Volunteers urged to help brighten up city centre

York BID have had over 100 people help on previous rejuvenation days

York Business Improvement District (BID) is asking volunteers to help in their efforts to improve the appearance of the city centre.

The organisation said its rejuvenation days will involve cleaning and repainting tired-looking street furniture.

The project began in January with over 100 people taking part in cleaning over 450 benches, bike racks, bollards and bins.

BID said its next three volunteering days will be held on 10, 12 and 18 September.

Volunteer have helped repaint benches across the city.

The three days will focus on street furniture in Museum Street, George Hudson street, Dame Judi Dench Walk and the surrounding areas.

The group's operations manager Carl Alsop said: "I'd love to say we've done 500 or 600 pieces of infrastructure over the three days because of the volume of volunteers that have come forward and said, 'yeah, I want to make my city better, I want to bring it back to life'."

He said his favourite part of the initiative was people not saying it was the council's responsibility.

"It's people saying, 'this is the city I work in; this is the city I live in and this is the city I love'.

"It's people coming out and picking up a wire brush, sweating to make that city better."

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