The York Museums Trust has confirmed that it has cut its workforce from 144 to 101 staff.
It hopes to reopen the Castle Museum and Art Gallery in December but the fate of the Yorkshire Museum is less clear.
The York Museum Trust is receiving £850,000 from the government’s Culture Recovery Fund.
The York Council has also given a letter of guarantee to YMT, providing them with access to a maximum of £1.95m over the next two years, should it be required.
Here are some events planned for the next few months
Local Councillors are claiming credit for a programme which has seen some of the pieces of play equipment in the Foxwood Lane playground painted. Some new “busy bee” rides have also been installed.
This is welcome news.
However there is still work needed on the surface of the park.
The entrance to the kiddies area is subject to ponding and is virtually inaccessible after rain. All that is needed is some hard core putting down.
Nearby the safety surface under one of the swings, aimed at older children, is badly worn and is also subject to flooding.
We hope that both of these issues can be remedied quickly
With half-term coming up York Library have some special treats for children of all ages.
Storyteller John Kirk is going to be appearing on YouTube live with an exclusive telling of Roald Dahl’s The Twits on 24 October and again with Spooky Stories for Halloweenies on 31 October.
The sessions are free, but people need to register to receive the YouTube link see below.
Our partners at Hoglets have created 6 exclusive online storytimes for the under-fives featuring stories from around the world for children, every Tuesday morning from 27 October on our YouTube channel.
We have a page on our website dedicated to bringing you information about reading, fun and learning for children and families, including our Bloodaxe Challenge in partnership with the Jorvik Viking Centre, Mumbler’s Halloween Train and online stories and activities.
According to the Council, “A new £1 million sports facility at Millthorpe School will benefit schools and community groups across the city when it is completed at the end of October”.
The project’s progress compares well with the proposal to provide an alternative for the game area on Kingsway West closed by the Council two year ago. Discussions on a replacement have only just started.
The Council says that the “floodlit 3G artificial grass pitch will be available all year round to pupils at Millthorpe and nearby Scarcroft Primary School, together with other York schools and community groups.
It has been developed through the City of York Council scheme to create additional school places at Scarcroft Primary School and helps to increase the amount of outdoor space available to the school.
Community groups will be able to use the pitch outside of the school day and during the school holidays. Hamilton Panthers, York City Kick About and Bishopthorpe White Rose are already lined up to take advantage of the new facility.
The facility is close to the existing sports hall and will be accessible for outside users via the school’s Philadelphia Terrace entrance. The development includes on-site car parking spaces next to the pitch, with provision for disabled visitors, secure cycle parking and electric vehicle charging.
The pitch is suitable for junior 11-a-side football and features include energy-efficient floodlighting, along with portable goals and pitch markings to meet the requirements of a variety of different game formats and age ranges”.
The charges that will apply for use of he facilities haven’t been published.
In May, a media report confirmed that the GLL group – who manage several leisure facilities in York including Energise on Cornlands Road and the Yearsley swimming pool – were in financial difficulty.
They asked the York Council for support.
The move may partly explain why more progress has not been made in bringing new facilities at the York Community stadium site into use.
The York City Council said it “will continue to work closely with GLL.”
At the time, Ian Floyd, the council’s interim head of paid services, said: “Throughout the city’s response to coronavirus we understand that the businesses we work with have had to adapt due to temporary closures, working differently and dealing with the financial demands this places on them.
“We are working with our partners across the city to ensure we support them to work safely, and we continue to follow government guidance regarding our ongoing service contracts.
“City of York Council supports GLL through our leisure services contract via monthly payments. This is usually paid in arrears. Following government guidance, the council have paid three months of the contract fee upfront, covering April to June 2020.
“We understand that GLL have furloughed the majority of staff at these venues and have confirmed they are continuing to pay 100% of their salaries until May. City of York Council will continue to work closely with GLL, to work through the contract implications of the Coronavirus response which closed all public leisure facilities in March.”
There has been no recent update from the Council although some facilities did subsequently reopen on a limited basis.
The York Council has confirmed that the new LNER Community Stadium will not now be completed until 2021. The latest problems, for the jinx hit project, apparently relate to drainage. Remedial works will take several weeks to complete.
At one level this makes little difference, as spectators are not allowed into sports events at present. It might, however, prevent York City switching their (behind closed doors) matches to the new stadium pitch which, in turn, could delay their leaving Bootham Crescent.
The start of the Rugby League season is also creeping closer while tickets for the Rugby World Cup games – now less than a year away – are already on sale.
A further threat to the project is now emerging.
The complex operator GLL – who also run the Council’s Energise sports centre in Cornlands Road – have said that the COVID restrictions have impacted on their finances. The suggestion is that this will mean job losses and possibly the permanent closure of some facilities. GLL are a social enterprise company with operations across most of the country.
The sports centre and pool at Monk Cross – although completed several weeks ago – have yet to open.
With the cinema also now closed, units like the NHS centre and library locked up and “no takers” for the restaurant units, the whole business plan for the complex now looks increasingly shaky.
19 trees were planted in Dickson Park this week by a team of volunteers from the Foxwood Residents Association and AVIVA. The trees were supplied by DEFRA. The project was so popular with neighbours and passers by that several offers of sponsorship were received.
We are now led to understand that the York Council’s new “forest” will be planted on land boarded by Wetherby Road, Knapton, the cycle path and Harewood Whin. The precise boundaries have not yet been revealed.
There are some mixed feelings about the plan which, unless government funding can be obtained, could cost local taxpayers over £1 million.
The site is currently in agricultural use and self sufficiency in food production could become more important over the next few years. No economic or environment analysis of options has been published
While there is a precedent for the Council managing local farms (they did so in the last century in an attempt to sustain a supply of land for new tenant farmers) the scale of the forest venture is new.
It has the advantage of potentially helping to reduce pollution levels.
One advantage of the location (if the speculation in the media is correct) is that it is close to the popular Rufforth – Knapton cycle track.
NB. The Council, while saying it has obtained 10 acres of land for tree planting “on the inner ring road”, has still not confirmed where this is located.
UPDATE. According to Cllr Nigel Ayre posting on twitter this is a map of the site. If correct, then part of it straddles Wetherby Road
The Council has issued a statment saying that York residents “are being invited to celebrate and commemorate key moments in the Autumn calendar safely, in order to protect the health of the people and places we love”.
Following the announcement that York has been added to the ‘medium’ level on the Government’s three-tiered public health restriction system, and with Covid-19 infection rates in the city rising above the national average, York could still be moved into the tier 2 of the restriction system by the Government. Therefore, this year’s city-wide celebrations will see York celebrate differently to follow public health guidelines and protect each other.
To give clarity about which events are safe to go ahead, new criteria has been developed to support the Public Health recommendations, with the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) making decisions on mitigation or restriction measures required for public events and activities to take place.
By working closely with partners to explore different options that would ensure the safety of residents, the Council, Public Health, businesses and the Safety Advisory Group are keen that as much of city life continues as possible, with safety measures in place.
Following the latest public health guidelines, events that draw significant numbers of people to a single location and at set times will unfortunately not be permitted to take place, in order to curb the spread of the virus and ultimately, protect local residents. However, events that are outdoors, spread across a larger area and encourage people to visit at different times, rather than for set performances, are more likely to be supported by the Safety Advisory Group.
What this means for city wide celebrations
Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, businesses across York have innovated and adapted to remain safe and welcoming for residents and visitors, but the threat of Coronavirus remains, so we all need to continue to work together to protect our health, our economy and our city. We will continue to work with partners to shine a light on our incredible independent retailers, hospitality businesses and attractions who have played their role in keeping our city safe.
Frequently Asked Questions
Deaths and test results
95 (NINETY FIVE) additional positive test results were announced today, bringing the cumulative total up to 2190.
The largest, individual day, positive test count number was 103 which occurred last Wednesday.
The cases per 100,000 population figure peaked at 261.15 on Thursday.
The neighbourhood with the largest number of positive test results is still Heslington/University which currently has 78 cases. This is down from the peak of 88 which was reported yesterday. The university says that it was aware of 247 individuals within the university community who were currently self-isolating because they had had a positive Covid-19 test.
The area with the fewest cases is Dunnington/Elvington/Wheldrake (6)
Some pupils at the Haxby Road and Robert Wilkinson schools in the City are understood to be self-isolating. More than 150 children at the two schools are affected
No further hospital deaths in York. There have, however, been 81 deaths announced in other parts of the country.
Leisure grants
The government has announced that it will make the following grants to cultural organisations in the City
| York Museums Trust | £850,000 |
| Yorkshire Air Museum and Allied Air Forces Memorial | £312,531 |
| York Citizen’s Theatre Trust (Theatre Royal) | £236,522 |
| Three Little Birds LLP (The Crescent) | £108,668 |
| Victoria Vaults | £92,244 |
| Fast Entertainment Ltd (Fulford Arms) | £82,584 |
| The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles | £78,600 |
| The York Early Music Foundation | £50,000 |
