Ripon Farm Services to stage New Year Show next week

Ripon Farm Services is set to celebrate its 40th anniversary with the return of its annual show next week.

The New Year Show will be held over two days at the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate on January 19 and 20.

The show, which is one of the key events on the northern agricultural calendar, will feature the largest combine harvester in Europe and the new John Deere 6R tractor.

More than 5,000 people are expected to attend.

The event was cancelled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

There will be some measures in place to prevent the spread of the virus, including a requirement for proof of full vaccination together with negative lateral flow tests.

Richard Simpson, commercial director of Ripon Farm Services, said the team had thought long and hard about whether to go ahead with the show. He said:

“In the end we believe the farming community needs and deserves our support.

“Farmers can’t cancel lambing time, they can’t cancel milking or cancel harvest, they have to carry on, no matter what.

“The nation relies on them. So it would be unfair of us to let farmers down.

“After last year’s cancellation, which was unavoidable, we are delighted to be back with one of the very finest shows we have ever held.”

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Dan Robinson, who is heading up the preparations for the show, added:

“Apart from those two headline machines, we will be showcasing everything we do, including a huge range of used equipment which will be available to buy.

“This is the very best opportunity to see all the very latest and best farming machinery in one single location.

“The show is housed in the warm and dry Yorkshire Events Centre at the Great Yorkshire Showground and there is no better place to see all that we offer.

“Our specialists across all sectors will be available to answer any questions during the two days, and there will be seminars and presentations

“So the event is ultimately a one-stop shop for farmers across the north of England.”

Harrogate vaccine centre moves to smaller showground site

Harrogate’s main vaccination centre has moved out of the Yorkshire Event Centre and into the goat shed on the opposite side of the showground.

Those due for a booster or anyone who wants to get their first or second dose should enter the Great Yorkshire Showground site by the Sainsburys entrance off Wetherby Road.

Continue past Fodder and the Harrogate Caravan Park. Signs and volunteers lead to the vaccine centre, which is on the right hand side through the gates. Park under shelter of the sheep shed.

Follow the directions of signs and volunteers.

Appointments are available but people are free to go without one as a walk-in.

The centre will be open on weekends from 8.30am until 5pm and until late on one day only during the week.

Since September the Yorkshire Health Network‘s vaccine centres in Ripon and Harrogate have given out 42,000 booster vaccines.

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There was a national effort to give out as many boosters before Christmas. At its peak, the Harrogate vaccine centre team gave out 1,800 jabs in one day.

According to government figures, more than 80% have had a second dose and 67% have had a third dose in the Harrogate district.

The new vaccine centre is smaller.

With much of the work already done and three other vaccine centres in the district, the Harrogate team is confident it can cope with two vaccinators.

Cath Dixon, the GP clinical lead for Yorkshire Health Network, told the Stray Ferret:

“Over the last couple of days we have been dismantling the equipment we had up at the Yorkshire Event Centre to set up again here on the other side of the showground.

“This is the first day we are open here. Now the Yorkshire Event Centre can use the hall we were in for events and we will be able to stay here until March.

“The current JCVI advice is to only offer three doses of the vaccine. But who knows? Things change all the time and we will be here to help get the Harrogate district vaccinated.”

Meet the showground heroes boosting Harrogate’s vaccine programme

About 20,000 people are expected to receive booster jabs at Harrogate’s Great Yorkshire Showground between December 6 and 22. Another 35,000 are set to follow in the New Year.

Most people who go agree it’s a slick, well-run operation. That it works so well is down to the efforts of 50 staff and 60 volunteers behind the life-saving operation.

The Stray Ferret spoke to some of those on site this week. The 60 volunteers are divided into four teams of 15 volunteers a day supplied on alternate days by community groups Boroughbridge Community Care, Harrogate and District Community Action, Nidderdale Plus and Knaresborough Connectors.

The Boroughbridge team, led by volunteer coordinator Jan Seymour, was on duty when we visited.

Ms Seymour was holding a box of chocolates, donated by a patient. All such gifts get shared between the helpers. She jokes:

“The people we like most are the ones that bring us chocolate and cake!

Jan Seymour

The set-up at the Yorkshire Event Centre is the same as it was from February to August this year when some 120,000 first and second dose vaccines were administered.

The volunteers remain relentlessly cheerful and helpful but there is a wearier feel to the place than there was in spring. Ms Seymour says:

“When we opened in February everyone was absolutely desperate to get it. Now the attitude is ‘I’m a bit busy today, can I come tomorrow?'”.

Volunteers typically do half a day each, either from 8am to 1pm or 1pm to 6pm. They meet and greet people, direct traffic and take people to one of the 16 vaccination pods, which can cater for up to eight vaccinators. Ms Seymour says:

“During lockdown it was easy to get volunteers but recently it’s become harder. Some people are back at work and many volunteers are older people who have childcare duties.

“The majority of patients are absolutely wonderful. They could not be more thankful. We get the odd one who isn’t. One guy had a go at me on Monday when he said ‘why can’t I go to my doctor for this? But that’s unusual. Most people are great.”

Staffing fatigue

Yorkshire Health Network, which is a federation of the 17 GP practices in the Harrogate district, manages the vaccination sites at Harrogate and Ripon racecourse.

Tim Yarrow, operations manager for the network, says the Harrogate site can handle greater numbers of walk-in patients because of its size and abundant parking.

Tim Yarrow

The quietest time, he says, is early to mid afternoon, then numbers soar towards the end of the day as many people try to get in at the end of their working days. The decision to allow walk-ins this week sparked a surge of visitors with queues of up to an hour at peak times.

Mr Yarrow says:

“We set this up in one-and-a-half days. It was easier second time round. We knew the snagging points from last time.

“The main challenge is staffing fatigue. During lockdown we had a lot of people with not a lot else to do. As people have gone back to their day jobs their availability has become more sparse.”

Yorkshire Agricultural Society, which owns the site, has “bent over backwards to enable it to happen”, says Mr Yarrow. When the site re-opens in January, jabs will take place in another building at the showground so the society can resume holding events in the Yorkshire Event Centre.

Moderna provided

Barnaby Roe, general manager of Yorkshire Health Network, oversees the operation at the showground.

In a makeshift office on site, he explains that the 50 staff are comprised of GP practice staff, who are helping for free on their days off, members of Yorkshire Health Network, pharmacists, pharmacist technicians and nurses. Half work the morning shift and half work in the afternoon.

“This programme will be for 20,000 to December 22 then going forward we think it will be another 35,000.”

Barnaby Roe

The site is giving doses of the Moderna booster but also administers some Pfizer jabs to children from immunosuppressed families.

“The people who work here have done it for some time and it’s down to a fine art.”

Booster appointments can be booked at the showground here. The site provided some walk-in appointments this week for over-18s who were eligible for jabs and has yet to decide whether they will be available next week.

Today only: Harrogate vaccine centre offers walk-in boosters

Harrogate’s Great Yorkshire Showground is to accept walk-ins this afternoon to help with the roll-out of the covid booster programme.

Those eligible for a booster can just turn-up between 1.30pm and 4pm at the showground. Currently, there are no other walk-in sessions scheduled for the site, which re-opened this week.

To qualify, people need to be aged 40 and above. At least six months must have passed since their second dose and they must have no coronavirus symptoms.

The showground was due to close on December 22 but it now looks set to continue until March, although this has yet to be confirmed.

Non walk-in appointments can be booked on the NHS booking site here.

Military could be drafted in to help Harrogate district booster vaccines

The army could be drafted in to help with the Harrogate district’s booster vaccine rollout amid concern about the new coronavirus variant Omicron.

Public health officials in North Yorkshire said today they were looking at ways to increase capacity for vaccines after the minimum gap for boosters was halved to three months.

More sites, more vaccines and use of the army are among the options being considered.

The Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate will re-open as a vaccine site for coronavirus booster jabs on Monday.

It was scheduled to operate for just over a fortnight until December 22 but in a press conference today, public health officials confirmed they were in talks to extend this until March.

So far in North Yorkshire and York, the booster rollout in over-75s is 89% complete, 70 to 74-year-olds is 86% complete, 65 to 69-year-olds is 72% complete and 60 to 64-year-olds is 53% complete.

Boosters are below 50% for the remaining cohorts. Among 55 to 59-year-olds it is at 39%, 50 to 54-year-olds are at 32% and 40 to 49-year-olds are at 19%.

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Amanda Bloor, accountable officer for NHS North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group, said:

“Across North Yorkshire we are currently adapting our vaccination programme to deliver a significantly enhanced booster offer.

“This includes exploring some of the following options. We are looking at more sites coming online, including both hospitals and pharmacy sites.

“We are looking at some of the existing sites we have got doing more vaccinations. We are also looking to recruit more support to help deliver vaccinations.

“We are thinking about support from military personnel nationally and also we anticipate a national effort to recruit additional volunteers to help deliver the programme.

“All of these actions are underway across North Yorkshire and they are happening at pace.”

Great Yorkshire Showground vaccine centre to reopen

A vaccination centre will reopen at the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate amid surging covid cases driven by the transmission of the virus in schools.

An urgent press conference called today to address the Harrogate district’s high infection rate heard the Yorkshire Event Centre will be used to administer jabs again.

Currently there is no specific date for the return of the showground vaccine centre, which was last used in June. However, the meeting heard it will coincide with the “peak of the booster programme”.

Today’s meeting was convened hastily in response to the district’s seven-day coronavirus rate reaching 733 cases per 100,000 people.

It is the highest in Yorkshire and one of the highest in England.

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Rachael Durrett, head of communication and engagement at North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group said during the meeting:

“In response the Yorkshire Event Centre site will be stood up later in the year to cover the peak of the booster programme.

“There are also pharmacy sites that service the Harrogate area, including at Knaresborough. We will share a full list of pharmacy sites.”

‘Vaccine centre will not clash with events’

A spokesperson for the Great Yorkshire Showground said the vaccine centre will not clash with any of its existing events.

The vaccine centre will open in Hall 2 straight after the Christmas fair, which runs from December 2 to 5.

Ice cream show set to return to Harrogate

The Yorkshire Event Centre in Harrogate has received a welcome boost with the news that a major three-day event will return.

The Ice Cream & Artisan Food Show will be held from February 8 to 10 in 2022.

Harrogate has hosted the show, which is organised by the Ice Cream Alliance, every year since 2008. But the February 2021 edition has been cancelled.

Zelica Carr, chief executive of the association, which is a trade body and membership association for the ice cream industry, said:

“Harrogate is an amazing town with its array of hotels, excellent choice of restaurants, shopping and transportation connection from all over the UK, which caters for all visitors here and abroad via Leeds-Bradford Airport.”

The event showcases a huge assortment of ice cream varieties, equipment and supplies.

It also attracts companies from the coffee, pastry and bakery industries.

The Yorkshire Event Centre, and Harrogate as a whole, has had to cancel numerous trade shows and events this year due to coronavirus.

 

Yorkshire Showground cancelled events worth over £70 million

Harrogate’s Yorkshire Event Centre has calculated the huge impact its cancelled events have had on the local economy.

To date, 148 events have been cancelled or postponed at the Yorkshire Event Centre and Pavilions of Harrogate, both owned by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society. The total cost of struck-off events has cost the Centre nearly £6 million, but the total cost to the Harrogate economy is much higher.

Cafés, restaurants, bed and breakfasts, hotels and other local businesses have all struggled as a result.

Heather Parry, Managing Director of Yorkshire Event Centre Ltd, said:

“This is a challenging year for events businesses and it is no different for us at the Great Yorkshire Showground. Last year, businesses and events at the Showground were worth £73.7 million to the local economy.”

The calculation comes days after the Harrogate Convention Centre, home of the Nightingale Hospital, announced it will remain closed until March next year.

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The Yorkshire Event Centre sits in the Great Yorkshire Showground. The venue is home to some of the country’s biggest shows including The Great Yorkshire Show itself, which welcomes more than 130,000 visitors to the Harrogate district.

Bev Kemp, owner of The Bijou in Harrogate said:

“We rely very highly on events for tourism, a heck of a lot. We have lost the biggest conferences this year and I don’t know if we’re going to get them back. From March when lockdown started I would say at least 60% of our bookings have been cancelled, possibly more. We always get lots of people for the Great Yorkshire Show so that’s a huge loss. I am worried about hospitality on the whole in Harrogate. I think it’s going to take a few years to pick up.”

But, Ms Parry remains positive with future events coming to the showground. The Harrogate Bridal Show, the UK’s largest and longest running bridal event, has still been given the go-ahead in October.

Ms Parry said:

“We have taken robust steps to ensure that we can provide a safe, secure and flexible space to host events, in line with the latest government advice on social gatherings. As such, we have worked closely with the organisers of the Harrogate Bridal Show to meet their requirements.

The Harrogate Bridal Show is expected to run at the Yorkshire Event Centre from October 4 – 6.