Latest news with #Wetherby
BBC News
4 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Derelict Wetherby children's home could become housing
A former children's home could be turned into housing, after standing empty for have been drawn up to convert the derelict Bramham House, near Wetherby, into 38 houses and flats - but the initial report suggests there will be no "affordable housing" within the project would see the main body of the building, on Freely Lane, demolished, with its historic front facade maintained and scheme by Bramham House Ltd would include 21 houses and 17 apartments. A Leeds City Council planning panel was shown an early-stage presentation of project, ahead of full planning permission being sought, according to the Local Democracy Reporting report detailed how the19th century building was in a state of disrepair, with doors and windows boarded up and no roof."This site is rich in history and heritage," said architect Lee Vincent, adding "we acknowledge the need to provide high-quality design and [will] do what we can to maintain the memory of Bramham House"."However, the site has been derelict for decades and was allocated for housing more than 20 years ago."According to council planning policy, 35% of homes in the development should be classed as the developer's report stated "abnormal costs" on the project meant none could be affordable homes provision in the project would be subject to an independent financial councillor Alan Lamb, who leads the city's Conservative Group, said the site had been impacted by anti-social behaviour and fires: "It's been an ongoing issue in my ward since before I became a councillor in 2007."The councillor said affordable homes, along with parking and road safety, were the main concerns for people living nearby, but conceded, the report indicated "it's a complex site to develop".Previous plans for Bramham House, which was used as an ambulance station at one stage, included a care home scheme which was approved in 2020. Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Plans for Harrogate Town training centre at races
Harrogate Town has announced plans to build a £2.75m football training facility at Wetherby Racecourse. The League Two club said it had been searching for a suitable site for five years, since the men's senior team was promoted to the English Football League (EFL). The proposals include a single-storey clubhouse, a grass and artificial pitch, parking and landscaping. A public consultation will take place from 17:00 BST on Thursday at Wetherby Town Hall, with supporters and interested parties invited to have their say on the plans. Harrogate Town's teams currently use training facilities across the region and the club decided a new permanent facility was needed. CEO Sarah Barry said they hoped the new training ground would also be used by the community, including local schools and sports clubs. It would be funded by Harrogate Town on land owned by the racecourse. Following the consultation event and a review of feedback, a planning application will be submitted to Leeds City Council. Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North. Related Internet links Harrogate Town AFC
BBC News
17-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Plans for £2.75m Harrogate Town training facility in Wetherby
Harrogate Town has announced plans to build a £2.75m football training facility at Wetherby League Two club said it had been searching for a suitable site for five years, since the men's senior team was promoted to the English Football League (EFL).The proposals include a single-storey clubhouse, a grass and artificial pitch, parking and landscaping.A public consultation will take place from 17:00 BST on Thursday at Wetherby Town Hall, with supporters and interested parties invited to have their say on the plans. Harrogate Town's teams currently use training facilities across the region and the club decided a new permanent facility was Sarah Barry said they hoped the new training ground would also be used by the community, including local schools and sports would be funded by Harrogate Town on land owned by the the consultation event and a review of feedback, a planning application will be submitted to Leeds City Council. Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
Spectator
26-06-2025
- Business
- Spectator
Is your private school dumbing down?
Bankruptcy, as Ernest Hemingway famously said, comes 'gradually, then suddenly'. For Britain's private schools floundering in the wake of the VAT rise on fees imposed in January this year, the gradual decline is well underway. Not only have an estimated 11,000 pupils left private schools so far in an unprecedented – and poorly forecast by Labour – mid-academic year exodus and smaller private schools have closed, but now Chinese whispers have begun about the lowering of academic standards. Pleading anonymity, several mothers muttered that pupils that would 'never normally be through the door' were found in their children's classes According to unnamed sources in the Telegraph, headteachers are quoted as saying that they have no choice but to 'widen the net', adding that 'schools where it's usually very challenging to secure a place' are now less scrupulous about their standards; 'you can see how nervous the sector is'. Put simply, if you can cough up, you're in. Just don't mention CAT scores or the ISEB. It's not about that anymore. Instead it's about 'pastoral care', 'sporting excellence' and all sorts of other platitudes, rather than your child's accelerated reader performance. This was always going to happen. No sooner did Labour remove the charitable status of private schools than their demeanour started to change. They are now operating far more like normal industry players than the Byzantine Enid Blyton-esque institutions of yore. Private schools, like all revenue-driven businesses, need to make money and money comes through a blunt headcount, not necessarily the brilliance of the heads in question. No longer charitable institutions that once had to demonstrate significant public benefit through bursaries and other outreach schemes, private schools can't raise capital in ways that other businesses could. Yes, there were private schools that operated as corporate structures in the prelapsarian days before the VAT rise (Prince Williams's prep school Wetherby's for example), but these were in the minority at 30 per cent of the total number of independent schools. Not anymore. Naturally this comes as a shock to its core middle to upper-middle class customer, unaccustomed to the nuts and bolts of rude capitalism on display. Once upon a time, you admired the grounds on match day and stood in the pavilion chatting to your fellow mummies about uniform and holiday plans. Now, not a day goes by when parents do not receive some letter or other from the bursar detailing snazzy changes to the school designed to guarantee our loyalty, not just to the institution but to the brand. For it is the revenue-driving potential of the brand that school marketeers salivate over when they create Instagram reels and glossy brochures that will outdo the competition. In my corner of Oxfordshire – a veritable theme-park of private schools – the competition is stiff. A quick WhatsApp straw poll of ambitious mothers reveals some of the ways in which private schools are commercialising themselves: Stowe (alma mater of Richard Branson) is now lowering the price of day places to prep-school rates; Cothill (famously the feeder school to Eton) will go co-educational from September 2025 joining Winchester and other schools that can no longer afford to be single-sex; my own daughter's prep school will open a senior school from 2026 with discounted fees up to GCSE level. But as schools are finding out, intensive and commercial net-widening inevitably comes at the attrition of standards and the ire of parents. Pleading anonymity, several mothers muttered that pupils that would 'never normally be through the door' were found in their children's classes, a trend that will likely continue as the new academic year approaches in September 2025 and private schools find themselves at the sharp end of the margin. A margin that, as one bursar told me, 'comes down to the bloody wire… it's often just a question of a family or a single pupil that tips the balance'. Certainly, the big-name private schools – Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Westminster – will always have their pick of the best pupils and may continue to be over-subscribed, but it is beyond doubt that the pool of parents is smaller and more demanding. Smaller, more modest institutions such as Park Hill in Surrey (recently closed) have already lost out. In a time of unprecedented sector transition from charitable to commercial endeavour, it seems that disruption comes equally from within as without. My daughter, upon hearing that she may be able to stay at her prep school until she is 16, jumps for joy. I don't have the heart to tell her that either the school or her parents may be bankrupt before then. But not to worry, it will all be very sudden. Just ask Hemingway.
The Sun
16-06-2025
- The Sun
Teen lag hurls boiling water at prison guard in suspected terror attack ‘inspired by Southport monster Axel Rudakubana'
A LAG hurled scalding water at a guard in a suspected terror attack inspired by Axel Rudakubana, it is believed. The Islamist teenager boiled water in his in-cell kettle and mixed it with sugar before throwing it at the officer as he delivered breakfast. 2 2 Triple child killer Rudakubana, 18, chucked kettle-boiled water at a guard at London's high-security HMP Belmarsh in May, as revealed by The Sun. The latest incident, on Saturday at Wetherby Young Offender Institution in West Yorkshire, saw the guard treated in hospital. A colleague also suffered minor injuries. A source said: 'Why on earth did this high-risk prisoner have a kettle in his cell? 'They may as well have given him a gun or a knife. 'Everyone believes it was a copycat of what Rudakubana did as the method is the same and, in a warped way, would have been inspired by him. 'Tests have shown the water was mixed with sugar — so the evil little scrote was trying to cause maximum damage.' Counter Terrorism Policing North East said it was investigating the incident. The Youth Custody Service confirmed two staff members were hurt, one of them receiving treatment in hospital.
