Council leader issues 'shop local' rallying call as Harrogate high streets reopen

Coun Richard Cooper's rallying call comes as the district takes a large leap out of lockdown today, Monday, with shops reopening their doors for the first time in 12 weeks.

Long queues of keen shoppers have already been spotted outside big brand stores in Harrogate - but Coun Cooper says the district's smaller businesses will need continued support from shoppers if they are to survive the pandemic.

"If people don't shop locally now then they may find in six months time there are far fewer shops on our high street", he said.

"We say we love our indies, we say we hate to see empty shops. If we say those things and we mean them then we need to act accordingly by making the effort to spend locally whether that's physically in our retail centres or online in the many great delivery or collect offers now available from local shops."

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To welcome shoppers back to the high streets, social distancing signs and directions depicting safer routes have been put up around Harrogate, Knaresborough and Ripon.

Temporary barriers have also been installed on some streets to widen footpaths for social distancing.

And in more drastic measures, Coun Cooper has renewed his call for some parts of Harrogate town centre to be pedestrianised to create even more space for shoppers and to discourage the use of cars.

He said: "I still think it would be best to use the road space to help as many people as possible to socially distance in the town centres.

"In Harrogate this could be achieved by closing James Street and Albert Street to traffic. The parking spaces are already coned off so this doesn't seem a difficult thing to do."

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In other safety measures, council 'ambassadors' have been out on the high streets to give out safety advice - and businesses have been sent 'toolkits' to keep shoppers and traders safe.

Coun Cooper added: "Many of our public conveniences have been re-opened and many more are scheduled to do so over the coming days.

"We will also be seeing what land the borough council has available to help food and drink outlets with social distancing when they reopen hopefully on 4 July."

By Jacob Webster, Local Democracy Reporter