There is a risk of flooding in parts of the City today. Visit the Environment Agency web site at this address for more information http://tinyurl.com/flood-warnings-York

City of York Council is teaming up with Heworth Golf Club to offer golf coaching lessons for beginners this May.

The courses will run for four weeks, starting on Saturday 12 May. It will cost £20 per person for all the sessions and this includes an hour of expert tuition from a club professional, as well as equipment hire.
The previous golf sessions have been highly successful, attracting over 100 people who are new to the sport.

Dean Sharp, City of York Council’s Sports Participation Officer says “After the success and popularity of the last lot of coaching at Heworth Golf Club, we decided to offer more opportunities for beginners to get into the sport.”

The game is a great way to exercise and improve your health, as an average Golf course involves walking up to 4 kilometres, whilst pulling and carrying clubs can improve fitness and strength. So why not join the 1.4 million adults* who already play the sport once a month and aim for that birdy!

Places are limited to a maximum of 8 per course and are for over 16’s only. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

For further information or to book a place contact Dean Sharp, City of York Council, dean.sharp@york.gov.uk or call 01904 553377

To quote from their website

“Freecycle? is a scheme that lets you donate your unwanted items to someone who wants them and is able to reuse them. This is a great idea because, as well as helping people out, you’re cutting down on waste. All items donated by freecycling are free, and as this is a local group, it’s dead easy to visit people to collect stuff.

Is York Freecycle my local group?
If you’re in York, then yes. If you live outside York, go to www.freecycle.org to see if there’s a group closer to you!

How do I join York Freecycle?
The York Freecycle group is hosted by Yahoo! Groups at groups.yahoo.com/group/york_freecycle, so to use York Freecycle all you need to do is join our Yahoo! Group. You don’t have to have a Yahoo! account to join our group, although if you do you’ll be able to control how you receive your York Freecycle messages. Here’s how to join the group…

Joining York Freecycle with a Yahoo! Account
If you already have a Yahoo! account, then joining York Freecycle is dead easy. Just visit our group page and click the “Join This Group!” button. If you don’t have a Yahoo! account already, you’ll be given the option to create one.

Joining York Freecycle without a Yahoo! Account
If you don’t have a Yahoo! account, then you can still join York Freecycle. Here’s how to do it:

Send a blank email to york_freecycle-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Check your email inbox for a message from Yahoo! Groups. This might take a short while.
Reply to that message. Make sure you don’t change the email address.

However you join…
When you join the group, you will receive a welcome email explaining how to use the service.
Be aware – as a new member, you will automatically start receiving lots of message emails. You can very easily turn these off or reduce their frequency. Have a look at your introductory email or take a look at our how-to page.

If you get stuck, or have any questions, then you can always email help@yorkrecycling.net.
“

City of York Council is teaming up with Race for Life and fitness trainers to launch an exciting new course. The programme will be preparing and training women to take part in the 5k Race for Life.

The courses are suitable for people of all levels and abilities, from those who have never run before, to those that may have participated in a 5k run previously. (more…)

Recycling bin locations: Click to enlarge

The last day that the site will be open is Sunday 29 April, 10am – 2pm. The site will be closed permanently from Monday 30 April.

We think that this is a very short sighted decision by the 25 Labour Councillors who voted to close the site at a meeting held last Tuesday. The costs of running the centre are tiny compared to the millions that the Council have budgeted to spend on schemes like the roll out of free WiFi in the City centre. The consequences are likely to be more fly tipping and fewer items recycled, just adding to the spiral in costs for taxpayers.

We will be continuing our campaigns aimed at ensuring that the Dringhouses side of the City will get a fair deal on public service provision in the future. We will strongly oppose Labours plans to change the green bin garden waste collection service. Where Labour have tried to charge for this service elsewhere, the consequences for taxpayers have been disastrous.

The next local elections are 3 years away and a lot can happen in the interim. The recycling centre land at Beckfield Lane may, for example, be sold off. The Liberal Democrats will however seek to provide a replacement facility, to serve the needs of the people of the west of York, as soon as we are in a position to do so.

In the meantime, please let us know if you see any problems with fly-tipping.

Here is some information on the options that residents, who want to get rid of rubbish, still have.
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North Yorkshire Police will be carrying out mobile safety camera enforcement on the following roads between Wednesday 25 April and Tuesday 1 May 2012.

•A64 east-bound carriageway Bowbridge Farm Tadcaster
•A1237 Monks Cross, York
•The Village, Stockton-on-the-Forest, York
•A1036 Malton Road, York
•A64 west-bound Carriageway, Bowbridge Farm, Tadcaster
•Ryecroft Avenue, Acomb, York
•Temple Lane, Copmanthorpe, York
•A1036 Tadcaster Road, York (more…)

At tonight’s Extraordinary Council the ruling Labour Group ignored public opinion again and decided to press ahead with their plans to close the Beckfield Lane Household Waste and Recycling Centre.

A petition against the closure, signed by over 3,000 local residents, was debated at the meeting alongside a Liberal Democrat motion that proposed keeping the site open.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Ann Reid, who moved the motion, commented:
“It is deeply disappointing that Labour once more completely ignored public opinion and pressed ahead with their closure plans. Over 3,000 residents signed the petition, including a record number using the Council’s e-system. It was a groundswell of opinion and anger that Labour closed their eyes to.
“Labour also failed to address many key issues that councillors and residents raised, including the threat of increased fly-tipping and the risk of damaging the recycling rate. Labour’s argument has shifted from economics to location to accessibility and in each area their claims have been found wanting.

“The Beckfield Lane site is convenient; serves the needs of the West of the City and the staff help overcome any accessibility problems. The Liberal Democrat Group demonstrated that it was possible to keep it open within the current budget constraints. It is shameful that Labour have chosen to close it instead.”

Detectives investigating after a cash delivery man was robbed on Front Street, Acomb, on Wednesday 18 April 2012 have arrested two more men in connection with the incident.

A 22-year-old man from Liverpool was arrested at York Train Station at around 12.45pm today (24 April 2012). He remains in police custody for questioning.

A 23-year-old local man was arrested on Ordnance Lane, York, at around 4.15pm on Friday 20 April 2012. He has been released on bail as enquiries continue.

Police have now arrested a total of five people as a result of their enquires into the robbery.

Any witnesses to the robbery are urged to contact North Yorkshire Police on 101 – select option 2 – and ask for York CID.

Alternatively, Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously on 0800 555 111, quoting reference number 12120061468.

The Council have finally announced the date of the meeting which will determine the Oakgate planning application for the Monks Cross area. The application incorporates proposals for a new Community Sports Stadium.

The Planning meeting on 17th May will have a start time of 10:00am.

Site plan phase 1. click to enlarge

“This flagship development will feature a varied selection of 2, 3, 4 & 5 bedroom unique contemporary designed, energy efficient, homes set in an environment of well managed, public open space and parkland areas for the benefit of the whole community”. So says the advertising pitch from developers David Wilson Homes and for once they are probably correct. Prices range from £205,000 to £430,000. Homes are also available to rent and under “shared ownership” arrangements.

A preview of the homes, and unique district heating system last Friday convinced most attending that the development will indeed rank with its predecessor New Earswick as a paradigm of innovative planning.
Meanwhile a planning application for the second wave of homes is recommended for approval at the Planning Committee which is scheduled to take place on Thursday. Outline planning permission was granted by the Secretary of State in May 2007 for the residential scheme of approximately 540 dwellings. Phase 1 of the development, accessed from Osbaldwick Village, was granted reserved matters approval in 2008 and this is the section which is currently under construction

The district heating system is provided by an Energy Centre which is located for efficient underground distribution. It will house plant, together with an underground store for the fuel (woodchips and pellets) that ‘fire’ the biomass boiler. The plant within the Centre will supply the heating and hot water needs for the whole community. This system is a key feature for delivering the low carbon component for the development. Derwenthorpe’s preferred bio fuel is woodchip. Woodchip will burn with extremely low pollution effects on the environment (compared to traditional sources like coal and oil) and can be sourced through both harvesting trees grown specifically for this purpose and recycling forestry thinning. It is anticipated that the woodchips will be sourced from a supplier in Yorkshire.

One of the house types available at Derwenthorpe

Homes have been designed and constructed to consume less heat to help save costs. Similar to the principle of a thermos flask, the new homes are extremely well insulated and the joints at windows, doors and roof details so robustly sealed that heat leaks from the inside at a significantly reduced rate compared to the average home in the UK
The Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust are providing a ‘Fibre to the Home’ (FTTH) service for all residents of Derwenthorpe. This infrastructure is state of the art and specifically designed for the development to ensure that high

quality technology services such as broadband, telephone, television and radio will be accessible to all homes.

The latest planning application seeks reserved matters approval on land west of Metcalfe lane, Osbaldwick. It covers the siting, design and external appearance of the neighbourhood located in the south-west quadrant of the site and accessed from Temple Avenue.

There are 123 dwellings proposed as part of this reserved matters application, laid out around a circular outer road and internal cruciform street pattern. There are seventeen house types arranged in a mix of terraced, semi-detached and detached properties. Some of the properties have garages, which are either individual or in short runs and are to be red brick with plain clay tiles to the roof.
All properties have a parking space, whether within a garage, parking court, in-curtilage or on- street. Visitor parking spaces and two car club spaces are accommodate within the neighbourhood. Two Local Areas of Play are shown on the plans, one in the central square and one adjacent to the Sustrans cycle track.

David Wilson Homes can be found at http://tinyurl.com/Derwenthorpe-house-sales

The Joseph Rowntree Derwenthorpe web site address is http://tinyurl.com/JoRo-Derwenthorpe

More about Joseph Rowntree 19th Century York Liberal (more…)