A butcher that provides meat and poultry to restaurants, cafes and homes across the Harrogate district has appointed its first resident consultant chef.

Greg Lewis will help Wetherby-based Sykes House Farm develop products and build and run a new demo kitchen on site.

Rachael Hirst, who runs the third-generation family business with her brother Robert Smith, said:

“We are delighted to have Greg on board and are extremely excited for our future plans with him.”

Mr Lewis began his career as a bakery assistant in New Zealand, then progressed onto cooking for athletes at the Sydney Olympics. He then moved to the UK and worked under Jeff Baker at Pool Court, Leeds, which was England’s only inner-city Michelin starred restaurant outside of London at the time.

Estate agent makes series of appointments

Georgie Williams

Estate agent Dacre, Son & Hartley has made a series of appointments and promotions across its North Yorkshire offices.

Georgie Williams has been promoted to branch manager in the Wetherby office, where she will lead the team selling homes throughout the town and surrounding areas including Boston Spa, Collingham, Tadcaster, Spofforth, Sicklinghall, Bramham, Harewood, Scarcroft and Kirk Deighton.

Alison Reilly from Dacres’ Pateley Bridge office and Dan Rice from the Ripon office have both been promoted to sales managers. Reilly has worked at Dacres for almost 19 years and Rice joined in 2018.

In the company’s Harrogate office, Alex Jackson and James Curtis-Bean have been appointed as sales negotiators. The pair will work alongside the team’s branch manager Sophie Tillisch.

The North Yorkshire teams are led by area director Paul Baxter. He said:

“These promotions and appointments will enhance the standard of service that our clients enjoy, and further strengthen our Wetherby, Harrogate, Ripon and Pateley Bridge offices.”

Harrogate IT firm acquires company

Harrogate IT firm Redcentric has acquired a provider of security testing, incident response management and consultancy services.

7 Elements works with customers to assess security threats, identify weaknesses and provide tailored support.

The company, which has operations in Edinburgh and Leicester, has an annual revenue of about £1m.

Following the acquisition, it will continue to operate as a standalone business and will be led by its former owner, David Stubley, who established the company in 2010.

Redcentric paid £1.95m in cash, which could rise to £2.4m based on the future performance of the business over the next 13 months.

Chief executive Peter Brotherton said:

“I am delighted to welcome 7 Elements into the Redcentric family. The addition of its services to Redcentric’s existing DDOS, SIEM, managed WAF and information security consultancy services means we are now able to offer a complete portfolio of security services to our customers.”

Knaresborough medical manufacturer appoints new chief executive

Neo G, which makes medical-grade orthopaedic supports, has appointed a new chief executive.

Dan Jones (pictured above) will take over the role from founder Paul Starkey, who will become the company’s chairman.

Mr Jones was previously its commercial director and has helped Neo G to become a leading UK manufacturer in the UK of orthopaedic supports, holding contracts with Boots, Tesco, Walgreens and CVS.

The company is based at Knaresborough Technology Centre on Manse Lane.

Mr Starkey said:

“Dan has demonstrated his commitment to Neo G and our Medical Grade strategy. Over the last seven years, he has helped define and establish the company as the number one brand in the UK, and the fastest growing brand in the US.

“I am very proud of the way he has grown in the company and adopted the Neo G mantra as his own. I know he will take Neo G to new heights, and I will do everything I can as the chairman to support all of his and the teams’ efforts.”

Knaresborough digital agency appoints new co-director

Sophie Sanders

Eden Agency appoints co-director

Knaresborough-based Eden Agency has appointed Sophie Sanders as its new co-director.

The 29-year-old has worked at the agency since 2014 and was previously head of client services.

The agency is an ISO 27001-certified digital agency that specialises in UX design, web and mobile development.

Talking about her appointment, Ms Sanders said:

“I’m proud, as a woman in tech, to be given the opportunity to run a digital agency with Andy and I can’t wait to help deliver results to our clients and to help our team grow.”

Managing director Andy Litherland said:

“I have been very fortunate to work with Sophie over the last eight years. Her enthusiasm and passion for Eden Agency is infectious and I’m looking forward to seeing her drive the company forward in the future.”

Crimple adds afternoon tea to the menu

Crimple has launched an afternoon tea offering in time for Mother’s Day this month,

The new addition has been curated by executive chef Tim Kitchen and includes Vichyssoise soup, truffled cream cheese, chive and cucumber sandwiches, blackberry, tarragon and honey pavlovas, and of course scones.

Mr Kitchen said:

“Sticking to the Crimple brand ethos, my mission is to use local wherever possible and this menu reflects that.”

The restaurant and garden centre opened in November after a £6 million refurbishment.

A multi-million pound project to upgrade junction 47 on the A1(M) at Flaxby will be completed by the end of this month.

Work began at the start of September 2020 to widen slip roads and install traffic lights to prevent vehicles queueing.

The project, carried out by contractors Farrans Construction on behalf of North Yorkshire County Council, also involves upgrading the road network just off the junction.

Work was originally due to be completed in September 2021 but has encountered several delays. The council blamed ‘unforeseen ground conditions’ and the discovery of great crested newts for setting the project back.

Final repair works on the A168 bridge and verges along with resurfacing of the A59 will run from March 14 to 26 under overnight weekday closures.

Read more:

• Police investigate serious crash on Cold Bath Road
• 23 trees in Knaresborough to be felled this week for new leisure centre

Once the traffic signals are installed there will be a period where the signal timings are adjusted by engineers to the optimum settings for traffic flow conditions. This may result in some extra delays during March and April.

Conservative councillor Andy Paraskos, member for the Ainsty division, added:

“The upcoming works will involve repairs, resurfacing as well as the installation of road markings and traffic loops. For the safety of our workforce this must be carried out under a full road closure and we apologise in advance for any inconvenience this essential work may cause.

Conservative county councillor Don Mackenzie, executive member for access, said:

“The finish line is in sight for this important scheme which will support the future growth of the Harrogate and Knaresborough areas.

“The scheme promises to reduce congestion and improve road safety at this major junction. It is a great example of how we are delivering on our aim to improve east-west connections across North Yorkshire.”

Rising costs

The council initially earmarked £7.7m for the project, but it said last year it now expected it to cost over £10m.

The project is being funded by the council, with £2.47m from the government’s Local Growth Fund along with contributions from Highways England and developer Forward Investment LLP.

The Stray Ferret has asked the council for the current cost of the project but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

The Stray Ferret today marks its first anniversary, celebrating rapid growth in the last 12 months.

The website launched earlier than planned to cover the covid crisis as it unfolded last March, in the weeks before the first lockdown began.

In the last year, we have published more than 3,000 stories, had more than five million page views and attracted 12,000 social media followers.

The site has focused on delivering valuable news for the community during the pandemic, from keeping track of the daily covid figures to telling the stories of those doing their best to keep everyone smiling in the toughest of times, such as last year’s VE Day celebrations. Free jobs listings for the district and an index of businesses have also been added as we play our part in helping the local economy to survive.

After one of the most difficult years anyone in the Harrogate district can remember, we will also be ensuring those who have been lost in the last year are not forgotten. Our series of tributes to lost loved ones begins next week.

Meanwhile, we have also carried out in-depth investigations into how public money is spent.

We published a series of articles on the decision-making behind Harrogate Borough Council’s move to its new civic centre, showing that the failure to take into account the high value of the land at Knapping Mount when presenting the figures to the public.

We also investigated how the council’s failure to produce an acceptable local plan left the district open to predatory developers seeking opportunities to build homes for profit, rather than to meet local need.

Our journalists have broken exclusive stories, such as the hotelier who held a New Year’s Eve party in breach of covid lockdown rules and police investigations into allegations of fraud at a company where a Harrogate councillor and MP’s case worker was a “person of significant control”.

We began publishing with a small team of journalists in March 2020. Since then, the news team has grown to seven, along with four commercial staff and a content producer.

Tamsin O’Brien, owner of the Stray Ferret and former head of BBC Yorkshire, said the news team has aimed to cover the issues that people locally care about:

“Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our stories, read us and followed us on social media.  We know that there is a real demand for high quality, local digital news content. 

We have really tried to cover every aspect of how covid has impacted lives and investigated the issues that matter to people. We live in a time of great change and people locally want to engage in those issues and have a voice. 

“We are frequently asked to look into matters concerning our readers, demonstrating their trust in us to report it accurately, impartially and fairly.”

Over the coming months, the Stray Ferret will be working with more local businesses to help them reach a large and loyal audience. The aim is for the site to be fully funded through advertising, with a speciality in making video shorts for social media on behalf of local advertisers.

Head of commercial Emma Harris said the next six months will be significant as lockdown measures are eased:  

“Now we have an established quality news platform, we can concentrate on driving the commercial side of the business forward. 

“Times have been difficult for businesses, however, with all legal restrictions set to be lifted in June, I am confident that businesses will want to celebrate what they have to offer and we’re looking forward to partnering with them.”

The Stray Ferret is also committed to developing journalism students and has work placement arrangements in place with Leeds University and Leeds Beckett University. In the past year we’ve had four successful work placements.