Editor’s Pick of the Week: Volunteers replace staff in Harrogate and snakes alive in Nidderdale

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Seven years after Harrogate’s tourist information centre closed, the town is getting a new one.

It was revealed this week the new service will operate at the West Park Centre but in a sign of the times, it will be run by volunteers rather than paid staff.

The centre is a stone’s throw from the library, which transitioned from staff to mainly volunteers about a decade ago.

It makes you wonder what service will be next to rely on what ex-Prime Minister David Cameron called the Big Society to stay alive in the never-ending battle to plug holes in public spending.

Ripon City Council, however, found some spare cash down the back of the sofa this week when it agreed to pay for live music in the city on Thursday market days to boost footfall this summer.

Watermelon Sugar by Harry Styles, Peaches by Justin Bieber and Cherry by Lana Del Ray (yes, I’m old and had to google those song titles) might subliminally encourage shoppers to spend more on Brian Murphy’s fruit and veg stall.

Ripon is also getting a free outdoor gym, but residents in nearby Melmerby were more exercised this week over plans to open a mega chicken farm that would produce 2.7 million birds to eat each year.

The local councillor has called-in the planning application and a public meeting is being held on Tuesday.

It’s been a tricky few weeks for Wetherby and Easingwold MP Sir Alec Shelbrooke, who outed himself as a West Ham fan this week.

The Hammers were relegated from the Premier League last month, a week after Sir Alec enjoyed a freebie ticket with hospitality in the directors’ box thrown in at the team’s fixture at Newcastle United.

The Tory politician may have required a few drinks as his team went down 3-1 in a match that went a long way to consigning West Ham to the drop.

Former Tory MP Gyles Brandreth, a man who once spoke for twelve-and-a-half hours non-stop to set a Guinness World Record, was at Newby Hall to open its restored rock garden this week.

Given his loquaciousness, it was probably just as well we were sent a press release with brief quotes rather than offered the chance to interview him.

Finally, one of the best things about living in the Harrogate district is the ease of tramping across Nidderdale. But the experience is not without the chance of encountering the odd venomous snake or two.

Natural England said this week that that adder populations in the dale are among the most genetically healthy and well-connected in England.

Enjoy your weekend walking.