City of York has won gold in this year’s Yorkshire in Bloom competition!

The results were announced at York Racecourse and confirmed the city was a gold award winner in the city category together with five other individual entrants.

Gold awards were also won by individual entries from across the city and the winners were:

Dunnington in the small town category;

Middlethorpe Hall and Spa in the large hotel category;

Homestead Park in the parks and gardens category;

Naburn Lock Caravan Park in the camping and chalet parks category; and

Rosevale Care Home in Wigginton.

York’s other top category performer was Earswick Scented Garden which in the It’s Your Neighbourhood Award, secured an Outstanding judgement.

North Yorkshire Police will be carrying out mobile safety camera enforcement on the following roads between Wednesday 19 September to Tuesday 25 September 2012

•A64 east-bound Bowbridge Farm Tadcaster
•York Road, Haxby, York
•A1237 Monks Cross, York
•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 (more…)

The annual York Food and Drink festival returns next week with a special York 800 twist – this year it will be celebrating 800 years of food and drink – past, present and future.

The festival will run from Friday 21 – Sunday 30 September and will showcase all that’s best of Yorkshire Food and Drink.

For more information and a programme of events visit www.yorkfoodfestival.com (more…)

For more information on events in York please visit the following web sites

1. Barbican http://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/ tel. 0844 854 2757

2. Early Music Centre http://www.ncem.co.uk/?idno=152
tel. 01904 658338

3. Grand Opera House http://www.atgtickets.com/venues/grand-opera-house-york/
tel. 0844 847 2322

4. Minster http://www.yorkminster.org/whats-on.html
tel. 0844 939 0015

5. Racecourse http://www.yorkracecourse.co.uk/
tel. 01904 620911

6. Theatre Royal https://www.yorktheatreroyal.purchase-tickets-online.co.uk/public
tel (01904) 623568

7. Visit York http://www.visityork.org/seeanddo/whats-on/
tel. 01904 550099

8. Yortime https://www.yortime.org.uk/eCommunityEvents/yortime/Default.aspx

9. York City Football Club http://www.yorkcityfootballclub.co.uk/
tel. 01904 624447

• Loneliness long distance runner 18th/29th Sept Theatre Royal

• Singin in the rain 17th/22nd Sept Grand Opera House

• Stories from around the world 19th Sept Wed Theatre Royal

• Medieval Murderers 20th Sept 7:00pm Explore Library Join a trio of master storytellers for the finale event of this year’s Big City Read.Accompanying Susanna Gregory on the panel is Michael Jecks, bestselling author of the Medieval West Country series of novels and Ian Morson, author of novels featuring William Falconer.

• H.M.S Pinafore 20th/22nd Sept Theatre Royal

• The meaning of Riff 20th Sept Theatre Royal

• Tailcoat cabaret 21st Sept Theatre Royal

• Founders and Benefactors Evensong 21st Sept Fri 5:15pm Minster

• York Food Festival 21st/30th Sept Various The Festival is a showcase for Yorkshire Food. For 10 days, York city centre will have stands from farms all over Yorkshire, but you will also find stands from local delicatessens, ethnic food producers as well as national and continental guest producers. For more information visit: www.yorkfoodfestival.com

• Football City v Cheltenham 22nd Sept Bootham Cres

• Dragon Boat racing 22nd Sept River Ouse

• 8 Wonders Tour 22nd Sept Minster Investigate how the number 8 has shaped York Minster through technology and design, from 1212 to 2012

• Prom Praise 22nd Sept Sat 7:30pm Barbican

• Speak of me as I am 22nd Sept Theatre Royal

• A look back in vehicular time 23rd Sept Sun Knavesmire Over 600 vehicles will be there together with stalls, autojumble and refreshments

• Mysore Melodies 23rd Sept 4:00pm Early Music Centre

• Antiques Fair 23rd Sept Racecourse

• Martin Carthy/Dave Swarbrick 25th Sept Tues 7:30pm Early Music Centre

• Mark Watson 26th Sept Wed Grand Opera House

• Rapunzel 27th/13th Sept/Oct Theatre Royal

• The Upbeat Beatles 27th Sept Thurs Grand Opera House

• Comedy Night 28th Sept Racecourse

• Farmers Market 28th Sept Parliament Street

• Jason Byrne 28th Sept Fri 8:00pm Barbican

• Motowns Greatest Hits 29th Sept Sat Grand Opera House (more…)

City of York Council is putting the wheels in motion of a revolution in how people choose to travel around the city, with the launch of its i-Travel York programme on Tuesday 18 September 2012.

The council recently secured £4.65 million to fund the i-Travel York programme, which will lead to infrastructure enhancements, improvements to existing transport services and improve the economic prospects of the city. (more…)

York in Bloom’s entries are hoping to blossom into gold on Tuesday 18 September when the Yorkshire in Bloom results will be announced at York Racecourse.

This year, 20 local groups and organisations are competing against hundreds of entries from across the Yorkshire and Humber region for the Royal Horticultural Society’s Britain in Bloom awards, which will be declared in York itself. (more…)

Police in York are making an urgent appeal to locate a woman who has gone missing from home.

Stacey Ruth Phillips, 23, of Fossway, has not been seen since leaving her house at 11am on Saturday 15 September 2012.

Officers are concerned for Stacey’s wellbeing and fear that she may present a danger to herself after a recent bout of depression. (more…)

First have now announced that the new 4/5 route will be operated by single deck vehicles. (route details see http://dringhousesandwoodthorpeward.mycouncillor.org.uk/2012/09/13/first-announce-new-bus-routes/)

In itself that is not a problem and might marginally reduce the time spent at bus stops (the driver would not have to wait until passengers climb the stairs as sometimes happens in a double decker).

But the single deck vehicles on the number 5 service (necessary because of low bridges on the route) are getting on in years, while the 6 year old double deckers on the 4 route were hailed at their launch in January as “a modern fleet of easily accessible double-decker buses, with lower carbon emissions than the ftr’s that they replaced”.

The Press newspaper, which had fuelled the anti ftr campaign, described them in an editorial as “a modern fleet of low-carbon, accessible double-deckers” and said “sounds just the thing to us”.

Experience demonstrated that the B9 Volvo double deckers, with a passenger capacity of 90 compared to the ftrs 100, had their own problems with long delays at bus stops, a lack of space for wheelchair users and those with buggies, complaints about inadequate air conditioning and a lack of journey information.

They are now being moved onto the number 1 Chapelfields service.

Passengers had hoped that the new 4/5 service would use a fleet of modern low emission buses, with improved capacity, easier access and adequate space for all users.

Sadly, with relations between bus companies and the York Council at record low ebb, it appears that some of the replacement single deckers could be as much as 10 years old, with outdated passenger facilities (and inevitable reliability issues).

Not good enough for what is one of the busiest bus services in the region.

First and the York Council need to make a clear commitment to get together and restart the bus modernisation programme in the City. A major Council report on the bus service is promised for discussion on Thursday 27th September.

Hopefully it will pave the way for a more open and co-operative approach putting passenger needs back at the heart of public transport policy in the City.

The numbers of 4 bedroomed town houses in the Hungate development are to be reduced.

The £450,000 homes have been difficult to sell and 6 of them are to be replaced by 12 two bedroomed duplex apartments. The latter will sell for less than £300,000 each.

The Planning committee is being recommended to approve the change and a copy of the report from Council officers can be found here http://tinyurl.com/Hungate-change-Sept-2012

The planning committee is also being asked to renew the permission for the site which was first granted in 2006.

Under the proposal – which is also recommended for approval – the developer would have up to 10 years to complete the building work.

The Council have confirmed that they have not received any applications for Dangerous Wild Animal licences in the last 5 years, and that there were no such licensed premises at present time.

Separate reports that a group of Meerkats have escaped from Askham Bryan and have set up a settlement on Hob Moor have been discounted as a hoax.