Rubbish skips this weekend Saturday 16th November

Although the Council has cut back on the number of amenity skips it provides, several residents associations continue to run programmes aimed at making it easier for tenants to get rid of unwanted items.

The skips are only in place for a few minutes and residents must ensure that they put any rubbish into the skips and do not leave it on the path or highway.

1 Oldman Court 08:30 09:30

2 Viking Rd 10:30 11:30

3 Bellhouse Way 12:30 13:30

4 Fenwick Street 08:30 09:30

5 Spurr Court 10:30 11:30

6 Riverside Gardens Poppleton 12:30 13:30

New Homes Bonus & York

Empty home in Bradley Drive

Empty home in Bradley Drive

Labour Councillors are claiming that the £2.4 million New Homes Bonus, allocated this year to the York Council, is the result of bringing long term empty properties back into use.

 

They claim to have “torn up” the previous Councils empty homes policy when they took office in  2011.

 

In reality the latest (publicly available) calculations on the Governments web site reveal that only 11 long term empty York homes  were brought back into use between October 2011 and October 2012.

This is not surprising as there are very few, long term, empty residential properties in York.

Most of the Bonus was generated by the 352 additional homes built in the City. This again, by historical standards, is a relatively low figure.

Of these new homes, 152 were classified as “affordable”

The New Homes Bonus is a coalition government initiative which allows Local Authorities to retain, for a period of 6 years, part of the extra Council Tax generated when additional homes are built, commercial property converted into residential use or when long term empty homes are brought  back into use.

Unlike other Authorities the York Council is not investing the New Homes Bonus in providing additional affordable homes in the City.

They have also ignored government advice that residents should be consulted on the use of the Bonus.

York Council in new Traveller and Showmans site search

The York Council has announced a new search for possible sites for Gypsies and a Showman’s Yard.

Showman's site Wetherby Road Knapton Withdrawn in July
Showman’s site Wetherby Road Knapton Withdrawn in July

The announcement falls sort of asking for residents suggestions.

 

That is a mistake given the controversy which greeted the arbitrary allocation of land announced under Labour’s draft Local Plan last April.

The Council has issued a media release saying,

An updated study is underway which will help determine suitable locations for the development of Gypsy, Roma & Traveller and Showpeople sites in York, ahead of the next stage of York’s Local Plan consultation in 2014.

City of York Council has a statutory requirement to identify needs and allocate land and so has commissioned an external study in to the Gypsy, Roma & Traveller and Showpeople Housing Needs and Site Identification which will be used to inform and help determine which sites in York are suitable to be included in the Local Plan submission draft early next year.

The submission draft of the Local Plan is expected to published for consultation in Spring 2014.

The revised study will provide an update on the North Yorkshire Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment (2007/8) and the North Yorkshire Accommodation Requirements of Showpeople (2009).

It will also build on the work carried out by council officers in the Gypsy, Traveller and Showpeople Accommodation Needs Supporting Paper (June 2013) which were all supporting documents in the recent Local Plan Preferred Options consultation.

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Boost for unemployed youth in York

Major cities in England will receive government cash to invest over the next 3 years to help young people into lasting employment.

Nick Glegg

Nick Glegg

The Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Cities Minister Greg Clark are announcing investment from a pot of government cash given to England’s major cities to invest over the next 3 years, with the aim of helping more than 25,000 young people into jobs that last.

£4.6 million will be invested in the Leeds City Region to provide intensive, targeted wraparound support for at risk and long-term unemployed young people, an innovative pilot looking at the role that Employment Agencies can play in helping young people into work and the creation of a new Young Ambassador Scheme to offer peer mentoring, support and advice to young people

There are more people in work today than ever before. Since 2010 the government has helped to create over 1.4 million jobs in the private sector and over 1 million apprenticeships have started since the election.

Since April 2012, over 136,000 young people have started a work experience placement through the Youth Contract.

On 30 July the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Minister for Cities Greg Clark launched a competition for cities to design trailblazing initiatives to boost youth employment using £50m of funding from the Youth Contract scheme.

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