BBC Radio York Features

There were renewed calls on Monday for parking charges at hospitals in North Yorkshire to be scrapped. Macmillan Cancer Support said it's time English hospitals followed Scotland and Wales, who ditched charges at most hospitals last week. Here in North Yorkshire parking can cost as much as £1.50 an hour. Richard White investigated for Adam Tomlinson's Breakfast Show.

It may be a bit of a cliché but it seems these days we really are what we eat. Actress and Singer Claire Sweeney is slender and super fit. On Tuesday, a TV documentary showed what happens when she relaxed all of her long held rules and threw self control to the wind. Over a six week period, Claire gave up her usual healthy eating and regular fitness regime for a much more relaxed approach to food. Clare spoke to Anna Wallace about the whole experience...

After months of upheaval, today has marked the start of a new chapter in the life of York's newest secondary school. In October a serious fire devastated York High School's temporary site on Dijon Avenue. Students were being taught there because of building work at its 'real' home on Cornlands Road. That work is now finished and today the first classes were held at the new site. Dougie Weake was taken on a guided tour...

Keen 'pip fans' will have noticed that there was an extra pip at midnight and a whole extra second was added to 2008. But Why? David Rooney, Curator of Timekeeping at Greenwich Observatory explained all to Jerry Scott...

The festivities are over - and for many commuters this January it will be back down to earth with a bump because 2009 brings more expensive rail travel! The average rise for most commuter fares is 6 percent, but the increase for leisure fares varies. Adam Tomlinson spoke to Ashwin Kumar, the head of Passenger Focus, and asked him for his reaction to the increases...

What's this Russell has discovered in the bottom of his bag, A collectors item, possibly worth a fortune? The missing episode of Bedale... The wedding!

With Christmas and New Year celebrations over, the decorations are being packed away for another year. But, Amnesty International is urging us not to put unused Christmas cards back into the drawer for next year.  They say these cards can be the difference between a prisoner of conscience suffering torture or even being released. Julia Booth spoke to Niall Couper from Amensty International and he told the story of one particular man from Indonesia, and how the cards helped him...