Burton fails Westfield as “adopt a salt bin” scheme launched

The names of the 5 Labour Councillors who voted on Monday to scrap most of the “self help” salt bins in the City have been published. They include 3 Councillors who were parachuted in by the Labour Leadership to replace members who had refused to take part in the highly unpopular decision.

Burton: protesting against cuts 2 years ago

The five Councillors were:

• S Burton (Westfield) Substitute

• N McIlveen (Rawcliffe)

• R Potter (Heworth)

• J Riches (Holgate) Substitute

• N Barnes (Hull Road) Substitute

They endorsed the cuts which were originally proposed by Cllr Levene (Heslington)

The decision of representatives from Westfield and Holgate to endorse the cuts is particularly disgraceful, as those wards will face the brunt of the cut backs, which also involve stopping gritting some bus routes (including the number 24 in Westfield).

Westfield Liberal Democrat Councillor Lynn Jeffries attended the meeting and voted against the cuts.

The Council have now said that residents groups may “adopt a salt bin” if they feel that it serves a particular need in their area. As the salt bins (which cost £300 to provide) already exist, the residents groups would “only” need to find around £50 a time to have each filled. Contact the following Email address if you want to “adopt a salt bin” andy.binner@york.gov.uk

If it is a mild winter, then one fill might be enough.

Another alternative might be to use a private contractor to keep the bins filled.

We have mixed feeling about the scheme which could discriminate against deprived areas.

However it has the advantage of keeping the bins on the streets so that, after Labour inevitably lose control of the Council in 2015, normal winter maintenance services can be resumed quickly by the new Council.

These are the 15 salt bins in the Westfield Ward that the Council propose to remove.

They are:
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Jeremy Peter Andrew Green charged with Leeman Road murder

A MAN has appeared in court today charged with murdering estate agency worker Nicole Waterhouse and trying to murder her colleague Karen Browne.

Jeremy Peter Andrew Green, 25, was charged by detectives last night, hours after they appealed to the public for help determining how the women spent the hours before the attack.

He was arrested in the early hours of Monday 21 October 2013 following an incident at Phoenix Boulevard in the Leeman Road area of the city during the evening of Sunday 20 October 2013.

Closing date for secondary school places in York looms

City of York Council is reminding parents of all year 6 pupils that the deadline for applications for secondary school places for September 2014 is the end of the month (31 October).

Applications for children born between 01.09.02 and 31.08.03 can be made at www.york.gov.uk/schooladmissions, by contacting the School Services team on 01904 551554 or by emailing education@york.gov.uk

Information about schools, the allocation process and admission policies can all be found in the Guide for Parents available at www.york.gov.uk/guideforparents

Parent/carers will find out which secondary school their child has been allocated on the 1 March 2014.

The closing date for Primary School places is 15 January 2014.

For regular updates follow the school services team on twitter @School_Services

Jewsons awarded York Council contract

Jewsons have been awarded a 3 year contract to supply building materials to the York Council.

Winter de-icing cuts go through by 1 vote.

Labour have forced through plans to cut salt bins and gritting routes in York despite opposition from residents, community groups and local councillors.

Ann Reid with local salt bin

Earlier this month, Labour run City of York Council decided to cut two-thirds of salt bins and remove nearly 30 miles of roads from priority gritting routes, including on bus routes. Liberal Democrat Councillors Ann Reid, Nigel Ayre and Keith Aspden ‘called-in’ the decision for further review. However, at a special meeting of York’s Corporate and Scrutiny Management Committee last night, Labour used their majority to push through the controversial proposals by 5 votes to 4.

At the meeting, the Lib Dems tabled an alternative set of plans which would have safeguarded salt bins at schools, elderly people’s homes, sheltered housing and community hubs such as local shops and libraries. It also said all bus routes should be on the priority gritting routes; community groups should be consulted before any salt bin is cut; and it called on the Labour Cabinet to review its decision to carry out an online only consultation on the cuts. These alternative plans were defeated by Labour.

Speaking at the meeting Cllr Ann Reid, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Environmental Services, said Labour’s plans were “flawed” and “a substantial number of areas will be left without a regular gritting regime, leading to access problems for public transport and to schools in icy weather”.

She criticised the Labour Cabinet for prioritising schemes such as buying an Arts Barge over delivering frontline services, adding:

“It is a matter of priorities where budgets are spent. It is easy for the Labour administration to blame Government cuts; however, they are still able to find resources for pet projects while street level services like salt bins and gritting, which people pay their council tax for, are cut”.

The proposals have met with fierce opposition from local people with 1,000 residents signing a Lib Dem petition against the cuts. Meanwhile, Kingsway Area Residents’ Association recently said that the plans could see elderly and disabled people trapped in their homes this winter.

It expected that salt bins will start to be removed from the streets of York in the next couple of weeks.

Details of the meeting and decision can be found here: http://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=602&MId=7815

The Lib Dem proposal, tabled by Cllr Carol Runciman and defeated 5 votes to 4, was as follows:

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Nick Clegg offers York businesses growth funding

A new round of the Government’s Regional Growth Fund has opened for businesses across the country, and City of York Council is encouraging firms in York to bid for a share of the £300 million cash pot.

Nick Clegg at launch of Regional Growth Fund

The fund, which has already supported almost 300 projects and programmes across the country, is open to bids of £1 million or more for high quality private sector projects and programmes that leverage private sector investment and create sustainable jobs.

Round five of the Regional Growth Fund will close to applications on Monday 9 December, with successful bidders announced in Spring 2014. Bids will need to demonstrate the potential for creating long-term, private-sector led economic growth and employment, and also evidence a significant private sector matched funding contribution.

For further information, or for help with the application process businesses can visit https://www.gov.uk/understanding-the-regional-growth-fund#round-5-now-open-for-bids or contact Andrew Sharp or Charles Storr in City of York Council’s Economic Development Unit on 01904 555834 or 01904 555901.

Holgate children’s centre finally gets new occupier.

A team that supports some of York’s most vulnerable children has moved to new dedicated premises in Nursey Drive in Holgate.

City of York Council’s “Looked After Children Support Team” was formed last year to help support the city’s Looked After Children, their families and carers. The team of 12 specialist support practitioners will move to the site of the old Holgate Family Centre on Nursery Drive at the end of the month.

This is a welcome move by the Council which should, in our view, undertake more devolution to help regenerate sub-urban areas.

The team liaises with partner agencies across the city to coordinate and facilitate contact between Looked After Children and their parents and other relatives, support parenting assessments and re-unification plans, as well as helping Looked After and Adopted Children understand and make sense of their own life histories.

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York Leeman Road murder investigation latest

Detectives investigating a murder and an attempted murder in York have reassured residents that there is no threat to their safety.

It occurred at a property on Phoenix Boulevard, off Leeman Road, at around 8pm on Sunday 20 October 2013.

Officers and paramedics located a woman at the address who was declared dead at the scene. We are not in a position to release her details as formal identification has yet to take place, but we can confirm she is aged 32 and from the local area.

A second local woman, aged 23, suffered serious injuries. She was taken by ambulance to York District Hospital where she remains in a stable condition.

A 25-year-old man was arrested at an address at Popes Head Court, in the Peter Lane area, at 2.20am today in connection with the investigation. He remains in police custody for questioning.

Council refuses to test market on surplus land sales.

The worrying trend, where the York Council fails to put surplus assets (mainly land and property) on the open market, looks set to continue.

There were a lot of raised eyebrows last year when the Council chose to sell land at Hungate for a knock down price. They claimed that this was necessary in order to attract Hiscox insurers to the City.

The trend continued earlier this year when they decided to deal direct with a leaseholder in Redness Street while the adjacent landowner is being given first refusal of the vacated St Anthony’s House office site.

Now we understand that Oliver House may also be sold (or leased) in December without ever reaching the open market.

The Councillor responsible for these decisions was questioned at the Council meeting recently.

Oliver House

He accepted that professional valuations placed on Council assets in the past had substantially under-estimated their real value. This had become apparent on properties such as the Bonding Warehouse and the Edmund Wilson pool site when open market bids greatly exceeded expectations.

However he wouldn’t give an assurance that open market bids would be invited for all upcoming property sales.

The question asked was:

Question: In the light of the new buoyancy in the York development market place, will the Cabinet Member agree that all sales of Council property and land will be subject to a competitive process which maximises the receipt that is available for the taxpayer?”

Cllr Williams responded, “Of course the default position should be to go to the open market. However, there will always be some situations where it makes financial and economic sense not to stick to that default position and not to have a competitive process. This should be if it is felt that one organisation has a special interest in a site and would pay a premium above the going market rate to obtain the site. An example of this would be a sitting leaseholder who wishes to buy the freehold. To have a blanket policy would simply expose the council to potentially not maximising the use of assets.”

Councils have a legal duty to get the best value that they can in their financial dealings.

If they don’t then the District Auditor can be asked to investigate.