Acomb Bowling Club blow

Front Street green space threatened.

Acomb Bowling Club

Acomb Bowling Club want to quit their Front Street home and sell the land for a housing development. A planning application submitted over 3 weeks ago has only just been published on the Councils web site.

Reference           18/00586/FULM

Address Acomb Bowling Club Front Street York YO24 3BZ

Proposal              Erection of 11 dwellings following demolition of existing buildings

This is not the first time that this area of open space has been threatened. Over 10 years ago the club was also on the brink of folding.

At that time York Council officials were instructed to offer to buy the land. The intention was to use the car park associated with the site to supplement the parking available at the Acomb Explore Library.

The bowling club would have continued to enjoy use of the greens for a nominal rent.

The Library would have been expanded onto land, already owned by the Council, at the rear.

The intention was to provide flats above a “one stop shop” facility incorporating a extension to the library.  It later transpired that officials had failed to close a deal for the club site.

The scheme was quietly dropped when the incoming Labour administration decided in 2011 to centralised customer contact facilities at West Offices in the City centre. The Councils existing “Acomb Office” was closed.

The new coalition administration was invited in 2015 to look again at how the areas of land to the rear of the library – including the bowling green – might be used in the future but progress has been slow.

The Bowling Club application may reinvigorate the need for a comprehensive development brief for this part of Front Street.

Residents have already criticised any attempt to reduce still further the amount of green space in the Westfield area. It already has the lowest proportion of open space and sports pitches of any sub-urban ward.

The Councils plans to build on the Lowfields playing fields will make the situation even worse.

Residents can object to the planning application by emailing planning.comments@york.gov.uk quoting reference 18/00586/FULM.

Library precinct plan 2011

Complacent York highways maintenance report rapped

Potholes on the increase

A curiously complacent report on how the York Council has conducted its highways maintenance duties over the last year has just been published.

The reports list a series of successes.

However, it pointedly fails to admit that;

  • Potholes now pose a significant risk for road users and have done for several months
  • Promised resurfacing schemes simply didn’t happen with residents being left in the dark about the delays
  • Broadband network installation works have left verges and paths in a shoddy condition

    Cable works have damaged verges and footpaths

A new executive member has now assumed responsibility for highways (Cllr Dew). His appointment was part of the general “merry go round” of changes initiated by local Conservatives.

It is to be hoped he won’t be duped into thinking that all is well with highway maintenance in the City of York.

NB. The resurfacing programme for the new 2018/19 financial year still hasn’t been published by the Council. In previous years residents were able to see what was planned before the year started.

What’s on in York: CSIs in York: the truth about forensic investigating

Apr _7Csis In York

York Explore Library :

Sat 7 Apr :

2.00pm – 3.30pm :

£5

Crime writing duo Ashley Dyer will reveal the truth about forensic investigation with pictures, practical demonstrations, chat and laughter.

You will learn how forensic investigations happen, see how an expert ‘lifts’ fingerprints, and you can even try your hand at identifying footwear evidence. Known for her dramatic readings, the ‘writing arm’ of Team Ashley Dyer will chill you with the fictional art of murder, explaining how forensic science, research, location – and conversations with murder detectives, pathologists, and prosecutors – inspire plot and stories, and bring characters to life.

Ashley Dyer is the penname of novelist Margaret Murphy working in consultation with forensics expert, Helen Pepper.

Margaret Murphy is a former RLF Writing Fellow and Reading Round Lector, past Chair of the Crime Writers Association (CWA), and founder of Murder Squad. A CWA Short Story Dagger winner, she has been shortlisted for the First Blood critics’ award for crime fiction as well as the Dagger in the Library. She has written novels under her own name, and as A.D. Garrett.

Helen Pepper is a Senior Lecturer in Policing. She has been an analyst, Forensic Scientist, SOCO, CSI, and Crime Scene Manager, and has co-authored, and contributed to, professional policing texts. In great demand with crime writers, she is a CWA Non-Fiction Dagger judge, and is Forensic Consultant on both the Vera and Shetlandtelevision series.

Splinter in the Blood: Utterly engrossing and filled with masterfully crafted surprises, Splinter in the Blood is a propulsive roller-coaster ride, filled with secrets, nerve-jangling tension, perplexing mystery, and cold-blooded murder, in which a police officer on the hunt for a macabre serial killer is brutally attacked, and only his partner knows the truth about what happened—and who did it. This debut thriller sold in multiple competitive auctions across Europe and in the US.

To book tickets please click here.