Ferret Unlocked: what you missed in news last week

Why do so many restaurants in Harrogate fail and what is the secret to success?

Those are two questions that our senior journalist, John Grainger, tackled this past weekend with a deep dive into the high turnover of eateries.

As part of our research, we looked at the 56 restaurants in Harrogate that were given five-star hygiene ratings by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the summer of 2018. Incredibly, less than seven years later, more than one in three of these have shut down.

You can read our full in-depth piece on the matter here.

Meanwhile, the fallout over a new logo for the Mayor of York and North Yorkshire and the combined authority took another turn as councillors called for David Skaith to pay for the rebrand out of his own pocket.

A petition was set up by opposition councillors demanding that the mayor fork out for the logo, which has been criticised as being “ugly” and a waste of public funds. Subscribers can get the latest on the story here.

We also followed up the closure of St George’s Community Centre in Harrogate amid concerns over whether the site will be sold.

The charity which runs the centre denied that the building was up for sale and stressed that it was exploring avenues to ensure the centre could continue as an "asset to the community”.

Finally, as the Harrogate Competitive Festival for Music, Speech and Drama got underway this past week, we reported that the festival faces an uncertain future with mounting costs.

The event has been providing schoolchildren with the opportunity to showcase their talents for almost 90 years.

But, what does the future hold for the festival? We caught up with its organisers in an interview last week which subscribers can read here.

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