DRIFFIELD town council has set its budget for the next financial year and decided that there should be no rise in the amount of precept it asks people to pay as part of their overall council tax bill.

Councillors had been faced with the prospect of raising the amount of money they levy on households in Driffield following changes in the tax base imposed by the Government.

Driffield’s tax base will reduce for 2013/14, which meant the cost per household would rise even if the council set the same precept as in 2012/13

However, the East Riding of Yorkshire Council received council tax support funding from the Government to pass down to parish and town councils to partially offset the impact of such changes.

The clerk, Mrs Claire Binnington, told a full town council meeting that £32,194.42 would be received from the EYRC to lessen the impact of a reduced tax base.

This would allow the town council to peg the precept at £248,000. Without the support funding, the precept would have been £282,000 – equivalent to more than a 13% rise.

The town council agreed, with 10 in favour and two against, that the precept should be set at £248,000.

Mrs Binnington said: “As the tax base has reduced, an original unchanged precept of £282,000 would have meant the cost to a band D household would have risen by £8.58 a year, due to the support from ERYC, the council have successfully managed to maintain their budget plans, reduce the precept to £248,000, which in real terms means the cost per band D household has reduced to £63.93.”

The town council could have reduced its spending further by axing from the budget a number of items which it supports financially.

This would have removed £500 set aside for the Driffield show, £5,000 for town centre projects, £5,000 for a WW1 commemoration scheme, £1,000 for late night shopping, £10,000 for canal restoration, and £3,000 small grant fund.

However, town councillors agreed to leave those items in the budget.

Mrs Binnington said: “ “The budget working group met several times and put together a budget. The general idea was, before we got notification of this tax base cut, that we would set everything so that there was no change and the working group would recommend to full council that the precept would remain as last year at £282,000.

“Then it could be argued out and fine tuned as usual. This was before we were told that the tax base had been cut dramatically which meant that if we kept the same precept of £282,000 there would be less households paying it and the band D payment would go up by 13.4%

“In order for us to maintain a non change on the Band D our precept would have to reduce to £248,000.

“The East Riding said that to lessen the impact they would give us £32,000 which means that theoretically we can keep to our spending plan and kept the precept at £248,000, so the band D will not change.”

Coun Steve Poessl spoke in favour of the budget freeze.

“There are a lot of things going up at the moment. The cost of living is going up, the cost of fuel is going up. People are living on a knife edge. Those few quid make all that difference between debt and staying afloat. I for one will be voting for it to stay the same and next year I will be looking at all these figures again.”

Coun Kevin Stack said: “ I agree with Coun Poessl. Keep it as it is.”

Coun Tony Cooper had proposed that the budget discussions should be held in confidential but failed to get a seconder and so the matter was discussed in open council.

On a weekday evening in September 1974, 46 enthusiastic young men lined up at Mission Bay, a saltwater lagoon near San Diego in California, to test their endurance in a new athletic event.

The Mission Bay triathlon was a world first and it was well after dark when the last of the exhausted triathletes made their way across the finishing line.

In the great spirit of sport and adventure, they had come along after a day at work to swim, cycle and run until their legs felt like they didn’t belong to their bodies any more.

Since that autumn evening nearly 39 years ago, the triathlon has become a prestigious world and Olympic sport with Britain’s own brilliant sibling team, Alistair and Jonny Brownlee, winning gold and bronze respectively in the London 2012 games.

The official distances for each element are now a 1,500m swim, a 40km bike ride and a 10km run although other triathlon distances do exist and are used in some races.

The arrival of a whole new breed of professional athletes who have trained specifically for the triathlon has seen the sport’s popularity rocket to new heights and triathlon is now one of the UK’s favourite routes to getting fit.

And there could be no better introduction to the benefits of the sport than Haynes’ new and definitive Triathlon Manual, written by ex-Marine Commando PT instructor Sean Lerwill, who reveals that with its three distinct elements, triathlon training offers more variety and less risk injury.

This accessible and fully illustrated guide is aimed at both newcomers who have decided to give triathlon a go and those who have already taken part and are eager to improve their performance.

As well as information and advice on training and the individual events, Lerwill provides invaluable tips on health, injuries, nutrition, motivation, psychology, supplements, conditioning training and specially focused advice for women and children.

Most people approach the sport with experience of one discipline and then master the other two over time. This superbly produced and easy-to-read manual looks at each sport separately before combining all three in preparation for competitions, such as the gruelling Ironman, considered by many to be the ultimate endurance test.

Ironman was the brainchild of U.S. Navy Commander John Collins who finished a lowly 35th in that original Mission Bay race and involves a much-expanded triathlon consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride and a marathon 26.2-mile run, raced in that order and without a break.

With a Foreword by Jack Johnstone, founder of that first triathlon back in 1974, this comprehensive and fascinating manual will inspire readers to follow a unique training routine, gain a real sense of achievement and maybe even take that first step to becoming a top triathlete!

(Haynes Publishing, hardback, £21.99)

Valuable equipment owned by a tree surgeon has been stolen from a property on Main Street, Ulrome.

The crime happened between Friday, December 29 and Friday January 4, when someone walked into the rear garden of a property and approached a storage shed.

The shed lock was broken by an implement believed to be crowbar and the shed was entered. Five of owner’s chainsaws and two hedge strimmers were taken.

All other equipment in the shed was left untouched.

The victim has made enquiries with other tree surgeons to see if anybody has been approached with equipment for sale.

Two of the saws require a licence and all details are held on a database at the place from which they were bought.

If you have any information about the missing equipment please contact the police on 101 and quote crime reference 1950678.

A Motorcycle was stolen from house in Brandesburton overnight on January 2 when someone got into the rear garden via a secured gate while the resident was at home.

The thief knocked the lock off the gate and took a blue Modena Kriss 110 motorcycle which was secured with a padlock and chain. Later the same day the owner’s wife found the stolen vehicle not far away. It was found to have damage to the ignition, a ripped seat and broken side fairrings.

POLICE said they arrested an aggressive male for allegedly assaulting a member of staff at the Mariners Arms, Eastgate, Driffield

The incident happened on Monday January 14 when a male who was in drink entered the pub from which he is banned for life. A member of staff asked him to leave. The male refused and became aggressive and punched the member of staff in the face. The male was restrained until police arrived and arrested him.

SCHOOLS in the local area will close this afternoon due to disruptions caused by snow.

Langtoft Primary School will close at 1pm this afternoon, and parents of pupils at Kilham Primary School can collect their children after 1pm, although the school will remain open.

Wold Newton Primary School will close at 2pm along with North Frodingham Primary School.

For further updates visit www2.eastriding.gov.uk.

A funeral service was held at St Mary’s Church, Kirkburn on Friday, January 11 for Mr Paddy Sanderson of The Limes Residential Home (formerly of Tibthorpe) who died peacefully in The Limes on January 4.

The service was conducted by Ramona Holt and the organist was Mrs Gwynneth Clark.

Paddy was born at Southburn and attended school at Kirkburn. After leaving school he worked at Middleton Hall as a gardener and later joined Southburn Estates working for the Prince-Smith family as a gardener/chauffeur. He then joined his father who was the blacksmith and agricultural engineer, still working at Southburn and stayed there until the Estate was finally sold.

Paddy then worked for his self and severallocal farmers until he retired.

He loved gardening and when his late wife Kathleen was alive they enjoyed holidays in the Lakes and the Dales.

Paddy & Kathleen lived in Tibthorpe all their married life and brought up three children there.

Family Mourners: Rose & David Crawford, David & Svetlana Sanderson, Shirley & Tom Newlove (daughters, son & in-laws), Brendan Newlove, Mandy & Adrian Ludlam, Giles & Jill Sanderson, Lisa & Charlie Hall,, Caroline Sanderson & Ian Everitt, Zoe & Stewart Howe (grandchildren & partners), Millie Newlove, Holly & Lucy Donoghue, Caitlin & Renea Brook (great grandchildren), Barry & Russell Yeadon rep Stephen & Peter Yeadon (nephews), Bernard & Christine Baker, Alan & Gladys Baker rep Mrs Freda Johnson (sister in law), Sandra & Graham Lee (niece & husband), Mrs Lily Sanderson (sister in law unable to attend)..

Others present: David Adamson rep the family & Dora Stannard, Richard Walgate rep Christine Warkup, Sandra Cuthbert rep Joshua Theakston, Susan Hepworth rep the family, Margaret Buckton, Olive Hodgson, Joyce Hudson, Jane Burdass, Maggie Duncan, James Richardson rep Jackson, Robson & License, Janet Megginson rep J K B Megginson & Sons, Mr & Mrs C Rodger, Sandra Hood, Joan & John Gledhill, Sylvia & Michael Jackson, Caley & Donovan Sackur, Lady Nelson, Mike & Liz Phillips rep Angela Jones, Mr & Mrs J Walgate, Mr M Lakes, Mr Mick Malster rep Peter Wadsworth, Mandy Jordan & Leoni Coultass rep The Limes, Geoff & Doreen Walters, Mr & Mrs D Haldenby, Christine Hickson rep Mr & Mrs K P Hickson, Ruth Pearson, Richard & Lynn Knight, Jane Arnold, Keith & Janet Abel rep all family, Hilary & Cecil Rookes rep Colin Mantel, Tom Grange, Mr T Rookes, Jill Morfatt, Lynn Thomas, Adli Mashale, Janet Arnold.

THE Hull and East Yorkshire Credit Union looks set to open an office in Market Walk – after the town council agreed to reduce its rent demand.

Councillors last week agreed to levy an hourly charge of just £7 for the use of part of their offices after union chief executive John Smith said they could not afford the £10 originally requested.

Joan Cooper said: “Usually its £12 – we have brought it to 10 for them to meet them half way.”

Deputy mayor Coun Heather Venter said: “I am concerned that if we allow them to have it at £7 an hour we would then be subsiding them by £1,300 a year approximately by not having it at £12.

“If we cannot keep it at £10 we are still subsiding them by £480 a year.”

Coun Venter added: “They say they do not make a profit but they give a good dividend out each year to all the savers with them, so I am not sure about it being not for profit. The dividend is very healthy.”

But Coun Steve Poessl said: “If you do not have them in there, the space will be empty.

“There are a lot of people in the town that they help. I for one would not be against them and we subsidise other groups by healthy amounts, and this is another thing that helps the peoplke in the town who are hard done by.

“I think £7 is better than nothing at all. That kind of money is mere peanuts compared to what we have been giving away.”

John Smith, chieg executive of the Credit Union, had told councillors: “We regret we rae unable to afford £10 an hour for the use of Market Walk.

“Although we are not technically a charity, we are a ‘not fopr profit’ organisation run solely to provide services for our members.

“Given that the members we help typically comprise those in society on the lowest incomes and the fact that we are the only loan provider with a legal interest rate cap of 2% a month, our potential to earn income from those services is very limited and, in Driffield,m we operate enturely through the goodwill of our team of volunteers. We therefore propose that £7 an hour would be the maximum we could afford.”
Coun Poessl proposed that the council accept the £7 an hour. The motion was passed.

POLICE have launched an investigation following an attack of mindless damage to a garden display on Meadow Road, Driffield.

Vandals struck late at night on Wednesday January 2 when they approached trees which are located just across the road outside property in a quiet cul-de-sac.

The suspects pushed three Leylandi trees completely over, damaging them. The trees were able to be saved and replanted the next day.

Several days later, on the night of Sunday January 6, vandals again approached the trees and pushed over one of the Leylandis. The tree was broken and has had to be replaced. The elderly owner is at a loss why he is being targeted.

If you know who is responsible or witnessed this damage please contact the police on 101 and quote crime reference 1951209.

EQUIPMENT was stolen during a burglary at a farm in Haisthorpe between Friday January 4 and Thursday 10 when someone crossed a paddock and approached outbuildings at rear of the farm.

An outbuilding door was insecure, the building was entered and a Karcher power washer and a snap on air compressor gauge were stolen. Nothing else was disturbed. Thieves pushed the power washer back across the paddock, leaving track marks in the field leading to Westside Lane. If anyone has any information about this incident please contact the police on 101 and quote crime reference 1951789.

The small market town of Howden grew up close to the rivers Ouse and Derwent. Walter Skirlaw, who flourished about 1390, built a very great and large steeple to the church that if there happened by chance any inundation it might serve the inhabitants for a place of refuge to save themselves in.

In the years between the two World Wars the idea of inter-continental travel by great airship was both exciting and a real possibility.

The rigid airship, R.100 and its ill-fated sister ship the R. 101, were an experimental competition between private industry and the Government of the time, in 1924. Two large airships for commercial use were to be designed and constructed, one by the Airship Guarantee Co. Ltd., an offshoot of Vickers Ltd., the armaments and engineering giant, the other, the R.101 was to be built by the Air Ministry. The government was to decide which was the more suitable product and award contracts to build a fleet of such craft.

Two, now famous names, were connected with the Airship Guarantee Co’s project at Howden – the aeronautical engineer and inventor, Barnes Wallis, who designed the airship, and the chief calculator, Nevil Shute Norway, who later became a novelist under the name of Nevil Shute.

To get some idea of the scale of this project a few facts and figures are necessary. The airships were to be in length 709 feet with a diameter of 133 feet. The engine power was to be 4,200 h.p. with a maximum speed of 80 m.p.h. They were to be designed to carry 100 passengers, and a small amount of freight. With visits to different parts of the Empire in mind, they had to carry fuel for 3,500miles in still air at cruising speed. Here was a vehicle that could bring India within four days of England, Canada within three and Australia within eight.

Let’s take a look at the interior of the R. 100, which was being built at Howden. At the bow of the airship were fittings for attachment to the mooring mast, and observation windows for the use of the crew.

From here you moved down the ship by an enclosed corridor, designed for the use of passengers and lit by electricity. This led into the passenger coach, which was about 180 feet from the bow.

The passenger coach was strung inside the hull of the airship and consisted of three floors, of which the bottom was allocated to the crew, and the two upper floors to passengers. This coach was surrounded entirely by a double wall, through which air was circulated to obviate the danger of any inflamable gas or vapour penetrating to the living quarters. Cooking was carried out there in an electric kitchen.

The passengers were quartered there in two and four berth cabins very similar to sea going ships.

Below the crew’s quarters of the passenger coach was slung the control car. Aft of the passenger coach the corridor was narrowed and became working class,being designed for the use of crew only.

A hundred and thirty feet after the coach you came to two engine cars, suspended outside the hull. Each car contained two Rolls-Royce engines of 700 horse-power and one A.C. motor car engine, whose function was to drive a dynamo to provide electric current necessary for lighting, heating, cooking and wireless.

Ninety feet aft of these engine cars, a third car, similar to the other two was situated. Aft again you came to the fins and rudders of the ship, which served the same purpose as the feathers on an arrow, to ensure stability to her flight.

Work on the R.100 at Howden, continued confidently under the supervision of Barnes Wallis and the race to build an airship developed into a needle match. The government –sponsored R.101 project at Cardington had the luxury of no expenses spared, whereas at Howden, the airship was being built as economically as possible.

On 29th July, the R.100 set out on her 3,300 mile journey to Canada, returning to England on the 16th August. The Canadian trip was a great success, minor problems aside. It was a noteable achievement for the British aviation industry, which had evolved from the project at Howden.

All eyes were on her sister ship as she set out for India on 4th October, 1930. The ill-fated R.101 got no further than France, where she crashed, killing 48 people, there being just six survivors. The disaster also sealed the fate of the successful R.100, which languished never to fly again, being eventually sold for scrap.

Howden church tower can still be seen from afar but the only reminder of the R.100 seems to be the Barnes Wallis Inn, which at one time was named the Station Hotel.

The Minster for Skills, Matthew Hancock MP, has paid a visit to the East Riding to discuss key issues in further education.

Mr Hancock visited East Riding College in Beverley on Friday January 11.

Along with Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart and officials from the Department for Business Innovation, the MP was given a tour of the Gallows Lane campus before meeting with senior managers from the College.

He saw students hard at work in the College’s Learning Resource Centre and in motor vehicle maintenance, construction, hairdressing and beauty therapy, and hospitality and catering.

Mr Hancock then discussed key issues in the further education sector with Principal Derek Branton and other senior managers.

Mr Branton said: “Today’s visit provided an excellent opportunity to raise with a government minister some of the issues facing further education colleges brought about by recent funding and policy changes.”

NINE electric motors have been stolen from outbuildings near Carfoss Airfield, Brandesburton.

The crime happened between Tuesday January 8 and Thursday 10 when two men in a van were seen acting suspiciously around outbuildings on the Airfield at Catfoss near Brandesburton. It was discovered later that nine electric motors of various sizes and an anvil had been stolen from an outbuilding. If you have any information about the stolen items or the people involved please contact the police on 101 and quote crime reference 1951854.

A ground-breaking new campaign exposing the ‘hidden nasties’ in everyday foods and helping people to be ‘food smart’ was launched earlier this week by Public Health Minister Anna Soubry.

Graphic new advertising from Change4Life reveals a shocking 17 sugar cubes in a bottle of cola and more than a wine glass of fat in a large pizza.

The Change4Life adverts, which are made by Aardman, the creators of Wallace and Gromit, has joined forces with a range of food manufacturers and ITV to host the first ever health-focussed ad break which aired on Monday (January 7).

Ana Soubry said: “Making healthier, balanced meals on a budget can be a challenge for families. This new Change4Life campaign offers families free healthy recipes and money off those much needed cupboard essentials to encourage everyone to try healthy alternatives.

“We want to make it easy for everyone to keep track of what they eat and make healthier choices. That is why we are also developing a simple and clear system for front of pack labelling that everyone can use.”

Everyone that signs up to the campaign will get a free ‘Food Smart Meal Mixer’ with lots of quick, easy, healthier recipes with enough combinations to eat a different daily menu every day for six years.

Those that sign up to the campaign will also get a range of great offers including free Cravendale milk and money off Quorn Best Ever Mince or Chicken style pieces, Schwartz spices and seasoning and Robinson’s Fruit Shoot My-5.

A TOTAL of 885 people were stopped and breathalysed in Driffield and the surrounding area as part of the Humberside Police Christmas Drink and Drug Driving Campaign 2012.

324 of these people were tested following a road traffic collision of which 12 people provided a positive breath test.

The campaign, which ran from November 1 2012 to January 1 2013, saw 214 breath tests administered to under 25s, nine of these people provided a positive breath test.

850 breath tests were administered, across the force, to those people under 25 and 41 of those provided a positive breath test.

982 breath tests were administered to people 25 and over, 36 of those tested provided a positive breath test.

Five FIT tests were also conducted.

Chief Inspector for Roads Policing Roger Mitchell said: “We have again seen a reduction in the number of people who provided a positive breath test. 4.4% of those who were breathalysed compared to a figure of 5% for the 2011 campaign. This is a pleasing reduction and officers will continue to work to reduce this figure year after year.

“I would like to remind people that getting behind the wheel of a vehicle, when under the influence of drink and drugs is against the law.

“Officers from across the force work throughout the year to ensure that roads across our region are a safe place to be and that those people who are intent on putting their lives, and that of others, at risk will be caught and prosecuted.”

In 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first man to enter outer space, the Beatles set out on the road to success, a house could be bought for £2,000... and 16-year-old Pam Weaver began her training as a nursery nurse.

She arrived at a government-run children’s residential nursery in Surrey with just one small suitcase, a desire to help others and a burning ambition to get a qualification which would give her letters after her name.

The road ahead involved long working hours, the devastating results of poverty and neglect and plenty of harsh realities, but Weaver also discovered the joys of caring for needy youngsters and the rewards of loyalty, compassion and friendship.

Fans of Call the Midwife will revel in this heart-warming and gritty memoir about life as a nursery nurse and nanny more than 50 years ago.

Weaver takes us through the highs and lows, the triumphs and the tragedies as she moved from caring for deprived and orphaned children to her work as a private nanny at a luxury house near Hyde Park in London.

The daughter of an English woman and a wartime American GI, Weaver was adopted by her natural mother’s best friend and raised in rural Dorset.

After an inauspicious period working on the broken biscuit counter in Woolworths, the young Pam decided she wanted to make something more of her life and successfully applied to train as a nursery nurse.

Her salary was £194 a year, less £101 for her board and lodgings, and when she checked in on that first day she was immediately assigned the ‘Lates’ shift which involved cleaning shoes, drying nappies and settling down children to sleep whilst battling the gnawing ache of homesickness.

She quickly had to get to grips with a demanding routine of early mornings, endless floors to scrub, clothes to clean and children to care for, all carried out under the watchful eye of an overbearing and highly-strung matron.

Life in the nursery was hard and Weaver witnessed the abandonment of children, the struggles of single and widowed parents, families stricken by youngsters born with disabilities and the heartbreak and pain of rejected children.

But despite the rigid routine which could be distressing for both children and staff, everyone did their best to give the children a happy experience. The nursery nurses often took out a child on their days off, bought them extra toys with their own money and always gave a cuddle when it was needed.

In 1965, when her training was complete, Weaver took on a job as a private nanny to a little boy in North London and discovered that for all the wealth and privilege that surrounded him, he displayed some of the same symptoms of deprivation that she had seen in the children’s home.

Bath Times and Nursery Rhymes is a revealing and sympathetic memoir. Written with engaging and uplifting honesty, it transports us to an era of hard graft and dedication whilst providing a fascinating insight into the ethos of childcare in the 1960s.

(Avon, paperback, £6.99)

The latest café case mini display at Beverley’s Treasure House has now opened.

Drawing on the South East Asia Museum collections in the University of Hull, the exhibition looks specifically at Thailand and the hierarchy of Theravada Buddhism, the Kingship and the People in the traditional Thai state.

Dr David Marchant, museums registrar at East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said: “The display is a colourful and fascinating collection of artefacts, which anyone who has visited Thailand or wants to learn more about that country will hopefully find enjoyable and informative.”

The Treasure House display runs until the March 28.

The South East Asia Museum itself is situated on the first floor of the Wilberforce Building on the university campus and is open 9.15am-1pm, Monday-Friday, term time only.

As apartheid spreads like a stain across South Africa, the voice of one young black girl speaks volumes for a nation in Barbara Mutch’s moving debut novel.

Previously released as Karoo Plainsong, this fully revised and utterly absorbing tale of love, friendship and redemption tackles head on the cruelty and barbarism of racial segregation in the middle decades of the 20th century.

With a captivating blend of eloquence, insight and integrity, South African-born Mutch transports us to a defining and degrading chapter in that country’s history when the colour of a man or woman’s skin marked out their destiny.

Her humble narrator, housemaid’s daughter Ada Mabuse, becomes a powerful symbol for marginalised black women, an example of the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity and a role model for those who face oppression in all corners of the world.

Ada’s abiding friendship with her white Irish-born ‘mistress’ crosses the huge divide, breaks down barriers and sets in motion changes that bring hope for the future...

Cathleen Harrington leaves her home in Ireland in 1919 to travel to South Africa and marry her fiancé Edward, a man she has not seen for five years.

Despite the births of her two children, Phil and Rose, Cathleen feels isolated and estranged at Cradock House in the great semi-desert of Karoo and starts to find solace in her diary and the friendship of her housemaid Miriam’s young daughter Ada.

Born in 1930 in her mother’s kaia under the bony shade of a thorn tree at the back of the big house, Ada feels a part of the fabric of the place.

And Cathleen recognises in her someone she can love and respond to in a way that she cannot with her husband and her own daughter. ‘She made me feel like I was hers,’ says Ada.

Under Cathleen’s tutelage, Ada grows into an accomplished pianist, and a reader who cannot resist turning the pages of Madam’s diary, discovering cryptic messages and secrets that Cathleen has tried to hide. Musical notes, Ada discovers, are like words. ‘They meant one thing when played on their own, and quite another when strung together.’

When Ada is compromised and finds she is expecting a mixed-race child – one who ‘belongs nowhere... who falls in between’ – she flees her home, determined to spare Cathleen the knowledge of her betrayal, and the disgrace that would descend upon the family.

Ostracised and derided within her own township community, Ada is forced to carve out a life for herself, her child and her music.

But Cathleen still believes in Ada, and risks the constraints of apartheid to search for her and persuade her to return with her daughter. Beyond the separation and the segregation, there is hope for a new generation.

The Karoo region’s beautiful but unforgiving landscape, and the music which is the soul of Ada’s friendship with Cathleen, provide a symphony of vivid colour and harmony as the background to this exquisite and heart-rending story which captures time and place with consummate skill and blistering honesty.

(Headline Review, paperback, £7.99)

East Riding of Yorkshire Council has made an energy saving of more than 510,000 units so far in 2012/13 as part of street lighting changes that will reduce carbon emissions and lower costs.

The street lighting programme aims to replace all the East Riding’s old, low-pressure orange lights with fluorescent white lights and has already seen 90 per cent of all large orange lighting in the area replaced, 50 per cent of all medium orange lighting and 75 per cent golden lights.

Most of the major traffic routes in Beverley have been relit and the council has also completed the relighting of Howden Spur.

The council has also replaced approximately 1500 small orange lights in Beverley, Willerby, Woodmansey, Kirk Ella, West Ella, Tickton, Dunswell and Molescroft and have replaced 90 per cent of footpath lighting in Stamford Bridge to LED lights as well as converting approximately 300 sign lights to LED in various areas.

Councillor Chris Matthews, cabinet portfolio holder for infrastructure, highways and emergency planning, said: “The street lighting programme is a major investment by the council, which will hopefully see the removal of all low-pressure sodium lights within the next four to five years.

“Switching the lighting will save the council an estimated 25 to 30 per cent on energy consumption over the investment period and will also help achieve our objective of a 34 per cent carbon reduction before 2020.

“The works carried out so far this year has saved the council 510,000 units and puts the authority well on track to achieving its estimated target of 750,000 units.”

BEVERLEY town council is to raise the precept it levies by 7.5%.

The authority set its budget on Monday amid some heated exchanges with ward councillors.

The Labour group has declared an intention to expand the services offered by the council.

Coun Peter Astell, Chair of Property and Services, has this week taken delivery of a compact tractor which will allow “operatives” to plough allotments and to grit pavements in bad weather, as well as carry out grass cutting in the summer.

Coun Margaret Pinder, Chair of the council and Town Mayor said: “We want to offer our residents better value year on year.

“We are looking forward not just to 2013/14 but to what we hope to achieve beyond that.

“This budget is designed to make Beverley Town Council fit for purpose in the face of government calls for localism and we believe that the modest increase of 7.57% on the precept overall will allow us to do this in terms of equipment, staffing and infrastructure.”

The planned closure and sale of the Samman Road Centre was also discussed and the council agreed to look into the viability of acquiring the site for community use in the future.

Councillors also agreed to join forces with East Riding Council to run a pilot scheme in the town encouraging households to sign up for the new Green Deal initiative on home energy improvements

The precept will be levied by the town council but will be collected as part of the overall council tax bill which residents will receive from the East Riding of Yorkshire Council. This will also include charges from the police and fire services.