Residents and businesses to have their say on the future of York city centre

Local people are being invited by the City of York Council to have their say on the future of York’s city centre as a major 12-week consultation is launched today to help the Council create a long term vision for the city.

‘My City Centre’ will build on York’s strengths by seeking the views of residents, businesses, visitors and stakeholders to inform a new city centre vision. This vision will guide investment and shape development and improvement projects in York city centre for decades to come.

An online survey will explore issues ranging from affordability, community and the environment to digital technologies, transport, leisure and culture. It can be completed at www.york.gov.uk/mycitycentreyork.

An exhibition and series of drop-in events are also planned in the city centre and around wider York where the public will be encouraged to share their views on some of the challenges facing the city centre through responding to the questionnaire and other interactive elements. The exhibition starts at York Explore, Museum Street from 2 to 26 March before stints at Burnholme and then Acomb. The first two drop-in events are being held on Saturday 14 March on Parliament Street and Friday 20th March at St Helen’s Square, both 10am-2pm.

On Monday 23 March, a workshop session led by retail expert Bill Grimsey provides a further opportunity to discussion the future of the city centre in more detail. Tickets can be obtained at https://mycitycentreworkshop.eventbrite.co.uk

The full details for the exhibitions are:

Touring exhibition

  • Mon 2 March – Fri 27 March @ York Explore
  • Mon 30 March – Fri 17 April @ Centre@Burnholme/ Tang Hall Explore
  • Mon 20 April – Fri 8 May @ Acomb Explore
  • Mon 11 May – Fri 22 May @ City of York Council West Offices

Staffed drop-in sessions

  • Wednesday 18 March, 11.30am to 1pm and 5.30pm to 7pm @ York Explore
  • Tuesday 7 April, 10am to 2pm @ Centre@Burnholme/ Tang Hall Explore
  • Thursday 30 April, 10am to 2pm @ Acomb Explore
  • Wednesday 13 May, 3pm to 6pm @ City of York Council West Offices

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The curtain of secrecy falls again at York Council

Those hoping for more transparency at the York Council under its new LibDem/Green leadership have been desperately disappointed this week.

First a failure to reform the system for granting early release resulted in a “behind closed doors” decision which could be costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Now the Council has closed down direct access to the responses that it has made to Freedom of Information requests.

For over 10 years residents were able to browse “on line” what the Council had said in response to requests.

No more.

The responses have been removed from the Council web site and users must now search a “disclosure log“ before requesting copies of the responses.

There are hundreds of FOI and  Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) requests made each year.

York Council block direct access to information

In most cases the issue titles used on the log – which is 6 months out of date – give little clue as to what has been asked. Much less could users second guess the answers.

Instead they must make an application for access to the source document.

In most cases we would expect that researchers would simply submit a new request.

At present the “What do they know” web site is unaffected https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/select_authority

The performance of the Council in responding to FOIs is poor. There is one current example – a request for  copies of Service Level Agreements – which has been outstanding for over 4 months; well outside the performance target set by the Information Commissioner.

Ostensibly the Council has made the change to ensure that those with disabilities have the same opportunity to get information as the able bodied.

Unfortunately the Councils interpretation means that both sectors of the community will now share a common level of ignorance and inconvenience.

As a minimum the Council should put a link on its “register” to the actual documents. Web services such as “dropbox” make this very easy to do.

A parallel service for disabled uses should also be made available.