Three new council houses built on the site of former garages in Ripon are now being occupied by local families, the council has announced.
North Yorkshire Council said the homes, in Holmefield Road, have been allocated to people on the waiting list for houses.
They each have two or three bedrooms and feature air source heat pumps, solar panels and triple glazing, producing between 0.2 and 0.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year compared with the six tonnes produced by an average home.
Claire Edwards, who will move into one of the houses with partner Sharon this weekend, has been a council tenant for 32 years. She said:
“This is the first time I have moved into a brand new house and I can’t wait to get there. I am literally moving round the corner, but we are downsizing, which gives someone else a chance to be rehoused, too. They are lovely homes – I feel very lucky.”
The houses are the latest to be developed in a scheme which uses council-owned land used to create new homes, which are then let as social housing.
Almost 60 homes across Harrogate and Craven have been developed through the scheme in the last five years using £2.3 million of government funding. A further nine homes are being developed in the Harrogate district: seven in Harrogate and two in Sharow.
The three Ripon homes are the first to be occupied since North Yorkshire Council took responsibility for housing when Harrogate Borough Council, which had originally granted planning permission, was abolished at the end of March.
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North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for housing, Cllr Simon Myers, said:
“These are the first new social rented affordable homes delivered by North Yorkshire Council and are part of an on-going programme to make a big difference to the lives and well-being of local families.
“Across the county there are plots of unused land – particularly garages that are too small to be used for cars and end up overgrown, derelict and a haven for anti-social behaviour. Many of these areas would never be touched by developers as they can be complicated to bring forward.
“It is a pioneering initiative and just one of the ways we can create much-needed affordable homes in the county – we also work with housing associations and through our commercial arm, Brierley Homes.”
Matthew Wright, from the government’s housing agency Homes England, added:
1,300 people waiting a year for operations at Harrogate hospital, says chief executive“Despite the current challenges affecting the country, accelerating housebuilding remains our number one priority.
“We are committed to supporting North Yorkshire Council’s ambitions to build new homes and our investment through affordable housing grant allows us to do that.
“We’re delighted that this funding will enable North Yorkshire Council to deliver much-needed new homes in Ripon and other parts of North Yorkshire.”
Harrogate District Hospital has 1,300 people waiting more than a year for an operation.
Jonathan Coulter, chief executive at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, said the number of patients waiting was a legacy from the covid pandemic.
The trust estimates that it currently has a total waiting list of 25,000 people – an increase of 7,000 before covid.
Mr Coulter said part of the reason for the increase is because the hospital halted some operations during the pandemic.
He told a Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency meeting of North Yorkshire County Council yesterday:
“We never ever had people waiting over a year for planned care at all in Harrogate.
“Most people were seen within four months. That was the majority.
“We now have 1,300 people waiting over a year for their operation or their treatment. We did go over two years in some cases, but that has now come down.”
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Mr Coulter told the meeting that the hospital expected to have no patient waiting more than a year for an operation by the end of 2023.
He added that the trust board had approved an increase in capacity at the hospital to help deal with the long waiting list.
The £14 million project will see two additional operating theatres, two procedure rooms and a 12-bed ward for patients who require extended stays in care built on the site.
The trust also hopes the project will help to “future proof” the hospital for a growth in population and changes in demographic in the district.
Mr Coulter said:
Harrogate hospital plans new £14m operating theatres“We will be going through that process next year to get us some more capacity on the site.”
Harrogate District Hospital is planning a £14 million project to create two new operating theatres in an effort to tackle waiting times for treatment.
The scheme would see two additional operating theatres, two procedure rooms and a 12-bed ward for patients who require extended stays in care built on the site.
The hospital currently has six operating theatres, including general and emergency surgery.
Officials at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust said the move would help to increase capacity for operations and reduce waiting times for both planned and emergency surgery.
The project forms part of a national funding scheme to help hospitals tackle long waiting lists.
A spokesperson for the hospital trust told the Stray Ferret:
“The number of theatres currently at our trust/Harrogate District Hospital limits the number of operations we can undertake on a weekly basis.
“Additional theatres will enable us to treat more patients each week, which will reduce waits for both planned and emergency operations.”
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The trust added that the project will also help to “future proof” the hospital for a growth in population and changes in demographic in the district.
The scheme has been submitted to senior NHS officials and is currently being reviewed.
Trust officials said they expected a response on grant funding within the next four weeks. However, the project would also require planning permission before it goes ahead.
25,500 patients waiting
It comes as Harrogate hospital is currently tackling a long waiting list for patients awaiting treatment.
According to the trust’s own board papers, there were 25,564 patients waiting for an operation at the end of August.
Of that number, 1,297 had been waiting more than 52 weeks.
While the overall number of patients waiting is down by 65 on July, it is an increase of 3,396 on the same time last year.
In a report to the board, Jonathan Coulter, chief executive at the trust, said:
“We have had a difficult summer and we are now moving towards winter knowing that the current level of acute pressures and community services workload are already significant.
“Combined with the need to reduce our elective care backlog, the challenges that we are managing are significant.”