Charity fundraiser Mary Philpott completed the Nidderdale sprint triathlon on her own — after the race was cancelled following the Queen’s death.
Ms Philpott, 65, had received pledges of £900 to complete the 400 metre swim, 20 kilometre bike ride and five kilometre run on Saturday.
But the event was cancelled 24 hours before it was due to take place because Brimhams Active, the organisers, felt it would be inappropriate to take place during a time of national mourning.
Not wanting to let down Saint Michael’s Hospice, who she was fundraising for, Ms Philpott decided to complete the course alone anyway.
She had already endured disappointments in 2020 and 2021 when the event was cancelled due to covid.
Ms Philpott, who lives in Pateley Bridge and works at Nidderdale Pool and Leisure Centre, where the triathlon was due to start and finish, ended up finishing the course in one hour and 44 minutes.
Mary Philpott completes the course.
The pool roped off a lane to allow her to complete the swim. She then cycled the hilly route to Lofthouse and back before finishing with the run around Pateley Bridge, following the intended route. A ribbon was installed at the finishing line.
With Barclays expected to give £700, Ms Philpott expects to have raised £1,650 for the Harrogate-based hospice, which cared for her husband Paul when he died of cancer in 2015.
She said her legs “felt like jelly” during the run but she said she was “astounded” by her rapid finishing time, particularly as she didn’t start training for triathlon until she was in her 60s. She recalled:
“About three or four years ago pre-lockdown I learned how to swim the front crawl because I could only do breaststroke.
“Somebody said ‘you should challenge yourself by doing a spring triathlon’. I thought it would be a bit of a challenge so why not.”
“I’ve done various things over the years to raise money for Saint Michael’s but this was the big one. So it was a big blow when it was cancelled but I decided I’d go ahead anyhow.”
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Royal British Legion’s Nidderdale branch in danger of closure
The Royal British Legion Nidderdale branch could close after 96 years.
The branch, which covers Pateley Bridge, Summerbridge and nearby villages, was founded in 1926.
But membership has dwindled to below 20 and the current officers, who are in their 80s, plan to step down at the end of this year.
Paul Darley, who is on the Royal British Legion’s county committee for north and east Yorkshire, said:
“No branch would mean no standard to raise at armistice parades.
“We don’t want that to happen and hope we can get enough people to keep the branch going.
“Anyone can be a member of the Royal British Legion and and annual subscription is less than £20.”
Mr Darley, who is also president of the Knaresborough branch of the Royal British Legion, said the workload wasn’t high, except for activity surrounding the annual Poppy Appeal fortnight in November.
Anyone interested in joining the branch can email Mr Darley at pauldarley@btinternet.com.
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Calls to grit more Harrogate district roads set to be rejected
Councillors look set to reject calls to grit more roads in the Harrogate district this winter.
North Yorkshire County Council, the highways authority, meets on Friday to agree its gritting programme from October 1 to April 30.
A report by Barrie Mason, assistant director for highways and transportation at the council, recommends councillors at the meeting approve the same arrangements as last year.
The council has a winter maintenance service budget of £7.5 million. Details of its gritting routes are here.
Motorways and trunk roads in the county, including the A1, A1(M), A66, A66(M), A64, A168 (Dishforth to Thirsk) and A19 (Thirsk to Crathorne) are gritted separately by National Highways.
Each year the council’s business and environmental services committee considers requests for amendments to its gritting routes.
Five have been received from the Harrogate district but Mr Mason said in the report:
“Currently there are no external routes upgrade requests that are supported by officers.”
The only proposed change this year is to include the north Northallerton link road in winter gritting when it opens “as this is commensurate with its network hierarchy”, the report said.
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- New gritter tracker shows which roads in Harrogate district are being treated
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The 5 roads requested for gritting
The council received five requests from residents, parish councils and local councillors in the Harrogate district to grit additional roads.
They are:
Old Barber in Bilton
A resident said when it snows and is icy it is “very dangerous for elderly people”.
West End, Blubberhouses
A resident said the location has a a number of farms and hamlets with steep gradients and should be gritted.
Wheatlands Road, Harrogate
A local councillor said it is a very steep road and residents “find themselves unable to get vehicles out of the road at all”.
Walton Park, Harrogate
A local councillor said “when it’s icy it’s sometimes difficult to walk across the road never mind traverse the pavements”, adding parents walking down hill to primary school are “at risk in the morning”.
The access road to Heyshaw village in Nidderdale
The parish council said the road “becomes impassable when very icy or snowy” and links to a dairy farm.
Nidderdale campsite owner calls for more regulation of ‘pop-up campsites’
The owner of a Nidderdale campsite has called for more regulation of “pop-up campsites” which she claims are impacting established businesses.
Louise Pullan co-owns the Breaks Fold Farm camping and glamping site in the Washburn Valley, next to Thruscross Reservoir, in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
She said the pop-up campsite trend was having a big impact on established sites and needed regulating by local authorities.
A change in regulations to allow landowners to establish pop-up campsites for up to 56 days was introduced in July 2020, to help the rural economy recover from the covid pandemic.
Previously, they were able to operate for only 28 days a year without applying for planning permission.
This 28-day rule is now back in place.
Ms Pullan said:
“It should be being enforced by local authorities, as many are operating well over and above this. It is time for the rules to stop being bent to suit now.”
A spokesman for Harrogate Borough Council said:
“Should anyone believe an area of land is being used as a campsite for more than the allocated number of days per year they are advised to get in touch with us by emailing planningenforcement@harrogate.gov.uk.”
Ms Pullan said outdoor accommodation search and booking platform Pitchup.com had a lot to answer for in relation to the issue.
Encouraging people to support the #bookdirect movement, which encourages customers to book direct with businesses to avoid fees, she said:
“People are setting up sites thinking they can make a massive profit. They are encouraging this trend of unregulated sites and pushing for the 56-day rule to be made permanent.
“We feel these sites are a risk to public health, in the same way an unregulated food business is, and they are ruining places like the national parks and AONB areas.
“If people want to support small accommodation businesses book direct, not through booking agents. They should support their favourite established sites to help them get through and recover from the impact of covid, when we only had a very limited window to open our businesses.”
She said that she was grateful to her client base for their continued support, but added:
“At the moment it is a fight to keep going, especially after we lost a huge part of our business in the form of our bistro Flock to the Fold. But everyday we feel lucky to still be here, because many haven’t made it through.”
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Pitchup.com founder and managing director Dan Yates said booking platform currently lists more than 3,100 sites and aims to be the most “comprehensive and user-friendly” online resource for outdoor accommodation in the UK.
He said that as a result, it includes detailed listings for sites that take bookings through the platform, as well as basic listings for sites that don’t.
He said:
‘It’ll take more than a scumbag chancer to bring us down’“Pop-ups are a recent innovation and represent only a small part of Pitchup’s business (less than 10 per cent).
“In the past two years, pop-up campsites have brought desperately-needed revenue to farms and rural businesses across the UK as they negotiate the double whammy of a farming crisis and the aftermath of the pandemic.
“Following the reduction in the permitted development rights (PDR) allowance for pop-up sites to open from 56 to 28 days in England and Wales, a quarter fewer popups are using Pitchup this year and our popup bookings so far this year are down 27 per cent on last year.
“Although camping searches in the UK for 2022 are slightly down (-6 per cent) on the record volumes of 2021, double the number of Pitchup bookings by Brits have been made compared to 2019, equating to 720,000 additional customers – the vast majority of those are for established sites.
“From our side it’s great to see more and more people enjoying the beautiful UK countryside, ensuring the camping and caravan sector is best placed of any accommodation type to enjoy a bright future.”
The owners of The Dale Stores in Birstwith have pledged to continue serving the village after suffering a “sickening” burglary.
Andrea and Matthew Walwyn were sleeping next door when thieves smashed two panes of glass on the front door to gain entry to their shop and post office at nine minutes past midnight on Friday.
They took stamps worth £3,000 and a quantity of cash.
The couple, who have run the Nidderdale business for 17 years, told the Stray Ferret the incident had shaken them and the community but they had been overwhelmed by messages of support.
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The shop has reopened and although the post office is currently closed Ms Walwyn said they would be back at full capacity as soon as possible.
She said:
“We are really shaken. It’s just sickening. We live next door and think of the shop as part of our home.
“People have come in saying they have never locked their doors but they are now.
“But we want to fully re-open as soon as possible.”
Last year The Dale Stores won an award in the Rural Oscars competition organised by the Countryside Alliance, receiving praise for its ‘great service and great produce’ and for maintaining a village post office.
Ms Walwyn said she had been taken aback by the kindness shown by villagers in recent days. One man arranged for builders to sort out the damaged door straight away.
A customer arranged to fix the door.
Mr Walwyn put a post on their Facebook page saying, “It’ll take more than a scumbag chancer to bring us down. Andrea and I are here this morning. Nice people are very welcome”.
It prompted nearly 300 likes and a barrage of supportive comments.
One said:
Boy, 13, rescued at Brimham Rocks“After all you both went through yesterday to see you smiling today is what makes Birstwith village shop the best.”
Rescuers came to the aid of a teenage boy who got stuck at Brimham Rocks at the weekend.
Volunteers from Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association were summoned to the National Trust-owned site at about 2pm on Saturday.
A 13-year-old boy had climbed to the top of one of the rocks but then felt unable to navigate his way down safely.
The rescue association’s website said:
“Local members were able to calm the casualty until team vehicles arrived and a safe means of lowering the casualty back to the ground was rigged and a successful rescue was carried out.”
Derek Hammond, a volunteer for the rescue association, told the Stray Ferret it was a simple rescue and the boy did the right thing by seeking help rather than putting himself at risk of harm by trying to get down when he didn’t feel safe.
Eleven volunteers took part in the incident near Pateley Bridge, which was the group’s first call-out for two weeks.
While they were dealing with it they then received a second call, alerting them to concerns that a cave diver at Goyden Pot, near Lofthouse in Nidderdale, had not returned at the expected time.
The rescue association’s website said:
“As the controllers were working to call in specialist divers for this incident news was received that she had returned safely so the team stood down and diverted attention to an ongoing incident at Brimham Rocks.”
Read more:
Thieves steal cash and stamps from Birstwith post office
North Yorkshire Police is investigating a burglary at a rural post office in Nidderdale.
Thieves entered the Dales Stores Post Office in Birstwith at nine minutes past midnight on Friday (August 5).
The suspects smashed two panes of glass on the front door and stole cash and a large amount of stamps with a high value.
A North Yorkshire Police statement added:
“Officers are asking members of the public to get in touch if they have any information, saw anything suspicious or can identify the person recorded on CCTV.
“In particular, offices are asking local residents if they have any CCTV or dash cam footage of vehicles in the area at the time of the burglary.
“Anyone with any information is asked to email leah.fitzsimons@northyorkshire.police.uk or call North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2 and ask for PC 950 Fitzsimons.
“If you wish to remain anonymous, you can pass information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Please quote reference number 12220137553 when passing on information.”
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Have the district’s glamping sites benefitted from foreign travel chaos?
In the past few years high end camping or “glamping” as it is more commonly known, has become increasing popular, with a number of new sites springing up in the district.
Now as families weigh up whether to risk airport and port chaos to go abroad or remain in the UK, how is this relatively new holiday industry faring?
Some providers in the Harrogate district have reported an increase in trade, others have seen a downturn.
This has been put down to an increase in the cost of living, as well as last year’s demand being “unprecedented” due covid travel restrictions.
The local glamping industry
Tom Sterne, owner of Yurtshire, between Ripon and Pateley Bridge, said advance bookings for the luxury glamping and wellness retreat have been growing by the day.
He said:
“Since the news about flight cancellations and chaotic scenes at airports hit the media, the number of enquiries we have received has increased markedly.
“When we opened last July, we benefited from the sudden switch to staycations, from people across the Harrogate district and further afield, who would normally fly off to the sun and we are witnessing a repeat this year.”
A break in Nidderdale
Lindsay and Chris Morrell, whose annual summer holidays in Tuscany have been on hold since the covid lockdowns began in March 2020, have booked Italy next year.
But the couple, who used to live in Harrogate and have since moved to Northumberland, decided to take a break in Nidderdale for their 2022 getaway.
Ms Morrell said:
“With the problems people are encountering at airports, we didn’t want to risk booking for Tuscany this year and hope that issues affecting overseas travel will be sorted out by the time we are ready to venture abroad.”
Chris and Lindsay Morrell
For friends Carroll Shaw and Annie Brown, who live in Ripon, overseas holidays are no longer on the agenda.
Ms Shaw said:
“Why would anybody who lives so close to the gorgeous Nidderdale countryside, want the hassle of flying thousands of miles to lie on a crowded beach?”
A slow start
Louise Pullan co-owns the Breaks Fold Farm camping and glamping site in the Washburn Valley, next to Thruscross Reservoir, in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
She told the Stray Ferret that the beginning of the year had been very quiet, but it had started to pick up.
Breaks Fold Farm.
Ms Pullan, who runs the site with her husband Richard, said:
“It has been a very slow start.
“We were 60 per cent down in May and June based on our 2019 bookings.
“However we have seen a rapid uptake in bookings into July and August in all our accommodation.
“People are watching their finances and holidays maybe aren’t top of their priority lists.
“We have noticed we are getting a lot of local guests from Harrogate and Skipton, so maybe the fuel prices are also having an impact on people’s choices.”
Ms Pullan said the campsite’s main customer base is short stays of two to three nights.
Read more:
A difficult financial time
She said the price had been kept the same for the last three years, with discounts on longer stays to try and help people out during what is a difficult financial time.
She said:
“This is difficult as we as a business are now seeing increasing costs. For example our waste emptying costs have gone up 30 per cent, a bottle of gas has gone from £55 to £85 and our business insurance is double last year’s.
“We can’t afford to employ somebody this year due to soaring inflation, which is putting a huge pressure on us as a two-man band.
“Energy prices are just completely unbelievable and some of our fellow owners are up on 57p per kw, seeing their energy bills over double on previous years.
“We are only going to be able to absorb this for so long, unless hospitality businesses are offered some form of relief such as a VAT cut, like they were through 2021.
“Some sites have tried massively to capitalise on the staycation boom from 2020 and have made their prices unreachable for some.”
Cutting back
Claire Jones, owner of Strawberry Safari shepherds huts, in Wormald Green, between Harrogate and Ripon, said she had also seen a quieter year compared to last year.
Strawberry Safari.
She said:
No hosepipe ban for Harrogate district despite falling water levels“We believe this is due to a combination of people going abroad and also cutting back on short breaks in between their main holidays, due to cost of living increases.
“That said, last year’s demand was unprecedented and so it’s hard to compare the two.
“We have still seen some lovely guests this year, many of whom are here to enjoy the many events happening in and around Harrogate.”
A hosepipe ban is not being introduced in the Harrogate district despite continuing dry weather — but Yorkshire Water has said it “cannot rule it out” in future.
The water company is advising people to reduce their usage as much as possible as water levels remain low in Swinsty, Fewston and Thruscross reservoirs to the west of Harrogate, as well as Scar House and Grimwith in Nidderdale.
However, despite there being no rain in the forecast for the coming fortnight, the authority has not said it will follow in the footsteps of others by introducing a hosepipe ban.
A spokesperson for the company said:
“Yorkshire has experienced a particularly dry spring and summer and the reservoirs and rivers in our region are seeing the impact. Reservoir levels are currently around 51% – they declined by 2% over the last week despite the rainfall we had across Yorkshire.
“We’re always asking our customers to reduce their usage where they can and allow their lawns to go brown, not wash the car for a few weeks and turn the taps off when they’re brushing their teeth to stop waste and reduce the likelihood of restrictions later in the summer.
“We’re working around the clock to move water around our network of pipes to keep taps flowing and we’re doing our bit to save water where we can too. Our team of leakage inspectors are out and about across Yorkshire, working hard to save water from leaky pipes, and are prioritising larger leaks.”
Hosepipe bans take effect today in Hampshire, with Kent and Surrey to follow next week. This morning, it was announced that a further ban will be applied in south-west Wales from Friday, August 19.
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Meeting called to hear concerns about state of River Nidd
Anglers, Yorkshire Water and Andrew Jones MP are to meet this month to discuss concerns about the quality of water in the River Nidd.
The meeting will focus on the foul smell and state of the river near Darley sewage treatment works.
But it will also consider the wider issue of the Nidd’s health, which is under the spotlight after a spate of young people who swam in it fell ill during last month’s heatwave.
Seven angling groups that fish from the source of the Nidd to where it flows into the Ouse will be represented at the meeting by Harrogate Fly Fishers’ Club, which is based in Darley.
The meeting, at Darley Memorial Hall, will also be attended by Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservative MP Andrew Jones, Darley and Menwith Parish Council and Yorkshire Water.
Anglers have requested Yorkshire Water provide data about the design and operation of Darley sewage treatment works.
The Environmental Information Regulations provide a statutory right of access to environmental information held by public bodies.
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David Clayden, honorary secretary of Harrogate Fly Fishers’ Club, said there were concerns about the amount of sewage being pumped into the Nidd and he hoped the meeting might lead to some answers. He said:
“We are trying to understand why Yorkshire Water think the Nidd is OK when it doesn’t seem like it is to us.”
Mr Clayden added that the river was fishing well but dead trout and grayling could often be seen floating on the surface.
The Nidd is predominantly a fly fishing river containing trout and grayling but the lower reaches contain significant numbers of coarse fish, such as roach and chub.
A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said:
“We’re due to meet with the MP and the local angling group to discuss the operation of our treatment works, as well as listen to any points they would like to raise about the health of the river.”