Editor’s Pick of the Week: Can the Supreme Court save Harrogate’s little temple from destruction?

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80s kitsch eyesore or treasured landmark? The tempietto on Harrogate’s Station Square divides opinion.

But its days are numbered. North Yorkshire Council agreed to send it to a tip this week as it prepares to rip it up and start again on Staton Square as part of the £14.6 million Harrogate Station Gateway.

Anger rose faster than the price of diesel at the new Valero garage on Skipton Road among tempietto supporters. The comment section for subscribers on our website has rarely been busier.

It now appears only the Supreme Court can save the little temple — if the Harrogate business group which lost a Court of Appeal ruling this week to halt the gateway follows through on its pledge to continue the fight.

It seems you can go to war without legal authority these days, but you can't touch the tempietto until the highest court in the land allows it.

The Northallerton-based council may have won the legal argument, but it didn’t burnish its local credentials by referring to the little temple as a bandstand. There’s barely room to swing a pair of maracas.

The opening of the Harrogate district’s first mosque was always likely to also divide opinion, but the vast majority of comments have been welcoming. Harrogate Islamic Association has brought a dilapidated building back into use at no little cost or effort.

Another local building in need of some TLC is Harrogate Convention Centre, which hosted the Conservative Party spring conference last weekend.

Leader Kemi Badenoch gave the keynote speech at the venue, which probably has more leaks than her shadow cabinet.

She also visited shops on Cold Bath Road, accompanied by former Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones, much to the surprise of some locals popping out for a loaf of bread at Sainsbury’s Local.

By the end of this month, it will be 1,000 days since the Curzon in Ripon closed and patience over plans to reopen the building as a community cinema ran out this week.

Ripon City Council accused Curzon of letting down the city by failing to negotiate an exit from its lease with building owners Sterne Properties — look for an article on this tomorrow — but Curzon fired back. It’s got the makings of a blockbuster, but sadly there is no screen in Ripon to show it.

Tesco has also been under fire in Ripon for confusion over its new parking rules.  It hinted that it might be willing to change.

Finally, Lightwater Valley reopens for the season on March 28 under new owners. The theme park at North Stainley displayed a new logo this week and was immediately accused of generating it by using artificial intelligence — claims the company denied.

Perhaps someone could use AI to design a new little temple for Station Parade once the gateway is completed.