Everyone welcome to join the Britain in Bloom launch event Sunday 27th March

City of York Council is working in green-fingered partnership with The Friends of Hob Moor to celebrate the launch of Britain in Bloom 2011.

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is running a national campaign called It’s Your Neighbourhood, which encourages people up and down the country to be part of a movement to double native trees and woods in the UK.

This weekend, council rangers will team up with York Tree Wardens and volunteers to roll up their sleeves and plant hedgerows in York.

Volunteers of all ages will be planting hedgerows on Hob Moor between 10.30am and 12.30pm on Sunday 27 March, as part of the annual Britain in Bloom launch – and everyone is invited to come and join in.

All tools will be provided and the York Tree Warden Group will be on hand to demonstrate what to do.
This year, RHS Britain in Bloom has teamed up with the Woodland Trust to give away up to 200,000 free tree saplings to be planted by communities across the UK.

Both the RHS and the Woodland Trust are supporting the United Nation’s 2011 International Year of Forests, to raise awareness of conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests and recognise the benefits trees bring to our wildlife and communities.

If any members of the public would like more information about the event please contact Jenny Cairns, ranger at City of York Council on 07833 436832 or e mail jennifer.cairns@york.gov.uk

For more information on RHS Britain in Bloom and the Woodland Trust partnership visit www.rhs.org.uk/britaininbloom

Spring clean

  

Ascot Way

 

   

Walking around Westfield in the sunshine over the last few days it is clear that the winter weather has taken its toll. So we’re organising a spring clean and inviting residents to play their part. 

The Council are already working flat out to repair the potholes that have appeared in the roads. The first cut of grassed areas is already underway and will be completed before Easter.  

We’ve reported areas where there is still some tree detritus to be removed (above photo was in Ascot Way) 

The Council are working with the Tidy Britain Group to launch ‘Love Where You Live’, as the introduction to engaging with residents during the coming weeks.   

 

The Brunswick Nursery is producing a planter for Tadcaster Road and 105 trees are to be planted on Saturday by the Foxwood residents. In addition a planting programme has started in Clarence Gardens. 

 Additional areas are to be allocated to Community Payback and they will start on these areas next week. York Cares will be given some group projects and environmental work and these activities should start just after Easter. The Street Environment Officers are developing schedules with York University where groups of volunteers will go into an area, under Council supervision, and do a ‘clean up’. This work will be aimed primarily at the areas with high numbers of student occupied homes. 

  Work which can be done on hedge cutting is currently limited, but the Council has carried out work around allotments and known areas where hedges are overhanging the highway. The full service will not start until after the nesting season. 

 The cleaning of traffic islands starts next week, as we hope, by now, we have seen the last of the gritting. Early morning Sunday work will take place on the main, high traffic roads, complete with the appropriate traffic management. Residents should start to see an improvement by the middle of next week, but the full programme will last around a month.   

The Council hopes to get into more ‘hammer heads’, than ever before. However, if there any you would like us to deal with quickly with a specific cul de sac, then please let us know using the form which can be found on this website. 

 All the roundabouts are currently being re-landscaped using sponsorship money. Full planting of summer flowers is scheduled for May, in readiness for the Britain in Bloom judging. There are 21 organisations working with us towards the ‘In Bloom’ competition. 10 are new this year including organisations such as Friends of Acomb Green. 

 The scheduled cleans of the terraced streets have been re-planned for the coming year. All will get one clean where parking restrictions will be imposed and gully cleaning, surface repairs and sweeping will take place. The street will be re-visited again after 6 months, requesting residents to move their cars. 

 In the past the full highways inspection has been done during May and June. This has been brought forward and will start the first week in April. The advantage being that work can be planned in much earlier. All temporary repairs will be checked out and a permanent repair completed as necessary. 

Please help with the spring clean by ensuring that gardens are tidy & that hedges and trees cut back from neighbouring properties and from the public footpath.  

We will be scheduling shortly the annual rubbish collection day when refuse and recycling vehicles tour the ward removing unwanted items. We will publicise details on this web site shortly.