York’s public health allocation for 2013-14, revised to take account of changes to the functions transferring to local authorities, is £6.641m or £33 per head.

Dr Paul Edmondson-Jones, City of York Council’s Director of Public Health said:

“I’m pleased that there is a 10% increase this year and 10% next year – the maximum permitted for any local authority by the Department of Health – as that recognizes the need to increase the investment in public health locally.

This will allow us to start to make some modest investment over the next two years to improve the health and well-being of our residents.”

York’s Mansion House will host a special event on 18 January to welcome the declaration that Yorkshire has been announced as the UK’s first Fairtrade region.

The Lord Mayor of York, Cllr Keith Hyman, will be hosting the event and speaking to welcome attendees to the event. The event will see a number of speakers from key roles across Yorkshire, including Julian Sturdy MP and the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu.

Mark Dawson, Coordinator Fairtrade Yorkshire , said: “It is a fantastic achievement for Yorkshire to be declared as the first ever Fairtrade Region and that’s thanks to shoppers across the county who have bought Fairtrade goods, the businesses that have sold them and Fairtrade supporters who have promoted this ethical way of trading.”

York achieved Fairtrade City status on 3 March 2004 when the Council was under Liberal Democrat control.

More details about Fairtrade can be found here

North Yorkshire Police will be carrying out mobile safety camera enforcement on the following roads between Wednesday 16 and Tuesday 22 January 2013.

•A64 west-bound Bowbridge Farm Tadcaster

•A64 east-bound Bowbridge Farm Tadcaster

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Recent news from York Police includes:

• A warning for residents to be vigilant about bogus door-to-door sales. There has been a report from residents in Fulford of people posing as ex-offenders or offenders, seeking to sell products or services door-to-door.

• Two arrests as burglary fight continues. Two men are in custody on suspicion of burglary after they were disturbed at a property in Strensall

• York police are appealing for witnesses after a decorator’s van was stolen from a local sports club.

A meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) is being asked to support a campaign by local residents who are seeking a change in the route that the number 4/5 bus service takes through Acomb.

Front Street in older times

Residents are asking that, rather than travelling to and from Green Lane via Acomb Green, the service travel along Wetherby Road, Ridgeway, Askham Lane and Front Street to intersect with the existing route on Green Lane.

This will restore the link for residents living in Acomb and the Cornlands area who wish to visit those services which are located in the old village (Library, Post Office, Chemist, Doctors Surgery etc.).

This link was lost when the old number 4 route was changed in October.

The revised route would offer a two way service. It is a commercial service so the change would require the agreement of the operators First

“It’s not uncommon for number plates to be stolen from parked cars, as it’s easy to remove them. But why would someone steal your number plates?

Of course, one possibility is that the culprits may just be doing it for mindless fun. But it’s just as likely that they have more serious intentions – ones that could affect you directly. Here are some possible motives, and their consequences for you:

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It looks like we will have to contend with snow and ice over the next couple of weeks. It will be the first test of the Labour Councils claims that they would “fill the salt bins quickly” in the event of poor weather.

Most bins in suburban areas are currently empty.

Andrew Waller with empty salt bin

Many are so damaged that any remaining salt is congealed and unusable.

Former Council Leader Andrew Waller reveals that a weekend inspection resulted in over 20 reports of problems to the Council’s help line.

As during the recent bin emptying controversy, Labour Councillors are no where to be seen.

Residents who want their local salt bin to be filled or repaired should Email the Council on ycc@york.gov.uk or report via the web click here

The Council map of salt bin locations can be found here. Please remember though that many of them were abandoned last year.

According to the latest census statistics there are now 1.1 cars per household in York. This includes 1000 households that have 4 or more vehicles.

There are a total of 90,126 cars or vans in York and 83,552 households.

Only 2202 of the 83,552 homes in York don’t now have central heating installed

According to the census we now have 117856 Christians, 2072 Muslims and 1016 Buddhists in York together with 750 JEDI KNIGHTS.

Now that’s a pretty impressive proportion of York’s 198,051 population. It takes some organisation (and a sad lack of something to useful to do) to orchestrate that many responses for a religion which is as dead as Luke Skywalker. The 750 York Jedi’s represent 0.38% of the population compared to only 0.29 % in the region and 0.32% nationally.

At the previous census in 2001 there was a campaign to encourage people to answer the religion question with Jedi, and around 330,000 did so. But the force is apparently on the wane according to the latest national figures with 176,632 describing themselves as Jedi Knights.

York also has 241 pagans, 33 “heavy metalists”, 13 Satanists, 10 heathens, 9 Druids, 9 believers in witchcraft, 3 Scientologists, and 1 “realist”.

The latter deserves to recruit a friend shortly; preferably at the Guildhall.

More results here

There is quite a lot of property available to rent at present.

2 bedroomed properties are available on Bellhouse Way (£625pm) and Acomb Wood Drive (£650pm).

A 1 bedroomed property in Moorcroft Road is available for £450 a month

£99,950 buys a 1 bed property in Walker Drive while a 1 bed flat in Foxwood Lane is yours for £109,950.

Some recent price reductions see a 2 bed flat in Cornlands Road available for £104,000

At the other end of the scale you can now purchase a 4 bedroomed property in The Horseshoe for £500,000

The seemingly large scale police activity in the Acomb and Dringhouses area on Saturday apparently resulted from a vehicle crime incident. We understand that arrests were made.