Grantley Hall wins the glittering prizes at Ripon Civic Society awards

Grantley Hall Hotel and Wellness Retreat enjoyed triple triumph at last night’s Ripon Civic Society design awards, presented by mayor Councillor Eamon Parkin.

Owner Valeria Sykes who has spent more than £70 million creating one of the UK’s most luxurious venues, was among the property developers, architects, representatives from organisations and members of the public, present for the awards ceremony at the Workhouse Museum in Ripon.

Also in attendance were members of the Sterne family, whose long-term investments in Ripon, have added significantly to the city’s retail, leisure and hospitality offer.

Grantley Hall was awarded the Price Flagon for best restored building, the Hazzard Silver Cup for best new building and the Helen Whitehead Award for best project.

Grantley Hall, Ripon

Grantley Hall Hotel and Wellness Retreat Picture: Jack Hardy

Before leaving with the three trophies, Ms Sykes told the Stray Ferret:

“I have been involved in the restoration and development of a number of historic buildings in addition to Grantley Hall and it is always gratifying to have work recognised.

“Whether you have a major scheme, or a small private development, design awards give encouragement and help to lift standards.”

Sterne Properties can claim to have its fingers in many pies in Ripon, including Appleton’s, whose upper-crust pork creations can be seen in the window of its distinctive premises on Market Place East.

Taylor Plate award to Robert Sterne

Robert Sterne receives the Taylor Plate for best contribution to city centre revitalisation

Across Market Square, the company’s latest large development earned the first award of the evening – the Taylor Plate for the best
contribution to city centre revitalisation.

RCS chairman and awards compere Christopher Hughes, congratulated the Sternes for their transformation of the former NatWest Bank building, next to Ripon Town Hall.

He pointed out that as well as creating the space for The Claro Lounge cafe bar to locate in the city, the total refurbishment of the building has also brought stylish apartments with stunning vistas, including  a view of the cathedral.

Photo of Angel carving

Ripon Cathedral’s Fallen Angels Project, was among the eight award winners

There was recognition for the cathedral in this special 1,350th anniversary year for the church of St Peter and St Wilfrid – the foundation stone upon which Ripon has been built.

Its intricate Fallen Angels project, which saw repair and refurbishment of medieval misericords in the quire earn the RCS Craftmanship Shield.

Other winners

In addition to their focus on the built environment, the society’s judging panel looked at the natural environment and rewarded the Pennycroft Restoration Project at High Batts Nature Reserve, with presentation of the Younge Rosebowl for best Environmental Improvement.

Mr Hughes said that the work at the West Tanfield reserve has been ongoing for almost 50 years and a programme of continuous improvements has been carried out by hundreds of volunteers.

The Sustainability Award was presented to the developer of The Stoneyard – a residential scheme off Stonebridgegate and, in a moving finale to the evening’s awards ceremony, the John Whitehead award for Civic Excellence, was awarded for the 2018 Armistice Commemorations led by the Ripon Community Poppy Project.

Presentation of the award, in recognition of a programme of activities that marked the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, was held up by covid lockdowns.

Last night, however, Councillor Stuart Martin and Hazel Barker, who set up the Community Poppy Project, accepted the trophy on behalf of the many people involved in the commemoration activities.

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Harrogate returns to list of UK’s best places to live

The Sunday Times has identified Harrogate as one of the best places to live in the UK.

The newspaper’s annual Best Places to Live list, published today, names the town as one of nine places in the north and north-east of England, and 70 nationally, which are among the most desirable.

Judges cited the town’s schools, parks, shops, cafes and restaurants as among its attractions, describing it as “all the fun and fresh air of Yorkshire without any of the gritty bits”.

They listed an average house price of £390,000, which they said had risen by 20% in the last two years.

The Times and Sunday Times property editor Helen Davies, one of the list’s judges, said:

“The Sunday Times Best Places to Live list is necessarily subjective. Leave it just to statistics and you will never capture the spirit of a place.

“For that, you need to visit to take into account that ‘you have to be here’ feeling. Is the pub dog-friendly, for example? Can you live car-free? What are the schools and houses like? Is it multicultural and multigenerational, and can it offer a good way of life to lots of different sorts of people? 

“Ten years ago, when we launched the inaugural list, London’s gravitational pull was strong, the WFH [working-from-home] revolution had not yet reached our doorstep and high streets were stacked with chains. How times have changed — and how welcome that change is.”

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Ilkley has topped the Sunday Times Best Places to Live list for 2022, though Slaithwaite in West Yorkshire was named as the best place to live in the north and north-east of England.

Also on the list for the region were Leeds City Centre, Cawthorne in South Yorkshire, Hovingham and Great Ayton in North Yorkshire, Tynemouth in Tyne and Wear, and Morpeth in Northumberland.

Harrogate last appeared on the list in 2016. In 2020, Ripon was featured, while last year Masham was singled out as one of the top places to live.

Property website Rightmove has frequently listed Harrogate as one of the happiest places to live in the UK.

More dubiously, a BBC Two programme named it as the country’s “porn capital” in 2010, with more people browsing for explicit content than anywhere else. Three years earlier, it was identified as the second-worst place for problematic drinking in a study conducted by the North West Health Observatory at the Centre for Public Health.

Harrogate district’s monthly business safari to be held

Harrogate District’s Chamber of Commerce is due to hold its monthly Business Safari event.

The members-only speed networking event will be held next week at St George’s Hotel.

You can sign up to the monthly agenda through the Harrogate Chamber website.

Plant competition for school children hosted by Johnsons of Whixley

Johnsons of Whixley in Harrogate is holding a competition for primary school children.

To celebrate the Queen’s platinum jubilee and gardening, £250 worth of plants will be sent to the winner’s school, including ten plants for their own home garden. Those in second and third place will also win a plant.

Children under the age of 11 can participate by drawing an imaginative Jubilee Garden. The form can be downloaded here.

Johnson's of Whixley competition poster

Children must create a drawing of a jubilee garden as part of the competition

JW is a three-generation run family business which grows and supplies trees, shrubs and plants to UK-wide planting schemes.

The company plays an active part in the community, having collected donations for Ukraine and providing plants to Baby Rainbow Memorial Garden last month.

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Fire brought under control tonight at Ripon recycling company site

Two fire crews tackled a scrap metal fire at K. A. Anderson metal recyclers on the Dallamires Lane industrial estate in Ripon this evening.

The North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service were called to the large recycling site shortly before 8pm.

Fire at K. A. Anderson

Dark acrid smoke billowed into the evening sky

A member of the K.A Anderson management, who was on the main gate to the premises to give fire crews access to the site, told the Stray Ferret:

“Nobody has been injured, it’s simply a fire that has started in a skip.”

View through gate of K.A.Anderson fire

The fire was quickly brought under control by the fire crews

Thick clouds of dark acrid smoke billowed into the sky over Dallamires Lane, as officers worked to put out the fire.

They quickly had it under control.

K. A Anderson, a specialist in all aspects of metal recycling, is a third generation family-run business, operating for almost half a century,

It says on the company website that the recycler has built a professional reputation for scrappage, processing and raw metals supply throughout the UK.

The company provides a complete metal recycling service, for many businesses and its major clients include Google and Lord’s Cricket Ground.

Ripon pub set to unveil new £170,000 renovations

The Golden Lion pub in Ripon is set to open a new beer garden after undergoing renovations costing over £170,000.

The pub in Allhallowgate will open the space, which the owners describe as a “secret garden”, this weekend.

Pub owner Nigel Ayton explained:

“We started renovations before Christmas and are set to open this Saturday. We’ve called it the secret garden due to the fact that looking at the pub you would have no idea it had such a beautiful open area at the rear.”

Mr Ayton and partner, Shelly Herron, initially took over The Black Swan in 2019 on a trial tenancy, before taking on a pub in Easingwold.

But due to the location and the distance from their families, Mr Ayton and Ms Herron decided to move back to Ripon after enquiring about The Golden Lion in January 2021.

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Despite initially being told it wouldn’t be a long-term agreement, in October 2021, Greene King announced they would invest £170,000 into the pub.

Mr Ayton added:

“It’s not been the best of starts for us as we decided to go into the pub trade/business in December 2019, only to be faced with lockdowns. But now we feel things have turned the corner and can’t wait to get the Golden Lion on the map.”

Meet the women behind Ripon’s royal miles of jubilee bunting

A team of dedicated knitters are creating Ripon’s royal miles of bunting to wrap around the city in celebration of the Queen’s platinum jubilee.

The all-woman Knit and Natter Club has combined needlecraft and design skills to make masses of red, white and blue bunting emblazoned with golden crowns and  the initials E:R.

With less than two months to go until the extended June bank holiday jubilee weekend, organiser Hazel Barker told the Stray Ferret:

“We have received hundreds of requests from shops, businesses and other organisations in Ripon, who want to decorate their buildings to mark the Queen’s 70 years on the throne.

“We’ve still got a little way to go, but we are getting there.”

Collectively, thousands of hours of unrelenting effort has gone into this proud production line.

Mrs Barker, who was made a Freeman of the City of Ripon, for services to the community, said:

” At our homes we are spending every spare minute beavering away making the various elements of the bunting, from flags to the emblems of the four UK countries.

“A group of us then meet on Mondays to create the displays in readiness for them to go on everything from railings to retail premises, the town hall and the entrance to Spa Gardens.”

The Knit and Natter Club Ripon

The knitters meet weekly at Hazel House, in the grounds of Community House

The weekly meetings are at Hazel House – a building in the grounds of Community House, named in honour of Mrs Barker for her work with the Girlguiding Association.

In addition to this, other knitters work from home, with regular supplies of wool provided for them.

The team, totalling 30, is also responsible for the countless hours of behind-the-scenes work that creates Ripon’s Remembrance displays.

They are part of the Ripon Community Poppy Project, founded by Mrs Barker and Councillor Stuart Martin, to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War  in 2018.

Funding for the project

The community project is funded by donations from members of the public and businesses and supported by organisations such as the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and an army of volunteers who put up the displays.

For the platinum  jubilee display, £2,500 of the sum used to buy the wool, netting and other materials was raised from the sale of decorative covid masks with Christmas designs on them.

And it comes as no surprise to discover that those whose painstaking work will be seen on the city streets in June, are the women behind the masks as well.

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Full list of election candidates in Harrogate district revealed

The list of candidates standing for election to the new North Yorkshire Council in the Harrogate district has been revealed.

Voters will head to the polls on May 5 to elect councillors to the authority, which will replace both North Yorkshire County Council and Harrogate Borough Council.

The Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, Green Party and independents have all fielded candidates ahead of polling day.

Harrogate Borough Council has published a list of election agents and names of candidates. A full list of party candidates will be published today (April 6).

A total of 21 councillors will be elected from the Harrogate district as the council is made up of new divisions.

The deadline to register to vote is Thursday, April 14. You can register here.

List of Harrogate district election candidates

Coppice Valley and Duchy

Valley Gardens and Central Harrogate

Bilton Grange and New Park

Harlow and St Georges

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Stray, Woodlands and Hookstone

Fairfax and Starbeck

Bilton and Nidd Gorge

High Harrogate and Kingsley

Knaresborough West

Knaresborough East

Killinghall, Hampsthwaite and Saltergate

Oatlands and Pannal

Boroughbridge and Claro

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Spofforth with Lower Wharfedale and Tockwith

Pateley Bridge and Nidderdale

Ripon Minster and Moorside

Ripon Ure Bank and Spa

Washburn and Birstwith

Wathvale and Bishop Monkton

Ouseburn

Masham and Fountains

Harrogate law firm opens new office in London

A Harrogate-based employment law firm has expanded its offices to London.

Boardside in London is close to St Paul’s Cathedral and the Bank of England. The location will mean it is easily accessible for clients in the city.

The company now has branches in three different regions, with its headquarters in Harrogate.

The firm wrote in its newsletter:

“Almost five years after launching our niche employment law practice in Yorkshire, we are delighted to announce that we now have a presence in the capital.

“We believe that by having offices in the two biggest legal centres (Leeds and London) in the country, it will be easier for us to meet clients from across the UK.”

Boardside is run by owners Richard Port and Nadine Martson.

Support for Ripon businesses

Shop - Oliver's Pantry

Ripon’s Business Improvement District has appointed the Place Support Partnership to help firm in Ripon save on running costs.

PSP will visit BID businesses to support and advise them on reducing costs associated with utility and trading bills.

Lilla Bathurst, manager of the BID, said:

“The Place Support Partnership offers various services and acts as a savings scheme to support businesses.

“During the consultation process, businesses identified that they would like 10% of their levy to go on business support.”

Ripon BID says it has also worked to make businesses aware of the Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant.

OHLG grants totally £141,342 were distributed to hospitality businesses in Ripon which were negatively affected by the pandemic.

Harrogate BID provided a business grant of up to £750 last month, for qualifying businesses to improve paintwork, signage and accessibility.

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Empty Ripon pub plagued with anti-social behaviour to be redeveloped

The Ship Inn, in the shadow of Ripon Cathedral, was once one of the city’s landmark pubs.

Since its closure, two years ago, the vacant site has been the location for a number of incidents of violence, anti-social behaviour and vandalism.

The area has planning permission for the creation of ten dwellings but in the meantime, the premises have been secured with metal shuttering on doors and windows, while a sign says that all internal valuables have been removed.

The former pub, is to be converted into five apartments and the 0.34 acre site will also include a detached house and four terraced houses.

Architects Watson Batty Properties LLP has submitted a planning application to Harrogate Borough Council, seeking ‘a changed location by 3m to the northwest of 4 terraced houses and revised fenestration featuring ivory sandblasted masonry walling with pewter split face feature banding.’

Once that application has been determined the site will be ready for its transformation from empty pub to residential use.

Photo of the Ship Inn, Ripon

The site is close to Ripon Cathedral

Residents living on Bondgate and adjoining streets, who have witnessed gangs of youths causing trouble in the area, will hope the redevelopment of the site may help tackle the problem.

Government guidance on how new developments can reduce crime and create safer communities, says:

“Good design means a wide range of crimes from theft to terrorism are less likely to happen by making committing those crimes more difficult. It helps create safer places.”

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Harrogate park and ride ‘still possible’ despite £116m funding failure

The councillor in charge of highways for North Yorkshire has said a park and ride pilot scheme for Harrogate remains possible despite a £116million funding bid rejection.

The Department for Transport yesterday awarded North Yorkshire County Council none of the £116million it bid for from the government’s Bus Back Better scheme. Much of the funding was earmarked to reduce congestion in Harrogate.

Councillor Don Mackenzie, executive member for access at the county council, said he was “very disappointed” with the rejection but parts of the county’s Bus Service Improvement Plan could still go ahead without government support.

Cllr Mackenzie said this included the park and ride, which is likely to operate from Pannal, although questions remained about how a permanent service would be funded.

“The park and ride trial was not part of this funding, and the pilot itself will use the 36 service so it won’t be particularly expensive to find out whether it works or not.

“I’m very anxious that this trial scheme still goes ahead irrespective of today’s result.”

Cllr Mackenzie also said the on-demand bus service, YorBus, which is being trialled in Ripon, Bedale and Masham could be expanded.

He added:

“One of the things in our Bus Service Improvement Plan was to expand the on-demand response service, YorBus, and of course that pilot continues.

“If it continues to be successful, we will roll it out in other areas.

“We will also continue to work in close partnership with bus operators.”

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The Bus Service Improvement Plan included £23 million for new bus lanes, £74 million for other infrastructure changes and £14 million for support for bus services.

‘Plans didn’t lack ambition’

The government claimed areas that failed to get the cash had not shown “sufficient ambition”. In total, just 34 of 79 areas which applied were successful.

In Yorkshire, this included the West Yorkshire Combined Authority which submitted a bid for £168 million, but was given £70 million, while City of York Council wanted £48 million and got £17.4 million.

Cllr Mackenzie said he believed the plans for North Yorkshire were ambitious enough to win funding and that he was now keen to speak to government officials to understand their decision. He said:

“I don’t think our plans lacked ambition. They were worth £116 million over eight years – that doesn’t lack ambition or aspiration.

“Until such time we have spoken to ministers or senior civil servants, I can’t say exactly what was lacking from our submission.

“We knew the Bus Back Better budget had been severely curtailed… but I expected to get some money, not nothing at all, so I’m very disappointed.”

The county council and Harrogate Bus Company have been successful in a separate bid for £7.8 million to make the firm’s fleet all-electric with the delivery of 39 zero-emission buses.

The project will cost almost £20 million in total, with more than £12 million being invested by Transdev – the parent firm of Harrogate Bus Company.

It will see 20 single-decker and 19 double-decker buses bought over the next three years, as well as the supporting charging infrastructure.