More cuts to local environment planned
It looks like Labour Councillors want to spend another £1/4 million on a 3 day cycling event next May. One of the stages of the new “Tour de Yorkshire” will finish in York with several local sprint races planned.
Taxpayers will be expected to pick up the bill, from the commercial rights owners, for a whopping £100,000 “hosting fee” for the event,.
A report which is being considered tomorrow, by the Councils Cabinet, shows no sponsorship or admittance fees aimed at offsetting the bills.
A decision will apparently be made before the Inquiry into the disastrous Grand Departy flop is completed.
Organisers were forced to admit a couple of months ago that the Huntington Stadium event – staged separately from the Tour de France start – had lost over £186,000. An inquiry into the event was subsequently ordered by the Council’s scrutiny committee.
More Cuts
The same Council Cabinet agenda talks of major cuts to basic service standards.
Road surfaces already breaking up
£1.3 million a year will be cut from social care budgets.
As well as the much publicised proposals to charge for green bin emptying and move to 4 weekly residual waste collections, Labour are now admitting that more cuts are planned to open space maintenance.
Volunteers will apparently be expected to maintain bowling greens, tennis courts, flower beds and undertake rose planting. The report says that the “replacement of bedding plants with ornamental grass at 18 sites could potentially save 1,519 hours of labour”.
Ominously the report talks of York’s roads and footpaths being “better than average” suggesting that further cuts in maintenance standards are planned.
Many residents will view with incredulity any proposals which would allow a further deterioration in the standard of highways surfaces.