Some of Ripon’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens are at risk of missing out on payments designed to help them keep their heads above water in the current cost of living crisis.

That’s the view of Pat Clark, a church leader at the Salvation Army on Lead Lane, who is concerned that some are slipping through the net, by not claiming what is owed to them in the allotted timescale.

To assist families and individual to receive funds that they are entitled to, help is now on hand at drop-in sessions at the church hall.

These will be held on the first and third Tuesday of each month, between 9.30am and 11am. The sessions are open to people of all or no religion and the next one will be on August 16.

Ms Clark, who advises on issues of social justice, told the Stray Ferret:

“I have been investigating how residents not paying council tax by direct debit access the £150 rebate and  the bad news is that in these cases they have to apply directly through the Harrogate Borough Council website.

“This requires an email address to register an HBC account, which some people simply don’t have and there was no correspondence about this process until recently.

“Another problem with the process is that it throws up random errors which would deter most people.

“Many people don’t own a computer or a smart phone and they also get worried when an official-looking letter drops through their letterbox, assuming it is a bill, rather than information that can help them.”

Referring to a number of recent cases, she said:

“When I phoned the council, on a client’s behalf, to ask why his application had been turned down, I was told that it is happening randomly from time-to-time and each account had to be investigated and individually fixed.

“I have also been helping a client respond to an invitation to receive money from the Household Support Fund operated by North Yorkshire County Council.

“Again, the application process is online, requiring an email address and a smart phone or printer to access the e-voucher which can be spent at a supermarket.”

Ms Clark suspects that similar issues will arise when it comes to people receiving  their £400 energy grant and she recommends people living in houses of multiple occupation speak with their landlord at the earliest opportunity.

Fifty-two year 6 pupils from Holy Trinity Junior School in Ripon have used their lockdown experiences to empathise with how Victorian children might have felt as inmates at Ripon Workhouse.

The children have been working towards their Bronze Arts Awards with staff at Ripon Museums, poet and Ripon Poetry Festival founder Andy Croft and animator Dawn Feather.

They encouraged the pupils to imagine themselves in the shoes of poor and desperate Victorian children entering the workhouse.

They wrote poems under the titles Dread, Fear, Grief and Nothing. They recorded the poems as spoken word with sound effects and made their own chalk drawing animations that were presented as powerful audio-visual pieces.

Carrie Philip, Ripon Museum’s learning and outreach manager, said:

“It became clear that the fear and uncertainty the children had experienced during the past two years of covid helped them to identify with child inmates in the Victorian workhouse.

“They produced beautiful and compelling pieces of creative writing as an emotional response to experiencing the workhouse. They should be immensely proud of their achievements.”

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Pupils were awarded their Bronze Arts Award with feedback praising their excellent animated spoken poetry. The experience went beyond the immediate task at hand and will hopefully inspire the group to explore other creative endeavours.

Holy Trinity headteacher Paul Bowlas said:

“We were thrilled to work in conjunction with Ripon Museums to provide a broad and creative experience for the children of our school.

“Working together on the arts award provided a much-needed experience which not only helped children educationally but was also very good for their health and wellbeing.”

The animated poems can be accessed through Ripon Museums website www.riponmuseums.co.uk

A single mum with four children from Harrogate has opened up about her experience of struggling to pay the bills to try and break the stigma around poverty.

Kayleigh Cooper lost her job manning the phones in the evenings at a taxi company early in the coronavirus pandemic.

So overnight, after never worrying about money, she started to wonder how she could afford her rising living costs while also feeding her children.

She gets Universal Credit and food vouchers but they have not been able to cover her costs.

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Ms Cooper felt ashamed about her situation at first. But after reaching out for support, she now wants to let others know that they do not need to “suffer in silence” like she did. She said:

“I was really struggling to feed my children on a daily basis. A lot of people pretend they are doing alright, I have done it myself. But we need to talk about the issue otherwise it gets swept under the rug.

“For me I never had to worry about money before this. Since losing my job I have had to make those choices between paying the utility bills and buying food.

“It’s not just those without a job though, there are plenty of people with jobs who do not have enough money to live off too. Sometimes they struggle even more.

“My anxiety has been a lot worse. It really has had an impact on my mental health. However since reaching out for support I feel like I have had a weight taken off my shoulders.”

Reaching out for support at the new community grocery

A neighbour told Ms Cooper about the community grocery run by the Resurrected Bites team, which opened last month at New Park Primary Academy Community Hub.

She was hesitant at first but broke down in tears when she finally decided to go and ask for help.

People pay £5 a year to sign up as members and are then entitled to pay £3, £6 or £9 depending on the size of their family. The value of the items for the £3 shop would usually cost around £30.

She posted this picture online of a shop that cost her £9 to try and break the stigma.

It has a wide range of tinned, fresh food and frozen food. The shop also stocks toiletries, sanitary products and nappies in various sizes.

The shop, which can be found in one of the school’s separate buildings on West Street, just off Skipton Road, is open daily every Tuesday and Thursday between 9.30am and 3.30pm. Ms Cooper added:

“It has lightened me because I know even if I have £10 or £15 that week that I can go down to the community grocery and get meals for my children.

“I have used food banks in the past but I have had to pass things on because I won’t use it.

“So the beauty of it is that you get to choose what you take. They have everything you could need and the people there were so lovely.

“I wanted to post pictures so other people could see what they could get. I didn’t expect it but my post got a really positive response.”

A mother of five has been talking to the Stray Ferret about the struggle to keep her head above water during lockdown and how it prompted dark ‘thoughts of ending it all’.

With the promise that her identity would be protected, the mother agreed to speak with us as she hopes it will help others.

This is her story.

“I had maxed out on my cards, the bills and red reminders were coming in and I had run out of food to feed my family.

“We had been living on pasta, perhaps with a bit of cheese sprinkled on it – but the last packet was now empty.

“I didn’t know where to turn and felt like a worthless failure, who had let her children down, everything looked bleak.

“I started having black thoughts about ending it all.”

Weekly food and recipes from Back to Basics, along with sound advice, proved a lifeline for a Ripon mother

But with practical assistance and advice, she is getting her life back on track. The mum found out about Back to Basics – an organisation that is helping Ripon families by tackling the fundamental issues of food poverty.

In addition to providing a regular supply of free ingredients and instructions on how to turn them into a nutritious family meal, Back to Basics helped the mother begin to sort out her finances.

She said:

“They could see that lack of food in my cupboards and fridge was just the tip of the iceberg.

“If I tried to pay overdue bills, I couldn’t afford to buy food and life was scary.

“Helen Mackenzie and her Back to Basics organisation saved my life.

“While teaching me how to make healthy meals on a budget, they also pointed me in the direction of people, agencies and advice services that have helped me to get my financial situation under control.”

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In November 2019 – more than a year before coronavirus reached the UK – North Yorkshire’s former director of public health, Dr Lincoln Sargeant, published a report titled ‘Life in times of change – health and hardship in North Yorkshire’

This estimated that 92,000 people (15%) living in the county fell within the Government’s definition of poverty.

In Dr Sargeant’s report, he noted a re-emergence of destitution:

“There is still a striking similarity between poverty in the past and poverty today. They are still largely due to unemployment and low household income.”

He added:

“It can be hidden from view; where people live with the challenges of poverty among less disadvantaged neighbours.”

The covid crisis has made the situation worse for many families. This mother’s story shows how real those challenges of poverty are.

Have you been affected to be this story or in a similar situation? If you want to tell your story get in touch at contact@thestrayferret.co.uk

The Back to Basics food organisation in Ripon says it is seeing a rise in demand for its help.

Currently, more than 40 adults and children, are benefiting from the Back to Basics venture. Each week, it provides, free of charge, the ingredients and guidance for a cheap, but nutritious meal to be prepared.

Back to Basics provide the ingredients and the recipe card needed to create a cheap, but nutritious meal

Food poverty pioneers Helen Mackenzie and Sarita McDermott set up Back to Basics in 2019. Helen, who teaches at Ripon Grammar School, told the Stray Ferret:

“We call it thriving on a budget.”

Sarita, who owns the Realitea Tea Room in North Street, added:

“Some of the most delicious meals can be produced with inexpensive ingredients such as carrots, potatoes, peas and pasta.”

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The guiding principle of Back to Basics is to be both educational and nutritional.

Helen, pointed out:

“We provide families who are struggling — usually those with kids on free school meals — with the ingredients for a meal and a recipe card. We are not a soup kitchen so we don’t make the meal for them — we expect them to get ‘back to basics’ and cook with their family.”

The venture is supported in both cash and kind by businesses and individuals in Ripon and collection boxes can be seen at various locations across the city.

The number of foodbanks in the Harrogate district is increasing — with a new one recently opened in Starbeck to meet demand.

Helen, said:

“I’m sure from what we have seen, that the families we are helping represent the tip of an iceberg. There are people paralysed by debt, who have maxed out on their credit and debit cards. Others are just a pay day away from financial meltdown.

“No matter how desperate their circumstances may be, we will help and they should not feel embarrassed about asking for our assistance.”

Anybody wanting to support the work of Back to Basics, is asked to contact Helen Mackenzie on 07896 534539.

Regular updates can be seen on Facebook.

Free fairground rides for young children, will be a feature of events in Ripon for the rest of the year.

This will be subject to approvals from Harrogate Borough Council (HBC) in line with easing of covid lockdown restrictions.

Some families are facing a financially difficult summer and autumn.

The UK furlough scheme and safety nets, such as mortgage holidays, will be coming to an end. The rides are free to provide fun for families who cannot afford a holiday.

Ripon City Council also hopes the planned events will generate more footfall, which will be beneficial to retailers, cafes, restaurants, pubs and heritage attractions.

Councillor Pauline McHardy (pictured right) says the fairground rides will help families and traders in Ripon

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The first are planned to be in place alongside artisan markets to be held in Ripon on the Bank Holidays of 3 May and 31 May.

At a virtual meeting of the city council’s events committee, councillors agreed that three rides will be booked for Market Square on ten separate dates.

Councillor Pauline McHardy, said:

“I’m sorry to say that there is a lot of poverty in Ripon and more hard times lie ahead for many people, who are already finding it difficult to make ends meet.

“Some families will not be able to afford a holiday this year as they face financial uncertainty.

“We can help them by providing a means of entertaining their children, without the embarrassment of struggling to find the money for them to go on the rides.”

Councillor Chris Davis, was among those members who voted unanimously to support the proposed programme of events.

He said:

“As we come out of lockdown, we want to ensure that we hit the ground running and let people know that we are open for business.”

In addition to the spring and summer months, the fairground rides will operating on other key dates including Halloween, the switch on of the city’s Christmas lights on 19 November and two Christmas markets in December.

Ripon Museum Trust has been involved in a major new online exhibition presented by The Workhouse Network called ‘More Than Oliver Twist.’

Volunteers from the Workhouse Museum in Allhallowgate – one of three heritage attractions operated in the city by the trust – worked on the project presented on the Google Arts & Culture platform.

The exhibition sets out to discover the real stories of people in the workhouse system through the 1881 census returns.

Researched and interpreted by volunteer researchers at six sites across The Workhouse Network, the stories have been used to create an online exhibition, with work from artists Morgan Tipping and Mel Rye, exploring six of these lives and the contemporary echoes of their historic experiences.

The immersive exhibition combines audio narrative and visualisations, enabling audiences to encounter the multidimensional lives of people then known as ‘paupers.’ The work is drawn directly from the research, museum collections, workhouse buildings, volunteers’ experiences and related contemporary lives.

Ripon’s Workhouse Museum

Within the exhibition, audiences will find The Life of Hannah Wade, a creative interpretation of the life of an inmate at Ripon Union Workhouse, now Ripon Workhouse Museum and Garden.

Helen Thornton, director of Ripon Museum Trust, which also runs the Police & Prison Museum and Old Courthouse museums, said:

“We’re delighted to see the results of this project, which our volunteers worked incredibly hard on. The content that has been created is remarkable: moving, thought-provoking and central to what we are trying to do here – to use the past to consider more deeply the issues of today.”

Sharon Heal, director of the Museums Association says:

“This fantastic project brings the stories of people who lived and worked in workhouses alive. I was fascinated by the story of Louisa Ledger and her struggle, that many women past and present have faced, to raise her children against the odds.

“The contemporary reflections help us explore the lives of invisible people who would otherwise be forgotten and have special resonance as we live through a pandemic that is hitting those worst off in society hardest.”

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The project has also created the largest database of poor individuals and families yet constructed to shed light on the diverse experience of the poor.

More than 325 biographies of these everyday people who experienced hardship and support under the very first system of national welfare have been created – the largest national database of biographies of people known at the time as “paupers”.

The project is funded by Arts Council England and supported by Nottingham Trent University and The National Archive.