The latest news from Harrogate Borough

Harrogate Borough Council sent this bulletin at 02-07-2020 05:06 PM BST

This is a special edition of Residents' News
Thursday 2 July 2020

This is the latest edition of Residents' News

Another fortnight has passed by and another change to the lockdown rules is about to come into effect as places like pubs and restaurants are able to open once again.

The government has updated its ‘what you can and can’t do’ (from this weekend) advice.

Overall, the current ‘stay alert’ message remains. Please:

stay at home as much as possible
work from home if you can
limit contact with other people
keep your distance if you go out (two metres [at least six feet] apart where possible)
wash your hands regularly

Do not leave home if you or anyone in your household has symptoms.

For the latest government advice visit its website. For health advice, visit NHS 111.

A message from the leader and chief executive

Another milestone weekend lies ahead. It will see pubs, restaurants and other hospitality businesses reopening.

Now that many high street retailers are trading once more, we inch closer to the ‘normal’ we knew from before the beginning of the lockdown.

As a council we are definitely in more of a recovery than response phase now.

While we continue to support the district’s most vulnerable people with the ongoing pandemic, we’ve been increasing our focus on getting the local economy back on track.

Last month, ahead of the reopening of non-essential retailers, we provided practical advice and guidance to help shop owners get themselves ready to trade.

Our special toolkit was distributed to hundreds of businesses.

We are now extending our support to hospitality businesses as they prepare to open. You may have also seen that we are working with our colleagues at North Yorkshire County Council to allow cafes, pubs and restaurants make more use of outside space.

This will mean social distancing rules can be maintained and outlets can maximise the opportunity to welcome back as many of their customers as they can.

We’re doing everything we can to provide a boost to our town centres.

Retailers and hospitality firms need our help more than ever before, so we encourage you to think - and shop - local in our six main towns.

We’ve secured a pot of money from a European Union development fund which we’re going to use to run a campaign promoting high streets across the district.

It’s fair to say the coronavirus has affected us all.

As a council, there has been a significant impact on our finances. We expect to be between £10 and £14 million out of pocket as a result of the crisis.

This is because of the cost of responding to Covid-19 and where we have lost income.

The good news is that we don’t expect to end up in the same position sime other councils may find themselves in. We will not require an emergency budget, nor are we talking of bankruptcy.

We continue to lobby the government about what it can do to make up the shortfall.

Finally, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank our amazing staff for their hard work during the coronavirus pandemic.

Without their flexibility we would not have been able to keep many services running, including waste collection. Others have been delivering information leaflets to residents or calling elderly people to make sure they are OK.

Some of our staff have also taken on completely new duties including becoming ambassadors in our retail centres as they reopen.

As a community we should be immensely proud of all that our public services have done.

We are very proud to lead one of them.

Councillor Richard Cooper
Leader of the council

Wallace Sampson OBE
Chief executive

Cafés, pub and restaurant reopening weekend approaches

The country’s return to normal from the coronavirus lockdown continues this weekend when cafes, pubs and restaurants are allowed to open.

We’re supporting businesses across the district to resume trading and we’re working with our colleagues at the county council to allow greater use of outside spaces.

We think this will give hospitality firms a boost as they welcome back customers and will allow them to ensure social distancing regulations are maintained at all times.

We are urgently working on a new application process so businesses can secure the right permissions to expand outside.

We’ll have staff out and about offering help and practical guidance this coming weekend. Colleagues from our partner organisations – such as North Yorkshire Police – will also be visible.

Some licensed premises have chosen a staged approach to reopening so may remain closed this weekend, and some are operating a booking system.

We suggest you check in advance to see if your favourite pub or restaurant is trading, what arrangements it has in place and plan your journey there and back in advance.

Don’t forget that if you travel on public transport, you’ll need to wear a face covering.

The coronavirus has not gone away and we know we can rely on the people of our district to celebrate our new sense of ‘freedom’ responsibly and to respect others.

If you run a hospitality business, our free toolkit to help you reopen is on our website.

Shop Local. Shop safe.

Shops, cafes, restaurants, pubs, hairdressers and other businesses across the district have been working hard to welcome you back and make your return to the high street and town centres as safe as possible.

Let’s say thank you. Let’s 'Shop Local, Shop Safe'.

Please do your bit by observing the social distancing rules, stay two metres apart, follow all the measures put in place by retailers and hospitality businesses and the instructions given by their staff, and, above all, respect each other please.

Our high street ambassadors will be on hand this weekend to offer advice and guidance. Say 'hello' to them (from a safe distance of course).

Children's play areas reopen

Hospitality businesses aren’t the only places to benefit from the most recent change in the lockdown regulations. Other venues will reopen from next week.

This includes the children’s play areas we own across the district. That means the little ones will be allowed to let off steam from Saturday morning.

Social distancing regulations will still be in place, so if you find a play area is particularly busy, please come back later.

We’d also appreciate it if play can be limited to one hour and that all hands (big and small) are washed or sanitised before and after the children’s play area is used.

We know that lots of people across the district value our paddling pools, but these will remain closed for the time being.

And, while our amazing staff from across the culture, tourism and sport team are supporting front line services, the Mercer Art Gallery and Royal Pump House Museum will stay closed.

Applications for discretionary grants for business

Last month, we opened applications for grants for certain eligible businesses (bed and breakfasts, small charities, market traders and firms which operate from shared business premises) for grant funding to help them deal with the impact of the coronavirus.

Those are now closed, and we are processing the paperwork.

If you applied, you’ll hear from us with a decision no later than 13 July for phase one businesses and 30 July for phase two businesses.

NHS birthday marked with blue lights

This weekend Knaresborough Castle and Harrogate Convention Centre will be turned blue in celebration of the NHS’s 72nd birthday.

They will join hundreds of other landmarks across the country paying tribute not only to NHS staff but also those who have helped the organisation during its most challenging period since its 1948 inception.

Harrogate Convention Centre is currently on standby as an NHS Nightingale hospital.

More reasons to be ‘appy'

Victoria and Jubilee multi-storey car parks in Harrogate now have barrier-less entry with the AppyParking smartphone app.

There is no need to take a ticket and with pay-per-minute (after the minimum stay), you only pay for time you use.

The convenience fee has also been reduced from 30p to 20p for all parking sessions.

Don’t worry if you don’t have the app, you can still use the pay and display machines.

‘Appy days! (See what we did there? 😆)

West Park Stray update

Preparation work is now complete, and the area has been seeded.

Scarecrows - made by primary school children across the district - have also been placed across the site to try and prevent birds from eating the seeds.

They look fantastic so thank you to the children, parents and teachers for making this happen.

To protect the new grass as it grows, you will not be able to enter the area or use the footpaths within the orange netting for the next few weeks.

During this time we will also be repairing the footpaths

Harrogate car club

We’re working to improve air quality and reduce carbon emissions across the district.

One way to support this is to encourage people to reduce the number of cars in their household as well as the dependency of owning your own car.

We have partnered with Co-wheels to run a car club scheme across the Harrogate district.

A car club provides cars for short (as little as half an hour) or long-term bookings (up to a week) and are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis with insurance and fuel covered.

To find out more or to join the Harrogate car club visit the Co-wheels website.

Thanks for your help to choose our staff STARS

Every year we ask you to nominate members of our staff who’ve impressed you with their fantastic customer service or because they’ve gone over and above their usual duties.

It’s part of our STARS scheme which we use to recognise and say thanks to our people.

We had a fantastic response this year with an email inbox bulging with nominations for the ‘People’s Choice’ category chosen entirely by our customers and residents.

It was quite tricky whittling down all the nominations to a final shortlist.

They are the team at Starbeck Baths, Jennifer Love from the parks and environmental services team and the full-time Valley Gardens gardening ‘crew’.

We usually hold a special event to recognise our colleagues in June, but it has been postponed until at least the autumn while we continue to respond to the pandemic.

Major investment in sport and leisure in the district: a clarification

In the last edition of Residents’ News, we included a story regarding investment in the sport and leisure service and a plan to run the service in a new way.

What was missing was the fact these proposals will be discussed at a meeting of the full council which will take place on 8 July.

We’re happy to make that clear this time.