High-speed broadband communications for Ripon will go live on April 23.

More than 350 people have said they would use the services in a scheme that matches BT's investment to firm customer interest. Once the upgrade of the Ripon exchange has been completed broadband will be available for almost 8,200 customers.

LIVE ARTS: Pupils from 50 schools will have an exciting end to their half-term with a programme of arts events on the theme Changing Worlds. The events, held until Friday, are part of Live Arts Week organised by City of York Council. Youngsters aged five to 16 will work alongside artists to help develop their abilities in music, dance, drama and visual arts.

FULL MONTY: A group of busmen calling themselves the First York Strippers did their version of the Full Monty over two sell-out nights at the Tramways Club in York and raised £4,700 for the city's Children's Centre.

STATION REVAMP: Harrogate Railway Station has been given a £20,000 facelift by Arriva Trains Northern. The station has been completely repainted in cream and blue and damaged walls and fixtures have all been repaired.

BIG DAY: The £78m McArthur Glen designer shopping outlet at Fulford, York, is expecting to welcome its ten millionth customer next Thursday with £1,000 worth of gift vouchers. The complex, on the site of the former Naburn Hospital, opened to the public in 1998.

SCHOOL CASH: Pupils at the Joseph Rowntree secondary school, near York, held a dress-down day and raised more than £1,600 in memory of former pupil David Harry to help charity Cardiac Risk in the Young. David died from a heart abnormality in October.

NEW LIGHTS: Motorists are being warned about a temporary set of traffic lights being installed on Poppleton Toad, York, while Yorkshire Water carries out a £500,000 scheme to improve the city's sewerage.