York Council waste collection changes –

The York Council is introducing new waste and green recycling collection timetables from next Monday (9th September).

Some households will receive recycling for the first time and others may have changes to what day of the week their rubbish, recycling or green waste is collected

About 10% of properties will see a change to their collections days.

The Council says that it has written to every affected household explaining the new collection days.

Given the past record of the York Council with communications, we are sceptical about whether everyone will have had, and understood, their communication.

A complete list of addresses (10639 of them) were sent out to ward Councillors as late as 2:00pm today Friday 6th September.

That is less than 1 working day before the new arrangements are due to be introduced.

The complete list of affected properties can be viewed by clicking here.

It is in alphabetical street order.

Alternatively, you should also be able to check out the day that your next collection is due by entering your postcode at this web location http://tinyurl.com/York-bin

The are few changes to arrangements in the Dringhouses and Woodthorpe area

The Council says, “It is important to continue to ensure that your rubbish, recycling and garden waste are presented before 7am on the day of collection”.

Will the Council answer the key Lendal Bridge questions

Potentially the biggest test this teatime for the Lendal Bridge closure.

The schools are back and we have heavy rain.

Poor weather usually adds around 10% to traffic levels in the City.

click to update

click to update

All York bus ticket sales figures finally released

12 months after a Freedom of Information request was lodged with the York Council, officials have finally revealed the number of “All York” bus tickets that have been sold.

This was the product launched in July 2012 which allowed passengers to purchase one £5 day ticket which could be used on any bus operating in the York area.

When launched, the Council said that it would spend £20,000 of taxpayer’s money advertising the availability of the ticket.

They would also use administrative staff to allocate, the fare revenue collected, to individual bus operators.

all york ticket

It was this taxpayer’s subsidy which prompted a request that the number of tickets sold be publicised. The Council declined to do so saying that it was “commercially confidential”.

It took an appeal to the Information Commissioner to force the release of the information.

In March the minutes of a Council bus consultative meeting had suggested that “All York” ticket sales were around “10,000 a quarter”.

In reality it turns out that sales are only about ¼ of that figure.

The total number of tickets sold stands at 10,425 which represents a tiny proportion of the 16 million local bus journeys made each year.

It looks like taxpayers have subsidised each ticket to the tune of £2.

Many people thought that the Council should have prioritised the introduction of a smartcard which would allow cross operator ticketing at negligible cost.

Steve Galloway – who first raised the issue – says, “There is nothing contained in the figures that threatens the commercial interests of bus companies. The very low sales do suggest though that the Council miscalculated very badly the number or passengers who would take advantage of a scheme which has proved to be an unnecessary burden on taxpayers.

I hope in future that the Council will be more open with bus users about service information.

They have been withholding facts about bus service reliability for over a year.

I would like to think that they would adopt a more positive approach to information sharing in the future”

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More on Lendal Bridge

Crime and police update

Latest mobile speed camera locations
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Witness appeal following York assault
Detectives in York are appealing for witnesses to come forward following an assault in the city which left a man seriously injured.The man, who is aged 51 and from York, was found at around 1am on Thursday 5 September 2013, outside Talbot House, Melrosegate
More http://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/12023

Search for York man

£1/2 million in fine income generated by cameras on Lendal Bridge and Coppergate. Call for “trial” bridge closure to be suspended

We have discovered that during the first week of the Lendal Bridge closure around 1000 drivers per day were caught by enforcement cameras.

Lendal bridge after its clsure

This would have generated up to £480,000 in fine revenue, had the Council not agreed to an amnesty.

However, no formal decision was taken by the Council on the amnesty, so questions still need to be answered on who took the (admittedly correct) decision to waive the income.

An independent company is processing the ANPR recognition results for the Council. They are understood to be Imperial Civil Enforcement Solutions Ltd of Northampton. No details of the payments due to the contractor have been revealed or whether such payments vary in relation to the number of penalty notices issued.

The situation on Coppergate is equally bad.

Here the times of the access restrictions were extended with minimal publicity.

Many drivers continued to observe the old hours resulting in a large number of offenders.

The Council announced only yesterday that the fines for the first two weeks of the Coppergate restrictions – which were introduced on 1st August – had also been waived.

Why this information was not made available in August remains unclear.

Now the Council has said that around 3000 potential offenders have been caught on camera since the 16th August. Although some of these may win appeals against the penalty notices, potentially the Council could receive £160,000 in fine income for just two weeks of the restrictions.

That is equivalent to £5 million a year!

What must now be clear to even the most ardent advocate of ANPR cameras, is that their use to monitor traffic restrictions of this sort needs to be properly advertised in the period up to their introduction.

Their existence and purpose must also be clearly signed on approach roads.

The Lendal trial was rushed in by the Council and its implementation has been bungled.

Like the citywide 20 mph speed limit, it is being imposed on an unwilling population.

The trial should be suspended and a proper review conducted into the problems that have occurred.

The city’s reputation is at stake and the prosperity of the central area could be irreparably damaged if a halt to the trial is not called.

No “footfall” figures – showing the number of shoppers in the central area over the last few days – are yet available, but we fear the worst.

The blunders may prove to have put the worthy cause of increased pedestrianisation in the City back by a decade.

Vehicle damage claims against York Council increase by over 400%

Potholes

The number of claims for damage to vehicles in York, as a result of poor road surfaces, has increased by over 400%.

In 2011/12, 13 drivers made a claim against the York Council

This spiralled to 70 in 2012/13

The value of compensation paid, however, reduced from £1455 to £333.

The Council had halved the amount that it was investing in highways maintenance in 2012/13.

A Freedom of Information response has identified the road in poorest condition in York.

Moor Lane, near Murton, attracted 10 damage claims between 23-12-2012 and 06-01-2013

The Council says that, generally, a road has a surface design life of 15 years.

At any one time there are around 40 potholes on the York road network requiring attention. This increases in the winter as a result of the impact that ice has on poorly maintained carriageway surfaces.

Potholes can be reported here http://www.mycouncilservices.com/

Sale of Library books from Friday 6th Sep 2013 – 9th Sep 2013

York libraries say, come and browse our newly deleted stock for some hidden gems, or just some cheap holiday reads.

Will include fiction, non fiction, children’s, maps, and local interest books from 50p each. Come and browse our newly deleted stock for some hidden gems, or just some cheap holiday reads for your late summer break.

Every day

Location: York Explore Library

Cost: Free, with books from 50p

The booksale will take place in the Marriott Room in York Explore Library during ordinary opening hours which are:
• Friday 6 September 9am – 6pm
• Saturday 7 September 9am – 5pm
• Sunday 8 September 11am – 4pm
• Monday 9 September 9am – 8pm

Labour still peddle 25% City growth as Walmgate scheme produces “361 housing units”

Prominent Labour Councillor Tracey Simpson Laing has announced today that Labour is still going for housing growth of over 20,000 during the next 15 years.

She claims that the figure – published in a draft Local Plan which went out for public consultation during the summer – is necessary to meet “demand in York over the next 15 years”.

Derwenthorpe development

Derwenthorpe development

Residents had expected that the Council would carefully consider the responses from the Local Plan consultation before deciding whether this figure was indeed necessary.

Many residents have said that they do not want the City to expand by 25% in such a short timescale.

Others have pointed out that there will be insufficient jobs to sustain such growth while large areas of the City and surrounding countryside would be blighted.

In a separate development the Council has confirmed that the student housing development, on The Press site on Walmgate, which received planning permission last month, will produce 361 housing units against the total annual target of between 800 (old Local Plan target) and 1200 homes (Labours new target). Most will be 2 person flats.

As the accommodation is tied, none of the units will contribute directly towards providing more affordable accommodation in the City.