Editor’s Pick of the Week: Fines for flying the flag and another fiery night in Ripon

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You can barely drive a mile these days without seeing a St George’s flag.

North Yorkshire Council, it seems, has had enough. Serial flag flyer Shaun Remmer, a member of Reform UK who has put up about 120 flags, was warned by the Conservative local authority he’d be charged a £38 removal fee if he put up any more on council property. A fair call?

Reform is fielding one of the three candidates in the Ripon Ure Bank by-election on November 20. You can read about the trio here.

This is an unusually hotly contested by-election, but these are unusually febrile times in Ripon. Things reached boiling point at Monday’s parish meeting, when Sandra Craven, who convened the meeting, responded to some sharp words by Councillor Pauline McHardy by asking “if she’d like to have a word outside”. Fortunately things did not escalate.

It turned out to be a good week for the mayor, Councillor Barbara Brodigan. The parish meeting was held to discuss holding a parish poll on whether Ripon has confidence in her. Two-thirds voted in her favour at the meeting although a decision on whether to hold a poll is still pending.

The following day North Yorkshire Police said it was taking no action in response to claims by fellow Councillor Sid Hawke that Cllr Brodigan had committed fraud.

Remember Andrew Jones? The Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough for 14 years has kept a low profile since losing his seat to Liberal Democrat Tom Gordon last year. But in an interview last weekend he reflected on his time in Parliament.

Mr Gordon, by contrast, is rarely out of the news these days. He revealed a secret passion in the House of Commons this week when he said: “There have been a number of instances in this place where I have had to come out: first as LGBT, then as Parliament’s biggest Swiftie, and today as a gamer. I have been playing computer games since I was a little kid.” 

We attended a public meeting held by Mr Gordon last night (November 7) into Harrogate Spring Water’s plans to fell 500 trees — look for coverage in the next few days.

Finally, the junction of Slingsby Walk and Wetherby Road was the unlikely location for a celebration on Thursday. I joined cyclists on the generous portion of tarmac alongside Wetherby Road to welcome the opening of a toucan crossing. It was hardly HS2 or the Lower Thames Crossing. But considering virtually every recent cycling scheme has crumbled, it was as welcome as water in a desert — or peace in Ripon.