‘We are terrified’: victim’s family responds to Harrogate killer’s potential open prison moveDacre Banks model, 55, launches body positivity campaignHarrogate man who posed as journalist and spread false allegations jailedHarrogate girl, 14, charged with causing £1,300 damage to Grand Hotel in ScarboroughA 14-year-old girl from Harrogate has been charged with causing £1,366 worth of damage to the Grand Hotel in Scarborough.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared before a youth court held at Harrogate Magistrates Court on June 23.
She was charged with causing damage to multiple rooms across multiple floors, including the reception area, of the Grand Hotel on December 30 last year.
The court listed the cost of the damage at £1,366.
She was also charged with damaging five towels at a cost of £75 belonging to the Royal Hotel in Scarborough on March 26.
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The girl was also accused of maliciously wounding with intent to do him grievous bodily harm on April 29 and stealing from a Co-op on Newlands Park Drive in Scarborough on the same day.
The 14-year-old pleaded guilty to all the offences.
The court remanded her on bail until July 14 when she will appear for another hearing.
She was also banned from entering any hotel in Scarborough as part of her bail conditions.
Tories maintain slim majority on North Yorkshire Council after by-electionThe Conservatives have maintained their slender majority of two on North Yorkshire Council after a by-election yesterday.
Tony Randerson was elected to the Eastfield division in Scarborough with 499 votes — 46 per cent of the vote.
Liberal Democrat Erica Willett was second with 281 votes and Labour’s David Thompson polled 169 votes to finish third.
It means the Conservatives still hold 46 of the 90 seats on North Yorkshire Council.
The Liberal Democrats are the next largest party with 13 councillors, followed by Labour with 11 and the Independent group with nine.
The Greens have five councillors and there are four unaffiliated independents. There is also one Liberal Party councillor. Conservative candidate Eric Batts received 69 votes in fourth.
The Scarborough by-election was caused when Cllr Randerson resigned from the Labour Party after criticising the party’s direction and leadership under Sir Keir Starmer.
According to his Facebook page, he now represents the Social Justice Party but his affiliation on the ballot paper was left blank.
Richard Flinton, the returning officer for North Yorkshire Council, declared the result at the count in Scarborough.
Man on the run from police has Harrogate connectionsA wanted man who didn’t turn up in court to face attempted robbery charges has Harrogate connections, police said today.
Keith David Whitehead, 45, failed to appear at York Crown Court on Friday last week.
He was accused of attempting to rob a man in Scarborough in October last year. The court issued a bench warrant for his arrest.
He has also been recalled to prison for displaying poor behaviour, including harassment, which is in breach of his licence conditions.
North Yorkshire Police today appealed for help locating Whitehead.
A police statement today said:
“Police enquiries are ongoing in North Yorkshire where it is known Whitehead has connections in Scarborough and Harrogate.”
Keith Whitehead
Whitehead is described as white, short grey hair, 5ft 8in tall, with a slim build.
Anyone with information is urged to contact North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 1, and speak to the force control room, quoting reference number 12220163507.
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Harrogate commuters set for fewer ‘leaves on the line’ delays?Rail operator Northern is fitting new technology to its trains to combat leaves on the line, which can cause autumn frustration for commuters.
Leaves stick to damp rails and are compressed into a smooth, slippery layer, reducing the trains’ grip.
This can delay services so Northern is fitting what it describes as ‘leaf-busting’ technology to 16 of its 170 passenger trains operating between Leeds, Harrogate, and York.
Routes between Sheffield, Doncaster, Hull and Scarborough will also be upgraded. The locations were chosen because they are some of those most affected by leaves.
The technology – Water-Trak – creates rainy-day conditions on the rail surface by spraying a small amount of water from the train onto the track when a slippery rail is detected.
While this might appear counter-intuitive, researchers discovered that leaf-coated rails only become slippery when damp, and that trains stop safely in heavy rain.
Rob Cummings, seasonal improvement manager at Northern, said:
“This is the next step in finding a solution to tricky autumn conditions. One of the biggest risks to our performance during October and November is leaves on the line, but by helping to develop new innovative technology we aim to deliver the very best service for our passengers.”
Two of Northern’s Class 319s fitted with Water-Trak have been successfully operating in passenger service since late October 2021. The trials with Northern are being run thanks to funding from Network Rail’s performance innovation fund.
John Cooke, co-founder at Water-Trak, said:
“We are really excited to be working with Northern to show how Water-Trak can help to solve the age-old problem of leaves on the line.”
Harrogate town council referendum will be held ‘as soon as possible’A referendum to decide whether Harrogate should create a town council will be held “as soon as possible,” the county’s leader has said.
Harrogate and Scarborough are the only major places in North Yorkshire not to be parished and could be given control over areas including parks, tourism and events when the seven county and borough councils are abolished in April.
Councillor Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council, said he has faced calls from local politicians, businesses and community groups for the town councils to be created.
But he added it would be up to residents to decide via a vote whether the plans should go ahead.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service:
“I’m a great advocate of parish and town councils, and I do believe Harrogate and Scarborough would be well served if they had them.
“That said, it is for the people to decide whether they want them or not.
“I’m very keen that we start the process as soon as possible and we will go to the public in Harrogate and Scarborough at the earliest opportunity.”
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The creation of town councils would require a community governance review and it is understood that legal powers to start the process have been handed to the county council’s new executive.
Cllr Les said the legislation was now being examined and the authority would work alongside Harrogate and Scarborough’s borough councils.
Could take a year
He also said it would be “logical” for the town councils to be created after the new North Yorkshire Council launches next April.
His comments come after Cllr Pat Marsh, leader of Harrogate’s Liberal Democrats, called last week for the process to start “within the next couple of months”.
When asked when the referendums could be held, Cllr Les said this was currently unclear but he added it would be “as soon as possible”. He said:
“We are getting a lot of requests about town councils made to us from people including local politicians, as well as the business community and groups like Harrogate Civic Society.
“There is clearly an appetite to do something about this.
“And of course the sooner we can do it, the sooner we can find out whether there is an appetite amongst the general population.
“They are the key people in all of this. They have to be asked for their opinion and will say yea or nay.”
Councillor Les also said there was a possibility that more than two town or parish councils could be created – if that’s what voters wanted. He said:
“Another aspect to this of course is – how many councils?
“Would Harrogate or Scarborough just want one town council each, or perhaps there are options to consider about the various parts of the towns being parished.
“This is all part of the work that will have to be done.”
Harrogate man speeding at 126mph was also breaking lockdown rulesA Harrogate man broke lockdown and speeding rules when he was caught driving at 126 miles an hour on the way to Scarborough.
North Yorkshire Police said today the man had picked up a woman from York and they were on their way to Scarborough when they were caught near Stainton.
When questioned by officers they explained that they “just wanted to go for a drive”, which was not considered to be a reasonable excuse for being outside during lockdown.
Sergeant Daniel Thompson, of Scarborough’s neighbourhood policing team, said at a North Yorkshire coronavirus press briefing today:
“One of the safety cameras on the A64 sighted a vehicle travelling at 126mph. I managed to stop that vehicle as it approached Stainton.
“There were two people in the vehicle. A man who travelled from Harrogate who picked up the woman from York. They were travelling from York to Scarborough for a drive.
“That was the only purpose. They were from two different households and travelled significant distance. The speeding was putting themselves and others at risk.
“Just going for a drive was not a reasonable excuse. We tell these people to just do their bit and as the police we will continue to do our bit.”
Police and public health leaders are increasingly concerned about the number of people breaking lockdown rules as the weather improves.
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North Yorkshire Police said today it has handed out 255 lockdown fines in the last seven days, which is a 33% increase on last week.
Superintendent Mike Walker, North Yorkshire Police’s lead on the coronavirus response, said:
“We are starting to see a concerning trend. Over the last few weeks we have reported increasing numbers of fines that the police are handing out.
“There has been a significant upturn in the numbers. We handed out 255 fines in the last week, with 169 in the last weekend alone.
“We believe the figures are influenced by the good weather but officers are reporting that there has been a change of behaviour since the government released its roadmap.”
Harrogate district covid rate now almost a quarter of national averageAnother 30 people in the Harrogate district have tested positive for coronavirus, according to today’s official statistics.
It means the seven-day average rate of infection for the district is now 97 people per 100,000 — almost four times lower than the national average of 364.
The district’s rate has been gradually increasing for the last couple of weeks but at nowhere near the speed of southern England, where the new mutant strain of covid has been most predominant.
The district’s rate remains the lowest of the seven local authority areas in North Yorkshire. Scarborough is the highest at 234. The overall rate for North Yorkshire is 151.
Today’s figures, from Public Health England, bring the total number of infections in the district since the start of the pandemic to 4,127.
There have not been any covid hospital deaths in the district since December 10.
The district’s R number, which refers to the rate at which the virus spreads in the community, remains at 0.9. This means every 10 people with coronavirus will pass it on to nine others.
Starbeck is the worst affected local area, with 18 positive cases in the last seven days — one more than the figure for Ouseburn, Hammerton and Tockwith.
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