Editor’s Pick of the Week: Sara Cox inspires in a week of looming cuts and changes

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.

Forget looming council cuts, strikes and Ripon sinkholes, this week’s main story for many people was a 50-year-old woman running through the Harrogate district.

Sara Cox’s extraordinary efforts raised millions of pounds for BBC Children in Need and inspired a nation.

She was clearly struggling when she set off from Ripley yesterday (November 14). Even so, she still moved faster on the A61 Ripon Road into Killinghall than most vehicles do at that time of day and rarely has anyone negotiated the right-turn on to Otley Road so smoothly.

Hands up if you’ve heard of the mayoral lamppost? Me neither, until about a fortnight ago. The lamp illuminates the sky outside the home of whoever is mayor of Ripon and the cost of moving it — usually once a year, but more often in 2025 — has become a political issue. The Stray Ferret also got embroiled in the ongoing town hall shenanigans this week.

A sure sign of getting old is wondering why everything has to change. We’ve already lost WH Smith this year; now the Royal Mail is “upgrading” postboxes by putting solar panels on top. Starbeck’s postmaster was less than impressed when he discovered one of the “postboxes of the future” was to be located outside his business. More are coming.

Another venerable institution that could be in line for change is Starbeck Baths. The Victorian baths opened in 1870 and there have probably been rumours about it closing since 1922. But they appear to have some substance this time.

It’s all down to the state of North Yorkshire Council’s coffers. Tory finance chief Councillor Gareth Dadd, a man with a rare gift for making bad news sound even worse, is softening us up for cuts by constantly telling us how dire the situation is. Leisure centres, museums and art galleries and libraries are expected to be in the front line.

Another high-profile Conservative, Sir Alec Shelbrooke, the MP for Wetherby and Easingwold, was in the news this week for saying he would welcome Donald Trump suing the BBC. 

Finally, a flood warning was issued for low lying areas of Masham and Boroughbridge yesterday after it bucketed it down during Storm Claudia. It meant thousands of people were simultaneously subject to a drought, a flood warning, a hosepipe ban and a weather warning.