Voters in Harrogate and Knaresborough go to the pollsPostal voters still have time to cast their voteHow Harrogate has voted throughout the decadesDeadline to register to vote at general election expires todayGuide to registering to voteOn the road: Will Tory dominance continue in Ripon?How to vote in today’s mayoral election

Polling stations across Harrogate and Craven open at 7am today for residents to choose the first-ever mayor of York and North Yorkshire.

Here is everything you need to know about the election.

What will the mayor do?

The mayor will lead a new public body called the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority which will receive £750 million in funding from central government over 30 years.

It means the new mayor will have £18 million a year to spend and will take charge of the combined authority, which will include two councillors each from North Yorkshire Council and City of York Council.

There will be new powers to improve public transport although services will still be delivered by the local authorities.

More money will also be available to support the building of new homes on brownfield land.

The mayor will also be key in developing skills across the region and attracting investment from businesses.

The mayor will be paid £81,300 a year.

Who is standing?

Conservatives: Keane Duncan – A former journalist who is a Malton councillor and is in charge of transport on the council’s decision-making executive.

Labour: David Skaith – A Harrogate-born shopkeeper who is chair of the York High Street Forum.

Liberal Democrats: Felicity Cunliffe-Lister – A Masham councillor and owner of the Swinton Park Hotel.

Green Party: Kevin Foster – A Richmond councillor and former soldier who worked as a civil servant for 30 years.

Independent: Keith Tordoff – A former police officer in West Yorkshire and former owner of The Oldest Sweet Shop In The World in Pateley Bridge.

Independent: Paul Haslam – A Harrogate councillor and business consultant who quit the Conservatives to stand as an independent.

Where can I vote?

If you’re on the electoral register you should have received a polling card in the post that says which polling station you should attend.

For a full list of polling stations in the Harrogate/Craven area visit here.

Polling stations will be open from 7am until 10pm.

You do not need to bring your polling card to vote but you do need ID. The following forms of ID will be accepted:

When will the winner be announced?

Unlike general elections, the count will not take place overnight, so it means you’ll have to wait until Friday before the winner is announced.

This will take place at Harrogate Convention Centre with counting underway from 9am. A winner could be announced by 12pm.

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Stray Ferret charity calendar to showcase Harrogate district’s beauty

The Stray Ferret is launching its inaugural charity calendar to raise money for our Christmas appeal and showcase the beauty of the Harrogate district.

As many of you know, we post our photo of the week feature on our website and social media every Sunday, inviting local people to send in their images of the district.

Now, we need your help to decide which photo of the week entries will feature in our calendar!

From cherry blossom on the Stray to furry friends and ferris wheels, the winning images will be included in our 2024 desk calendars.

Keep an eye out for each season’s gallery of shortlisted images and vote for your favourites via our competition page.

Calendars will be available to buy later this year as part of our Christmas appeal.

To send in your entry for photo of the week, email letters@thestrayferret.co.uk .

Harrogate’s Independents vow to stand again

A group of five Independents has vowed to stand in future elections after they failed to win a seat on the new North Yorkshire Council.

Anna McIntee (Stray, Woodlands, Hookstone), Lucy Gardiner (Valley Gardens & Central Harrogate), Sarah Hart (Harlow Hill and St Georges) Daniel Thompson (Coppice Valley and Duchy) and Jon Starkey (Boroughbridge & Claro) all stood for the election on May 5.

Using the motto ‘Time for a Change’ and sporting pink uniforms, they pledged to put a stop to housebuilding in the area and oppose transport schemes like the Harrogate Station Gateway.

In the end, the district’s electorate voted for change, but it was the more familiar yellow of the Liberal Democrats that they chose.

But during their concession speeches at the election count, Ms Hart, Mr Thompson and Ms Gardiner all suggested they’d stand again in future elections, with a potential Harrogate Town Council on the horizon.

‘Same old faces’

It was a disappointing set of results for the Independents, in contrast to the strong showing by Independents in Ripon.

Over the past couple of years, thousands of people signed petitions set up by Anna McIntee and Lucy Gardiner to oppose the Oatlands Drive one way scheme and the Beech Grove Low Traffic Neighbourhood.

However, they weren’t able to translate successful petitions into votes.

Ms McIntee came fourth in her division with 167 ticks next to her name.

Ms Gardiner and Ms Hart fared better, receiving over 300 votes each, but they didn’t come close to beating the victorious Tory and Lib Dem councillors they were up against.

The five candidates met for a debrief last week where they reflected on the campaign.

Ms Gardiner said they were disappointed to see “the same old faces and old ideas being returned for another five years”.

She said:

“We were not just paper candidates but true representatives of the community, sharing many of the main issues as the residents and businesses, too many houses, no proper infrastructure, increase in congestion with no realistic solutions, pocket planning, all the wasted money on vanity projects, to name a few.

“It is disappointing that we didn’t get the majority and it was a shame there wasn’t an Independent candidate for every seat. However, considering we had no party machine behind us and none of us had ever stood before, we didn’t do too badly.”

Mr Starkey said he was disappointed by the low turnout.

“An average of only 36% voted and many still voted for the ‘party’ rather than the ‘person’, so we have to ask ourselves why?
Is the thought process ‘let’s give them another chance’, ‘I’ve always voted the same’, ‘it’s time for change’, or ‘what’s the point?’”

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Upsets

Before the election, it was difficult to predict who would vote for the ‘Time for a Change’ five.

Would it be disgruntled Conservative voters? Or people who don’t usually vote but who were attracted to their anti-establishment message?

The Conservatives failed to win three of the five seats where the independents stood.

These included the current deputy leader of Harrogate Borough Council, Cllr Graham Swift. He came a close second in the Coppice Valley and Duchy division, in a big upset for the Lib Dems.

Daniel Thompson came third and suggested his 199 votes helped to deny Cllr Swift the win.

Ms Gardiner said they succeeded in part of their aim of getting “the wrong people out”.

She said:

“We may not have succeeded by getting in but we certainly opened up the conversation and put the cat amongst the pigeons seeing a few key Conservatives in ‘safe’ seats voted out.”

Mr Thompson added:

“The Conservatives have been in power for years and their only legacy is a shambolic local plan favouring the pockets of the national house builders, pocket planning with multi million pound cycling lanes going nowhere and the (reported) £17 million vanity project that is the Civic Centre.”

Local issues

Following the abolition of HBC next year, it’s expected that a Harrogate town council will be set up to potentially manage local assets such as the Stray and Harrogate Convention Centre.

Elections could take place in 2024, and Ms Gardiner said the independents want to ensure Harrogate has a strong “community” voice, free from the shackles of party politics.

She said:

“Our efforts weren’t in vain, the independents aren’t going anywhere and we will strive to ensure Harrogate and Knaresborough doesn’t get swallowed up by the new North Yorkshire Council.

“We must not be led by politics, we must be led by the community and have a town council with the right people at the helm.”

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey says Conservatives have ‘taken Harrogate for granted’

Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey has said the Conservative Party has “taken Harrogate for granted” in the wake of this month’s local election results.

Ten Liberal Democrat councillors were elected in the Harrogate district, compared with nine Conservatives, one Green and one Independent. However, the Tories still have a majority across North Yorkshire as a whole.

The positive results for the local Lib Dems has spurred the party on to make further gains in the area, with the ultimate prize being the seat of Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, Andrew Jones.

The party previously identified the constituency as one of its top 30 target seats in the next general election, which will be held no later than May 2024.

Mr Davey said:

“Harrogate has been taken for granted by the Conservative Party and clearly people have had enough. This month Harrogate joined countless other parts of the country in voting Liberal Democrat to send Boris Johnson a message.

“His government is failing to help people with the cost of living crisis and making matters worst through grossly unfair tax hikes.”

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Mr Davey criticised the Conservative-run Harrogate Borough Council for spending £17m on new offices as well as £5,000 on a snow globe at King’s Cross station.

He said the soon-to-be abolished authority had “stopped listening to local people”.

“The Conservative party in Harrogate has wasted huge sums of taxpayers’ cash on giant snow globes and a council office for a council that is being abolished.

“They’ve stopped listening to local people, as developers build all over Harrogate and Knaresborough’s green fields and they’ve failed to deliver on the long-promised electrification on the rail line to Harrogate.”

General election

Andrew Jones has been the MP since 2010 and has won four elections. He succeeded Liberal Democrat Phil Willis.

In the 2019 general election, Mr Jones won 29,962 votes, beating Lib Dem candidate Judith Rogerson by almost 10,000 votes. The Lib Dems did gain a 12-point swing on 2017, which largely came at the expense of the Labour Party.

Mr Davey added:

“At the next general election it will be a two-horse race in Harrogate between Boris Johnson’s Conservative party and a hard working team of local Liberal Democrats.”

The Stray Ferret asked Andrew Jones for a response but we did not receive one.