Paul Baverstock is an advisor to leaders in business, politics and the third sector . His roles have included Director of Communication for the Conservative Party, Director of Engagement and Communication for the British Medical Association and Director of Communication for Paperless 2020, the government’s digital transformation plan for Health and Care. He is a graduate of Harvard University and the Yale University School of Management.

The Stray Ferret is delighted Paul has agreed to write a political column for us every week -we're calling it Strayside Sunday.

Let me set out my stall:  I am a conservative.  A sometime member and sometime not.  I worked for the party as Director of Communication for Iain Duncan Smith, a job that, when I accepted it, my father described as a triumph of ambition over reason.  I strongly support the measures taken by Boris Johnson’s government in response to the coronavirus pandemic.  A response that, to date, has diminished our peacetime liberties as never before, an interventionist response so spendthrift, that you, I, and everyone, will be paying for it far into the future. In short, a most un-conservative approach.

Our leaders have been visible front and centre, their actions have been transparent and, when the inevitable post-pandemic investigations and reckonings come, they will be made accountable for their decisions in office.  Would that were true of our local Conservative leaders here in Harrogate and North Yorkshire.

On the 24^th March I wrote to the Stray Ferret calling on Andrew Jones MP to demonstrate visible leadership during this crisis.  This week the Stray Ferret reported that in the last month Mr. Jones’ public voice – one news story, three tweets and one public statement - has done little to fill the leadership void.  Hardly “roll your sleeves up” stuff is it?

As and when we are able to move on from lockdown, Harrogate, in common with places everywhere across the United Kingdom, faces a generational challenge to recover its economy, build business and improve the lot of its people.  The question is whether our leadership and the local institutions they run are up to it?  Evidence suggests not.

The town’s business community despairs over the machinations of the Harrogate Business Improvement District, four of whose members, including the Chair, resigned in protest at what they see as the Council’s impeding of the BIDs’ plans.  Council Leader Richard Cooper dismissed their actions as nothing more than a “distraction from what really matters.”  Hmmm. Is that really good enough?  At a time when leadership and conciliation is what we most need, isn’t this response complacent and graceless at best?

From the dilapidated eyesore of our pedestrian precincts to the vacancies on James Street, the town centre is dying on its feet.  With experts predicting that as little as 10% of the restaurant trade will make it through the current crisis and recession to follow, this trend toward “hollowing out” is only likely to get worse.

This week has also seen “Bollardgate.”  Brand spanking new bollards deployed in the district's towns to general bemusement; the socially distanced pavements clear for those wanting to window shop our largely shuttered retail outlets.  Well intentioned no doubt, but barmy none the less.  Paving the way, to coin a phrase, for the pedestrianisation debate.

The existing town masterplan envisages more pedestrianisation, more walking and more cycling, while the local business community believe that there still needs to be space and parking for people to pop into town, park up and shop.  Post-covid we will likely see a tussle between the pro-car, pro-parking traders represented by Independent Harrogate, desperate to rebuild their business in the face of economic difficulty, with pro-walking and cycling environmental and sustainability activists like Zero Carbon and Sustainably Harrogate.  Both have a point and need a way to engage with each other, to talk it out in collaborative spirit.

As the town’s MP, Andrew Jones holds a unique convening power to bring together these countervailing interests, to reach across the divides of politics and activism, lead debate and build bridges.  To do that he has to represent all his constituents, not only those who, like me, voted for him at the last election.  For the next few years, as we dig ourselves out of the economic Mariana Trench to come, none of us, I argue, has the luxury of our existing ideology. We have to get deeply consensual, practical, and we have to do it fast.

Innovative planning, incentives to attract independent (local) place-based business, helping developers bring residents back to the town centre, park and ride, cycling-first, and wellbeing strategy, all these and more will help Harrogate thrive but not, if the interests that represent them, are set squarely against each other.

Surely we have to talk out these issues publicly if we are to negotiate a vision we can all get behind?

In this column I hope I can stimulate debate so that together we can emerge from the covid crisis in good health, in good spirits and in good economic order.  So, I’d like to hear your ideas; how can we work together to bring about the radical structural and institutional changes we need to make Harrogate a better place to live in, to shop, and to work?  How can we press our leaders to do more on our behalf and do it better in these testing times?  I want to hear from you.  You deserve nothing less.

That’s it for this week's Strayside Sunday.

Contact me with your views on paul@thestrayferret.co.uk