THE TOUR de France inspired people around York to come together and celebrate, and now that community spiritedness is being praised.

Two Tour de France related projects have now been nominated as Community Projects of the Year.

The idea for the Tour de Tang Hall came after a survey showed local youngsters wanted to be proud of their area. The event plans grew and grew , and soon involved community centres, churches, local police teams, residents associations, and the council ward teams for Heworth and Haxby.

Ward councillor Neil Barnes has put the nomination forward, and said: "On the day itself, I had a permanent smile on my face.

"I was so proud of how all volunteers pulled together for what was an absolutely fantastic event . In the end as many as 400 people enjoyed the day, and cycled around the off road route all over the area."

Meanwhile, a community arts project which involved hundreds of people from the city created a massive painting of York landmarks which was seen by hundreds of thousands of TV viewers.

The Road to York art work saw 300 people - from the very young to people of 90 years old - take part in community painting sessions to create the 320 panels which made up the art work.

The nomination has come from York's Railway Institute, which helped by providing a venue for many of the workshops, and it says artists Karen Winship and Claire Douglas deserve recognition for their hard work coordinating the project.