EU settlement scheme in York gets Council boost

Members of City of York Council’s Executive are sending a clear message of warmth and support to EU Citizens today in a letter to all EU27 Citizens in York. The letter reminds them of the help on offer for their EU Settlement Scheme application.

About the EU Settlement Scheme

If you are a citizen of a European Union country, a European Economic Area country (Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway) or Switzerland, you and your family can apply now for the Government’s settled or pre-settled status scheme.

Settled status or pre-settled status will ensure your continued right to stay in the United Kingdom after Brexit and will ensure you continue to have the same access to healthcare, benefits and pensions you currently have.

Applications for the EU Settlement Scheme are now open and the process needs to be completed online. All EU citizens currently living in York are strongly encouraged to apply for pre-settlement or settlement status via the www.gov.uk website. The current deadline for applying is 30 June 2021 (31 December 2020, should the UK leave without a deal).

Irish citizens need not apply as their status and rights are protected under existing laws. As well as this, some individual agreements have been reached with other European countries that are not part of the EU. All details and eligibility can be found at www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families.

Local support

Citizens Advice York will offer full help and support to applicants, including help in filling in the form and advice on issues which may arise during the application process. Call 03444 111 444 or visit the drop-in at West Offices (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday 9.30 am to 12.30 pm) for help and advice with your application.

Book an ‘assisted digital’ help session with ‘We Are Digital’ for support completing the EU Settlement Scheme online application, if you don’t have the appropriate access, skills or confidence to complete the form:
telephone: 03333 445675
text: ‘VISA’ to 07537 416944
EU citizens who do not wish to send their documents by post or are not able to use the government’s ‘EU Exit: ID Document Check’ app, can make an appointment at York Register Office to have their ID documents scanned and verified, before applying to the EU Settlement Scheme.

Call 01904 654477 to book an appointment.

Document scanning appointments are available:

Mondays, from 1pm to 4.30pm
Tuesdays, from 1pm to 4.30pm

Waiting times may vary and family groups are welcome to attend the same appointment.

More information is available at www.york.gov.uk/EUSettlementScheme.”

Issues in Albemarle Road area need tackling

Earlier in the week some parked cars on Albemarle Road were broken into. It seems that handbrakes were also released and vehicles allowed to crash into a wall.

Solid parking along the whole length of Almemarle Road. Yellow lines almost worn away.

Parking and traffic issues on the road are not new. Some at least arises out of he lack of parking controls (it is not yet a ResPark area). Today a delivery wagon had to reverse for nearly 1/4 mile to avoid on coming traffic. A dangerous manoeuvre. With some of the parking down to commuters, the introduction of ResPark – coupled to the provision of additional “passing places” – would seem to be in everyone’s interests.

Back lanes in the area are covered in weed and leaf fall with some also overgrown by hedges

Another area where Council bus shelters are showing their age. This one on Queen Victoria Street has a loose electrical connection.

Distinctly rebellious

Something of a furore has been caused on social media by a proposal to co-opt members of “Extinction Rebellion” onto the York Councils climate change scrutiny committee.

Although “Extinction Rebellion” is an unincorporated organisation, with little in the way of governance structure, it is easy to see why they would have an interest in a Climate Change committee.

What is irking some people is the way that the co option proposal has come forward.

Co opted members of Council Committees do not have a vote. They are free to make their points on a level playing field with elected representatives. Policy decisions rest with either Executive members or the Councils Executive itself.

A committee can however provide a powerful platform on which to express views.

Usually a committee thinking of co opting “experts” will consider a job description. They will identify gaps in the committees knowledge. They may want to correct an obvious psephological or geographical imbalance. They will certainly list the skill and qualification areas expected of any co optee.

The committee in this case doesn’t seem to have done any of that.

Instead a paternalistic approach has been adopted by the chair of the committee, who rather arrogantly, has listed the names of 4 people potential co-optees that most will not have heard of, and who have not been subjected to the test of an election (even by their peers)

That is paternalism.

There are other well established environmental organisations in the City with a claim to representation (Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace etc.) They don’t even merit a mention in the report.

The Climate Change committee has struggled so far to find an identity.

6 months after its inception it has yet to define a base line statistical position on carbon emissions. It seems unclear whether it is trying to make the City, or just the Council, carbon neutral by 2030.

It has the levers to do the latter but not the former without major central government intervention.

It should stop posturing and come up with some practical proposals for behaviour change, or investment priorities, that everyone in the City can relate to.