York Council web site crashes again

Not for the first time, the Council’s web site has been unavailable to residents this weekend.

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The Council was heavily criticised a few weeks ago when it failed to use social media effectively to keep residents up to date on progress being made following a similar loss of service.

Now no one has even bothered to put a note on their Facebook page or to use “Twitter“

It is an important issue as many residents seek to use the online functions – for example to pay bills – at the weekend when they have spare time available.

It is also the cheapest way for the Council to process contact with its customers.

Sadly the failure is all to typical of the Councils muddled priorities

West Office customer service problems

The loss of the York Council’s Acomb Office continues to put pressure, on reception facilities at West Offices, two years after its closure.

This is how customer services at West Offices are now performing.

In person at West Offices

West Office reception stats

West Office reception stats

Only about 80% of customers are currently being seen within 10 minutes of arrival. This is however an improvement on 2013.

Telephone

Only 40% of those telephoning the Council can expect to be answered within 20 seconds.

Around 25,000 telephone calls are made to the Council each month.

The Council blames peaks in call volumes – such as those caused by the Lendal bridge fine refund process – for the poor performance.

Telephone call performance

Telephone call performance

More staff have been recruited to bolster the service.

The last Council meeting was also told that “service provision will be enhanced by the introduction of the new voice server in the new year which will seek to serve callers better than the current version does with improved accuracy, and better information giving facilities including call waiting times.

In April we will also have a new web site in place that will also help customers in providing information they have told us they want to see. This will be followed by the implementation of a new customer system which will be easier for our residents to use on-line when, booking, applying or paying for services”

The one crumble of comfort for the York Council are the results of a satisfaction survey of those customers contacting them by telephone during the summer.

The figures show that over 90% rated the response as “Very Good or Excellent”.

Emails

Ironically the longest delays occur on electronic communications with Emails sometime not being processed for over 2 weeks.

This despite the priority for the Councils customer handling to be electronically based as it is the cheapest access channel to administer.

The Council admits they have failed on this important project

“The current system does not currently provide data on the completed time for emails against service level, this would have to be a manual calculation on each case. The current service level is within 24hours however as a result of the uplift in contact as mentioned below and reduced resource availability we have not met this timescale for some”.

The last Council meeting was told that the Email backlog would be eliminated by the middle of October and that responses would then be issued within 24 hours

Speed in initially acknowledging a contact from a customer is, of course, only the first step towards success.

Residents need to be convinced that, having reported an issue, it has been remedied.

……..& there the York Council still has a huge amount to do to improve its reputation!

 

Castlegate closure to be challenged

Opposition parties on the York Council have called in for reconsideration a plan to close the Castlegate youth advice and help centre.

Castlegate centre

The meeting will take place on 31st October and the reports can be read by clicking here

The Castlegate centre provides information, support and counselling for young people aged between 16-25 in York,

Probably the main issue concerns the proposal to transfer some youth advice services to West Offices.

It is difficult to think of a less suitable location.

The building can be intimidating, reception arrangements busy (see article above) and occasionally chaotic – despite the best endeavours of staff.

It is also noisy because of the atrium design.

The Council may wish to move the service to a more affordable location but West Offices would be a poor choice.

Skips

The skips below are funded by your 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.8-yard-skip

1. Please remember to take your waste to the site only on the dates advertised

2. 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

3. Bulky items including furniture, fridges and freezers are not accepted. To arrange disposal of Bulky items including furniture, fridges and freezers are not accepted. To arrange disposal of one of these items please ring York (01904) 551551.

 

25 October 2014
Jute Road 12:30pm

01 November 2014
Community House Bramham Road 8:30am
Bramham Road/Grange Lane 12:30pm
Kingsway West 8:30am
Stuart Road 10:30am
Windsor Garth 12:30pm

08 November 2014
Tithe Close 10:30am
Lowfields Drive 12:30pm
Don Ave 8:30am
North Lane 10:30am
Bellhouse Way 10:30am
15 November 2014
Viking Road 10:30am
06 December 2014
Community House Bramham Road 8:30am
Bramham Road/Grange Lane 12:30pm
Dringfield Close 8:30am
Ganton Place 10:30am

Labour lose some influence on Council – alternative approach proving illusive

As expected, the balance of power on many York Council committees swung away from Labour at a York Council meeting this evening.Lendal bridge notice

As required by law, the membership of scrutiny, planning and other committees will reflect the proportion of the seats held by the different parties on the Council.

The chairs of scrutiny committees will be taken by opposition Councillors.

Amongst the appointments, Andrew Waller will chair a committee that deals with Economic and City Development, Ann Reid will chair the Planning Committee and Nigel Ayre will head the influential Audit and Governance Committee.

But the key Cabinet posts will all continue to be held by Labour.

Opposition Councillors will need to work hard to hold to account a group which has failed on so many tasks over the last 3 years.

York needs a transparent, inclusive,  system which can address the many problems which have increasingly dogged York in recent months.

Time is running out.

 

Labour’s waste collection charging plans slip out

 

Green_waste_family_89__1A working group report has revealed the kind of charges that Labour Councillors want to introduce for waste collection.

As we have previously forecast, Labour intend to charge for emptying green bins but it also seems that other costs may also be passed on to customers.

The changes are likely to cover:

  • Gardening waste collection
  • Bulky waste collection
  • Clinical waste collection

Of these, by far the most controversial is likely to be turning the green bin emptying into a subscription service.

Information from 46 other local authorities suggests that 40% charge for the service (as does York now for supplementary bins).

30 of the Council’s also collect food waste. This would be a welcome enhancement of the services available in York and which would reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill (and thereby reduce landfill tax payments)

Across the country subscription charges range from £17 pa to £75 pa.

Most Councils provide a service throughout the year but reduce collection frequencies in winter (York stops collections together)

Evidence suggests that 45% of households elsewhere would pay £20 a year for an emptying service.

This falls to 5% if the charge is £50.

We doubt that many residents will even know that this option is being considered.

The new, balanced, Council may simply choose now to restrict any changes to collection arrangements to covering more of the year with green bin collections and refining the charges made for bulky waste collection.

Park and Ride compensation claim

The York Council is to seeking liquidated damages for the 5 month delay in completing the park and site and associated highways works at Poppleton.

Weeds2 Park adn Ride siteIt says that the issues will be assessed during the preparation of the final accounts for the scheme which was completed using “using a standard construction contract which includes liquidated damage clauses if the works over run beyond the contract completion date”

The ongoing road works became something of a joke for residents living on the west of the city with deadline after deadline passing without completion.

The roadwork’s were temporarily lifted for the start of the Tour de France but were re-imposed shortly afterwards.

Even the Park and Ride site itself was opened 2 months before necessary landscaping work was completed.

The extent of any compensation likely to be claimed is not yet known.

Residents living near the A59 roundabout are understood to be seeking compensation from the Council for the delays and inconvenience that they suffered