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.

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Greed has made Harrogate homes unaffordable for many

I read your series of articles about Harrogate's high housing costs and its impact on hospitality workers with interest.

However, I read Alex Goldstein's contribution with increasing incredulity. I'm not sure whether he was being deliberately provocative or is completely heartless.

I was brought up in one of Harrogate's less affluent areas in the 1950/60s and many of my neighbours and my friends' parents worked in the hospitality sector. Strangely enough, they were able to support a family on their earnings, possibly because they lived in either council houses or reasonably priced rental accommodation.

It must be plain for everyone to see that the disparity between high priced accommodation and hospitality sector wages means it is inevitable that those wishing to work in this sector are no longer able to afford to live in Harrogate.

My heart bleeds for the buy-to-let investors who would be hurt by rent caps.  Their greed has made Harrogate unaffordable for more and more ordinary workers.

I do hope that Mr Goldstein will soon be able to afford his Lamborghini and drive off to Mayfair where his despicable ideas may be better appreciated.

Margaret Fox, Harrogate

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Read more:

• Are Harrogate's high housing costs to blame for the hospitality recruitment crisis?


• Harrogate council began talks with new Christmas market organiser in March

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The Montpellier Hill Christmas market experience was a nightmare

I’m sorry, I’ve totally lost my rag with this nonsense. What person thinks there is “no more appropriate” a site than Montpellier Hill for this event?

In a town with more than 200 acres of readily accessible open space and a half vacant town centre, we persist year after year on shoving hundreds of traders and tens of thousands of visitors on a muddy slope in the most cramped and inappropriate part of green space Harrogate has to offer.

As a local of more than 15 years, you soon learn to stay well clear of the Christmas market, such are the miserable circumstances under which it is delivered. Its absolutely horrid — thousands pushing past one anther in an obscenely small space, with narrow alleys and a sense that if you browse, you are blocking the crowds and inconveniencing everyone else.

If we had a modicum of common sense, we would relocate to another part of the Stray and have wide, airy corridors, with space between units so people can take a leisurely stroll and browse at their own pace, thus probably spending far more than they might have otherwise.

I love the concept of a Christmas market, I am ashamed of the way Harrogate delivers it simply because of the location. Look at Leeds, Durham, York — anywhere else as a better example of how it can be done without it being a positively suffocating (and covid-breeding) experience.

Mark Fuller, Cold Bath Road, Harrogate

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Universities offer more than degrees

I have just read Marilyn Stowe's column about the anxiety of not getting the A level grades you would have hoped to get.

As a lecturer for almost 40 years in a post-1992 university and an admissions tutor for much of that time, I spoke to and advised many university applicants in that position and I am gratified to say that my institution provided a more than satisfactory and welcoming academic, social and diverse community to a great number of them.

I am particularly proud of those who took up places at our university who saw the opportunity afforded to them not just as a chance to rise to the top but to serve the wider community, including an international one, in a professional capacity.

The pandemic has shown us just how much we need and rely on those whose work supports as a matter of course the wider community and those of every social constituency who find themselves in need.

Glyn Hambrook, Harrogate

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Do you have 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.

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