A YORK cinema has joined forces with the city’s cyclists to provide better facilities for bikes.

Bosses at the City Screen have replaced broken railings and paving stones outside the Coney Street picturehouse, while two sets of cycle racks have been installed on a raised area in front of the cinema and opposite the nearby St Martin-le-Grand Church by Cycling City York.

The secure racks boast space for up to 20 bikes and will be in full view of the cinema’s CCTV cameras – and the cinema is marking their introduction with a special showing of the 1948 Vittorio De Sica film The Bicycle Thieves next Tuesday at 6.15pm as part of its Crunchtime 2010 programme.

That event will also see North Yorkshire Police outside the cinema from 4.30pm offering people the chance to have their cycles security marked and registered before they watch the film as part of cycle theft crackdown Operation Spoke.

“It’s great to see the various partnership organisations which make up Cycling City York working together to provide secure cycle parking for shoppers and cinema-goers in the city centre,” said City Screen general manager Tony Clarke.

“We’ve been keen to improve cycling parking for our customers for some time – the bicycle thieves on the cinema screen are the only ones we want to see around here!”

More information about protecting your bike from theft, as well as about forthcoming cycle-tagging sessions, can be found by logging on to yorkagainstcycletheft.co.uk or york.gov.uk/cycling, while tickets for The Bicycle Thieves can be bought at the City Screen kiosk, by phoning 0871 704 2054, or at picturehouses.co.uk/york