Pannal in peril?

Goodness me another blog in so short a space of time but this is important. please look at Pannal Parish Council's website or their Facebook site.  This is what I am asking you to do and I shall also object on these grounds  for PN18 Employment site south of Almsford Bridge, Pannal.
Please as many residents as possible write in and object to this plan. Apart from the fact that we are so proud of the Crimple Viaduct and the fact that it can be seen from a long way away. If HBC plan to have a light industrial site on this area. which was designated by HBC in the past as never to be built upon maintaining the separation of Harrogate from Pannal by these green fields, means we will no longer be able to see this Grade 11 listed monument. Castles are monuments, buildings and follies can be monuments. This is our - Pannal's - monument. As a historian, journalist and a very long time resident of Pannal I am saying this and also as a resident I know if this plan is allowed to go through the traffic will not only use the extremely busy A61 Leeds Road but come hurtling through Pannal. Letters of objection are fine is one does not have access to the internet. Let the Council know that PANNAL IS NOT A DUMPING GROUND FOR ALL THEIR MONEY MAKING SCHEMES.
These modification plans are in all the Libraries. Please also reaffirm deletion of PN19 land behind St Robert's Church and PN17 land adjoining Spring Lane Farm from the plan as being a necessity. Comments can be emailed to planningpolicy@harrogate.gov.uk or posted to Planning Policy, Planning and Development, Harrogate Borough Council, PO Box 787, Harrogate, HG1 9RW. The deadline is Friday 20th September, 2019. When the Local Plan came up last year all our objections counted so please make sure all our objections count for the Modification plan. hopefully we can win this if we all work together.

Pannal and the travellers

yesterday I was meeting a friend at Crimple Hall for coffee and unwittingly walked into the travellers. . They let two dogs loose. They were small yappy things and immediately attacked my feet. I was wearing sandals. Only small dogs I know but very very aggressive. Woman at van stood watching. Boy said to me "this is our bit entrance is down there" I went into the garden centre and the staff there told me that there was damage and antiques and plants had been taken. They were in shock. Police were called and asked did anyone see the goods being taken. Staff said no it was during the night, Police left. I was told police would not do anything like moving them on. Is this true? What is happening. Travellers have also been to other places in Harrogate and left leaving a terrible mess to be cleared up. How come we, the general public, can be fined for dropping a crisp packet on the ground and a mess can be left for the Council to clear up. I just do not get it. Can anyone tell me why this is? Why do we council tax payers have to pay for the mess to be cleared up? When my friend arrived we did not stay which is a shame as Crimple Hall were loosing out. Went home and spent a couple of happy hours in my garden. Which I love. Places I love being the beach, the golf club and my garden. Never happier.

Peace reigns in Pannal

As I wrote in my blog last time Pannal makes its own congestion. I know it is often not helped by traffic coming through the village as a short cut to reach the A61 but at the moment peace reigns. Pannal school is closed the roads are quiet. As I have often said it is a nuisance in the mornings and afternoons but only for three quarters of an hour each time. No stupid idea of advocating a road to the west of Pannal will help the congestion caused by parents taking and bringing back their children from Pannal Primary School. We have a primary school in the village and we have to live with that. My four children all attended Pannal Primary school (I think we still hold the record for the number of years the children were there).  As I type this not a single car has passed either up or down Main Street and I have just written why that is.
I am writing a book on the Valley Gardens , Harrogate as I was Chairman - for 22 years - and founder of Friends of the Valley Gardens and we saved the Sun Pavilion from demolition. I have a co-author Jane Blayney who followed me as Chairman and we are having fun writing the book which will be out in October. It will not be a hard backed book but a book easy to carry around telling readers about what is in the Valley Gardens and photographs of how it used to be and believe me it was magnificent. I remember it as a little girl and all I remember is flowers everywhere and running up and down the Colonnade. We are being sponsored by Betty's, Harrogate Spring Water and more and all will have their logos on the back of the book. Should be on sale everywhere, hopefully.
I have just come back from our big family holiday in Wales, a few miles from Tenby and we were away last week and spent everyday on the beach swimming with fantastic waves so body boards, kayaks. paddle boards the family brought.  Rented a fantastic house which had its own private path to the beach. Beautiful long sandy beach with few people so it was heaven sent. Long walks and an especially a steep uphill walk to get back to our house. Once down on the beach we were there to stay. Bethany one of my grandchildren had her 7th birthday whilst we were there and she had asked for her party to be on the beach before we set of to Wales so her wish was granted.
Plan has gone in for 26 flats in the Dunlopillo office block. No it is not going to be demolished. Shall look at the plans to see how they are going to make that eyesore beautiful. In 1962 when it was built a brochure, of which I have a copy, was sent out saying that it blended in well with surrounding countryside!!
As well as writing this book I, as the local historian, am answering many questions about Pannal both the village, the people who lived here in past years and also as Pannal Golf Clubs historian so it is pretty busy. I am answering a query at the moment for people who have just moved into a very old house in Burn Bridge and they will be pleased to know I have all the answers to their questions and also what the inside of their house looked like at the beginning of the 1900s.
Played golf yesterday all eighteen holes and the heavy rain and hailstones were a nuisance as we got very wet twice. It was our Lady Captain's Day so we felt we had to finish. 
As I have just come home on Sunday Tigs and Marble (who were well looked after by my neighbour) are making a great fuss of me. They are both very affectionate little cats.

What does Pannal do?

I attended the meeting re congestion in Pannal Memorial Hall. NYCC and Pannal Parish Council were there. A good number of villagers turned up all concerned with congestion in Pannal. Now this is how I look at it. HBC has gone mad and is allowing thousands of houses to be built. They are all expensive so who are they for.? Is it people that live and work in Leeds, Bradford. York and want to be away from their place of work? I cannot answer this. I have lived in Pannal nearly all my life. I live on Main Street so I know what goes on re traffic. We are a rat run for traffic going and coming from above places. Cars stationery pollution. We are also going to have all the houses on the old Dunlopillo site. That is a fact and the infrastructure is not in place. How will the schools cope, the doctors where is takes about three weeks to get an appointment, Harrogate hospital. HBC has not put out any plans to tell us how these places will manage. All they seem to be saying is we want to build new roads and thousands of houses. We shall put traffic lights all over so you will get fed up and agree with us. We shall put traffic lights on Rudding Lane off the Wetherby Road and no one will ever see anyone working there and the lights will be there for weeks. As I type this not a single car has passed all morning. Time now 1.30pm. Admittedly there is congestion with the school traffic and also the rat run but at certain times peace reigns. Do we want a road bypassing Pannal village, to have one means to build one across green fields. Looking years ahead would it have been better to have a road across the green fields or more and more housing . One has only to look around Harrogate to see housing is the Council's plan.Does one put a roundabout at the top of Station Road and the A61 Leeds Road? Would that help or make it more attractive to rat runners. Does one put a roundabout at the bottom of Burn Bridge Lane onto the A61 Leeds Road taking the traffic away from Pannal Village but putting more traffic on Burn Bridge Road? Or do we Put up with it? We cannot get away from the fact that we have housing on Walton Park, Crimple Meadows, Pannal Green, Rosedale. Burn Bridge and then there will be housing on the Dunlopillp site. We make our own congestion. Having new roads built will not take that away. We all have to leave and go back to our homes. Sad old blog this time with nothing to brighten it up. Henry the Eighth one famously said who will rid me of this troublesome priest. Could that be applicable to HBC.

Is Pannal congested?

What do you think? Find out on Thursday May 16th from 5pm to 7pm in Pannal Memorial Hall. If you have already made your comments to Harrogate Borough Council that is fine but if not here is your chance to find out what it is all about and make your comments after you have seen Exhibition by Pannal Parish Council. Don't think HBC think we have congestion in the village.  All the cars in the village from 8.30am to 9am and 3pm to 3.45pm that is because there is Pannal Primary School and I am afraid we have to put up with all the cars parking and driving. There are also cars doing the rat run and heavy lorries that are not supposed to come through the village but some of the drivers unfortunately cannot read the prohibiting signs. This goes on in the evenings from 4.30pm to about 6.30pm. Sometimes cars backed up from traffic lights at the top of Station Road all the way up to All Saints Court in occasions. Normally just a steady stream. Today as I type this silence as Harrogate is quiet due to the cyclists. When I went into town this morning what peace and it is Friday. Well seen the cyclists do not come through Pannal as our roads have so many pot holes especially top of Spring Lane. Wish they would come through here as everywhere they go the roads have been made so smooth.
I have just returned from Sorrento and it was lovely. Went to Capri and that was a rip off. Fourteen euro for two little cups of coffee. Did not dare eat there. Not a mention of Gracie Fields and at one time she was what people went to Capri for. I remember my neighbours going and coming back so excited saying we saw Gracie walking down the street. My 15 year old grandson said who is Gracie Fields and I said she was a singer who was very popular during World War Two. He said what did she sing and I said Sally put it on your phone. He did she sang the first word Sally and he said Oh God and switched her off.
My lovely neighbour looked after Tigs and Marble when I went away and when I returned they were waiting for me on the drive and I have never known such excitement. Never seen anything like it in the 15 years that I have had them. What happened whilst I was away I shall never know. Place looked the same but they were so pleased to see me, so vocal and jumping up and running round my feet. They are still doing it and I don't know why. Cats normally just say Oh your back and carry on with what they were doing. I was a lovely welcome.
Thank goodness I was not in Sorrento over Easter as it was fabulous here and all over the UK. Not so fabulous now. All hoping for better.

Good News for Pannal?

The Inspector looking at the Local Plan has said that the land behind St Robert's Church - Crimple Valley should not be built upon nor should houses be built on Spring Lane Farm land. I put the ? because I have known HBC  to go their own way "for the benefit of all Harrogate " At the moment it is good news but having so many years attending planning meetings I am cautious.
I am still doing talks for various organisations but I only do them end of October until end of March. So finished now but in talking about Pannal so many occasions come up so here are a few. In the early 1960s when we all had larch trees at the end of our front gardens (later compulsory felled for the road to be widened and a pavement built) We had bats nesting in them and that was lovely seeing them flying around in the early evenings.We had a bee swarm. Thousands of them all over our windows. Gentleman came and found the queen bee and the bees all followed her and we could once more come out of our houses. Then laying a lawn and planted up our front gardens we had a herd of cows trample through them having decided not to be driven down the road by the farmer. That was fun filling in the holes their hooves left! The hunt used to come through the village and on one occasion a fox ran into the front garden as I was in the drive and the huntsman went to send the dogs in. I stood my ground and said it was private property and the leader of the hunt raised his whip to me he was furious. Then the fox jumped into my arms, then jumped down and ran up the drive and in to the back garden. When I went into the back garden he was sitting on the wall panting but to me it looked like he was laughing . Strange happening.  Then  we had a violent storm which came out of nowhere. I had hung out my washing and Susan was about two and was with me. The sky darkened the wind gusted it got so dark one could hardly see. I, thank God, managed to grab Susan and we went inside. My neighbours phoned as they were getting on in years and were frightened. The storm passed as quickly as it arrived and when I went out a sheet I had hung on the line was ripped in two. Pannal had survived with no trees blown down but Rudding Park suffered the loss of lots of trees. In those days Rudding Park was open to the public and it cost one shilling to enter same as Newby Hall. One concidence was when I had Susan, our first, in the bed opposite me was the wife Mrs Radcliffe of the owner of Rudding Park and when I had our fourth Richard in the bed opposite me was the stepdaughter of the owner of Newby Hall. Pannal really was a village in those far off days. No Rosedale,Walton Park, Crimple Meadows, Pannal Green, Woodcock Close. School had just moved from Woodcock Hill to the fields behind Main Street. So going back where I started this blog the Inspector realised that we really would be overcrowded with housing.
On now to what I did a couple of weeks ago. I was in the garage putting my golf battery on charge, had the plug in my hand when someone came up the drive and asked if I knew where someone lived I told him, turned round and took a plug out and put one in. Five days later I found I had removed the plug from the freezer and everything inside was swimming. Including a 19 pound (weight) turkey I had in the freezer (not going into the story why it was there and not used at Christmas - don't ask) So I rang Alan Shutt and said you have dogs would they eat this turkey. He said turkeys are poisonous to dogs. I looked it up on google yes he was right so I took the wrappings off lugged it down to the bottom of the garden, it started to rain so I thought I shall try and cut it up in the morning. When I opened the curtains in the morning it had gone.(Theme tune to Jaws here). No bones there nothing. Cats too little to move or eat it. We do have a large dog fox in the Quarry could it have been him? How? Cannot get into neighbours gardens fenced off and there is a wall at the end of my garden and then Pannal Stream. Mystery has not been solved.

Pannal Hall

Unfortunately Jennifer Bentley who used to live at Pannal Hall but latterly lived at Brookside Cottage has died. She was 87. I used to visit her there and always found her informative and interesting to talk to. We shared the same name before we married. We were both called Grant and strangely enough we both had a great great grandfather also called Grant who was an Admiral in the Royal Navy. My Dad was in the Royal Navy for 22 years before and all through the Second World War and was a decorated war hero who was entitled to a gun carriage funeral in Harrogate. Which he had attended by the RN at Forest Moor. Jenny was also a WREN in the Royal Navy.

Does that leave Pat Lamb as Pannal's oldest inhabitant or is it Jennifer Bentley? Hopefully someone will let me know.

I have had the whole house decorated and as the decorator was going into one room I had all the furniture out and it was in the summerhouse, the garage, hall and other rooms. Eventually got it all back. Decided to wash every curtain in the house and fortunately it stayed dry. Horrible job getting them down and up again.  What fun and I don't think. I have hundreds of books and I thought I will empty the bookcases, pile them in order so I know where they will go when it is time to put them back. What happened I do not know but I had bookcases filled and books left over and I am afraid they were stuffed in a pile. Still puzzled how that happened. Tigs and Marble did not like it one bit. Especially when their beds were thrown into the garden in order to paint the room they sleep in. Not a single purr all week.

The garden collection does not start until March 21 and everyone is gardening now and probably need to have the grass cut soon. Fortunately the family came up at half term and they helped me take the sacks to the tip. Weather, at the moment, brilliant does this bode well for summer?. Who knows but I hope so.