Vodafone Pro Broadband x The Stray Ferret
This story is sponsored by Vodafone Pro Broadband.
What could be better than the fastest possible internet speed? Perhaps a free voucher as well as the fastest possible internet speed…
The Stray Ferret has teamed up with Vodafone to spread the word about its brand-new Pro Broadband connection. With a deal exclusive to the Stray Ferret, Vodafone are offering customers that sign up via our affiliate programme a free voucher in return.
Whether it’s Netflix buffering, your Zoom meeting glitching, or the PlayStation freezing mid-game, we’ve all been frustrated over poor broadband connection. Fear not, Vodafone Pro Broadband is here to answer the Harrogate district’s internet wishes.
Rather than using copper cables that slow down upload and download speeds, Vodafone use full fibre-optic cables every step of the way for connection, with download speeds of up to 900Mbps.
Loosely translated: your internet will be very fast.
What does it really mean?
Internet speed is integral to the day-to-day running of our society, but it can be a tricky thing to understand.
Broadband speed is measured in Mbps (megabits per second). The higher the Mbps, the faster your internet speed. The faster your internet speed, the more devices can be used at once under one roof.
How would this benefit me?
Maybe you’re a family with a smart TV, a gaming console and congested internet use. Maybe you’re working from home and looking for super speedy download connections; or perhaps you’re just wanting to rid your home of slow WIFI. No matter which one you are, Vodafone Pro Broadband could certainly help you.
Vodafone Pro Broadband uses full-fibre optic cables all the way to your house, with download speeds around 15 times faster than a copper cable connection — reaching a top speed of 910Mbps.
The stress of a slow internet speed will soon be a distant memory.
Availability
Vodafone Pro Broadband is already available to households across Harrogate and Knaresborough.
The full-fibre service will also be on offer to Ripon residents very soon.
Voucher Scheme
Stray Ferret readers can sign up using this link and will redeem a voucher up to £75 with either Amazon, M&S, Morrisons or The White Company.
Find out more:
Visit vodafone.co.uk/broadband/pro-ii to find out more about Vodafone’s Pro Broadband.
M&S to give ‘golden tickets’ to first 200 people at Oatlands foodhall tomorrowMarks & Spencer is to award ‘golden tickets’ to the first 200 customers at its Harrogate Oatlands foodhall tomorrow to mark the store’s official re-opening.
The foodhall on Leeds Road has undergone a major refurbishment and extension. It is now 60% bigger, and includes a bakery and wine shop — but the customer cafe is much smaller.
Although it is currently trading, tomorrow’s official reopening will see Percy Pig award golden tickets to the first shoppers at 9am. Each ticket guarantees a prize ranging from a free bag of sweets or cookies to a £200 voucher.
Store manager David Anderson said:
“We can’t wait until Tuesday morning when we can welcome customers through our doors.
“It’s been a busy few weeks behind the scenes working hard to put things together and we’re excited for everyone to see what the new store has to offer. Whether you’re looking for a quick lunch on the go or doing your big weekly shop – we’ve got you covered.”
The store, which employs 125 staff on Oatlands Retail Park, is open Monday to Saturday from 8am to 9pm and on Sunday from 10.30am to 4.30pm.
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Business Breakfast: Harrogate’s Christmas plans revealed this week
Harrogate Business Improvement District will be joined by representatives from Market Place Europe and Destination Harrogate to share plans for Christmas 2022 to businesses.
Last Christmas saw a change to previous years with the creation of the first Harrogate Christmas Fayre, in the town centre from December 3 to 12. Festivities included a free road train called the Candy Cane Express, a carousel, helter skelter and ferris wheel.
It followed Harrogate Borough Council’s decision to deny a licence to the former market organised by the Harrogate Christmas Market on Montpellier Hill.
The meeting this Thursday is at the Yorkshire Hotel’s Sky Bar at 5.30pm.
Matthew Chapman, Harrogate BID manager, said:
“At Thursday’s BID Club, we will be informing businesses what will be happening within the town centre this festive season.
“We will be joined by Destination Harrogate and Market Place Europe, who will update us on this year’s Christmas Fayre, including location and number of stalls.
“This meeting is open to all businesses within the BID area, and will be an opportunity for them to ask questions, and to find out how that can get involved with making Christmas 2022 a festive season to remember.”
To reserve a space email info@harrogatebid.co.uk..
M&S temporarily closes cafe at Harrogate Oatlands
How the food hall will look.
Marks and Spencer has temporarily closed its cafe at its Oatlands food hall in Harrogate.
The company planned to close the cafe for good as part of an expansion of its Leeds Road site, but decided to retain it after a customer petition.
But a smaller, new-look cafe will open when the expanded site is launched.
The rest of the food hall will continue to trade throughout with some areas blocked off while the work is underway.
Store manager David Anderson said:
“We’re delighted to confirm that as part of the upcoming extension and refresh of our Harrogate Oatlands store, customers will be able enjoy a new-look M&S cafe alongside a fresh-market style food hall, offering a bigger range of M&S food products than ever before.
“We expect to complete the works later this year and will keep the local community updated as they progress. We would also like to thank local residents around us for their ongoing support as we work to improve the store.”
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M&S café in Harrogate saved after U-turnMarks & Spencer has decided to retain a café at its Leeds Road food hall in Harrogate after previously saying it would close.
The company announced in December it planned to increase the size of its food hall at Oatlands by more than 70% and extend into the neighbouring Sofa.com retail unit.
It said the scheme would enable it to ‘deliver a bigger, better and fresher new-look food hall’ but that it would mean closing the in-store café.
How the Oatlands food hall will look.
The café is a popular meeting point and the news prompted a petition calling for it to be retained.
M&S has now confirmed to the Stray Ferret that its new look food hall will include a café.
The woman who organised the petition, who lives near the food hall but asked not to be named, said the manager of the store had contacted her to say the café would be retained but would be smaller. She said she understood it was likely to be similar in size to the new Pret shop in Harrogate town centre.
But she welcomed the decision to retain the café:
“I’m pleased. There isn’t a café like it in the area. It’s a place people go to meet friends, especially older people.
“I think they recognise the whole community uses it and a lot of people said they wouldn’t go there any more if it closed.”
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Thieves attempt break-in at Harrogate’s Marks & SpencerThieves attempted to break into the Harrogate Marks & Spencer store on Cambridge Street on Friday night.
It follows other town centre businesses reporting similar incidents to the police in recent months.
Burglars raided Browns jewellers in January, which is close to M&S on nearby Beulah Street.
Last week, the antiques shop 27 West Park was also targeted over night, but thieves left empty-handed after they failed to get in.
An M&S spokesperson said:
“We are supporting the police with their investigations into an attempted break-in at our Harrogate store on Friday night.”
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200 people sign petition to save Harrogate M&S cafeMore than 200 people have signed a petition opposing the closure of the cafe in Marks & Spencer‘s store on Leeds Road, Harrogate.
The company wants to increase the size of its food hall at Oatlands by more than 70% and extend into the neighbouring Sofa.com retail unit.
But the plans would also see the closure of the cafe, which is a popular meeting point.
The petition, sent to the Stray Ferret by one of the signatories, says:
“There is such strong feeling about the cafe. Your customers really appreciate the service and feeling of community there. The staff are also so kind and friendly.
“The customers see it as a wonderful meeting place, a resource which is convenient for shopping and a place for parents and children to meet up before and after school.
“The elderly and lonely also find friendship in the cafe. Plus the food and drink is excellent! I really hope you will read all the comments and reconsider closing the cafe.”
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The petition has also been sent to Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough.
If M&S’ plans are approved by Harrogate Borough Council, the expanded store will include an in-store bakery, wine shop, fill your own section to reduce waste and new decor throughout.
The retailer said in a statement:
“Our expansion plans at M&S Harrogate Oatlands are designed to deliver a bigger, better and fresher new-look food hall for shoppers and mark a significant investment in the local area.
“Whilst these plans involve closing the in-store café, they will allow us to transform the store to deliver the very best of M&S for our customers in Harrogate, with a bigger range of M&S food products than ever before.”
M&S gives sneak peek of expanded Harrogate Oatlands storeMarks & Spencer has given a sneak peek of how its Oatlands Foodhall on Leeds Road in Harrogate will look if plans to extend it are approved,
The company wants to increase the size of the food hall by more than 70% and extend into the Sofa.com retail unit next to the existing store.
The plans would also see the closure of the cafe, which prompted some disappointed regulars to consider setting up a petition to retain it.
M&S said the expansion was designed to deliver a “bigger, better and fresher experience” for shoppers and would involve a significant investment in the town.
Harrogate stores’ transformation one of the first in the country
The Leeds Road store will be one of the first in the country to be refreshed with this new-look M&S design. The features would include new fresh product displays and an in-store bakery.
The bakery would be open all day.
Work would take place in stages to allow customers to continue shopping at the store throughout redevelopment.
There would also be an expanded frozen food section, a wine shop and new decoration throughout the store.
A wine shop would be included in the store.
M&S has committed to cutting 1,000 tones of plastic from its business by March next year and halving food waste by 2030. With this in mind, the store would have a ‘fill your own’ section to reduce packaging.
Shoppers would bring their own reusable containers to fill with dried items, such as pasta, rice, cereals, nuts and other snacks.
The fill your own section would reduce plastic packaging and food waste.
There will be more checkouts, a mobile scan and shop option and new digital screens in store to make it quicker to process click and collect online orders.
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The Harrogate history of M&S
M&S first opened in Harrogate in December 1906 in the old Market Hall under its earlier name of Penny Bazaar.
The original Harrogate Penny Bazaar was replaced in May 1934 by a new Marks & Spencer store at 36 Cambridge Street.
It moved again in 1999 to its current location on Cambridge Street.
M&S regional manager Rona Hulbert said:
“We’re delighted to be celebrating our 115th anniversary in Harrogate this month. M&S has a long and proud history of serving local customers, dating all the way back to the days of the Penny Bazaars. I’m really excited that we’re looking forward to the future and continuing to invest in Harrogate.”
Petition mooted over Marks & Spencer plans to close Harrogate Oatlands cafeMarks & Spencer has submitted plans to expand its Simply Food store on Leeds Road, Harrogate and close the cafe.
M&S was granted planning permission to demolish a car showroom and build the store at Oatlands Retail Park in 2012.
It now plans to expand into the adjoining sofa.com unit.
The company actually had permission to occupy the sofa.com site in 2012 but did not want as much space then and chose to sub-divide the unit instead.
A planning document sent to Harrogate Borough Council by commercial real estate agents Avison Young (UK) on behalf of M&S reveals the retailer now plans to expand and ‘remove’ the cafe. It says:
“The current works to reverse the unit’s sub-division reflect changes in consumer demand for food products in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and a wider business strategy by M&S to invest in and expand its food retail offer.”
A Stray Ferret reader got in touch to say the potential loss of the cafe had not gone down well with customers and some were considering a petition calling on the company to reconsider.
An M&S spokesperson said:
“Our expansion plans at M&S Harrogate Oatlands are designed to deliver a bigger, better and fresher new-look food hall for shoppers and mark a significant investment in the local area.
“Whilst these plans involve closing the in-store café, they will allow us to transform the store to deliver the very best of M&S for our customers in Harrogate, with a bigger range of M&S food products than ever before.”
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Bid to open Lidl in Ripon wins support of city council
Plans for a Lidl supermarket in Ripon have won the support of the city council.
Council leader Andrew Williams described a planning application by the German supermarket chain as a ‘win, win, win, situation’.
He said:
“It will bring 40 new jobs, increase choice for Ripon’s residents and also serve our growing population, with the new homes that we have coming on stream.”
Cllr Williams was speaking at last week’s full city council meeting at which he and fellow members supported Lidl’s planning application.
Lidl will join M&S Food at St Michael’s Retail Park if its plans are approved.
Harrogate Borough Council will decide whether to accept Lidl’s application to open a 1,100 square metre store at the £10 million St Michael’s Retail Park.
But the backing of Ripon City Council suggests there is support locally for the plan.
The Rotary Way site, off the bypass, is already home to a Marks & Spencer Food outlet, which opened last July.
Ripon, with a population of 17,000-plus and growing, is well-served by supermarkets, with Aldi, Booths, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s also trading in the city.
Lidl put forward its Ripon proposal following an online consultation.
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Following the consultation, a spokesperson from Lidl GB said:
“Many people have welcomed the proposed Lidl store, which would bring competition, increasing choice and providing a boost to the local economy through job creation.
“Many also mentioned that a store on this site would reduce the need to travel out of the city to shop and therefore keep expenditure in Ripon.”
The supermarket has also submitted an application to open its first Harrogate store on the site of the former Lookers car dealership on Knaresborough Road.
Harrogate M&S faces complaints about non-essential salesHarrogate’s central Marks and Spencer store is facing complaints from residents and traders about its non-essential sales.
The store has closed off a large section of the store and the upper floor. But it still has some clothing, beauty and homeware on sale.
Parts of the menswear section is now on the Cambridge Street floor, which has traditionally been solely for womenswear.
The store only has parts of the store open which customers need to use to get down to the food section on the lower floor.
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This has been a national debate during the three lockdowns. Supermarkets can sell non-essential goods alongside food.
Welsh supermarkets came under scrutiny after some sectioned off parts they deemed non-essential, including women’s sanitary products.
Some residents and sole-traders believe it is unfair for any stores to sell non-essential goods while small independent stores cannot – especially a store in the town centre.
Local David Andrews wrote a letter to the chief executive of M&S and shared the letter with the Stray Ferret. He said:
“I believe this [is] contrary to the guidelines and has given [M&S] an unfair advantage over competitors.
“It was permitted to open because of the food hall on the lower ground floor, served by its primary access from Oxford Street.
“Why does M&S need to open the Cambridge Street entrance at all when the Oxford Street entrance accesses the food hall directly?
“One might say it wants to continue trading in clothes and this loophole about secondary access allows them to do so.”
A sole trader based in Harrogate, who wanted to remain anonymous, also told the Stray Ferret:
“Somebody must be able to as this is so unfair. I am sole trader and this inconsistency is driving me mad.
“Why can you not get them to follow the guidance which suits this store to a tee as it’s actually states non-essential floors should be closed.
“What’s the point of having guidance if it can’t be used. I’m sure it was written for a reason.”
M&S disputes any allegations that it is not following the rules. A spokesperson said in response:
“Our M&S Foodhalls remain open to provide our customers with the essential items they require during this time.
“In line with Government guidelines, we’ve closed our non-food floors except where they provide access to our Foodhalls.”