The York Council came 103rd out of 325 local authorities in the Country for the number of Ombudman’s complaints made against it during the last financial year.
11 complaints were upheld
In total 60 complaints had been received.
The full figures for all local authorities can be found by clickingthis link
A set of goal posts have disappeared from the playing field to the rear of Westfield Place.
The removal follows a series of actions by the York Council which has seen sports facilities eroded in what is York’s poorest neighbourhood. The sports field at Lowfields has been built on, the multi user games area closed and a (private) bowling green sold for housing.
No consultation took place before the set of goalpost were removed.
One set remains. The ward committee had been expected to arrange for the posts to be repainted, and the pitch remarked, before the start of the football season.
The Council has confirmed that it has not received any payments from the Spark container village as part of the “profit sharing” arrangements agreed nearly three years ago.
The payments were expected to help offset the £40,000 of taxpayers money spent in providing electricity and other services to the site.
The first payment was due in April
The company also haven’t yet provided the cladding required by a planning condition dating back nearly 2 years. The Councils planning department is coming under increasing pressure to take enforcement action.
The Spark owners were recently quoted in the local newspaper as wanting to continue to use the site when their current lease expires in June!
As problems with the weed control programme in the City
intensify, one Councillor has discovered that contractors may have been using
the wrong type of weed killer.
The approved weed-killer is Glyphosate
(Roundup). This has proved to be ineffective against many types of weeds including
Horses (Mares) Tail and willow-herb.
Now
Cllr Mark Warters has found that use of the “Diamond”
formulation on Mares Tail in his ward has had good results. He is urging the
Council to use it in the future.
The
news comes as residents wait to hear when – or even if – the Council is going
to organise a clean up of the weeds and detritus which has grown up on the City’s
streets this summer.
Although
a report to an October meeting has been promised more urgent action is needed.
The expectation
was that the executive Councillor with responsibility for street services would
have reported on progress to the scrutiny meeting which is due to take place on
11th September.
However a report to the meeting published yesterday pointedly makes no reference to the ongoing problems on our streets.
All these issues have been reported to the York Council for their attention