Trading Standards chase Council Tax con men

The Local Trading Standards team is putting its weight behind a national campaign to tackle rogue traders and help protect local consumers from being ripped off with new cold calling zones being researched across the city this week.

Operation Rogue Trader week runs from Monday 22 to Friday 26 April during whichthe council’s Trading Standards teamas part of its ongoing work is visiting traders advising on customers’ cancellation rights and legislation on branding and quality. It’s also been visiting consumers to advise them on their rights when entering into contracts at home following visits by door-to-door sellers.

The council’s team of consumer rights experts has also begun investigations into breaches of consumer protection legislation which involves a trader falsely claiming to be a member of a trader’s association, and has conducted a formal interview of one trader alleged to be carrying out unnecessary roof repairs.

Yorkshire and the Humber Trading Standards Group – known as the Scambusters team based at City of York Council – has started legal proceedings against five individuals for a total 13 offences involved in a council tax rebate scam.

This involves cold calling local York residents offering to challenge their council tax banding, lower their payments and recoup past overpayments. Following a £175 payment upfront, submissions are rarely made to the council tax office and when they are, their quality is so poor they are frequently rejected. The charges being levied include conspiracy to defraud, money laundering, blackmail and acting as a director when banned from holding the post.

Trading Standards team members will also be attending the council’s Crime Summit and will be offering residents advice from a stall at the day-long city centre Community Safety Market on Thursday 25 April.

York and North Yorkshire Police officer recruiting

The Police have issued the following statement.

Police

“Being the largest single county force in England, we are dedicated to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour that affects our communities.

We are now looking for talented individuals who have the personal resilience and commitment to provide a professional and visible response that protects those who are vulnerable, ensures that the issues that matter to our communities are being addressed, and that our communities are safe and feel safe.

If that sounds like you, then what are you waiting for? If you believe you meet the eligibility criteria and can commit to the extensive recruitment and training programme, then apply now for this exciting and rewarding opportunity!”

Dringhouses/Woodthorpe 20 mph speed limit – new map finally published

The Council have finally published a new map indicating where they hope to introduce the new 20 mph speed limit.

It can be accessed by clicking here

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

The “new” proposals show little change from those originally published.

Once again the Council has failed to justify the £600,000 cost of introducing a City wide 20 mph limit.

Plans are also now available for:

Copmanthorpe

Bishopthorpe

A public meeting, which includes an item on the 20 mph limit, will take place at Dringhouses Primary School on Thursday, May 2. The meeting starts at 7:30pm

List of Dringhouses planning applications received by the York Council between 15th – 19th April 2013

Below is the latest list of planning applications received by the York Council. Full details can be found by quoting the application reference on the “planning portal” web site. Click here.

Representations can be made in favour of, or in objection to, any application via the Planning on line web site.

NB. The Council now no longer routinely consults neighbours by letter when an application is received.

24 The Horseshoe York YO24 1LX Ref No: 13/00835/FUL Proposal: Loft conversion with dormer to rear Applicant: Mr Tim Thompson Contact Mr Thomas Gray Consultation Expiry Date 13 May 2013 Case Officer: Carolyn Howarth Expected Decision Level DEL

169 speeders caught on camera in York in one week

The Police have published a list of the numbers of motorists caught exceeding the speed limit during the second week in April.

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

In total 169 cases were recorded in York by the police mobile camera van.

Of these 151 were dealt with by the offer of a speed awareness course, a further 16 attracted an “on the spot” £60 fine plus 3 penalty points while 2 offenders, who were driving well over the speed limit, face a court appearance.

The roads with the poorest records were:

• York Road, Haxby

• Beckfield Lane

• Greenshaw Drive, Haxby

• Main Street, Askham Richard

• Temple Lane Copmanthorpe

In total 1458 speeding violations were recorded across York and North Yorkshire during the week.

The data can be downloaded by clicking here

Dunnington, Malton Road, Osbaldwick, Acomb caravan sites revealed

Following our earlier story, the Council have now provided (slightly) more detailed maps of where they are looking to provide more Gypsy caravan pitches as well as the proposed layover site for show people (e.g. fairground equipment).

The sites are shown hatched on the plans below. The Council are keen to point out that not all the land will necessarily be used for this purpose.

Showman's site Wetherby Road Knapton

Showman’s site Wetherby Road Knapton

Malton Road click to enlarge

Malton Road click to enlarge

Metcalf Lane Obsbaldwick click to enlarge

Metcalf Lane Obsbaldwick click to enlarge

Dunnington click to enlarge

Dunnington click to enlarge

20 mph speed limit – Now Council promise every household will be consulted!

20 mph .

Having argued against even having a public meeting to discuss their controversial plan to impose a 20 mph speed limit on roads in west York (and later the rest of the City), the Labour Council have now issued a media release which says

“To view proposals of how 20mph might best be implemented in the West of York as well as Bishopthorpe, Copmanthorpe and Bishophill, please visit http://www.york20mph.org/

In addition to this, plans will also be available at York Explore Library Learning Centre, local libraries in the West of York, and Energise sports centre.

Council staff will also be on hand to speak to residents at Acomb Front Street throughout April/May.

Following these events a letter will be sent to all households on the affected streets with a local plan of proposals and an explanation on how to make formal representations to the council.

The signed-only 20mph speed limits are designed to be largely self-enforcing and aim to support, strengthen and work alongside the many existing traffic calmed 20mph zones that are already in place in many residential streets and around schools in the West of the city.

Following consideration of resident’s representations their comments will be fed back to a decision session for consideration before the introduction of the proposed 20mph limits. The planned introduction is set to be in place in spring/summer 2013 and will ensure that the majority of residential roads and neighbourhoods will have a lower speed limit to help reduce speeds where people live”.

Only problem is that anyone accessing http://www.york20mph.org/ will find only the usual array of juvenile artwork and shallow arguments. Still no sign of the revised detailed proposals promised months ago.

We continue to believe that every household in West York should be consulted. Excluding those living in existing 20 mph zones – as well as the small numbers living on streets which will retain a 30 mph limit – would potentially bias the results of any survey.

A public meeting, which includes an item on the 20 mph limit, will take place at Dringhouses Primary School on Thursday, May 2. The meeting starts at 7:30pm