Date:22 June
Time:7.30pm – 9.40pm
Venue:York Barbican
Cost:£13.50 under 16s £5.00
Special concert with world-famous Black Dyke Band is the highlight of the Tour de Brass, a weekend of brass band events for the Yorkshire Festival.
Date:22 June
Time:7.30pm – 9.40pm
Venue:York Barbican
Cost:£13.50 under 16s £5.00
Special concert with world-famous Black Dyke Band is the highlight of the Tour de Brass, a weekend of brass band events for the Yorkshire Festival.
The Council’s Labour Leadership are going ahead with their threat to scrap the free “Minster” badge which entitles residents to discounts on car parking charges.
This was introduced some years ago as a way of recognising that residents had paid for the car park to be established in the first place.
Residents will have to apply online to purchase a replacement badge. (Ironically, today, the web site https://www.york.gov.uk/minsterbadge links weren’t working).
The Council says that the charge will go towards making up a £280,000 shortfall on car parking income.
The shortfall has arisen since Labour increased car parking charges, some by as much as 80%, when they took office.
The new scheme means the end of “free” evening parking for residents. Free evening parking was something Labour campaigned for in 2007 when a £1 per evening charge applied for residents.
Now any resident, without one of the new Minster Badges, faces a £2 charge (the same as visitors).
When announcing their plans earlier in the year, Labour claimed that they wanted to provide an incentive for “frequent visitors” to return to the City, but it now appears that those living in the City’s hinterland will NOT be able to buy a badge.
With around £300,000 in car parking income now at risk because of the free morning parking introduced at some car parks on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturday, it seems unlikely that the council has got its sums right.
The coalition government has allocated York over £300,000 to deal with some of the potholes that blight local roads.
It is estimated that this will allow around 5000 holes to be filled in.
The money is in addition to the £245,719 allocated earlier in the year to repair the worse ravages of the winter weather.
However the central government initiative will do little to address the backlog in highways repairs which has built up over the last two financial years following a decision by the local York Council Labour Leadership to lop a total of £4 million from the highways budgets.
The potholes represents a particular risk for cyclists with highway margin work (the 1 metre band near the highway kerbside) having been given a low priority by the Council over the last 3 years.
Some road humps are also in a particularly poor condition and represent a hazard for all road users.
A husband and wife team has won a 6 month Tour de France challenge which was set by Energise for its members in January.
Jack and Jill Whitham were first to successfully complete the 2,271 mile challenge to cycle, run and swim or climb the Tour de France distance prior to the Grand Départ Stage 2 leaving York on Sunday 6 July.
Jill Whitham said: “We thought it would be impossible at first but found that the challenge really gave us the push to increase cardio workouts and achieve our goal weights. It also encouraged us to try more on the bikes and the rower. We will be going out to watch the Tour de France as it is on our doorstep this year.”
Paul Bickle, Manager of Energise said: “All the staff would like to give them our congratulations and we’re glad that the challenge helped them both to achieve their goals. As a prize they have chosen the Go Ape Tree Top adventure at Dalby Forest. The individual winner category is still up for grabs and we are encouraging all our members to have a go.”
21st June 2014 | 8:30am Dale Street |
28th June 2014 | 8:30am Sanderson House Bramham Road 8:30am Bramham Road/Grange Lane junction 12:30pm Lindsey Ave |
5th July 2014 | Don Ave 8:30am North Lane 10:30am |
12th July 2014 | 8:30am Sanderson House, Bramham Road 10:30am Rogers Court |
19th July 2014 | 8:30am Lowfields Drive 12:30pm Cornlands Road |
Date:Sat 21 June
Time:2.00pm – 4.30pm, 7.00pm – 9.30pm
Venue:York Barbican
Cost:£5 Adults, £2.50 concessions/unwaged/students, free for under 18s
York is preparing to showcase the amazing musical talent of young people from across the city at the York Music Hub Festival 2014.
Date:21 June
Time:10.30am – 4.30pm
Venue:Parliament Street and Coppergate
Cost:Free
Brassed On York showcases brass bands playing throughout the day at the Food Festival Entertainment Marquee and Coppergate Centre for York – Be Part of It.
With Groupon now advertising Grand Departy tickets for £20 each (a 32% discount) there are growing concerns that the “10,000” capacity event could be a major flop.
Councillors are understood to be asking just how big a bill taxpayers may have to pick up?
The event – to be held at the Huntington Stadium on 4th July – always looked to be an afterthought.
It is sadly too typical of a council that has over-extended itself once too often.
They need to come clean about how many tickets have actually been sold?
Ironically it took another FOI request to reveal the real figure of £137.
The Council claims that the mistake was due to an error in a press release that it issued.
£715 was the maximum cost for processing a request.
The Councils FOI web page is poor lacking even an on line form on which to record requests.
The Council’s Audit committee is due to consider the FOI processes next Wednesday.
It will hear that the number of FOI requests has escalated since Labour took control of the Council and adopted a “behind closed doors” decision making regime. The number of requests increased from 804 in 11/12 to 1384 in 13/14 (72%).
81% of the requests were responded to within the 20 day deadline.
98 dissatisfied residents asked for their requests to be reviewed and 93 went as far as complaining to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).
The types of information requested from the Council varies a lot.
In both these cases the Council should routinely publish on its web site the information that is available. That would be much cheaper than responding to individual request for information.
Many of the requests though reflect the interest that residents have in the way that the Council is being managed.
Date:Sat 21 June
Time:10.30am – 12 noon
Venue:Explore Clifton Library
Cost:Session free, but a small charge for materials
Want to have a go at a craft but don’t know where to start? Then why not drop into our taster session and be guided by experienced crafters.