York Council plans huge increase in borrowing

£1 million a year in interest charges to be added to Council Tax burden

Labour Council leaders say that they want to spend an additional £44 million on capital schemes in the City.

Potentially controversial projects include:

Scarborough footbridge £3 million bill

  •  £3 million on a replacement Scarborough (foot/cycle) bridge (the adjacent rail bridge is currently being renewed in a completely separate project)
  • £12.1 million on new IT systems (£1.8 million of which will be charged to Council tenants)
  • £1.8 million on further “reinvigorating” York work
  • £11.0 million on a bridge into the York Central site
  • £800,000 on LED street lamps (despite the Council poor performance in getting existing lights repaired)

No provision has been made for the new Elderly Care facilities at Lowfields or Burnholme – effectively confirming that the Council intends either to abandon these projects or hand them over to the private sector.

Instead a further £300,000 is to be spent repairing existing homes.

Summary of new growth proposals click to enlarge

Summary of new growth proposals click to enlarge

Also missing is any reference to investment in the Guildhall although the last Labour Cabinet meeting authorised a £9.2 million scheme to convert it into a Digital and Arts Media centre.

The Council is making cuts to road resurfacing (structural maintenance) with its contribution falling from £1.0 million next year to £3/4 million in future years.

Labour intend to impose wheeled bins on terraced houses – sparking fears that wars, about the impact that collection points may have on neighbouring properties, will be reignited.

There is a lot missing from the published programme – or hidden from public view.

Despite promises that the “Combined Authority” link with West Yorkshire would provide capital investment funding for transport improvements such as the dualling of the northern by pass, no such contribution is shown during the next 5 years.

Congestion on northern by pass set to continue?

Congestion on northern by pass set to continue?

Similarly no new economic development funding is shown – leaving hopes, for a regeneration initiative in Acomb, floating in the air.

The housing programme once again fails to recognise the need for a face-lift on many sub-urban estates, despite the surplus on the housing account now approaching £15 million.

It is likely that Liberal Democrat Councillors will seek to use some of this surplus to tackle parking issues on some of the older estates where road widths are relatively narrow.

 Should we be worried about the Councils increasing debt burden?

Planned Council borrowing levels click to enlarge

Planned Council borrowing levels click to enlarge

The York Council currently owes about £330 million.

That is set to rise to £348 million over the next 2 years.

This is an historic high and means that a significant proportion of the taxes being paid (around 14%) are being absorbed by interest and repayment costs.  

The Council is currently borrowing at an interest rate of about 4% pa

The new proposals (above) will add around £28 to the average tax bill.

York Traffic Congestion Commission gets off to poor start

No attempt made to gain broad based support

Papers published this week give details of a Congestion Commission (CC) which is supposed to plot a way forward for transport policy in the City. It will cost taxpayers around £130,000.

Lendal bridge notice

Lendal Bridge closure went on for 8 months costing taxpayers over £1 million

The origins of the “Commission” are the lamentable failures of the present Council’s transport polices which culminated in the Lendal Bridge fiasco. When the extent of the failure of that “trial” became apparent it was abandoned and proposals for a “Commission” were hastily unveiled.  The, now unseated, Leader of the Council, had a penchant for “Commissions” which sounds grander than a policy review (which is effectively what the proposal is).

Labour and Green Councillors then voted not to review how and why the Lendal Bridge trial had gone so badly wrong.

One previous Commission (the Fairness Commission) failed simply because it didn’t attempt to attract all party support.  A former Labour Councillor was even parachuted in to be the chair of that organisation.

 The terms of the new Congestion Commission are similarly being bounced onto opposition Councillors, more or less guaranteeing an atmosphere of distrust if not downright hostility from day 1.

A sensible approach would have been to publish the proposed terms of reference of the Commission and invite comments.  If a mixture of lay people and Councillors were considered to be necessary, then the skills required (as have been suggested in the report) could also have been discussed.

Blossom Street/Station Rise remodeling has been a success. But Council is failing to maintain car park space availability signs

Only after a consensus on these issues had been achieved, could approaches be made to individuals who might contribute.

Instead Labour have published their preferred choice for Chair of the Commission – effectively daring non Labour Councillors to come up with alternatives.  That will place the prospective  “Chair” in a difficult position.

The other issue is, of course, one of timing.

There is both a General Election (which will help to determine how much money will be available to be spent on transport across the UK) and “all out” Council elections (at which York residents will have the opportunity to give a verdict on the current Councils transport mishaps) taking place on May 7th.

The result’s of both elections will have a major impact on the amount of money that York has to spend on transport and the priorities of York residents.

Each party will publish a manifesto and – at least at the Local Elections – residents will vote for the package that they most favour.

It almost beggars belief that the draft timetable for the CC specifies the 6 weeks leading up to the elections on May 7th as the period when “written submissions” will be invited.

Electric buses

Successful Park and Ride electric buses

 

Work should have been going on now for 6 months monitoring actual traffic volumes against forecasts.

At least until recently, traffic levels in the City were actually below 2008 levels. This was partly a result of the economic downturn.

Prior to that congestion levels had been stable for over 15 years.  That did not happen by accident.

It was partly due to car drivers choosing to make journeys at off peak times and partly due to Council policies such as Park and Ride and encouraging cycling/walking. 

The default position is not as some claim “do nothing”. The base position is “do more of what has been successful if the past”. Add in technology change, which should reduce unnecessary mileage, and you have the makings of a solution.

We have grave doubts about whether the Congestion Commission is the way forward.

 If it is, then its work should start in June when the political background will be much clearer.