03/06/2025
So, we’re here again….. bloody roadworks outside our shop, for the 478th time in last 4 years. The best bit is,- and frankly, this is so far fetched that it surely can’t be true,- (allegedly) this disruption to us all is to accommodate a pipeline that is being laid from the highest point on B6161 near the end of Lund Lane, all the way to Harrogate Spring Water on Harlow Moor Road!!!! This, allegedly, is to take water from a newly discovered aquifer into the (Privately owned) Harrogate Spring Water bottling plant. How can this really be happening???? The disruption to local businesses and commuting public is off the scale. ONLY THE ABOMINATION THAT IS (Formerly) HARROGATE COUNCIL could possibly approve a scheme like this. It makes my blood boil.
Through no fault of ours, all for the benefit of private enterprise & completely beyond our control, we’ve suffered a sustained, unnecessary, attack on our business over the last few years, putting at risk 40 years of successful trading & the jobs of our 10 staff. We’ve seen off recession, Foot & Mouth, Covid, even National PLC’s who (allegedly) pay no tax in the UK, but Harrogate Council attempt to outdo the lot. Why can’t they encourage small business’s across the district instead of the constant stream of set backs that hit us without option or opinion?? It would surely help to make this, once beautiful town where I grew up, a far nicer place to live and work?
Oh, we’ve complained to the council after taking legal advice that we had a legitimate case for the damage caused to our business. Their response was essentially ‘tough. Deal with it. It’s beyond everybody’s control’. Thank you so much for your sympathetic response.
If this rant raises a few eyebrows at the council, and I get a visit from the ‘Keep your trap shut’ division of the PC police, so be it. I’m only saying what needs to be said.
Think I might need the rest of the day off now for the sake of my mental health. Don’t start me on that.
Please support local businesses, not just mine.