York Council debt set to increase to £300 million over next 5 years.

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Click for detail

The York Councils debt is set to increase to over £300 million by 2018.

That’s the equivalent of £2,530 for every taxpayer in the City.

The amount owed by the Council, net of investments, currently stands at £204 million.

Even that figure is double the debt inherited from the previous LibDem administration in May 2011.

Council debt

Ironically, when in opposition, Labour said that the Council had too much debt.

Their actions in tripling the burden will take some explaining at the next Council elections in 2015.

The Authority is vulnerable to increases in interest rates although much of the borrowing is long term.

This year the extra expenditure means that £27 is added to this years Council Tax bill in repayment costs with a further £14 expected next year.

The figures are due to be discussed at a Council “Cabinet” meeting later today.

Latest planning applications for Acomb

Below are the latest planning applications received by the York Council for the Acomb ward.  No applications for the Westfield area were received last week

Full details can be found by clicking the application reference

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Location:       164 Beckfield Lane York YO26 5QT

Proposal:       Conversion of existing garage into self contained granny annexe

Ref No: 13/03467/FUL

Applicant:      Mrs Joanne Corringham   Consultation Expiry Date:       26 November 2013 Case Officer:   Elizabeth Potter        Expected Decision Level:        DEL

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Representations can be made in favour of, or in objection to, any application via the Planning on line web site.  http://planningaccess.york.gov.uk/online-applications/

NB. The Council now no longer routinely consults neighbours by letter when an application is received.

Labour’s housing waiting list scam – Freedom of Information request submitted

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click to access

A Freedom of Information request has been submitted aimed at getting to the bottom of the recent drop in the number of people on the social housing waiting list in York.

The number on the  list fell from over 4600 families at the beginning of September, to only 2200 in October. No new social housing developments were completed for occupation during that period.

It turned out that a behind closed doors decision had been taken to kick more than half of the applicants off the list.

We now understand that most of these were deemed to be people who did not have a real housing need and who had not applied for any of the homes advertised during the previous 12 months.

Of the others, 140 were already homeowners and 187 had no local connection while 13 had no local connection and were also homeowners

57 applicants had their application banding changed from Gold to Silver.
The Council has to respond within 28 days to the FOI request.
The request seeks details of how the decision was taken, when and by whom.

It asks the Council what consultation was undertaken.

It seeks more information about the categories of people who have been thrown off the register.

York electric vehicle charging point network revealed

Tourists, businesses and residents in York can now benefit from the region’s first network of pay-as-you-go electric vehicle charging points.

Electric vehicle chargingIn addition to the 12 charging points already located across York, a network consisting of six fast charging points has now been installed at five locations across city centre car parks (Union Terrace and Nunnery Lane) and Park & Ride sites (Monks Cross, Grimston Bar and Designer Outlet) to allow drivers to re-charge their cars on a pay-as-you-go basis.

The network is publicly accessible with a simple payment system so that users can pay by phone or text in a similar way drivers currently pay for parking in council owned car parks.

Each charging point allows two electric vehicles to top up their batteries at the same time with up to 22kW power output from a choice of type two or three pin charging sockets.
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