Developer appeals decision to refuse 53 homes in Harrogate

A property developer has launched an appeal after its bid to build 53 homes in Harrogate was refused.

Councillors on North Yorkshire Council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough planning committee rejected plans for the homes off Knox Lane in the Bilton area in September last year.

Now Teesside developer Jomast has appealed to the government’s Planning Inspectorate, which means the council faces a potentially costly legal battle.

Jomast’s appeal form indicates it has opted for an inquiry rather than a hearing or written representations.

It expects the inquiry to last four days and to call witnesses in the fields of planning, highways, design, landscape and ecology

The document says the 3.2-hectare site is owned by the Greenbank family near Boroughbridge.

The council must now decide whether to contest the appeal.

It is the latest round in the long running campaign to build homes off Knox Lane, which has been fiercely resisted by local people.

The site earmarked for houses.

A 45-page report  by council case officer Andy Hough before last September’s planning meeting said the application was “considered to now be in compliance with development plan policy” and should be approved.

But councillors cited concerns about land contamination and the lack of a travel plan to go against Mr Hough’s recommendation. The site is alongside a narrow cul-de-sac and not close to a bus route.

Cllr Paul Haslam, who represents Bilton and Nidd Gorge, spoke on behalf of residents at the meeting. He said:

“There have been over 500 objections to this application from residents. Not because they are ‘nimbys’, but because they believe the council is making a mistake.”

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Mayoral candidate makes compensation pledge regarding A59 Kex Gill closure

Independent candidate Keith Tordoff has said he will aim to pay compensation to businesses affected by the A59 closure if he becomes mayor of York and North Yorkshire.

The main route between Skipton and Harrogate has been shut since February due to a landslip. It’s led to a lengthy diversion through Ilkley and Otley with the road not likely to reopen until June.

Last month the Local Democracy Reporting Service visited Dalesway Cafe near Skipton. Owner Kate Bailey described the current period as “heartbreaking” for her business. The closure has led to a £2,000 decrease in earnings, forced her to cut the opening hours and led to four members of staff being let go.

Other businesses that have been affected include Mackenzie’s Farm Shop in Blubberhouses, The Outside Inn near Harrogate, Billy Bob’s Parlour near Halton East and The Devonshire Arms in Bolton Abbey.

However, this month North Yorkshire Council poured cold water on any hopes of businesses receiving compensation and instead said it would offer “general business advice” to those affected.

Mr Tordoff, who is a former police detective and previously owned The Oldest Sweet Shop In The World in Pateley Bridge, told the LDRS that he plans to create a mayoral fund which businesses could apply for compensation from.

He said wealthy people, businesses and charities would pay into this pot of money that would be used to invest in the region.

It would be separate from the £18 million a year the mayor will get from the government and he hoped to raise £5m for the fund in his first year.

Mr Tordoff said he has already emailed Ms Bailey about her plight. He said compensation would likely be a “nominal” one-off amount but would show “that somebody actually does care”.

He said:

“My heart goes out to the business affected. It’s been an absolute disgrace. There are huge detours and the signage is terrible. There are so many issues. If I am elected, I’ll be fighting on their behalf.

“I will access funding and try and support them. There’s no guarantee, but as a small business owner myself it’s appalling what they’ve put up with.”

Alternatively, Mr Tordoff said he could also launch a crowdfunding campaign where individuals could pledge money that would be redistributed to affected businesses.

He accused North Yorkshire Council of “incompetence” regarding the closure.

Regarding compensation, the council’s corporate director of environment, Karl Battersby said earlier this month:

“We appreciate that the closure of the A59 is having a significant impact on businesses, commuters and residents, and we sincerely apologise for this disruption.

“There is no legal requirement under the Highways Act to pay compensation as a result of disruption caused by highways works, but we are doing all we can to complete the repair as quickly and safely as possible.

“In the meantime, we are speaking to individual local businesses to see if they would like general business advice. We will keep the public updated as work progresses.”

The York and North Yorkshire mayoral election will take place on May 2. The candidates are as follows:

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Environment Secretary urged to speed up repair on Ripon riverside path

Environment Secretary Steve Barclay is being called on to speed up repairs to a length of riverside footpath in Ripon.

A section of the path that runs from Borrage Green Lane to High Cleugh is in danger of collapsing into the River Skell and has been blocked off with six foot high fencing at either end.

Parts of the path on the popular riverside route have been undercut by high and fast-running waters caused by higher than average rainfall.

Councillor Andrew Williams near the affected part of the path that has been fenced off.

Ripon City Council leader Andrew Williams, who also represents the Minster and Moorside division on North Yorkshire Council, told members at Monday night’s full meeting:

“A long section of path is in a dangerous state and is currently not safe to use, so the North Yorkshire rights of way team has made it as safe as possible.

“They have also agreed to repair the path, but will only be able to do this when they have a permit from the Environment Agency to go into the river to carry out the work.”

The recently-repaired wooden bridge over the Skell is part of the popular route.

Members agreed to Cllr Williams’ proposal to call on Mr Barclay and Ripon’s MP Julian Smith to intervene on the city’s behalf to ensure the Environment Agency issues the permit as soon as possible, so repairs can be carried out when  the river drops to a safe level.

Cllr Pauline McHardy, who seconded the proposal, said:

“This footpath is supposed to be accessible to wheelchair users and families with prams and buggies and we need to ensure that it is returned to a condition that enables it to be enjoyed by everyone.”

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Contract awarded for Ripon’s first city centre Changing Places Toilet

Ripon city centre is to get its first Changing Places toilet following the award of a £162,000 contract to Killinghall company Dalebuild Ltd.

The facility will be built on the site of the existing toilet block at the back of Sainsbury’s supermarket.

The toilets are larger and more accessible for people with disabilities and restricted mobility who cannot use standard accessible toilets. They include equipment such as hoists, curtains, adult-sized changing benches and space for carers.

News of the contract awarded by North Yorkshire Council was announced at last night’s full meeting of Ripon City Council by Councillor Andrew Williams.

 

The new toilet will be built on the site of the existing block near the bus station

The city council leader and North Yorkshire Council member for the Minster and Moorside division that includes the city centre, said:

“Now that the contract has been confirmed, we look forward to seeing it built and in use as soon as possible.”

“With its proximity to the bus station, it is a great addition to Ripon, making the city centre more accessible for local residents and visitors.”

After a successful bid by the now-defunct Harrogate Borough Council  and Ripon Disability Forum, £40,000 was granted through the government’s Changing Places Fund towards the cost of the new facility.

Jeremy Dunford, a trustee of RDF which, through its Access Ambassadors initiative, is working alongside businesses and other organisations in the city to make Ripon more access aware and accessible, told the Stray Ferret:

“Changing Places toilets allow families greater freedom when caring for a family member with specific needs.

“They allow whole families to shop, visit and travel with more confidence and security. For independent people with greater need it means their independence is supported by the facilities they need.

“This is great news for businesses, residents and visitors to the city of Ripon.”

Changing Places toilets at other Ripon locations

Ripon already has a Changing Places toilet at the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre but not one in the city centre,

However, Ripon Cathedral has plans to include one as part of its proposed £8 million annexe development on Minster Gardens, These would be in replacement for the current public toilets  on the site.

Main image: The Changing Places toilet design ensures that they are fully accessible.

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Harrogate Station Gateway plans now not set to be released until summer

North Yorkshire Council has said it now does not expect to release plans for the £12.1 million Harrogate Station Gateway until summer.

Work is due to start on the town centre transport scheme in September — even though the full details have not been made public.

The council said previously the plans would be made available in spring.

This prompted Rachael Inchboard, a member of Granville Road Residents’ Association, to submit a freedom of information request to the local authority asking for the plans to be made available urgently so people could have their say. But the council has declined to do so.

Its response, seen by the Stray Ferret, acknowledged the council should be transparent, there was “local interest in the gateway project” and the public should be able to hold the council to account.

But it said the public interest would be met once the council published the information, adding:

“Publishing revisions to plans ahead of schedule would involve duplication of the effort necessary to prepare it for publication and create a significant separate workstream which would detract from the work currently being carried out in its preparation and completion. The information will be published as soon as it is practical to do so.

“There is a public interest in the information being ratified before publication so it can be ensured that the information is accurate. If inaccurate information is published it could cause unnecessary concern.”

The response also indicated the timeframe for releasing the plans had slipped from spring to summer. It said:

“The council intends to present the detailed design alongside the information made available for the Traffic Regulation Order that will be required. This is likely to be in the summer as the TRO requires detailed design to be complete.”

The scheme has been ‘descoped’ after the council admitted its previous plans, which included pedestrianising part of James Street and reducing a stretch of Station Parade to single lane traffic, were legally flawed.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority gave the green light for the revised scheme to proceed last month when it approved the full business case even though a report ahead of the meeting branded it “poor value for money” and said it would “mainly disbenefit highway users”.

Cllr Keane Duncan, the council’s executive member for highways and Conservative candidate to be North Yorkshire mayor, said preparatory work would begin soon after approval was granted.

Some details of the revised scheme have been revealed to the media: they include retaining two lanes of traffic and creating a southbound cycleway on Station Parade, creating a bus lane, junctional signal improvements and improvements to Station Square and the One Arch foot tunnel.

The council’s response to Ms Inchboard said the main elements “are unlikely to change” but “the detail may be subject to change”. It added the detailed design “is currently being progressed”.

Ms Inchboard was disappointed in the response. She said:

“Perhaps they are trying to delay any challenges by informing the public about the gateway plans very close to the deadline.”

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Harrogate’s ex-Tourist Information Centre goes on the market

The search to find tenants for Harrogate‘s former Tourist Information Centre has begun.

‘To Let’ signs were put up on Friday outside the building on Crescent Road, which is part of the Victorian Royal Baths complex.

The rental asking price is £40,000 a year, according to the website of Align Chartered Surveyors, which is marketing the 2,394 square foot property on behalf of North Yorkshire Council.

The website also says the property has a rateable value of £23,500 and a £24,300 service charge, which includes maintenance, waste collection and cleaning costs.

It says:

“The site is one of the most famous attractions of the affluent town, a town whereby domestic visitors alone provide over £640m of investment each year.

“The building is grade two listed comprising Yorkshire stone masonry elevations under multi-pitch and gabled roof. The windows are double glazed with timber framing.”

The Stray Ferret reported in February the council had decided to relocate the Tourist Information Centre in the nearby Royal Pump Room Museum.

Harrogate’s new tourist information service consists of leaflets.

It said in a report the move would enable it to save costs and generate income from the Royal Baths, which has been dogged by low investment returns since the council paid £9.5 million for it in 2018.

The report said the number of visitors to the Tourist Information Centre fell from 135,000 pre-covid in 2019 to 68,000 last year, mainly due to people seeking information online.

It added it was “important to maintain access to the service to support tourism within the area and to provide services for those who are unable or prefer not to use digital services”.

The report said relocation would “improve the tourist information service” and have “minimal” impact on customers.

However, the service has been downgraded to just a desk with leaflets of mainly council services within the Royal Pump Room Museum, which has prompted concern among local businesses.

It means three of the five commercial unites within the Royal Baths are vacant.

Two are occupied by the JD Wetherspoon pub and the Royal Baths Chinese Restaurant but the former Viper Rooms nightclub and Potting Shed bar remain empty, even though the council said in February it had accepted an offer on the Viper Rooms.

 

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Friends of Pat Marsh recall ‘hard-working and warm’ Harrogate councillor

Friends of former Harrogate councillor Pat Marsh have paid tribute to a “hard-working, warm and conscientious” councillor and said her decades of public service should not be forgotten.

Ms Marsh resigned under a cloud in February following alleged antisemitic comments made on social media platform X related to the war in Gaza.

She was under suspension from the Liberal Democrats when she quit.
In a by-election on Thursday, April 11.

Lib Dem Andrew Timothy won her former North Yorkshire Council seat in the Stray, Hookstone and Woodlands division.

It marked the final chapter of Ms Marsh’s political career, which dates back to 1990 when she was first elected to Harrogate Borough Council as an independent for the Starbeck ward.

She became politicised during a battle to build a new Tesco supermarket near Stonefall cemetery in the late 1980s. It was one she was particularly proud of winning.

Long-time friend Cllr Philip Broadbank (Liberal Democrat, Fairfax and Starbeck) was three years below Ms Marsh at Woodlands Primary School and said she was always on the side of her residents.

Cllr Broadbank with Pat Marsh

He remembers evenings spent around the dinner table at the Marsh household plotting the campaign against the supermarket alongside her husband Reg Marsh, the Lib Dem councillor for Wedderburn who died in 2014.

Before they were both councillors, Reg was in the army and the family lived in Malaysia before returning to Harrogate.

Cllr Broadbank said:

“She was a fighter and was absolutely determined. She had strong opinions, was a very hard worker and was always prepared to advise.

“She wasn’t always successful but she never did anything for personal gain. There was nothing like that with Pat, she was straightforward and honest but was always pleasant to people.”

In the early 1990s, Ms Marsh allied with Cllr Arnold Warneken (Green, Ouseburn) in a coalition along with another Cllr David Rimmington.

Cllr Warneken said he looked up to her as a role model. He said:

“Pat Marsh showed us what a good councillor was. I got the benefit of that from following her for 30 years.

“She’s been a hard-working, warm and contentious councillor. People always spoke highly of her and she did a lot for the Harrogate district.”

Since 1990, Ms Marsh sat on the council’s planning committee and played a key role in how the Harrogate district has changed over the years.

She was sometimes on the end of criticism about the scale of housebuilding but as a non-car driver, she often tried to ensure that developments were served with proper bus routes.

The coalition helped the Lib Dems take control of the council in 1994 and ultimately led to council leader Phil Willis becoming the party’s first Harrogate and Knaresborough MP in 1997.

Ms Marsh joined her husband in the Lib Dems in 1996 and took charge of the leisure committee. She was instrumental in the move from Coppice Pool to the Hydro, which opened in 1999.

She was also involved in the battle to save the Sun Pavilion in Valley Gardens, worked to refurbish the Turkish baths, helped get Starbeck In Bloom off the ground and fought to improve safety outside schools in her ward.

Cllr Broadbank said Reg’s unexpected death in 2014 was a huge blow to the community as the couple were a popular double act on the doorstep.

He said:

“The pair of them were very hard-working. That’s partly why they kept getting re-elected. They were prepared to get stuck in.”

Ms Marsh became the leader of Harrogate Borough Council’s Lib Dem group in 2015 and regularly butted heads with Conservative council leader Richard Cooper.

With the demise of Harrogate Borough Council in 2022, Ms Marsh became an honorary alderwoman for the borough, a title bestowed on councillors with more than 20 years of service.

But she was almost blocked from receiving it due to disparaging comments she made about Andrew Jones MP and Mr Cooper while being secretly recorded. She eventually apologised.

Following Ms Marsh’s resignation, Cllr Warneken said she has been “hung out to dry” by her former colleagues in the Liberal Democrats.

She received no mention from her successor Andrew Timothy in his speech after winning the by-election.

However, both Ms Marsh’s friends hope she’s remembered more for her long tenure in Harrogate public life than how her political career ended.

Cllr Broadbank said:

“This isn’t how her life in local government was supposed to have finished.”

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Readers’ Letters: Bins weren’t overflowing when Harrogate Borough Council existed

Readers’ Letters is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. 

This letter follows an article about overflowing bins in Harrogate’s Valley Gardens. Many readers were upset about the state of the bins over the Easter bank holiday weekend.

The problem of overflowing waste bins in Harrogate is a recent problem.

We often commented on overflowing bins when visiting other towns, as it was so rare here. How lucky we were to have Harrogate Borough Council in charge, which took pride in this town.

But it all changed a year ago after our local council disappeared and we had North Yorkshire Council inflicted on us – a change that none of us voted for.

Anne Boodt, Harrogate

More grammatical errors on road signs in Harrogate

This letter is in response to a story about North Yorkshire Council eliminating apostrophes from road signs. The new format will be adopted when signs are replaced.

Regarding the missing apostrophe on St Mary’s Walk, there also should not be a full stop after St (as per one of the signs).

So, vigilantes looking to insert an apostrophe with their marker pens should also paint out the full stop.

Michael Clarke, Harrogate

Are we really planting trees as a tick box exercise?

This letter follows a story about 29,000 trees being planted in Masham to create new woodlands.

I am the last person on earth to criticise a tree planting initiative, as exemplified at Swinton Estate in Masham.

But what drives me to utter distraction is the wholly unnatural and mechanical way in which trees are planted in perfectly straight lines.

Are we seriously doing this as a box ticking exercise or trying to create new natural habitats?

Think about when these trees have matured. It will look ludicrously unnatural and probably end up serving as a sustainable source of wood or paper – NOT a habitat for wildlife or a place for people to enjoy the benefits of nature.

Trees do not grow in straight lines.

You might as well be part of a planting scheme along a motorway verge if that’s the approach you condone. Totally ignorant of natural habitats, but nonetheless giving oneself a pat on the back.

I am so frustrated by these examples of mass tree planting…

Mark Fuller, Harrogate

Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.

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Dene Park council houses remain empty

Five new Harrogate council houses hailed as the most energy efficient in North Yorkshire are still empty, it has emerged.

The homes were created last year on a former car park in Dene Park, in the Woodfield area of Bilton.

The three houses and two flats cost £1 million to build and came as part of a council scheme to turn redundant land into social housing.

Cllr Simon Myers,  North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for housing, said in a press release announcing the new homes in November that they were were “the most energy efficient we have developed”.

Five months on, a Stray Ferret reader said the homes still didn’t appear to have tenants. We contacted the council for an update,

Andrew Rowe, its assistant director for housing, said:

“We are putting finishing touches to the properties and working to satisfy planning conditions with a view to tenants moving in as soon as feasible.”

The houses all have air source heat pumps, solar panels, triple glazing and insulation. The largest house will produce 0.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, compared to an average home creating six tonnes.

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Lib Dems win Stray, Woodlands and Hookstone by-election

The Liberal Democrats have won the Stray, Woodlands and Hookstone by-election on North Yorkshire Council.

Lib Dem candidate Andrew Timothy finished first with 1,094 votes, ahead of Conservative John Ennis with 768.

It means the Liberal Democrats have retained control of the council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee. They have seven councillors, while the Conservatives have four and there are two Independents.

The Conservatives remain in control of North Yorkshire Council, with 44 of the 90 councillors. Three Independents who formed a Conservatives and Independents group helped maintain the Tories’ grip on power.

Yesterday’s by-election was called following the resignation of Lib Dem councillor Pat Marsh.

The result, which was declared at Woodlands Methodist Church on Wetherby Road just before midnight, was:

The turnout was 41%.

Mr Timothy left as soon as the count had concluded, declining to be interviewed.

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