Suicide levels in York – Council acts

antidepressants_suicide A Council meeting will also assess a five year audit of suicides in the city, between 2010 and 2014 which looked at all deaths in York in which the coroner concluded that it was death by suicide.  The audit was conducted in line with national guidance in order to enable better understanding of the pattern of suicide in the city.

The findings highlight the fact that the number of suicides in York is above the national and regional average and looks to inform suicide prevention work and activities and feed into a future suicide prevention plan.

Recommendations on suicide prevention which will be discussed at the meeting will include:

  • ·        Work towards achieving formal ‘Suicide Safer Community’ accreditation
  • ·        Develop a suicide prevention framework for York
  • ·        Undertake a regular programme of suicide audits
  • ·        Develop ‘suicide surveillance’ and real time ‘early alert’ processes to improve the multi-agency response
  • ·        Provide more responsive support arrangements to those affected by suicide
  • ·        Ensure that those people who are affected by suicide are able to have their views and experiences heard

The report follows a conference held last month which launched an ambition for York to be a Suicide-Safer community and part of a Mental Health Friendly County.

Councillor Carol Runciman, Executive Member for Health and Adult Social Care and Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board said: “Suicide devastates the lives of individuals, families and communities. This audit and meeting will look at how we as a city can improve our suicide prevention work and better support our residents. It is important that we talk about suicide and that as a council we continue to work with partners across the city to prevent suicides.”

Sharon Stoltz, Director of Public Health at City of York Council said: “Every suicide is a tragedy and City of York Council takes the issue of suicide and preventing deaths by suicide very seriously. This audit, which is in line with national best practice, reviews every death between 2010 and 2014 where the coroners outcome was suicide. The audit provides an opportunity to discuss suicide prevention and find areas where we as a city can improve the support available, which will feed into our suicide prevention plan, and I would like to thank officers and partners who supported this work.”
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Extra Christmas Park & Ride services

There will be extended Park & Ride (P&R) services on Thursdays and Boxing Day.

Park and ride busesIn the lead up to Christmas, the council is working with First York to provide a late night shopping service on all Park&Ride routes every Thursday, with the last bus leaving the city centre on all routes at around 9.30pm. For exact timings visit www.itravelyork.info.

The extended service will run from Thursday 17 November to coincide with the biggest Christmas market in York’s calendar – York Christmas Festival (which includes St Nicholas Fair), which runs between 17 November and 23 December.

In addition to this, passengers will also be able to take advantage of travel on Boxing Day on three P&R routes (standard fares apply):

  • Askham Bar (white line – route 3) – First bus at 7am from the site, last bus back from Tower Street at 6.40pm
  • Designer Outlet (red line – route 7) – First bus at 7am from the site, last bus back from Rougier Street at 6.40pm
  • Monks Cross (silver line – route 9) – First bus at 7am from the site, last bus back from Rougier Street at 6.40pm

All three services will operate at a 15 minute frequency throughout the day for all passengers and will serve all bus stops along the route.

 

To find out more about the Christmas bus offer or to find the best bus route through York, try out the council’s  i-Travel York online Journey Planner at www.itravelyork.info

York Flood Inquiry verdict not expected until next year

Floods cost City £3.3 million

Floods cost City £3.3 million

It seems that over 12 months will have elapsed between the Boxing Day 2015 flooding crisis in York and the earliest date that changes to flood response practices in the City could be implemented.

The Council now says that its Executive will not consider the report of an independent floods inquiry until 26th January 2017.

The Inquiry was set up last Spring by the Council with a budget of £50,000. It was expected to deliver an early verdict on the performance of the authorities in dealing with the floods which devastated many parts of the City which lay near the Foss.

The performance of the Council itself on the 26th and 27th December was subject to criticism, with communications and relief work largely in the hands of the emergency services and volunteers on those days. There was no useful advice on the Councils web site at that time although information was updated later.

Nearly 12 months after the floods some businesses are only now reopening.

In the interim the Environment Agency have fitted powerful new pumps at the Foss Barrier while work to protect Leeman Road has been finished. Some local watercourses like the Tang Hall Beck have been cleared of debris by volunteers.

But large areas of the City remain vulnerable if a combination of melting snow and falling rain causes the Ouse to break its banks.

The York Disaster Fund – established to deal with emergencies of this nature – was also ineffective in the first week of the crisis and even now has only distributed around half of the £1.3 million raised by donations.

The Independent Inquiry has been taking evidence from the public over the last couple of months.

It’s membership – a Barrister and two water industry professionals – has been criticised for lacking local authority/emergency planning expertise.

So, what they will conclude is anyone’s guess.

However clearly when flooding does occur – as it will – the City needs to be quicker and more professional in its response

We can only hope that there are no major floods in the city before February at the earliest!

Concerned residents can find more information by clicking these links: