Sparks York – Pressure mounts on York Council Leader

It looks like Sparks York – who are responsible for the shipping container village eyesore on Piccadilly – have just managed to get their April 2017 accounts in to Company House by the 18th December deadline. They should be available to view on line next week.

Coincidentally, The Press have run a story today based on the FOI findings published a few weeks ago. Although a representative of Sparks has made a statement saying that everything will be all right in the end, and that the Council will recover its £40,000 investment in the project, there has been no statement from the Council itself.

This is strange given that the storage containers were parked of the Council owned Piccadilly site for 2 months before  a” tenancy at will” was signed.

Nor has there been any explanation of the precedence of a debenture loan taken out by Sparks in July and its effect on the Councils equity financial safety-net.

The decision to expand the area to be leased to Sparks – effectively rent free until the “village” starts trading – was made by the Leader of the Council David Carr last week.

No attempt was made to ask for an updated business plan which reflected the much-reduced period of tenure that the village will have (assuming it ever opens for business) nor were any questions asked about the company’s financial position and debts.

It could be an uncomfortable couple of months for Cllr Carr with a difficult annual budget meeting in prospect and the repercussions from his impulsive decision to sack two LibDem members of his Cabinet, coming to a head.

It is now “time up” for the investigations into the allegations arising out an information “leak” from the York Council.

Cllr Carrs decision to ask for a police investigation – into something that could never have been a criminal matter – raises serious question about his judgement.

Now he is also being implicated in the emerging West Yorkshire Combined Authority/LEP financial scandal highlighted by the Yorkshire Post at the weekend.

Incredibly the Authority seems to be flirting with the long discredited estate agent’s jamboree (Le Marché International des Professionnels de l’immobilier) which takes place in Cannes each year.

Attendance at the hugely expensive jamboree was a factor in bringing down the last Labour administration in the City.

According to one source, the West Yorkshire authority (which includes York) intend to charter their own aircraft to go to Cannes this year!

Lendal arch junction set to be upgraded in the new year

City of York Council is due to upgrade the traffic signals at the Lendal Arch gyratory in January 2018.

This includes the junctions of Station Road, Station Avenue, Station Rise, Rougier Street and Lendal Bridge

The upgrades will include a full renewal of the traffic signal equipment. Changes to the pedestrian crossing facilities, including widening and realigning the crossing to make the area safer and better for the thousands of pedestrians who regularly use the crossing.

The pavement in the area will also be brought up to date and widened and the junction will be resurfaced.

Councillor Ian Gillies, executive member for transport and planning said “These essential works continue our traffic signal renewal programme which ensures that signals at key junctions across the city are up to standard and working effectively. This is one of York’s busiest junctions and the work will bring it up to modern standards and ensure that traffic can continue to be well managed on the inner ring road.”

Work is set to start on Monday 22 January and is expected to take nine weeks to complete, weather dependant. Work will take place seven days a week from 8am – 6pm with some evening work required throughout the scheme.

Due to the location and nature of these works, motorists should expect significant disruption. Whilst everything reasonably possible is being done to keep this disruption to a minimum, motorists should expect delays. We are advising motorists that regularly travel through this location to plan an alternative route where possible.

To keep disruption to a minimum the junction will be operating under temporary signals during the works. We will be managing the network to reduce delays but drivers are asked to plan their journey carefully and leave plenty of time. Bus passengers are encouraged to visit www.itravelyork.info for more information on how the works will impact on their journey.

Other road works, connected to the development at Stonebow House, are also scheduled for January.  These works will by carried out by utilities companies.  The following traffic management will be in place to allow the safe construction of the works:

  • 4 way temporary traffic lights at the junction of Piccadilly / Pavement for 2 weeks starting 8 January 2017
  • Outbound closure on Piccadilly between Pavement and Merchantgate for 2 weeks starting on 29 January 2017

The five year traffic signal asset renewal programme was given the green light by the councillor responsible for transport and planning in November 2015 at a public meeting.

The total replacement programme will cost £2.62m over five years and will be funded through the capital programme budget and the existing Local Transport Plan budget.

For information about bus diversions during the works visit: www.itravelyork.info/