘part of the job’ and we will investigate any incidents of violence towards our staff thoroughly.

“We would urge anyone who either witnessed the attack or has any information or mobile phone footage that may have captured something to please get in touch.”

Anyone with any information should contact police on 101 or investigationhubcounty@northyorkshire.police.uk and quote reference number 12220055279.

Two men have appeared in court to face charges after a fight outside McDonald’s in Harrogate town centre.

Joshua Archer, 18, of Kingsley Close, Harrogate, and Tyler Rushton, 19, of Century Walk, Harrogate, are charged with affray and inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent against a man.

The alleged offences occurred outside the McDonald’s on Cambridge Road, on September 18 last year.

The two men appeared before Harrogate Magistrates Court yesterday to confirm their names and ages.

Neither man indicated a plea before the magistrates.

Mr Archer and Mr Rushton will appear before York Crown Court on April 19 where the case will continue.

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McDonald’s in Harrogate has applied for outdoor seating and tables ahead of hospitality reopening on Monday.

The restaurant on Cambridge Road wants to place seven tables and 28 chairs, plus parasols, outside its premises.

An application for the licence has been submitted to Harrogate Borough Council and a consultation period on the proposal will end on Tuesday.

McDonald’s franchises across the country have applied for similar licences to allow customers to sit outside.

Yesterday, Scarborough Borough Council approved a similar proposal submitted by the restaurant for premises in Huntriss Row, Scarborough.

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From Monday, bars and restaurants will be able to serve customers outside as part of further easing of lockdown restrictions.

Several Harrogate bars and cafes have applied to serve customers on pavements outside their venues when they re-open on April 12.

Gron Kafe, Hidden Bar Harrogate and Cold Bath Brewing Co are among those to have applied to the council for pavement licences.

Government legislation last year made it easier to get pavement licences, as part of moves to stimulate the economy after covid.

Planning permission is temporarily waived for the licences and the process is sped up to limit the waiting times for those applying.

Police have fined two men from Hull for breaching covid restrictions after they travelled to Knaresborough for a McDonald’s.

Officers from North Yorkshire Police said they spotted the men’s car at St James Retail Park at 12.45am on Monday.

The men told police they were out for a drive to get a meal from McDonald’s.

The restaurant is 66 miles from Hessle in Hull where they drove from.

Both were issued with fixed penalty notices for being outside place of living.

Police handed out 102 fines in North Yorkshire for breaching lockdown restrictions in the past week — 12 of them were in Harrogate.

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It takes the total number of fixed penalty notices issued during the third lockdown in North Yorkshire to 1,662.

Superintendent Mike Walker, who leads the county’s covid response, said it was important there was “no let up” in complying with restrictions over the forthcoming four-day Easter weekend.

He said:

“Together with our partner agencies and the people of York and North Yorkshire, it is imperative that we maintain the collective effort to reduce the infection rate as low as possible while the vaccination programme is rolled-out across the population.

“We can all see that better times are on the horizon, that’s why we must keep going and not allow all the hard work and sacrifice to be undone through complacency.”

The McDonald’s restaurant in Ripon reopened its dine-in facility today with new safety measures in place.

The restaurant has introduced a limited customer capacity to avoid congestion inside. Customers are also expected to use hand sanitiser and follow any further measures the restaurant puts in place.

Customers can now order food directly to the table from an app or continue to use tills and kiosks. Food will be served using table-service only.

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Track and trace systems are also in place. Customers eating in will have to leave their contact details using their smartphone. If they visit in group, the lead member will have to leave their details plus the number of people dining together.

Measures that were previously in place, including perspex screens and reduced numbers of staff on shifts, will remain.

The McDonalds drive-thrus in Knaresborough and Ripon re-opened today to queues of customers.

During the pandemic, the restaurant chain had to close its doors but with safety measures in place it believes they can now safely operate the drive-thru’s.

There will be fewer staff on each shift to allow for social distancing. A limited menu and a capped spend of £25 have also been implemented.

In Knaresborough the customers queues saw up to 25 cars waiting to collect the food they had been missing for almost three months. Each car was stopped by a member of staff at the entrance and showed a leaflet of safety instructions.

Cars queued from the roundabout on St James retail park to be some of the first to eat at the restaurant since lockdown.

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At the Ripon restaurant, the first in the queue were Matthew Jones and Georgia Coates, who live in Ripon and are regulars at the restaurant.

Matthew told The Stray Ferret:

“We were gutted when it closed, but it’s all good now.”

Throughout the day, a steady flow of cars came in from the Ripon bypass roundabout, marshalled into the drive through queue by two McDonald’s staff.

Franchisee Matthew Midwood said:

“We have been liaising for some time with North Yorkshire Police and they have been marvellous, helping us to put a traffic management plan in place. We anticipate being busy and want to avoid vehicles backing up to the roundabout. The takeaway side of our operation could have stayed open, but we took the decision as a business to close on 23rd March, for the safety and wellbeing of staff.”

Staff who have been furloughed during the temporary closure, will gradually return, as the government lockdown restrictions ease further and when restaurants are able to open their doors to eat in customers once more.