Editor's Pick of the Week: 'Moon crater' in Harrogate and sinkholes in Ripon

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Did you watch Mysteries of Sinkholes on Channel 4 last weekend? The programme, which included an appearance by our Ripon reporter Tim Flanagan, branded the city as ‘the sinkhole capital of Britain’.

I’m not sure that epithet will replace ‘stay awhile amid its ancient charms’ on the signs around the city.

Days later — with somewhat shaky timing — North Yorkshire Council announced the gym at sinkhole-prone Ripon leisure centre would reopen after years of pumping grout into the ground at a cost of millions of pounds to shore up the land.

Given the history of the site, and Ripon’s tremulous reputation, there’s probably more chance of the Harrogate Station Gateway saga being resolved amicably than the site having a stable future.

By the way, what’s with this guff of using eight words and a hyphen to name the place? It’s gone from Ripon Leisure Centre — a perfectly apt description — to the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre to now Active North Yorkshire Ripon – The Jack Laugher Centre. Bureaucratic nonsense.

Gateway blues

Talking of the gateway, Cllr Keane Duncan, the council’s highways chief, described a letter threatening judicial review by the Get Away campaign group as “weak and spurious”. 

You may recall the council scrapped its original gateway plans when it admitted they breached public law. Harrogate businessman Chris Bentley was behind that challenge, and this week he leant his support to Get Away, and accused the council of being “dictatorial” and “dangerous to our town”.

Keane Duncan used to combine his councillor duties with a career in journalism, but according to his Linked In profile he’s done what is known in the trade as ‘going to the dark side’ by moving to PR. He’s now listed as an associate director at communications consultancy Cavendish, which according to its website “helps you deal with whatever lies ahead, before it even happens”.

Kingsley crater

Perhaps the most impressive news this week was that of former Harrogate pupil George Mills smashing the British 3,000 metres indoor record; the oddest was perhaps the “moon crater” that appeared on Kingsley Drive, where Persimmon is building 162 homes.

I was somewhat sceptical about its alleged size until I swung by on my bike this week and saw it. It’s the kind of hole in the ground even Riponians would be alarmed by.