Editor’s Pick of the Week: Roadworks return and Knaresborough turns pink

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It’s some 1,576 miles from Dubrovnik to Harrogate and the first 1,573 passed smoothy travelling back from holiday this week.

The flight and the Leeds-Bradford airport shuttle bus ran like clockwork but the last three miles in the car seemed to take forever thanks to roadworks on Victoria Avenue, Parliament Street and Ripon Road.

Yes, after a brief hiatus for the Great Yorkshire Show, roadworks have returned with a vengeance and with Tesco due to start work building a roundabout on Skipton Road this month, there’s never been a better time to take up cycling.

There will be lots more roadworks if the Harrogate Station Gateway goes ahead, and that prospect moved closer this week when a High Court judge rejected a legal challenge by Harrogate businesses opposed to the scheme.

North Yorkshire Council was naturally delighted but its press release welcoming the news raised eyebrows by describing it as a ‘£12 million project’. The council’s own breakdown early this year valued it at £12.6 million and since then another £2 million has been pumped in so we asked where the £12 million figure came from.

A council spokesperson replied: “The £12 million is the estimated cost of the works and development. This does not include the risk, contingency and other fees which could potentially bring the scheme to circa £14.16 million.” Hmmm…

Knaresborough is decked in pink for its annual Feva arts festival, which got underway yesterday. There’s a ton of activities to enjoy, culminating in Party in the Park and the Knaresborough Lions’ Beer Festival next weekend.

The idea of having musical marshals singing along the route at today’s Conyngham Hall parkrun is brilliantly bonkers. Nowhere comes up with more weird and wonderful ideas than Knaresborough, home of the annual bed race and tug of war over the River Nidd.