No surprises on Tour de France route – Labour Councillor on “freebie” to Paris?

There were no surprises when the route that the Tour de France will take though York was revealed today in Paris.

click for enteractive map

The route will start from the Racecourse on Sunday 6th July taking in the City centre before leaving the City via Bootham, Clifton Bridge and Boroughbridge Road and making its way to Harrogate and Sheffield.

York taxpayers are already set to get a bill for over £1.4 million for the stage two depart event.

There were no surprises either when it was revealed that another Labour Councillor jumped at the chance to visit Paris today for the, somewhat less than historic, announcement of “Le route”.

This time is it was Cllr Tracey Simpson Laing, who represents the Acomb Ward, who took the opportunity to top up her air miles.

The trip came only a couple of days after the Council decided to scrap 12 self help salt bins in the Acomb ward (see list below)

These bins would have cost £600 to fill with salt this winter.

NB. Co-incidentally, the cost of 2 airline tickets from Leeds/Bradford to Paris return is around £500. Eurostar is a bit cheaper.

The Acomb Ward salt bins being scrapped by the Council are located at:
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Burton fails Westfield as “adopt a salt bin” scheme launched

The names of the 5 Labour Councillors who voted on Monday to scrap most of the “self help” salt bins in the City have been published. They include 3 Councillors who were parachuted in by the Labour Leadership to replace members who had refused to take part in the highly unpopular decision.

Burton: protesting against cuts 2 years ago

The five Councillors were:

• S Burton (Westfield) Substitute

• N McIlveen (Rawcliffe)

• R Potter (Heworth)

• J Riches (Holgate) Substitute

• N Barnes (Hull Road) Substitute

They endorsed the cuts which were originally proposed by Cllr Levene (Heslington)

The decision of representatives from Westfield and Holgate to endorse the cuts is particularly disgraceful, as those wards will face the brunt of the cut backs, which also involve stopping gritting some bus routes (including the number 24 in Westfield).

Westfield Liberal Democrat Councillor Lynn Jeffries attended the meeting and voted against the cuts.

The Council have now said that residents groups may “adopt a salt bin” if they feel that it serves a particular need in their area. As the salt bins (which cost £300 to provide) already exist, the residents groups would “only” need to find around £50 a time to have each filled. Contact the following Email address if you want to “adopt a salt bin” andy.binner@york.gov.uk

If it is a mild winter, then one fill might be enough.

Another alternative might be to use a private contractor to keep the bins filled.

We have mixed feeling about the scheme which could discriminate against deprived areas.

However it has the advantage of keeping the bins on the streets so that, after Labour inevitably lose control of the Council in 2015, normal winter maintenance services can be resumed quickly by the new Council.

These are the 15 salt bins in the Westfield Ward that the Council propose to remove.

They are:
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Jeremy Peter Andrew Green charged with Leeman Road murder

A MAN has appeared in court today charged with murdering estate agency worker Nicole Waterhouse and trying to murder her colleague Karen Browne.

Jeremy Peter Andrew Green, 25, was charged by detectives last night, hours after they appealed to the public for help determining how the women spent the hours before the attack.

He was arrested in the early hours of Monday 21 October 2013 following an incident at Phoenix Boulevard in the Leeman Road area of the city during the evening of Sunday 20 October 2013.

Closing date for secondary school places in York looms

City of York Council is reminding parents of all year 6 pupils that the deadline for applications for secondary school places for September 2014 is the end of the month (31 October).

Applications for children born between 01.09.02 and 31.08.03 can be made at www.york.gov.uk/schooladmissions, by contacting the School Services team on 01904 551554 or by emailing education@york.gov.uk

Information about schools, the allocation process and admission policies can all be found in the Guide for Parents available at www.york.gov.uk/guideforparents

Parent/carers will find out which secondary school their child has been allocated on the 1 March 2014.

The closing date for Primary School places is 15 January 2014.

For regular updates follow the school services team on twitter @School_Services