York Mansion House Easter events

The Mansion House is hosting an programme of chocolate-themed events this Easter as part of the York Chocolate Festival.

York Cocoa House will be on hand to teach a variety of classes suitable for both adults and children, including how to make an Easter chocolate nest; make and decorate your own chocolate Easter egg and a chocolate truffle torte that you can take home and enjoy.

Children can also take part in the Lord Mayor’s Easter Egg Hunt, where they will be given six clues that will lead to places around the city centre, with a chocolate surprise awaiting them at each one.

For adults, the Whisky Shop is holding a chocolate and whisky tasting, where guests can compare flavours and textures to find the ideal combination of the two.

Ever wondered what was in St Helen’s square before the Mansion House? Or what shops used to be in the square? The Mansion House will host ‘The quest for a Mansion, with views fit for a Lord’. The event will see local historian Ivan Martin exploring the background to the establishment of the Mansion House, Guildhall & council chamber and the history of the development of St. Helen’s Square.

There is also the chance to visit the Georgian Mansion House and see the staterooms, before heading to the kitchen to witness the Victorian Cook in full swing creating tasty chocolate treats. The cook will be portrayed by Dr Annie Gray, a food historian, who will explain the Victorian way of cooking and food preparation.

The Lord Mayor of York, Cllr Keith Hyman, said: “York is well known for being a chocolate city, and the Chocolate Festival is one of the highlights of the year. Over at the Mansion House we have a great programme of events with something for everyone to get involved in.”

For more information on tickets, prices and how to book click here

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List of planning applications received by the York Council between 18th – 22nd Mar

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.

Dringhouses and Woodthorpe

• Ref No: 13/00525/FUL Location: 1 The Horseshoe York YO24 1LY Proposal: Two storey rear and single storey side extensions Applicant: Mr & Mrs McGovern Contact Mr Paul Martin Consultation Expiry Date 15 April 2013 Case Officer: Elizabeth Potter Expected Decision Level DEL

• Ref No: 13/00588/TCMAS Location: Telecommunications Mast Adjacent Cycle Track Tadcaster Road Dringhouses York Proposal: Replacement 12 metre high telecommunications monopole base station with a 15 metres high telecommunications mast, and 2no. additional equipment cabinets Applicant: Telefonica Ltd Contact Mr Sebastian Bowe Consultation Expiry Date 15 April 2013 Case Officer: Victoria Bell Expected Decision Level DEL

• Ref No: 13/00617/FUL Location: 36 Ashbourne Way York YO24 2SW Proposal: Erection of porch to front Applicant: Mr And Mrs MacKenzie Contact Mr R Room Consultation Expiry Date 15 April 2013Case Officer: Carolyn Howarth Expected Decision Level DEL

• Ref No: 13/00613/TPO Location: 33 Ashbourne Way York YO24 2SW Proposal: Crown lift over neighbours property and crown thin up to 30% Oak (T1), Tree protected by Tree Preservation Order No 26 Applicant: Mr Pratt Contact Rupert Craven Consultation Expiry Date 15 April 2013 Case Officer: Esther Priestley Expected Decision Level DEL

York: Successful or in decline?

The current council administration inherited a City economy that had been transformed over the previous decade.

Diversification had made the City more resilient to changes in the national economy, unemployment levels were below national and regional levels, the property market was relatively buoyant while dozens of local development sites had been granted planning permission.

2 years later many of the sites with outstanding planning permission have stalled.

Derwenthorpe - One of York's few recent development success stores

Derwenthorpe – One of York’s few recent development success stores

Only developments that had already started in 2011, have been pushed through to a conclusion. These include institutional development linked to an expanding higher education sector as well as some social housing at sites like Derwenthorpe.

In response, the Council appears to have adopted a headless chicken response, despatching ill defined missions to Korea, Paris, Cannes and China in an attempt to be seen to be doing something.

The £25,000 Cannes trip has been reported as producing “leads” to 30 potential investors – but no firm commitments.

You know politicians are getting desperate when they feel that they have to sloganise an initiative. So after “Get York Moving” (the City is still moving at much the same speed it has managed for the last 15 years) we now have “Get York Building”.

The initiative has been greeted with derision by many small builders who were cynically excluded from the talks which led up to its launch, while opposition Councillors have been excluded from the “Board” which has been formed to oversee it.

So where are we with key development sites in the City?

This is a summary.

• Monks Cross South (retail and new Stadium) – Delayed by 6 months (Great Crested Newts) . Unlikely to open before 2015 (retail) and 2016 (stadium)

• Hungate – Developers unable to proceed with stage 2 because of onerous planning conditions

• Germany Beck – In delay due to court action. Unlikely to start until 2014 at earliest.

• Derwenthorpe – Phase 1 completed. No confirmation of when remaining phases will be started.

• York Central – stalled

• Castle – Piccadilly – stalled

• University of York – Heslington East – on schedule

• Terry’s – stalled. Site on market for sale again

• Nestlé South – stalled

• British Sugar – Slow progress. No planning application expected before autumn

House building still falling in York

The Council is obliged to produce an “Annual Monitoring Review” which looks at how it’s performance compares to its targets.

The latest available is for the 2011/12 year. It can be viewed here.

The number of homes completed in the City in each of the last 10 years is as follows

House building, Norfolk

2003 – 669
2004 – 1193
2005 – 949
2006 – 875
2007 – 557
2008 – 502
2009 – 606
2010 – 572
2011 – 354
2012 – 171 (first 6 months excluding specialist student units)

Of the 171 only 29 were classified as “affordable”.

The Cabinet member with responsibility for housing in the City is expected to come under pressure at the Council meeting later this week.

She will have to explain why it looks like the total number of affordable homes provided will be the lowest for at least 6 years.

At the same time the waiting list for homes has reached an all time high.

Planning permissions granted for home construction fell to only 198 in 2011. The Council have declined to forecast what the outturn for the current financial year will be.

Some commentators are forecasting that the number of (unimplemented) planning permissions will fall to an all time record low this year.

As at September 2011 the figure stood at 3120.

Tomorrow we’ll look at which of these permissions are on stalled developments and why.

York Council Customer Centre at West Offices opens tomorrow (Monday)

City of York Council’s brand new purpose-built Customer Centre will open its doors to the public at 10am on Monday 25 March, bringing all customer services together in one place for residents to access. The public entrance is on Toft Green.

Residents will be able to get information, advice and support from a range of services, including:
• Benefits
• Council Tax
• Business and training
• Education and learning
• Environment and waste
• Planning and building control
• Housing
• Parking and concessionary travel

Residents will also be able to talk to advisors from other city services such as Future Prospects, the South Yorkshire Credit Union, with the Citizens Advice Bureau joining the centre in the near future.

west-offices

It is unclear which other public services (health, police etc) will be accessible at the offices. One of the original objectives of the move was to provide a “one stop shop” facility for residents.

The Council’s customer centre opening hours will be 8:30-17:00 from Monday-Friday.

Horses United 1 Dog & Cat Rovers 0

horse dog

Coming soon after the Council announced that it would be scrapping the specialist animal welfare (formerly dog warden) officer patrols, it has decided to appoint a “horse bailiff”.

The move comes after numerous complaints about horses straying onto private land and being the cause of several road traffic accidents.

The Cabinet is set to approve a “protocol” next week

The plan will cost Council tax payers £40,000 a year to implement

York Council will rely on public to report lighting faults

street_lighting_repair_1A York Council report has rather gloriously described Labours approach to the provision of public services.

It says, “The Council is shifting to a commercial generating entrepreneurial business model”.

So now we know!

The comment comes after another “secret” meeting which looked at the options for re-letting the street lighting maintenance contract in the City.

The current contractor is AMEY but their contract expires on 31st March. Why the Council have left consideration of a replacement contactor until 10 days before the existing contract is due to end is anyone’s guess.

But on Thursday the Council decided to take the lighting maintenance contract back “in house”.

One of the reasons quoted was that privatisation had led to the contractor making a “profit”.

Apparently – without a trace of irony and against a backdrop of huge amounts of public service work in the City being outsourced by the Council over the last 2 years -the Cabinet member responsible agreed to de-privatise the lighting maintenance arrangements. He expects the Council to make a £5 “profit” on each £100,000 of turnover!

Worryingly as part of the process the Council will stop routine checking (scouting) for faulty street lighting.

Instead they will rely on members of the public to report faulty lights.

This was tried in the City about 15 years ago but the Council rapidly found that, while some neighbourhoods were very good at reporting faults, in other areas lights were often not working for weeks or months.

Sadly, these days, in some wards, local Councillors fail to undertake routine inspections of public service standards so that safety net is also not available to several communities.

Residents are likely to be less concerned about who manages the lighting maintenance contract, than the delays in repairing cable faults of the type which recently left large parts of the Foxwood estate in darkness.

The other options rejected by the Council were to let a joint maintenance contract with the North Yorkshire Council or simply re-tender on the open market.

New arrangements are expected to be in place in early autumn

York roads crumbling (official) – resurfacing programme decision taken in private – Dringhouses fares badly

A York Council report, discussed yesterday behind closed doors, confirms what most people in the City had already guessed.

Poor weather over winter (and continuing) has taken a heavy toll on the City’s roads and footpaths.

The report says “The severe winter weather condition of recent years including large deposits of snow, extreme low temperatures and the hydraulic pressure of recent flooding has had a detrimental effect on the condition of the highways”.

The deterioration was made worse by the Labour Councils decision to reduced by 1/3 the amount spent on resurfacing during 2012.

This left many road surfaces more vulnerable to the effects of ice.

Highways resurfacing programme click to enlarge

Highways resurfacing programme click to enlarge

With the cuts set to extend into 2013/14, it is perhaps not surprising that the cabinet member now responsible for the shambles (the third shift in responsibility in less than 2 years) has preferred to allocate the remaining budget at a private meeting.

The report also reveals that a “mobile working” IT system – which linked repair gangs to the company reception system – has failed to produce any efficiency savings. It is to be scrapped and replaced with a new one

The Council has also reduced the number of gangs who fill in potholes from 4 to 2, so repair times will increase.

54% of the money being spent repairing York’s roads is now being borrowed. This borrowing will have to be repaid, of course, leaving a legacy of debt for future generations.

A full list of planned road works can be seen by clicking here

Click on the ward list right to see how many – if any – roads or footpaths have been scheduled for repair in your area over the next year.

The Westfield. Dringhouses and Acomb wards have all fared badly in the allocations. Most funding continues to be concentrated in the City centre.

Good idea from Jo Ro Housing in York – Tenancy swap “drop in” today

With the empty bedroom subsidy about to end, it is good to see the Joseph Rowntree Housing Association taking positive steps to encourage residents to move into accommodation of a size that meets their needs.

They are holding a property swap event today (Friday 22 March 2013) between 3pm and 5pm at The Folk Hall, New Earswick. You don’t have to be a Jo Ro tenant to attend. More details here.

This is the kind of initiative that the York Council should be taking (instead of grumbling darkly about an imaginary “bedroom tax”!)

Shame that the event hasn’t been better publicised though. It’s more important than some stories that make the press!

clcik to enlarge

clcik to enlarge