Acomb Bowling Club blow

Front Street green space threatened.

Acomb Bowling Club

Acomb Bowling Club want to quit their Front Street home and sell the land for a housing development. A planning application submitted over 3 weeks ago has only just been published on the Councils web site.

Reference           18/00586/FULM

Address Acomb Bowling Club Front Street York YO24 3BZ

Proposal              Erection of 11 dwellings following demolition of existing buildings

This is not the first time that this area of open space has been threatened. Over 10 years ago the club was also on the brink of folding.

At that time York Council officials were instructed to offer to buy the land. The intention was to use the car park associated with the site to supplement the parking available at the Acomb Explore Library.

The bowling club would have continued to enjoy use of the greens for a nominal rent.

The Library would have been expanded onto land, already owned by the Council, at the rear.

The intention was to provide flats above a “one stop shop” facility incorporating a extension to the library.  It later transpired that officials had failed to close a deal for the club site.

The scheme was quietly dropped when the incoming Labour administration decided in 2011 to centralised customer contact facilities at West Offices in the City centre. The Councils existing “Acomb Office” was closed.

The new coalition administration was invited in 2015 to look again at how the areas of land to the rear of the library – including the bowling green – might be used in the future but progress has been slow.

The Bowling Club application may reinvigorate the need for a comprehensive development brief for this part of Front Street.

Residents have already criticised any attempt to reduce still further the amount of green space in the Westfield area. It already has the lowest proportion of open space and sports pitches of any sub-urban ward.

The Councils plans to build on the Lowfields playing fields will make the situation even worse.

Residents can object to the planning application by emailing planning.comments@york.gov.uk quoting reference 18/00586/FULM.

Library precinct plan 2011

What’s on in York: CSIs in York: the truth about forensic investigating

Apr _7Csis In York

York Explore Library :

Sat 7 Apr :

2.00pm – 3.30pm :

£5

Crime writing duo Ashley Dyer will reveal the truth about forensic investigation with pictures, practical demonstrations, chat and laughter.

You will learn how forensic investigations happen, see how an expert ‘lifts’ fingerprints, and you can even try your hand at identifying footwear evidence. Known for her dramatic readings, the ‘writing arm’ of Team Ashley Dyer will chill you with the fictional art of murder, explaining how forensic science, research, location – and conversations with murder detectives, pathologists, and prosecutors – inspire plot and stories, and bring characters to life.

Ashley Dyer is the penname of novelist Margaret Murphy working in consultation with forensics expert, Helen Pepper.

Margaret Murphy is a former RLF Writing Fellow and Reading Round Lector, past Chair of the Crime Writers Association (CWA), and founder of Murder Squad. A CWA Short Story Dagger winner, she has been shortlisted for the First Blood critics’ award for crime fiction as well as the Dagger in the Library. She has written novels under her own name, and as A.D. Garrett.

Helen Pepper is a Senior Lecturer in Policing. She has been an analyst, Forensic Scientist, SOCO, CSI, and Crime Scene Manager, and has co-authored, and contributed to, professional policing texts. In great demand with crime writers, she is a CWA Non-Fiction Dagger judge, and is Forensic Consultant on both the Vera and Shetlandtelevision series.

Splinter in the Blood: Utterly engrossing and filled with masterfully crafted surprises, Splinter in the Blood is a propulsive roller-coaster ride, filled with secrets, nerve-jangling tension, perplexing mystery, and cold-blooded murder, in which a police officer on the hunt for a macabre serial killer is brutally attacked, and only his partner knows the truth about what happened—and who did it. This debut thriller sold in multiple competitive auctions across Europe and in the US.

To book tickets please click here.

What’s on in York: Digital Clinic @ Explore York Libraries

A free drop-in for all your computer and internet questions.

Date: Tue 3 Apr
Time: 10.00am – 11.30am
Venue: Rowntree Park Reading Cafe
Cost: Free

More

Date: Mon 9 Apr & Thu 26 Apr
Time: 9.30am – 11.00am & 4.00pm – 5.00pm
Venue: New Earswick Library
Cost: Free

More

Date: Fri 13 Apr
Time: 10.00am – 12.00pm
Venue: Mobile Library @ White Rose House
Cost: Free

More

What’s on in York: Hoglets Theatre presents The Sleep Pirates

Sleep Pirates

Acomb Explore Library

: Mon 26 Mar :

10.00am – 10.30am :

£2

 What happens when you can’t sleep? On his first night in a new house, a young boy called Bear faces his fears, heads through his creepy cupboard door and discovers an incredible adventure on the other side.

Brought to life through larger-than-life characters, action, song and immersive storytelling, The Sleep Pirates is an imagination-firing treat for babies, toddlers and infants.

The Sleep Pirates is touring Explore Libraries across York from 26th March to 3rd April.

Tickets can be purchased from any Explore York Library.for contact details please visit our website.

Also at

Haxby at Wiggington Recreation Hall : Wed 28 Mar  : 2.30pm – 3.00pm : £2

Clifton Explore Library : Thu 29 Mar : 10.30 – 11.00am : £2

York Explore Library : Thu 29 Mar 2.00pm – 2.30pm : £2

Tang Hall Explore Library : Tue 3 Apr 10.30am – 11.00am : £2

What’s on in York: Finding the Words

York Explore Library :

Thu 22 Mar :

6.45pm – 8.00pm :

£3 (or £2 with a York Card).

Finding the Words with poets Jade Cuttle, Keith Hutson and Ruth McIlroy

Finding the Words is a regular poetry evening every month at York Explore Library. Each evening brings together three poets and we aim to include both published writers and those working towards a collection. We’ll have a bar available and readings last around an hour. The evening is also a chance to share and chat, so please feel free to bring any news or information about poetry local, regional or national.

Jade Cuttle  After reading literature at University of Cambridge, Jade Cuttle released her poetic-folk  debut album ‘Leaves & Lovers’ to BBC Introducing acclaim. She has performed her poetry on BBC Radio 3 in association with BBC Proms (‘The Art of Splinters’) and been commissioned for other BBC podcasts like celebrating Shakespeare’s 400th. She was appointed Poet-in-Residence for Ilkley Literature Festival 2017, mentored by Daljit Nagra, and a 2018 Ledbury Poetry Festival Emerging Poetry Critic, after winning competitions run by Ledbury Poetry Festival, BBC Proms, Poetry Book Society and Foyle Young Poets. She is also a journalist and has written for The Observer, The Guardian and The Sunday Times.

 

Keith Hutson has written for Coronation Street and many well-known comedians. His poetry has been widely published in journals including The Rialto, The North, Stand, Magma, The Manhattan Review, and he has had several competition successes, including in The YorkMix, The Troubadour, The Mclellan, and the Cornwall Contemporary. In February 2017 he was Carol Ann Duffy’s guest poet at the Royal Society of Literature’s TS Eliot Memorial event. His debut pamphlet Routines (2016) was published by Poetry Salzburg where he is now a co-editor. His latest pamphlet Troupers (smith | doorstop) is a 2018 Laureate’s Choice.

 

Ruth McIlroy will be reading from her pamphlet, Guppy Primer, the Poetry Book Society’s Winter Pamphlet Choice. She has spent most of her life in Edinburgh, and now lives with her family and works as a psychotherapist in Sheffield.

 

Booking

In person at any Explore York Library.

By phone: 01904 552828

Email: york@exploreyork.org.uk

Max: 50

What’s on in York: Revealing the Past from Above: Aerial Archaeology in England

Mar _20RevealingYork Explore Library :

Tue 20 Mar :

6.15pm 7.45pm :

£6, or £5 with a YorkCard

Join Historic England’s Matthew Oakey as he explains how archaeologists use new technologies such as lidar to identify sites and piece together the jigsaw of information to reveal the layers of history that have shaped the modern landscape.

Every year, hundreds of archaeological sites are discovered using aerial photography – from prehistoric settlements to lost landscapes of the First and Second World Wars. More recently new technologies such as airborne laser scanning (lidar) have uncovered landscapes in remote uplands or hidden under woodland. Join Historic England’s Matthew Oakey to find out how archaeologists use these technologies to reveal the layers of history that have shaped the modern landscape.

To book tickets please click here.

Swimming pool and Library purchase bid by residents

New Earswick swimming pool

Residents are aiming to trigger a “community right to buy” designation for the New Earswick Swimming Pool and the Strensall Library

If agreed at a York Council meeting scheduled for 9th April, residents would have 6 months to raise enough funds to purchase the buildings, should they be placed on the market for sale.

The New Earswick pool has been under threat for over a year. The owners, JoRo Housing Trust, told users that it would be closing. Talks had continued over its future with the expectation that a negotiated way forward would be achieved. A large petition was collected last year seeking to retain the popular amenity.

The application for the Strensall library is a separate issue and appears to have been prompted by a proposed rationalisation of the number and spread of library facilities across the City. The management of libraries in the City is currently carried out by a community benefit society under contract to the City of York Council. This contract is due to be re tendered later this year.

Recent negotiations between the coalition partners (Tory/LibDem) who run the York Council concluded with an assurance that there would be no Library closures in the City  in the foreseeable future.