Morrisons refuses to pay for repair after Ripon mother’s carwash ordealA mother and her young children had a frightening experience in the car wash at Morrisons in Ripon recently.
Seven-year-old Arthur and Hector, who has recently turned three, were in their child seats in the back of Helen Mars’ car.
She feared that the boys would be injured, when the rear windscreen wiper arm and blade was ripped off by a roller.
Mrs Mars told the Stray Ferret:
“With the metal arm entangled in the roller, it was crashing against the rear window.
“It was close to where Arthur and Hector were sitting and I was worried that it would smash the glass.”
Ripped off by car wash rollers – this photograph, showing the missing rear windscreen wiper, was taken by Mrs Mars after the incident at Morrisons
Before driving into the car wash in her Suzuki Alto, Mrs Mars put a long polythene sheath over the rear windscreen wiper arm and blade.
She said she received it when she paid for the car wash and followed the instructions given by a member of staff in the petrol station shop.
When problems occurred, Mrs Mars followed written instructions at the car wash by sounding her horn over and over again. But no member of staff came to her immediate aid.
With the car wash still part way through its cycle, Mrs Mars re-started the car’s engine and drove out.
It was only then that staff came forward.
Mrs Mars, who lives in Kirkby Road said:
“A manager at the store saw the damage that had been done.
“He apologised and said that Morrisons accepted liability for what had happened.
“I was assured by him and another manager I subsequently saw, that I would be reimbursed for the cost of the repair work.”
That cost £75, but Morrisons has refused to pay.
The Stray Ferret contacted the supermarket giant to seek the company’s response to what Mrs Mars said.
No response has been received at the time of going to press.
However, Mrs Mars has provided an email dated April 26 received from Morrisons’ insurance team.
The email said:
“Having investigated the matter no evidence was found to suggest that it was our car wash that caused the damage to your car.
“The car wash was in good working order with no problems or other incidents reported on the day of your visit.
“Stores are unable to advise customers we will pay them the costs to repair without a full investigation.”
It added the equipment was not faulty and the company was “unable to consider your claim further”.
The Stray Ferret visited Morrisons on May 3 and May 4 and discovered the car wash was closed, awaiting repair. It has since reopened.
Read more:
Mrs Mars, who was initially offered £20 by Morrisons ‘as a gesture’ is still awaiting any form of payment.
She said:
“The incident caused the children distress and now, whenever we go out in the car, Hector says, ‘not the car wash mummy’.”
Ripon man charged with animal welfare offencesA Ripon man disqualified from keeping or owning animals has been charged with possessing 76 birds and a string of other offences.
Michael Andrew Hawkswell, of Nunwick near Ripon, appeared at York Magistrates Court on Monday, accused of breaching the Animal Welfare Act 2006, which forbids him from keeping animals.
Besides possessing the birds, Hawkswell, 45, is charged with five other offences.
They include buying and transporting two goats, possessing seven sheep in his trailer, possessing a duck, unloading poultry from a vehicle into sale pens at Highgate auctions in Rotherham and buying and selling poultry.
Mr Hawkswell was remanded on unconditional bail for a medical or psychiatric report to be prepared.
Read more:
Police appeal for help finding wanted Ripon manNorth Yorkshire Police has appealed for help finding a Ripon man who is wanted in connection with offences including robbery, kidnap and burglary.
John Paul Wilson, 21, is wanted in connection with a strong of offences in the Ripon area
The police today issued an appeal asking anyone who has seen him or knows where he is to contact them.
They believe that he could be in the Ripon or Harrogate area although he also has connections with Darlington.
Read more:
Anyone with information is asked to contact North Yorkshire Police on 101, or 999 in the case of an immediate sighting.
They can also pass anonymous information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Quote reference 12210110476 when passing on information.
Sale of Ripon Spa Baths to go ahead despite protestsHarrogate Borough Council has rejected repeated calls for the sale of Ripon Spa Baths to be halted while work on the city’s regeneration masterplan is underway.
The council put the historic baths on the market in February in a move which sparked concerns that it could lose its community use if snapped up by a private developer.
Groups including Ripon City Council, Ripon Civic Society and Ripon Together have since made calls for the sale not to be rushed through.
But a Harrogate Borough Council spokesperson has now made its intentions clearer than ever. The spokesperson said:
“We have no plans to withdraw the sale of Ripon Spa Baths.
“The building will soon become surplus to our requirements and we do not have the resources to maintain it.
“Selling the baths for redevelopment, subject to planning permission and listed building consents, would allow this local asset to be given a new lease of life, retain its key features and remain as a city landmark.
“Ripon City Council, or another interested party, is welcome to submit a bid.”
Read more:
Alternative options
City council leader Andrew Williams told a meeting on Tuesday that it was “clearly inappropriate” for the 116-year-old baths to remain on the market while the Ripon Renewal Project is underway.
The Harrogate Borough Council-led project started in January with a consultancy firm being paid £85,000 to draw up a vision for the future of the city and help it win funding for major infrastructure, planning and community projects.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Cllr Williams also pledged to set up a community working group to think up future uses for the baths, which will reopen on May 14 following months of closures caused by the lockdown and staffing issues.
He said:
“This council needs to take a lead in bringing other groups together to look at alternatives in terms of what the Spa Baths site could potentially be used for.
“With this master-planning exercise going on at the moment, we shouldn’t be taking this building out of the equation.”
The Harrogate Borough Council spokesperson said the building was being sold because it will no longer be needed by the authority when the refurbishment of Ripon Leisure Centre is completed later this year.
The multi-million pound upgrades were due to be completed earlier in 2021 but there have been construction and covid delays.
The spokesperson added:
“Our strategy of disposing of assets no longer required means we have been able to invest more than £10m in Ripon.
“The city’s new state-of-the-art, bigger, and better swimming pool and refurbished leisure centre will open at the end of this year”.
Ripon Together organises free summer events for childrenThe community interest company Ripon Together is organising free events for children to encourage a summer of play in the city.
The not-for-profit organisation was established in 2016 to bring people together to make Ripon a better place.
As the country edges towards the lifting of social distancing requirements, the city is springing back to life.
The artisan market was the first of Ripon City Council’s programme of public events for 2021
Monday’s artisan market on Market Square, was Ripon City Council’s first public event for 18 months. Many more are planned.
In conjunction with the council’s programme, Ripon Together is organising a series of community events.
These can be seen at www.ripontogether.com/whats-on/
The aim is to get children out together again, to take part in coordinated, free events. This will enable them to trying new sports or activities.
Local sports and other groups are being encouraged to become involved.
The Dean of Ripon, the Very Revd John Dobson, who is on the Ripon Together board, said:
“Ripon is a brilliant and vibrant place with lots going on, but people find they miss out on things they would have liked to get to.
“If all local groups put their events on the community calendar they will get more people there.
“They, the city and its people will all benefit.
“Lockdown has been very difficult for many members of our community, including children. “
Fellow board member David Ingham has been in contact with a broad spectrum of local organisations and was pleased with their very positive response.
The objective is to get all interested parties together and agree as full a programme of activities as possible.
Simon Hewitt, a director on the Ripon Together board said:
“We are excited by the response we have had.
“If we can get local organisations and clubs along to that meeting we think we can get a great programme together for our youngsters”.
Any group, organisation or individual wanting to become involved, is invited to join a Zoom meeting at 7pm on May 12.
If anyone wants to attend, or cannot do so but still wishes to be involved, they can e-mail info@ripontogether.com or message the organisation through its Ripon Together Facebook page.
Read more:
Artisan market returns to Ripon today in another step out of lockdown
Today’s early May bank holiday has seen a buzz of activity on Ripon Market Square as the Little Bird Artisan Market returned.
About 40 independent businesses are selling homemade local products and handmade goods, including clothing, jewellery, hand-crafted wooden items and food.
It is the first public event to be staged by Ripon City Council for 18 months.
Jackie Crozier, owner and curator of Little Bird Artisan Markets, said:
“The Ripon artisan market celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit of the local traders, inviting visitors and residents to discover artisanal crafts from up-and-coming local businesses and further afield
“As someone who was born and lives in Ripon, I am very proud to hold events in the city I am passionate about.”
Artisan markets are planned throughout the rest of the year, along with activities on key dates in the city calendar.
Stalls were spaced out across all of Market Square to ensure that social distancing could be maintained.
Ripon also awaits the return of the of the ancient hornblower ceremony to Market Square.
Its return and the staging of larger-scale events is reliant upon the removal of government social distancing requirements.
Currently, the earliest this can happen is 21 June.
The covid lockdown wiped out all public and civic events planned by the council in 2020.
They included the 75th anniversary celebrations for VE Day, Saint Wilfrid’s procession, Remembrance Sunday, switch on of the Christmas lights and the New Year’s Eve entertainment
Andrew Williams, council leader and chair of the city council’s events committee, told the Stray Ferret:
“It’s great to be able to hold events for local people once more.
“As lockdown restrictions ease we aim to hold larger-scale activities that can be enjoyed by both residents and visitors.
“This will attract more footfall that is beneficial to shops, cafes, restaurants, pubs and our heritage attractions.
For more information on the artisan market or to become involved as an artist, artisan or vendor, email info@littlebirdmade.co.uk.
Read More:
Stray Views: has Marilyn Stowe heard of climate change?Stray Views 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. See below for details on how to contribute.
Does Marilyn not know about climate change?
Does Marilyn Stowe really not understand? The growth in cycling provision in Leeds or Harrogate is not to provide for the few people that already cycle.
The intention is to persuade a lot more people to cycle. Does she not know about climate change and melting polar ice?
Her article on Stray Ferret is just so incredible.
Andrew Willoughby, Knaresborough
Why prioritise cyclists when Harrogate needs parking?
I wrote to North Yorkshire County Council twice last year about the experiences of towns that have installed harmful, counter-productive cycling lanes and low-traffic neighbourhoods.
I wrote that the planners of those towns might be forgiven for not anticipating how damaging the reality of their schemes was going to be – because there were no precedents. Our councils here have no such excuse, not with the evidence from other towns writ large since 2017.
Throughout five different journeys by car, in and out of town, Monday to Friday last week, I counted 12 cyclists — in mild and sunny weather. We really don’t have many homegrown cyclists – for good reason.
The hills on Harrogate’s town-centre access routes, together with wet and windy weather, discourage cycling for local residents. Dedicated cycling lanes will never change that.
It is different for hobby cyclists. They are mostly the ones to be seen on high days and holidays, often grouped on the roads, identifiable by their distinctive apparel and indifferent to bad weather. They are rarely spotted using our shops and cafes or services.
Are we really going to make changes that prioritise cyclists over our entire population, when our town is in dire need of footfall, residents and visitors to shop and pile goods into their cars, or to drive into town to enjoy cafes and restaurants again? Surely we should be welcoming all comers and that means providing plentiful parking if we are to support the prestigious services and the famous retail heart of Harrogate.
On account of working-from-home there are already fewer cars coming into town, and perhaps fewer cyclists – a trend that may progress. Changes are coming and I think we should wait and see.
Jacky Little, Harrogate
Ripon people have chips on both shoulders
The attitudes expressed by both Harrogate borough councillors Swift and McHardy are insulting to the Scottish Nationalist Party, which exists to promote and advance the people of Scotland, and have nothing at all to do with Harrogate or Ripon.
Councillor McHardy’s response is quite typical of the constant whinging from people in Ripon, which is completely unwilling to accept that in 1974 Ripon was absorbed into the Harrogate district. We fail to see any similar grouses from other towns in the district, such as Knaresborough, Boroughbridge or Pateley Bridge, who seem prepared to work with Harrogate Borough Council to get the best deal for their locality.
Ripon seems to live in the past and many Ripon city councillors, who incidentally are often Harrogate borough councillors and North Yorkshire county councillors too, seem to regularly be elected on the basis of their anti-Harrogate Borough Council attitudes.
It’s often said that Ripon people are well-balanced because they have a chip on both shoulders.
John Edmonstone, Ripon
Read more:
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.
Lady Antonia Fraser to discuss new book’s Ripon linksThe author Lady Antonia Fraser will discuss her latest book’s Ripon connections in this year’s Markenfield Hall lecture series.
The hall, near Ripon, has held lectures since 2013 to raise funds for restoration work.
Past speakers include the writers Phillippa Gregory, Diane Atkinson, Julian Fellowes, Leanda de Lisle and Anne de Courcy.
Lady Antonia, who headlines this year’s series, will talk about her book The Case of the Married Woman, which is due out next month.
The book portrays the Victorian women’s rights activist Caroline Norton, whose descendant Lord Grantley owns Markenfield Hall.
Lord Grantley and Lady Antonia will talk about Norton’s life, as well as how the Markenfield archives were used as a source for the book.
The lecture will take place online on May 12.
Read more:
Until last year, lectures were held in the drawing room at Markenfield Hall, which can seat about 50 people.
This year’s planned online events also feature the author Alexander McCall Smith, the writer A N Wilson and the Guardian journalist Madeleine Bunting.
Lord Grantley’s mother, Lady Deirdre, lives at the hall with her husband Ian Curteis, the former TV director.
The programme for 2021 is available here.
Debut novelist concocts a murder mystery in North YorkshireA retired woman from Harrogate has spent lockdown writing her first novel, Murder After the Matinee, which is now available in stores and online.
Lorna Snowden set the murder mystery in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Ashdale, which is loosely based on Ripon.
The book’s protagonist is Lydia Buckley, a divorcee who moves to the village and becomes the prompt for the Ashdale Players’ production of Aladdin. Shady business dealings, infidelity and a shocking killing ensue.
READ MORE:
Ms Snowden began the novel during the first lockdown and decided to retire so she could spend more of her time writing.
She said:
“The plot had been in my mind for quite a while but when lockdown started I just wrote and wrote. I wrote the entire book in two months.
“My daughter read it after I’d finished and said, ‘have you really written this?’.”
She was recommended to her publisher, Troubador, after an editor enjoyed the novel. She intends to spend the rest of her retirement writing a series to follow on from the first book.
Ms Snowden crafted the plot using her own love of pantomime and experience with the Pannal Players troupe.
Her previous experience of owning a bridal shop will influence her second instalment, Murder Before the Wedding, which she is midway through writing.
Murder After the Matinee is available online from Waterstones and WHSmith and is currently free on Kindle Unlimited.
Do you believe in ghosts? There’s a job for you in Ripon…Do you believe in ghosts? Have a lively sense of humour? Can be a bit spooky? If the answer is yes to these questions then the Ripon Ghost Walking Team want to hear from you.
The group is looking for new volunteers to take the unafraid on evening tours of the city.
The tours cost £3 per person, are held on the last Thursday of the month and all proceeds are donated to Ripon Museums.
Having stopped due to covid, the tours are to resume this month but a few members have retired so the team is looking for new recruits.
Read More:
Richard Pratt from the Ripon Ghost Walk Team said:
“We’re looking for someone who is out-going, can talk to people and judge their audience well. The ability to be spooky would be a bonus and you need a good sense of humour.”
The tour starts in the Market Square and takes visitors to the cathedral grounds to hear the story of a keen fisherman who drowned and is seen wandering around the area he is buried. It also encompasses the Workhouse Museum, which Mr Pratt said “was one of the most haunted places in England” given its grim history.
The thoroughly spooked group ends back at Market Square in time to hear the Hornblower at 9pm.
The next tour starts on May 20 at 7.15pm. For more information on the Ripon Ghost Walks and how to apply to be a volunteer visit the Ripon Museums website.
The faint hearted need not apply.
Did you know?
The Stray Ferret and the Harrogate Business Improvement District (BID) have worked with historian Malcolm Neesam to produce two fantastic audio tours of Harrogate. Both last about an hour and are easy to do. The first will take you back to the golden age of Harrogate’s Victorian Spa days, the second will take you through the heart of the shopping district, stopping to learn about historic buildings as you go. To take a look click here.