Two charities that provide much-needed support for local people are benefiting from the £7,000 raised through the Mayor of Ripon’s annual appeal.
Dementia Forward‘s community fundraiser Amy Senior visited Ripon Town Hall on Tuesday to accept a cheque for £3,500 and the same amount will be presented shortly to Harrogate District Mind.
Dementia Forward, which operates throughout North Yorkshire, opened its flagship community hub in 2017 at George Armitage House in Burton Leonard and a further five have followed across the county.
Ms Senior said:
“This donation is greatly appreciated and will support the day services that we provide through our hub club for people affected by dementia.”
Mind’s Harrogate District association was founded in 1973 and over the past 50 years, the charity run by local people, for local people, has been a constant source of support and confidential services including befriending, counselling and outreach.
The Mayor of Ripon, Councillor Sid Hawke, said:
“We are delighted to support two great charities and have been able to do so because of the generosity of the local community and the tremendous work of the appeal committee, which organised and ran fundraising events throughout the last mayoral year.”
Read more:
- Chance for Harrogate district community groups to win £3,000
- Search begins for Ripon’s community stars of 2023
Ripon Curzon set to be turned into community cinema
The closure of the Curzon cinema in Ripon will not signal the end of big screen entertainment for city film lovers.
The Stray Ferret revealed last week the city’s only cinema will close on July 1 having failed to recover from covid.
But Sterne Properties Ltd, which owns the North Street premises that have been home to Curzon since 2013, has big plans for the building.
They include retaining one of the cinema screens to be run as a volunteer-led community project, following similar ventures across the UK.
In addition, the Ripon-based property development and investment company also wants to create new family-friendly facilities on site, subject to obtaining the necessary consents.
Director Robert Sterne told the Stray Ferret:
“It was disappointing to learn that Curzon have taken the decision to close their Ripon branch after operating the city’s cinema for the last decade.
“It has unquestionably been a valued asset to the community and it is sad to hear from many regular cinema goers to whom it’s a great loss.
“We have worked closely with Curzon to ensure the cinema’s success and when the pandemic struck we reduced the rent by half during and post-covid, which was conditional on them being open and serving the community.
“However in spite of our support and due to increasing economic pressures it has now become unviable for Curzon to remain open.
“We are now endeavouring to agree terms in order to take back possession of the premises – they are 10 years into a 25-year lease. Only then can we move forward with exciting new plans for our building.”
Looking to the future, Mr Sterne added:
“Film lovers can take comfort that one cinema screen will be retained to be run as a community project. That way overheads, and therefore ticket prices, can be reduced whilst continuing to show a range of great films and streaming of live events.
“In addition we are proposing to create a hub for the benefit of local and visiting families with a play centre, baby sensory activities, café/restaurant and retail unit. This is something that has been under-provided locally and for which we see a strong demand.”
Jake Garriock, head of distribution strategy and group publicity at Curzon, explained the reason behind the company’s plans to close its Ripon cinema last week.
He said:
“The cinema has specific challenges that have meant it has not recovered as we hoped after the pandemic.
“In recent years, with several new purpose-built cinemas opening in the area, the local audience has been spread too thinly for Ripon to thrive.”
Sterne Properties, which is also planning a community regeneration of Ripon Spa Baths, hopes to have the Curzon building back open to the public next year.
Read more:
- Curzon confirms closure of Ripon cinema
- Councillors call for ‘comprehensive resurfacing’ of Ripon city centre roads
Developer withdraws plan for 55 retirement homes in Kirk Hammerton
A developer has withdrawn plans for 55 retirement homes and a community hub in Kirk Hammerton.
SageHaus Living, which is based in the Isle of Man, submitted the proposal to Harrogate Borough Council for land off Station Road in the village.
The proposal would have seen 55 park homes built along with a hub, which would be open for the community to use for meetings and other activities.
SageHause Living, which acquired the site known as Carlton Fields in 2021, said in documents submitted to the council that scheme would help bring more retirement accommodation to the district, while also being environmentally friendly.
However, the developer has since withdrawn the application.
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In a letter to the council from Kirk Hammerton Parish Council, the authority objected to the proposal on the grounds of highways, public transport and amenity concerns.
It also added that it had concern that the plan was outside the development boundary.
A visual of the community hub planned for the Kirk Hammerton site.
The council said:
“The majority of the land to be developed is outside the Development Limit shown in the current version of the Local Plan for the Harrogate district.
“There are some aspects of the proposals which, despite this, are attractive (the carbon neutral/negative nature of the development, the focus on retirement properties).
“There are, however, some disadvantages to the arguments put forward in the application to justify a development outside the permitted limits.”
In a letter to the council, Spring Planning, agents for SageHause, said it wished to withdraw the proposal in order to consider comments made about the scheme.