Lendal Bridge fine refund report published

Labour say onus will be on motorists to claim

Traffic on Lendal bridge after closure

Traffic on Lendal bridge after closure

The report on if and how the York Council will refund the fines that it raised unlawfully against motorist using Lendal Bridge has been published. Click here to read it.

The Council has also issued a media release saying

Following approval at Cabinet, an announcement as to the opening of the application process will be made shortly through the council website and the council’s normal communication channels.

In order to protect the council against the risk from fraudulent claims a simple application process is currently in development and it is anticipated that this will be launched in the coming weeks.

Whilst the council appreciates that those affected by this process will wish to make their application at the earliest possible date, payments will only be made when requests are made through the official application process and contacting the council prior to the opening of the process will not be necessary or assist in any claims.

Given that many of those fined did not live in York (or even the UK) it would be scandalous if the Council did not agree to write to each telling them of their right to reclaim the fine.

York selected to pilot new Adoption Register Scheme

City of York Council is today (28 July) being given the green light to allow people approved to adopt to search the national Adoption Register for the first time.

The council has been specially selected to pilot the scheme which will allow approved adopters to learn more about the children who are waiting for a loving, stable home.

From this September, they will be able to find out about their hobbies, likes and dislikes, and hear them speak and laugh in videos and pictures to help match children waiting with their new family.
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Report it on line – Not at York Council

 

The facility to report issues like potholes and faulty street lights via the Councils web site was discontinued last year.

click to access

click to access

The Council promised that the facility would be restored by “April”.

A red faced Cabinet member has now admitted that delays continue but the service should be restored “within the next 3 weeks”

That’s pretty poor for a Council which set out to reduce its “transaction costs” by encouraging the use of electronic communications.

Official: Community Stadium completion date –“July 2016” – Cllr Crisp

The responsible Councillor has confirmed an opening date for the new community stadium at Huntington as July 2016 – just a few weeks before the start of the football season.

She confirmed that work will start on site in March 2015.

As the Council has yet to appoint a contractor much less get detailed planning permission – residents, taxpayers and football supporters will be looking with interest at the next stadium report which is due to be discussed on  2nd September

Huntington Stadium April 2014

 

Well fancy that – forgetful York Councillor has flash back

Given a medal for “leadership”

Cllr Crisp declaration list 7th July 2014 click to enlarge

Cllr Crisp declaration list 7th July 2014 click to enlarge

It seems that we were wrong earlier in the month when we praised Cllr Crisp for giving up her party lifestyle.

In a hurried change to the Declaration of Interests, which every Councillor must update each month, she has now recalled an event which took place in Durham last November.

She admits receiving hospitality at a Lumeire event organised by the Durham Council. What benefits York gains from social events like these is open to question.

What is not open to any doubt is that Councillors with a poor record keeping history need to be especially careful about transparency in their actions .

The latest list does reveal that Cllr Crisp claims to have led on organising the York stage of the Tour de France – for which she has received a “medal”!

Cllr Crisp declaration list 28th July 2014 click to enlarge

Cllr Crisp declaration list 28th July 2014 click to enlarge

Presumably she will now accept responsibility for those elements of the event – like the Grand Departy – which didn’t go so well?

We are fortunate, though, in having someone in charge of leisure who spends so much time undertaking research at York Races.

No doubt she will be putting forward views on how the alcohol fuelled violence, seen in the City over the weekend, can be better controlled in future?

Marygate car park barrier scheme cost £100,000

Labour back down and agree to fit card reader payment option by “early autumn”

The Council will fit a credit/Charge car payment option at the new Marygate pay on exit machines.

Marygate car park charges

Although they blame a “national issue with chip and pin devices” the reality is that the Council forgot to include the option in the original design specification.

The new system should not have been brought into service until a choice of payment options was available.

Card payments can be made at other City centre car parks like Piccadilly.

NB. Only about 1000 of the new £20 Minster badges have been sold so far.

Each of York’s 80,000 households is entitled to a badge which replaces the current free badge which was issued when the LibDems were in control of the Council.

There are around 30,000 active Minster Badges currently in use in the City.

From September, anyone without a badge will have to pay the full rate to park during the day and will also lose the right to free evening parking.

Lowfields – Labour remain tight lipped on future of school site

The responsible Council member refused to say at the last Council meeting when (or even if) work on the older persons care village at Lowfields would start.

Lowfields school entrance Oct 2010 She quoted the same spurious excuse, previously given by officers in response to media enquiries, “a competitive dialogue process” with prospective developers was taking place.

Local residents aren’t particularly interested in the details of the tendering process.

But they do want to know why the scheme is running 3 years behind schedule and they do expect the Council to have some idea when a planning application might be submitted.

The only information forthcoming was a statement that the whole of the Lowfields site is “13.71 acres of which the proposed care home and care village will cover 6.95 acres.  The remaining 6.76 acres is not part of the proposed scheme and there are currently no plans for that part of the land”.

So it seems that Labour are not prepared to confirm that the playing field part of the site is free from the threat of development.