Foxwood flowering as princesses descend on Front Street

Big effort today by Foxgloves volunteers to get the community garden spruced up.
The bee hotel is open and accepting guests!
Back again next Saturday morning if you can give a hand for a few minutes
Last year, Foxwood residents won a “gold” award in the Yorkshire in Bloom contest.
Part of this success was down to individual householders who provided some stunning displays.
The Residents Association is running a contest this year to find the best “plants in a container” display which can be seen from the street.
Judging will take place during the week commencing 17th July.
£100 worth of prizes are up for grabs.
If you think there is a good display at a home near you (which may be your own!) please get in touch.

Lots of movie characters at today’s Acomb Market.

 

York Police warning on “Snapchat” danger

Local police have issued the following warning

“Officers from the Neighbourhood Policing Teams within North Yorkshire Police would like to make parents aware of the following update that has released on snapchat.

If your children have the Snapchat app and GPS on their phone please take a look at this.

It seems with the new update there is a new feature on Snapchat. When you open the app place two fingers on the screen and drag them together ‘pinch’ just like when zooming out on an interactive map. This will then open the new feature. It shows your location with near exact accuracy and can be only a couple of meters wrong. This means people can see exactly where you are at any time.

To turn this off there is a settings button in the top right and can turn the feature to ghost mode. This will hide your location from others. Also turn off the phones GPS as an extra level of security.

If you need any help please contact your phone provider or visit an O2 store and speak to one of their gurus. This is a free service and regardless of the network you are on The gurus can help with any technical questions and security advice.

Please remind your children to only have ‘friends’ on these apps who they actually know, this will keep them safer online.

While we have focused this on keeping children safe. Please be mindful features like this could be used by criminals, knowing when you’re out or even where you live. Always be mindful of posting pictures with cycles and such which would show people exactly where you store them. Then show when you are out”.

Pupils to speak up at city’s first Primary Voice session

York’s first open forum for primary school pupils is welcoming children to have their say on the city and their views on it.

On Monday 26 June City of York Council is hosting the first ever Primary Voice event with Clifton Green Primary School. 20 schools across the city are sending some 70 participants – pupils and staff – and councillors from all the main political parties will be attending.

Schools have been invited to bring pupils from Years 5 and 6 or from their school council, to come and share the views of their school community.

They can talk to councillors and officers, take part in workshops, hear about how City of York Council operates and experience democracy in action.
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York Council finally responds to to flat fire fears

Council reassures tenants of its fire safety approach

Fire exit in York flat block

The York Council has finally said that it will respond to some of the concerns raised following our audit of fire safety last weekend.  It has still not confirmed that it has abandoned its plan to move housing management to an “arms length company – of the type that was complicit in the Grenfell Tower disaster.

It has issued the following statement.

 “Following the terrible fire at Grenfell Tower, City of York Council is writing to its tenants and leaseholders living in its blocks of council homes.

The letter explains that the council has no high rise blocks – these are classified as having six or more storeys – and that none of its homes have aluminium composite material (ACM) type cladding which was used at Grenfell Towers. Also, the letter confirms that the council has an ongoing, rolling programme of fire risk assessments in place for all the council’s blocks with communal areas, including sheltered housing, hostels and older person’s accommodation.

The council installs hard-wired smoke detectors in tenants’ homes as part of the rolling Tenants’ Choice modernisation programme, and its gas engineers test detectors when they carry out annual gas service visits.

All sheltered housing schemes, older persons housing and hostels have communal fire alarm systems, and all vulnerable people living in them have personal emergency evacuation plans.

The letter recognises that there is always room for improvement, and that the council is currently developing a new fire safety policy for its housing stock which will reflect the most up-to-date fire safety practice.

As part of this policy work, the council will be reviewing how its existing fire safety procedures are managed across its housing stock. Any areas for development which are found will be dealt with urgently through an improvement plan. This will be overseen by Mary Weastell, the council’s chief executive and will be shared in more detail with all tenants when complete”.
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