Editor's Pick of the Week: Lido testing, gateway groans and Ripon's mystery fire

I’m thinking of campaigning to relocate the Stray Ferret office to Knaresborough Lido. You’d be hard pressed to find a more agreeable — or a more newsworthy — spot.

The lido is crawling with people testing the water quality these days. I joined members of Nidd Action Group on Monday and on Thursday my colleague John Grainger joined the Environment Agency testers - look for his article soon. 

I must admit, part of me didn’t want to return to the office. It is a fabulous place to while away a summer’s day — and you don’t have to go in the water.

Later this week I popped into the Harrogate boutique Sophie Likes to get reaction to news that the loading bays at the back of the shop on Station Parade look like they’re going to be removed as part of the £12.1 million Station Gateway project. 

Just as owner Sophie Hartley was talking to me about business disruption, the business was disrupted by a power cut. Minutes later, nearby shop owners were calling in to say they’d suffered the same problem. Such mundane but critical matters appeared to bother them more than redesigning the road.

One of the few issues to rival the gateway for controversy is Harrogate Spring Water's plans to expand its bottling plany. On Thursday I interviewed managing director Richard Hall for an update on the company's plans.

Mr Hall has fronted up — unlike Network Rail, which this week batted off our pesky questions about allegations that a member of staff hit a dog with a shovel at Weeton Station by saying it was an “internal investigation” and won’t comment further. So that’s all right then.

Finally, hats off to our Ripon reporter Tim Flanagan. Tim knows Ripon like the back of his hand so he was somewhat flummoxed this week when North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service reported an overnight blaze ‘near St Marygate’ in the city centre and he couldn’t find any evidence of it. 

Tim made further enquiries and it turned out the fire was actually some distance away on the Low Mill estate where the home owner talked about the frightening incident that cost him two Ducati superbikes.

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