York turns Blue for ME Awareness

York is supporting ME awareness week with some of York’s most famous monuments turning blue for the week.

Parts of York’s historic city walls and Clifford’s Tower will be lit up every night until 13 May as the council shows its support for The York ME Community, who work to raise awareness of the disease.

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), is a long-term illness with a wide range of symptoms and affects 250,000 people in the UK. The most common symptom is extreme exhaustion, due to the energy production system of the body being severely affected.  This exhaustion can be caused by the slightest physical or mental exertion.

People with ME can have other symptoms, including; sleep problems, headaches, problems concentrating and fast or irregular heartbeats.  It can affect the cognitive function, mobility, speech, concentration and things such as light and sound can be extremely debilitating

The council’s support comes after the work of The York ME Community to increase awareness was recognised by a full council motion pledging the council’s support.

Councillor Carol Runciman, Executive Member for health and social care said: “The York ME Community do fantastic work across the city, raising awareness and supporting those affected and we are delighted to be supporting this important awareness week.

“ME affects people of all ages, including children. However the illness tends to develop between the mid-20s and mid-40s and is most prevalent in women.  This illness can have a huge impact on their lives and that of their families, which is why we have teamed up with the York ME Community to show our support and hopefully raise awareness.”

Bill Clayton, the York ME Community said: “ME was recognised as a neurological disorder by the World Health Organisation in 1969.  Since that time, little has been done to invest in research to find a cure.  To make this happen, we must raise awareness of an illness affecting millions across the world, and around 800 in the York area alone.  It is the aim of The York ME Community to bring on board businesses, clubs and volunteer group to help spread the word in the hope that one day there will be the research funding needed to find a cure.

“It is a huge step forward to receive such great support from City of York Council in this way.  To have some of York’s prominent buildings lit in blue will help us connect with other great cities across the world who will be doing the same in support of their communities.”

For more information on ME awareness week visit www.meassociation.org.uk. For information on the York ME Community visit www.york-me-community.org

 

Starting home composting is easier than ever

As part of International Compost Awareness Week, from 6 to 12 May, North Yorkshire County Council and the City of York Council are encouraging residents to start composting with a fantastic offer in partnership with getcomposting.com.

Residents can buy discounted compost bins online from £8 plus £5.99 delivery for a 220- litre home compost bin and when ordering online they can take advantage of a “buy one get one half price” offer.

As well as taking online and phone orders, on Friday, 11 May, the authorities will launch home compost bin sales from selected household waste recycling centres. These are: Wetherby Road, Harrogate; Malton; Northallerton; Seamer Carr; Selby; Skipton; Whitby; and Hazel Court, York.

York and North Yorkshire residents will be able to buy a 330-litre home compost bin for £10. Bins are limited to two per household and residents must take proof of their address. Visit  www.york.gov.uk/hazelcourthwrc for opening hours.

The national Waste Resources Action Programme estimates that use of a home compost bin diverts about 150kg of waste per household from waste bins each year. It is simple to do and much daily household waste can be recycled. It’s also a cheaper alternative to chargeable garden waste collections and has the benefit of producing free top-quality compost for use as a soil improver, mulch or plant feed.

To order online, visit www.getcomposting.com or call 0844 571 4444, quoting reference YNY08L. As well as compost bins, food waste digesters and hot composters are available for food waste.

City of York Councillor Andrew Waller, deputy leader and executive member for the environment, said: “Composting is an easy, effective way to reduce the waste going to landfill and at the same time help your garden.

“This scheme is another great incentive in our drive to support our residents to reduce, reuse and recycle even more of York’s waste.”

Westfield Ward budget allocations announced

Details have emerged about how the  budget – delegated to local Westfield Councillors – will be spent during the present financial year. Similar budgets are available across the whole of York (although the extent to which individual Ward Councillors consult, before allocating the funds, does vary)

Westfield Ward Committee will award:

A youth club and “hub” will operate from Sanderson Court in Chapelfields

In addition, Westfield Ward Committee will dedicate:

  • £920 towards ward directory project

    A local pub team will bring football back to Chesney’s Field

  • £2,000 to set a pot of funding for activities provision for young people
  • £1,500 to set a pot of funding for support for sports teams
  • £2,000 to set a pot of funding for activities for older residents
  • £2,000 to set a pot of funding for trimming of City of York Council trees – to be used for work at locations across the ward
  • £2,000 to set a pot of funding for trimming of overgrown shrubs and repairs to fencing on the City of York Council land
  • £1,500 to support a project to tidy up the Acomb war memorials
  • £500 to set a pot of funding towards anti dog fouling campaign
  • £5,000 to set a pot of funding towards mobile CCTV cameras to catch fly tipping
  • £2,000 to set a pot of funding towards tidy up and bulky waste removal projects
  • £2,000 to set a pot of funding towards removal or refurbishment of obsolete or damaged street furniture and signs
  • £3,000 to set a pot of funding towards projects with the aim to tackle anti-social behaviour
  • £1,250 towards painting cycle hoops along Front Street

    More parking lay-bys will be provided

Councillors also considered ward capital projects and decided to invest in the following:

  • installation of a parking bay to accommodate 2 to 3 cars between number 12 and number 20 Bachelor Hill
  • continue with the levelling programme of Front Street and other footpaths
  • installation of a parking bay on Dijon Avenue at the verge to the side of no 41 Green Lane
  • installation of a parking bay on verge adjacent to number 95 Lowfields Drive
  • reconstruction and protection of grass verges at locations across the ward
  • installation of barriers in the Walker Drive snicket

There was a limited turn out in the  residents ballot about priorities. Fewer than 70 votes were recorded for the most popular schemes

What’s on in York: Claire Ainsley – The New Working Class

May _17Working ClassYork Explore Library :

Thu 17 May :

6.00pm – 7.30pm :

Free

Limited tickets

The majority of people in the UK still identify as working class, yet no political party today can confidently articulate their interests. So who is now working class and how do political parties gain their support?

Based on the opinions and voices of lower and middle-income voters, this insightful book, by JRF’s Executive Director and York resident Claire Ainsley, proposes what needs to be done to address the issues of the ‘new working class’. It provides practical recommendations for political parties to reconnect with the electorate and regain trust.

The evening will consist of a short introduction to the book and a discussion on how can political parties connect with voters of the new working class and gain their support.

A complimentary drinks receptions will begin at 6pm in the Marriott Room, and the main event will start at 6.30pm

To book tickets please click here.

What’s on in York: The Vulgar Tongue With Professor Julie Coleman

7pm

Fairfax House

£14.00 (£12.00 Friends and Members) includes a post-lecture wine reception

 

Francis Grose’s Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785) comes with a pedigree of written sources to provide historical credibility, but he claimed also to have consulted ‘soldiers on the long march, seamen at the cap-stern, ladies disposing of their fish … the applauding populace, attending … executions’. His colourful account of the seamier side of Regency London is both engaging and repellent: in a statement that is not entirely in keeping with the contents of the dictionary, he re-assures his readers that he has dealt with indelicate and immodest words ‘in the most decent manner possible’.

For Slang’s foremost scholar, Julie Coleman, (Professor of English Language at the University of Leicester and author of four monographs on the cant and slang dictionary tradition covering the sixteenth to the twentieth century), slang is neither completely reprehensible nor entirely admirable – though as her lecture will vividly demonstrate, completely fascinating.

Professor Coleman’s The Life of Slang outlines the history of slang around the English-speaking world and she has also worked on the language of Bunyan, the influence of advertising on the English language and on English words for love, sex and marriage since Anglo-Saxon times.

Francis Grose’s ‘Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue’ was first published in 1785, and is a dictionary of slang words. Grose was one of the first lexicographers to collect slang words from all corners of society, not just from the professional underworld of pickpockets and bandits. Grose and his assistant Tom Cocking took midnight walks through London, picking up slang words in slums, drinking dens and dockyards and adding them into their ‘knowledge-box’. ‘The Vulgar Tongue’ was recognised throughout the 19th century as one of the most important collections of slang in the English language, and it would strongly influence later dictionaries of this kind.