Skip programme for April

Although the Council has cut back on the number of amenity skips it provides, several residents associations continue to run programmes aimed at making it easier for tenants to get rid of unwanted items.

The skips are only in place for a few minutes and residents must ensure that they put any rubbish into the skips and do not leave it on the path or highway.

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

Lecture programme announced

A new series of the very popular Mint Yard lectures are being run by City of York Council with topical titles to some of the courses.

Named after the old yard over which York Explore was built, this series forms part of the council’s Inspire programme which offers exclusive access to some of the city’s most famous spaces with tuition provided by nationally-recognised experts in their fields.

The programme is:

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Lawyers celebrate York Council Lendal Bridge decision

It looks like rich pickings are at hand for lawyers as the York Council has decided to continue issuing PCNs on Lendal bridge and Coppergate using ANPR evidence.
Agree to disagree

The latest twist to the pantomime comes as the Council announces that a legal opinion supports their stance.

Now we all know that you will always be able to find a lawyer who will argue the number of celestial beings that will fit onto a pin. That’s how some of them make a living.

But what is now clear is that the Council had privately already decided to make the traffic restrictions on Lendal Bridge permanent and they re now desperately trying to find a way of salvaging their unpopular policy.

The Labour leadership have completely forgotten that they are supposed to speak up for York residents not conduct a war against them.

Kersten England, Chief Executive of City of York Council, said: “Having received independent legal advice from a leading legal expert in this field we are confident we are operating both Lendal Bridge and Coppergate schemes within the law. “We also take assurances from Oxford, who contested with a similar appeal with the Traffic Penalty Tribunal and successfully won.” The restrictions will remain in place on Lendal Bridge and Coppergate and drivers are urged to continue to adhere to these.

and as local Liberal Democrat leader Keith Aspden has pointed out this is all costing the City, its visitors and residents huge amounts of money.

“I am asking the Chief Executive to publish a full copy of the legal advice given to the council. We also need to know how much this legal advice is costing taxpayers.

“To continue with a policy which the Government’s Traffic Adjudicator has ruled is unlawful seems like a gamble, which is why residents need to see the advice the decision is based on.

“The closure has been a shambles from the beginning and Labour need to stop dithering and make a final decision on the future of Lendal Bridge.

“We think the enforcement cameras should be turned off immediately and Lendal Bridge reopened. Labour need to stop hiding behind council officers and actually say what they are going to do.”

20 mph speed limts – something else to challenge?

20 mph sign installed within 5 metres of a sharp right bend.

20 mph sign installed within 5 metres of a sharp right bend.

Despite massive opposition from residents, and most available evidence suggesting that wide area 20 mph speed limits have little positive effect on driver behaviour, the Council are to extend the limit into north York.

Cllr Merrett at the last Council meeting refused to delay the roll out of wide area 20 mph speed limits into East and North York.

This phase of the scheme will cost taxpayers over £300,000.

He had been asked to undertake a review of the effectiveness of the restrictions imposed on west York before wasting any more money.

He did say that he did not agree with Cllr Semlyen’s “zero consultation” approach. Not that Labour pays any attention to the results of consultation anyway.

He also said that, if the wide area 20 mph limits are scrapped after the next local elections, most of the £600,000 cost will go down the drain. “The capital funding has mostly been spent on various unrecoverable items such as labour costs, project management, plant equipment and hire, engineering fees, printing and distribution of materials etc. The poles and 20mph signs used would have some modest resale value.”

Post 20 mph speed limit Bristol residents views click to enlarge

Post 20 mph speed limit Bristol residents views click to enlarge

If the new Council finds that – as has happened elsewhere – accident levels increase then they will have no option but to withdraw the scheme.

The statutory advertisement of the 20mph Speed Limit Orders for north York will take place this month, with notices being posted on affected streets.

These statutory notices will advise which streets are proposed to have new 20mph Speed Limit Orders made for them. This is a formal legal process for any change of speed limit and is required prior to implementation and erection of signs.

As with any other Traffic Regulation Order, there is the opportunity during the statutory 28-day notice period for official representations or objections to be made if there are any specific issues which it is considered should amend or stop the Order from being made.

More detailed information can be found at www.york.gov.uk/20mph

The Liberal Democrat view is that the most appropriate speed limit should apply to a road taking into account its characteristics and accident record.

If the party resumes its leadership of the Council following the 2015 local elections, it will give residents the opportunity to give residents the opportunity to decide whether the new ,limits should remain..

More secrecy as York Council tries to bury more bad news.

Behind closed doors logo

25 things you probably didn’t know about public services in the City

It appears that the Council haven’t made available to the public the answers to questions given  by Cabinet members at their meeting which took place on 27th March 2014.

In fairness the Council Leader s usually fairly prompt in proving public answers. Other cabinet members are more tardy and often evade the questions sometimes  in an attempt to score political points.

On this occasion there are some startling admissions.

These include:

  1. Since 2011, Labour have built only 1/3 of the number of houses built during the first three years of LibDem rule (which started in 2003).
  2. The Council has not agreed  any targets for its “Smarter York” team
  3. Residents have not been able to use the do it on line “Report it” facility to tell the Council about  potholes, faulty street lights etc since November. The Council blames a change to the  “Google maps” database.
  4. Around 30,000 calls are being received by the Councils customer contact centre each month. Typically 12,000  people visit the Council offices and 5000 Emails are received. During      March 61% of calls were answered in 20 seconds. 11% were abandoned by the caller.
  5. The Cabinet member with responsibility for customers  says, “Too much of the current interaction with the council remains through traditional routes and the use of online and self services has yet to be fully exploited” (See 4 above).
  6. Cllr Levene is looking forward to the “next round of Focus leaflets”
  7. The Council spends around £80,000 a year on mobile phones for its employees.
  8. The Council spent £26,807  on new chairs for the eco depot last year. The chairs purchased by the Council have a “life” of 5 years. No payment was received for the discarded chairs
  9. The Council received 1815 complaints from members of  the public between 1st April2013 and 21st March 2014.  The majority of the complaints were about environmental services.
  10. The number of residents opting to pay their Council Tax by 12 equal instalments has more than trebled (to 1618)
  11. The Council has over 70 separate “twitter” accounts which are being managed by staff
  12. The Council still hopes to publish a final draft of its Local Plan by mid year with an examination in public expected in the autumn and adoption “in 2015”.
  13. The token system for the park and ride facility at Monks Cross hasn’t been working for “2 years”
  14. The real time car park space available information was removed from the Councils web site last year. It is expected to be available again “by May 2014” Click  here for an alternative
  15. The majority of electronic Variable Message Signs (VMS) around the City are not operational at the moment. All are expected to be working again by October 2014 (!)
  16. There are no plans to relocate the Food Festival and specialist markets from Parliaments Street while works in Newgate are underway (the permanent stall holders will be relocated into Parliament Street while the works are undertaken)
  17. The Smarter York app is costing taxpayers £11,000 a year. In the 12/13 financial year there were 477 reports and in 13/14, 419 reports using this system. The Council hopes to add additional functions to the “App” in future.
  18. 710 households have signed up to pay for the emptying of an additional green bin this summer
  19. The number of dog fouling reports for the last three years show no increase: 216 in 2011, 219 in 2012, and 212 in 2013.      No FPNs for fouling were issued in 2013.
  20. The Cabinet member for housing is not in favour of supplementing Council housing stocks by buying vacant property on the open market. “They might require a new boiler”. She believes that the new 2 bedroomed Council houses, being  built on Beckfield Lane, are costing only £120,000 each!
  21. No investment is planned for sub-urban Council estate communal areas “because they are amongst the best in the country”!
  22. 1536 elderly and disabled  residents will be affected by Labour’s decision to scrap the Taxicard system (an alternative to the bus pass)
  23.  The URBIE buses, which provide mobile play facilities for children, have been  little used since Ward Committee funding was finished
  24. The Council will not guarantee that all existing Childrens Centres will remain open.
  25. Response times for street lighting fault reports are claimed to have been
  • Oct 13 – 1.2 working days
  • Nov 13 – 2.6 working days
  • Dec 13 – 2.3 working days
  • Jan 14 – 3.3 working days
  • Feb 14 – 3.3 working days
  • Mar 14 – currently 1.6      working days

The most surprising thing is that this information has had to be dragged out of the Council. They have an active press department which should be advising residents about the withdrawal of services before they actually happen.

Full list of answers click here

York Council fines income from Lendal Bridge/Coppergate tops £2 million

Lendal bridge without traffic

Lendal bridge without traffic

The York Council has today published answers to questions raised at its last meeting.

In a response to Cllr Ann Reid, Cllr Merrett admits that the Council has banked over £2 million from PCNs issued to drivers.

The Council claims “only 2 appeals have been successfully contested” against the charge although it admits that many appeals had “not been contested by the Council.

The full response to the question posed can be read here.

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