York’s nationally-renowned archives will remain open for longer ahead of refurbishment works to move them from the City Art Gallery to their new home at York Explore Library Learning Centre.

These temporary measures form part of the Gateway to History Project, and only affect material currently held at the Art Gallery. Local history material already held at York Explore will continue to be available for public access until building work begins.

As part of the Residents Festival, on Saturday 26 January residents will be able to book a tour of the archives, where they have a last opportunity to see behind the scenes of the old storage and learn more about the Gateway to History plans for the future. Tickets are available from York Explore and are free with a York Card.

Click here for more information on when public access to the archive collection is available during January and February.

Acomb Explore Library

Labour are pushing on with controversial plans to sell-off libraries in York. The plans will see the library and archive service transfer from council ownership and management to a new social enterprise model run by a board of volunteers.

Labour’s six-week consultation on libraries last year was criticized after residents were not asked about potential management or ownership changes. In October, Labour said that current staffing levels could not be guaranteed under the new arrangements and the report approved by the Labour Cabinet last night confirmed that further funding cuts to the service are likely in the coming years. The report also confirmed that current libraries may be closed under a relocation programme.

Councillor Nigel Ayre, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Cultural Services, commented:

“Under the previous Lib Dem administration continued investment saw the modernization of York’s libraries and visitor numbers increase by 25% between 2003 and 2011. The current library service is cost-effective, successful, and popular. Given this, it is a disgrace that Labour, without properly consulting the public, have decided to sell-off the service and push on with their untested social enterprise model.

“The consultation Labour did last year was a sham as they did not ask residents the key questions and ignored the answers they did get. My strong suspicion is that these proposals are merely a way for Labour to distance themselves from future unpopular decisions and cuts. They should rethink and urgently consult residents asking them who they want to run the service and whether it should stay in-house or move to a social enterprise, trust or co-operative model.”

The report approved by the Labour Cabinet last night can be found here<

North Yorkshire Police will be carrying out mobile safety camera enforcement on the following roads between Wednesday 9 January and Tuesday 15 January 2013.

•A64 Seamer by-pass Scarborough
•A171 Mayfield Road, Whitby
•B1460 Castle Road, Whitby
•A171 Jugger Howe opposite Springhill Farm
•A169 Whitby to Pickering Road near Goathland
•A169 Whitby to Pickering Road at High Horcum
•A170 Scarborough to Thirsk Road at Snainton
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The Council claims that it has now “caught up” with outstanding waste collections.

Please Email ycc@york.gov.uk if you still have a problem.

Reports are still coming in of full litter bins and recycling skips. Please also report these to the above address.

A meeting next week will consider whether several subsidised bus services in the City should be continued. The issues being considered are:

• Re-tendering of routes 21 (Colton–Acaster Malbis–Askham Bar–York) and 35 (Holme on Spalding Moor–Wheldrake–York).

• The future of two services procured on an ‘emergency’ basis that commenced operation on 7th October2012. These are routes 14 (Beckfield Lane–Boroughbridge Road–York) and 15 (South Bank–Bishopthorpe Road–York).

• The future of routes 24 and 26 (Askham Bar– Acomb Leeman Road–York-Fordlands Road, Fulford). These services currently enjoy a £155,000 a year York Council subsidy and are provided by Coastliner.

The Council will also decide how to respond to four petitions lodged concerning First Group’s commercially operated bus network:

• Route 5 (Strensall–Huntington–York–Acomb) from Huntington residents;

• Route 12 (Woodthorpe–Tadcaster Road–York–Heworth–Monks Cross) from Woodthorpe and Dringhouses residents who were conc erned about reliability;

• Route 13 (Copmanthorpe–Tadcaster Road–York–Haxby– West Nooks) – two petitions have been received, one from Copmanthorpe residents, the other from Haxby residents.

The indications are that services 21 (which includes a loop through the Middlethorpe estate) and 35 will continue while the 15 service to South Bank may be modified (providing a 60 minute frequency).

The report singularly fails to address the issue of whether the new tenders should include a requirement that the successful renderer should publish reliability data on their services.

Proposed routes for routes 24, 25 and 27 Click to enlarge

Official are recommending that the Council subsidy on service 14 (Sundays and/or early evening) is withdrawn because of poor usage. The 14 currently provides the only direct link to the new York Sports Village on Hull Road and is the only service on Beckfield Lane.

It is likely that route 26 which serves St Stephens Road and Route 26 (Kingsway West/Ascot Way) will be modified (see left)

Consultation with users is promised

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The York Council has been forced to admit that the amount that it is paying in debt charges (interest payments on money that it has borrowed) has risen by 56% since Labour took office in May 2011.

Interest rates during the period have been stable.

Prior to the elections in 2011, the then LibDem led Council, and it’s predecessors, had incurred debts which involved average monthly interest payments of £418,000.

Now that figure has spiralled to an average of over £651,000.

The Labour Council have been heavily criticised for a “borrow and spend” policy which has seen the Council’s debts more than double.

The policy has echoes of the last Labour government which increased the countries debt dramatically; a policy which was partly responsible for the subsequent economic crash.

In York, a £20 million “Economic Infrastructure Fund” has been set up. It is being used for a variety of projects but recently announced plans to purchase an “Arts Barge” and use borrowing to fund a “living wage” have come in for particular criticism.

In total the Council will have to find over £10 million during the next financial year to service its debts. That is likely to be at the expense of further cuts to public service standards.

The monthly interest payments made each more since 2010 are:
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The Council have now issued the following statement

“Due to exceptional operational problems there have been some delays with catching up with the re-scheduled collections, as detailed on this page (Council web site).

Recycling collections in Dunnington, Foxwood and Woodthorpe will take place as soon as possible this week. We apologise for any problems this has caused and can assure you that we are working hard to catch up with this work”.

Whether this means that the recycling will be collected as (re) scheduled on Tuesday remains to be seen. With the volume growing each hour this must be in doubt.

Meanwhile some terraced streets are now overwhelmed with full plastic bags leaving little room for cars to park.

Lockwood Street

The situation at some blocks of flats is even worse.

Our advice now is to put complaints in writing to the Council (Email: ycc@york.gov.uk)

If the situation deteriorates further then complaints can be made to the Local Government Ombudsman who can instruct the Council to pay compensation.

The Ombudsman can be telephoned on 0300 061 0614 or 0845 602 1983

The Council has published a list of business rate creditors. Essentially these are commercial properties where the business rates account is in credit.

You can see the list here

As well as some companies which have gone into administration, the list includes the Council itself which is recorded as having overpaid £8500 in rates!

The York Council has now published details of the lighting equipment that it borrowed from the Blackpool Council to the support the “Illuminating York” festival.

The list can be found here:

It includes the somewhat unreliable “interactive” pedal bikes.

The contribution was relatively modest and hardly justified the “hype” given to the partnership in the run up to the event. It is commonplace for local authorities to share the use of equipment and services these days. The value of the equipment has not been revealed nor has the cost of setting up the deal.

We were sorry to learn that former Woodthorpe Liberal Councillor Joan Dales died over the Christmas period. Joan was 90 years of age.

Joan Dales (fourth from left) celerates a Liberal election victory in 1983

A former farmers wife from the Askham Bryan area, Joan lived in The Gallops for many years. She represented the ward on the York City Council between 1979 and 1987. She will be remembered as a particularly active Councillor with a whole hearted commitment to the local community.

Her funeral is taking place at Askham Bryan Church on Monday 14th Jan 2013 at 1pm followed by burial in the Churchyard.

Family flowers only please, donations can be made to The Alzheimer’s Society and the church funds