Increased police presence on York streets over Halloween and Bonfire celebrations

Over the coming weeks police in North Yorkshire will have an increased presence in York to deter those who may choose to engage in anti-social behaviour (ASB), and help keep the community safe under Operation CASBIA.

Op CASBIA is a new initiative that started on Friday 27 October. Local neighbourhood policing teams will be out in numbers to provide reassurance, crime prevention advice and provide you with the opportunity to meet your local officers.  Officers from North Yorkshire Police’s specialist Road Policing Group and Operational Support Unit will also be joining the local team to deter ASB and deal with the anti-social use of vehicles on our roads.

Postcards will also be supplied, to display that you do not wish to have Trick or Treaters at your door. These are available at the front office of both Acomb and Fulford Police station, or alternatively you can email your local team for one to be posted through your door.

Chief Inspector Allan Wescott, of North Yorkshire Police said:

“Although this time of year is fun and exciting for many, there are those in our communities for whom it can cause concern and anxiety and increase the fear of crime in local communities. There are also a small number of people who may choose to use it as an opportunity to commit Anti-Social Behaviour. We want to reassure the public that we will be out on the streets, doing our best to keep local communities safe.

“I’d like to also remind people to only trick or treat in their own neighbourhood unless they’re with an adult and avoid going out alone and ask people to stay in well- lit areas where there are plenty of houses.

“At this time of year we work closely with the Fire and Rescue Service, and I urge people not to take risks with fireworks. Anyone caught supplying fireworks to under 18s or lighting them in the street can expect to be dealt with robustly.”

Deadline for York secondary school applications approaches

 

Parents of children currently in Year 6 are being reminded that applications for secondary schools places for September 2018 should be made before midnight on Tuesday 31 October 2017.

For pupils in Year 6 – the last year of primary school – parents should apply for a maximum of five schools and we recommend that one preference should be the catchment school

Applications can be made online at www.york.gov.uk/schooladmissions.

All details and answers to frequently asked questions can be found at www.york.gov.uk/guideforparents. This guide contains information on school admissions and appeals processes as well as information on admissions statistics, oversubscription criteria and other information for parents and carers.

Any parents eligible and who may not already have applied for free school meals are urged to do so at the same time. This means that whether or not the meal is taken, the pupil premium of £900 per year per eligible secondary school pupil will follow the young person throughout their time at school to benefit their education.

For more detailed information, please email: education@york.gov.uk or call 01904 551 554.

York children set to take walk to school week in their stride

 
Twenty five York schools and over 7,000 pupils across the city are set to take part in Walk to School Week from Monday 16 October.

Walk to school week aims to get even more children walking, cycling or scooting to school.

The school that gets the highest number of pupils walking, cycling or scooting throughout the week will win the coveted Jack Archer award and £200 to put towards sports equipment.

It is recommended that children aged five to sixteen do at least sixty  minutes of physical activity that gets their heart beating faster than usual and they need to do it everyday to burn off calories and prevent them storing up excess fat in the body.

Regular activity is also important for adults and it is recommended that adults make sure they’re active for just 30 minutes each day, or 150 minutes a week.

The scheme is also targeted at families who normally take the car, and encourages them to consider walking or cycling to school instead.

Residents can find out more about changing the way they travel in York at: www.itravelyork.info
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York makes safeguarding everybody’s business

Helping everybody understand that safeguarding is their business is a line-up of events from the York partners joining in national Safeguarding Week from 9-13 October.

The Safeguarding Boards for Adults and Children and Safer York Partnership along with partners such as City of York Council, York Hospital, CVS, domestic abuse experts IDAS, North Yorkshire Police and The Retreat have published a programme of activities and seminars to help put the safeguarding of children and adults firmly at the fore of residents’ and professionals’ minds.

Mindfulness courses and ‘Confident parent, confident child’ and ‘Fit food, fit kids’ classes from York Learning are available from the council and will be promoted during the week.

  • The NHS Trust’s children and adult safeguarding teams will be on hand at York Hospital throughout the week to chat and meet visitors’, staff and patients alike.
  • Two introductory courses on safeguarding adults, plus a chance to ask questions on adults at risk, will take place on 11 October at the Gateway Centre, Front Street, Acomb, and on 13 October at Tang Hall Community Centre from 2-4:30pm. Please book a place with Penny.hutchinson@york.gov.uk
  • Nelli’s Cafe at New Earswick Methodist Church will host a drop-in question and answer session with the chair of the Safeguarding Adults Board Kevin McAleese on 11 October from 10am-12noon.
  • Come and chat about the ‘Strength and Wellbeing’ display in North Yorkshire Police’s mobile depot in Parliament Street on 11 October – when council staff will join them – and on 13 October from 9am-4pm.
  • IDAS will run a workshop on healthy relationships for practitioners working with children and adults on 11 October.
  • On the same day York CVS will run a seminar on the lasting effects of grooming which is open for workers in the voluntary sector, before holding its first ever parents’ forum run by its nursery team.
  • The Retreat is offering adult social services practitioners a seminar on safeguarding covering positive risk taking, partnership working and promoting positive wellbeing.

Among the social media activities by partners will be signposting services such as social prescribing which can support strength and wellbeing.

The full programme of events for Safeguarding Week is at: www.safeguardingadultsyork.org.uk
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Westfield School promotes private swimming lessons

The Westfield primary school is writing to parents urging them to take up an offer of swimming lessons at the Energise pool.

The letter reveals that some organised trips to the pool have been poorly supported in the past.

Now the school is offering to subsidise the costs of personal lessons if parents choose to participate.

We hope that the scheme is successful. We have had too many tragedies in a City where there are two rivers, both of which pose an accident risk!

Westfield school letter to parents

Good GCSE (Key Stage 4) results in York

Pupils across the city have achieved excellent GCSE results.

Early indications of results at York High would suggest that in spite of the increased challenge of GCSE examinations in English and maths this year students  “have achieved results in line with those achieved in 2016”.

Meanwhile York College says it is proud to announce “fabulous GCSE results for students aged 16-18 years, and adult students, who have taken their Maths and English Language exams this year.  A total of 237 students achieved grades 9-4 in English Language and 171 students achieved an A*-C in Maths from this summer’s examinations.  And nearly two thirds of adult students who took GCSE Biology this year have achieved high grades A*-C”.

Despite the significant changes that have taken place in the examination system this past year around curriculum changes and measuring performance, York’s Key Stage 4 performance remains strong.

These changes include new performance indicators for the percentage of pupils achieving grades 9-1 in both English and mathematics. Provisional results show that York schools have performed well against these new indicators with 69% of students achieving grade 4 and above in both English and maths, and 48% achieving grade 5 and above .

The measure known as English Baccalaureate (EBacc) continued to show good performance.  Pupils who gain good grades in English, maths, two science subjects, a modern foreign language and a humanities subject achieve EBacc.

Westfield ward committee improvements – list published

The Council, has published a list of projects that will be funded from the Westfield ward delegated budget this year. Most other wards have announced similar lists. The Westfield list can be found by clicking here

Although covering 30 months of funding, the list does include schemes which have not yet got off the ground.

Amongst them are plans for diversionary activities in the beleaguered Chapelfields area.

Allocations include

  • £6,841 funding to tackle anti-social behaviour across the ward.  Out of that fund, £376 was allocated to pay for CCTV maintenance on Bramham Road between September 2017 to September 2018.
  • £1500  was transferred to tackle anti-social behaviour in the Chapelfields area.
  • £3,521 funding to tackle anti-social behaviour in the Chapelfields area

The Chapelfields programe is described as “a multi-agency team involving police, LAT and Public Health as well as local community groups who will seek to address anti-social behaviour through targeted diversionary activities for local children and young people. This will link to the Communities that Care programme which is being developed by the local police”.  £500 has been paid for Urbie sessions (a community youth activity bus project) in a local church car park. Further visits are expected in September

Residents have written to the Council asking for an update on the progress with these projects and a similar initiative at the Kingsway West MUGA which although allocated £2000 in the budget, also does not seem to have started yet.

We wish the authorities well in their attempts to defuse the situation.

Westfield survey priorities at 18th August 2017 (excluding Foxwood)

The results of the Ward Committees ballot, which sought residents priorities on use of its delegated budget, have not been published yet.

However the results of a similar door to door survey conducted by local Councillors are available.

So far over 1540 forms have been returned.

They show strong support for five projects.

These include funding for leisure activities for younger people and security improvements. 

 

 

Anti social behaviour peaks in Chapelfields

Dispersal order in place from 5:00pm today

Police are warning that robust action will be taken following eight days of high level anti-social behaviour in York’s Chapelfields estate.

There have been more than twenty five incidents of anti-social behaviour in the Chaplefields area between 9 August and 16 August.

The nature of the incidents, have included anti-social use of mopeds and motorcycles, arson, drug use and criminal damage.

The groups of youths, sometimes up to thirty in number, causing this hazardous disruption have also been using threatening and abusive language towards residents and the police.

Circumstances of some of the more serious reports involved a flat window being forced open and fireworks thrown inside, a youth threatening an officer with a piece of wood a group climbing onto the school roof, where the skylight has been previously smashed by a group of the youths.

Bramham Road

The incidents have taken places across various locations in the area including Bramham Road, Bramham Avenue, Chaplefields Road, Westfield Place and Barkston Grove.

A dispersal order is going to be implemented at 5 pm today which will last for 48 hours. The dispersal order will cover an area of Bramham Road which includes the junction of Barkston Grove, and another area of Bramham Road which covers Costcutter and the junctions either side of Bramham avenue.

Inspector Lee Pointon of the York North Neighbourhood Policing Team, said:

The levels of anti-social behaviour this group are committing is just astonishing and they are causing so much misery amongst the community in Chaplefields.

Many residents, including the elderly and vulnerable, have felt intimidated, have been verbally abused, and are scared in their own home. This is totally unacceptable behaviour.
These youths are ruining what should be a respectable community enjoying the summer months and school holidays. Instead, we are seeing this group of defiant individuals who have no intentions other than to be nasty, cause desolation and despair amongst the public.

My team of officers and PCSOs are working hard to identify these youths and exercise the powers we can to deter them from this anti-social behaviour.

A dispersal order will be put in place today that will last for 48 hours. Anyone who breaks the order will be arrested. If the order is deemed successful, it will be continued throughout next week”.

Anyone who witnesses anti-social behaviour or who has any information is asked to contact police. Dial 101, press 1 and speak to the force control room.
Alternatively, Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously on 0800 555 111.

In the recent survey conducted by local Councillors in the Chapelfields estate many residents complained about what they regarded as the low police profile in the area.

  • 39% of respondents described policing in the estate as “poor”
  • Better security was the most requested improvement for the area

June edition of Chapelfields Focus newsletter

Good A level exam results announced in York

York College

 A level students across the city have achieved an excellent set of results in this years exams.

Provisional results for York school sixth forms and York College show that the very high standards of previous years have been maintained and initial results for the city indicate that A level results remain consistently amongst the best in the country.

York school sixth forms – All Saints RC, Archbishop Holgate’s CE, Fulford, Huntington and Joseph Rowntree – and York College are reporting strong results including ‘best ever’ performances.

At York College pupils have got an outstanding A-Level pass rate of 99.7 per cent with a record of almost 60 per cent high grades achieved (A* – B). Yet again, the College’s results will be significantly above the national average, as they have been for 23 consecutive years.

Over 30 students gained three or more A* or A grades, with an amazing seven students achieving 3 A*s or more. The College is also delighted to report a 100 per cent pass rate in 35 A Level subjects.

Early results for the schools show that across the board young people will be able to get to the universities of their choice, including those applying to Oxbridge universities and medical courses. This strong position is being maintained despite the significant changes to the content and structure of A and AS level courses this year.

Chesney Field meeting leaves many unanswered questions

Chesney’s Field development plan

Last nights “drop in” briefing, at which some residents were given the opportunity to see how Council officials want to see Chesney’s Field developed, produced more questions than answers.

The plan to fence off part of the popular piece of public open space had already got off to a poor start when it was found that neither local Ward Councillors not the Residents Association had been consulted.

It now appears that flyers advertising the exhibition were only delivered to a small number of properties. Attendance at the event was modest.

The Residents Association will be organising another meeting in August to review the proposals.

What is now clear is that the plans involve over 60% of the field being enclosed with 1 metre high railings. This is intended to accommodate the preferences of a football club (Woodthorpe Wanderers) which faces eviction from the Council owned pitches at Lowfields.

A shipping container storage type building may also be left on the field and some levelling work would be undertaken. The playground is unlikely to be affected.

Although officials say that access gates would remain unlocked, the fencing would effectively eliminate some types of sporting activity, such as cricket, and could inhibit other uses.  Activities would tend to concentrate around the perimeter, nearer to peoples homes.

There is an option to include an “outdoor gym” or “trim track” (the Acorn field or Foxwood Park remain other location possibilities for these).

Survey – click to complete

The Council says that – to make up for the loss of the playing fields at Lowfields which the Council hopes to build on – additional open space will be provided near the college on Tadcaster Road (over a mile from the existing pitches). Perhaps not surprisingly, the existing users of the Lowfields pitches feel that this is too far away to meet their needs (and is unlikely to address the concerns of playing field conservation bodies both local and national).

The £40,000 expenditure will be mainly used at Tadcaster Road.

Local Councillors will be consulting directly through a door to door survey over the next 3 weeks. Around 1000 homes will be visited.  Residents will then be able to give their verdict on whether they want to see any changes to the field.

Early responses to the survey suggest that most people would prefer the football club to stay at Lowfields.

One option would be for the Woodthorpe Wanderers football club to play on Chesneys Field – with the benefit of levelled pitches – but without any fencing.

As the concern seems to relate to the possible fouling of the pitches by dogs, additional poop scoop bins could be provided together with more warning signs. We think this will probably meet most peoples concerns. Any storage unit could be located more discretely behind the landscaping mound on the other side of Foxwood Lane

Residents are also being given the chance in the survey to say whether they want a fitness tract and/or outdoor gym.

The survey can also be completed “on line” click

The results are expected at the end of August