Some stories seem to go on forever, achieving little beyond years of work for consultants and council officers.
Take the Harrogate Convention Centre refurbishment. A response to a Stray Ferret freedom of information request asking how much has been spent on consultants discovered the sum was £1.9 million since 2016.
The vast majority went on a firm whose plans were recently scrapped. The solution? Hire new consultants to come up with a fresh vision!
An in-depth article by my colleague John Grainger this weekend looks at the refurbishment options. Convention centre director Paula Lorimer, who was named in the annual Taxpayers’ Alliance Town Hall Rich List this year for her £121,828 salary, declined to speak to us for the article.
It’s been a big political week with the Liberal Democrats winning the Stray, Woodlands and Hookstone by-election. The ill-feeling between local Lib Dems and Conservatives was palpable at Thursday night’s count. On the previous night, the Stray Ferret chaired a mayoral hustings event in York.
Brew York announced it was coming to Knaresborough but my personal highlight this week was news of a Beatles exhibition coming to Harrogate. Not so much because it’s the Fab Four but because sharp elbowed former footballer Brian Deane, who often pops up in Harrogate, retweeted our post on X about it.
Read more:
- Troops rallied in fight to save Ripon’s priceless military heritage
- Brew York buys The Mitre pub at Knaresborough
- Harrogate business owner through to The Apprentice final
