Despite the confusion in the media, we understand that “walk up” charges will be available for the new competition standard swimming pool when it opens on Hull Road in August.

The organisers tell us that, “The pool is also available on a pay as you go basis with discounts available for concessions and York card holders. These details will be available on the website shortly once confirmed but will range between £3.20-£4.55”.

The Pool will be open for everyone to use and enjoy from 6am-11pm during the week and 6:30am-11pm on weekends.

The admission charges are comparable with the Energise pool on Cornlands Road where the charges are Adult (with YorkCard) £3.65, Adult (standard) £4.55.

A walk through video of the new pool can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/York-pool-video

The Sports Village web site can be found here: http://www.york-sport.com/york_sport_village.php

The Sports Village results from an agreement, signed in 2010, between the York Council and the University of York, which incorporated public access conditions.

Outside air pump

Tenants of the first City of York Council homes to be fitted with sustainable energy heating systems are ready to cut their carbon footprint – and their fuel bills.

Seven homes at Wenlock Gardens, Wheldrake, have had air source heat pumps installed to provide central heating. The pumps work by absorbing heat from the air – even when the temperature is as low as -15° C – which is used to heat radiators and hot water.

The new heating systems will maintain an even temperature in the home, and by using heat from the air the seven heat pumps are expected to save over 700 tonnes of carbon over the next 25 years and the tenants should save on their money on their fuel bills. The homes have also been fitted with double glazed windows as well as cavity wall and loft insulation to minimise heat loss in winter and keep the homes cooler in summer.

City of York Council paid for the heat pumps using the Renewable Heat Premium Payment grant from the Energy Saving Trust and the installation was managed in partnership with Yorkshire Energy Partnership and Community Energy Solutions.

Besides making these home improvements, council partner York Energy Partnership is also offering free loft and cavity wall insulation to all York householders through the city’s Wrapping up York scheme. For details call York Energy Partnership on 01904 55 44 06.

North Yorkshire Police will be carrying out mobile safety camera enforcement on the following roads between Wednesday 13 June and Tuesday 19 June 2012.

•A64 east-bound Bowbridge Farm Tadcaster
•York Road, Haxby, York ( Cycle Shop )
•York Road, Haxby, York
•A1237 Monks Cross, York
•A64 Malton by-pass 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
•A171 Jugger Howe opposite Springhill Farm (more…)

Olympic torch route in York click to enlarge

Tickets for the Olmpic entertainment event on 19th June are going well. They are available now from the Acomb Explore Library.

Meanwhile the Council has announced that it will be giving the Olympic Torch a ringing welcome to York with almost a dozen welcoming bands, choirs, peals of bells – church and bicycle – and even a few Vikings, before the Scots Guards’ band of pipes and drums see it off to Thirsk aboard the Scots Guardsman locomotive.

To entertain the waiting crowds and help build the atmosphere, the entertainment will start outside York College where the first Torchbearer will begin the York relay at 5.23pm on 19 June. Along its route, the Torch will be serenaded by choirs including the York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir, and a special performance by visiting choral groups from Australia and the USA.

The council’s York Arts Academy Band, local scout bands and a number of Shepherds’ Brass Bands will play, as will the Railway Institute’s Brass Band which has ‘The Grand Old Duke of York’ a favourite in its repertory. And greetings will be roared at the Flame from Clifford’s Tower by a group of Vikings.

Ringing a welcome through the city will be St Wilfrid’s peal from 4.45pm followed by York Minster’s carillon of 35 bells run after Evensong from 6pm on 19 June – listen out for the theme tune of ‘Chariots of Fire’ from Hugh Hudson’s 1981 film. Bicycle bells will be rung by some 100 young cyclists and parents on their specially-decorated bikes as the Torch passes Knavesmire Primary School on Campleshon Road.
(more…)

Jubilee Quilt - 125 years old

The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles, based at the Quilt Museum and Gallery in York, is planning an exciting city-wide exhibition of quilts in public spaces around the city – ‘Quilt City’ – as part of the York 800 celebrations.

The exhibition will be supported by The National Lottery through Arts Council England and City of York Council. It will run from 14 September until 16 November 2012. ‘Quilt City’ will show a wide range of original and contemporary York-themed quilts, which are unique works of textile art, in locations around the city centre.

As part of this innovative project, two contemporary quilt makers have been commissioned to make new work for the exhibition. Linda Barlow and Alicia Merrett will both produce quilts exploring contemporary and historical York.

Alicia Merrett is based in Somerset and has won the Quilters’ Guild Trophy for best use of colour in show twice. For this commission Alicia will produce a colourful quilt map influenced by John Speed’s 17th Century map of York. Alicia has said that her quilted map will “describe the main features of the city that survive today, and show the beginnings of what is now a great and flourishing city. It will celebrate the permanence of the main features of York”.

Linda Barlow, based in Shropshire, makes pictorial quilts creating images and scenes based upon substantial research. Linda has been commissioned to make quilt work in the UK and the USA winning many awards. For ‘Quilt City’, Linda will work with images and ideas based on her experiences of visiting the city.

Guild President, Tina McEwen said “The Guild is excited about commissioning two leading quilters to make work especially for the Quilt City exhibition.

The exhibition take the best of contemporary quilting to a wide audience in all sorts of locations across the city and introduce the art of quilting to people who people who have never seen contemporary textile art. We hope that many people will also visit our Museum at Peasholme Green as a result.”

For more information about the exhibition visit The Quilters’ Guild website: www.quiltersguild.org.uk

A brass band festival and a spectacular Brass Band Proms will be adding a Yorkshire flavour to the city’s summer of celebrations for York 800 and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Eight York brass bands will showcasing their talent in a weekend of open-air concerts in York’s Museum Gardens on 30 June and 1 July, while on 20 August York’s top two bands join forces for a rip-roaring Proms concert on the stage of the Mystery Plays Theatre in the Museum Gardens.

Both events are being put on by Brassed On York Ltd with the support and backing of City of York Council to mark York 800.

The brass band festival follows on from the original Brassed On York 2010 festival, which drew audiences of several hundred to the massed bands performance of music from the popular film Brassed Off. This year the bands will play different music, but the links with fictional Grimley Colliery Band continue: just as the film, two of York’s bands – Shepherd Group Brass Band and the York Railway Institute Brass Band – have qualified for the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain!

York audiences will be able to appreciate the bands’ quality musicianship themselves when the two bands come together to play as one on the massive Mystery Plays stage for the special ‘Proms in the Gardens’ on Monday 20 August. The outdoor theatre, which seats over 1400, is a temporary structure for the York Mystery Plays 2012 and the audience will be under cover (though the performers will not).

The Proms concert, in aid of the Lord Mayor of York’s charities, is a one-off event and will feature the 1812 Overture and all the Last Night of the Proms favourites, as well as specially arranged and commissioned music to celebrate York’s 800 years of history. Tickets cost from £12 to £20 and can be booked through the Theatre Royal box office. (more…)

1. The Green Deal is essentially a very cheap loan scheme to pay for energy-saving measures which will make the UK more energy-efficient.

2. Why is this being done? Firstly, our homes suffer from a shocking amount of heat loss. Secondly, Britain has ambitious targets for cutting carbon emissions, and the Green Deal is an important part of meeting those targets.

3. The golden rule of the Green Deal means the amount you save on your bills will always be greater than the cost of the energy-saving measures.

4. The cost – up to a current maximum of £6,500 – is absorbed into the future energy bills of your home and paid back over time.

5. An estimated 26,000,000 homes could be eligible for green deal financing.

LibDem Energy Secretary and Climate Change Secretary Edward Davey said:

“Today I have published the Government’s detailed plans along with legislation that will allow the industry to bring the Green Deal into existence. The Green Deal will play a huge role in improving the energy efficiency of our homes and businesses, with ECO making sure that the most vulnerable homes benefit too.

“I am determined to make sure that, in addition to creating huge opportunities for Green Deal providers and businesses along with thousands of new jobs, this new market in energy efficiency will deliver the very best deal for consumers.”
More details see: http://www.uswitch.com/green-deal/

The largest number of sports club in York to host open days have been put on the starting blocks by City of York Council to help get more people fitter and healthier as part of the York Gold 2012 summer of sporting activities.

Starting shortly after the Olympic Torch visits the city on 19 and 20 June, the programme of open days has been awarded the Inspire Mark by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) for its innovation and inclusivity. (more…)

Tesco has withdrawn its plans to install a “pod” for online shoppers in the car park of its Tadcaster Road store.

Tesco had applied for the system to be set up, which would allow customers who order goods online to collect them more easily,

But the scheme, also including a canopy to offer protection from bad weather, has now been put on hold.

It would have replaced ten parking spaces at the store

York police are investigating the theft of a valuable diamond ring.

It was stolen at around 3.30pm on Friday 25 May 2012, from a car parked at Heworth Golf Club on Muncastergate in York. (more…)