On Sunday 17th June hundreds of families attend the Acomb Green Playground Grand Opening.

The Lord Mayor or York, Cllr Keith Hyman officially opened the playground on Sunday 17th June with the help of 4 year old Georgie Douglas. Georgie wrote a letter to the Council to say thank you to everyone for building a lovely new play park.

The Friends of Acomb Green are responsible for the new playground after acquiring a grant of £50,000 from the BIG Lottery Fund, Community Spaces Programme, managed by Groundwork UK.

This has given Acomb Green an exciting new playground and many park benches.

The playground experienced a huge overhaul with the tired-looking play equipment being replaced with 2 stimulating wooden climbing frames, 3 different types of swings, a larger roundabout and picnic tables.

“The new playground is fantastic, there’s so much great stuff for the kids, and it’s so much better than the old one!” remarked Alison, a local resident and mother of two.

Approximately 500 children and adults attended the event which featured free ice cream for kids, free cake for adults and free squash, as well as the new playground which was completed only 3 days earlier.

Judith Johnston, from the Friends of Acomb Green said “I can’t believe so many people turned up, I thought we’d be really lucky if 200 people came”.

At the opening the Friends extended their thanks to a number of people and groups, including:
• The BIG Lottery Fund, Community Spaces Programme managed by Groundwork UK for providing the much needed funds and for their continual support,
• The Parks and Open Spaces Team, Play Team, and Conservation Team at the Council for playing a major role in helping deliver the playground,
• Steve Danby and the Playscheme team who designed and built the new playground,
• Class 1 pupils of Carr Infant School and Year 7 Art pupils at York High School for their design input into the new log carvings, which will be displayed in a few weeks,
• And to Katlyn Rae from Carr Junior School for designing the colourful grand opening poster.

The Friends hope the playground will become a much loved and cared for facility for many generations of Acomb families.

Tickets for the Olympic Torch celebrations from 2.30pm at York Racecourse on 19 June have al now been taken according to City of York Council and partners Visit York.

Since they were made available on 8 June, 26,000 free tickets have been collected

There will be free car parking on the Knavesmire off Knavesmire Road and at Bustardthorpe off Bishopthorpe Road. Spectators are urged to come early and to avoid Tadcaster Road and the rolling road closures which will start from 5pm on 19 June and operate between 7.30-8.30am on 20 June.

Road users are advised to avoid the city centre and allow plenty of extra time for their journeys. Listen out for traffic updates on local radio stations or on twitter at #YorkTorch.

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York has, for many years, had one of the lowest youth unemployment rates in the Country. Although in York there has been a recent slight upward trend, numbers are generally stable.

However, between April 2011 and April 2012 the number of young JSA claimants who had been seeking work for over 6 months increased from 215 to 400.

The highest number of unemployed can be found in the Clifton, Heworth and Westfield wards.

Twenty 16/17 year olds were on JSA. Local authorities have the statutory responsibility to secure education and training in their areas for these young people aged 16-18 (and up to age 25 for young people subject to a learning difficulty assessment), promote the effective participation in education or training of these young people and make arrangements to identify those not participating.

The York Council is right in not being complacent about youth unemployment in the City. Although the number of job vacancies exceeds the total number of unemployed young people there is a mismatch between the skills of those looking for work and jobs. Perhaps not surprisingly many are seeking employment in the currently still depressed construction industry while the care and retail sectors are always seeking new staff.

The Education and Skills Act (2008) places a duty on all young people to participate in education or training until their 18th birthday (or until they achieve a Level 3 qualification). The legislation raises the participation age in two stages, to the end of the academic year in which a young person turns 17 from 2013 and until their 18th birthday from 2015. This does not mean young people must stay in school; they will able to choose one of the following options:
• full-time education, such as school, college or home education
• an Apprenticeship
• full-time work (or volunteering) with part-time education or training alongside

There are a number of Apprenticeship vacancies available with the Council and elsewhere in the City.

See also http://tinyurl.com/York-youth-jobs

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The programme aimed at resurfacing the back lanes in the Gladstone Street area is the latest victim of the cuts being made by Labour to the Ward Committee improvement budget. The project was intended to see the condition of all local back lanes improved.

The 2012 improvement list for Westfield North also reveals a cut in the grant to the Friends of Acomb Green although the Chapelfields school club gets a big increase and, for the first time, the Acomb Bowling club gets a grant to help with maintenance of their greens. The latter represents a change in policy as previously the Council has not subsidised private members clubs. It is unclear whether public access to the bowling green has been secured as part of the deal.

Elsewhere it is a familiar story with community ranger security patrols, play area improvements and facilities for the elderly all being chopped.

Recycling Week 2012 kicks off on Monday 18 June – 22 June and City of York Council is using the opportunity to push the Zero Waste challenge.

The focus of this year’s Recycling Week is on the plastic bottle. With less than 50 per cent of plastic bottles making it to the recycling bin, and over 15 million used daily, the push is for people to ensure they recycle all bottles during Euro 2012 in their kerbside recycling box or bin.

If everyone in the UK recycled one more plastic bottle during recycle week 2012 we would have saved enough energy to power 71,000 plasma screen TVs for a year.

Throughout the year the Zero Waste York team will be working with different communities across York to increase recycling and reduce waste by one percent, which works out at about 900 tonnes of rubbish across the city.

In a bold move the York Council has decided to turn its back on the Pound and go it alone.

A new Alexander Euro (AE) banknote has been issued with a face value of zero.

The note is now circulating in York ahead of a launch event which is scheduled to take place on Tuesday. The event has been thinly disguised as a Olympic torch bop to avoid an early run on the new currency.

It is thought that the decision of the Council, to borrow an additional £20M, prompted Kersten “Angela” England to advise that “we might as well print our own money”. Some commentators believe that the advice was misinterpreted by the Council Leader.

Council Leader James “The Greek” Alexander said his intention was to maintain good working relations with other parts of the United Kingdom – including even Selby – while maximising the benefits of the City’s successful pub economy.
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He had reluctantly allowed his image to be used on the notes following public consultation on the Councils web site, undertaken last Sunday morning between 3:00am and 3:15am, which revealed 100% support for the idea.

Opposition Leaders have poured scorn on the idea. Ian “Hand of Cameron” Gillies said, “I wouldn’t pay him in washers”

The new currency is now exchanging at a rate of 3,000,000AE to the washer.

Andy D’Agorne was dismayed, “this will be the first currency in history that, by Wednesday morning, will have a negative value. We’ll have to pay someone to recycle the notes”.

List of bins being removed. Click to enlarge

Labour have announced the 19 litter bins that they will be scrapping in the Westfield Ward.

It amounts to 1/3 of the total provision in the area.

Incredibly they are removing bins from potential high litter areas such as the Foxwood, Cornlands Road, Kingsway roundabout and Acomb Wood Drive shops forecourts, while Gale Lane loses 3 of its bins.
Acomb Green fares badly losing 2 bins and even some bus stops will lose their bin

The cuts will leave the 12,000 residents in the Westfield Ward with a total of just 36 litter bins and 22 “poop scoop” bins.

Labour have claimed that the scrapped bins duplicate other bins, are unused or are used to dispose of domestic waste.

Council staff removing litter bins

The decision comes just 2 months after the Beckfield Lane recycling centre was closed and weeks after the mobile bulky waste/ recycling convoy was scrapped by the Ward Committee.

The future of the free green waste collection is also under review as Labour look for savings to fund their City centre projects.

Overall across the City 350 litter and “poop scoop” bins are to be removed

City of York Council and bus operators in York have announced that a “go anywhere” ticket will be available from 1st July.

The new ticket avoids the need to buy a second ticket if a passenger is moving from one bus companies vehicle to a different operator.

Although welcome, the new arrangement is likely to benefit only 4% of bus users. The vast majority of journeys are made with the same operator or by using a pensioners pass which already allows free cross operator use.

The costs of managing this type of system have been put at, in excess of, £100,000 a year. The Council have yet to reveal how much – if any – will fall on Council taxpayers to fund.

The ‘All York’ ticket can be purchased on any bus in the city and will go on sale from Sunday 1 July.

Two products will be launched on this date:

• All York Day (£5 – adult day ticket)
• All York Family (£10 – a day ticket valid for up to five people, maximum two adults)

The ‘All York adult day ticket is to be launched at an introductory price of £4.50 which is cheaper than buying return tickets with two different bus operators.

The Council have so far failed to comment on the issues that have arisen through the introduction of pensioners pass readers on some First buses. The card reader system is expected to offer a low cost solution to allocating revenue to different operators when cross route journey’s are made.

York bus operators include: (more…)

With the closure of the Beckfield Lane recycling centre many residents will be making better use of the skips that visit the area on Saturdays.
In the main they are funded, through estate improvement budgets, by the Council’s Housing Department.

Sat 16th June 08:30 – 09:30 Morrell Court Foxwood

Sat 16th June 10:30 – 11:30 Rogers Court Foxwood

Sat 14th July 10:30 – 11:30 Cornlands Road near shops Cornlands
Sat 14th July 08:30 – 10:30 Sanderson House Bramham Road Chapelfields
Sat 14th July 08:30 – 09:30 Oldman Court Foxwood
Sat 14th July 10:30 – 11:30 Spurr Court Foxwood
Sat 14th July 12:30 – 13:30 Bellhouse Way Foxwood
Sat 21st July 08:30 – 09:30 Opp 70 Kingsway West Kingsway
Sat 21st July 10:30 – 11:30 Opp 65 Stuart Road Kingsway
Sat 21st July 12:30 – 13:30 Beverley Court/Kempton Close Kingsway
Sat 21st July 08:30 – 10:30 Grange Lane Chapelfields
Sat 11th Aug 08:30 – 09:30 Morrell Court Foxwood
Sat 11th Aug 10:30 – 11:30 Corlett Court Foxwood
Sat 11th Aug 12:30 – 13:30 Vincent Way Foxwood
Sat 18th Aug 08:30 – 09:30 Rogers Court Foxwood
Sat 18th Aug 12:30 – 13:30 Tithe Close Cornlands
Sat 18th Aug 08:30 – 10:30 Grange Lane Chapelfields
Sat 18th Aug 08:30 – 10:30 Sanderson House Bramham Road Chapelfields
Sat 1st Sept 08:30 – 10:30 Grange Lane Chapelfields
Sat 1st Sept 08:30 – 10:30 Sanderson House Bramham Road Chapelfields
Sat 15th Sept 12:30 – 13:30 Thoresby Road Cornlands
Sat 15th Sept 08:30 – 09:30 Oldman Court Foxwood
Sat 15th Sept 10:30 – 11:30 Spurr Court Foxwood
Sat 15th Sept 12:30 – 13:30 Bellhouse Way Foxwood
Sat 22nd Sept 08:30 – 09:30 Opp 70 Kingsway West Kingsway
Sat 22nd Sept 10:30 – 11:30 Opp 65 Stuart Road Kingsway
Sat 22nd Sept 12:30 – 13:30 Beverley Court/Kempton Close Kingsway