Calendar environment News

York is hoping to become the first city in the UK to install a network of pay-as-you-go charging points for electric cars. The city council is behind the venture to make York a greener place. It has hosted a special event to showcase the latest electric car technology.

• UK
• York
• Environment

A company in West Yorkshire has become one fo the first in the region to be given a licence to recycle computer and IT waste. "U Can" says it's committed to reducing the amount of waste electrical equipment, and is trying to persuade people not to dump old computers in landfill.

• UK
• Environment
• recycling

Baby giant tortoises in the Galapagos Islands are to be monitored on weighing scales donated by a Yorkshire tour guide.

Santiago Bejarano, who organises trips from his headquarters in Trinity Lane, Beverley to the Pacific archipelago, will deliver two highly sensitive weighing scales tothe Galapagos National Park later this month.

The specialist scales will help them to monitor embryo growth of these creatures through their eggshells before returning them to the wild.

• And Finally
• Environment
• tortoises

A team from Yorkshire Water removed a mound of fat weighing the same as five family cars from a sewerage pipe in Rotherham.

The pipe was 80% blocked by the build up and there was a danger that it would overflow into the river or flood the town's businesses and homes.

• UK
• Environment
• sewers

A disease threatening to devastate the UK's native ash trees has now been found Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The Chalara fraxinea fungus has wiped out 90% of ash trees in some parts of Denmark. It causes leaf loss and crown dieback and can lead to tree death.

There are fears that the UK's ash trees are facing a similar fate to its elms, which were destroyed by Dutch elm disease in the 1970s.

• UK
• Environment
• Ash tree

Protesters fighting plans for a coal recycling plant near their homes in Chapeltown have handed in a 4000 signature petition to Sheffield Council.

They're worried dust and noise from the scheme to reclaim 400,000 tonnes of coal from the former Hesley Wood Colliery slag heap will blight their lives for four years. An application is currently being considered by the council.

• UK
• Environment
• Sheffield

A new riverside festival will celebrate the official opening of Sheffield's newest pocket park and completion of flood defences for the Wicker area. The Sheffield Riverlution Festival runs over the weekend between the new Nursery Street pocket park and Kelham Island Museum.

The programme includes the revival of the River Don Raft Race and kayaking taster sessions as well as stalls, music and a night time pyrotechnic display and lantern parade.

• UK
• Sheffield
• environment

People living in two cities in the Calendar region are to benefit from funding which will help lower carbon emissions in the future.

Both Leeds and Sheffield are to get a share of a £12 million pot as part of the Government's so-called "Green Deal". This will help pay for things like home improvements such as insulation to save money on fuel bills.

• UK
• Environment
• Leeds