City of York Council’s Apprenticeship Hub is inviting Year 11 students to apply for a place on the second city-wide Apprenticeship Taster Day, following the successful launch earlier this year.
Taking place on Thursday 16 January 2020, 14 local employers are offering apprenticeship tasters to over 100 year 11 students from York secondary schools.
The taster day gives students the opportunity to experience what it would be like to be an apprentice in a variety of sectors, including finance, data science, hospitality, early years, rail engineering, marketing and construction.
The employers hosting students on the day will include; Network Rail, Aviva, City of York Council, Garbutt & Elliott, Portakabin, Toni & Guy and a variety of early years settings.
It has emerged that, when the operators of Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre on Castle car park went into administration, they owed the York Council over £40,000 in rent payments. The information is contained in an response to a Freedom of Information request published today.
Reconstructed Rose Theatre
It seems unlikely that the Lunchbox group will have sufficient assets to repay this amount. In total the group had agreed to pay £113,076 to the Council to compensate for the loss of parking income. The Castle car park is the best used in the City.
The pop-up theatre attracted only 47,000 visitors in York this year, compared to 78,000 visitors last year
Lunchbox Theatrical Productions Limited was placed into administration by the directors “to protect its business and assets” on October 9, 2019
Thor’s Bars Limited and Yorkshire’s Winter Wonderland, which are currently operating in the City, are “unaffected” by either the liquidation of Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre or the administration of Lunchbox Theatrical Productions.
LNER through the Agreement will also have the naming rights to the main East Stand of the Stadium and it is proposed this will be named the – LNER Azuma Stand.
The deal is thought to be worth around £50,000 although the York Council is refusing to confirm this.
In 2012 property and valuation advisors Edward Symmons valued the naming rights between £40k – £60k per annum. This valuation was consistent with the estimate made in the original business case of between £50k to £70k per annum.
Those of a nervous disposition will be aware that the East Coast mainline operator has changed a lot over the last couple of decades. (LNER, Virgin, GNER etc etc) . No doubt any signage at the stadium will be digital to allow for regular updates!
The York Council will today decide whether to support the continuation of he York Business Improvement District (BID)
The BID has operated in the York City Centre for the last 4 years. It is due to come to an end in 20121 unless businesses operating in the City centre choose to renew its mandate.
A Council report says that £4 million will have been invested by the BID over the 5 year life of its contract.
Decisions on the allocation of this investment are taken by the established business-led BID Board and focus on areas such as improving the cleanliness of the City Centre, tackling anti-social behaviour and providing business and procurement support for City Centre businesses.
Many independent observers rate the BID as a success but recognise that it has to be paid for through a supplementary business rates levy whihc may not be popular with everyone.
Achievements listed by the BID include:
The BID funded Street Rangers have engaged with businesses over 15,300 times, recovered £24,000 of stolen stock, provided first aid on 206 occasions and deterred 1,544 cases of anti-social behaviour
Christmas lights switch on and Winter lights – the BID have dressed the City and Bar Wall entrances in over 16 kilometres of lights, and such is the success of the switch on that plans are underway to move the event to a larger area to accommodate the growing crowds expected to attend in 2019
In 2018/19, the BID deep cleaned over 41,500 m2 of the City Centre and responded to 173 call outs from businesses. The team is also pivotal in removing used syringes and large quantities of biowaste from the streets and surrounding areas.
A decision to hold a renewal ballot is expected to be taken later today
A report being considered today says that “York’s compact size, competing demand for site/land uses and the historic nature of the city’s traditional core means that green- and brownfield opportunities for commercial development are limited.
Nevertheless, major regeneration opportunities such as York
Central and The Guildhall, as well as the Hudson Quarter development, offer
sizeable growth opportunities for York’s economy”.
The comment is in response to what the government describes
as “local industrial strategy”.
The report goes on to identify the strengths of he York economy
York’s economy is diverse and rapidly growing with the city
witnessing the fastest productivity growth of any area in the region since
2012. The York Council has identified five key growth sectors based on existing
strengths and assets. These are:
Rail engineering and technology;
Digital and ICT;
Financial and professional services;
University-led innovation and training; and,
Bio-tech (particularly at start-up phase).
“it is important that these sector strengths are supported
to prosper, as well as the city’s lower-paid, high volume industries (retail,
hospitality, tourism and health and social care)”
The York and North Yorkshire strategy is summarised as inclusive
growth, the use of digital technology to transform York and North Yorkshire
into a ‘Smart region’.
The Leeds City Region – which includes York – priorities are:
Supporting businesses to meet the challenges of the future
economy and create good quality jobs, to support progression and promote
inclusivity;
Accelerating economic growth across the City
Region through technology and innovation;
Building on the successes of our globally
important healthcare sector as a source of good jobs and growth;
Making sure our environment promotes healthy,
active lifestyles and is fit for future generations to enjoy; and,
Skilled people, in good jobs, with access to
training to help build and sustain their careers
The “strategy” is due to be discussed at a meeting being held in York later today
Councillors will consider next week a reportoutlining the achievements of several “community hubs” that were established in the City in 2017.
The hubs are located at Sanderson Court Community House, Foxwood Community Centre, Red Tower and Tang Hall Community Centre. There were similar initiatives in Clifton and Bell Farm.
More recently the Westfield school has announced it is opening a Hub and similar ventures have been promoted by JRHT and local churches.
The aim of the Hubs was primarily to promote financial
inclusion. The project also delivered job fairs, volunteer development programmes
and training and support for residents.
The project claims that the numbers attending a Hub are in the order of 200 a week. It is known that some residents attend more than one Hub. The Hubs are mainly serviced by, hardworking, volunteers.
The project claims to have served 9,000 meals, shared 5,460kg of food from supermarkets and redistributed up to 6 crates of apples and pears a week made available through “Abundance York”.
The CAB says it has directed 200 clients to an additional £210,000 worth of benefits.
The report sets out a bewildering proposal for “accreditation” for new centres. It seems to be a bureaucratic approach to an issue which requires flexibility. We doubt that this part of the plan will be welcomed by many of the volunteers.
The Council could also usefully provide a list of Hubs – with opening hours and facilities available – on their web site. Better use of social media to promote the initiative would be welcomed by many.
The report doesn’t give many clues as to what proportion of the target group has participated. It also singularly fails to mention that the City’s poorest area (Windsor Garth) has no Hub although there is a school building nearby.
Nevertheless, in a modest way – and particularly by providing
a safety net for those suffering food poverty – the Hubs have proved to be a
success and deserve continuing Council support.
Ironically the amount being spent on the Hubs is still less in total than was routinely provided to support Community Centres prior to the Labour Councils grant cuts introduced 8 years ago.
The York Council has had a good week in providing public services. 100% refuse collection success today with the only significant missed collections, earlier in the week, down to “blocked accesses”. Their web page detailing service standards achieved can be accessed byclicking here
Elsewhere the fallen leaves that we reported on Bellhouse Way have been cleared from the paths
Bellhouse Way largely clear of leavesElsewhere we have reported leaf fall on Chesney Field….…and on Foxwood LaneWe’ve also asked for the snicket link to Chesney Field to be cleared of obstructions and detritus
