Harrogate Borough Council is being urged to return assets such as the town hall and spa gardens to local ownership in Ripon before devolution comes into effect next year.

Harrogate Borough Council took control of the assets when it was created following local government reorganisation in 1974.

At the same time the Municipal Borough of Ripon was abolished and the city reduced to parish council status under the authority of Harrogate Borough Council.

Now, with another major shake-up of local government looming, Ripon City Council is calling for the city’s town hall, Hugh Ripley Hall, Market Square (pictured below), Spa Gardens and Spa Park to be transferred back to local ownership.

It says provisions in the Localism Act, designed to protect assets of community value (ACV), should be used to achieve this prior to the formation of the new North Yorkshire unitary authority next year.

Moves are already underway to retain community use at Spa Baths, after the city council successfully applied in September to have the historic building listed as an ACV.

Market Square

With Harrogate Borough Council due to be scrapped in April next year, independent Ripon city and district councillor Pauline McHardy told the Stray Ferret:

“There’s absolutely no reason for Harrogate to hang on to assets that rightfully belong to us.

“Not a penny was paid for them when they were handed to Harrogate in 1974 and we want them to be transferred back.”

Cllr McHardy put forward a notice of motion, seconded by fellow Ripon independent councillor Sid Hawke, which was due to be discussed at Harrogate Borough Council’s full council meeting in December, but the meeting was cancelled.

The motion calling for the return of the assets, is due to come before next month’s full meeting of HBC.

Cllr McHardy, pointed out:

“We will continue to press for the freehold of key assets in the city to be handed back to Ripon.”

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More than 4,000 people gathered at Spa Gardens and on nearby city streets, as Ripon remembered the dead of two world wars and other conflicts this morning.

Civic services were held at the war memorial and in Ripon Cathedral.

Spa Gardens, which like all other parts of the city was ablaze with thousands of red hand-knitted poppies created by the Ripon Community Poppy Project, provided a fitting backdrop for the ceremony at the memorial.

It was here that Andrew Cowie, president of the Ripon branch of the Royal British Legion, read out almost 400 names that appear on memorials at the gardens and in the cathedral.

Ripon’s civic Remembrance Sunday service attracted a large gathering in Spa Gardens and along city streets leading to the cathedral

Wreaths were laid by the Mayor of Ripon Councillor Eamon Parkin, Ripon councillor and chairman of North Yorkshire County Council Stuart Martin, other dignitaries and representatives of all branches of the armed forces and the emergency services.

Members of the Royal Engineers are pictured in Spa Gardens prior to the start of formal proceedings

More than 200 Royal Engineers from Claro Barracks, were present, alongside retired service men and women and members of the Ripon Branch of the Royal British Legion.

The service included hymns played by Ripon City Band and the Last Post played by a bugler, which preceded the two-minute silence.

A lament by a lone piper, was followed by a prayer read by the Dean of Ripon The Very Revd. John Dobson, for fallen soldiers, sailors, air crew and civilians, who laid down their lives in conflicts across the globe.

A prayer and a blessing were read out respectively, by the Dean of Ripon, and the Bishop of Ripon.

The ceremony concluded with the National Anthem and a blessing from the Bishop of Ripon, the Rt. Revd Dr Helen-Ann Hartley and was followed by a march past from Spa Gardens to the cathedral, where a Remembrance Service was held.

Soldiers of the Royal Engineers took the salute as they passed Ripon Town Hall en route to the cathedral service

The march past was led by the Royal Engineers – whose regiment has enjoyed the Freedom of the city since 1949 and continues to maintain a significant presence in Ripon.

Soldiers and all of those who followed behind them, were saluted, and applauded as they passed the town hall.

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