Over 70 people attended the Dringhouses ward committee meeting yesterday. Labour refused to hold a similar meeting in either the Westfield or Acomb Wards.

Although there were some in favour of the 20mph limit there was a majority against.

There was a lot of objection to the fact that there will not be a leaflet drop to every house, a lot of people felt that this was being imposed, that they hadn’t been asked and there was no mandate. Just because it was apparently in their manifesto didn’t mean everyone who voted Labour supported 20mph limits!

Basically residents were saying that the money would be better spent on enforcement and targeted road safety improvement work.

Councillors have promised to have the next meeting to coincide with the results of the informal consultation and the formal proposals.

(Interestingly the 20mph website only allows you to express your support for 20mph limits and currently there is no online form or dedicated email address you can use to comment. The web site is pretty juvenile anyway http://www.york20mph.org/)

Liberal Democrats will continue to oppose the plans to introduce a wide area 20 mph speed limit

The Cabinet member with responsibility for Social Care and Housing (Cllr Laing) in the City is likely to face some difficult questions when she holds her first “decision” meeting for 3 months on 12th December.

Not only has the housing waiting list almost doubled since she took over her responsibilities, but now it looks like the flagship programme for building new elderly care homes has also run into trouble.

Reports are emerging that the plan to build a replacement for the Fordland’s elderly care home in Fulford are being abandoned.

Worse, it seems likely the Lowfields Care Village (conceived by the last LibDem run Council) is now even further behind schedule, with the Council’s complex management plan blamed for tendering delays.

A behind closed doors decision was taken in the summer to advertise the contract for the management of the new Lowfields Care Village but, apparently, with the Unions being given advice on how to organise an in house bid for the contract. The Council had been promising http://tinyurl.com/York-15th-May-2012 completion of the care village by April 2014 but this now seems highly unlikely.

All this on top of a big increase in home care costs during the last 18 months.

The cost per client has almost doubled in the last year. Spend on home care contracts has increased from £54k a week in July 2011 to £80k a week in July 2012.

….and this despite 184 elderly residents, who were receiving home care, having been abandoned. They were assessed, under new rules introduced by Labour, as having only “moderate” needs and not worthy of Council support.

Such a catalogue of failure would normally lead to a Cabinet reshuffle but, with talent thin on the ground now that former Leader David Scott has been suspended from the Labour Group, it seems that York residents face another 2 years of poor leadership and financial mismanagement.

This is the summary of the report that has been published by Ofsted into the Kaleidoscope Nursery on Askham Lane. The full report can be read here http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/CARE/EY221643

The Nursery was inspected on 25th October 2012

The nursery was given a score of 4 (Previous inspection 2) but was viewed by the Inspector to be “inadequate”

• How well the early years provision meets the needs of the range of children who attend 4

• The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children 4

• The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 4

The quality and standards of the early years provision

This provision is inadequate

• Planning does not effectively meet the learning needs of all children, in particular being guided by children’s individual interests or through activities delivered by a good balance of adult-led and child-initiated play and learning experiences.

• Robust systems to keep children safe, well protected and effectively safeguarded are not firmly in place.

• Practitioners do not use what they know about children’s individual interests or future learning goals to guide the planning or ensure resources are readily available.

It has the following strengths

• Practitioners build warm and caring relationships with children and the well-established key person system helps babies and children feel secure and form firm attachments.

• Partnership working with parents and other professionals is recognised as valuable to help each child succeed to his/her potential and aid the transition process.
Inspection activities

The inspector observed samples of activities taking place in all children’s rooms and outdoors.
The inspector looked at children’s assessment records, planning documentation, evidence of practitioners suitability and a range of other documentation.
The inspector held meetings with the manager and operations manager.
The inspector carried out a joint observation and discussion with the manager and operations manager regarding the provision’s system for planning, observation and assessment for children’s learning”.

A series of exciting performances by students attending City of York Council’s York Arts Academy and local schools will strike up on 1 December 2012.

Three concerts will take place on 1 December at Central Hall, University of York. The first will start at 11am and will include performances from York Arts Academy’s various performance groups.

These include string and folk groups and Yearsley Grove Primary School Choir. The second concert begins at 2pm, and includes music to suit all tastes played by York Arts Academy bands, African drummers, a guitar ensemble and choirs from Huntington, Fishergate and St. Aelred’s primary schools. The third concert starts at 7pm, with performances by senior ensembles from York Arts Academy, including orchestral music from York Arts Academy Symphony Orchestra, performances by the Senior Concert Band and Big Band, a string quartet and early music from the Minster Minstrels, a group of young musicians specia lizing in early music and run by the York Arts Academy in partnership with the National Centre for Early Music.

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