Our council tax consultation closes tomorrow. Read the details and have your say here http://t.co/LZGTaJkpVK
— North Yorkshire Fire (@NorthYorksFire) January 30, 2014
Free City centre car parking on Saturday
All council owned car parks are offering free parking all day and evening on Saturday 1 February 2014.
Thirteen car parks will be free to use for residents and visitors to help them enjoy York’s vast city centre offering.
The car parks that will be free to use on Saturday 1 February are: Bishopthorpe Road, Bootham Row, Castle, Castle Mills, Esplanade, Foss Bank, Haymarket, Marygate, Monkbar, Nunnery Lane, Piccadilly, St George’s Field and Union Terrace.
The initiative aims to counter the decline in shopper numbers in the City centre following the closure of Lendal Bridge.
The Council is already forecasting that it will be £200,000 under budget for car parking income this year.
York to get more electric vehicle recharging points
Eight new rapid chargers for electric vehicles are to be installed in York, following an announcement from the Department for Transport today that an additional £244,500 funding is to be made available to support a national ‘ultra low emission vehicle’ campaign.
The new points can charge an electric car in around 20-minutes and will be located at Park&Ride sites and convenient locations across the city including the new Sports Village.
This means that electric vehicle drivers can travel around Yorkshire and be confident of being able to charge up their batteries quickly and at low cost. Electric vehicles can run for as little as two pence per mile and pay nothing for road tax.
The take up of electric powered vehicles in York has been slow.
More about existing electric vehicle charging points in York at itravelyork.com
City centre repaving consultation
The York Council is delivering a leaflet to all households outlining its plans for resurfacing works in the City centre.
Exhibition Square plans
They are right to do so but, in pointing to improvements planned for Exhibition Square, Blake Street and Fossgate, they lamentably fail to answer the question that will be on every taxpayer’s lips.
How much will these paving schemes cost?
There is little new in the leaflet. The Labour Council changed the Council’s forward programme in 2011 putting the modernisation of Kings Square ahead of the Fossgate pedestrianisation scheme which had been set to go ahead in 2012.
Next in line were to have been improvements to Duncombe Place, which could have provided a large and useful pedestrian precinct.
But the Councils increasing financial problems meant that progress would inevitably have slowed.
Residents might usefully have been asked when completing the “on line” survey whether they want any of these schemes to go ahead or whether the money might be better spent repairing the roads in sub-urban areas?
The danger in the Councils approach is that the improvement of the City centre may become politically toxic.
Against a background of plans for a further £1 million cut in road maintenance in sub-urban areas, residents are likely to demand of Council candidates – at the next local elections in 2015 – a commitment to improving public service standards in residential areas.
The City centre may find that its share of available resources is reduced.
Rubbish skips this weekend Saturday 1st February
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 Dringfield Close 08:30 09:30
2 Jute Rd 10:30 11:30
4 Hebden Rise 08:30 09:30
5 Ganton Place 10:30 11:30
8 Dale St 10:30 11:30