Discarded dog poo bags leaving Harrogate ‘disgusted’

People living in the Harrogate district have complained about an increase in dog owners leaving poo bags tied to trees, dumped in bushes or even thrown into private gardens.

Lockdown has led to a puppy boom, with many buying a new four-legged family friend.

However, many people told the Stray Ferret they were fed-up seeing discarded poo bags in our most scenic locations, such as the Pinewoods and Stainburn Forest and were appalled by the “lazy” and “disgusting” behaviour of some dog owners.

Mark Hanford said bags were everywhere:

“The dog poo bag pandemic has been raging for years, it’s an absolute disgrace — it’s everywhere! Crab Lane and St. John’s area is really bad for it!”

In Hampsthwaite, Julia Lister has been campaigning for more responsible pet ownership and better facilities for disposing of waste.

She said some people had even ignored signs not to use a bin in a children’s play area that was not emptied due to covid and consequently became overloaded. 

“We have a real problem in our lovely village. The majority of the village are disgusted. How do we shame the perpetrators? Or shame Harrogate Borough Council to clear up the mess the overdevelopment of our village has caused?”

Debbie Scherer said a person had thrown the bags into her garden:

“Appalling behaviour. Still trying to catch the person on Dragon Road who finds it appropriate to throw their open poo bags in our garden.”

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Some manufacturers of dog poo bags claim they are biodegradable but they can still take up to six months to decompose.

250 dog waste bins

Harrogate Borough Council maintains over 250 dog waste bins and says responsible dog ownership is one of its top priorities.

Enforcement officers have the power to issue offenders with a penalty notice, which could lead to a maximum penalty of £1,000.

Harrogate Borough Council’s website says about dog fouling:

“Using local knowledge, enforcement officers patrol areas to provide a visible deterrent and issue penalty notices to dog walkers who don’t pick up.

“We operate a ‘no excuse’ standard and have issued over 150 penalty notices. We will pursue anyone who doesn’t pay the penalty notice through the courts and seek the maximum penalty of £1,000.”

Gyms: Excitement mounts but group classes still limited

Gyms and leisure centres in the Harrogate district are preparing to reopen next week after more than three months of lockdown.

But although thousands of people in the district are desperate to start lunging, pressing and punching their way back to fitness, gym life won’t be completely back to normal.

Ongoing social distancing restrictions mean many group training classes still won’t be available.

Ryan Tansley, owner of CrossFit Harrogate, at Hornbeam Park, said he was looking forward to reopening but because it couldn’t offer structured classes, it would operate more along the lines of an open gym.

CrossFit Harrogate has offered discounted rates to members during lockdown, and provided Zoom classes and various challenges, such as performing the most burpees.

Mr Tansley said:

“People have had to adapt but it will be so good to get back to seeing people.”

No sparring allowed

Contact won’t be allowed at Harrogate boxing and martial arts gym H Hour Boxing and Kao Loi, when it reopens next week, which means no sparring and pad work.

Owner Rob Smith said it will operate predominantly as a fitness gym rather than a combat gym until the situation changes. He said:

“We will do boxing training for fitness but our bread and butter is training people to compete and that’s on hold.”

The gym has produced many champion fighters, including Thai boxer Rachael Jones MacKenzie, but the impact of lockdown has left its future uncertain.

Rob Smith is the head coach at H Hour Amateur Boxing Gym.

Mr Smith plans to skydive to raise £5,000 to keep the gym afloat three days before his 50th birthday next month.

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Ripon refurbishment

As owner of Intrim in Ripon for the last 18 years, Phill McKay has been flying the flag for independent gyms at a time when big chains have been taking over. He said:

“We are as excited as our members are. We have air-con going in this week and a gym makeover so we will be ready to receive old and new members. We have also rebranded and have new equipment planned.”

Phill McKay of Intrim

Absolute Fitness in Boroughbridge, run by former World’s Strongest Man competitor Darren Sadler, who now promotes the biggest strongman events on the planet, is also reopening on Monday.

Functional fitness in Knaresborough

Because it has outdoor space, Knaresborough functional fitness facility Black Wolf Fitness has been able to provide outdoor training since March 29.
Owner Ad Whiter said:
“We are so excited to get back to some form of normality and finally have our fitness community back at Black Wolf HQ.
“They are what has kept us alive during this topsy-turvy time, and we can’t wait to welcome them back and celebrate what is hopefully set to be a fantastic summer.”
Harrogate Gymnastics Club staged some outdoor sessions this week to prepare some gymnasts for the move inside next week.
A spokeswoman said:
“We are pretty much going back to the same restrictions as before the January lockdown with the addition of twice weekly testing for all staff.
“We have been on restricted numbers since we were allowed to reopen last year so for use things are similar to before Christmas.”

Pure Gym in Harrogate will open on Monday. The gym will be open 24 hours but studio classes will not begin until May 17.

Leisure facilities managed by Harrogate Borough Council are also due to resume on Monday. But again, things aren’t totally back to normal. A council spokesman said:

“The pool at The Hydro in Harrogate and Nidderdale Pool will reopen on April 12 for lane swimming and family sessions.

“Brimhams fitness centres at The Hydro, Nidderdale Leisure Centre and Ripon Leisure Centre will also reopen to members only.

“Turkish Baths Harrogate will reopen from this date for treatments only.”

Graveley’s set to re-open this month under new owners

Famous Harrogate fish and chip restaurant Graveley’s is to re-open under its new name Catch in a fortnight.

The business was sold two years ago to Harrogate-based Catch Seafood, which owns four other fish and chip restaurants in Yorkshire.

The site on Cheltenham Parade has undergone a £250,000 transformation during lockdown, and will open as a takeaway on April 19.

The restaurant is due to open in May in line with government restrictions.

A press release by Catch today said the kitchen had been upgraded and the menu would be broadened.

It added:

“A new bar area has also been incorporated into the refitted restaurant, which will serve a range of draught products, delicious cocktails and fantastic wines.

“Exclusive to Catch Harrogate is a champagne and oyster bar for diners to enjoy.”

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Sarah Stuttle, managing director at Catch, said:

“Graveley’s has been a part of the local community for a long time, and we’re excited to welcome these loyal customers to Catch, as well as some new faces, when we reopen.”

The Catch group also has fish and chip restaurants in Holmfirth, West Vale, Headingley and Street Lane.

The company, which describes itself as ‘a casual seafood dining experience built on family values’, is owned by three Yorkshire-based entrepreneurs — Patrick Allen, Andrew Bartle and Philip Rushfirth.

 

 

WATCH: NHS takes down Nightingale hospital in Harrogate

Staff working on behalf of NHS England have dismantled large parts of the former Nightingale hospital in Harrogate, including the oxygen tanks that have loomed over the town for a year.

Construction workers started the job at 4am today, almost a year to the day since the temporary hospital started to take shape.

The stretch of Ripon Road immediately outside the Royal Hall and Harrogate Convention Centre was closed to traffic while cranes operated.

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We understand the CT scanners will also be removed later today.

The NHS confirmed last month it will dismantle all seven of the Nightingale hospitals across the country.

NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and the Humber, which was the Harrogate Nightingale’s full name, which never treated any coronavirus patients.

But it was used to provide CT scans to non-coronavirus patients.

Cranes in place to remove Nightingale oxygen tanks in Harrogate

Cranes are now in place ready to remove the oxygen tanks from the former Nightingale hospital in Harrogate.

Workers arrived at around 4am this morning to prepare the site and started by removing the concrete blocks.

Ripon Road immediately outside the Royal Hall and Harrogate Convention Centre is now closed to traffic heading towards the town centre. Crescent Road is being used as a diversion.

Construction workers have told the Stray Ferret that the oxygen tanks are set to be removed at around 7am to 8am this morning.

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We also understand that the CT scanners will also be removed from the former Nightingale hospital later today.

The NHS confirmed last month that it will dismantle all seven of the Nightingale hospitals across the country.

NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and the Humber never treated coronavirus patients. Staff did use it to provide CT scans to none coronavirus patients.

Crane to remove Harrogate Nightingale oxygen tanks tomorrow

The NHS will remove the oxygen tanks from the former Nightingale hospital in Harrogate tomorrow. It will be an historic moment for the town. The tanks have loomed over Harrogate and overshadowed the Royal Hall for a year.

The Nightingale hospital never treated coronavirus patients. Staff did use it to provide CT scans to none coronavirus patients.

The NHS confirmed last month that it will dismantle all seven of the Nightingale hospitals across the country.

A small section of Ripon Road, immediately outside the Royal Hall, will close at 4am to allow for a crane to remove the tanks. It is unclear how long it will take.

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Meanwhile, local councillors from the West Yorkshire Joint Health Scrutiny Committee are investigating whether lessons could be learned from Harrogate’s Nightingale hospital.

The committee will look into how the hospital would have been staffed and what services would have been affected if it had been needed.

When the oxygen tanks went up last year.

Councillors agreed to start the investigation at the next meeting of the health scrutiny committee on June 22. They will call in NHS officials to give evidence.

The Harrogate Nightingale cost £27 million to set up and served the entire Yorkshire and Humber region,

10-day Gilbert & Sullivan Festival returns to Harrogate

The 10-day International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival is returning to Harrogate this year, in a major boost for the town’s economy.

Harrogate hosted the event annually from 2014 until last year, when it was cancelled due to covid.

The festival, which will take place from August 8 to August 18 at the Royal Hall, attracts thousands of visitors from around the world.

Covid restrictions require the productions to be adapted to ensure the safety of performers, audience and backstage staff.

Janet Smith, festival director, said:

“After the horrible year we have all endured, we cannot wait to get back into the theatre.

“Our seating plan in the theatre is socially distanced, and only 40% of the usual Royal Hall seats are available, so we expect tickets to sell out quickly.

“We will have to wait to hear the government announcements about easing restrictions on June 21, when hopefully we will be allowed to open up more seats.”

The National Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company will open proceedings with HMS Pinafore.

Other highlights include Simon Butteriss directing and starring in The Mikado. The opera company will also bring along a brand-new production of Patience.

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Charles Court Opera will present its production of Iolanthe and Charles Court Opera also give two performances of its new G&S Express.

Forbear! Theatre, directed by Rachel Middle, will bring two productions of The Pirates of Penzance and The Yeomen of the Guard.

For something completely different, on August 6, Simon Butteriss will premiere The Diary of a Nobody comedy.

There will be an additional fringe programme of morning talks, masterclasses and afternoon concerts.

Tickets go on open sale from May 5 and can be ordered on 01422 323252 or online at www.gsfestivals.org.

Stray Views: Harrogate’s army college brings discipline and opportunities

Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. See below for details on how to contribute.

Harrogate’s Army Foundation College saves young people

I used to work at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate. People need educating on what takes place there. Some of these children don’t have great home lives, some want to make a career for themselves and do them and their families proud.
Education there is fab and does the world of good for the students that hated school and gives them a second chance. They leave there and go to phase two. Not one of them would go from there to a war zone!
I’m so glad people saw sense and kept it going as some of the junior soldiers may have gone down the wrong path without being able to join up. It creates a sense of achievement being able to join up at a young age, the proof is in the amount that join and stay in.
It’s a college with extra fitness and a little more discipline, what’s wrong with that?
Mrs Smith, Harrogate

Network Rail has questions to answer about tree felling

Your journalist reports that ‘some trees have been felled’ at Hornbeam Park. As a Harrogate resident living on Tewit Well Road, I want to report that all the trees have been felled. Tell it as it is, please.

We now have a situation where residents are having to prevent some of the young people of Harrogate putting themselves at risk and using this newly cleared area for their own purposes. When the line had mature trees, we may have the occasional leaf on the line, but we certainly didn’t have youngsters jumping over to sunbath, party etc.

I’m afraid Network Rail has a lot to answer for here. A poor ecological management decision has left local residents policing an area that was once a mature habitat for local wildlife.

Who was the ecologist who advised Network Rail? Are they not accountable for the habitat decimation that we have been left with? How can they say anything other than recovery will take years? Is Network Rail pleased with the result?’

Not impressed.

Charlie McCarthy
Local resident

Questions that need answering about Beech Grove

As a resident and local business owner of 11 years, I and many others strongly believe the Low Traffic Neighbourhood experiment on Beech Grove creates more congestion, longer car journey times and increased carbon emissions on surrounding roads.

Otley Road currently has major road works and the planned 20-week cycle lane construction will cause further disruption and congestion.

There are many unanswered questions for North Yorkshire County Council:

  1. What is the overall aim of this Low Traffic Neighbourhood?
  2. In the latest council meeting we were told that the cycling groups are being consulted to make these decisions. Why are the cycling groups being consulted and the residents and businesses, who pay taxes and rates, not consulted?
  3. How do you measure success or failure?
  4. What data are you collecting and where from?
  5. Which company are you using to analyse this?
  6. Did you count how many cyclists and motorists use the roads, before you closed them?
  7. Is information collected during the same months of the year, so you can directly compare activity in all seasons and weather?
  8. Is it the best time to do this during a lockdown?
  9. Why did NYCC approve all the housing developments, each with 2-3 cars, when 84% of people expressed that Harrogate was congested in the 2019 survey?
  10.  What’s the projection of people who will swap their cars for bikes and what is this based on?
  11. Far more people walk than cycle and yet the pavements are shocking, they are left for months after the Autumn leaves fall without being cleared and go untreated in ice and snow. How does this encourage people to walk?
  12. Where is the evidence that there is an appetite for more cycling?

I have spoken to many residents and businesses and cars are critical for the school run, appointments, visiting relatives, holidays, tourism but, most importantly, to access businesses.

Cars are the lifeblood of many businesses and thousands of jobs depend on them. Banning them cannot be the only solution.

Lucy Gardiner, Harrogate Residents Association

Why is government spending so much on roads?

Why does this article about cuts to rural roadworks contrast that with the funding provided for the Station Gateway and active travel schemes?
It looks to me like it’s deliberately giving the impression that the former is being sacrificed in order to pay for the latter, which is completely untrue. The two things have nothing to do with each other.
I suggest it would be altogether more relevant to point out the government is spending over £27 billion on new roads, which will increase car use, development, destruction of the countryside and pollution (to which electric cars are at best a partial solution) while allowing our existing road network to fall into an ever worse state of disrepair.
Malcolm Margolis
Rossett, Harrogate

Got an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.

£500,000 contract awarded for Springfield House upgrades

A covid-delayed project to refurbish a former Harrogate Borough Council office has taken a step forward after the approval of a £500,000 construction contract.

The council vacated Springfield House, at Harrogate Convention Centre, when it moved all of its operations to its new £13m civic centre at Knapping Mount in 2017.

The office has since been let out to businesses.

A planned refurbishment of the upper floors was due to start last year but hit delays as access was restricted during the convention centre’s use as an NHS Nightingale hospital.

At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, councillor Graham Swift, deputy leader and cabinet member for resources, enterprise and economic development at the council, said he had been “thwarted and frustrated” by the setbacks.

He added that he welcomed the awarding of the £501,815 contract to York-based Lindum Group Limited after a competitive tender process.

The works will include new office spaces, a refurbished space for convention centre staff and a business incubator scheme which provides mentoring and support services for entrepreneurs starting out in business.

The ‘digital incubator hub’ will be funded through £540,000 through the Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership and is expected to make the council around £49,000 a year.

This is according to a report which also said the other office spaces would generate around £40,000 a year when fully let.

Speaking about the Springfield House plans, councillor Swift said:

“I have been thwarted and frustrated with this project which we would have liked to have implemented over 12 months ago but as the project was up-and-running when then found ourselves in a covid environment.

“This is an essential project for the district and the sort of project other people are investing in too. I know Crescent Gardens is gathering momentum and other developers in town are keen to take advantage of what is going to a fluid but important space in the market for small start-up businesses to grow.”

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It comes as plans to transform the council’s former Crescent Gardens headquarters into offices and a roof garden restaurant have been formally submitted.

Harrogate-based property company Impala Estates bought the site in January last year for £4m. Its plans also include creating a gym, as well as turning the former council chamber and mayor’s parlour into meeting rooms.

Harrogate Youth Festival heads online this evening

The Harrogate International Youth Festival will have a new look this year as it heads online tonight.

The festival’s ‘Big Night In’ will take place at 7.30pm.

It is the longest running International Youth Music and Performing Arts Festival in the UK holding an event each Easter weekend since 1973.

The official festival has been postponed until next year, when international travel resumes. The organisers couldn’t let the weekend go ahead without some form of celebration – so instead they arranged the virtual concert.

The festival organisers will bring regular participants together on Zoom to watch key moments of previous festivals.

Micheal Newby, former Harrogate Mayor, will be hosting the online show and introducing a variety of video footage of recent concerts involving local and international artists.

Mr Newby said:

“This really will be a jammed packed evening! We simply could not put everything in that we wanted to – but I think we’ve got a really good selection that we know our audiences will love to see.

“We can’t wait to be together again and perform at these amazing venues in our community – but until then, we wanted to celebrate these amazing schools, groups and colleges that have performed with us over the years and really look forward to a fantastic Festival year next year.”

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In previous years, the six night festival would start with marching bands parading through the Harrogate town centre. Shows would run in big venues such as the Royal Hall and Ripon Cathedral.

The festival aims to bring, primarily youth, choirs, orchestras and bands together from across the world to perform in Harrogate.