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Latest Planning applications for Acomb and Westfield Wards
Below are the latest planning applications received by the York Council for the Acomb and Westfield wards.
Full details can be found by clicking the application reference
Acomb
Location: 22 Cranbrook Road York YO26 5JA
Proposal: Single storey side and rear extension
Ref No: 13/03330/FUL
Applicant: Mrs Heather Vind Consultation Expiry Date: 11 November 2013 Case Officer: Carolyn Howarth Expected Decision Level: DEL
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Westfield
Location: 11 The Knoll York YO24 3EB
Proposal: Erection of single storey extension extending 4.5 metres beyond the rear wall of the original house, with a height to the eaves of 2.1 metres and a total height of 3 metres
Ref No: 13/03148/LHE
Applicant: Mrs Curtis Contact Mr Neil Wakeman Consultation Expiry Date 11 November 2013Case Officer: Carolyn Howarth Expected Decision Level DEL
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Location: 82 Bramham Avenue York YO26 5DE
Proposal: Conversion of garage to habitable room with extension to front and rear
Ref No: 13/03261/FUL
Applicant: Mrs C Walters Contact Mr Mike Punchard Consultation Expiry Date 11 November 2013 Case Officer: Carolyn Howarth Expected Decision Level DEL
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Location: 23 Askham Lane York YO24 3HB
Proposal: Erection of single storey extension extending 4 metres beyond the rear wall of the original house, with a height to the eaves of 2.9 metres and a total height of 3.8 metres
Ref No: 13/03315/LHE
Applicant: Mrs M Taylor Consultation Expiry Date 11 November 2013 Case Officer: Elizabeth Potter 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.
Salt Bin Petition tops 1,000 ahead of this evenings crunch meeting
Yorkshire and Humber MEP Rebecca Taylor has backed calls to reverse cuts to salt bins and gritting routes in York after 1,000 residents signed a petition against the proposals.
Rebecca, Keith and residents
The Labour run City of York Council plans to cut two-thirds of salt bins and remove nearly 30 miles of roads from priority gritting routes, including on bus routes.
Lib Dem Councillors Ann Reid, Nigel Ayre and Keith Aspden have ‘called-in’ the decision for further review and the proposals are now set to be reconsidered at a special meeting of York’s Corporate and Scrutiny Management Committee later today.
The plans have met with fierce opposition from residents and Kingsway Area Residents’ Association recently said that the cuts could see elderly and disabled people trapped in their homes this winter.
Speaking on a visit to Fulford at the weekend Rebecca Taylor, Lib Dem MEP for Yorkshire & the Humber, commented:
“The fact that 1,000 residents have signed the Lib Dem petition shows the strength of local opposition to Labour’s plans. The Council needs to consider the impact the cuts will have on elderly and vulnerable in places like here in Fulford. I would urge the Labour Council to listen to local residents and reconsider their plans to cut salt bins and gritting routes in York”.
Councillor Keith Aspden, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on City of York Council, commented:
“Local residents in Fulford and Heslington tell me they want the Labour Council to focus on delivering basic frontline services like gritting and salt bins. This is also what the Lib Dem Group has consistently called for including in our motion at last week’s Full Council. However, while Labour is finding money to buy an Arts Barge and increase the pay of senior staff they are still cutting basic services for taxpayers”.
The Lib Dem petition against the plans. It can still be found here: http://yorklibdems.org.uk/en/petition/save-our-salt
Labour add £1 million to York’s annual debt repayment levels in just 24 months
The Council has admitted that increased borrowing means that Council taxpayers are now paying £1m a year more in debt charges than in 2011.
Kings Square work
Most has been used to bolster what the Council describes as its Economic Development Fund.
£18 million has been committed to this fund already which is being used to pay for projects such as:
• Refurbishment of Kings Square
• Acquisition of an “Arts Barge”
• Tour de France start
• Newgate market refurbishment
• New City centre bus stops
Of the annual additional payments around £0.5 million goes on interest charges while £0.5 makes staged repayments of the principal.
It will take over 20 years to fully repay the borrowing
York congestion cameras still not working – York Council
Moving York’s CCTV cameras onto a system that provides residents with real time information on traffic congestion “has required more recoding of the website’s processing system than originally anticipated.” the responsible Councillor has admitted.
click to access
Live camera information has been available in North Yorkshire for several years but the York equivalent has been dogged by delays despite investment of over £300,000.
The Council now says that “this additional work is now almost complete and the CCTV images should be available on the website during October / November”.
For the mobile applications the updates required will be included in the next update releases of the apps, expected later this year.”
We will see.
Shame they weren’t working for today’s Yorkshire Marathon
NO cost to taxpayers for “shop4support” web site …..yet
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The York Council is saying that it is not paying for the web site which provides Eaccess to some services for disabled residents.
However it may have to contribute £15,000 a year to maintain the site which lists a mixture of public and private sector service suppliers.
The “shop4support” web site became available earlier in the year but has received little publicity. It bears the City of York Council logo.
Lib Dem Councillor Lynn Jeffries asked at the last Council meeting “how the Cabinet member was ensuring that the information contained on the website is accurate, accessible, comprehensive and up to date?”
No detailed response was provided other than to say that the “family Information service” is responsible for the content.
It remains unclear how decisions are made on which organisations to advertise on the site.
The web site is apparently to be formally launched later in the year
York shopper numbers down 12% in September
There were 12% fewer shoppers in central York in September according to new figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats.
click to download full data
The results come from the one remaining “footfall” camera which is located in Parliament Street.
It confirms the downward trend from August when 4% fewer people accessed the City centre in the wake of the introduction of new traffic restrictions on Lendal Bridge and Coppergate.
So far in October numbers are down by 7% compared to the same period last year.
It has also emerged that the footfall camera located in Coney Street was a victim of the cuts earlier in the year.
The figures will cause serious concern to the retail community in the City.
Although seemingly more resilient than some other shopping areas –as evidenced by the relatively low number of empty premises – few businesses could sustain a reduction in the number of customers that has been seen over the last couple of months.
As revealed on this web site earlier in the week, over 8000 penalty notices were sent to separate addresses during September. Of these 5481 (67%) were to sent to addresses outside the YO postcode area, raising fears that the reputation of the City is being irreparably damaged.
Labour Councillor refuses to apologise for bins blunders
Asked, at the last Council meeting, to apologise to those residents whose bins were not emptied on time, Cllr Levene refused to do so.
Instead he claimed that only 0.12% of collections had been missed.
He conveniently forgot that 90% of residents did not have changes to their collection days.
Last Christmas some bins weren’t emptied for nearly 3 weeks and, although there have been fewer missed collections this week, the holiday season could being more problems.
Green waste collection stops at the end of the month.
Bins in Foxwood
The Council has incurred additional overtime expenditure on Saturdays “catching up” with missed deliveries.
Cllr Levene protestations were undermined by a fellow Cabinet member who, in response to a separate question about delays in answering at the Councils call centre, said,
“the significant increase in calls week beginning 9th September were due in the main to the waste collection changes affecting a large proportion of residents in York.
Clearly original estimates of resources needed to meet demand had to be re-evaluated once the real impacts were known, and then adjusted”.
The Cabinet member went on to say that
“We aim to answer 80% of our calls within 20 seconds with 95% of calls being answered”.
This compared to the actual performance, in early September, when average waiting times were 2.5 minutes with 40% of calls being abandoned.
Concern over Illuminating York 20% price hike
Liberal Democrats have raised concerns that ticket prices for this year’s Illuminating York Festival have significantly increased despite the 2012 event being branded a “disappointment”.
Illuminating York 2013
The Labour run City of York Council introduced charging for the – previously free – event last year. There were complaints about the £5 admission charge while Vic Reeves’ ‘Wonderland’ production received a backlash of negative comments and poor reviews.
However, the admission charges and £26,000 contribution from council funds meant the event made a £16,000 ‘profit’ which Labour promised would be “invested in next year’s event”.
Many hoped that this promise would see a return to the previous free admissions policy.
However, this year’s event, which will runs from October 30th – November 2nd, sees admission charges for the overall festival for adults increase from £5 to £6 and for under 16s from £1 to £5, with under 5’s still going free.
This means that a family of four, with two school-age children, would see their ticket costs rise by a whopping 83%.
The increase has been described as contrary to the Labour Leaders statements about the need to control the cost of living
4% drop in shopper numbers in York City centre during August
Figures released today, under Freedom of Information rules, reveal that 4% fewer shoppers visited the York City centre in August compared to the same month last year.
“Footfall” numbers in Parliament Street. click to enlarge
The blame for the reduction is being attributed to the bungled introduction of new traffic regulations on Lendal Bridge and in Coppergate.
The news comes at a time when visitor attractions were reporting an increase in the numbers using their facilities earlier in the year
In the period up to August a 16% increase was recorded.
This was partly put down to special events like the Mallard 75 celebration as well as the opening of the new York Minster revealed axhibition.
The expectations had been that a recovering national economy – coupled with good weather – would lead to a bumper August; but those hopes seem to have been dashed.
Cameras, that measure the numbers of people on Parliament Street, recorded a drop in “footfall” from a monthly total of 780,646 in 2012 to 746,349 this year
Figures for September and early October are due to are published next week.
Many are forecasting a further decline.
Over 5000 visitors will have received penalty charge notices in September and word of mouth is likely to have resulted in further reputational damage for the City.
More may choose to shun the central area.
There are, however, some hopes that special events like the Food Festival might partly counter the decline.
Earlier in the week the Council was reported as having ordered additional footfall cameras.