Car careers into garden

TWO women in a silver Mercedes escaped serious injury when their car left the road and ended up in a garden in York. Parked cars normally line St Benedict Road, but the street was empty when the accident happened.

The car, which collided with a bollard and another passing vehicle, came to rest feet from the kitchen wall of Tina Jackson's home.

"All I saw was this car coming towards the window and I just ran," she said.

HISTORY MEETING: Knaresborough Historical Society holds its monthly meeting on Tuesday, January 8, at 7.30pm, in Holy Trinity Hall. Speaker Jenny Deadman will be discussing the village of Cowthorpe through the centuries.

BECK WORK: A three-stage plan for improvements to the beckside, in Bedale, has been drawn up by the town council. Hambleton District Council has also supplied details of possible grant aid schemes.

NEW ROLE: Roger Tempest, of the Yorkshire branch of the Country Land and Business Association, has been elected to the national organisation's membership and communication committee.

HEALTH MEETING: The public are invited to attend a meeting of Harrogate and District Community Health Council on Monday, January 21, at 7.30pm. New health trust chief executive Miles Scott will be attending the meeting at St Robert's conference centre.

FELLOWSHIP DATE: The Northallerton Civil Service Retirement Fellowship begins a new year of meetings next month. Alex Sampson will speak on family history at the Methodist Church Hall from 2pm, on Tuesday, January 8. All former civil servants are welcome.

WILLIAMS VISIT: A founder member of the Social Democratic Party, Baroness Williams of Crosby, will address Liberal Democrats at the Cairn Hotel, Harrogate, in February. Now leader of the party in the Lords, Shirley Williams began her political career in the Labour party, for whom she served as Education Secretary and as Paymaster General.

INQUIRY CONFIRMED: An inquiry into allegations of a breach of planning procedures in Brompton-on-Swale, will begin on February 5. The owner of Millfields, in Parkgate Lane, is said to have converted a barn and built a pigeon loft without permission.