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How much would you pay to create a private road outside your house?

Harrogatonians pondered the question this week after it emerged the company behind the redevelopment of the former council offices at Crescent Gardens had bought the public highway outside it and converted it to a private road. Look for a Stray Ferret article on Monday revealing the sum.

Living on the A61 though, I’m not sure I’d get away with it.

Talking of roads, the cost of realigning four kilometres of the A59 at Kex Gill has risen from £68.8 million to £82.5 million, which now works out at more than £20 million a kilometre.

The blame game has begun, with North Yorkshire Council’s highways chief Councillor Keane Duncan blaming the Department for Transport, and the Department for Transport blaming North Yorkshire Council.

A road that’s always a pleasure to travel is one that leads to a country pub. The Ripon area is particularly blessed and this week we reported on major changes in the pipeline at the Sawley Arms and the Grantley Arms.

Remember the last time you used a red phonebox to make a call? Me neither. So perhaps it wasn’t surprising to learn this week that BT plans to remove most of the last ones in the district.

This week's most heartwarming story was the news that a Harrogate woman has left £1 million in her will for local charities. The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, also agreed to give £5,000 a month for the rest of her life.

What a wonderful legacy. The charities will no doubt make good use of a sum. Just think, that could have been spent creating 50 metres of new road at Kex Gill...