Burst water main on Hull Road/Lawrence Street
Hull Road was closed to traffic early today following another burst water main.
A contraflow system is now in operation at the junction with Melrosegate.
Traffic congestion is bad in some parts of the City including Fulford Road.
There has been no announcement from the council about whether Lendal Bridge will be open to general traffic today.
Click on map below for up to date information on congestion
click for up to date details
Labour run City of York Council’s controversial changes to garden waste collection mean that the last green bin collection before April 2014 has already been completed. However, leaves are still falling from trees across York and a mild autumn has seen late grass growth and some evergreens continue to need trimming.
Lib Dems have been swamped by complaints from residents who say leaves and garden waste are piling-up. Meanwhile, council officers have admitted that the garden waste which have been collected last winter will end-up in landfill this winter – causing a further rise in landfill tax for the council.
Latest figures reveal that York is currently failing to meet any of its key recycling targets and the amount of waste being sent to landfill is increasing. This increase will see the cost of ‘landfill tax’ rocket to £3,918,960 – a £581,360 or 17% rise on 2012/13.
Burst water main in York today
However it wasn’t a major accident on the trunk road network or very bad weather that prompted the Council to remove the restrictions.
A burst water main in the Piccadilly area was to blame.
The Council agreed to waive access restrictions on both Coppergate and Lendal Bridge.
However their decision came at lunch time and was too late to help the hundreds of drivers that had been caught up in the jams during the previous 2 hours.
The traffic restrictions are likely to be re-imposed tomorrow.
Twitter exchange click to enlarge
But the biggest eyebrow raiser will be the comment that 22,000 extra homes are required over the next 15 years because of “increased birth rates”.
No evidence was presented by the Council, before the Local Plan consultation started, to justify such a claim. They should publish a trajectory showing how many of the new homes will be occupied by “local people”.
There was a hike in birth rates 3 years ago but it is falling again. York has a lower birth rate than the rest of the region anyway.
For the 22,000 homes to be occupied by the children of existing York residents, an amazing advance in medical science would be required.
The Council argued that it needed nearly 5000 homes to meet waiting list demands.
Birth rates click to enlarge
A few weeks ago it downgraded that requirement to 2200, taking 2400 people off the housing list at one fell swoop.
It also claimed that the homes would house workers in new industries which would grow in the City.
Clearly that level of economic growth isn’t going to be sustained, but – if it was – then vast majority of the houses would be occupied by inward migrants.
The representations made by York residents haven’t yet been considered by the Council. We understand that they intend to “redact” responses to obscure the identities of the authors.
Irrespective, that is, of whether the authors wish to remain anonymous.
It is already clear that some Labour hard liners are going to ignore electors, paving the way for a major showdown at the Public Inquiry next year and at the 2015 local elections.
Council house rent arrears in York click for source document
The increasingly ubiquitous Cllr Burton has taken to the York Press today to tell us that rent arrears have increased since the abolition of the spare room subsidy (bedroom tax).
The actual figures can be found on the Councils web site (click graphic).
They show that, with the improvement on the economy, fewer tenants are now in arrears than was the case 3 years ago.
In total 1017 tenants were affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy.
The government awarded the York Council £88,730.96 to offset any hardship that may have been caused by the change to benefit arrangements.
The total amount of discretionary housing payment spent on ‘removal of the spare room subsidy’ cases this financial year is £42,344.74.
154 tenants received payments.
NB. The Labour Council recently arbitrarily removed 2400 people from the housing waiting list.
Click for detail
The amount owed by the Council, net of investments, currently stands at £204 million.
Even that figure is double the debt inherited from the previous LibDem administration in May 2011.
Ironically, when in opposition, Labour said that the Council had too much debt.
Their actions in tripling the burden will take some explaining at the next Council elections in 2015.
The Authority is vulnerable to increases in interest rates although much of the borrowing is long term.
This year the extra expenditure means that £27 is added to this years Council Tax bill in repayment costs with a further £14 expected next year.
The figures are due to be discussed at a Council “Cabinet” meeting later today.
Below are the latest planning applications received by the York Council for the Dringhouses and Woodthorpe ward.
Full details can be found by clicking the application reference
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Location: 8 Girvan Close York YO24 2XR
Proposal: First floor side extension
Ref No: 13/03347/FUL
Applicant: Mr And Mrs Roddis Contact Mr Howard Berry Consultation Expiry Date 26 November 2013 Case Officer: Elizabeth Potter Expected Decision Level DEL
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Location: 17 The Horseshoe York YO24 1LY
Proposal: Single storey rear extension to form family room and utility room. Repositioning and altering windows, internal alterations, installation of sun tunnel.
Ref No: 13/03379/FUL
Applicant: Mr & Mrs Paul McKeown Contact Howard Thompson Consultation Expiry Date 26 November 2013 Case Officer: Carolyn Howarth Expected Decision Level DEL
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Location: 20 Academy Drive Dringhouses York YO24 1UJ
Proposal: Conversion of existing garage to habitable room
Ref No: 13/03409/FUL
Applicant: Mr John Mcrandal Consultation Expiry Date 26 November 2013 Case Officer: Carolyn Howarth Expected Decision Level DEL
Representations can be made in favour of, or in objection to, any application via the Planning on line web site. http://planningaccess.york.gov.uk/online-applications/
NB. The Council now no longer routinely consults neighbours by letter when an application is received.
click to access
The number on the list fell from over 4600 families at the beginning of September, to only 2200 in October. No new social housing developments were completed for occupation during that period.
It turned out that a behind closed doors decision had been taken to kick more than half of the applicants off the list.
We now understand that most of these were deemed to be people who did not have a real housing need and who had not applied for any of the homes advertised during the previous 12 months.
Of the others, 140 were already homeowners and 187 had no local connection while 13 had no local connection and were also homeowners
57 applicants had their application banding changed from Gold to Silver.
The Council has to respond within 28 days to the FOI request.
The request seeks details of how the decision was taken, when and by whom.
It asks the Council what consultation was undertaken.
It seeks more information about the categories of people who have been thrown off the register.
In addition to the 12 charging points already located across York, a network consisting of six fast charging points has now been installed at five locations across city centre car parks (Union Terrace and Nunnery Lane) and Park & Ride sites (Monks Cross, Grimston Bar and Designer Outlet) to allow drivers to re-charge their cars on a pay-as-you-go basis.
The network is publicly accessible with a simple payment system so that users can pay by phone or text in a similar way drivers currently pay for parking in council owned car parks.
Each charging point allows two electric vehicles to top up their batteries at the same time with up to 22kW power output from a choice of type two or three pin charging sockets.
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Fly tipping
Tree detritus on Chaloners Road
Damaged verges
Dog fouling on snickets
Leeside footpath crumbling
North Lane pothole
The major problems concerned, dumping, dog fouling, vandalism, potholes, damaged signs and weed growth
