Council holding £4.5 million development monies

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The York Council has banked £4.49 million in levies paid by developers in the City.

The money – obtained through section 106 contributions – was a condition of the granting of planning permission for a range of developments in the City.

It is money that must be invested in public services such as schools, transport and playgrounds to accommodate the additional demands generated by a development.

The Council has spent £2.8 million, gained from the S106 contributions, during the last 5 years.

During the same the Council has refunded £72,000 period to developers.

Latest planning applications for Westfield Ward

Below is the latest planning application received by the York Council for the Westfield ward.

There were no applications in the Acomb Ward this week.

Full details can be found by clicking the application reference
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Location: 39 Queenswood Grove York YO24 4PW
Proposal: Single storey side and rear extension and conversion of garage to habitable room
Ref No: 13/03327/FUL
Applicant: Mr & Mrs S Sayers Contact Mr Stephen Parry Consultation Expiry Date 29 November 2013 Case Officer: Carolyn Howarth Expected Decision Level DEL
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Representations can be made in favour of, or in objection to, any application via the Planning on line web site. http://planningaccess.york.gov.uk/online-applications/

NB. The Council now no longer routinely consults neighbours by letter when an application is received.

Public invited to chat about Council budget as Leader prepares to “meet the people”

Budget consultation dates. click to enlarge

Budget consultation dates. click to enlarge

The Council have announced a series of meetings at which residents will be able to discuss how taxpayer’s money should be spent in future.

They are nothing new.

Focus groups and the like have been tried in the past.

Residents top priority will be improving street level services like maintaining roads and footpaths. But Labour have already cut those.

In any event, the Council has already agreed its budget for the next financial year – they are cutting grants to community centres etc – so what information Council officials hope to wrest from residents is unclear?

As anyone who has had anything to do with preparing a budget of £400 million will know, several months work goes into preparing and evaluating options.

Residents have been given no background information, yet the first meeting takes place next Wednesday.

It is likely that few will attend.

Leader prepares to meet residents

Leader prepares to meet residents

York" a small market town"

York” a small market town”

Those that do, will either be bemused or have an axe to grind.

The Councils capital expenditure plans (Arts barges etc) will get a hammering, high profile – dogmatic & unpopular – policy decisions (20 mph speed limits, use of ANPR cameras etc) will get a shellacking while Councillors allowances and higher management pay will be predictably popular cuts.

None of this will be the slightest help in addressing issues like demographic changes (an aging population) which heavily influence long term budget planning.

The events are likely to cost around £1000.

Better value for money could have been achieved – and a much more informed response obtained – using web based techniques.

Unconnected (apparently) the Council Leader has said that he will be organising a series of “meet the people” events.

In a Guardian article he recently described York as being a “market town in North Yorkshire” before he arrived to save it.

Quite why he has waited for nearly 3 years before venturing out into the City to talk to the natives is a mystery.

2947 residents have blue badges in York

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Nearly 3000 residents have been issued with “blue badges” in York.

The badges entitle the owner to park “on street” closer to amenities than otherwise would be the case.

The vast majority of the badges have been issued to those with walking disabilities or who receive DLA.

In addition there is a green badge scheme in operation for the severely disabled. This allows access to parking within the City centre.

The York Council controversially refused to exempt green badge holder’s from the Lendal Bridge access restrictions a couple of months ago.

Applications details can be found by clicking here

Adult Ed Courses for Xmas

By popular demand…Two further dates for courses in our Christmas series.

We have a one day workshop for Willow Weaving and another for Stained Glass. See below for details or visit our website at www.yortime.org.uk

Note:  courses fill up fast so please enrol as soon as possible as we won’t be able to put on more of these courses until the new year.

Stained Glass – Christmas Stars

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Sat, 14th Dec 10:00 to 15:00
Create your own beautiful and unique stained glass Christmas Star decoration.

 

Willow Weaving – Christmas Decorations

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Sat, 14th Dec 10:00 to 15:00
Make Christmas decorations using willow & other materials, learn about their preparation and uses and make some lovely Christmas decorations.

Rubbish skips this weekend Saturday 9th November

Although the Council has cut back on the number of amenity skips it provides, several residents associations continue to run programmes aimed at making it easier for tenants to get rid of unwanted items.

The skips are only in place for a few minutes and residents must ensure that they put any rubbish into the skips and do not leave it on the path or highway.

1 Hewley Ave 08:30 09:30
2 Rawdon Ave 10:30 11:30
3 Hadrian Ave 12:30 13:30
4 Cambridge St 08:30 09:30
6 Paston Walk 12:30 13:30

Updates…. Gritting, Salt bins, keeping warm, energy prices.

Gritter

You can find out when the gritter is out spreading salt on the roads by following them on “twitter”. Remember though that Labour have taken a number of roads in York off the gritting schedule this year.

Salt bins going

Labour are currently removing most of the local salt bins. If the going gets icy try these

Staying upright: Sticky Feet

Sticky feet

Sticky feet

Well into my adult life I finally got round to trying out slip-on snow grips for my shoes, and these work a wonder. They are rather fiddly to put on (and I would certainly recommend erring on the order of buying a larger rather than smaller size), but once on my trainers they turned slipping and sliding into easy walking. Given the very impressive amounts of grip added by these I highly recommend them if you are wearing shoes or trainers. If you are wearing boots, however, I suspect even the largest size would struggle to fit properly over the toes. You can buy the Sticky Feet slip-on grips for ice and snow here.

 Keeping warm

Radflek

Radflek


Staying warm: Radflex radiator sheets As someone with three radiators against external walls, I’ve become a great fan of the Radflek reflector sheets. They are very easy to install – with little skill beyond the ability to use scissors required – and reflect heat back into your home rather than having it escape via the external wall. The ease of installation appeals to my lack of DIY skills but also makes them suitable for use in rented property – giving even short-term tenants a practical extra insulation option beyond nagging their landlord to do better. You can buy Radflek sheets from Amazon here.

Energy prices

We’ve found OVO one of the most reliable power supply companies. . Read their views  here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24728992 Contact them here

Air quality improving in York ……but

The Council has published its latest data on air quality in York.

The main contaminant – and potential source of health issues – NO2 is reducing overall. However individual street level figures have not been released nor are up to date figures included on the dedicated air quality web site

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The improvement is put down to the increasing number of low emission vehicles being used on York’s roads.

The Council has been encouraging the transfer to low emission cars since 2003 when parking discounts for small vehicles were introduced (ResPark).

This was followed up in 2010 by the trial use of electric and hybrid buses on some routes in the City.

More recently the coalition government has made funding available for the purchase of “all electric” buses. These will be introduced over the next couple of years.

However the fly in the ointment is the recent change to access arrangements in the City centre. The Lendal Bridge trial is already adding significant amounts of traffic onto routes which already have an air quality issue.

Principle amongst these are Leeman Road and Fulford Road.

While Bootham and Gillygate (traditionally a problem street) have also seen changes.

The Council have so far failed to update their initial trial data report on the closure

Even that made no objective assessment of the closure on pollution levels.