At the beginning of the month we said that the Council were ignoring the needs of sub-urban shopping areas, with Front Street one of the main victims.

Despite this the Labour Cabinet went ahead and allocated another £1.6 million for upgrades to the Newgate market in the City centre.

Well fancy that! Click to enlarge

With Acomb residents and traders increasingly angry about the Councils policies, it seems that Labour are finally waking up to the disquiet.

Whether traders who recently formed the “Acomb Alive” group will be impressed by the decision to hold an “information afternoon” on 8th December remains to be seen.

The absence of any funding to support a regeneration initiative may fuel scepticism as will the decision to scrap resident’s ballots on ward funding priorities and the plan to hold ward committee meetings at times when most people will be at work or school.

A Freedom of Information request has revealed that the York Council is owed £3.7 million in Council Tax debt (accumulated prior to the current year).

Debts by property value. click to enlarge

This has been accrued by 8598 residents.

Of these, 181 owe more than £3000 and 61 owe more than £5000.

4134 residents have been claiming Council Tax benefits for more than 1 year.

15,105 residents in the City currently qualify for reduced Council Tax payments.

Of these 3239 are in paid work while 3964 also receive employment or income support. 1899 are receiving job seekers allowances.

Students from a secondary school in York are among the first to take part in this year’s cycle training course, offered by City of York Council.

Youngsters from Millthorpe School are taking part in the Bikeability training session, to showcase their new cycling achievements.

For a small fee all York students aged between 12 and14 years of age can now train and qualify for the Bikeability Level three cycle training, which is the only government approved cycle training scheme.

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Pupils in York have the chance to display their public speaking skills in a competition organised by the York Civic Trust and supported by City of York Council. The event, which will be held in the Guildhall on 21 November at 6.30pm, is open to young people in Years 7 and 8 from participating schools.
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