It was the strangest and grisliest story this week — and then got even more bizarre.

On Tuesday, North Yorkshire Police said horse remains had been found at Ripon tip and appealed for information on how they got there.

The next day the force issued a brief and possibly embarrassing update saying it had cancelled the appeal because the remains actually turned out to be those of a deer.

How the mistake was made — and why dumping horse remains at a tip is a crime but dumping deer remains isn’t — remains unclear.

It’s been a desperately bad month for retail in Harrogate. In the past couple of weeks, the Stray Ferret has reported on the impending closures of the Disappearing Chin pub and Sophie Likes on Beulah Street, as well as Chaos and Baytree Interiors in the Victoria Shopping Centre.

Supporters of the £12.1 million Harrogate Station Gateway scheme say it will provide the biggest town centre investment for 30 years and encourage more shoppers.

But detractors aren’t convinced, and there remains considerable doubt as to whether the scheme will start in spring as planned after the anti-gateway business coalition Get Away said it was preparing a legal challenge.

They did so after Traffic Regulation Orders were approved, paving the way for work to begin on a project that will see major changes to Station Parade and Station Square and the creation of a 36-metre bus lane on lower Station Parade. It won’t quite be the shortest one in the country but its merits are somewhat questionable.

Finally, remember Rishi Sunak? The former Conservative leader, who is now MP for Richmond and Northallerton, popped up at an event to tackle pollution on the River Ure this week (see above pic).

It might have lacked the buzz of PMQs or state visits, but improving water quality appears to be every bit as vexed an issue as sorting out issues such as the state of the NHS.