Editor’s Pick of the Week: Revolving doors in Ripon and mystery drones in Harrogate

This article, which is free to read, gives a flavour of the 100 or so articles we publish each week all exclusively focused on local issues. To access the links, and other content, please subscribe here and support independent local journalism. It costs as little as 14p a day.

It’s difficult to know which revolving door is spinning faster in Ripon: the town hall’s, where councillors have been resigning and replaced en masse in recent weeks, or the South Lodge pub, where managers come and go faster than West Ham.

Tempers show little sign of calming at the town hall, where a turf war between warring factions is being played out. It’s not so much a US-style shutdown as a WWE-style Royal Rumble, with battles breaking out daily.

Another fiery meeting is expected on Monday. 

Meanwhile, at the South Lodge, six days after we interviewed the new manager who said he wanted to rebuild its reputation, signs went up advertising for a new person to run it.

Harrogate Town’s players had to leave the pitch in the 86th minute of a match against Huddersfield this week when a drone flew over the Wetherby Road pitch. Even manager Simon Weaver, who has seen a lot of football, admitted it was a new one on him.

Was it Russian spies or subterfuge by a rival team? All was revealed two days later.

In other football news, Harrogate’s Rachel Daly picked up her MBE from Prince William at Windsor Castle this week. The former England striker took along her mum, who still lives in the area.

Park and ride is a subject that gets parked in Harrogate for years at a time and then eventually brought out for a ride again by councillors.

North Yorkshire Council’s new highways chief Malcolm Taylor ruled it out when he succeeded Keane Duncan in spring.

But that didn’t prevent the council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee waxing lyrical about it this week. The idea has been debated to death for well over a decade and continues to go round in circles.

The week ahead sees the start of Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival, where the speakers include literary giants such as TV star Chris Tarrant and former cricketer Graham Gooch. 

It’s easy to be sniffy but my interview with Sharon Canavar, chief executive of Harrogate International Festivals, which organises the programme, highlighted the need to combine high art with popularism to flog tickets and keep the ship afloat. 

Personally, I don't mind if Gooch doesn't write as well as Dickens — I doubt the latter could spin a yarn about facing fearsome fast bowlers.