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The programme aimed at resurfacing the back lanes in the Gladstone Street area is the latest victim of the cuts being made by Labour to the Ward Committee improvement budget. The project was intended to see the condition of all local back lanes improved.

The 2012 improvement list for Westfield North also reveals a cut in the grant to the Friends of Acomb Green although the Chapelfields school club gets a big increase and, for the first time, the Acomb Bowling club gets a grant to help with maintenance of their greens. The latter represents a change in policy as previously the Council has not subsidised private members clubs. It is unclear whether public access to the bowling green has been secured as part of the deal.

Elsewhere it is a familiar story with community ranger security patrols, play area improvements and facilities for the elderly all being chopped.

Recycling Week 2012 kicks off on Monday 18 June – 22 June and City of York Council is using the opportunity to push the Zero Waste challenge.

The focus of this year’s Recycling Week is on the plastic bottle. With less than 50 per cent of plastic bottles making it to the recycling bin, and over 15 million used daily, the push is for people to ensure they recycle all bottles during Euro 2012 in their kerbside recycling box or bin.

If everyone in the UK recycled one more plastic bottle during recycle week 2012 we would have saved enough energy to power 71,000 plasma screen TVs for a year.

Throughout the year the Zero Waste York team will be working with different communities across York to increase recycling and reduce waste by one percent, which works out at about 900 tonnes of rubbish across the city.

In a bold move the York Council has decided to turn its back on the Pound and go it alone.

A new Alexander Euro (AE) banknote has been issued with a face value of zero.

The note is now circulating in York ahead of a launch event which is scheduled to take place on Tuesday. The event has been thinly disguised as a Olympic torch bop to avoid an early run on the new currency.

It is thought that the decision of the Council, to borrow an additional £20M, prompted Kersten “Angela” England to advise that “we might as well print our own money”. Some commentators believe that the advice was misinterpreted by the Council Leader.

Council Leader James “The Greek” Alexander said his intention was to maintain good working relations with other parts of the United Kingdom – including even Selby – while maximising the benefits of the City’s successful pub economy.
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He had reluctantly allowed his image to be used on the notes following public consultation on the Councils web site, undertaken last Sunday morning between 3:00am and 3:15am, which revealed 100% support for the idea.

Opposition Leaders have poured scorn on the idea. Ian “Hand of Cameron” Gillies said, “I wouldn’t pay him in washers”

The new currency is now exchanging at a rate of 3,000,000AE to the washer.

Andy D’Agorne was dismayed, “this will be the first currency in history that, by Wednesday morning, will have a negative value. We’ll have to pay someone to recycle the notes”.

List of bins being removed. Click to enlarge

Labour have announced the 19 litter bins that they will be scrapping in the Westfield Ward.

It amounts to 1/3 of the total provision in the area.

Incredibly they are removing bins from potential high litter areas such as the Foxwood, Cornlands Road, Kingsway roundabout and Acomb Wood Drive shops forecourts, while Gale Lane loses 3 of its bins.
Acomb Green fares badly losing 2 bins and even some bus stops will lose their bin

The cuts will leave the 12,000 residents in the Westfield Ward with a total of just 36 litter bins and 22 “poop scoop” bins.

Labour have claimed that the scrapped bins duplicate other bins, are unused or are used to dispose of domestic waste.

Council staff removing litter bins

The decision comes just 2 months after the Beckfield Lane recycling centre was closed and weeks after the mobile bulky waste/ recycling convoy was scrapped by the Ward Committee.

The future of the free green waste collection is also under review as Labour look for savings to fund their City centre projects.

Overall across the City 350 litter and “poop scoop” bins are to be removed

City of York Council and bus operators in York have announced that a “go anywhere” ticket will be available from 1st July.

The new ticket avoids the need to buy a second ticket if a passenger is moving from one bus companies vehicle to a different operator.

Although welcome, the new arrangement is likely to benefit only 4% of bus users. The vast majority of journeys are made with the same operator or by using a pensioners pass which already allows free cross operator use.

The costs of managing this type of system have been put at, in excess of, £100,000 a year. The Council have yet to reveal how much – if any – will fall on Council taxpayers to fund.

The ‘All York’ ticket can be purchased on any bus in the city and will go on sale from Sunday 1 July.

Two products will be launched on this date:

• All York Day (£5 – adult day ticket)
• All York Family (£10 – a day ticket valid for up to five people, maximum two adults)

The ‘All York adult day ticket is to be launched at an introductory price of £4.50 which is cheaper than buying return tickets with two different bus operators.

The Council have so far failed to comment on the issues that have arisen through the introduction of pensioners pass readers on some First buses. The card reader system is expected to offer a low cost solution to allocating revenue to different operators when cross route journey’s are made.

York bus operators include: (more…)

With the closure of the Beckfield Lane recycling centre many residents will be making better use of the skips that visit the area on Saturdays.
In the main they are funded, through estate improvement budgets, by the Council’s Housing Department.

Sat 16th June 08:30 – 09:30 Morrell Court Foxwood

Sat 16th June 10:30 – 11:30 Rogers Court Foxwood

Sat 14th July 10:30 – 11:30 Cornlands Road near shops Cornlands
Sat 14th July 08:30 – 10:30 Sanderson House Bramham Road Chapelfields
Sat 14th July 08:30 – 09:30 Oldman Court Foxwood
Sat 14th July 10:30 – 11:30 Spurr Court Foxwood
Sat 14th July 12:30 – 13:30 Bellhouse Way Foxwood
Sat 21st July 08:30 – 09:30 Opp 70 Kingsway West Kingsway
Sat 21st July 10:30 – 11:30 Opp 65 Stuart Road Kingsway
Sat 21st July 12:30 – 13:30 Beverley Court/Kempton Close Kingsway
Sat 21st July 08:30 – 10:30 Grange Lane Chapelfields
Sat 11th Aug 08:30 – 09:30 Morrell Court Foxwood
Sat 11th Aug 10:30 – 11:30 Corlett Court Foxwood
Sat 11th Aug 12:30 – 13:30 Vincent Way Foxwood
Sat 18th Aug 08:30 – 09:30 Rogers Court Foxwood
Sat 18th Aug 12:30 – 13:30 Tithe Close Cornlands
Sat 18th Aug 08:30 – 10:30 Grange Lane Chapelfields
Sat 18th Aug 08:30 – 10:30 Sanderson House Bramham Road Chapelfields
Sat 1st Sept 08:30 – 10:30 Grange Lane Chapelfields
Sat 1st Sept 08:30 – 10:30 Sanderson House Bramham Road Chapelfields
Sat 15th Sept 12:30 – 13:30 Thoresby Road Cornlands
Sat 15th Sept 08:30 – 09:30 Oldman Court Foxwood
Sat 15th Sept 10:30 – 11:30 Spurr Court Foxwood
Sat 15th Sept 12:30 – 13:30 Bellhouse Way Foxwood
Sat 22nd Sept 08:30 – 09:30 Opp 70 Kingsway West Kingsway
Sat 22nd Sept 10:30 – 11:30 Opp 65 Stuart Road Kingsway
Sat 22nd Sept 12:30 – 13:30 Beverley Court/Kempton Close Kingsway

Offices to be turned into hotel

Residents have only 2 weeks left in which to make their views known about ambitious plans to turn the existing Council offices – which will be vacated within the next year – into an 88 bedroom hotel and restaurant.

The proposed development comprises the change of use of the existing buildings for a hotel with restaurant, bar, leisure and office uses. Some small areas of the buildings are proposed for demolition with selective new extension works and associated landscaping.

The buildings include the “crescent form array” of property (1 – 9 St Leonard’s Place) on the south side of St Leonard’s Place, which have a Grade II* listing, and 2 and 4 Museum Street, which are Grade II listed. As such, the proposed works are also the subject of a separate application for Listed Building Consent.

Although the appearance of the listed building to the front won’t change much, a planning application by new owners Rusbond does involve extensive internal modifications and an extension.

It is a great shame that the Council has not sorted out the long term future of St Leonards Place, as a decision about restricting traffic could impact on the use made of, not just this imposing building, but also others in the street.

There is talk of removing the bus stops from the frontage.

What is certain is that the car park to the side of the building – which was available for public use in the evening and weekends – will be lost as it will in future be reserved for hotel guest use.

There has been remarkably little publicity about this planning application with the supporting papers revealing initial consultation involved only a handful civic organisations.

Full details of the planning application can be found here. http://tinyurl.com/St-Leonards-Planning

City of York Council is responding to requests from parents for more advice and information on topics to do with teenagers.

The councils parenting team will be running two workshops in June and July on ‘Talking to your teen about sex’ and ‘Enjoying your teens.’

Talking to your Kids about Sex. Thursday 21 June 12.30 – 2.30 at Hob Moor Children’s Centre. This workshop is for parents of children of all ages and includes ideas for tackling those difficult questions about sex, where to find resources and to remind parents how all the bits work!

Enjoying your Teens. Friday 13 July 10am – 12noon, Haxby Road Children’s Centre. This workshop is for parents of teens and includes ideas for understanding teenage behaviour and some strategies for dealing with what can sometimes be a bit of a testing time.

Workshops can be repeated in the evening if there is enough interest from parents who cannot attend during the day.

Parents can book a place on a workshop via the council’s Family Information Service on 554444 or fis@york.gov.uk or text direct on 07833 482 284.

To find out more about this, and the range of other programmes available in York for parents of children of all ages, parents can access the Parent’s Zone at www.yor-ok.org.uk

City of York Council will be carrying essential resurfacing works in Haxby this Monday (18th June). Carriageway resurfacing works will take place on The Village (road) Haxby, between and including the junctions with Westfield Road and York Road roundabout. The works will start on Monday 18 June for completion by Friday 29 June. The works will take place weekdays only between 9:15 am and 4pm

Ward Commmitte budget Westfield Central 2012. Click to enlarge

A programme of improvements to car parking facilities in the Cornlands Road and Kingsway parts of the Westfield ward has ended with Labour Councillors recommending that no Ward Committee funding be allocated to the project during 2012.

During the last 15 years, the programme had gradually improved parking arrangements in relatively narrow streets like St Stephens Road, Tennent Road and Windsor Garth.

Some funding was spent on providing lay bys while dropped kerb/verge cross overs were funded where a parking space could be fitted into a garden.

A major series of improvements on Cornlands Road was completed in 2006 prior to the introduction of parking restrictions aimed at improving bus service reliability.

The Council tenants improvement budget also funded some parking areas in front of blocks of flats in streets such as Thoresby Road. While this programme may continue, the delays in providing the parking area on St Stephens Square indicate that such improvements may now have a low priority.

The Ward Committee budget, now published on the Councils web site, shows ZERO expenditure is planned in the central Westfield area. This is a big let down for a community of over 4000 residents. Those on the waiting list for dropped kerbs are likely to be particularly disappointed.

Overall the Westfield Ward Committee budget is being reduced from about £50,000 to only £5,670. The Council have also failed to publish the ballot results from last autumn when residents were asked to indicate their priorities.

In the Foxwood area, Labours plan to spend £750 funding new pantomime costumes for a theatre group has been slated by several residents.