From next week residents will receive a new winter timetable from City of York Council which outlines the changes to garden waste collections between November and March 2013.

Residents with a garden waste collection will receive a new calendar attached to their grey (rubbish) bin and are advised to refer to their collection calendars to find out what their arrangements are over the winter months as collections will be less frequent during this time.

The new calander also includes information about rubbish and recycling collections over the Christmas and New Year period.

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The Keep Your Pet launch date is 13 November 2012

Two local organisations are offering a new service to help older and vulnerable people to look after their pets in times of illness. Following a need identified by both organisations for a Yorkshire-based service, RSPCA York has joined forces with local branches of Age UK to set up Keep your pet (KYP).

Keep your pet offers services including short-term fostering of animals during periods of illness or hospital stay, walking of dogs when the owner is unable, lifts to a vet, etc.

Sally Hutchinson, Chief Officer Age UK York said:
‘We often find that care of their animals is a particular worry for older people when they are unwell. But we also know how vitally important the animals are in speeding recovery & promoting wellbeing in the long term. We see this service as a natural extension of our work and are delighted to be collaborating with the RSPCA.’

For the owners, the contact & friendship with the volunteer is almost as important as the benefits to their animal, but experience elsewhere has shown that the service is equally valuable to the volunteers.

There are many people who are unable to have an animal of their own, or those whose own animals have recently died may not feel ready for another animal of their own but wish to have contact with animals.

KYP really does offer a win-win situation.

Your help needed

KYP now needs to recruit volunteers of all ages to provide the service throughout the York & Selby area to launch the scheme on 13th November 2012. Volunteers will be fully protected by insurance provided by KYP. Don’t be put off if you can only offer a small amount of time – volunteers can give as much or as little time as they wish and even a couple of hours a week can make all the difference to a housebound owner and their animal. We also need help with admin work.

Download the volunteer application form http://tinyurl.com/Pet-sitting-York

Details: http://www.ageuk.org.uk/york/our-services/keep-your-pet/

If you would be willing to help in any capacity please contact: York 634061

Heworth Golf Club

City of York Council is teaming up with Heworth Golf Club to banish the half-term holiday boredom with junior golf lessons for children aged 16 and under.

New four-day courses are being put on at the club from Monday 29 October to Thursday 1 November, following the success of the junior golf lessons that took place earlier on in the year.

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Police are urgently appealing for witnesses following a robbery outside HSBC bank on York Road in Acomb.

Four men wearing balaclavas assaulted a cash delivery man who was taking money to the bank at around 9.45am today.

It is not believed a weapon was used in the incident.

The men then left the scene in a black Vauxhall Zafira which was abandoned at the junction with Celtic Close and Jorvic Close near Beckfield Lane a short time later and set on fire.

The cash box was abandoned on Carr Lane.

Officers are appealing to anyone who witnessed the incident, saw the black Zafira travelling between York Road and Beckfield Lane and anyone running away from the vehicle to contact them as soon as possible.

Police would also like to hear from anyone who knows who was responsible for the robbery.

The cash delivery man was uninjured in the incident.

Anyone who can help officers with their enquiries should contact North Yorkshire Police on 101.

Alternatively, Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Explore York Library Learning Centre has been selected for a special visit by children’s author Julia Donaldson (16 October) as part of her national Children’s Laureate library tour.

Explore York Library Learning Centre has been picked from hundreds of applications to be one of only 24 libraries on the English and Welsh leg of the Children’s Laureate Libraries Tour this autumn. As part of her Children’s Laureateship, Julia Donaldson – bestselling author of over 150 books including The Gruffalo (http://www.gruffalo.com/index.html), What the Ladybird Heard and Zog – will tour libraries in England, Wales and Scotland, from John O’Groats to Lands End, over six weeks.

Children from 16 York schools will be attending the invitation-only event, which will see Julia bringing some of her hugely popular stories to life through special dramatisations. They will also be invited to show off their acting skills during a short performance inspired by Julia’s poems which they will present at the event.

Julia Donaldson said: “Libraries are very close to my heart, and so is performance. This tour is my way of bringing the two together, by visiting fantastic libraries all over the country, enjoying children acting and singing, and sharing my own stories with them. I want it to be a huge celebration of libraries and of the benefits they offer to communities and especially to children.”

Following our story earlier in the week, residents have asked us to list which salt bin locations the Council intends to abandon this winter. Although the bins will remain in place they will not be filled with salt.

So far the Council has refused to publish this list on its web site.

It is clear from the list that whole estates will be left without bins while one ward (Heslington) will have all its bins filled.

Opposition Councillors are planning to raise the issue at tonight’s Council meeting. If they are unsuccessful, then a detailed review will be conducted at a meeting which is taking place next Monday. Details of Monday’s meeting agenda can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/Salt-bin-review.

Residents wishing to speak at Monday’s meeting must register in advance by telephoning 01904 552061.

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City of York Council is launching tomorrow (11 October 2012) a consultation on a single Designated Public Place Order (DPPO) which will widen the area in which the police are able to seize alcohol. There are currently 19 DPPOs in operation across the city at locations where anti-social behaviour is linked to alcohol and which have proved to be a successful means of tackling the problem.

However, designating an area as a DPPO often has the effect of displacing the problem to where the legislation does not apply and this results in agencies simply chasing the issues from one area to another.

Last year Safer York Partnership carried out some detailed analysis of the displacement effect of DPPOs and put forward proposals to create a single order covering a wider area of the city. Last year, City of York Council’s cabinet member for Crime and Community Safety approved a proposal to consult on options for the creation of a single DPPO for the city. These options included extending the number of DPPOs on an ad hoc basis when requested, creating a single DPPO within the Bar Walls or creating a single DPPO within either the inner or outer ring road. These options were designed to minimise the likelihood of displacement of anti-social behaviour, particularly into residential areas.
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The Coalition government has allocated £123,000 to York for a scheme to trial insulation for solid walls as part of its commitment to tackling fuel poverty and climate change.

The three main target areas for the pilot will be around Leeman Road, Lawrence Street and Tang Hall in traditional solid brick terraced homes and former council-owned properties in a variety of construction types, known to be difficult and costly to insulate and expensive to heat.

Householders in these areas will be approached, given expert advice in conjunction with Yorkshire Energy Partnership and other agencies, and up to 50 properties will be fitted with solid wall insulation for the pilot.

Initial estimates reckon that the householder will pay for 70% of the insulation through grants provided by from utility companies, while the remainder will be paid for using an interest-free energy efficiency loan, funded by the bid, to the customer. Offering this type of loan will help to maximise the uptake of the pilot project and allow the council to learn about the installation itself from a technical point of view, and the take-up of these loans by residents.

Anyone interested in being part of the trial can contact the Yorkshire Energy Partnership on 01904 554406 to arrange for their home to be considered. Final assessments of properties and the effect of the insulation will be carried out between December and March 2013 after which the final report will be published.

At tomorrow’s Full Council meeting Liberal Democrat Councillors will push Labour for answers over their plans for the library service in York.

Last month the Lib Dems revealed that Labour was drawing up proposals to take libraries out of council control and ownership. The plans have seen a City of York Council ‘project board’ set-up which is working on how assets could be transferred and how alternative ownership models could work.

Despite promising a “full and frank” discussion, the six-week public consultation Labour launched last week on the city’s library service, does not include any questions on future ownership or management changes. Liberal Democrats are asking Labour to withdraw the consultation and start a “proper debate”. They are also seeking guarantees that any move away from council control would not see a reduction in staff or services.

Councillor Nigel Ayre, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Cultural Services, commented:

“It is typical of this Labour administration that they draw-up plans in secret to sell-off libraries, but then don’t ask residents for their views on it in their public consultation. We need a proper debate about who the public wants to run the city’s library service and if they want libraries kept in council ownership. Labour should be honest about their plans and actually start asking and listening to residents.

“Given the importance of libraries, I would be extremely anxious about any move away from public ownership, but we need to see what Labour are proposing. I will be asking for guarantees that if they push-on with their ideas then staff and service levels will be maintained. We need to see all the details of the alternative vision for libraries that we know Labour are working on.”

Councillor Ayre will ask Labour Cabinet Member for Leisure & Culture, Councillor Sonja Crisp, at Thursday’s Full Council meeting:

• Can the Cabinet Member guarantee that whatever the future ownership model of libraries, current staffing levels will be maintained?

North Yorkshire Police will be carrying out mobile safety camera enforcement on the following roads between Wednesday 10 October and Tuesday 16 October 2012.

•A64 west-bound Bowbridge Farm Tadcaster
•Skipwith Road, Escrick
•A63 Hull Road, Hemingbrough
•Church Lane, Wheldrake
•A64 Malton by-pass Malton east and west-bound
•A64 Seamer by-pass Scarborough
•A64 Seamer Road, Scarborough
•A64 Between Whitwell Hill and Barton Hill
•A64 Between Barton-le-Willows and Jinnah
•A64 Between Barton Hill and Whitwell Hill
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