Click individual events for more details

• Made in Yorkshire 3rd Mar 15th Dec Merchant Adventurers Hall A fresh and funky new shopping event in the heart of York, showcasing the county’s very best designer makers and vintage homewares

• Hairy Bikers 3rd Mar Sun Grand Opera House

• Let’s hear it for the girls 3rd Mar Sun 1:00pm Explore Library Celebrate International Women’s Week with Naomi Beeley, Womens Land Army Community Outreach Officer, to explore the history of the Women’s Land Army

• Pack a punch 4th Mar Mon 11:00am Explore Library

• Pack a punch 5th Mar Tues 10:00am Explore Acomb Come along to discover what inspired Nicola Adams to win gold at the London Oympics.

• Oliver 5th 16th Mar Theatre Royal

• Yamato Drummers 5th Mar Tues Royal Opera House

• Ebor Lectures 6th Mar Minster with Revd Dr Giles Fraser Priest in charge St Mary’s Newington/The Guardian Columnist

• John Shuttleworth 6th Mar Wed Grand Opera House

• WOW Kate Bush 7th Mar Thurs Grand Opera House

• Super circuits 7th Mar Thurs 5:30pm York RI & every Thursday Improve your fitness, stamina and strength and have some fun during this body conditioning class

• Writing your story 7th Mar Thur 2:30pm Dringhouses Library Join us for a friendly writing workshop led by Pauline Kirk for both beginners and experienced writers

• Bootleg Beatles 8th Mar Fri 8:00pm Barbican

• Abba For the music 8th Mar Fri 7:30pm Grand Opera House /

• Bach’s St Matthew Passion 9th Mar Minster (YMS)

• Listen to the chamber secrets 9th Mar Sat 1:00pm Early Music centre Take some time out from your busy day and enjoy performances by choirs, guitar groups, a string quartet and the Minster Minstrels

• The Festival of the Passions 9th – 24th Mar Minster

• Richard Herring 9th Mar Sat Grand Opera House

• Scottish Fiddle Orchestra 9th Mar Sat 7:30m Barbican

• Rugby League Knights v Workington 10th Mar Sun 3:00pm Huntington Stadium

• Football City v Rochdale 12th Mar Tues Bootham Cres

• Baroque soloists 13th Mar Wed 7:30pm Minster

• Get ready for Le Tour 13th Mar Wed 10:00am Dunnington Sports Club Cycle training for adults who are both complete beginners and those who wish to improve their skills and confidence when riding.

• The circus is coming to town 13th – 17th Mar Knavesmire Planet Circus are coming to town with a guarantee of a fun packed couple of hours for all the family

• The Way of the Drum 14th March Early music centre (sold out)

• Blues Brothers 14th/16th March Grand Opera House

• Smokie 15th Mar Fri 7:30pm Barbican

• An evening with Freddie Flintoff 15th March Racecourse (Cancelled)

• Football City v Port Vale 16th Mar Sat Bootham Cres

• Abba Mania 16th Mar Sat 7:30pm Barbican

• Monteverdi 1610 Vespers 16th Mar Sat &:30pm St Michael le Belfrey

• Passiontide Splendours 16th Mar Sat 7:30pm Minster

• Symphony for spring 16th Mar Sat 7:00pm Early music centre A concert presenting string ensembles from York Arts Academy, together with the York Arts Academy Symphony Orchestra. Come along and hear music by Schubert, Vivaldi, Mozart and many more!

• Bring York alive stories 18th Mar onwards Explore York Explore some of the 1000 stories collected for York Stories 2012 community project from people across York and beyond, which bring York alive

• Martin Carthy 19th March Early music centre

• The Odyssey 19th – 20th Mar Theatre Royal

• The Winters Tale – RSC 19th/23rd March Grand Opera House

• Stabat Mater 20th Mar Minster

• June Tabor 21st March Early music centre

• White caps 21st Mar 7:30m Theatre Royal

• York literature festival 19th/24th Mar Various

• How to read minds 22nd Mar 8:00pm Theatre Royal

• Comedy Night 22nd Mar Fri Racecourse

•<strong> St John Passion 23rd Mar Minster

• Car boot sale 23rd Mar Sat Racecourse

• Take over 13 comedy night 23rd Mar Sat Theatre Royal

• Palm Sunday Procession 24th Mar Sun 10:00am Minster

• Messing about on the river 24th Mar Sun 12:00 noon Rowntree Park Now the weather is turning and we look forward to Spring and Summer, the members of the York Model Boat Club will be holding their first Regatta of the season

• Boogie Nights 24th Mar Sun 7:30pm Barbican

• Carol Ann Duffy 24th Mar 5:00pm Theatre Royal

• Mother Africa 26th Mar Tues Grand Opera House

• The 39 Steps 26th /30th Mar Theatre Royal

• Sally Morgan 27th Mar Wed Grand Opera House

• Stand up York 28th Mar Thu 6:30pm Barbican

• Jake Bugg 29th Mar Fri 7:00pm Barbican (sold out)

• Rugby Knights v Featherstone 29th Mar Sun 1:00pm Huntington Stadium

• Chocolate Festival 29th Mar – 1st April York cocoa house

• Joe Brown in concert 30th Mar Sat Grand Opera House

• Model Railway show 30th Mar – 1st Apr York Racecourse

April

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Residents registering a death in York from 4 March, can now rest assured that the registration will be shared with appropriate agencies, thanks to a new ‘Tell Us Once’ scheme.

Following a national pilot scheme, City of York Council’s registrars at the Bereavement Suite at York Hospital or at the Register Office at 56 Bootham can now advise relevant departments and services of all deaths in the York area, so residents only need ‘tell us once’.

This new, joined-up service aims to limit what can be a long process of notifying the necessary organisations of a death, and aims to minimise unwanted or distressing post arriving at the deceased person’s address.

The Registrar will pass the necessary information to the Department for Work and Pensions which will forward it on to other government departments and local council services.

The council teams to be notified include the council tax, electoral services, Blue Badges, adult and children’s social services and council housing. Government departments and agencies to be notified will include the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Pension, Disability and Carers Service, Jobcentre Plus, HM Revenue & Customs, child benefit, the Identity and Passport Service and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

Although only 24 Labour Councillors voted for the cuts budget proposed by their leadership it was enough to see the proposals passed at last nights Council meeting.

Now residents face a lethal cocktail of higher Council Tax levels, higher charges and rapidly deteriorating street level public services.

One local Westfield Councillor deliberately snubbed the many local residents who have been campaigning against the introduction of a 20 mph speed limit across the area. The cost of introducing the new limit is put at £600,000. He claimed in the media that it would “reduce accidents”. In reality in places like Portsmouth the introduction of such a limit has coincided with an increase in accident levels.

Cllr Williams, and his Westfield side kick Cllr Burton, then voted to reduce expenditure on road safety improvements by £75,000!

Liberal Democrat Councillor Ann Reid said, “Labour’s cuts to the roads budget have hit home in recent months with officers admitting that due to the sheer volume of problems they are being forced into ‘quick fix’ and temporary solutions. It is only through prudent long-term investment that we can reverse this decline. Our £500,000 package would not only help residents, but also local businesses and economic development. While Labour throws £100,000 at an Arts Barge and gives a £1million unmonitored ‘slush fund’ to the Council Leader, the Liberal Democrats would invest in the roads and frontline services that matter most to local residents.”

NB. Perhaps not surpisingly Labour came a distant FOURTH in the Eastleigh parliamentary by election last night. Tories were third. The seat was held by the Liberal Democrats. Shame we don’t have annual Council elections in York anymore!

Residents living in Hammerton Close in Chapelfields have asked the Council to widen the road to provide more parking spaces.

At present vehicles are mounting the verge and causing damage.

The verge is wide enough to accommodate a lay-by which would be similar to those funded through estate improvement budgets in other parts of the area.

These budgets have been not been affected by cuts as the income comes from Council house rents (which are now available to spend locally following reforms by the Coalition government).

However, Labour have allowed the parking programme to fade away since they took control of the Council with the latest scheme to be abandoned being the plan to provide off street parking in St Stephens Square.

Residents have organised a petition aimed at saving the “Toy Bus” which Labour Councillors plan to scrap in 2014.

The petition, which can be found on the Councils web site, reads;

We the undersigned petition the council to Not cease the toy bus. It would seem a great shame to loose such an excellent service. The staff on the toy bus have great knowledge in terms of the educational and enjoyment value of the toys. It is hugely beneficial to the development of babies and toddlers in their early years. If the toy bus ceases to run then this great knowledge and expertise can not be shared with parents and childcare providers.

we believe that the Toy Bus offers an incredibly valuable service to York families and childcare providers. It allows us to provide our children with specialist, varying and unique toys which aid their all-round development whilst also providing learning opportunities which the vast majority of parents would never have otherwise considered. To lose this wonderful resource would be to the detriment of young learners’ creative development in the York area.

You can sign the petition by clicking here.

A new report reveals that Labour Councillors are planning to increase the use of offenders in maintaining public areas in the City.

Over 10,000 hours were put in by “Community Payback” workers last year.

Although the so called restorative justice policy has broad support, the idea of local streets being maintained by the modern equivalent of a “chain gang” seems deeply flawed.

Apart from anything else, standards would depend on the number of offences committed (hitherto the Councils objective has been to reduce crime!) and the number of community payback sentences handed out to those who are physically capable of work.

There is a case for using offenders to give an area a one off clean up. Community Payback have been praised for their approach to projects such as bulb planting in the Foxwood area.

But they are no substitute for well equipped professional Council workers.

The Council are also apparently expecting residents to take over some maintenance tasks.

They are asking people to “become a Street Buddy and adopt a bit of your street, repaint a utility box that keeps getting graffitied, or do some litter picking or weeding” !!!

The Council are hoping that this will allow them to cut around £325,000 from their maintenance budgets over the next 12 months. Grass cutting frequencies are likely to be the next service to suffer a reduction in quality.

It follows last years decision to remove litter bins and stop filling many salt bins.