Record number of candidates for York Council poll on May 7th

Over 200 candidates will be seeking to become members of the City of York Council at the elections which are due to be held on Thursday  May 7th

A full list of candidates can be downloaded by clicking here.

Details of all Liberal Democrat candidates can be accessed by clicking here

Team Westfield

Four parties are contesting every seat (LibDem, Lab, Tory and Green). There is also a smattering of UKIP, Independent and trades unionist candidates

In the Westfield ward, only the Liberal Democrats are putting forward a team of candidates (Sue Hunter, Sheena Jackson and Andrew Waller) who all live in the ward.  UKIP, who came third in the by election held last October, are not fielding a candidate although a “Trades Union Socialist” will join the 12 contenders from the major parties on the ballot paper.

Graph

The contest is expected to develop into a straight choice between “Team Westfield” and Labour.

You can now register to vote using an online portal at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote which is quicker and easier than completing a form. You must submit an application to register to vote by 20 April 2015 to be able to vote in the elections held on Thursday 7 May 2015

Those wishing to vote by post have until 5pm on  Tuesday 21st April to register a request. You can download an application form by clicking here

York Central Labour MP below average in dealing with correspondence

Ranked 433 out of 653 MPs nationally

According to independent research site “Write to them.com” retiring MP Hugh Bayley achieved only a “medium” score on responsiveness to resident’s communications. He had achieved a “high” score the previous year.

MP letters

Julian Sturdy the Conservative MP for the neighbouring York Outer seat also only achieved a medium score.

The scores were based on the proportion of communications that an MP responded to.

In Hugh Bayley’s case he replied to 34 of 73 communications, while Julian Sturdy managed 31 responses to 59 contacts

Nationally the best MP (Michael Ellis, Conservative, Northampton) replied to all 32 contacts that he received.

Iain Duncan Smith Conservative for Chingford came bottom of the table replying to only 4 out of 55 contacts.

Four MPs however declined to respond at all to the “write to them” web site.  (Barbara Keeley, Labour, Worsley; Dominic Raab, Conservative, Esher; Liz McInnes, Labour, Heywood and Nadine Dorries, Conservative, Bedfordshire.

Ironically two of Hugh Bayley’s office staff are standing as Labour candidates for the York Council at the May 7th poll.

York Council took £1.85 million in bus lane fines

A Freedom of information response has revealed that the York Council has received £1.85 million in fines income from motorists misusing “bus lanes”.Camera

Most of the income was generated on Lendal Bridge and Coppergate.

The enforcement cameras have since been switched off at both locations and the Council is engaged in the costly exercise of writing, to all who were fined on Lendal Bridge, offering a refund. (A further FOI request for a progress report on the numbers responding is due at the end of the month).

The Council has not yet refunded fines imposed on Coppergate but instead submitted an appeal against a traffic adjudicator’s judgement that the fines were unlawful.

The appeal process has been dragging on for over a year now.

£1.85 million in fines