Click individual events for more details

• Rugby Knights v Leigh 5st May Sun Huntington Stadium

• The Mousetrap 6th- 11th May 7:30pm Grand Opera House

Just Jog 8th May 5:30pm and every Wednesday West Offices

Get fit with Pilates 7th May Tues 2:00pm York RI Holgate

• Dark inventions 10th May Fri 7:30pm Early Music Centre

• Union Jill 11th May Sat 7:30pm Early Music Centre

• Battlegroup North 11th – 12th May Elvington air museum

• Sean Lock 12th May Sun 8:00pm Barbican

• Priscilla 13th – 18th May Grand Opera House

• Royal Ballet 14th – 15th May Theatre Royal

• Horse racing 15th/17th May Knavesmire

• The Lumberjacks 17th May Fri 8:00pm Barbican

• Brass Jaw 17th May Fri 7:30pm Early Music Centre

• Funmi Olawumi 17th May Fri Theatre Royal

• York Guildhall Orchestra 18th May Sat 7:30pm Barbican

• Horrible Histories 18th – 22nd May Barbican

• South Asian Dance show 18th May Sat Theatre Royal

Meditation 19th may Sun 9:30am Middlethorpe Hall

• Jack Jones 21st May Tues Grand Opera House

Who do you think you are? 21st & 23rd May 10:15am Rowntree Park Reading Room

• The Misanthrope 21st – 25th May Theatre Royal

• Ebor Lecture Catherine Pepinster 22nd May Wed 7:30pm Minster

• York Minster revealed 22nd May Wed Minster Within underground chambers beneath York Minster, dynamic new audiovisual and interactive galleries will reveal the significance behind the cathedral’s most treasured artefacts as never before, in an inspirational two thousand-year journey

• York Rocks against Cancer 24th May Grand Opera House

Arts & crafts preview 24th – 26th May York Explore Library

• Horse racing 25th May Sat Racecourse

Hob Moor Fair 25th May Sat 1:00pm Hob Moor (behind Lidl

Centenary celebrations 25th May Sat 10:00am New Earswick Library

Buskival 25th/26th May York City centre

Model boat regatta 26th May Sun 12:00 noon Rowntree Park

• Julian Clary 26th May Sun Grand Opera House

• Sean Lock 28th May Tues 8:00pm Barbican

• Rutherford & Son 28th – 1st June Theatre Royal

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The Local Trading Standards team is putting its weight behind a national campaign to tackle rogue traders and help protect local consumers from being ripped off with new cold calling zones being researched across the city this week.

Operation Rogue Trader week runs from Monday 22 to Friday 26 April during whichthe council’s Trading Standards teamas part of its ongoing work is visiting traders advising on customers’ cancellation rights and legislation on branding and quality. It’s also been visiting consumers to advise them on their rights when entering into contracts at home following visits by door-to-door sellers.

The council’s team of consumer rights experts has also begun investigations into breaches of consumer protection legislation which involves a trader falsely claiming to be a member of a trader’s association, and has conducted a formal interview of one trader alleged to be carrying out unnecessary roof repairs.

Yorkshire and the Humber Trading Standards Group – known as the Scambusters team based at City of York Council – has started legal proceedings against five individuals for a total 13 offences involved in a council tax rebate scam.

This involves cold calling local York residents offering to challenge their council tax banding, lower their payments and recoup past overpayments. Following a £175 payment upfront, submissions are rarely made to the council tax office and when they are, their quality is so poor they are frequently rejected. The charges being levied include conspiracy to defraud, money laundering, blackmail and acting as a director when banned from holding the post.

Trading Standards team members will also be attending the council’s Crime Summit and will be offering residents advice from a stall at the day-long city centre Community Safety Market on Thursday 25 April.

Energise has become the first swimming pool in North Yorkshire to introduce new Swimfit sessions. Swimmers at City of York Council’s leisure centre on Cornlands Road, will be some of the first in the UK to try the new sessions, developed by experts at the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA).

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The first interactive public arts event at City of York Council’s new West Offices will be setting out its stall with an exchange of creative ideas in a market run by artist John Newling with York St John University fine arts students, plus a public talk by the artist.

The nine market stalls will be open on Thursday 2 and Friday 3 May from 10am to 4pm in the approach to West Offices’ new Customer Centre entrance off Toft Green. The market is a pilot project aimed at laying the foundations for similar events in the future, and complements the council’s citywide ideas internet platform GeniUS! which invites people to share ideas to improve life in York.

Also on 2 May at West Offices, from 11:45am – 1pm, John Newling will give an illustrated talk called ‘Common Values’. This major lecture will be a rare opportunity to hear the artist talk about his work over a period of 30 years, his more recent research in York and the ideas behind the ‘Market of Hidden Labours’.

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With the fine weather set to continue throughout the weekend, North Yorkshire Police are reminding vehicle owners about security when visiting beauty spots.

Thefts from vehicles can take a matter of seconds, with thieves smashing a window and grabbing items left on display. Opportunist thieves look for easy targets which will minimise their chances of getting caught.

Inspector Neil Northend, of the Hambleton and Richmondshire Safer Neighbourhood Command, said: “When you are leaving your vehicle in a local beauty spot, I am asking you to take a few moments to make sure that it is as secure as possible.

“Check that you’ve locked the doors and there isn’t anything of value on view, even clothing.

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The Police have revealed the locations within the City of York where their mobile speed camera vans will be operating in future.

• B1228 Dunnington Lodge Elvington
• Murton Way Murton York
• Beckfield lane Acomb York
• Temple Lane Copmanthorpe York Tadcaster Rd Dringhouses York
• York Rd Haxby York
• Strensall Rd Huntington York
• The Village Stockton on the Forest York
• Malton Rd York
• Church Lane Wheldrake
• A1237 Monks Cross York
• Millfield Lane Poppleton York
• Wheldrake Lane Elvington
• Towthorpe Road Haxby
• Greenshaw Drive Haxby
• Main Street Askham Richard

The Police and Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan has, however, given an assurance that the vans will not be used to enforce any wide area 20 mph limit that York’s Labour run Council may introduce.

PCC Julia Mulligan with the new mobile speed camera vans

Similar information is available for the rest of North Yorkshire Click here

From 24th April residents will be able to download details of the results of the speed checks made. A spreadsheet will provide an indication of the numbers of speeders found and the penalties imposed. The details will be available by clicking here

During the week commencing 17th April the camera vans will be visiting the following roads:

• A64 Eastbound Tadcaster By Pass
• A64 Westbound Tadcaster By Pass
• Beckfield lane York
• A1036 Tadcaster Road, York
• Strensall Road Huntington, York
• A1036 Malton Road. York
• Temple Lane, Copmanthorpe, York
• York Road, Haxby, York
• Towthorpe Road, Haxby, York
• Main Street, Askham Richard
• Murton Way, Murton, York
• B1228 Dunn Millfield Lane, Poppleton York
• B1228 Dunnington Lodge, Elvington, York
• Wheldrake Lane Elvington
• Skipwith Road, Escrick
• Church Lane, Wheldrake
• A1237 Monks Cross York
• The Village Stockton On Forest York
• Greenshaw Drive, Haxby York

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More detailed statistics for individual wards in York have now been published by Stream the local information system for North Yorkshire and York. Click here to visit their web site

Westfield Ward profile page 1 click to enlarge

Westfield Ward profile page 2 click to enlarge

Nestle, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue and North Yorkshire Police have backed a new campaign to make York’s roads safer.

Nestlé, one of York’s largest employers, is set to endorse a new campaign to be launched by the City’s road safety team today (Friday 5 April).

I-Pledge asks people to sign a pledge to show that they care about their community and city. All the pledges are then uploaded onto an interactive map so that they can see just how much of the community or area they live in have signed up to respect others on the roads.

Non York residents can also pledge and the interactive map is live now on http://www.itravelyork.info/ so that people from across the country can sign up and show their support.

All of Nestlé’s employees and visitors are being asked to sign to up to i-pledge and consider all aspects of safety in everything they do, even considering things like not using a mobile phone when walking about the plant.

The pledge gives people the option to pledge to one or all of the following:-
• Respect all road users
• Stay within the speed limit
• Not use a mobile, when using the road
• Always wear a seat belt
• Not drive under the influence of drink or drugs

Anyone who would like to sign up to the pledge can click here or email road.safety@york.gov.uk

For those in the community who would be interested in promoting the pledge in their area there is a specially designed ‘Community Champion Pack’, which includes information and a number of pledge cards and can be requested from the road safety team at the above e-mail address.

York is set to become the first city in the UK to install a network of pay-as-you-go charging points for electric vehicles, and an event will be held this month to encourage the use of electric vehicles across the city

The scheme was announced last July by Liberal Democrat Transport Minister Norman Baker.

In addition to the 12 charging points already located across York, a network of fast charging points will be installed in city centre car parks and Park & Ride sites to allow residents and visitors to re-charge their cars on a pay-as-you-go basis.

The network will be installed by City of York Council and will be publicly accessible and have a simple payment system so that users can pay by phone/text in a similar way drivers currently pay for parking in council owned car parks.

Once installed, in the coming months, users can track all their energy usage remotely and see live availability of charge points from their mobile phones.

By registering their debit/credit card details, payments can instantly be made to pay for the charge time which will be at a very low cost compared to the price of petrol/diesel.

The charging point cables are secured behind a locking flap which guards against cable theft when charging and are operated by an internal GSM transmitter.

The charging facilities, being rolled out at the York Designer Outlet, supermarkets and hotels can add a 30-mile range to a vehicle’s battery within half an hour of use.

Renault Zoe

A ‘Switched On’ event will take place at the south entrance of York Designer Outlet on Wednesday 10 April from 10.30 – 4pm and will feature electric supercar the Tesla Roadster.

Electric cars from Nissan, Toyota, Mia and the new Renault ZOE will also make its UK public debut, and there will be a range of fun activities for families, including test drives.

The Yorkshire Ambulance Service, the first in the country to trial electric ambulances, will be displaying one of its vehicles at the Switched On event.

For more information about Switched On, click here.

Concerns still remain about the limited range of electric powered vehicles. Further technological progress is needed before large numbers are likely to be seen on our roads.