Several weeks after the council was advised of a potential security breach in its new graffiti reporting mobile phone “App”, it has still not taken action to have the loop hole closed.

At a recent Council meeting the Leader was asked:

“Is the Leader aware that the names of residents reporting issues via the Smarter York system is accessible for anyone to view via the public web site.
As many of the reports concern illegal activities such as incidents of graffiti, would the Leader agree that residents registering to use the system should in the future have the option of keeping their personal details confidential?”

The response was:
“the email address is present, yes. As far as I am aware we have received no complaints from anyone on this issue.

I am afraid I do not believe the national system allows this distinction. It hasn’t been a problem in London where the scheme has been taken up by Boris Johnson (!).”

The concern is now likely to be referred to the Information Commissioners office.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-ohThnJpmI

Former ambulance station site next to Haymarket car park

The Council have blamed archaeologists for a delay in re-opening the Haymarket car park. It has been closed since January.

“The Council are planning to sell the site but before any disposal could take place an archaeological dig was required on the former Peasholme Hostel site and the entrance way to Haymarket Car Park, plus the northern fringe of the former ambulance station site”.

At a recent Council meeting the responsible Cabinet member claimed,

“The dig was initially due to be completed by Easter but burials were discovered very close to the surface. In places remains were found only just under the tarmac and substrate. This means that the remains have to be removed before any development can take place on this part of the site. The current plan is that the archaeological dig will be completed by the end of July, following which the reinstatement works will be carried out, with a view to the car park being reopened sometime in mid to late August”.

The Cabinet member claimed that there had been no loss of income as “parkers would have used on street spaces at Dundas Street orin the Castle/Picadilly car park”. We think that it is much more likely that motorists will have used the privately operated car park at Garden Place.

In most of the last 10 years the Haymarket car park produced an income of around £150,000 for the Council.

The ambulance station site has been unoccupied for 2 years and could, in the view of most motorists, have been used for parking in the interim.

The Council has also been criticised for not displaying progress reports at the entrance to the Haymarket car park.

A man who conned three York businessmen out of £850,000 pleaded guilty to 13 counts of fraud at Southwark Crown Court this week.

His pleas follow a protracted enquiry by North Yorkshire Police’s Major Fraud Inquiry Team which began in 2009 following complaints by the owners of a York investment company.

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Castle car park

Predictably the Council Leader failed to give a convincing response when tackled at the last Council meeting about the “subsidy” he is considering making to the stalled Castle/Piccadilly development.

He was asked by the LibDem Leader, “On Castle/Piccadilly, would the Leader confirm precisely what form of “subsidy” he is considering making to the private sector to underwrite this project and would he say how such a subsidy could legally be made given EU procedural restrictions that exist?”

The response was that the negotiations were confidential and the results wouldn’t be revealed until they were concluded!

Worrying given that a lot of time and money can be wasted pursuing policies which are either impractical or illegal (or both).

It really is time to come clean on what deal is being talked about? If taxpayers are to be asked to foot the bill then transparency is essential at all stages of any negotiation.

The Leader displayed similar lack of candour when asked how he intended to ensure that York receives a fair share of the resources that the Government has made available for investment by the Leeds City Region Amalgamated Authority, how he intended to involve the people of York in the development of policy for the Authority and whether he would indicate whether he was planning to introduce a supplementary levy on the City’s Council Taxpayers to assist in funding the Authority’s work?”

The response was effectively that he had no idea how to measure the benefit that York residents would derive other than via a general improvement in “Gross Value Add”.

There will be no consultation with residents, the governance structure of the new joint authority remains unclear and he failed to rule out a surcharge on York Council Taxpayers to fund the new organisation!

With the summer holidays upon us, a range of activities for children can be found here http://www.yor-ok.org.uk/Shine/events/events.htm

Launch of air coach in 2007

It seems that the Councils claims to be promoting a new coach link to the airport from York have been exaggerated.

An express coach service to Leeds/Bradford Airport was first introduced in February 2007 offering a direct 55 minute duration trip to the airport at a fare of £15 return with an hourly frequency. The original route was from York Rail Station, via Upper Poppleton, St James Retail Park (Knaresborough), Weeton Station & Leathley Lane End and on to Leeds Bradford Int. Airport

Usage on the First service was very low and even re-routing the service to pick up passengers from Leeds failed to prevent it being abandoned a couple of years ago.

One of the main problems was the need to link feeder buses to the 24/7 service. Essential if holiday makers were to be attracted to what was promoted as a cheap alternative to car & taxi.

Currently the recommended public transport route is by a half hourly shuttle to Leeds railway station and then by train to York (not much more than an hours journey if you are lucky with connections)

At the last Council meeting the Leader indicated that a new service would be more frequent and suggested that the 55 minute journey time could be reduced. It remains unclear how this could be achieved without a massive investment in road improvements.

It also appears that the aspiration to provide a rail spur from the York/Harrogate/Leeds railway line to the airport has been quietly shelved.

The one piece of good news recently, for York’s air travellers, is the government’s decision to invest heavily in the trans-Pennine rail network which should substantially reduce journey times to Manchester airport.

Propsed cycle network - click to enlarge

The Council has started consultation on its plans for enhancements to the strategic cycle network.

The proposals are reproduced here.

The different coloured routes on the map represent the following:

Red routes – these are the ones which comprise the new proposed Strategic Network and those which have been prioritised on the spreadsheet.

Green Routes – these were included on the previous version of the strategic network (mid-90s) but are not proposed to be on the new one.

Yellow routes – these are the routes which were already in existence when the previous strategic network was adopted in the 90s.

Blue routes – these are the routes which have been built since the first strategic network was adopted and together with the yellow ones form the current built network.

Westfield cycle network detail - click to enlarge

Sadly it appears that critical links between Woodthorpe/Acomb Park/Foxwood and Acomb are being jettisoned along with the Acomb to Askham Bryan college link.

The Cross Street, in Acomb, anomaly in the existing network is not addressed (Cyclists are currently “dumped” onto the footpath on Front Street near the Pelican Crossing).

Surprisingly no provision is made for the much requested link to Rufforth. This was one of the benefits of developing a materials salvage and recycling centre at Harewood Whin. Part of the project would have involved providing an off road cycle path, possibly using the Grange Lane public footpath (bridle way) with a new bridge over the ring road. Now this proposal is being quietly forgotten?

Under the plans Westfield would lose more of its planned cycle network than any other ward…………. so not much change in policy there then!

We understand that the Council will be publishing the maps on their web site for the general public to feed back their comments (its not there yet as far as we can see). The closing date for getting comments back is 31st August “to give as many people as possible the opportunity to comment even though this is the summer holiday period”.

Once the Council has all the comments back from members, Parish Councils and the public they will review them and amend the map and prioritised list of schemes as appropriate. “The resulting map will then be put forward for formal adoption as the council’s blueprint for future cycle route provision and will then influence future development control and transport capital programme decisions”.

• The York Council had a gross expenditure of £582.4 million during the last financial year. Of this £79.9 million (14%) was spent on Adult Care services. The amount spent on Social Care increased from £44,731M in 2010/11 to £57,534M in 2011/12 (+29%)

• The Council now has reserves (balances) of £53.9M . General balances stand at £13.4m although some of this is held by individual schools. The Councils useable (General Fund) balances reduced from £7.3 million when the Liberal Democrats left power to £6.4 million after Labours first year in office. The prudent minimum required balances are calculated to be £6.2 million.

• The Council owed around £133 million when the Liberal Democrat Leadership ended in May of last year. This debt had increased to £262.5M within 12 months of Labour taking control of the Councils finances. Of this increase, £121M was the result of Council house debt being transferred from central to local government. This debt will be repaid from rent surpluses (instead of the housing account being creamed off –see below*). York could be completely free of historical housing debt in about 20 years…. less if some of the housing account reserves are used to repay the borrowing.

• The Labour Council has increased the maximum that can be borrowed by the Authority from £192M to £327M. The average rate of interest on all long-term loans at 1 April 2011 was 4.223% and at 31 March 2012 was 3.881%.

• The Council paid over a record £7.726m “tax”* from Council house rents to central government last year. Rents had been increased by 6.4%. There was a surplus on the HRA of £10.811M at the year-end, which is an increase of £1.491m from that originally budgeted for.

North Yorkshire Police will be carrying out mobile safety camera enforcement on the following roads between Wednesday 25 July and Tuesday 31 July 2012.

•A64 east-bound Bowbridge Farm Tadcaster
•The Village, Stockton On Forest, York
•A1036 Malton Road, York
•A1237 Monks Cross, York
•York Road, Haxby, York
•A1237 Monks Cross, York

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Proposed changes to eligibility criteria for adult social care support

The York Council are saying that; “On 1st August the Cabinet Member for Health Housing and Adult Social Care will be considering a report on the results of consultation about changing the eligibility criteria for adult social care support. The change would see those with moderate needs being supported by alternative community based approaches, and only those with substantial or critical needs supported through personal social care budgets and services”.
Over 1200 people responded to the consultation, with over 30% of residents who currently receive support from adult social care giving their views. This is an exceptionally high response rate for surveys of this nature.

Unfortunately the Council failed to tell those asking to comment on the proposals that there were alternatives to withdrawing care facilities from dozens of York residents.

A short time earlier the Liberal Democrats had put forward a budget amendment which would have allowed those with moderate needs to continue to receive care. Instead savings would have been made in a range of other areas including the cost of “Cabinet” posts, withdrawal of the planned “free WiFi” services in the City centre and abandoning vanity projects such as the “innovation” fund.

It is hardly surprising therefore that three in every five respondents (61%) a”ccept that the Council will need to change its eligibility criteria to ensure that those most in need of support can be protected”.

The Council has committed that if the decision is taken to change the eligibility criteria no support will be withdrawn from anyone affected without a formal review of their needs with a social care officer. The review will establish if their needs have changed and will look at alternative options for support if the individual remains at the moderate level of eligibility. Carers needs will be included in these reviews.

If the change to eligibility criteria is agreed it would see this local authority using the same threshold as many other Labour controlled authorities across the country. Over 100 elderly York residents would lose their care services under the Labour proposals.

Residents can still make representations.

For more information about registering to speak ,written representations or copies of reports for this meeting please contact the Democracy Officer – Catherine Clarke / Louise Cook Telephone – (01904) 551031 or E-mail – catherine.clarke@york.gov.uk and louise.cook@york.gov.uk