Foxwood Park, Bellhouse Way (opposite Community Centre)
We will have tools and training to cut down branches, open up the wooded area and clear the undergrowth and litter.
Also some bird-boxes.
Event will start at 10am and finish at noon.
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NB. Volunteers will be planting trees on Chesney’s Field tomorrow (Saturday 14th Dec) from 10:00am
Please come along and give us a hand
Council Leaders in London looking for an “App” 2 years ago.
The Smarter York mobile phone “App” allowed residents to report an incident – including a photo – straight into the Councils contact handing system. The “App” cost £8000 to develop.
It ran into problems with the Data Protection Act in October of last year
That is only 0.07% of the total number of contacts from York residents.
Last year 321 residents used the system during the equivalent period.
Many of the reports are understood to have been made by Council staff during the course of their normal duties.
During the same 6 month period, other residents used the following channels to contact the Council.
This will be deeply worrying for the Council, Leadership who anticipated that changing customer preferences would see a big shift to using electronic means to contact the Council.
Electronic transactions cost a fraction of the expense incurred in dealing with personal callers.
The whole business case for the new Council HQ was based on assumption that heavy investment in state of the art IT facilities would reduce day to day running costs for the Council.
This appears, so far, not to be the case.
The period covered was a time when residents were besieging the Council with complaints about revised bin emptying arrangements and new traffic restrictions in the City centre.
Meanwhile the Smarter York App needs to be upgraded to cover more public service areas.
In that respect at least, it has fallen far behind proprietary web based reporting tools such as “My Council” and “Fix my Street”.
After sailing through the early formalities, the Council became bogged down in debates about “joint authorities” and caravan site extensions.
Add in a bit of grandstanding, for the live web feed, and you have a recipe for muddle and confusion.
The Council didn’t even reach the controversial proposals to privatise York’s public conveniences. Major questions – on security, handing dangerous items like needles and the practicality of charging at night for the facilities – remain unanswered (or even unasked!).
The Council Leader managed to reply to only two of the questions tabled to him, with no time for a follow up challenge. (Credit where it is due, he has since provided written answers to others “on line”)
Other items – including a motion of “no confidence” – were voted on without discussion. What ever you may think of those involved, that is outrageously unfair.
In effect the inability of the York Council, to organise itself to debate issues, suggests that it has now become wholly dysfunctional.
It will increase calls for a return to the more discursive “committee system” which allows backbench Councillors – and residents – to make their points before issues reach a full Council, meeting.
In the meantime, the Group Leaders should ensure that each item on the agenda is allocated a “time slot”. The Chair of the meeting (the Lord Mayor) should limit contributions to the time available before taking any necessary vote and moving on.
In the past Group Leaders have nominated a speaker on each issue ensuring that there was a balanced debate. Each was given 3 minutes to make their points.
York residents will expect their representatives to find a solution to the procedural mess that has emerged.
The team, which supports parents and carers across the city of children aged between 0-19 (and up to 25 years of age for young people with disabilities) has been awarded the National Association of Families Information Services (NAFIS) Family First Award for quality.
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Alternatively the Council say you should “replant the tree in your garden”.
In previous years, Christmas trees have been collected from peoples homes when green bins were emptied. The Labour Council has, of course, scrapped the green bin collections, so we guess that some trees will end up dumped in hedgerows around the City.
Any trees which are returned to recycling centres will be turned into compost.
The Council has, however, found £89,000 during the last 2 years to spend on Christmas decorations in the City centre.
The decorations can be seen in Parliament Street, Davygate, Coney Street, St Helen’s Square, Stonegate and Micklegate.
Lamp post lighting is at Station Rise, Bridge Street, Lendal Bridge and Museum Street.
Mini Christmas trees are also installed in some of these streets as well as the Shambles and Goodramgate.
Traders in sub-urban locations have, however, lost out again.
Unlike previous years, the Council is not offering “free parking” on any day or evening in the run up to Christmas.
The Park & Ride service is operating without charge on Boxing Day from 3 sites.
Most of the Park and Ride buses operating yesterday evening – during the extended shopping period in the City Centre – were running empty.
Strensall Common Road level crossing closed from 22:00hrs 14/12/13 till 09:00hrs 15/12/13 due to track maintenance.
— York Travel (@york_travel) December 12, 2013