Huge risk for York as Science City abandoned

Culture, festivals and leisure set to be hived off

logo-sciencecity

The York Council is to take on the liabilities of the Science City organisation and is breaking its partnership with the University of York.

Science City claims to have brought £30million in investment to the City over the last 14 years.

Now the Council is replacing it with a wholly local authority owned company on which it will have only two Board members.

Taxpayers will be expected to pay £710,000 plus set up costs to sustain the new company.

A less than convincing business plan suggests that most of its activities will be similar to those undertaken by the long defunct Inward Investment Board.

Other activities are intended to underpin the (generally successful) Visit York organisation which has been in existence for less than 3 years.

As well as the lack of transparency, taxpayers will worry about the City Centre/visitor bias of an organisation which also aspires to take over “cultural and leisure”activities.

The company owners (York taxpayers) will have little say over the objectives of the new company, its Board appointments or method of working.

It is likely to hold its meetings in private, further reducing local residents influence.

The targets of the new company refer entirely to the City centre. Neither Front Street (badly in need of regeneration) nor any other suburb centre gets even a passing a mention.

Behind closed doors logo

With the Labour administration on its last legs, the best interests of the City would be best served by trying to get a cross party consensus before entering into an arrangement which may only have a life of a few months.

The Council report fails to reveal the terms under which the City would acquire the Universities share of the Science City company.

NB. Last year the Council Leader actually welcomed a bid by Science City to manage all business grant investment decisions for the City.

Poppleton Bar Park and Ride site still not completed

The York Council has missed yet another deadline for the “final” completion of the Park and Ride site at Poppleton.

Poppleton park and ride car park 28th June 2014

The Park and Ride service was opened prematurely by the Council 3 weeks ago although essential signage, traffic signals, parking bays, landscaping and improvements to the A1237/A59 junction had not been completed.

Not surprisingly, despite the novelty of being able to ride on the City’s first electric buses, user numbers have been very low.

Most bus services are running empty.

By Saturday evening carriageway surfacing had been completed near the roundabout but lane restrictions remain in place as work to access footpaths and the cycle path has yet to be finished.

The Park and Ride site itself resembles the set of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

It will present a poor backdrop for the TV pictures of the Tour de France riders who are scheduled to pass the site next Sunday morning.

TV coverage is scheduled to be beamed world wide and was one of the main reasons given by the Council for its £1.6 million investment in the event.

The Council has failed to provide any explanation for the latest delays nor for its decision to open the Park and Ride facility before work was completed.

The failure is the latest in a sting of misadventures which saw that Council forced to abandon plans to turn Monk Stray into a camping site and which has seen very low ticket sales for their highly expensive Grand Departee concert being held at Huntington Stadium on Thursday.

They have, however, now added the popular local band HUGE to the concert programme no doubt ensuring that the Council’s propaganda machine will be able to refer to a huge attendance at the event!

Poppleton park and ride road works 28th June 2014

 

 

 

 

York Apprenticehips event

Young people across the city will be able to view over 250 Apprenticeship vacancies and receive job advice as City of York Council hosts an Apprenticeship Recruitment Event on Tuesday 1 July.

Elizabethan Medieval Clip Art 137

The event, which will take place from 4.30pm-7.30pm at the Hilton Hotel, will showcase exciting Apprenticeship opportunities from both large and small to medium-sized York employers.

The recruitment event comes after the success of the York Apprenticeship Challenge which saw 104 local businesses pledge to create 162 Apprenticeship vacancies in the city.

Young people aged 16-24 and their parents will have the chance to meet with recruiting employers as well as find out about alternative routes to Level 3 qualifications and university.

20 employers and 10 training providers will be advertising over 250 Apprenticeship vacancies covering a range of sectors including; business and finance, construction, creative and cultural, digital marketing and social media, engineering, I.T, health and more. Employers attending the event include City of York Council, NHS, Barratt Homes, Nestle, Garbutt and Elliott Solicitors, GIA Architects, Purenet, McDonalds, York Cocoa House, Meltons Restaurant and many more.

Connexions advisors will be available at 29 Castlegate alongside the event to support young people with their next-level options, including Apprenticeships, plus CV and Job Application workshops.

For more information on the event contact york.apprenticeships@york.gov.uk or visit www.facebook.com/yorkapprenticeships.

Lib Dems call for action as recycling rates fall

Liberal Democrats have renewed their calls for action to increase recycling in York as figures confirm recycling levels fell last year and the Labour run York Council missed its green targets.

Former Coucnil Leader Andrew Waller joins Richard Hill in opposing the closure of the backfield Lane recycling centre in 2012

Former Coucnil Leader Andrew Waller joins Richard Hill in opposing the closure of the backfield Lane recycling centre in 2012

It’s target was to increase recycling to 48%.

Meanwhile, the amount of waste sent to landfill increased from 53% to 56% over the same period.

The council’s target had been to reduce this to 52%.

Last year it was confirmed that landfill tax in York was set to cost the council £4million a year.

The Labour Council courted unpopularity by ending winter green bin emptying 8 months ago, while also deciding to only provide a free collection service for one bin.

The Council also closed the recycling centre in Beckfield Lane in 2012.

Liberal Democrats have called on the Labour council to back ambitions plans to make York the Greenest City in the North, this includes targets to increase recycling to over 50% and work on introducing a food recycling collection service.

 

Cllr Ann Reid, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Environmental Services, commented:

“Under the Liberal Democrats household recycling increased from 13% to 45% between 2003 and 2011. Labour has failed to build on this legacy and continue the upward trend, instead we are seeing recycling rates failing across York for the first time for a number of years. As a result the percentage of waste being sent to landfill is increasing.

“Labour’s policies such as closing Beckfield Lane and introducing a charge for Green Bins have been unpopular with residents and are bad for our city’s environmental ambitions. Through an increase in landfill tax these policies are now having a direct impact on the council’s finances and the funding available for local services.”

This week industry expert David Palmer-Jones, chief executive of Sita UK, warned that Britain is heading for an annual fine of more than €200m from the EU from 2020 unless there is a rapid increase in household recycling to hit the EU target of 50% by 2020. The European Parliament is expected to consider increasing recycling targets from 50 to 70% for all EU member states by 2030.

Cllr Reid commented:

“Sita’s Chief Executive claims that there is too often a lack of local leadership and a lack of vision on environmental polices. This is certainly true of Labour in York. Labour are squandering the Lib Dem legacy and have refused to back our calls for a cross-party commitment to make York the Greenest City in the North. The latest recycling figures confirm their neglect of this important issue. Urgent action is needed.”

 

Recycling Figures in York:

 

Year 09/10 10/11 11/12 12/13 13/14
Waste Recycled 43% 45% 46% 46% 44% (target 48%)
Waste to Landfill 57% 54% 53% 53% 56% (target 52%)

 

http://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=733&MId=8327 (Item 8 – ‘York Monitor’)

 

More on the Lib Dem call to make York the Greenest City in the North can be found here: http://www.libdemvoice.org/liblink-time-to-restore-yorks-green-city-status-36059.html

 

Dringhouses and Woodthorpe primary schools create banners for the Tour de France

To help celebrate the Tour de France Grand Départ, over 100 banners are being designed and produced by primary schools in York in time to display at York Racecourse on Sunday 6 July.

Tour de France banner

The school project, organised by the council’s sport and active leisure team, has a theme of ‘Tour de France: What path will you take?’ and will see 110 white canvas banners decorated by school children.

The banners will be returned to the school that made them after the event as a memento of the day. The schools taking part are Badger Hill Primary School, Carr Infant School, Dringhouses Primary School, Elvington CE Primary School, Fishergate Primary School, Headlands Primary School, Heworth Primary School, Hob Moor Community Primary School, Huntington Primary School, Knavesmire Primary School, New Earswick Primary School, Osbaldwick Primary School, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Roman Catholic Primary, Ralph Butterfield Primary School, Robert Wilkinson Primary School, Rufforth Primary School, St Aelred’s Roman Catholic Primary School, St Lawrence’s Church of England Primary School, Tang Hall Primary School, Westfield Primary Community School, Wigginton Primary School and Woodthorpe Primary School.

The Sport Activation Zone at York Racecourse Spectator Hub is open to everyone who has a ticket. They will be able to find out more about cycling, sport and health opportunities in the city. Visitors will be able to try different sports, pick up healthy living information and enter free, fun activity challenges.

York’s Bid City Read announced – The Orpheus Descent by Tom Harper

The Orpheus Descent will be available free from all libraries from Thursday 10 July. Look out for copies when out and about across the city.

Visit your local library today to get your Big City Read brochure which details all of the activities and events happening across the City over the summer

coverI have never written down the answers to the deepest mysteries, nor will I ever…

The philosopher Plato wrote these words more than two thousand years ago, following a perilous voyage to Italy — an experience about which he never spoke again, but from which he emerged the greatest thinker in all of human history.

Today, twelve golden tablets sit in museums around the world, each created by unknown hands and buried in ancient times, and each providing the dead with the route to the afterlife. Archaeologist Lily Barnes, working on a dig in southern Italy, has just found another. But the thirteenth tablet is different. This tablet names the location to the mouth of hell itself. And then Lily vanishes.

Has she walked out on her job, her marriage, and her life — or has something more sinister happened? Her husband, Jonah, is desperate to find her. But no one can help him: not the police; not the secretive foundation that sponsored her dig; not even a circle of university friends who seem to know more than they’re saying. All Jonah has is belief, and a determination to do whatever it takes to get Lily back.

But like Plato before him, Jonah will discover the journey ahead is mysterious and dark and fraught with danger. And not everyone who travels to the hidden place where Lily has gone can return.

NB. While the York central library is closed for refurbishment (until the Autumn) books can be returned to a “drop box” located in the foyer of the Council HQ at West Offices or to any other library.

 

Skip Programme

  • 28th June 2014 8:30am Sanderson House Bramham Road

    8:30am Bramham Road/Grange Lane junction

    12:30pm Lindsey Ave
    5th July 2014 Don Ave 8:30am

    North Lane 10:30am
    12th July 2014 8:30am Sanderson House, Bramham Road

    10:30am Rogers Court
    19th July 2014 8:30am Lowfields Drive

    12:30pm Cornlands Road
  • The skips are funded by the local residents association using their Estate Improvement Grant. The skips are removed once they are full so please make sure you arrive in good time if you intend to make use of them.
  • Please remember to take your waste to the site only on the dates advertised
  • If the skip is full or not on the site, please do not leave your waste. This is classed as fly tipping and is illegal
  • Bulky items including furniture, fridges and freezers are not accepted. To arrange disposal of one of these items please ring York (01904) 551551.

Community centre income queried

Behind closed doors logo

The Council opened a new community centre (“Space 217”) serving the Lindsey Avenue area last year.

The initiative seemed to signal a welcome reversal of the current Council Leaderships policy of cutting all funding support from local community facilities.

However more information has become available which suggests that there is no ongoing business plan to support the facility.

At present all costs are being born by Council tenants (rent payments) through the housing account.

Ironically the two community centres most likely to close, as a result of Labour’s cut’s programme (Foxwood and Chapelfields), were also built on Housing Department owned land.

The Council says that it has had to spend around £31,000 bringing the former shop up to a standard that would allow it to be used as a community “hub”. This cost included the provision of disabled access and the removal of asbestos

The Council says that ongoing costs will also be paid for from within existing ring fenced “housing maintenance budgets”.

Strangely the Council is not offering financial support to other community centres from its housing maintenance budgets despite them being used by estate management officers, and other Council staff, as local meeting points.

NB. Lindsey Avenue is currently represented by Council Leader James Alexander. He will be under a lot of pressure if he is to retain his seat in next years local elections. The decision to open the new centre was taken behind closed doors.

Police launch summer holidays competition for young people

A competition for young people to win exciting prizes by making a difference in their community has been launched for the second year running.

Launch of Lifestyle

The Lifestyle competition is open to school children aged between 10 and 16 across York and North Yorkshire who want to do something positive for their community during the summer holidays.

In return for helping their community, contestants will get the chance to win a host of prizes including PLG adventure holidays and mountain bikes.

Last year’s winners include Team Community Spirit who raised funds for their local boxing club in Acomb, The Green Team who launched a campaign to re-use and recycle in York, Team Ice who organised the clean up of their local park in Sherburn in Elmet and Eastfield Youth Council from the Scarborough area who cleaned up The Dell and devised a campaign to encourage people not to drop litter.

This year’s project was launched at Westfield Primary School in York with the help of Minster FM’s presenter “Griffo”.
(more…)