Newgate Market
The Council has published an update report on how it intends to spend £1.5 million upgrading the outdoor Newgate Market.
It is fair to say that the report actually reveals very little!
It will be discussed at a meeting taking place on 19th November.
It can be read here.
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Proposed development site click for detail
The application is for a two-storey building (1,087 sq m), associated landscaping and parking. The development would provide the headquarters and laboratory for a medical company named Tissue Regenx. Tissue Regenx specialise in cell replacement, primary used in wound care, vascular, cardiac and orthopaedics.
The company’s England head office is currently at the Bio Centre at York Science Park. The new headquarters is required due to growth, the need for a bespoke research facility and the desire for the company to have its own premises.
The firm would have some 55 employees.
The site lies within the Green Belt although it is not a very prominent site.
The land is safeguarded which means that it could be developed in the future. Alternative sites are available at the York Business Park (which is not in the Green Belt).
The application fails to address the dangerous cycle route down Northfield Lane and across the A1237 to Knapton which certainly needs improved lighting to accommodate any growth.
The Council must make a special case to the Secretary of State if the development of the land is to be approved.
Derelict school site next to Hob Moor
This despite a large number of objections and the proposal being in conflict with the Councils own rules on development densities.
The number of homes being proposed is almost twice the number agreed by the same planning department when they published the draft Local Plan earlier in the year.
It will be interesting to see how they manage to justify that particular policy somersault!
The planning application will be decided at the Planning-Committee meeting on 21 November 2013, at 4.30pm at West Offices, Station Rise, York.
The committee will visit the site at 12:45 pm on the Tuesday (17th November) before the meeting to familiarise themselves with the proposal and residents are also invited to attend.
Residents have the right to speak at the meeting. If you wish to speak, you must register this by telephoning (01904) 552062, and ask for Laura Bootland before 5:00pm on the last working day before the Committee meeting.
The proposal has been mired in controversy since a Labour cabinet member (Clr Merrett) publicly endorsed the scheme shortly after the planning application had been submitted, but before residents had been given the opportunity to comment.
Births, deaths and house building click to enlarge
The latest birth rate figures confirm that less than 10,000 homes are required over the next 25 years to meet the expected natural increase in the City’s population.
Labour however plans to build 22,000 (over the next 15 years) most of which will go to people not currently living in the City.
Yesterday developers announced a plan to build 1500 homes at Huntington on a green field location
The Council’s leadership have shot themselves in the foot claiming that with births exceeding deaths in the City new homes will be occupied by existing York residents.
Who would occupy 22,000 additional homes click to enlarge
Indeed average housing building rates, over the last 10 years, have more than equalled the natural growth in the City’s population.
The increase in population over the last decade has mainly been caused by higher life expectancy, although the population did get a boost as a result of the (unrepeatable) growth in Higher Education provision in the City.
The census returns indicate an average annual increase in the City’s population of 1691 during the last decade.
There is a housing problem in the City but it stems from high rent levels in the private sector. Even after taking into account housing benefit (rent rebates), renting a home in York is relatively expensive.
Potential owner occupiers can still buy 2 bedroomed homes from £120,000.
That should lead the Council to give the top priority to providing more Council and Housing Association rented homes in the City.
NB. The Council have now accepted that their quoted housing waiting list numbers have been wildly exaggerated for the last 2 years.
