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 comes after a Harrogate GP practice moved the majority of its requests process online. It has since been accused of discriminating against older people.
Reading about the surgery wanting patients to submit letters and prescriptions mainly online made me annoyed.
Although elderly myself, I am computer literate and not at all bad! But my husband’s claim to fame is that he has never touched a computer and has no interest in technology.
Without me, he’d be stumped.
Fortunately, our great surgery prints out the prescriptions for your next month of medication.
It is totally unfair that so many things must be done online when there are probably thousands of people, like my husband, who have no idea how to use a computer.
Sandra Goldberg, Harrogate
Is it a coincidence Knaresborough’s drains are now being cleared?
This letter comes after some of Knaresborough’s gullies were reportedly cleared this week. It follows severe flooding in the town earlier this month, which forced some people to evacuate their homes.
How strange; we are told the drains weren’t to blame for the Knaresborough flooding, yet suddenly jetting equipment is seen all over the town this week.
Coincidence? I don’t think so.
I have reported blocked drains in the town for several years and I always receive the same reply: “we are looking into it”.
Nothing ever gets done until a tragedy ensues.
Ralph Thrower, Knaresborough
How much more money will be ‘wasted’ on Ripon Leisure Centre?
This letter responds to news of an additional £2m being poured into stabilisation works at Ripon Leisure Centre. The total spent on the remedial work is now nearing the original budget for the actual project.
How much more money is going to be wasted on underpinning Ripon Leisure Centre?
Anyone with any knowledge of Ripon could have informed the shower of a council that the ground was not suitable.
When is this total waste of money going to stop? Yet another folly in Ripon’s long list of botched projects.
Tony Sidwell, Ripon
Re-wilding on Harrogate street looks ‘awful’
This letter comes after strips of the Stray have been re-wilded in line with a council policy.
I do not object to re-wilding as such – but not in a residential area.
I live on Westminster Drive and there is a small semi-circular area on the corner of Burn Bridge Oval and my road, which belongs to the council and has been left to re-wild as of last year.
It looks awful. It’s now full of dandelions and buttercups that are getting bigger every day. The seeds from these plants have blown into nearby gardens and dog walkers allow their dogs to “perform” in the long grass.
This is definitely not a suitable place to allow re-wilding and the council should mow it regularly and thoroughly – not just around the edge.
I’m sure I am not the only one to dislike this way of reducing council expenses and causing residents lots of extra work!
Alison Roscoe, 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.
Read more:
- Readers’ Letters: River Nidd still ‘not fit to bathe in’
- Readers’ Letters: Does North Yorkshire Council not know how a drain works?
- Readers’ Letters: Harrogate’s cycleway extension is an ‘extraordinary waste of public funds’
Harrogate Borough Council accused of ‘disrespecting Ripon’s dead’
Harrogate Borough Council (HBC) has been accused of ‘disrespecting the dead of Ripon’ and causing ‘distress’ to their relatives and friends.
People visiting the city’s cemetery on Kirkby Road this week spoke of their ‘distress and disgust.’
They are concerned about unmown grass that has grown to a height that makes finding and visiting graves difficult.
In some areas of the cemetery, overhanging trees and hedges completely obscure rows of graves.
Ripon City Council leader Andrew Williams, who has generations of his own family buried at the cemetery, told the Stray Ferret:
“The very limited maintenance of the grounds, perimeter hedges and trees is disrespectful of those who have their last resting place here.
“Visiting the graves of loved ones should provide consolation and help those who grieve, but instead of finding this peace, the state of the cemetery adds to their distress.”
Pictured above is the last headstone visible in a line of graves engulfed by an overgrown perimeter hedge
Rita Stuart, whose husband Robert died in February, was visiting to place flowers. She said:
“I feel as though the council doesn’t care.”
Tina Ward regularly visits the cemetery to pay her respects to family and friends who have passed. She pointed out:
“For many years this used to be a peaceful and well-kept place, with a man who looked after it living in a house within the grounds.
“Now, there is no proper care and It has descended into this disgusting condition.”
Pat Park, whose parents and sister are buried at the cemetery, added:
“Many of the people who visit are elderly and have limited mobility.
“The length of the grass makes visiting the graves very difficult, if not impossible.”
Read more:
Recently the council has been accused of not doing enough at another cemetery in Knaresborough where areas of the graveyard were overgrown.
In responding to the concerns an HBC spokesperson, said:
“Visitors to several of the cemeteries across the district may start to notice that some areas are being left to grow and not mown.
“We want to encourage biodiversity so are working with parish councils to leave specific areas to grow, attract pollinators and create habitats
“We have a regular programme of work, across all of the district’s cemeteries that we manage, and when specific issues are raised we will work to address these and carry out any required maintenance.
“We will of course continue to mow the grass along pathways and around gravestones so that mourners can pay their respects to their loved ones.”
Independent city and Harrogate district councillor Pauline McHardy has family members, friends and former nursing colleagues buried at the cemetery.
She said:
“There has been no consultation with Ripon City Council about plans for ‘re-wilding.’
“It’s clear to me that this is an excuse for cutting costs, instead of cutting the grass and trimming hedges and bushes.
“This is a cemetery, not a nature reserve.”