York Council to support students and charity during end of term rubbish clear out

As part of this year’s campaign for a tidy end to the academic year, City of York Council is working with British Heart Foundation (BHF) to back its fundraising, and support students to recycle and dispose of waste responsibly.

In this, the third year of the campaign, the council will be making extra collections of grey bins or bags – whichever are usually collected – on Saturday 27 June in The Groves, Hull Road and Fishergate areas. Students leaving their accommodation for the summer and residents will both feel the benefit and are being urged to make the most of this opportunity.

Besides putting out their waste, local people and students will be encouraged to donate to BHF items suitable for sale, at 10 permanent clothing banks at key drop off points located across the city and university campuses.

These will be collected by the charity and sold as part of its Fight For Every Heartbeat campaign.

Information leaflets and maps of BHF collection bin locations and BHF collection bags will shortly be distributed to households in the three areas.

Last year 1,899 bags were collected through BHF’s special collection bins. Each had an average weight of 8.2 kilos, yielding a total 15.6 tonnes of donations which, using BHF’s estimate that each bag has a £20 value, £37,980 was raised for the British Heart Foundation by York residents and students.
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Concern at number of insecure student properties

York police and the Safer York Partnership are urging students and local people to be more security conscious after they found 29 insecure properties during an operation in York last night.

As part of a week-long national campaign targeting burglary, officers from York Safer Neighbourhood Team and the Special Constabulary targeted properties in the east of York following a number of sneak-in burglaries at students’ houses.

The operation was supported by the Safer York Partnership and “Burglar Bill” to raise awareness of the importance of basic security measures such as locking your doors.

Sergeant Andrew Godfrey of York Safer Neighbourhood Team, said: “There was a very serious message behind this operation. Sneak-in burglaries – which is where opportunist thieves target unlocked doors and windows – account for around a third of all burglaries reported to the police.

“Simple measures can be taken to stop these happening. We know security is the last thing on students’ minds, but it is important to get the message across about the basic measures they can take.

“Thieves are on the look out for items left on view, unlocked doors, open windows and properties left in darkness. So please make their lives as difficult as possible by following our top security tips.”

Jane Mowat of the Safer York Partnership, added: “We are pleased to be supporting this initiative and we can’t stress enough the importance of securing your property.”

Follow our top security tips

• Take you valuables home with you when you leave for the holidays
• Always lock your accommodation – whether it’s the main door or your bedroom door.
• Make sure you have strong locks on your doors
• Fit timer switches to lights if you are going to be out during the hours of darkness, if a property looks occupied, it is less likely to burgled
• Remember to set timer switches to come on when you are away during holidays
• Don’t leave valuable items on view where opportunist thieves can see them through windows and doors
• Lock your door if you are in halls, even if you are only going down the corridor
• Make sure that main entrance doors shut behind you and don’t let other people in with you
• Don’t advertise your expensive Christmas presents by leaving packaging outside for all to see
• Get home contents insurance. You may be able to extend your parents’ home insurance policy for no extra cost. Alternatively, many insurance companies have competitive deals for students

Labour Council targets noisy “students”

Ahead of the autumn festivals and to help students settle into the new academic year, City of York Council has said that it will be running additional ‘noise patrols’ this autumn and issuing waste disposal reminders.

The council’s environmental protection unit will be carrying out extra noise patrols at the start of the new academic year, and around Hallowe’en and Bonfire Night at the end of October and early November.

As part of their welcome to the city (!) – which includes advice on waste disposal – noise patrol officers called out to investigate reports of noise will be helping establish acceptable noise levels.

These patrols will run during Fresher’s Weeks: 16-19 September for York St John University and 29 September-3 October for the University of York, plus on Sunday 6 October. On each night the Noise Patrol will operate from 10pm to 1am in addition to its regular hours of 9pm to 3am on Friday and Saturday nights.

The noise patrols will also operate over these same hours on Halloween on 31 October and on Bonfire Night on 5 November.

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Council reject teenagers “ride around for £1” bus fare plea, but First to introduce new student discounts from Sunday.

The York Council is set to reject a petition from local young people who had hoped that the flat £1 “go anywhere” fare available in parts of North Yorkshire would be extended to York.

In May 2013, an 11-16 year old variant of the go anywhere ‘All York’ the ticket was introduced but it was priced at £2.30.

First announce fare cuts for young people – New ticket offers are available for children, young people and students from this Sunday 1 September.

New price list

Child tickets (with an 11-16 YOzone card)

• 80p single and £1.10 return ticket prices frozen

• Day ticket reduced from £2.10 to £2

• Week ticket reduced from £8.50 to £7

• 4-week ticket reduced from £31.50 to £25 (available at PayPoint outlets)

Young People tickets (with a 16-18 YOzone card)

• New maximum single of £1.30 (unless the adult single is lower than that, in which case the lower price applies)

• New day ticket at £3

• New week ticket at £10

Student tickets (University & College)