York police are asking for witnesses after five people were arrested following a large disturbance involving football supporters in Gillygate on Saturday afternoon.

Police were called to reports of glasses and bottles being thrown in the street outside the Pink Pony pub at around 2.15pm on Saturday 16 March 2013.

No-one was injured during incident which involved a group of people from York and Stoke-on-Trent.

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The controversial taxi rank in Duncombe Place could be confirmed as a 24 hour rank at a meeting taking place on 18th April.

Duncombe Place

The rank is currently available between 7:30am and 10:00pm.

The hours of the rank were extended for late night use despite objections from nearby businesses and residents who pointed out that waiting passengers – sometimes the worse for wear – cause a disturbance for those trying to sleep.

The hope of many, was that Duncombe Pace would be paved and pedestrianised making it an attractive feature of central York and enhancing the setting of the Minster.

Now that plan looks to be in jeopardy.

Labour Councillors are due to consider extending the hours of the rank on a permanent basis at a meeting being held in April.

NB. There are alternative late night taxi ranks available nearby at the Theatre and in St Sampson’s Square

A new bike hire scheme is set to be introduced in York next year.

It could be based on the successful “Scratch bikes” scheme established in Newcastle upon Tyne.

The scheme there started originally as a facility aimed at students but has now expanded to have around 150 distinctive green bikes generally available.

It is sponsored by NE1 a Business Improvement District (BID) which, in turn, is supported by City Centre businesses.

York doesn’t not have a similar institution at present and backing for introducing a BID 6 years ago produced a lukewarm response.

The hire scheme is similar in principle to that pioneered in London by Mayor Boris Johnson

Hire bike schemes are nothing new to York, of course.

Several schemes have been tried over the years but have mostly failed because of dramatic peaks and troughs in demand.

In the main these reflect the patterns of higher education academic years as well as the weather and the relatively compact size of the City..

Security and the availability of sites on which “parking” rails can be established are other issues that will have to be overcome.

Any introduction in York is likely to be subject to a 12 month trial.

Norman Baker MP

Liberal Democrat Minister Norman Baker has announced a further round of financial allocations aimed at providing improved bus services.

The “Better Bus Area” guidance for local authorities can be found by clicking here

Essentially local Councils may, in future, be responsible for managing the Bus Service Operators Grant (a fuel cost related subsidy)

Over the last couple of years, the York Council has largely ignored sub-urban areas when submitting their bids for improved bus services.

Unforgivably, they have also failed to include a requirement for participating bus companies to publish service reliability information in return for subsidies.

Hopefully that short sighted policy will change when the new bids are agreed in June.

If it doesn’t then we will be writing to the government asking them to reject any bid for funding being submitted by the York Council!

NB. The Council are also now seeking tenders for the provision of Park and Ride services from the new Poppleton Bar site. Originally the Council had hoped to use state of the art low emission buses on this route which also might have been integrated with stage carriage services to provide a comprehensive network serving north west York.

It was to be the trial area for a “Quality Contract” franchising system

This is the system favoured by Labour who have pledged to introduce it across the whole City; although recently – despite spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on set up costs – they have gone very quiet on their implementation timetable.

There has been no consultation with bus users and drivers about the bus plans for Poppleton Bar, so it’s anyone’s guess at this stage what will emerge when the decision is taken on 16th May.

Reports of dog fouling on footpaths in parts of Dringhouses are increasing as the Council announces that it will be merging the dog warden (animal welfare) staff with other street patrols.

These include the innovative Street Environment Officers who were established 6 years ago.

They take much of the credit for the improvement in the appearance of streets in York having had a small budget to deal with issues like verge damage.

The budget was cut when Labour took control of the Council in 2011 and now the service is to be merged with other patrolling posts including the dog wardens.

The lack of trained specialist staff, with adequate budgets, is bound to make a difference to the appearance of our streets.

Our advice is to continue to report problems click here for access to a web site that allows you to submit photos of problems) and complain – if necessary to the Local Government Ombudsman – if you do not get a satisfactory response.

See panel right for how to contact us to ask for our help

One of the problems with the York Council’s mobile phone reporting “app” is that it only covers a very limited number of service areas. These include graffiti, litter and fly tipping.

However, one of the biggest emerging problems in York is the crumbling state of roads and footpaths.

The so called “Smarter York” app does not allow these to be reported.

Further budget cuts mean that even more potholes are likely to appear over the next few months.

The Council is obliged by law to make highways safe and must respond to any reported defects.

Fortunately there are alternatives to the “Smarter York” system.

Perhaps the best is a “My Council” app. This allows a large range of issues to be raised with the York (and other) Councils. Click here for details. Issues can be reported either “on line” of via a mobile phone app in “real time”

The well established “Fix My Street” web site also promises that they will have an app available shortly. In the meantime you can report issues by clicking here

Both systems seem to be more user friendly than the York Councils labyrinthine internal “report it” system

Hot on the heels of news that Labour intend to outsource the Councils Warden Call service, comes confirmation that the next service in line for privatisation will be Sheltered Housing with Extra Care.

The Council currently runs 4 homes with “extra care” facilities. These are.
Barstow House,
Gale Farm Court,
Glen Lodge and
Marjorie Waite Court.

A team of staff is on duty to provide a range of support services, including help with: getting into and out of bed, dressing and undressing, preparing meals and eating, washing, bathing and use of the toilet.

Gale Farm Court – To be privatised in 2014 under Labour plans

Labour are looking to cut £310,000 from the cost of providing this service in 2014 and they will start by “market testing” the private sector to find out how much cheaper they can provide the servide for.

No prior consultation had taken place with affected residents, their relatives or staff working in the homes.

The media also failed to publicise the plans which were hidden halfway through a long list of cuts published on the Council web site in February

In 2011 Labour ran a vociferous campaign against the outsourcing of a “reablement” service. The reablement service helps patients discharged from hospital after treatment, to live as independently as possible, and to overcome any disability that they may be left with.

In opposing the outsourcing of this service and other home carers on March 2011 their then spokesperson Cllr Fraser said,

“There is plenty of evidence to suggest that clients value the care services provided by the in-house team of the Council’s Home Carers, more than the private sector, where staff are not paid and trained as well “

On taking office in May 2011 Labour decided that the reablement service would continue to be run by the private sector while the remainder of the home care service was also quietly privatised.

In 2012 Labour ran a “market testing” exercise to determine who should run the new super care homes like the one planned for Lowfields.

Eventually they told local Unions – who had ironically bankrolled their 2011 local election campaign – that the homes would be run by the private sector.

Labour have gone much further with the privatisation of public services than would ever have been contemplated by the last LibDem run Council.

NB. The Council publishes a useful booklet on care choices which can be down loaded here.

Most care services in York are run by the private sector and are subject to regular checks by the Care Quality Commission. Standards are generally high. Copies of CQC reports can be found by clicking here.

Police investigating the death of three-year-old Lydia Bishop at York College Nursery on 17 September 2012, have charged a 24-year-old woman with gross negligence manslaughter.

She will appear at York Magistrates’ Court on 8 April 2013.

York College will be summonsed to court for health and safety breaches.

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