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With no major elections this year, it’s thin gruel for local political anoraks, so we grab it where we can. 

This week that involved sitting in a small featureless room at the Civic Centre in Harrogate after 10pm on Thursday night and watching staff shuffle pieces of paper into piles before declaring Liberal Democrat Rebecca McManus had delivered a shellacking to her rivals, although they never quite put it like that.

Hurrying home to write about it, I tripped in the dark outside, limped back to my car and finally logged off at midnight. All for a Harrogate Town Council by-election. You’ve got to love it.

At least the hard political news provided a break from the silly season, that high summer period when frivolous stories abound. 

Ripon was humming this week to news that an invasive Asian hornet had been spotted at Morrisons. Yorkshire Beekeepers Association described the sighting as “credible” and the National Bee Unit — no, I’d never hear of it either until this week — was summoned. Turns out it wasn’t an Asian hornet after all. It did beg the question though: what other insects does the government have national units for?

The silly season continued with news of a sheep rescue from Thruscross Reservoir.

Ripon was the place to be last Saturday. The annual St Wilfrid Procession, which snaked around the city with floats, a band and a girl riding a horse, was a riot. It ended, as every day does in Ripon, with the hornblowing ceremony, which in a historic first was performed by four hornblowers.

Harrogate just doesn’t have days like these, but it does have fancy shops and this week it emerged a schnitzel takeaway will open on James Street. Ripon, meanwhile, is losing its Fatface amid concerns the Tesco-imposed parking rules at the Marshall Way retail park are not doing retailers any favours.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Studley Royal and Fountains Abbey, near Ripon, announced the Studley entrance and tearoom will close for 12 months in September for the £5.8 million Studley Revealed project. When it reopens the tearoom will be in the ticketed area of the site.

Talking of historic places, plans for new homes on Knaresborough’s Waterside caused a kerfuffle this week, as did the news that the town is to get 10 council houses.

There was plenty of disquiet in Harrogate, too, about fresh plans to extend the Otley Road cycle route. And also some optimism among cyclists. Will it finally happen, and do you support it?