Editor’s Pick of the Week: Highway to hell at Kex Gill and Booths bedlam in Ripon

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There has been much gnashing of teeth in Harrogate about the wisdom of spending £12.6 million on the Station Gateway.

But the cost of a four-kilometre road realignment some 12 miles away at landslip-prone Kex Gill dwarfs it — and is rising.

The cost shot up by £13.7 million to £82.5 million in May, and the fallout has continued this week.

Green Party councillor Andy Brown asked Councillor Keane Duncan, the highways chief with oversight of the project, why the contracts were “written so badly that we are carrying all the cost” and whether he planned to quit over this “grotesque overspend”.

Cllr Duncan blamed “bad luck on our part, bad management on the part of central government”.

But the Department for Transport, which has stumped up £56.1 million for the project, took a dim view of his comments, which it described as “untrue and unfounded”.

With the council admitting the cost is likely to rise further, the road at Kex Gill is rapidly becoming a financial and literal slippery slope.

But even the prospect of a safe road between Harrogate and Skipton pales into insignificance at the prospect of not being able to source the best ingredients to make a pastrami, gherkin and cheese sandwich, which is the awful prospect Riponians are learning to face up to after we revealed Booths had sold its site to Tesco.

The news provoked a response that could best be described as mixed. “This is an absolute disaster”, “terrible news” and “gutted” were among the comments on our Facebook page.

At least the South Lodge reopened and Next opened its store in Ripon.

And there was better news for foodies elsewhere: the vacant General Tarleton, near Knaresborough, is being taken over by Michelin-starred York chef Tommy Banks. Tommy made headlines in December when he was the victim of a pie heist in Melmerby.

The Tarleton was known as one of the best places to eat for many years. Will this be the start of a comeback?