News

Good news!!

The mobile Post Office Service has been reinstated. The new timetable is below.

Ripon Walled Garden – Apple Day 2022
8 October, 10:00am to 4:00pm
Ripon Walled Garden, Palace Road, Ripon, HG4 3HN

Apple Day is a celebration of the harvest and a fun and vital fundraising event for Ripon Community Link.
There will be hand apple pressing for the community to bring their apples and take away their freshly pressed juice, live local entertainment – including Ripon Rock Choir, Freddie Cleary and the Skelldale Singers, homemade food, and local business stalls to browse. Child and dog friendly!

New Ukulele Group in Boroughbridge

Mind in Harrogate District, in association with Orb Community Arts, will be leading a series of free weekly ukulele sessions beginning Friday 7 October, between 11am and 1pm, at St James’ Church.

There are many benefits to playing the ukulele which can support mental health and wellbeing. The ukulele is beginner friendly and accessible (it can be played using only 1 or 2 fingers).

The group would be welcome to operate independently following the initial (10) sessions and there may be an (optional) opportunity to perform with Orb’s existing ukulele group at the end of the series of sessions!
For more information or to join please contact Kirsty on kirsty@mindinharrogate.org.uk or 07305 049296 .

The Menopause Festival Week 17 – 20 October 2022

After becoming ‘A Menopause Friendly Organisation’ and in celebration of Menopause Awareness Day, Humber and North Yorkshire ICS have put together a collaborative week of events, with a range of topics, conversations and guest speakers.

Sessions include mindfulness, managing the menopause naturally, financial wellbeing, the benefit of exercise….to name but a few! All sessions will be held virtually.

The Festival also includes Menopause sessions for men to help them support their partners or work colleagues.
You can find out about all the sessions and book free places here

 

Help develop an all age friendly community

Community First Yorkshire and North Yorkshire County Council want to know what life is currently like for residents aged 50+ in North Yorkshire and how they can help improve things for the future. The information provided  on issues such as housing, transport, health and community care, open spaces and connecting with your communities will be used to develop a vision that will help work towards becoming an all age friendly community.

The survey should take 10 minutes to complete.

 Legal tender status of paper £20 and £50 banknotes withdrawn.

After 30 September 2022 we can no longer use paper banknotes, but only the new polymer versions.

The options which remain available for the old notes are listed here.

 How much you’ll pay under the price cap guarantee from October 

The  Money Saving Expert calculator estimates what you’ll pay based on your use. The page also includes what you need to know about your energy bill changes, how best to keep costs down and the impact of the energy price guarantee for those on standard variable rate tariffs.

Funding to make your home more energy efficient

Harrogate Borough Council is working with E.ON to deliver an energy efficiency scheme to provide targeted support for homes across the Harrogate district.

Eligible homeowners can access free government funding to improve their home by installing energy-saving products – such as wall insulation, solar panels and air source heat pumps – which will help reduce energy bills and make your home more energy efficient.
Eligibility requirements:

• You own your own home
• Your home has an Energy Performance Rating (EPC) of D, E, F, or G
• Your household income is less than £30,000 or someone living in your home receives one or more means-tested benefits

For more information and to check eligibility, visit the E.ON Green Homes Grant website. Alternatively, you can call E.ON on 0333 2024820.

12th October at 10am.

Following Public Consultation Commissioner Zoë makes her decisions on the new Risk and Resource Model for the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service.

After three months of consultation with the public, Zoë Metcalfe, North Yorkshire’s Police Fire and Crime Commissioner has made her decisions on how the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service will continue in its transformation over the next three years.

The changes were first proposed to the public earlier this year, detailing how the Fire and Rescue service would seek to deploy its people, equipment and resources based on an extensive risk assessment across North Yorkshire and York, which identified the likelihood and severity of fires, road traffic collisions, water related incidents, and other emergencies.

Consultation with the public consisted of 12 public events at which 1,400 people actively engaged, three resident focus groups and an online survey which received 1,300 responses. Throughout this period Commissioner Zoë put the questions asked by the public to leaders of the Fire and Rescue Service and interrogated their response, scrutinising the detail of the data and evidence set out.

Commissioner Zoë has made approvals, subject to stipulations on some of the proposals, after evaluating the evidence and considering the views and opinions of the public.

Importantly, the decisions made by Commissioner Zoë enable any savings to be re-invested into vital areas of the Service identified as key public priorities; increasing prevention and protection work across the service area, which includes permanent investment into prevention and protection teams at this point and concentrating on improving the availability of On-call fire engines in rural areas.

Amongst the approved proposals is to change Huntington to an On-call station with the requirement for the Chief Fire Officer to implement an ongoing assurance review of on-call response time data annually. The decision falls heavily on evidence that there is more emergency response resource in the York area than the risk or demand requires, and therefore changing Huntington station is safe, and will enable capacity for more prevention and protection work.

The proposal to replace the Tactical Response fire engine at Harrogate with a larger Emergency Rescue fire engine has been approved and will be crewed only during peak hours. The second Emergency Rescue fire engine at this site will remain full-time, therefore increasing capacity and capability to respond to an emergency when demand is at its greatest, as well as improving resilience across the service area. Harrogate will pilot this proposal and after a 3-year review, the Commissioner will look to adopt in Scarborough.

Commissioner Zoë said:

“I have made these decisions to support the transformation of our Fire and Rescue Service based on extensive evidence and from listening to what is important to you, which you said was increasing and enhancing prevention and protection work to stop incidents from happening in the first place”

“During my consultation my office and I had many great conversations across communities, taking the opportunity to listen and discuss what the proposals would mean and how they were in the best interest of keeping people safe and feeling safe. I want to personally thank everyone who attended one of our consultation events and completed the online questionnaire – your views are always important.”

“Some areas of the Service will change, and I know change can be unsettling, but I remain confident that the right people, with be in the right place, with the right equipment at the right time, to support everyone in North Yorkshire and York.”

Jonathan Dyson, Chief Fire Officer said:

“The Commissioner’s endorsement of the proposals we have presented within our Risk & Resource Model, supports my professional opinion and strategic direction for resourcing to risk. Our strong focus on prevention and protection activities are the primary way for us to reduce risk in our communities. This provides a sustainable commitment to keep the communities of North Yorkshire and the City of York safe and feeling safe.

“The Service has committed to sustained engagement with our communities, to provide reassurance about the changes that your fire service will be putting in place.”

Other decisions which will be progressed are plans to reform, improve and enhance the On-call service in North Yorkshire and York, the introduction of a new specialist water rescue capability in Skipton and adopting principles which provide the public of North Yorkshire with meaningful, accurate and localised emergency response standards to help them understand what they should expect.

Full details on the Commissioner’s decisions can be found in the Decision Notice published on her website here: Decision Notices – Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner North Yorkshire (northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk)