Say goodbye to 2002

July

After an horrific spate of fatal accidents involving motorcyclists, the Evening Press brought out a special edition. The front page headline Too Many Tragedies, surrounded by crosses, highlighted the fact that 15 people had died in the accidents in the first half of the year, and examined ways to reduce the carnage. Later the emergency services held an unprecedented joint press conference on the same issue.

Lack of police resources, drugs and new ways to gather statistics were blamed for a shock 38 per cent jump in reported crime in York.

A strike by council workers over pay closed car parks, swimming pools, libraries and public toilets. York council's policy to freeze the number of car parking spaces in the city caused controversy.

A woman died in a tent in a car park off Leeman Road, York, near the National Railway Museum.

York City chairman John Batchelor said he wanted to build a new stadium at Clifton Moor - and was extremely rude about council planning officers.

A six-year-old York girl conceived with donor sperm won an historic High Court ruling allowing her to discover more about her biological father.

Oscar-winner Dame Judi Dench spoke of her pride at being made an Honorary Freeman of York.

A group of Russian schoolchildren were among 69 people killed after a passenger jet and a Boeing cargo plane collided over southern Germany.

The 17th Commonwealth Games were opened by the Queen in Manchester. And Dr Rowan Williams was the controversial choice to become the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury.

AUGUST

The nation was focused on the hunt for two ten-year-old girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, missing from their homes in Soham, Cambridgeshire. Their bodies were found and two people charged in connection with the murders.

The first clinic to offer single injections of vaccines against measles, mumps and rubella in York was inundated with inquiries from parents.

The body of Leeds man Nicolas Lightowler was pulled from the River Ouse. Police had been searching for him after the boat he was sailing was found empty near Nether Poppleton.

After two adjournments, two different, venues, nine weeks and £250,000 of public expenditure, the Coppergate Inquiry closed.

Anger met the decision to give jailed child kidnapper and paedophile Russell Bishop a heart operation in York District Hospital.

A cross between a lion and a pussycat was how North Yorkshire's new Chief Constable Della Cannings described herself. She is the first woman to hold the post.

Local bands were shocked when leading York live music venue Fibbers closed. It reopened under new owners.

Former England footballer Emlyn Hughes was banned from driving after being caught over the limit leaving York races.

In a brilliant publicity stunt, pro-hunt campaigners added a 160ft-high huntsman to the ancient White Horse carved at Kilburn.

Tony and Cherie Blair arrived in France for the start of their foreign holiday two days after she suffered a miscarriage.

A court ruling found Carlton and Granada were not liable for any of the £178.5 million debts owed to the Football League from the collapse of ITV Digital.

SEPTEMBER

On the first anniversary of the terrorist atrocities in New York and Washington, the world remembered.

It was a difficult time for several local institutions. York's leading policeman John Lacy apologised to citizens who wanted to see more bobbies on the beat, but said the force was diverting more of its limited resources to the fight against drug crime.

York hospital managers said they were 100 beds short of the number needed to meet demand. And Church commissioners recommended that several ancient York churches be closed.

Parents were outraged by Evening Press revelations that the Southview probation hostel could now house serious offenders such as paedophiles and murderers.

Selby 13-year-old Kayleigh Wadsworth came home 36 hours after she went missing, sparking a big police search.

The earth moved for North Yorkshire residents as a quake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale struck England.

The Wasps had buzzed off, so all hail the Knights: the nation's newest rugby team was named the York City Knights.

Garry "Stretch" Turner broke his own Guinness World Record for attaching the most wooden clothes pegs to his face in a shop in Coney Street, York.

A coroner's inquest recorded an open verdict on the death of a man found floating in television entertainer Michael Barrymore's swimming pool.

Hundreds of thousands of people marched on London - the first rally was to protest about rural rights, the second a demonstration against plans to wage war with Iraq.

Exams watchdog Sir William Stubbs was sacked by Education Secretary Estelle Morris after an inquiry into an alleged A-level downgrading conspiracy.

Britain was astonished to learn that the grey man had a colourful past. Former Prime Minister John Major had had a four-year love affair with colleague Edwina Currie while in office, she revealed.

oCTOBER

A bomb explosion in Bali, Indonesia which claimed more than 180 lives, including those of 17 Britons, was identified as the work of Islamic extremists.

Two teachers at Bootham School won £6,600 each, and three others won smaller amounts, after placing bets that Howard Wilkinson would be named as the new manager of Sunderland FC. The bets appeared to go against the Quaker ethos of the school, which was attended by the daughter of Sunderland chairman Bob Murray.

Classmates paid tribute to York schoolboy David Harry, 15, who died of a heart attack in his bed.

The ruling Labour group announced it was to renege on its hugely ambitious election pledge to put a computer in the home of every York primary school pupil.

As protests against RAF Fylingdales' possible use in the US missile defence system continued, the base was causing other problems. Fylingdales' radars were activating some car immobilisers.

It emerged that Persimmon Homes, would-be developer of Bootham Crescent, had acquired a ten per cent stake in the company which owns the ground.

Operation Ratcatcher was launched by York police, to encourage the public to tip them off about criminals.

Profitable York pub the Starting Gate would close, the owners said. It was even more profitable to sell it for housing.

Only about one third of the tickets were sold for a stadium dance party in Huntington.

Tony Blair suspended the Northern Ireland power sharing executive after a Sinn Fein official was arrested in connection with IRA spying on Government ministers in Belfast.

Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith told the party conference not to underestimate the "determination of the quiet man".

Education Secretary Estelle Morris resigned from office, citing an admission of failure in her post.

Revelations in Ulrika Jonsson's autobiography caused a media frenzy in an attempt to identify the television presenter at the centre of her rape accusations. A slip-up on live TV saw John Leslie named as the alleged attacker.

The pursuit of a serial sniper, responsible for 13 killings, in Washington DC resulted in the arrests of two men.

Armed Chechen rebels took 600 hostages at a Moscow theatre. The siege ended when Russian troops overpowered the captors using a debilitating nerve gas, killing many hostages in the process.

NOVEMBER

Former royal butler Paul Burrell publicly celebrated the collapse of his theft trial, after the Queen's late intervention. The Royal household erupted in fresh controversy as a former servant accused a key aide to the Prince of Wales of raping him. The palace responded by announcing an internal inquiry.

Firefighters went on two strikes, the first for 48 hours, the second for eight days, in pursuit of a 40 per cent pay increase. Green Goddesses manned by soldiers were on the streets for the first time in 25 years.

After charges of blackmail against him were dropped, former York council leader Rod Hills accused colleagues in the Labour Party of abandoning him.

Elsewhere in the courts, three people were jailed for their part in the killing of Mick Brolly on a York city centre street. Jeffrey Parvin, a former pub landlord extradited from Canada on theft charges, appeared before the York bench. And planespotter Andy Jenkins' appeal against his conviction for spying was successful in Greece.

Unfortunately, as a Thrall worker, he came home to bad news. The company, lured to York with a hefty state subsidy, began making staff redundant at the doomed Holgate Road factory.

DECEMBER

After 829 days, deaf charity worker Ian Stillman was released from an Indian jail on health grounds. He flew home to see his York-based parents vowing to clear his name.

York City were given 35 days to find a buyer or face being declared bankrupt. Meanwhile, the tiny Harrogate Railway FC enjoyed the biggest day in their history, taking on Bristol City in the FA Cup. They lost the match, screened live, 3-1.

Eleven-year-old Katie Scales was badly hurt after being knocked down by a hit-and-run driver who went through a red light in Blossom Street, York. She was home in time for Christmas, and Evening Press readers raised enough money to buy her a computer.

Villagers from Crambeck were evacuated after a cloud of explosive propane gas leaked from a storage tank.

Nestl bosses were branded Scrooges after scrapping a £10 Christmas gift to Rowntree's pensioners. Two more charges against Rod Hills were dropped.

Mark Williams won the PowerHouse UK Championship at York Barbican Centre - then York District Sports Council suggested selling off the Barbican site and replacing it with several "mini-centres of excellence".

Downing Street was embroiled in a row over Cherie Blair's involvement with convicted fraudster Peter Foster in the purchase of two flats in Bristol. One of them was for her son Euan while at university there.

Thousands of students marched through London to protest at proposals to charge top up fees.

And the Government declared it didn't want the England cricket team to go to Zimbabwe, but said the decision was ultimately up to the sport's governing body.

Updated: 13:00 Tuesday, December 31, 2002