Applying for national Flood Resilience Grant now even easier in York

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

York residents and businesses can now complete and submit their application for up to £5,000 flooding support at the click of a button.

The application form for the national Flood Resilience Grant is now available to complete online at www.york.gov.uk/FloodResilienceGrants and can be completed and returned electronically. The national grant provides up to £5,000 to support the resistance and resilience of property flooded as a result of Storm Desmond and Storm Eva as part of a national package of financial support available.

The resilience grant will enable those who have been flooded to better prepare their homes for future flood events, both to prevent flood water from entering the property and to speed the recovery if it does.

The council has already received over 70 applications for the grant, with many hundreds of queries about the funding taken.

A new case worker, jointly funded by City of York Council and Two Ridings Foundation has recently been appointed to help guide people through the grant process.

Further information about the Flood Resilience Grant is available at www.york.gov.uk/FloodResilienceGrants

York con – Cold callers claim to be part of rehabilitation scheme

sCAM ALERT

City of York Council has had more reports of a scam in which cold callers in the York area are claiming to be selling household items as part of a rehabilitation scheme run by local or North East probation, youth offending or prison services.

Residents have told the council that individuals are going door-to-door in York and the surrounding areas trying to sell dish cloths and other cleaning or household items.

They claim to have identification (ID) cards issued by the Youth Offending Team, Prison or Probation Service. This is not the case and any IDs produced will be fakes.

The Council says, “Our youth offending services would never endorse such a scheme and we ask that residents do not support the scam by buying from these people.

Instead, please alert neighbours to this – particularly any vulnerable neighbours. Anyone approached by a salesperson claiming to be part of such a scheme should ring York police on 101 and report it.

North Yorkshire Police recommend that people concerned about unwanted visitors should call 101, or dial 999 in an emergency.

Who will be the new crime boss in York?

Only four candidates have come forward for the Police and Crime Commissioner elections which are taking place on 5th May.

Choose my PCCThe salary for the post is over £70,000. The current, Northallerton based, PCC also spends around £1 million a year on management expenses

The candidates are:

  • James Christopher Blanchard – Liberal Democrat Party Candidate
  • Julia Rosemary Mulligan – Conservative Party Candidate
  • Mike Pannett – Independent
  • Stephen Howley – Labour Party Candidate

All have managed to keep a low profile although both the Police and the  Crime Commissioner web sites are still advertising Julia Mulligans “surgeries”, despite the fact that we are now well into the “purdah” period during which public resources may not be used to promote individual candidates.

The keenness of the North Yorkshire police web site authors to promote the current PCC is in marked contrast to their ability to keep up to date more useful information on their site.PCC advice centre

Crime stats – which compare trends and performance against comparable areas – is not up to date. However, figures for York, up to last September, confirmed increasing crime rates and that crime is higher locally than in comparable City’s

It is many months now since the what’s on feature was updated on the Police web site, nor is there an identified Police Officer nominated as the lead for each ward (as was the case until 2011).

So what do the candidates say on these and other pressing issues?

No one knows.

The government has not provided a Freepost facility for candidates and even the comparative booklet (in which all candidates list their polices) will only be available on the web.  If you don’t have internet access then there is a telephone number that you can ring to get a copy of the booklet by post – however it is only advertised on the web (Catch 22!).

The telephone number is 0800 1070708

The independent Electoral Commission blamed poor voter turnout rates at the last PCC elections (held in 2012) on lack of communication from candidates

The government could have easily asked for manifesto information to be circulated with the Poll Cards that all electors will shortly receive. They could also have saved money by holding the election on the same day as the Euro referendum.

As it is, the £70,000 a year post doesn’t look like it will be seriously contested with another lamentably low turnout in prospect.

This would be a shame because the support services for the PCC are very expensive while the attitude of some of the staff working for the current incumbent have beenvariously patronising or evasive (see responses to questions posted to candidates).

Time for a change… but to what?