Holding Ripon City Council to account in turbulent times

Some articles can be written quickly. Others take time — sometimes rather a lot of time.

Welcome to our monthly look at what goes on behind the scenes when we are working on articles at the Stray Ferret.

We think the effort we put in distinguishes us from the pack and hopefully provides an additional reason, beyond our seven-days-a-week rolling news service, to subscribe.

One example of this is our coverage of the ongoing political turbulence at Ripon City Council.

Ripon households paid £457,800 to fund the work of their city council in 2024/25. They could be forgiven for thinking they were paying for a soap opera in recent weeks.
 


The council is in the midst of its most turbulent period ever: since the start of September mayor Jackie Crozier has resigned after fellow councillors brought a vote of no confidence against her; new mayor Barbara Brodigan faces a public vote of no confidence; the leader and deputy leader roles have been abolished; three of four staff posts have been vacant, committees have been dissolved and councillors have resigned.
 


The Stray Ferret has covered developments every step of the way. We have a reporter based in the city and he and our editor have attended both regular full council meetings and all three extraordinary meetings since the start of September. No other media has attended more than one meeting.



We have interviewed Councillor Brodigan and former leader, Cllr Andrew Williams, analysed the key issues and even published a video showing Cllr Brodigan and resident Stanley Mackintosh attempting to talk over each other for two minutes.
 


In total, we have published more than 20 articles about Ripon City Council since the start of September. Some are free to view; all are available to subscribers, who can see them by clicking on the ‘Your Area’ tab at the top of our homepage and then clicking on ‘Ripon’.
 


Politics matters, even at parish council level: Ripon households contribute on average £80 a year from their total council tax bills towards their city council and have a right to know how it’s being spent. What’s more, decisions on ongoing key issues such as whether Ripon people assume responsibility from North Yorkshire Council for running its town hall, Wakeman’s House Cafe and Hugh Ripley Hall depend largely on the wisdom of councillors.
 


There is a lot at stake, and the need for an independent local media to report and scrutinise developments is greater than ever. 
 


Ripon is divided: rifts caused by the withdrawn cathedral annexe plan remain and the council is split into factions, each with its supporters. Many social media posts are made by representatives of various camps, each pushing their own agendas. We provide factual, independent coverage, which we hope you can trust and ask that you support.
 


The Stray Ferret was set up more than five years ago to improve local news coverage and scrutinise public spending at a time when traditional media was dying.
 


Last year we moved to a subscription service and now have more than 2,500 people paying to see all our articles. Some remain free-to-view. This enables us to cover hyper-local news in Ripon and elsewhere. If you don’t subscribe already, please consider doing so. An annual subscription costs just 14 pence a day.  
 


Another extraordinary meeting is being held on Monday night. We will be there.

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