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Spring clean starts tomorrow (25th March) in Nelsons Lane
The Minster TODAY
The second episode of The Minster is being shown today (Sunday) on BBC One at the slightly earlier time of 4:15pm
It will also be available from early evening on on BBC iPlayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/tv/bbc_one
Spring clean this week in Dringhouses and Woodthorpe
Throughout the first week of the spring volunteers have helped to tidy Clifton and Rawcliffe.
During week two (24-30 March) of the spring clean will be focused on the Dringhouses and Woodthorpe ward plus the Foxwood park.
Litter in hedgerow Acomb Wood Meadow
The first task of the week will take place on Tuesday from 10am-12noon when a team from The Chase Residents’ Association will be painting play equipment in Nelsons Lane Play area.
On Wednesday from 10am–12:30pm a team from Bootham School will be planting wildflower bulbs and trimming the hedges within the Chapman’s Pond site.
They will then move to Foxwood Park to plant bulbs and tidy up the hedge between 2:15pm -4:30pm.
Thursday will see Friends of Acomb Wood planting trees and litter picking within Acomb Wood. Volunteers who would like to help are asked to meet at 2pm at the Acomb Wood Drive/Quaker Wood Pub entrance.
Plea to plant yellow flowers in York prior to July cycle race
Residents of York, famed for its cycling culture and yellow blaze of daffodils on the city walls, are being invited to get growing and help welcome the Tour de France on 6 July by Planting the City Yellow.
Anyone who wants to get gardening and brighten the city can dig in as part of the city’s arts and cultural festival called York: Be part of it.
Thanks to local sponsor Aldby Field Nurseries, 1,500 packs of French marigold seeds, compost, a seed tray and instructions will be available free to residents keen to start sowing.
York Local Plan – confusion increases
No sooner had the agenda for York’s Council meeting – to be held next Thursday – been published, than meetings to discuss the Local Plan have appeared in the Council’s diary of events.
The Council agenda had included several questions critical of the delays, and lack of clear milestones, in the preparation of the Local Plan
Yesterday we reported that the Forward Programme of decisions – a legal requirement for all major issues – did not include any reference to an update of the Local Plan.
Residents protest against Local Plan
So far, residents have not even had an opportunity to speak out about Labours plan – announced a year ago – to increase the size of the City.
Now a mysterious “special” meeting of the Councils “Cabinet” has been scheduled for Wednesday 23rd April. The Councils web site has been amended today to say that;
“During the consultation additional information on sites was submitted by landowners and developers. Before making any final decision on sites to be included in the Local Plan, the Council would like to understand the public views on this additional information. Reports relating to this will be considered at the Local Plan Working Group and a special cabinet in late April and this will be followed by public consultation”.
Whether landowner’s comments will do anything to reassure residents about the Councils expansion plans remains to be seen.
The Council has still not published the 4000+ objections made by residents to the original plan.
Any new information is due to be considered by the (all party) “Local Plan Working Group”, a meeting of which has now been scheduled for Tuesday 22nd April. As this is the day before the Cabinet meeting, it is unlikely that the working groups views – much less any views expressed by residents – would be reported to a meeting which is taking place the next day.
Legally the Cabinet cannot take any decisions on “key” matters – like the Local Plan – without giving 4 months notice in their Forward Programme.
They have still not published a timetable of milestone dates which will lead up to the inevitable Public Inquiry into their plans, which is now unlikely to take place before next year.
Tacaster Road Tesco assault?
The media are reporting that Police are investigating an alleged assault near the Tesco store on Tadcaster Road.
The incident is believed to have occurred yesterday evening.
Eden Project to discuss neighbourhood plans in York
The Eden Project is setting up camp in York this week to provide a series of sessions for communities that are involved in writing neighbourhood plans for their areas.
Neighbourhood plans are designed to guide new development andgive local communities powers to create their own plans and policies, and are being introduced nationally following new government rules with grants and support provided by Locality and partners RTPI, CDF, The Eden Project and others.
80% of fines from Lendal Bridge restrictions paid by visitors
A freedom of information response from the York Council has revealed that the vast majority of fines issued to drivers using Lendal Bridge are to vehicles registered outside the York area.
Around 80% of the PCNs issued arrive on visitors doormats.
As hinted at by some correspondents on this web site, the Council has been unable to sustain the fines if appeals are lodged and then pursued as far as a tribunal.
11,578 (24%) of PCNs issued have attracted appeals
The Council says that 8087 (17%) of PCNs “have been cancelled following representations and for other reasons”.
The figures confirm that the signage used to indicate the restrictions on bridge access are hopelessly inadequate.
They will help to underpin the motion to next weeks York Council meeting from Cllr Ann Reid who will ask for the ANPR cameras to be switched off immediately.
The full motion reads:
(more…)
Lendal Bridge – more stats creep out
Lendal Bridge
Following yesterdays Lendal Bridge story – in which we revealed that the York Council had failed to live up to its promise to publish monthly monitoring reports – the statistics for period 6 (February) have now appeared on their web site.
A total of 53,605 drivers had been fined for crossing Lendal Bridge during restricted hours by the end of February.
In addition 15,907 fines had been issued on Coppergate.
The full figures can be downloaded from here
Meanwhile other monitoring data can be found by clicking here.
Most Park and Ride journeys are taking longer with the number 2 service for Rawcliffe via Leeman Road the worst affected showing an increase in journey time of around 2 minutes.
Traffic volumes are up on Clifton Bridge, Foss Islands Road, Shipton Road and Malton Road.
Not surprisingly, Clifton Bridge is worst affected (+167 vehicle movements)
York unemployment figures released
Figures released today by the Office for National Statistics have shown a 28.3% fall in the number of people claiming Job Seekers Allowance in York, since February 2013.
Today’s statistics have shown an increase of 47 people claiming Job Seekers Allowance compared to last month’s figures meaning there are now 2230 claimants in the city, the lowest February figure since February 2008.
The claimant count represents 1.7% of the working population and stands less than half the regional average of 3.9%. The figures are also much lower than the national average, which stands at 3.0%. However.
Today’s figures also revealed a 45.5% decrease in the number of 18-24 year olds, claiming over one year. The statistics showed a decrease of 10 people claiming JSA from last month, meaning there are now 60 claiming, 50 less than one year ago.
The results also showed the number of claimants out of work for over one year has decreased by 20 from last month, totalling 500, this represents a 24.2% decrease of 160 from one year ago.
Youth unemployment was also shown to have decreased 35.7% since February 2013.
Vince Cable MP
Figures published today by the Office for National Statistics show that the level of unemployment has fallen again nationally.
Unemployment figures have fallen by 63,000 to 2.33 million in the three months to January 2014. The number of people in employment has risen to 30.19 million.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable said: