Ripon’s parish precept, which is charged to council tax payers in the city, is being frozen at its current level for the third year in succession.
It means Ripon residents living in a Band D property will pay a parish precept of £70.77 for the financial year 2023/24. People in Bands A to C properties will pay less and those in Bands E to H will pay more.
Final council tax bills for the year ahead are calculated by adding the parish precept to the amounts also charged by the new North Yorkshire Council and the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner. The latter two have yet to finalise their amounts.
Ripon City Council unanimously approved its draft budget for 2023-2024 at its January full meeting after independent council leader Andrew Williams told members:
“Because of the increased number of new houses built in Ripon, there are more properties over which the precept will be charged and we are able to raise a levy of £420,000 at no extra cost to the charge payer.
“This is an increase from the £411,000 raised in the last financial year and will enable us to fund, among other things, the programme of public and civic events throughout the year, further improvements to the city’s Christmas lights infrastructure and refurbishment of Hugh Ripley Hall to increase its earnings potential.”
In the new financial year that comes into effect from April, monies will also be earmarked from reserves to pay for any professional advice required arising from double devolution and negotiations on matters including the transfer of assets such as Ripon Town Hall, Hugh Ripley Hall and Market Square, to the city council
Cllr Williams said:
“These are very difficult times with the cost of living crisis putting families under greater financial pressure through increased food, fuel, mortgage, rent and other costs.
“Faced with these circumstances we thought it only right and proper to freeze the precept charge for the coming financial year.”
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Missing Ripon girl found
A missing girl from Ripon has been found, police have confirmed.
North Yorkshire Police has issued an urgent appeal to find the girl this morning.
However, the force confirmed she had since been found.
Officers thanked those who had shared the appeal on social media this morning.
Read more:
- Charity shop to open in Ripon’s former Argos
- Owner of Ripon celebrity cat Badger overwhelmed by support
This week’s photograph was taken by Helen Smith, featuring a striking double rainbow over Ripon Marketplace.
Helen Smith
Photo of the Week celebrates the Harrogate district. It could be anything from family life to capturing the district’s beauty. We are interested in amateur and professional photographs, in a landscape format.
Send your photographs to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk for a chance to be featured next week, we reserve the right to adjust and crop images to fit into our format.
The Stray Ferret Business Awards 2023 are for businesses across all sectors in the Harrogate district.
In these final few days before entries close, we are revealing the last of what our judging panel is looking for when it comes to each of the 10 categories.
The final category up is the Best Digital Marketing Campaign Award, which is sponsored by Next Chapter.
Digital is clearly the way forward. This award recognises the work of businesses that have run incredible campaigns on purely digital campaigns.
Companies looking to enter need to provide information on the digital marketing plan, including its aims and objectives. Also provide statistical information on why the campaign was a success.
Does your business deserve to win the Best Digital Marketing Campaign Award at the Stray Ferret Business Awards? Entries close at 12pm on January 16. It’s simple and quick, so enter today!
Click here or the banner below to enter for the Stray Ferret Business Awards, sponsored by Prosperis.
One of the most iconic rides at Lightwater Valley has been closed for good after its owners found they could not bring it up to “acceptable standards”.
Brighton Pier Group, which bought the park in 2021, said it had tried to find ways of bringing The Ultimate back into use after it last operated in the 2019 season.
However, the 30-year-old rollercoaster will now be removed from the park, which has shifted its emphasis towards younger children in recent years.
Anne Ackord, chief executive of Brighton Pier Group, said:
“We have devoted much time and effort considering the future of The Ultimate. The ride has been out of service for some years now and the process of assessing the viability of bringing it back into use was a long one.
“We are mindful of its nostalgic status and that many of our visitors have fond memories of riding the Ultimate Coaster.
“Nevertheless, given both the investment required to bring it up to acceptable standards of safety and the re-imagining of Lightwater Valley as a family-orientated adventure park, we have decided to close The Ultimate permanently and remove it from the park.
“We look forward to welcoming everyone to the new-look Lightwater Valley as it develops and evolves into the north of England’s number one destination for family adventures.”
The Ultimate was opened in 1991 and at the time was the longest rollercoaster in the world. It has been at Lightwater Valley longer than any other remaining ride.
Along with the rest of the park, based in North Stainley, near Ripon, it was not opened in 2020 because of the covid pandemic, but unlike the other rides it has not been operational since.
When Brighton Pier Group bought the theme park, it indicated its commitment to keeping The Ultimate going. It also said it was aiming to develop and expand the whole park to create “the premier amusement destination across Yorkshire and the surrounding areas”.
Read more:
- Will Lightwater Valley ever reopen rollercoaster The Ultimate?
- Harewood House to close bird garden in face of ‘£4m bill’
Anglers fear worst for fish after raw sewage leaks into river in Ripon
Anglers in Ripon are worried that three years’ work may have been flushed away following a sewage leak on the River Ure.
The local fishing club, Ripon Piscatorial Association (RPA), has been implementing a three-year programme to restock the river with fish, but a cracked pipe at the end of December sent gallons of raw sewage into the Ure at Sharow, and the club says it may have jeopardised the project.
Nathan Proctor, match secretary of the RPA, which owns about a mile of the southern river bank downstream of the ruptured pipe, said:
“Where this leak has happened is right where we’ve been putting fish in. Any fry that hatched out this last year will be struggling.
“We put some roach in the week before Christmas, and we were due to put some barbel in this month. They’re not cheap. As a club we’ve had to spend a lot of money to make sure we keep our members, but if this has killed the fish, we can’t afford another three-year restocking programme. We won’t find out how serious it is until the summer, when water levels are lower.”
Yorkshire Water said it had isolated the broken pipe, which lies five metres below ground, within 45 minutes of first being told of the problem on December 30, and that no sewage has been released from it since.
The company has been transporting sewage from the pipe in tankers to Ripon Wastewater Treatment Works while it replaces the section of pipe, but both tanking and repairs at the site on Sharow Lane have been halted in recent days by flooding.
James Thornborough, a retiree who lives nearby, said Yorkshire Water had failed to keep local residents and stakeholders notified of the dangers or developments arising from the incident.
Mr Thornborough, who was formerly world head of crisis and emergency management for oil companies including BP and Petronas, said:
“This is a textbook example of how not to respond to an emergency.
“I would grade this as a Category 2 incident according to the Environment Agency’s rating system – meaning it’s significant – and yet there’s been no joined-up response. There’s been no information shared.”
A spokesperson for Yorkshire Water said:
“We have informed the Environment Agency of the situation, as required by law, but there is no mechanism in place for informing anyone else. That said, we will be in touch with the RPA.
“If there was major pollution we would of course be in contact with them anyway, but this was minor, and the impact minimal.”
Repair work on the pipe was expected before the weekend to last for a couple of weeks, but can now only resume once flood water levels have dropped enough to enable workers to access the site again.
Read more:
- Ripon sewage leak: tree felled as repair work set to last two weeks
- Sewage discharged into River Ure near Ripon after pipe leaks
- Ripon angler among 57 fined in illegal fishing clampdown
Stray Ferret Business Awards: Does your business have the Best Employee Development?
The Stray Ferret Business Awards 2023 are for businesses across all sectors in the Harrogate district.
In this final week before entries close, we are revealing the last of what our judging panel is looking for when it comes to each of the 10 categories.
Next up is the Best Employee Development Award, which is sponsored by Jones Myers, Family Law Solicitors.
This award is designed to highlight businesses that develop their employees, giving them the best start for a new career.
Those looking to enter this award need to give details of the business values and culture that lead to the creation of the training programme and highlight employee successes that came as a result.
Do you know a person that deserves to win the Best Employee Development Award at the Stray Ferret Business Awards? Entries close on January 16. It’s simple and quick, so enter today!
Click here or the banner below to enter for the Stray Ferret Business Awards, sponsored by Prosperis.
Read more:
- Harrogate businessman spared jail for sexually assaulting woman in street
- Race to be Lib Dem candidate in Harrogate and Knaresborough down to final two
Firefighters called to rescue horse in Ripon which turned out to be a sculpture
Firefighters called to rescue a horse trapped in floodwater discovered it was a metal sculpture in a field near Ripon.
Group manager Bob Hoskins, who works for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, tweeted about the incident today.
He said:
“An officer trotted off to check out the situation and discovered a statue of a horse in the middle of the field.
“There was ‘neigh’ further assistance required on this occasion.”
The silhouette sculpture is situated in a field close to the River Ure, which has burst it banks after heavy rain yesterday.
It has been there since 2018.
The ‘horse’ appears trapped in the distance. Pic: Bob Hoskins
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- Flooding ‘expected’ at caravan park in Harrogate district
- Charity shop to open in Ripon’s former Argos
Charity shop to open in Ripon’s former Argos
The YMCA has confirmed it will open a shop in the former Argos unit on the Marshall Way retail park in Ripon.
A spokeswoman for the YMCA, which helps young people, said the shop would sell furniture and electrical goods as well as the usual charity items and donations “would be hugely appreciated”.
She added the opening date had yet-to-be confirmed but it was “looking like early February”.
The spokeswoman said:
“The store will employ a manager and two assistant managers initially and we are looking for volunteers for a variety of roles.
“We will start shop set up work from next week so things will start to happen.”
Argos relocated to the Sainsbury’s site on Market Place East after the covid lockdown was lifted.
Read more:
- Harrogate YMCA shop to close after just two years
- Ripon Salvation Army appeal helped hundreds across the Harrogate district