York 800 Ebor Vox film released

A film showcasing the Ebor Vox activities over the city’s Charter Weekend is now online for residents to view and download. Ebor Vox was the world premier of a choral piece for 800 voluntary singers that saw them, musicians, puppeteers and dancers process through the streets of York.

The 20 minute filmed called Our City – The Story of Ebor Vox, follows the stories and activities of the participants who performed Ebor Vox, a new work by acclaimed composer Benjamin Till commissioned for York 800. It shows the range of activities over the Charter weekend including Flash Choirs and first performance in Dean’s Park as well as the procession with the Civic party and council members.

Click here to view the film http://vimeo.com/54310387

Ofsted praise York’s Early Years

Despite recent concerns about standards at some nurserys in the City a report says that local standards are generally higher than can be found elsewhere in the country.

A recent Ofsted report has placed York’s Early Years and childcare providers and Children’s Centres significantly above both the national and regional averages. The report also demonstrates an improvement when compared to last years statistics.

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York floods highlight drainage issues

A lot of attention has understandably been focussed on flood defence works during the recent periods of poor weather.

Flood barriers, and countering river overflows, are principally the responsibility of the Environment Agency.

Most of the pipes that drain surface water belong to Yorkshire Water although the Council is responsible for roadside gulleys.

The, then LibDem led, Council in 2008 introduced a programme of upgrade works aimed at dealing with ponding on roads, footpaths and public areas. Over £800,000 has been spent tackling these issues, but there is evidence that a large number of pipes and culverts are still blocked with silt and roots.

Now a new “surface water management” report suggests that a further £5 million is needed to complete the programme.

Worryingly the Council report reveals that recently “ funding for maintenance of highway infrastructure, in particular gully cleaning, has been reduced annually over successive years to a point where it is now mainly a reactive operation. Such routine gully emptying that is carried out is generally not in the areas that suffer surface water flooding”.

With the Council sinking ever deeper into debt, funding this level of investment with be problematic.

The report can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/Drainage-in-York. It is due to be discussed at a meeting taking place on Tuesday

Council to continue clampdown on sale of alcohol to minors

Legislation exists to help to prevent a range of potentially dangerous/anti-social products being accessible to young people. The products regulated with age-restrictions include alcohol (minimum age 18), cigarettes (18), fireworks (18), knives (18), aerosol paint (16); in recent years trading standards officers have carried out education and enforcement work in all of these areas.

The number of illegal sales has been decreasing over recent years

In future children posing as potential purchasers of restricted items may not tell retailers their correct age. The intention is to force the retailer to ask for proof of age

The report can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/age-limit-sales-enforcement

Care Homes Plan in Disarray

Confusion surrounds Labour’s plans to build three new care homes in York after it was revealed that one of the proposed sites in Fulford has been abandoned and another in Acomb has been delayed. Meanwhile, questions are being asked after plans were revealed to use the Burnholme School site as an alternative venue and sell the site in Fulford.

In May Labour agreed proposals to close the city’s nine care homes and replace them with state-of-the-art homes at Fordlands Road in Fulford and Haxby Hall plus a new care village site at Lowfield in Acomb. However, just 6 months later the Fordlands plan has been scrapped after analysis revealed concerns over flooding and space. The Burnholme Community College site has now been identified as the preferred alternative. The changes mean that the new facility will not meet the original April 2014 opening date, with the Burnholme site not available until after the school closes in July 2014. Meanwhile, the Lowfield Community Village project in Acomb has also run into problems as the tendering process to select a partner to run the site will now take longer than anticipated and the proposed April 2014 opening has also been scrapped.

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Omni shambles hits York Social Care and Housing

The Cabinet member with responsibility for Social Care and Housing (Cllr Laing) in the City is likely to face some difficult questions when she holds her first “decision” meeting for 3 months on 12th December.

Not only has the housing waiting list almost doubled since she took over her responsibilities, but now it looks like the flagship programme for building new elderly care homes has also run into trouble.

Reports are emerging that the plan to build a replacement for the Fordland’s elderly care home in Fulford are being abandoned.

Planned Lowfields Care Village

Worse, it seems likely the Lowfields Care Village (conceived by the last LibDem run Council) is now even further behind schedule, with the Council’s complex management plan blamed for tendering delays.

A behind closed doors decision was taken in the summer to advertise the contract for the management of the new Lowfields Care Village but, apparently, with the Unions being given advice on how to organise an in house bid for the contract. The Council had been promising http://tinyurl.com/York-15th-May-2012 completion of the care village by April 2014 but this now seems highly unlikely.

All this on top of a big increase in home care costs during the last 18 months.

The cost per client has almost doubled in the last year. Spend on home care contracts has increased from £54k a week in July 2011 to £80k a week in July 2012.

….and this despite 184 elderly residents, who were receiving home care, having been abandoned. They were assessed, under new rules introduced by Labour, as having only “moderate” needs and not worthy of Council support.

Such a catalogue of failure would normally lead to a Cabinet reshuffle but, with talent thin on the ground now that former Leader David Scott has been suspended from the Labour Group, it seems that York residents face another 2 years of poor leadership and financial mismanagement.

20 mph meeting attracts big attendance in Dringhouses

Over 70 people attended the Dringhouses ward committee meeting yesterday. (Labour refused to hold a similar meeting in either the Westfield or Acomb Wards, probably because there are no opposition Councillors in either of those wards)

Although there were some in favour of the 20mph limit there was a majority against.

There was a lot of objection to the fact that there will not be a leaflet drop to every house, a lot of people felt that this was being imposed, that they hadn’t been asked and there was no mandate. Just because it was apparently in their manifesto didn’t mean everyone who voted Labour supported 20mph limits!

Basically residents were saying that the money would be better spent on enforcement and targeted road safety imporvement work.

Councillors have promised to have the next meeting to coincide with the results of the informal consultation and the formal proposals.

(Interestingly the 20mph website only allows you to express your support for 20mph limits and currently there is no online form or dedicated email address you can use to comment. The web site is pretty juvenile anyway http://www.york20mph.org/)

Liberal Democrats will continue to oppose the plans to introduce a wide area 20 mph speed limit

Christmas fun starts with York Arts Academy!

A series of exciting performances by students attending City of York Council’s York Arts Academy and local schools will strike up on 1 December 2012.

Three concerts will take place on 1 December at Central Hall, University of York. The first will start at 11am and will include performances from York Arts Academy’s various performance groups.

These include string and folk groups and Yearsley Grove Primary School Choir. The second concert begins at 2pm, and includes music to suit all tastes played by York Arts Academy bands, African drummers, a guitar ensemble and choirs from Huntington, Fishergate and St. Aelred’s primary schools. The third concert starts at 7pm, with performances by senior ensembles from York Arts Academy, including orchestral music from York Arts Academy Symphony Orchestra, performances by the Senior Concert Band and Big Band, a string quartet and early music from the Minster Minstrels, a group of young musicians specia lizing in early music and run by the York Arts Academy in partnership with the National Centre for Early Music.

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Labour’s 20 mph speed limit – details for Dringhouses and Woodthorpe

The Labour controlled Council has published details of the boundaries for the new 20 mph speed limit that it intends to apply to most of west York.

Some of the roads in the Dringhouses area – at known danger spots such as school entrances – already have 20 mph limits. Other roads are too short for vehicle speed to be an issue.

Major roads like Moor Lane, Chaloner’s Road, Tadcaster Road, Thanet Road and part of Gale Lane are to be excluded from the proposed 20 mph limit.

Proposed 20 mph speed limit roads. click to enlarge

However some bus routes (Acomb Wood Drive and Ryecroft Avenue) are included.

Most complaints about motorists exceeding the existing 30 mph speed limit arise on roads like Moor Lane and Tadcaster Road.

On Acomb Wood Drive the council has recently declined to take action to stop the significant proportion of drivers who exceed the 30 mph limit.

There is a contradiction in approach here which is likely to antagonise many motorists.

No detailed costings for this phase of Labours 20 mph policy have been published. We know, though, that every entry point into a 20 mph area will have to be signed and that frequent repeater signs are legally necessary.

Our view remains that residents DO want the existing 30 mph limits to be enforced but DO NOT want the Council to spend £600,000 on introducing a 20 mph limit which will have little practical effect.

This is supported by responses to the recent survey, which we included in Focus, where 72% of respondents opposed a “wide area” 20 mph limit.

There is a meeting on the subject taking place in Dringhouses tonight when the main advocate of the new limits – Cllr Semlyn – will be explaining herself. The meeting is taking place at Woodthorpe Primary School on Summerfield Road. There is a “surgery” at 6:00pm with the meeting proper starting at 7:00pm

http://www.york.gov.uk/council/Wards/dringhouses/