Council spent £3,600 on Consultants who tried to “develop” York Cabinet

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The York Council spent around £4000 on a workshop for its Cabinet members  last December.

The 2 day workshop was held in secret and no details of its objectives – or feedback on its achievements – have emerged.

A bill from Consultant John Tizard was spotted by an eagled eyed resident when she perused the Councils accounts

It is not unusual for executive committees to consider how they want to operate – and how to go about achieving objectives – at the beginning of their term of office.

But the York Cabinet is close to the end of its life and expenditure like this – and the way that it has been authorised – is open to criticism.

York TV channel remains nameless?

The new TV channel aiming to start broadcasts in York next spring apparently still has no name.TV_Camera

A “competition” – offering a £1000 prize – to find a name ran on “Twitter” until 27th June.

With a similar project in Birmingham having recently been abandoned there is now some speculation about the future of the York channel.

There was some suggestion that the company could be based at the Guildhall but it now appears that the new channel will be located initially at the University’s Department of Theatre, Film and Television.

The station enjoyed the ringing endorsement of Council Leader James Alexander last November when it was awarded a license to broadcast on a “freeview” channel.

Station publicity said, “Launching in spring 2015, York’s new television channel will provide original and exclusive news, current affairs, entertainment, heritage, business and culture programming about York and the local area.

It follows the award of a 12-year L-DTPS license to broadcast on Freeview channel 8 by Ofcom to a consortium of leading local institutions including One&Other TV, University of York, York St John University, SCY, Visit York, York CVS, City of York Council, Yorkshire Film Archive in November 2013.

 The channel is expecting to create 12-15 new jobs initially”

NB. Science City – which was involved with the station – has recently been taken over by the City of York Council reviving some concerns about the impartiality of any affected media outlets.

A report on the future of the Guildhall is scheduled to be considered at the Council’s Cabinet meeting on 7th October 2014

Lendal Bridge report “called in” for further consideration

“Congestion Commission” shelvedtraffic

The Cabinet decision on how refends should be offered to motorists fined for driving over Lendal bridge has been “called in”.

This means that an independent scrutiny committee will decide whether the Cabinets proposals should go ahead (relying on motorists to find out themselves that the refunds are available) or whether the Council should write all who have paid fines offering a refund.

The Scrutiny Management Committee is next scheduled to meet on 8th September

NB. Labour have quietly abandoned their proposal to establish an all party “congestion commission”. The proposal was due to be discussed at a meeting taking place on 9th September. It has now been withdrawn from the agenda with no new date set for its consideration