Editor’s Pick of the Week: Parking charge fury and bust-up in the ready meals aisle at Lidl

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‘Tariff rebalancing’ — the title of the council report on car parking charges seemed innocuous enough. But it soon emerged that all the balancing was upwards. 

The price to park in some Harrogate district car parks — and on the street — will more than double in many locations from April in a move the council’s head of parking services said would ease congestion and encourage people to use other forms of transport.

Another likely outcome is that competition for free street parking on the fringes of towns and cities, such as Stray Rein in Harrogate and Bondgate Green in Ripon, is likely to get even hotter.

Wild scenes in Lidl in Harrogate this week when a man who filled a bag with ready meals attempted to leave without paying.

One customer rammed him with a trolley before staff and shoppers overpowered him as his meals spilled all over the floor.

There was more wholesome food fun on Kirkgate in Ripon, when the annual pancake race took place on Shrove Tuesday. A flipping zone was introduced this year, to ensure fair play, amid rumours of gamesmanship creeping into the event as the prestige of winning the Golden Frying Pan ramps up each year.

Still on the subject of food, local fish and chip shops seem to come and go at a bewildering rate lately. Yorkies on Knaresborough Road became the latest to fold amid a legal dispute between landlord and tenant.

By contrast, the number of pizza restaurants appears to continuously rise. This week, Rudy’s announced it was giving away 3,000 pizzas to mark its Harrogate opening. 

On the flip side, Chico’s Continental on Commercial Street in Harrogate, a place forever synonymous with the late night munchies, appears to have dished up its last Margherita.

This week’s most surprising news was that Harrogate hotels voted against moves to introduce a tourist tax, which would have been spent on marketing Harrogate and encouraging overnight stays. A group of hoteliers spent two years working on the proposal, so to discover that only five of 11 of those eligible to vote on the matter supported the idea raised a few eyebrows.

The ballot result was announced the day after a government consultation ended on whether to allow regional mayors to introduce their own tourist taxes.

Labour mayor David Skaith, appears to be licking his lips at the prospect of introducing the overnight visitor levy in York and North Yorkshire.

Mr Skaith, whose remit also includes transport, has been under pressure this week to throw his weight behind moves to introduce a shuttle bus between Ripon and Thirsk to connect the city with the East Coast Main Line, but his words this week didn't provide much encouragement. 

How can higher parking charges encourage people to switch transport modes if people in places like Ripon don't have access to trains and can't even get a decent bus service?