CCTV appeal following York spirit theft

Police have issued CCTV images of a man they would like to speak to in connection with the theft of two bottles of vodka and three bottles of Jack Daniels Whiskey.

The spirits were stolen from Sainsbury’s store on Foss Bank in York on 17 July 2015.

Detectives are appealing to the man to come forward and to anyone else who can help to identify him, to get in touch.

The man and anyone who can assist the investigation is asked to contact North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2 and ask for York Investigation Hub, or email toby.gorwood@northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk

If you wish to remain anonymous, you can pass information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Please quote incident number 12150122315 when passing on information.

Property marking success as stolen bike returned to rightful owner

A suspected stolen bike has been returned to its rightful owner in York, thanks to an innovative new property marking project.

On Saturday 29 August 2015, officers attended a report of a cycle being left outside a property in Lord Mayor’s Walk.

Fortunately the bike had already been marked using one of four new ‘dot peen’ property marking machines that have been rolled out across the city.

Officers were able to recover it, and reunite it with its rightful owner in Clifton, before it had even been reported stolen.

Enquiries are now ongoing to identify those responsible for taking the bike.

Inspector Lee Pointon, of York Police, said: “This is a great success for our dot peen property marking scheme. Without the marking, this bike may never have been returned to its owner.

“Marking your property is one of the most effective ways to protect yourself from being a victim of crime – and, as this case goes to show, it makes it far more likely that we will be able to return your property to you.”

In the six weeks since the dot peen project began, officers marked more than 1,000 items, including 727 garden and allotment tools, 234 cycles and dozens of assorted gadgets such as cameras, games consoles and speakers.

Dot peen marking involves using a tungsten carbide-tipped pin to indent an object with dots to create a visible, permanent unique number. The unique number is entered onto the national Immobilise property register database, vastly increasing the chances that it will be reunited with its owner if it is lost or stolen.

The dot peen machines were funded by North Yorkshire Police, the Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire, and Safer York Partnership.

For more information, visit www.northyorkshire.police.uk/whatisdotpeen. To find out when your next property marking event is taking place, follow your local York police team on Twitter at @snayorkcityeast, @snayorknorth or@snayorkwest. The service is promoted on Twitter with the hashtag#whatisdotpeen

You can also install North Yorkshire Police’s free home security web app, BurglarProof, at burglarproof.nyp.mobi. And you can download our interactive home security iBook – just search for “Securing your home” on iTunes.

Community Stadium “set up” costs hit £3.9 million

Over £963,000 spent to date on new athletics facilities at the University

The City of York Council has spent £3.875 million since 2008 trying to get the new Community Stadium off the ground.

Of this, £2.1 million has already been spent on project costs.

As expected the bill for the new athletics facility at the University is set to top £1 million.

Most of the expenditure has been capitalised – meaning that it may be deducted from the £15 million Section 106 monies already paid to the Council by the developers of the adjacent Vanguard development.

Still the figures are a matter of concern as no building works have actually yet started and a final contract decision is not now due to be made until January 2016.

The figures – revealed in a response to a Freedom of Information request – include £506,168 spent on “Interim training/match facilities” The precise make up of this expenditure has not yet been provided.

The information has been released at a time when one of the core tenants for the community facilities being provided at Monks Cross has withdrawn. St John’s say that their new sports development on Haxby Road – where the Knight Rugby Team now train – meets al their sporting needs.

The Council have remained tight lipped about how much rental they hope to gain, from the lease of community facilities sapce, to organisations like the NHS and the Libraries social enterprise company.

Without this income the running costs of the stadium could fall on taxpayers.

New contract for real time bus information in York

Tenders for a new real time bus information system are currently being evaluated. A new contract, which replaces one last let in 2002, is being managed through the “West Yorkshire Combined Authority”.

Tenders were invited last year and evaluation is currently underway.

The contract provides real time information at bus stops. It is linked to (most) buses which operate in York. The information also feeds into (generally good) mobile phone apps

The 2002 contract was worth around £400,000. When it expired in 2012, the York Council decided to pay £60,000 a year to continue to maintain the old system.

Although systems like these are also capable of providing weekly or monthly reliability statistics, the old Labour run authority refused to publicise this data.

The only guide to reliability in the City comes from an annual single day sample published by the Department of Transport. The last reported figure suggested that 80% of buses were running “on time”

The new Council has yet to announce its policy on the provision of public transport reliability and quality information.