639 York Council tenants affected by removal of spare room subsidy

639, of York’s 7803 Council tenants, were affected last year when the “spare room subsidy” was removed.

New figures reveal  that 267 of them now have new rent arrears.

None have been issued with eviction notices.

To deal with hardship cases, the Council has a budget of £300,000 for the current financial year.

Only £207,272 (72.4%) had been allocated by the end of January.

The Council had previously said that it had 1347 people on its housing list waiting for one bedroomed accommodation.  Many of these are currently occupying larger properties which would be released for families if under-occupation could be eliminated.

Despite there being numerous one bedroomed properties available on the open market in York, the Council has so far declined to use its £13 million housing surplus to purchase some of them.

A one bedroomed flat on Green Lane in Acomb has a guide price of £80,000

The policy is likely to be challenged at a Council  meeting taking place at the end of the month.

Dog fouling – York Council policy questioned

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

It looks like the decision made by the Council to scrap the dog warden (animal welfare) service has backfired.

Complaints about dog fouling have been increasing but it seems that many do go unreported.

The number of fines issued has steadily decreased.

Now there is likely to be a move to reintroduce the dog warden service when the York Council debates its budget plans for the forthcoming year on 27th February.

Lendal Bridge closure poll – Council trying to manipulate public opinion?

Lendal bridge - always been busy at 5;00pm

Lendal bridge – always been busy at 5;00pm

The Council are reminding everyone that they need to complete an “on line” survey to make their views known on the Lendal Bridge “trial”.

So far the Council have refused to release details of the results from the original questionnaire which had been available on their web site since last October.

Some of the questions have now been changed, so the intention clearly is to begin again and total the responses from a new (much later) base date.

Many who have completed the old survey may not know that they now  need to update their answers.

You can access the Council form  by clicking here

It takes about 3 minutes to complete.

Meanwhile the independent survey being conducted by the Liberal Democrats in west York is still showing that 88% believe that the Lendal bridge access restrictions should be lifted.

5% want  the restrictions to continue and 7% remain undecided.