THE YORK BRIEF ⏰ Friday, 30 October 2026

Morning, York, and happy Friday. Yorkshire Water has been handed the worst environmental rating going, just as our MPs take to the Ouse to push for a tougher Clean Water Bill. Also today: the council's £32m budget gap, an MP's row with LNER over its caterer's pay, and seven months of roadworks heading for Fulford.

🚱 Yorkshire Water handed the lowest possible environmental rating

Yorkshire Water has been downgraded from two stars to one by the Environment Agency, making it a "poor performing company" for its impact on the environment, the first time it has had the lowest grade since the ratings began in 2011. The EA's figures show the firm was responsible for 260 pollution incidents in 2025, up from 151 the year before: a rise of more than 70% and the highest total since 2011. It also failed to finish six legally required environmental schemes in west Leeds on time. The one-star rating means it is automatically blocked from paying bonuses to bosses under rules brought in last year. Yorkshire Water said its environmental performance last year was "not good enough", and points to an £8.3bn investment programme between 2025 and 2030, including £1.5bn to cut storm overflow discharges, though its director of asset management told the BBC that customers, not shareholders, are paying the bigger share. Closer to home, York Outer MP Luke Charters told Prime Minister's Questions before the Budget that he had seen "sewage pouring into the River Ouse whilst doing a BBC interview on pollution", and urged "stronger public control" of the region's water. For context, the company was rated four stars and "industry leading" as recently as 2020.

👉 Read more: BBC News · York Press

📰 NEWS

🚣 MPs take to the Ouse as campaigners push for a tougher Clean Water Bill

York's two MPs got on the river last Friday to hear from campaigners who want the upcoming Clean Water Bill to crack down on Yorkshire Water.

Luke Charters (York Outer) rowed with York St John University Boat Club and York City Rowing Club. Rachael Maskell (York Central) joined York Canoe Club at Rowntree Park. Harrogate's Tom Gordon was on the Nidd at Knaresborough the same morning.

The event was organised by Wild Waters Yorkshire, which is co-ordinated by Surfers Against Sewage's regional rep Robin Norton. The group is pushing for tough independent regulators, polluters paying for the harm they cause, and a roadmap away from private ownership. It says the bill is due before Parliament in the next few months.

The group's own online survey of 433 Yorkshire Water customers found that 92% were very concerned about sewage in rivers and the sea, and 81% wanted water run by the public sector.

"No river, no coastline should still see the record levels of dumping that we see," Gordon said.

Yorkshire Water points to its £1.5bn investment programme. The day made BBC Look North on Friday evening.

👉 Watch the BBC Look North report (Friday 23 October) on iPlayer

🚧 Seven months of roadworks coming to Fulford

Speaking of Yorkshire Water: it's installing an underground storage tank on Fordlands Road to hold back wastewater in bad weather and help improve water quality in the Ouse, part of an £8 million investment in storm overflows across York. Restrictions on Main Street, Fulford start on Monday 2 November, beginning with a water main diversion until Thursday 19 November (nearby homes may see a brief loss of supply or low pressure), and a roadworks notice runs to 28 May 2027. The big one is a full closure of Main Street from Monday 1 February to Friday 12 March, with a signed diversion, plus temporary lights on Fulford Mews from 2 November to 28 March. Some residents aren't impressed with the timing, with one asking whether it could start after Christmas, given the festive traffic for the Designer Outlet. Good luck out there, Fulford.

👉 Read the full story at YorkMix

💷 Council warns of a £32m budget gap

City of York Council says it is preparing for "one of the most significant financial challenges in its history", with a projected budget gap of around £32 million between 2027/28 and 2029/30, up from about £20 million forecast when this year's budget was set, mainly due to national funding changes. It blames rising demand for adult social care, higher costs, and a Fair Funding Review that leaves York one of the lowest-funded unitary councils in England, and says money for big capital projects can't simply be moved into day-to-day services. Councillors will be asked to let officials open talks with the Government about the council's position. Lib Dem leader Cllr Nigel Ayre says his group estimates Band D bills would need to rise by £240 a year unless Labour makes "savage cuts" or borrows; council leader Cllr Claire Douglas called that "speculation designed to distract". The Executive discusses the report on Tuesday 3 November, and next year's budget is set in February.

👉 Read more: City of York Council · York Press

🚆 Maskell "deeply concerned" over LNER caterer's pay

York Central MP Rachael Maskell has written to LNER's managing director, David Horne, after its catering contractor gatesolutions stopped paying staff the Real Living Wage (currently £14.10 an hour outside London). She says some rates she has seen are "shockingly level with the statutory minimum wage" (£12.71), and argues that "responsibility lies with LNER" because it's the York-based operator's own contract. LNER says it has started a tender for its catering supplier "which will include a requirement to properly consider payment of the Real Living Wage", while gatesolutions says it is working to reach an agreement with the RMT union.

👉 Read the full story at the York Press

🏡 £18.7m for schools, buses and more at Monks Cross Garden Village

More than £18.7 million is being put into community infrastructure for the 970-home Monks Cross Garden Village in Huntington. More than £15 million will go on primary, secondary, early years and special educational needs places, with Redrow gifting land for a proposed primary school, and £3.7 million is earmarked for buses, highways, cycling and other sustainable transport. The plans also include a community hub with shops, sports pitches and a country park to the east of the site. Redrow Yorkshire's John Handley said residents who've seen the recent roadworks "understandably" want to know what they're for.

👉 Read the full story at the York Press

🚓 Man charged after attempted kidnapping on the A19

Police are investigating the attempted kidnapping of a woman in her 40s on the A19 into Fulford Interchange at about 2pm on Monday 26 October, involving the driver of a white Volkswagen Polo. A man in his 40s has been arrested and charged with kidnap and assault, and released on conditional bail while enquiries continue. Police say the pair are known to each other and there is not believed to be any risk to the wider public. They'd like to hear from witnesses or anyone with dashcam footage, quoting reference 12260210759.

👉 Read the full story at YorkMix

🏙️ AROUND THE CITY

🏆 York's best bar, café and shop crowned

YorkMix has named the winners of its YorkMix Choice Awards 2026 at The Milner York. Among the gold winners: The Drovers Arms (best pub), Roo's Tea Room (best café or tearoom), Love Cheese (best independent shop), the Grand Opera House (best venue), The Judge's Lodging (best place to stay), Clucking Oinks (best takeaway, street food or sandwich shop) and City Cruises York (best travel provider). Twenty awards were handed out in all, with Candlelighters as charity partner.

👉 See all the winners at YorkMix

🛣️ More York roads added to the repair list

The council has added more schemes to this year's highways maintenance programme after the Combined Authority confirmed transport funding for the next four years. New additions include walkway resurfacing in Wheldrake, pedestrian crossing safety works, and road resurfacing in Holgate, South Bank, Elvington and Osbaldwick. Fewer potholes: we'll take it.

👉 Read the full story at City of York Council

⚽ SPORT

Lindsey still waiting to hear if he's banned for Grimsby

York City head coach Scott Lindsey still doesn't know whether he'll be on the Blundell Park touchline for Saturday's trip to Grimsby Town (12.30pm), after being shown a red card at full time in Tuesday's 3-1 defeat at Barnet. Lindsey says he has asked the EFL's head of referees, Mike Jones, to listen to referee Ben Toner's comms, insisting: "I never swore at him". He says Jones agreed the throw-in before Barnet's equaliser should have been City's. Toner handed out as many as 14 bookings on the night, two of them red: for Lindsey and Hiram Boateng.

👉 Read the full story at the York Press

🎭 CULTURE

🧛 The Addams Family is "spookily spectacular" at Theatre@41

Wharfemede Productions' Halloween-week staging of The Addams Family musical gets a glowing YorkMix review, with praise for Zander Fick's Gomez, Henrietta Linnenman's Morticia and Rosy Rowley's Grandma, who "brings some of the biggest laughs of the evening". It runs at Theatre@41 on Monkgate until Saturday 31 October. It's sold out, but the box office may have returns.

👉 Read the full review at YorkMix

🎩 Jeeves and Wooster heading to the Grand Opera House

Tom Rosenthal (Friday Night Dinner) and Adrian Scarborough (Gavin & Stacey) star as Bertie Wooster and Jeeves in a new tour of Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense, at the Grand Opera House from Tuesday 4 to Saturday 8 May 2027.

👉 Read the full story at YorkMix

🏛️ A new national Classics Festival is coming to York

A new festival celebrating the ancient Greeks, Romans and related civilisations will run from 3 to 6 September 2027 at the Yorkshire Museum and the Hospitium, with around 30 events across books, music, theatre and the visual arts. It's not-for-profit and aimed at a general audience, not just classicists.

👉 Read the full story at the York Press

🎶 Twinnie to sing at Love Actually Live at the Barbican

York singer Twinnie will be the live vocalist on the UK tour of Love Actually Live in Concert, singing six songs from the soundtrack while an orchestra plays the score to the film, including a date at York Barbican on Saturday 12 December.

👉 Read the full story at the York Press

😂 Improv show My Plus One at Friargate Theatre

Fool(ish) Improvisation brings its unscripted two-hander My Plus One, led by York improv veteran Ned Lunn, to Friargate Theatre on Thursday 17 December at 8pm. Tickets are £10 plus booking fee.

👉 Read the full story at the York Press

📅 THIS WEEKEND IN YORK

🚧 The A1237 closes again tonight from 8pm to 5am between the A19 Shipton Road roundabout and Clifton Moor Retail Park, the last night of resurfacing, with a signed diversion.

🧛 The Addams Family finishes its run at Theatre@41 on Saturday (sold out, so try for returns).

⚽ York City are at Grimsby Town on Saturday, kick-off 12.30pm.

🚧 Fulford's Main Street roadworks start on Monday 2 November.

🏛️ The council's Executive meets on Tuesday 3 November to discuss its finances.

👉 Read more: YorkMix — A1237 · YorkMix — The Addams Family · York Press — York City · YorkMix — Fulford · City of York Council — budget

🐟 AND FINALLY...

Millers, the York fish and chip favourite with shops in Haxby and on Shambles Market, has won a national award at the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) UK Awards at Fishmongers' Hall in London. It took the national sustainability communications award, given for the first time this year, for championing sustainably sourced fish: Millers serves only MSC-certified fish. "It's so important for young people to understand the importance of sustainability so we can continue to have fish into the future," said David Miller. A plaice in the history books, then.

👉 Read the full story at YorkMix