We have now completed our surveys in the Cornlands Road and St Stephens Road areas. The most popular places for additional off street parking provision were St Stephens Road, Thoresby Road and Tennent Road.

The most popular “new” local services in order were: 

1. Recycling collections
2. New ring road/Askham Lane roundabout
3. “Energise” swimming pool
4. “Energise” sports facilities
5. “Explore” library on Front Street

Greatest concerns were about snow clearing (a review is in hand), litter and parking arrangements.

A majority of residents had seen PCSO patrols in the area.

Over 50 residents have signed a petition supporting securing the Cornlands Road park after dark each night. This is now subject to formal consultation by the Council.

NB. The owners of  the former White Rose site have said that the redevelopment there will start shortly.

All current City of York Housing Register Applicants (both waiting and transfer list) over the next 3 weeks will be contacted by letter inviting them to re register for the new North Yorkshire Home Choice register.
Current applicants who are invited to re register can do this either on line or by filling in a paper form. The Council will actively be encouraging applicants where appropriate and where they can to apply on line. They will be able to go into the offices both in the City and Acomb for assistance to complete either on line or paper forms, there will be staff available at all times at both offices to assist them.
Customers will have until the 31st March 2011 to re register. If they apply after this date their application start date will be taken from the date of their new application and they will loose out on valuable time on the list. It is imperative that customers re register prior to the 31st March to ensure they keep their original registration date as this will affect their position when we go live with choice based lettings as time on list/in band is one of the deciding factors on which bid is top of the list and gets the offer of a property.
The Council will be sending out reminder letters in mid March to all those applicants who have failed to re register, to remind them of the importance of registering prior to the 31st March and again how and where they can re register and what help and support is available to them.
The new policy and system will go live in mid June.

Residents who wish to report an incident in person can visit the Acomb Police station. The current opening hours at the Police station on Holgate Road are:

Monday 10:00am – 12:00 noon

Tuesday 2:00pm – 4:00pm

Wednesday 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Friday 2:oopm – 4:00pm

Saturday 10:00am – 12:00 noon

Closed Thursday and Sunday.

Local Lib Dems have vowed to fight to protect leisure facilities in York, after it emerged the Labour group were considering the closure of the city’s largest swimming pool.

Last week local Labour Leader James Alexander said the pool was too expensive to run and highlighted claims that the city was oversupplied with swimming facilities.

This is not the first time that Labour have looked at closing Yearsley pool. In 2002 the Labour group proposed closure and the pool was only saved after Liberal Democrats campaigned to keep it open and won the subsequent election in 2003.

Yearsley is the only long course pool in the city and so is a unique attraction for the increasing number of fitness swimmers. Closing Yearsley and replacing it with smaller pools would mean the city would be without a pool that meets the needs of those people who swim for fitness.

In contrast to Labour’s failure to invest anything in the city’s pools during their time in power, the Liberal Democrats have invested £11m over the last 8 years and have secured more than £7m more through innovative partnerships like the one with the University of York that will deliver the new sports village pool.

Part of that £11m of investment has seen more than £1m spent on improving Yearsley Pool. These improvements have been welcomed by residents and the refurbished pool is now attracting record numbers of visitors. The number of visitors to Yearsley pool has risen by 40% since 2005

It is now becoming clear that no service in the city is safe from Labour, libraries and swimming pools are already under threat and those are only the ones we know about. Labour should be honest with the public about the full scale of their proposed cuts.

We will shortly be arranging a petition to help fight the closure of Yearsley and will post details here as soon as I have them. 

Lord Mayor and local Councillor Sue Galloway will be officially opening the new Lidl store on Thanet Road.

The ceremony will take place at 8:00am on Thursday 3rd February.

Lidl is a supporter of the British Heart Foundation charity.

First details have emerged of the planned Grange Lane park playground.

Residents were given a chance to express their opinions at the Sanderson House meeting on 13th December.

Now the design is being refined before installation work starts in the early spring. The scheme incorporates the “pulley” which proved to be the favourite piece of equipment with respondents to our recent residents survey.

NB. Official tests have now confirmed that there is no contamination hazard at the former tip site to the rear of Westfield Place.

Metal railings will be erected on the Vesper Drive side of Bachelor Hill starting on Monday 17th January.

The work is intended to stop people “short cutting” from Vesper Drive into the amenity area. The railings will be similar to those provided on the opposite side of the hill.

That may be the last of the railings programme for now as residents, in the recent Ward Committee budget ballot, did not give a high priority to the scheme for 2011/12.

Further work may be possible in later years if neighbouring residents continue to report trespassing problems.