We now understand that it could be Christmas before the work on repairing a damaged sewer on ASKHAM Lane near its junction with Cornlands Road will be completed.

The repair was originally scheduled to be completed 3 weeks ago.

Yorkshire Water have said that the job has proved to be more difficult than anticipated.

Lorry crash on A1M near York

Meanwhile a major accident, which closed the A1M today, has caused 1000’s of vehicles to seek alternative routes through York. The A1237 was almost gridlocked this afternoon.

The Press is reporting that when children at a York toddler group at the Gateway Church in Acomb sang the children’s favourite Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, they innocently made signs with their hands to indicate a twinkling star.

“But parents were startled when staff asked the toddlers to use a different gesture – because the one they were using had an unintended double meaning in sign language for deaf people”.

They asked the children to use a different sign.

We hope this is misunderstanding.

It’s just not the kind of publicity that the community needs at Christmas.

Police in York are offering free cycle marking in the run up to Christmas.

A team of officers from the York West Safer Neighbourhood Team will be at York College, Tadcaster Road between 10am and 4.30pm on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 December 2011. They will be marking cycles and registering their details on a national database.

York West Safer Neighbourhood Team Sergeant, Iain Sirrell, said: “As this is the last weekend before Christmas it is an ideal opportunity to drop in and have the bikes you have bought as gifts stamped.

“I would urge people to take advantage of one of these sessions as a deterrent to thieves.

“We would like to see as many people as possible come along to the event so that the bikes can be registered with the local police and on www.immobilise.co.uk, which covers the whole country.

“Having your bike marked allows the police to easily and quickly identify bikes that are lost or stolen.”