The new leader of York’s Labour group on the city council, Dafydd Williams, pledged that all motorists who had been fined during the controversial Lendal Bridge closure were to be refunded. It later emerged this could cost £150,000.

Hundreds of visitors flocked to see the Christmas lights display in Wigginton’s Twin Pike Way.

Paraglider pilot Mark Jenkinson spoke for the first time about a terrifying accident in which he crashed 40 feet to the ground after his paraglider struck overhead power cables near his home at Barton-le-Willows, leaving him with two smashed legs and a broken arm.

York-born Dame Judi Dench celebrated her 80th birthday – and revealed she had a new man in her life: David Mills, who runs a wildlife centre near her home on the Surrey-Sussex border.

It emerged that there would be £250 million for further improvements to the Hopgrove roundabout and for dualling a the stretch of the A64 between York and Malton under a £15 billion package of UK roadworks.

York’s long-serving Labour MP Hugh Bayley announced that he would not be standing for re-election in York Central at the next election, saying it was time to put his family first.

The football world rallied around former York City and Leeds United star Clark Carlisle when he was badly injured after being hit by a lorry on the A64 near Bishopthorpe In sport, Ronnie O’Sullivan claimed his fifth UK snooker crown after one of the most thrilling finals ever seen at the York Barbican.

Judd Trump had come from 1-5 and 4-9 down to tie the Rocket at 9-9 – before O’Sullivan somehow managed find the nerve to take the last frame and win 10-9. “I can’t believe I have won it, to be honest,” he said.