We’ve reported a problem with an accumulation of litter in the Haddon Close Tennent Road snicket.
Also bushes overgrowing the snicket which links The Reeves to Thoresby Road

Scare stories by some Labour politicians about crime levels are questionable at least in the west of York. Here crime levels are still reducing and are about average when compared to the country as a whole.
Obviously no one should be complacent. The absence of Community Ranger patrols may affect the figures and usually there is a blip in anti social behaviour during the school holidays.
The Council will need to ensure that areas are secure. For example, we found recently that the entrance chain, which helped to stop unauthorised vehicles and motor cyclists entering the Cornlands Road Park, had disappeared.

Residents can now access crime figures for their street and neighbourhood via the following web site
http://www.police.uk/
Similar a recent press story highlighted relatively high levels of complaints about noise from some local streets. These included St Stephens Road, Thoresby Road, and Windsor Garth. All, of course, contain a large number of flats that were built around 50 years ago. Sound insulation standards at that time were not designed to meet modern demands.
The Councils noise nuisance service generally does a good job. You can complain about noise on Friday and Saturday nights, between 9.00pm and 3.00am, by telephoning the Noise Patrol service on tel: (01904) 551555.

The Council is to increase the number of taxis on York’s’ streets by four a year. The vehicles will have to be either electric or hybrids. With no suitable electric vehicles available at present (range issues) it is likely that we will see more Toyota Prius style hybrid vehicles plying our streets for hire. (The current Prius model can be leased for around £100 a week with low fuel costs and zero VED).
We think the Council are right to take this decision as the new vehicles will reduce emission levels and should be quieter.
The Council has also introduced new standards for replacement taxi and private hire vehicles. For 2012 replacement vehicles will have to meet the latest Euro emission standards.
“Plug in” Toyota hybrid’s have been on trial in the UK for the last 12 months. They and the Chevy “Volt” are an increasingly common sight on roads in the USA. One would be an obvious choice for the Lord Mayors new car when the existing ones lease runs out shortly.
We’d like to see the Council now start to introduce low emission vehicles across its fleet. After a good start, when they bought 3 Smart cars 7 or 8 years ago, the fleet now fails to set a good environmental example by contemporary standards.
Unfortunately the Council has blundered by reintroducing a 24 hour taxi rank on Duncombe Place. The rank is currently closed at 10:00pm with alternative facilities being made available in St Sampson’s Square. We think it is wrong to encourage, sometimes noisy, patrons into the Minster neighbourhood in the early hours of the morning. The area has several residential properties as well as hotels whose guests deserve a good night’s rest!