3 planning applications affecting Dringhouses area have recently been received by the Council. They are:

• Erection of brick wall and fence to rear boundary, Aintree Court York YO24 1EW Ref No: 12/02501/FUL

• Display of 6 no non illuminated entrance and directional signs Tesco Supermarket Askham Bar Tadcaster Road Dringhouses York Ref No: 12/02549/ADV

• Variation of condition 2 of approved application 07/00752/REMM to alter car parking layout for the Phase 1 apartments to provide 5 additional spaces Masters Mews College Court Dringhouses York Ref No: 12/02654/FULM

Details of all planning applications can be viewed on the following web site. http://planningaccess.york.gov.uk/online-applications/

Elsewhere, an application for the Locomotive Inn site in Watson Street (12/02647/FUL) may be a sign of the times. The developers are asking for the removal of a condition requiring the new homes, to be built on the site, to comply with Level 3 of the code for Sustainable Homes. Level 3 is a relatively low set of parameters covering energy and water use as well as the provision of adequate waste storage facilities, surface water drainage provision etc. It would be a shame if a lack of legal backing resulted in new homes being compromised on standards like these. Copies of the code can be found here: http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/code_for_sust_homes.pdf

“York Rural West Villages are being targeted for 2 in 1 Burglaries where thieves break into your home, take your keys and steal your car.

Please lock your car, secure your home and hide your keys”.

Elsewhere the CCTV camera coverage in Wains Grove will continue for a further year. The tenants association have agreed to sponsor the camera subscription. It’s future had been under threat following the budget cuts introduced by the Labour Council.

There were 237 children in local authority care of City of York Council of whom 180 were placed with foster carers on 31 March 2012.

Of the 237 children in care on that date, 22 children have returned to live with their birth families.

click to enlarge - latest anti social behaviour figures

Last year there were 12,550 complaints about anti social behaviour in York. Although the numbers are slightly down this year, it remains the single greatest cause of concern for many York residents.
It is surprising therefore that, according to the latest published figures, the York Council has not applied for any Anti –Social Behaviour Orders since 2008.

We understand that the police have sought some CRASBOs (see below for definition), while the use of Acceptable Behaviour Contracts (ABC’s) has also we understand reduced.

Having controversially appointed an additional “Cabinet” member, at a cost of around £15.000 a year, to supervise crime fighting in York, it seems surprising that we have seen no reports on the use of options like these to ease public concerns about anti social behaviour in the City.
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In response to a freedom of information request the Council has revealed that the value of its property portfolio totals £591,959,577 or about £7000 for each York Council taxpayer.

The value of property currently not in use –and in most cases awaiting disposal – is £9.1m.

Of the £592m about £260m represents the value of the Council Housing stock.

The 10 highest value Council houses range from £250,000 to £400,000. They are currently let at a rental of between £93 and £114 a week.

Full marks to First York who responded within an hour to our complaints about reliability on the number 4 bus route. A senior manager readily accepted that improvements had to be made.

He suggested, though, that these might not take effect until the autumn.

The idea of appointing conductors – to reduce boarding, and hence journey, times – was rejected on cost grounds. First do, however, want to introduce cashless ticketing as quickly as possible. (Hopefully it will be a more reliable system than the pensioners pass card readers which are currently in use).

The Council are keen to deal with complaints about overhanging trees interfering with the double deckers currently used on the route. We’ve mentioned Foxwood Lane and Tadcaster Road. Please let us know about any other problem locations.

First also say, that the buses which are painted all over with advertising, form part of a national contract. It will be some time before this can be renegotiated.

The key for us though is to see more proactive management of the service. First have confirmed that the vehicles are tracked by GPS so there is no reason why there should be the kind of bunching that we saw earlier in the week (see http://youtu.be/-myCQ-BiOwQ)

A new Area Service Delivery Manager responsible for York and Doncaster has recently been recruited by First.

We believe that improvements can be achieved by returning to a single deck style vehicle. We accept that the design will be different from that of the ftr.

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City of York Council is offering businesses in the city the chance to have a free consultation on making their working environments as healthy as possible.

York Well at Work is a new scheme being run by the council’s Sport and Active Leisure team and they’re looking for businesses to take part in their pilot programme.

As part of the free health consultation the team will offer advice on how companies can improve their work environment for staff and help set up wellbeing initiatives such as staff running groups and mental health workshops. (more…)

11 extreme speeders are facing up to the consequences of their foolhardy and dangerous actions after being handed a total of £3,745 in fines and costs and banned from driving for a combined total of 174 days.

13 drivers and riders were summonsed to appear at Selby Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 16 August 2012 after being caught by North Yorkshire Police’s mobile safety camera at speeds ranging from 72mph in a 40mph zone to 132mph in a 70mph zone. (more…)

Provisional results for York school sixth forms show that 28% of entries were awarded an A*/A grades, which maintain the very high standards of previous years and are again higher than the national figure.

Over 78% of entries were given a top grade of A*, A, B or C.

The demise of the ftr – although welcomed by some – has proved to be bad news for the Number 4 bus service. The old style double deckers, pushed into use on the service, have proved to be unsuitable for what is the busiest route in the City.

Gone is the air conditioning while space for wheelchairs and pushchairs is often cronically inadequate.

Some advertising paint jobs (such as “Chocolate York”) completely obscure the vehicles. So if a bus painted like this leapfrogs a stop, waiting passengers can only guess whether there were any empty seats.

The higher double deckers bang against overhanging tree branches frightening children and prompting fears that windows will shatter.

But it is reliability that has suffered most. All too frequently these days two number 4’s will follow within a few yards of each other. This effectively reduces what should be a 10 minute frequency service to a 20 minute one.

On Thursday this week buses had been running in tandem all day. A check on reliability at teatime revealed only 1 bus ran from Foxwood to Acomb between 4:10pm and 5:25pm (there should have been 7).

Then something large came into sight (for what happened next see the video at http://youtu.be/-myCQ-BiOwQ).

One passenger reported that it had taken 90 minutes to get from the University to Foxwood. (It should have taken 45 minutes maximum)

The cause is easy to see. The ftr had a conductor (host) who took fares when the vehicle was between stops. Now, in common with most other York services, the driver takes the fares. At a busy bus stop – and the are many on the number 4 route – this can take around 3 minutes. Inevitably the bus behind will catch up and run in tandem at least until the next timing point.

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