Fire in Dringhouses

At 12:50am on Wednesday 29 April, police attended a serious fire in flats on North Lane, off Thanet Road, in Dringhouses, York.

The emergency services were alerted by a call from a member of the public. The flats were evacuated however a man in his thirties was taken to York District Hospital where he was sadly pronounced dead.

The police and fire services are making enquiries to establish the cause of the fire, which is at this time unexplained.

Anyone who has information related to the fire is asked to contact police to assist enquiries. Dial 101, press option 2 and ask for York CID, quoting ref NYP-29042015-0013.

More secrecy as York Council tries to bury more bad news.

Behind closed doors logo

25 things you probably didn’t know about public services in the City

It appears that the Council haven’t made available to the public the answers to questions given  by Cabinet members at their meeting which took place on 27th March 2014.

In fairness the Council Leader s usually fairly prompt in proving public answers. Other cabinet members are more tardy and often evade the questions sometimes  in an attempt to score political points.

On this occasion there are some startling admissions.

These include:

  1. Since 2011, Labour have built only 1/3 of the number of houses built during the first three years of LibDem rule (which started in 2003).
  2. The Council has not agreed  any targets for its “Smarter York” team
  3. Residents have not been able to use the do it on line “Report it” facility to tell the Council about  potholes, faulty street lights etc since November. The Council blames a change to the  “Google maps” database.
  4. Around 30,000 calls are being received by the Councils customer contact centre each month. Typically 12,000  people visit the Council offices and 5000 Emails are received. During      March 61% of calls were answered in 20 seconds. 11% were abandoned by the caller.
  5. The Cabinet member with responsibility for customers  says, “Too much of the current interaction with the council remains through traditional routes and the use of online and self services has yet to be fully exploited” (See 4 above).
  6. Cllr Levene is looking forward to the “next round of Focus leaflets”
  7. The Council spends around £80,000 a year on mobile phones for its employees.
  8. The Council spent £26,807  on new chairs for the eco depot last year. The chairs purchased by the Council have a “life” of 5 years. No payment was received for the discarded chairs
  9. The Council received 1815 complaints from members of  the public between 1st April2013 and 21st March 2014.  The majority of the complaints were about environmental services.
  10. The number of residents opting to pay their Council Tax by 12 equal instalments has more than trebled (to 1618)
  11. The Council has over 70 separate “twitter” accounts which are being managed by staff
  12. The Council still hopes to publish a final draft of its Local Plan by mid year with an examination in public expected in the autumn and adoption “in 2015”.
  13. The token system for the park and ride facility at Monks Cross hasn’t been working for “2 years”
  14. The real time car park space available information was removed from the Councils web site last year. It is expected to be available again “by May 2014” Click  here for an alternative
  15. The majority of electronic Variable Message Signs (VMS) around the City are not operational at the moment. All are expected to be working again by October 2014 (!)
  16. There are no plans to relocate the Food Festival and specialist markets from Parliaments Street while works in Newgate are underway (the permanent stall holders will be relocated into Parliament Street while the works are undertaken)
  17. The Smarter York app is costing taxpayers £11,000 a year. In the 12/13 financial year there were 477 reports and in 13/14, 419 reports using this system. The Council hopes to add additional functions to the “App” in future.
  18. 710 households have signed up to pay for the emptying of an additional green bin this summer
  19. The number of dog fouling reports for the last three years show no increase: 216 in 2011, 219 in 2012, and 212 in 2013.      No FPNs for fouling were issued in 2013.
  20. The Cabinet member for housing is not in favour of supplementing Council housing stocks by buying vacant property on the open market. “They might require a new boiler”. She believes that the new 2 bedroomed Council houses, being  built on Beckfield Lane, are costing only £120,000 each!
  21. No investment is planned for sub-urban Council estate communal areas “because they are amongst the best in the country”!
  22. 1536 elderly and disabled  residents will be affected by Labour’s decision to scrap the Taxicard system (an alternative to the bus pass)
  23.  The URBIE buses, which provide mobile play facilities for children, have been  little used since Ward Committee funding was finished
  24. The Council will not guarantee that all existing Childrens Centres will remain open.
  25. Response times for street lighting fault reports are claimed to have been
  • Oct 13 – 1.2 working days
  • Nov 13 – 2.6 working days
  • Dec 13 – 2.3 working days
  • Jan 14 – 3.3 working days
  • Feb 14 – 3.3 working days
  • Mar 14 – currently 1.6      working days

The most surprising thing is that this information has had to be dragged out of the Council. They have an active press department which should be advising residents about the withdrawal of services before they actually happen.

Full list of answers click here