Rabbit Hill Country Store will close for good today.

The store has sold a wide range of animal and pet products, as well as gardening items and workwear, since 2016.

Located close to the A1 on Rabbit Hill Business Park at Arkendale, between Boroughbridge and Knaresborough, it has played a major role in the farming and rural community.

Landscape and forestry supplier Green-tech owns the business park and the store.

In a social media post, the store said “the many external variables and well documented strains on retail outlets has led us to take this difficult decision”, adding:

“The closure of Rabbit Hill Country Store will allow the Green-tech team to concentrate our efforts and resources on the ambitious growth plans of our other brands.

“We would like to thank every customer, supplier, colleague and friend that has supported Rabbit Hill Country Store over the years it has been appreciated.”

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The store has been holding closing down sales in recent weeks, and today advertised 70% off products for its final day. It is due to close at 4pm.

One person responded to the news on social media by saying:

“The store is well used and a vital asset for the local rural community.”

Another said:

“It is a shame that a store that has supplied the local domestic and farming community is to close.”

The Stray Ferret contacted Green-tech for further details but it declined to comment.

A Porsche driver who killed a cyclist while allegedly using his phone has been found not guilty of causing death by dangerous driving.

James Bryan, 37, was rushing to get some shopping for his parents during the covid lockdown when his Porsche Carrera 911 ploughed into the back of a bicycle ridden by married father-of-two Andrew Jackson, 36, on the A168 between Wetherby and Boroughbridge, York Crown Court heard.

The prosecution claimed that at the time of the collision, Mr Bryan had been using his mobile and pointed to evidence that showed his Facebook and Instagram accounts were open.

A jury essentially had to decide the case on the single issue of whether Mr Bryan had been using his phone at the time of the fatal crash, which occurred on the afternoon of May 10, 2020.

Mr Bryan denied he was using his phone.

After deliberating long into the afternoon today (Friday, September 23), the jury found him not guilty of causing death by dangerous driving. However, he had already admitted causing death by careless driving and will be sentenced for that offence in October.

Social media claims

During the trial, which began earlier this week, prosecutor Anne Richardson alleged that in the moments before the crash at Allerton Park, Mr Bryan must have been distracted by “something” because Mr Jackson was clearly visible.

She claimed that evidence showed he must have been looking at, scrolling through, or reading posts on social media.

Mr Bryan had taken cocaine and been drinking at his friend’s house in Cheshire the night before the fatal collision at Rabbit Hill Park.

A roadside test in the aftermath of the crash showed that although he wasn’t over the limit for either drink or drugs, there were traces of cocaine, or a cocaine breakdown product, in his system.

Ms Richardson claimed that Bryan, who celebrated his 35th birthday just two days before the accident, would have been impaired by the drugs in his system and from being hungover and tired from the alcohol and festivities the night before.

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He was on the way to drop some groceries off at his parents’ house who were isolating during the covid lockdown when the accident occurred at about 1.40pm. Ms Richardson said:

“The front of the Porsche collided with the rear of Mr Jackson’s bike and Andrew Jackson came off his bike, went up in the air and hit his head on the windscreen and roof of the car, and landed on the road behind the car.

“He was pronounced dead at the scene by an off-duty intensive-care consultant.”

“This is an incredibly sad case. A young mother has lost her husband and father to two (very young) children. Her in-laws have lost their only son.”

Mr Bryan, of St Mary’s Avenue, Harrogate, was arrested and charged with causing death by dangerous driving. He denied the allegation but admitted causing death by careless driving in that he didn’t leave enough room to drive around the bicycle.

Ms Richardson claimed Mr Bryan’s driving was dangerous because he “wasn’t looking at the road ahead of him” as his car approached Mr Jackson.

Died from head injuries

Mr Bryan – who had been at a birthday barbecue in Wilmslow the night before and set off for home early the following morning – called 999 moments after the accident and told a call operator he thought the cyclist was dead.

Other motorists, including the off-duty doctor and his medically trained wife, were on the scene in minutes and called police and an ambulance, but Mr Jackson had already died from head injuries.

Forensic analysis of Mr Bryan’s phone showed that it was unlocked in the moments before the crash and the Instagram and Facebook apps were open.

Mr Bryan was taken in for questioning and told police that Mr Jackson, who lived locally, “came out of nowhere” but then claimed the cyclist had veered into the middle of the road and that he had tried to overtake him, only for the cyclist to “swerve into my path”.

An accident investigator who carried out a reconstruction of the accident said the bike was not in the middle of the road, but on the edge of the carriageway, near a grass verge, and that Mr Bryan had not tried to move around the bicycle.

In one message found on Mr Bryan’s phone on the way back from Cheshire, he told a friend he was hungover from the night before and was “concerned about being late for his parents with their shopping”.

In another sent by Mr Bryan to a female friend while he was at the birthday party the previous night, he told her: “I’m so drunk I can’t see.”

Defence barrister Sophia Dower claimed that Mr Bryan was in a “fit and proper state” to drive and was not using his phone at the time of the crash.

She claimed that Mr Jackson’s bike had veered right from the edge of the road into the path of Mr Bryan’s black Porsche, and that her client “didn’t have enough time to react”.

The off-duty doctor who was at the scene said Mr Jackson had suffered a serious head injury and his helmet was broken.

Mr Bryan will be sentenced on October 21.

Jackson family statement

The Jackson family issued the following statement yesterday after the verdict:

“The outcome from today doesn’t change anything for us; we are still learning to live with the gaping hole in our lives left by Andrew.

“However, it is important we were here to represent Andrew, to get justice for him and to show just how much he is still loved and missed.

“We all deserve to feel safe on our roads and to make it home to our loved ones.

“We respectfully ask for time and space for our family to process the events of this week as we continue to grieve for our husband, father, son and friend.”

A major national functional fitness competition is being held in the Harrogate district for the first time on Sunday.

Rep it Out will see 80 athletes from across the country pair up and compete at Black Wolf Fitness, at Rabbit Hill near Knaresborough.

The top athletes will go through to the CrossFit-licensed national finals.

It is a huge coup for the district as competitions of this scale are usually held in the south.

Sophie Laird, event organiser, said:

“Since we relaunched Rep It Out this year, we’ve been looking for gyms across the UK to hold our activation events, giving as many people as possible a chance to enter and experience being on the competition floor.

“The majority of competitions are held in the Midlands or London, so when we came across Black Wolf Fitness, we knew it would be the perfect spot.

“We hope to see some new faces entering the competition scene and can’t wait to test everybody’s fitness.”

Rep It Out is a same-sex pairs competition, which will feature ‘scaled’ and advanced ‘RX’ divisions.

Each division, which will include athletes from CrossFit Harrogate, will complete four functional fitness workouts across the day.

Winners from each category will be entered into the CrossFit-licensed Rep It Out finals.

Black Wolf Fitness launched at Rabbit Hill Business Park in August 2020 and now has more than 100 members.

Danielle Broughton, who owns the gym with her fiancé Adam Whiter, said:

“It’s a huge opportunity for Black Wolf to have high-end athletes coming to the gym and such a well-known competition foundation, which allows us to be on the CrossFit functional fitness map.

“It’s also great for our athletes to be able to be able to perform in such a big competition on home ground.

“It also allows Adam and I to see how such a big competition is run and hopefully in the future we will be able to do something similar.”

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Ms Broughton said both she and Adam felt a huge sense of pride that their members were at a standard to be able to compete at this level.

She said:

“Being able to have a membership that are able to compete comfortably in a competition like this is a huge achievement. Many of them only started competing a year ago, so it is huge really. It is testament to the consistency of our members.

“We are really excited. We all know what the atmosphere is like at a competition and to see it going on our box is going to be pretty awesome.

“To see athletes come from outside and use this space that we have created really is a dream.”

Spectators will be allowed at the event, however they must register for a free ticket here.

Sunday’s workouts will be released on the Instagram page @repitoutuk.