Dringhouses misses out on waste bin emptying again

Today (Monday) the Council is reporting that both grey and green bins haven’t been emptied in parts of York.

Some of the roads listed on the Councils web site as “Micklegate Ward ” are actually in the Dringhouses Ward.

The web site is also a little vague about when the grey bins will actually be collected, although it seems that the green bins in Bishopthorpe will be emptied tomorrow (Tuesday)

Monday 30th September some properties in the following area(s ) did not have their waste collected as scheduled:

Grey Bin: (Micklegate Ward)

◦ Chalfonts

◦ Pulleyn Drive

◦ White House Gardens

◦ White House Rise

◦ White House Drive

◦ White House Dale

◦ St Georges Place

◦ Newington Court

◦ Mount Vale Drive

◦ Towton Avenue

◦ Moorgarth Avenue

Green Bin: (Bishopthorpe)

◦ Copmanthorpe Lane

◦ The Coppice
◦ Kirkwell
◦ New Lane
◦ Temple Road

“Green waste will be collected on Tuesday 1st October, please remember to present your garden waste bins by 7am”.

shop4support York website questioned

Residents accessing a new York web site have questioned the York Councils role in the initiative.

Although available since May, the shop4support site has had little publicity and there is no explanation on the site of the Councils role or the standing of the site.

click to access site

click to access site

It appears to advertise services for disadvantaged people in the City but representatives of some voluntary organisations say they have only just found out about its existence.

It appears that the site is aimed at personal budget holders – residents who have opted to manage their own social care needs from a budget allocated by the local authority. This is a growing number of people in York where the number of direct payment holders has increased from 99 in 2008 to around 300 today. In addition many elderly people also chose now to arrange their own care.

The web page is clearly marked as being a City of York Council supported initiative, but there is no record of the Council having formally discussed its involvement. No Council contact telephone number is advertised on the site. There is no link to the site from the Council’s own web page.

Many of the services offered involve a payment. Although some of the advertisers are voluntary groups, there are others which appear to have a more commercial background.

Elsewhere on the web site, Councils are being offered the chance to get join the network in return for a payment of “from £45,000”.

Questions about the Councils involvement with the web site are likely to be asked at the next Council meeting which is taking place on 10th October.

Social care costs in York click to enlarge

Social care costs in York click to enlarge

Only 53 new “affordable rent” properties in pipeline for York

The Council have admitted that only 53 new properties with “affordable rents” are likely to be constructed in the City during the next 3 years.

Of these, 35 are currently under construction

YMCA building site

YMCA building site

They are located at
• YWCA site, currently under construction: 23
• Elvington rural exception site, currently under construction: 12
• White Swan, to be started 2013-4, 18.

These will be the first affordable rent homes constructed since 2010.

This compares to the (cheaper) “social housing” rent programme which has seen 297 properties completed since 2010.

This total includes the additional Council houses which were given the go ahead by the last LibDem Council administration.

NB. The Council have been criticised for not publishing its Annual Monitor Report. Some data on the Council web site is now nearly 2 years out of date. Particular interest focuses around the progress being made by the Council in providing “affordable” homes against its targets. The lack of progress is likely to be raised at the Council meeting which is taking place on 10th October

Jobs fair at Barbican tomorrow

Jobseekers and residents wanting to improve their skills and qualifications are being encouraged to visit a jobs fair at the Barbican, Paragon St, York on 1 October from 10am to 3pm.

The event, which has been organised through partnerships between the council, Learning City York, Job Centre Plus and York Learning aims to bring together local employers and will offer advice as well as employment opportunities.

There will be several employers present along with learning providers and other agencies offering free help and advice for people to improve their skills and help them in their search for employment.

The council and its partners have lined up over 50 businesses, with many currently recruiting, including Royal York Hotel, Wilf Ward and Marks and Spencer. The 300-400 opportunities that will soon be available at the new John Lewis store at Monks Cross will also be featured at the event.

The fair will have a designated quiet area to enable residents to fill in application forms with the help of some excellent local skills and training providers.

York Local Plan – Save the green belt campaigners get another boost

The Council are now saying that they hope to have read all the representations made by residents about the draft Local Plan by the end of October.

How long it will be, before meetings start to take place at which residents will have the chance to challenge Labour’s Plan assumptions, is anyone’s guess.

Residents protest against Local Plan

Residents protest against Local Plan

However the Plan’s assumptions about the number of homes that could be built on brownfield sites continue to be eroded.

The latest planning application – for the Brecks Lane site at Strensall – is for 104 homes. That compares to an assumed capacity for the site, listed in the draft Local Plan, of 82.

Last week we learned that the British Sugar site will accommodate 1300 homes. The Local Plan forecast only 998.

In addition, around 20 planning applications for new homes have been submitted to the Council over the last 4 months, for sites where either zero residential units had been assumed in the Local Plan or where the number now planned is over 20% higher than the Local Plan estimate.

These include proposals for The Press office building in Walmgate, the Burnholme Club site and Our Lady’s school on Windsor Garth.

They do not include new “windfall” sites like the Bonding Warehouse, Ashbourne House, the Yearsley Pub not to mention Oliver House where we now understand that negotiations about the buildings future have recommenced (some 18 months after it became empty).

It is now clear that there is sufficient brownfield (previously developed) land to satisfy York’s reasonable housing needs for the foreseeable future.

What is clear now is that Labours Local Plan has already been discredited. They will have to re-write large sections of it.

The sooner that they start the better.