One aspect of the Councils announcement – that it hoped to see an additional 22,000 homes constructed in the City during the next 15 years – which raised concerns was the effect that such growth would have on transport.

We have been fortunate that traffic levels have been stable in the City for the last 5 years.

Modest improvements to some of the A1237 roundabouts have eased congestion while the Council has invested to encourage people to use buses and cycles when ever possible.

Many of these policies are to be continued in the new plan, but hopes that congestion will ease have been crushed as the Council now admits that growth in traffic of around 2.5% per annum can be expected as a result of the building boom.

It goes on to say that this will mean a substantial increase in congestion levels on most major roads in the urban area.

Dualling of part of the northern by pass (Wetherby Road to Haxby Road) will not start for at least 10 years. It pointedly fails to identify how the £200 million bill for such an upgrade would be funded.

Labours strategy seems to be to reduce still further car parking provision in the City Centre, introduce more road closures and even introduce parking charges at out of City centre retail centres.

Their intention is to force cars off the roads of York.

All in all to looks like a profoundly inadequate approach to catering for a 25% increase in the City’s size.

Good to report that the Council is doing something that might get residents approval.

They say that they “will be joining forces with York and North Yorkshire Probation Trust’s Community Payback team and local residents next month to carry out a city wide spring clean of York.
The council will be working with offenders performing Community Payback, who will be undertaking several ‘spring clean’ tasks throughout the month, such as painting over graffiti, fixing broken fencing, picking litter and clearing overgrown areas.

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City of York Council will be carrying out essential road resurfacing works on Mill Lane, Acaster Malbis throughout the week of 22 April.

The work will start on Monday 22 April and will last up to a week, with work taking place between the hours of 8am-5pm Monday-Friday.

In order to carry out these works safely a temporary road closure of Mill Lane will be necessary whilst works are taking place.

With improved weather on the cards for this weekend, police are advising residents to secure their property while enjoying the outdoors.

Warmer weather means more people will be out in the garden and are likely to risk leaving doors, windows and outbuildings open.

Sneak-in burglaries increase during the spring and summer months and police are urging residents to keep opportunist thieves at bay by remembering to lock doors and windows at all times.

For detailed crime prevention advice, including a security self assessment, click here

You can also download here the Polices free “Securing your home iBook” for lots more advice or their free mobile phone “app” by clicking here

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One surprise in the recently published Local Plan is that no site has been identified for the erection of a swimming pool in the City centre.

Section 13 of the plan pointedly fails to identify a site for such a facility.

Previously Labour had been strident in their support for a City centre pool
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Now the document acknowledges that “The strategy (document) shows only minor shortages in provision of sports hall and artificial grass pitches and a sufficiency of swimming pool space”.

During the course of the last LibDem led administration there was a large growth in indoor sports provision in the City culminating in the building of the sports village near the University.

In 2009, after it had been agreed to provide a new pool at Hull Road, The Press reported that Labour wanted to build another pool in the Hungate area.

That has now quietly been forgotten.

More details are emerging of the sites that Labour want to allocate for house building over the next 15 years.

Maps of the allocated building sites in some wards are published below. Areas shaded in yellow or orange are those under threat

Local Ward councillors should have maps available for their areas if concerned residents have any questions.

The working group meeting to discuss the plans is taking place tomorrow evening Monday 22nd April at West Offices commencing at 5:00pm.

A copy of the agenda and supporting papers can be viewed by clicking here

Police are appealing for help to find a missing York man who failed to turn up at work yesterday (20 April 2013)

56-year-old William Notley, also known as Bill or Billy, from Copmanthorpe, was last seen by his wife just after 8am on Saturday (20 April 2013) as he left for work in Tockwith driving a blue ’02’ registered Vauxhall Vectra.

The alarm was raised after his employer called his family to say he had not turned up for work.

More details click here

With the fine weather set to continue throughout the weekend, North Yorkshire Police are reminding vehicle owners about security when visiting beauty spots.

Thefts from vehicles can take a matter of seconds, with thieves smashing a window and grabbing items left on display. Opportunist thieves look for easy targets which will minimise their chances of getting caught.

Inspector Neil Northend, of the Hambleton and Richmondshire Safer Neighbourhood Command, said: “When you are leaving your vehicle in a local beauty spot, I am asking you to take a few moments to make sure that it is as secure as possible.

“Check that you’ve locked the doors and there isn’t anything of value on view, even clothing.

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The responsible Labour “Cabinet” member has refused to take action to deal with anti social behaviour problems on snickets leading from Ashbourne Way.

The minutes of a decision meeting have now been published on the Councils web site.

We covered the story here when concerns about anti social behaviour led to a petition being presented to the Council.

Residents asked for the night time closure of the snickets.

Labours already unpopular plan to expand the City’s size by 25% over the next 15 years is attracting more and more criticism

The Council has for many years targeted a growth in jobs of around 1000 per year. There are currently 3053 unemployed people in York. That is 2.3% of the population. There will always be some unemployed as people seek to change jobs or who find that they do not have the skills to match the vacancies available.

So there are relatively few in York who are seeking work compared to the rest of Yorkshire where 4.9% are unemployed.

The job growth figures are, however, not being achieved by the current Council.

According to the latest census data the City’s population grew, on average, by 1% pa during the last decade. That was a time of economic prosperity. The growth did include some students who do need one housing unit per person (new build) . However, that growth cannot go on for ever.

A growth of 1% pa implies a need to provide about 400 additional homes each year assuming an occupancy rate of 2 persons per property. (In York we have around 2.3 people per property on average).

There is some catching up to do to deal with overcrowding/aspirations etc so 600 pa was a reasonable target. That was the figure supported by the then Liberal Democrat led Council in February 2011 when York’s Local Plan was first unveiled.

The plan restricted development to sites which already had planning permission plus those on brownfield (previously developed) sites.

Although there is enough land with planning permission to build over 3000 new homes, last year only around 300 were actually delivered.

In June 2011, following a local election victory, Labour amended the draft Local Plan. They upped the land supply to 800 units per year although they didn’t identify where the additional homes would be built.

Labour voted in June 2011 in favour of confirming the current (draft) green belt boundaries.

Now it seems that Labour plan to produce more additional homes than new jobs

With around 4000 York residents on the housing waiting list, it is unclear why Labour want to build 22,000?

Most would be on greenfield sites.

They are clearly assuming that many of the new jobs will be filled by inward migrants from other parts of the country.

Labour’s plans are reckless and won’t be delivered. But they will cast blight across parts of the City for a decade or more

To see how the Council’s plans have changed over the last 2 years click here:
February 2011

June 2011

April 2013