Survey Results Cornlands Road area

We have now completed our surveys in the Cornlands Road and St Stephens Road areas. The most popular places for additional off street parking provision were St Stephens Road, Thoresby Road and Tennent Road.

The most popular “new” local services in order were:

Recycling collections
New ring road/Askham Lane roundabout
“Energise” swimming pool
“Energise” sports facilities
“Explore” library on Front Street

Greatest concerns were about snow clearing (a review is in hand), litter and parking arrangements.

A majority of residents had seen PCSO patrols in the area.

Over 50 residents have signed a petition supporting securing the Cornlands Road park after dark each night. This is now subject to formal consultation by the Council.

NB. The owners of the former White Rose site have said that the redevelopment there will start shortly.

Library news

World Book Night with Kate Atkinson – 5 March

Come and celebrate World Book Night with best selling author, Kate Atkinson.

Saturday 5 March, 7.00 pm, Explore York Library Learning Centre

Tickets £5.00 (with YorkCard) or £6.50 from Explore York, 01904 552815, exploreyork@york.gov.uk

Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories is one of the 25 titles chosen for the inaugural World Book Night, which will see thousands of books given away by people passionate about reading. Kate will be talking about her latest book Started Early, Took My Dog, as well as Case Histories. Books will be on sale at the event.

Kate Atkinson was born in York and now lives in Edinburgh. Her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and has been a critically acclaimed international bestselling author ever since.

An audience with Joanna Trollope – 15 April

Friday 15 April, 2.00 pm, Explore York Library Learning Centre

Tickets £5.00 (YorkCard) and £6.50 from Explore York, 01904 552815, exploreyork@york.gov.uk

Best selling novelist Joanna Trollope will be talking about her latest books, Daughters in Law and The Other Family. Waterstones books on sale at the event.

Bestselling author Joanna Trollope has been writing for over 30 years. She first wrote a number of historical novels, now published under the name of Caroline Harvey and has also written a study of women in the British Empire, Britannia’s Daughters.

Joanna has written several highly acclaimed contemporary novels, some of which have been televised, including The Choir, A Village Affair and Other People’s Children.

Ice breaker Monday evenings at Explore York

Explore York is setting the scene for people to bond over books with a series of ‘ice-breaker’ evenings – a chance to make new friends over coffee with some ready-made topics for conversation. Tables in the café will display a selection of specially chosen books each with a ‘Read Me’ card tucked inside. These are the ice-breaker books which provide the inspiration to get chatting to others around the table. Friendly staff will be on hand to welcome you and show you to a café table, and then the rest is up to you. It’s free, it’s fun and who knows what it could be the start of? The Ice-Breaker evenings will be held every Monday from 5.30pm to 8pm in the Explore York Library Learning Centre in Museum Street, York. For more information, call Marion Brookes on 552811

Coming soon…

Valerie Wood, who bases her books in Yorkshire, especially the east riding, will be at Dunnington Reading Room on 28 April, tickets available soon from Dunnington Library or Explore York.

Storytellers Peter Chand and Shonaleigh make a welcome return to Explore York on 14 May with their new show, The Petal Garden.

And a reminder…

Odin’s Tales – Viking myths for all the family from storyteller Adrian Spendlow – 19 Feb

Saturday 19 February, 2.00pm, Explore York Library Learning Centre

£5 (family ticket), 01904 552828, exploreyork@york.gov.uk

This event is a Jorvik Viking Festival fringe event and part of a Viking weekend at Explore York, with our Viking Family Day on Sunday 20 February, 11-4. More information at:

http://www.york.gov.uk/leisure/Libraries/children/odinstales/

Full information about events is in the pdf brochure on our website www.york.gov.uk/libraries in documents to download.

New booklist

The list of sets available for reading groups to borrow has just been updated and is on the library website, www.york.gov.uk/libraries, in ‘what’s happening’, and ‘reading groups’.

And twitter, follow @YorkLibrariesUK

Housing waiting list changing

All current City of York Housing Register Applicants (both waiting and transfer list) over the next 3 weeks will be contacted by letter inviting them to re register for the new North Yorkshire Home Choice register.
Current applicants who are invited to re register can do this either on line or by filling in a paper form. The Council will actively be encouraging applicants where appropriate and where they can to apply on line. They will be able to go into the offices both in the City and Acomb for assistance to complete either on line or paper forms, there will be staff available at all times at both offices to assist them.
Customers will have until the 31st March 2011 to re register. If they apply after this date their application start date will be taken from the date of their new application and they will loose out on valuable time on the list. It is imperative that customers re register prior to the 31st March to ensure they keep their original registration date as this will affect their position when we go live with choice based lettings as time on list/in band is one of the deciding factors on which bid is top of the list and gets the offer of a property.
The Council will be sending out reminder letters in mid March to all those applicants who have failed to re register, to remind them of the importance of registering prior to the 31st March and again how and where they can re register and what help and support is available to them.
The new policy and system will go live in mid June.