On Sunday 17th June hundreds of families attend the Acomb Green Playground Grand Opening.

The Lord Mayor or York, Cllr Keith Hyman officially opened the playground on Sunday 17th June with the help of 4 year old Georgie Douglas. Georgie wrote a letter to the Council to say thank you to everyone for building a lovely new play park.

The Friends of Acomb Green are responsible for the new playground after acquiring a grant of £50,000 from the BIG Lottery Fund, Community Spaces Programme, managed by Groundwork UK.

This has given Acomb Green an exciting new playground and many park benches.

The playground experienced a huge overhaul with the tired-looking play equipment being replaced with 2 stimulating wooden climbing frames, 3 different types of swings, a larger roundabout and picnic tables.

“The new playground is fantastic, there’s so much great stuff for the kids, and it’s so much better than the old one!” remarked Alison, a local resident and mother of two.

Approximately 500 children and adults attended the event which featured free ice cream for kids, free cake for adults and free squash, as well as the new playground which was completed only 3 days earlier.

Judith Johnston, from the Friends of Acomb Green said “I can’t believe so many people turned up, I thought we’d be really lucky if 200 people came”.

At the opening the Friends extended their thanks to a number of people and groups, including:
• The BIG Lottery Fund, Community Spaces Programme managed by Groundwork UK for providing the much needed funds and for their continual support,
• The Parks and Open Spaces Team, Play Team, and Conservation Team at the Council for playing a major role in helping deliver the playground,
• Steve Danby and the Playscheme team who designed and built the new playground,
• Class 1 pupils of Carr Infant School and Year 7 Art pupils at York High School for their design input into the new log carvings, which will be displayed in a few weeks,
• And to Katlyn Rae from Carr Junior School for designing the colourful grand opening poster.

The Friends hope the playground will become a much loved and cared for facility for many generations of Acomb families.

Tickets for the Olympic Torch celebrations from 2.30pm at York Racecourse on 19 June have al now been taken according to City of York Council and partners Visit York.

Since they were made available on 8 June, 26,000 free tickets have been collected

There will be free car parking on the Knavesmire off Knavesmire Road and at Bustardthorpe off Bishopthorpe Road. Spectators are urged to come early and to avoid Tadcaster Road and the rolling road closures which will start from 5pm on 19 June and operate between 7.30-8.30am on 20 June.

Road users are advised to avoid the city centre and allow plenty of extra time for their journeys. Listen out for traffic updates on local radio stations or on twitter at #YorkTorch.

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York has, for many years, had one of the lowest youth unemployment rates in the Country. Although in York there has been a recent slight upward trend, numbers are generally stable.

However, between April 2011 and April 2012 the number of young JSA claimants who had been seeking work for over 6 months increased from 215 to 400.

The highest number of unemployed can be found in the Clifton, Heworth and Westfield wards.

Twenty 16/17 year olds were on JSA. Local authorities have the statutory responsibility to secure education and training in their areas for these young people aged 16-18 (and up to age 25 for young people subject to a learning difficulty assessment), promote the effective participation in education or training of these young people and make arrangements to identify those not participating.

The York Council is right in not being complacent about youth unemployment in the City. Although the number of job vacancies exceeds the total number of unemployed young people there is a mismatch between the skills of those looking for work and jobs. Perhaps not surprisingly many are seeking employment in the currently still depressed construction industry while the care and retail sectors are always seeking new staff.

The Education and Skills Act (2008) places a duty on all young people to participate in education or training until their 18th birthday (or until they achieve a Level 3 qualification). The legislation raises the participation age in two stages, to the end of the academic year in which a young person turns 17 from 2013 and until their 18th birthday from 2015. This does not mean young people must stay in school; they will able to choose one of the following options:
• full-time education, such as school, college or home education
• an Apprenticeship
• full-time work (or volunteering) with part-time education or training alongside

There are a number of Apprenticeship vacancies available with the Council and elsewhere in the City.

See also http://tinyurl.com/York-youth-jobs