Labour Councillors will meet on Tuesday 7th May to discuss a proposal to build flats on the garage area at Newbury Avenue.

There are similar proposals for Chaloners Road and Hewley Avenue.

Some of the homes will be built at sites at Fenwick Street; Beckfield Lane (former recycling centre) and York Road, Haxby.

In total between 60 and 70 Council homes will be constructed.

Ironically none of the garage sites sites were identified for housing in the Local Plan published by the Council only 10 days ago!!

Residents in Newbury Avenue were alerted to the threat by the Liberal Democrat Focus team who undertook a door to door survey on the issue a couple of weeks ago.

See table for resident’s responses.

Despite the opposition it is likely that Labour will go ahead with their plans.

We know that at least one resident, with disabled dependants, will be adversely affected.

Two of the garages are currently used to store equipment needed to maintain the estate.

With parking space at a premium in the area, the Council have yet to indicate where they think that the displaced vehicles will go.

We understand that the Council has only written to the residents, who currently rent the garages, in the last few days.

No consultation with the local community or residents association was undertaken by the Council.

All in all a pretty shabby way of treating a local community in our view.

A quicker way of providing more homes to rent quickly, would have been for the Council to purchase empty property on the open market.
Alternatively they could have done a deal with one of the house builders who already have planning permission to build homes at places like the Terry’s, Nestle South, Germany Beck and the old Sugar Works on Boroughbridge Road.
Such an approach would have the advantage of “kick starting” housing developments that are effectively “stalled”.

The report to the “Cabinet” can be read by clicking here

Site plan click here

Residents can submit by Email comments on any agenda item.

Residents can also register to speak at the meeting (but must do so in advance)

Representations can also be made via local ward Councillors.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Nigel Ayre is calling for answers over proposals to construct wind turbines across York.

Some of the turbines are set to be constructed on land to the west of Woodthorpe, Westfield and Acomb

Details of the scheme have emerged as part of Labour run City of York Council’s Local Plan. The proposals, which were announced earlier this month, would also see 22,000 new houses built in York over the next 15 years.

After questions from Lib Dem Councillors, it can now be revealed that locations across York have been earmarked as potential sites for ‘Renewable Electricity Generation’.

An area outside the outer ring-road, has been highlighted as being potentially suitable for commercial wind development with council maps plotting large (2.5MW) and medium (1.5MW) scale wind turbines in the area.

Large turbines are typically 75 to 100 metres tall.

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Two 15-year-old boys have been arrested in connection with an attempted robbery at a convenience store in York.

The incident happened at the Premier Stop Gap on Beckfield Lane at about 7.05pm on Thursday 25 April 2013.

Two youths wearing face coverings entered the shop and demanded cash from staff members

However, the staff refused to hand over any money and they made off on foot.

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The York Council has used outdated statistics to support their proposed Local Plan.

A key feature of the plan to grow jobs by 1000 a year and house numbers by 22,000 are the assumptions being made about commuting.

For these the Council is relying on the output from the 2001 census.

For many years there have been more people commuting into York to work than going the other way.

Most come from the East Riding and Selby areas.

Around 2900 commute into York from Leeds and the West Riding while 5800 commute the other way.

It seems likely that this will continue as people match their specialist skills to the location of suitable employment.

It is fanciful to suggest that most York commuters will find suitable local jobs even in an expanding economy.

Some inward commuters may chose to move into the City but families with 2 or more people in employment will not find that an easy or cheap option.

What is surprising is that the Council should see the provision of a 5000+ new town at Holme Hill (dubbed New Alexandria) in the southern part of the green belt as a solution to housing problems.

This sector of the City has some of the worst traffic congestion in the county.

It is remote from the major employment development sites and there is no obvious – affordable – route into the City centre for a non road transport link.

The Local Plan acknowledges that congestion delays could DOUBLE by 2026.

Labours new Local Plan looks increasingly like a poorly thought through proposal.

York railway station is the 44th busiest in the country.

During 2011/12 it had 7.5 million passenger movements an increase of 6% on the previous year.

There were over 1 million interchanges at the station – higher than average.

By comparison Leeds station had 25 million movements a 2% growth on the previous year.

The data has been published by The Guardian.

The lists reveal Waterloo as the busiest station with 94 million movements. Kings Cross had 27.8 million.

Busiest station outside the capital is Birmingham New Street (31 million)

Musicians and dancers from across the globe will be celebrating diversity and faith at the first City of York International Festival of Faith and Culture on Saturday 27 April

From 11am-5pm at Parliament Street, a central stage will feature performances by Chinese instrumentalist Xicheng Li, York City Gospel Choir, Turkish music and dance, English folk bands and African drummers plus a puppet show and Arabic fashion show.

Among the activities will be face painting, storytelling, henna art and badge making too. In addition, information stalls run by groups representing different faiths, churches, communities and organisations will run alongside speakers from a range of faith groups and places of worship.

Changes to York’s Park & Ride concessionary bus pass fares will take effect this Sunday 28 April.

Anyone who is entitled to discounted travel on the York Park & Ride service will see an increase of 10p (from 60p to 70p) when boarding at any Park & Ride site.

The fares increase was agreed by Labour Councillors at February’s budget council meeting