A Nidderdale councillor has called for a children’s centre that is closing in Pateley Bridge to be repurposed by community organisation Nidd Plus.

Nidderdale Children’s Centre, based at St Cuthbert’s Primary School in the town, is one of five Sure Start centres North Yorkshire Council will close following a public consultation over spring.

The centre opened in opened September 2010 and was backed by £590,715 of taxpayers’ money but it did not reopen after the pandemic.

The council estimates it will save £13,400 a year in running costs by closing the building and North Yorkshire Council’s Conservative executive met yesterday to rubber-stamp a report that recommended the five closures.

Nidderdale Children’s Centre was based at St Cuthbert’s school.

However, during the meeting Andrew Murday, the Liberal Democrat councillor for Pateley Bridge and Nidderdale, intervened to tell councillors Nidd Plus has a plan to use the space for “multi-generational” support services.

Nidd Plus currently has a hub in the town which includes a small library, a desk for council and police matters and a tourist information point.

It also provides transport for residents so they can attend support centres outside of Nidderdale.

Cllr Murday said:

“The centre at St Cuthbert’s school is a very large room. I visited it last week. It’s not been used at the moment and nor will the school find any use for it in the future. There’s a facility there that could be used.”

The councillor said if Nidd Plus were to take over the space it could offer a much larger library for residents and it would also be able to offer some support services in the town without the need for residents to travel long distances.

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He added:

“We have the support of Nidd Plus to develop the centre. At the current time the library facility is tiny but this room and building offers opportunities to expand those services.

“Nidd Plus is providing transport for all sorts of people to go as far as Harrogate to access day centres. If we’re allowed to use this centre it would be a great opportunity to provide a daily multi-generational service. I commend Nidd Plus for bringing forward a plan to use this in a way that would benefit our community throughout Nidderdale.”

In response, the council’s corporate director of children and young people’s service,  Stuart Carlton, said the council would be “more than happy” to speak with Nidd Plus about the building’s future.

Michael Harrison, the Conservative executive councillor for health and adult services, said the closure of the children’s centre “shouldn’t prevent costed plans coming forward” about the future of the building.

Cllr Harrison added:

“I know from personal experience what a good community anchor organisation Nidd Plus are.

“I know the decision today doesn’t stop plans coming forward. They have to be robust but there’s nothing stopping them coming forward.”

A new group is being set up in Nidderdale to help tackle isolation and loneliness in rural areas.

Hosted by Nidderdale Plus Community Hub in Pateley Bridge, it will offer men of all ages the chance to socialise and have fun.

It is being coordinated by Kirsty Dawson from Nidderdale Plus and Dave Rowson, befriending coordinator for the Harrogate district branch of mental health charity Mind. He told the Stray Ferret:

“There was some funding available for warm spaces initiatives, so we were speaking to community offices around the area about what they thought would be of interest.

“Nidderdale Plus said there are lots of little groups and things that are fairly female-orientated in the dale, but they felt they were not getting traction with the local men, who might be lonely and isolated and looking for things to do.”

The group will initially meet every fortnight, on a Tuesday morning. As it develops, it will set its own schedule and decide what the members want to do each time.

Suggestions put forward so far include board games, films, learning first aid and basic DIY, studying local history and practising photography. Visitors to the first session at the end of February also expressed an interest in trips out, such as to pub quizzes, museums, steam railways and sports events.

The group will initially meet at the Nidderdale Plus office

While attending the group is free, Mr Rowson said he recognised some people might not be ready to join it yet, but could be looking for other support.

The befriending service through Mind offers one-to-one chances for people to reconnect with others and build their confidence, which could lead them on to joining groups like the one in Pateley Bridge.

Mr Rowson said he hoped an informal social group might be an easy way for people to increase their network of friends and boost their mental health. He said he was speaking to local farming groups to build links with their members, raising awareness of the new group and what Mind can offer more broadly.

If there was enough interest, an afternoon or evening group could also be organised for people who worked during the day.

He added:

“That’s where I think some of the connections need to come from in the rural communities, to bring some of the men suffering with mental health or isolation. They aren’t in the elderly bracket, they’re just struggling and need some introductions.

“The motivation to get them there seems to be finding something that might spark their interest. Once they’re there, they end up talking about all sorts of things.”

The next session of the men’s group will be on Tuesday, March 7 from 10.15am until noon. To book a free place, email Nidderdale Plus or Dave Rowson.

Around 200 people flocked to Pateley Bridge recreation ground today for the town’s Picnic in the Park.

The free event, organised by Bewerley Parish Council and Pateley Bridge Town Council, invited locals to come down and have a picnic whilst enjoying music from three bands performing on the band stand.

Our roaming reporter Suzannah enjoyed tunes from Summerbridge and Dacre Silver Band and well-know local musicians Ant and Frank when she visited.

This was Ant and Frank in action.

Event manager, Tracey Dawson said:

“I’m just so pleased with how many people have come out. It’s all generations coming together and enjoying the weekend.”

The event ran from noon to 3pm today.

Read more:

Here are some more pictures from the afternoon:

(Left to right) Rita, Benjamin, Richard and Alexander.

Joanne Griffith (left) and Debbie Anson dressed up for the occasion.

Sandra and Sharon from Nidderdale Plus showed how the community group helps local people.

People standing for the National Anthem.

Many charities in the Harrogate district rely significantly on Harrogate Borough Council for funding.

So the council’s abolition next year could pose a threat to the financial stability of some of the best-known voluntary organisations in the district.

Richard Cooper, the Conservative leader of the council, said last month it had been a generous funder of charities and urged organisations to prepare for the change in the local government, which will see a single new unitary authority called North Yorkshire Council come into existence next year.

He said:

“One of the key things voluntary organisations must do over the next year is build relationships.”

Local Fund 

One of the district’s main funding sources for charities is the Local Fund for the Harrogate District, which was set up in 2018 as a three-way partnership between Harrogate Borough Council, Harrogate & District Community Action and Two Ridings Community Foundation.

Last year the fund awarded £85,000 to 29 community groups. Applications for its next funding round open on Monday.

An event last year celebrating the Local Fund.

Last year Harrogate Borough Council gave £200,000 to Two Ridings Community Foundation, which administers the fund, to go towards an endowment so that the fund continues in perpetuity.

It also receives a steady stream of income from the Local Lotto — and the future of this is less certain because it is run by Harrogate Borough Council.

At least 60% from each £1 ticket sold on the lottery, which has a weekly £25,000 jackpot, goes towards the fund.

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Jan Garrill, chief executive of Two Ridings Community Foundation, said

“The Local Fund will continue and thrive as it is a fund with Two Ridings and out of any local government process.”

But Ms Garrill added she “could not comment” on the future of the Local Lotto because it is run by the council.

Who else could be affected?

Some charities also rely on council grants for funding.

When the Stray Ferret asked for a list of recipients, the council directed us to a report from October last year that listed five beneficiaries of its voluntary and community sector strategic funding programme, which awards grants to charities to ‘deliver key services across the Harrogate district’. But it does provide other grants.

The recipients and sums received are:

Harrogate and District Community Action – £40,000

Harrogate and Craven Districts Citizens Advice – £60,000

Harrogate Homeless Project – £22,500

Nidderdale Plus Community Partnership – £8,000

Community First Yorkshire – £5,000

Frances Elliot, chief executive of Hadca, which supports other charities in the district, said that besides its £40,000 grant, it received a separate £32,000 grant from the council.

Frances Elliot

Ms Elliot said:

“It’s a difficult time for lots of organisations but it’s relatively early in the transition. I genuinely don’t know what will happen. We are optimistic for our funding over the next financial year and we will have to wait and see after that, People at the top don’t know what’s happening yet.

“We have a good relationship with both Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council and we hope that continues.”

All the North Yorkshire councils facing abolition have various workstreams underway, considering what will happen after the shake-up. The voluntary sector is among the issues being discussed.

‘Don’t destroy a model that works well’

Pateley Bridge charity Nidderdale Plus works in partnership with Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council to provide services, such as a community library, a front desk for local council and police matters and a tourist information point.

It receives three council grants worth a total of £21,000, which helps it employ 2.5 staff and manage 150 volunteers to provide the services.

Chief executive Helen Flynn said:

“We hope we don’t have to destroy this community support model that has been working so well.

“We are starting to build relationships with North Yorkshire County Council. I do feel they want to work with us. They have been good at talking to us so far.

“I wouldn’t say I was relaxed but I am engaged with developments.”

Yorkshire’s only council-run lottery has been described as a “lifeline” for charities during the pandemic after thousands of pounds was raised for good causes in the Harrogate district.

Harrogate Borough Council launched the Local Lotto in 2018 despite some concerns over encouraging gambling and it has since raised more than £161,000 through the sale of £1 tickets with funds from each going to the buyer’s choice of charity.

This includes £56,000 raised over the past year when many charities have struggled to survive due to donations drying up during covid.

Ann Duncan, partnership and engagement manager at the council, told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that the lottery had been a “lifeline” during this time. She said:

“The supporters of the Local Lotto have remained strong and this has been really important for those good causes because traditional fundraising methods have been limited.

“The Local Lotto provides unrestricted funding so there are no stipulations as to what the charities can spend the money on.

“They can spend it on their electricity or insurance, it’s up to them, so for some of the good causes it has been a real lifeline when funds have been quite desperate over the last 18 months.”

£25,000 jackpot

The council takes no income from the £1 ticket sales with 60p from each going to the buyer’s choice of charity, 20p into the prize fund, 17p to an external lottery manager and 3p to cover VAT.

Funds raised are paid to signed-up charities selling tickets and around £19,400 has been handed out in winnings over the past year.

Some buyers have won up to £2,000, although the top prize of £25,000 has yet to be claimed.

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The Local Lotto is also linked to the council’s Local Fund – a pot of cash which charities can apply for grants from.

Councillor Stanley Lumley, a Conservative who represents the Pateley Bridge and Nidderdale Moors ward, described the council’s decision to launch the lottery as “controversial” but said it had proved to be a “great success”. He said:

“We took a gamble, if you’d pardon the pun, three years ago when we introduced this. It was controversial and people were sceptical whether it would work.

“It clearly has worked and worked extremely well.

“The beauty of this lottery is that a person buying the ticket decides where they want a portion of the money to go.

“My ticket money goes to something close to my heart – Nidderdale Plus at Pateley Bridge which is a really good community hub that needs support.”

About 20,000 people are expected to receive booster jabs at Harrogate’s Great Yorkshire Showground between December 6 and 22. Another 35,000 are set to follow in the New Year.

Most people who go agree it’s a slick, well-run operation. That it works so well is down to the efforts of 50 staff and 60 volunteers behind the life-saving operation.

The Stray Ferret spoke to some of those on site this week. The 60 volunteers are divided into four teams of 15 volunteers a day supplied on alternate days by community groups Boroughbridge Community Care, Harrogate and District Community Action, Nidderdale Plus and Knaresborough Connectors.

The Boroughbridge team, led by volunteer coordinator Jan Seymour, was on duty when we visited.

Ms Seymour was holding a box of chocolates, donated by a patient. All such gifts get shared between the helpers. She jokes:

“The people we like most are the ones that bring us chocolate and cake!

Jan Seymour

The set-up at the Yorkshire Event Centre is the same as it was from February to August this year when some 120,000 first and second dose vaccines were administered.

The volunteers remain relentlessly cheerful and helpful but there is a wearier feel to the place than there was in spring. Ms Seymour says:

“When we opened in February everyone was absolutely desperate to get it. Now the attitude is ‘I’m a bit busy today, can I come tomorrow?'”.

Volunteers typically do half a day each, either from 8am to 1pm or 1pm to 6pm. They meet and greet people, direct traffic and take people to one of the 16 vaccination pods, which can cater for up to eight vaccinators. Ms Seymour says:

“During lockdown it was easy to get volunteers but recently it’s become harder. Some people are back at work and many volunteers are older people who have childcare duties.

“The majority of patients are absolutely wonderful. They could not be more thankful. We get the odd one who isn’t. One guy had a go at me on Monday when he said ‘why can’t I go to my doctor for this? But that’s unusual. Most people are great.”

Staffing fatigue

Yorkshire Health Network, which is a federation of the 17 GP practices in the Harrogate district, manages the vaccination sites at Harrogate and Ripon racecourse.

Tim Yarrow, operations manager for the network, says the Harrogate site can handle greater numbers of walk-in patients because of its size and abundant parking.

Tim Yarrow

The quietest time, he says, is early to mid afternoon, then numbers soar towards the end of the day as many people try to get in at the end of their working days. The decision to allow walk-ins this week sparked a surge of visitors with queues of up to an hour at peak times.

Mr Yarrow says:

“We set this up in one-and-a-half days. It was easier second time round. We knew the snagging points from last time.

“The main challenge is staffing fatigue. During lockdown we had a lot of people with not a lot else to do. As people have gone back to their day jobs their availability has become more sparse.”

Yorkshire Agricultural Society, which owns the site, has “bent over backwards to enable it to happen”, says Mr Yarrow. When the site re-opens in January, jabs will take place in another building at the showground so the society can resume holding events in the Yorkshire Event Centre.

Moderna provided

Barnaby Roe, general manager of Yorkshire Health Network, oversees the operation at the showground.

In a makeshift office on site, he explains that the 50 staff are comprised of GP practice staff, who are helping for free on their days off, members of Yorkshire Health Network, pharmacists, pharmacist technicians and nurses. Half work the morning shift and half work in the afternoon.

“This programme will be for 20,000 to December 22 then going forward we think it will be another 35,000.”

Barnaby Roe

The site is giving doses of the Moderna booster but also administers some Pfizer jabs to children from immunosuppressed families.

“The people who work here have done it for some time and it’s down to a fine art.”

Booster appointments can be booked at the showground here. The site provided some walk-in appointments this week for over-18s who were eligible for jabs and has yet to decide whether they will be available next week.

It’s nearly 16 miles from Pateley Bridge to the covid vaccination centre at the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate.

So for rural communities in the Nidderdale and Washburn valleys with limited public transport and a high proportion of older people, getting there can be difficult.

Nidderdale Plus community hub in Pateley Bridge is playing a key role in solving this and helping the government achieve its aim of vaccinating the over 80s as soon as possible.

Helen Flynn, the executive director of Nidderdale Plus, a charity that works in partnership with local authorities to provide services to the community, told the Stray Ferret:

“For some people, the prospect of travelling to and from Harrogate for their appointment could be daunting.

“There are those who live on their own; some have stopped driving and a number may not have a member of a family bubble to accompany them to and from the vaccination centre.”

Older people living in rural Nidderdale and the Washburn Valley can travel by mini-bus for vaccination in Harrogate.

With Nidderdale and the Washburn Valley covering half of the total land area of the Harrogate district, a logistical issue had to be addressed.

It was rapidly solved when Nidderdale Plus called on assistance from Jill Quinn, chief executive of Dementia Forward, to secure the use of a mini-bus that had not been used for some time because of covid restrictions. Ms Flynn said:

The vehicle, with its volunteer drivers, makes regular journeys from Nidderdale and the Washburn Valley to Harrogate, collecting people en-route.

To ensure social distancing is maintained, the minibus takes a maximum of three people at a time for vaccination, and a rigorous cleaning regime involving anti-bacterial ‘fogging’ of all surfaces is carried out after each use.

Ms Flynn added:

“Jill lives in Pateley Bridge and was happy to help.

“Our aim is to ensure that all people aged 80 and above living in this area have no reason to worry, either about getting to and from Harrogate or their vaccination.

“As the vaccination programme progresses to target different age groups, the minibus will remain in use to help those aged 70 and above in the Nidderdale and Washburn valleys and others seeking assistance.”

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Bryan Ayers, who lives in Hampsthwaite, has already used the service. He said:

“The transport service for my covid vaccination was magnificent, I don’t know what I would do without the help as I do not drive myself and I have no relatives who can help me.

“When I got to the site it was really well organised both with clinic staff and the volunteers were very good, I hardly had to wait any time at all.”

Mr Ayers added:

“My driver was very friendly and just waited for me, I could not have asked for a better service.  I have had no side effects of the vaccine at all so far.”

At the height of the coronavirus crisis, Helen Flynn, co-chair of Nidderdale Plus, vowed that nobody in Nidderdale or the Washburn Valley would go without help.

The community hub based in Pateley Bridge has been playing a key administrative role in marshalling an army of volunteers.

Among the 600 people to come forward was a team from Bewerley Park Outdoor Learning Centre – itself temporarily closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The centre’s instructors Ian Coates and Heather Tuffs, along with trainees Byrony Hart and Rowan Bonney rallied to the call.

Over four months, they walked, cycled and drove thousands of miles, making free deliveries of vital items to people stuck in their homes.

Jenny and Frank Braithwaite, who were among the hundreds of people in Nidderdale to receive home deliveries during the coronavirus lockdown

Help for people in self-isolation continues, but is not as intensive as it was at the outset, when the team worked six days a week.

Over the period, a close working relationship grew between the Bewerley team and the Chandler family, whose Spar Shop, at the foot of Pateley Bridge High Street, became a centre for handling telephone orders and assembling and distributing boxes and bags containing food, drink, prescriptions, pet supplies and other essential items.

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The goods were supplied by the Spar shop and a host of other retailers in the town.

While making her deliveries on a bicycle with a trailer provided by Bewerley Park’s former head, Sam Cook, Heather Tuffs was also collecting stories, messages of thanks, photographs, anecdotes, poems and hand-drawn pictures for a book which she has called Lockdown 2020.

Heather told the Stray Ferret:

“I was inspired by the way in which the Chandlers were going the extra mile to help people and thought it needed to be recorded and recognised that, at a time of need in Nidderdale, they rose to the occasion.”

She added:

“It was also a way for me to say thank you for being able to meet so many lovely people in parts of Nidderdale I’d hadn’t previously been to.”

After hard days of pedal-powered deliveries – some of them involving the steep climb up Greenhow Hill – Heather wrote, designed and published her book, paying for it from donations made by the people who appear in it.

Its 160 pages capture the community’s response to the coronavirus crisis.

Retailers such as Kendall’s and Weatherhead butchers, fishmonger Fish With a Twist, Pateley Bridge Pharmacy, Park View Stores, Dales Market Corner, the Sandwich Box, worked in collaboration with the Chandler Spar Shop, Nidderdale Plus, The Rev Daryl Hall and countless volunteers.

The publication, which includes a touching reference to husband, father and grandfather Colin Chandler, who died in November 2007, came as a complete surprise to the family.

Speaking on behalf of them, Lee Chandler, said:

“We already know that Heather is a very special, kind and caring person and her book, which brings both smiles and tears, is something that we will treasure for the rest of our lives. We’re sure Dad would have been proud.”