Labour back down on Green Bin Tax – but a second bin will cost £35 to empty!

The Liberal Democrat campaign to stop Labour introducing a charge for emptying green bins has been successful.

A report to the Councils Cabinet says that there will be no charge for emptying one bin at each property.

Green bin petition

However the service will not be available between November and March (when less than 17% of green waste is collected). The Council hopes to save around £67,000 by discontinuing this part of the service.

A survey undertaken by the Council revealed that only 14.5% support a charge. That compares to 96% who responded to our survey in the Westfield area who were opposed to a charge.

There are over 5000 additional green bins in use at properties with large gardens. The Council hopes that around 3500 residents will pay £35 a year to have these second bins emptied.

The majority of respondents to the Councils survey supported having a combined food and green waste collection. In other parts of the country this has reduced landfill volumes by 15% and officers are to look further at how this could be introduced in York.

The Council is also to close the Towthorpe recycling centre on one day a week. It appears that they have still not learnt the lesson that closing the Beckfield Lane centre should have taught them (inconvenience means increased landfill volumes).

The Council claim that their online/telephone survey attracted about 1000 responses.

It was attacked as misleading as it failed to explain that changes to the current arrangements would have been unnecessary if the Council had decided to scrap some of its more extravagant plans like establishing an “arts barge” on the Ouse.

York Explore giant book sale!

City of York Council’s York Explore Library Learning Centre will be hosting a giant book sale this weekend to make room for a new selection of books. Residents are invited to come along and pick up a bargain they won’t be able to put down!

The book sale will take place in the main York Explore library learning centre on Library Square. New books will be added to the sale throughout each day so there will always be a bargain to be had! The money raised from the sale will be reinvested into the running of the library service.

Sale opening times:

Friday 22 March: 9am – 6pm

Saturday 23 March: 9am – 5pm

Sunday 24 March: 11am – 4pm

Monday 25 March: 9am – 5pm

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York New Musical Festival

Those interested in music may want to visit the web page of the York New Musical Festival.

Musical theatre

They say that they “are delighted to announce that the first York New Musical Theatre Festival will take place from Saturday 21 July – Wednesday 31 July at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre”.

They say that they will be a showcase and are organising an evening of old and new musicals.

Meanwhile the ADAM festival web site has been updated and supporters are now talking about turning Acomb into a “cultural village”.

Tour of debt

The York Council has admitted that it doesn’t know how much hosting the start of day 2 of the Tour de France will cost taxpayers.

Already £500,000 has been committed for a “hosting fee”.

The actual costs are likely to be much greater as a response (click here) to a Freedom of Information request now reveals.

Road sign

Meanwhile the possibility of getting central government funding for the event looks fragile.

The media are reporting that the Welcome to Yorkshire budget has been labeled by government Ministers as unconvincing.

The Coalition Government has allocated £10 million to support the event but it is conditional on the organisation sorting out “governance” issues

NB. The Council has provided a breakdown of the £66,134 costs of “hosting” the Olympic torch relay last year which may give a clue to the impact that taxpayers may face when the much larger Tour de France comes to the City

Fitness and football at Sport Village with York City coaches

old footballersMen are being encouraged to lace up their boots, and kick off their fitness at football sessions with York City coaches complete with a free health check.

York City in the Community and Benenden health are backing nine council-run sessions which kick off on Wednesday 10 April from 6.30pm to 7.30pm at the new York Sports Village in Heslington and run weekly until Wednesday 5 June.

Called City Masters, these sessions are aimed at men wanting to return to football to become more active and reach their recommended 150 minutes of physical activity a week.

Depending on numbers signing up to play, the council will look at developing a Senior/Masters five-a-side football league, supported by North Riding County FA.

For more information and to reserve your place contact Catriona Sudlow on (01904) 553377 or email catriona.sudlow@york.gov.uk

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Labour reaction to budget

Not everything is well with the budget announced by Chancellor Osborne. But, as we all know, his options were limited by economic problems which spread back over 5 years and longer.

He should get some credit for trying to tackle major issues like the supply of new homes, addressing the costs of child care and controlling fuel prices

He helped the less well off by bringing forward the zero tax threshold for those earning £10,000 a year, while leaving the “millionaires” tax rate at a higher level than Labour were content to levy for most of their term of office.

So what do the Labour party apologists find to criticise?

anarchy

One Julia Unwin, who heads the previously well respected Rowntree Foundation in the city, claimed “The Chancellor faced a test: he needed to boost household’s incomes and help cut the cost of essentials. Neither was forthcoming”.

Really?

See above!

The problem with writing your media sound bites before actually reading the proposals is that you can look ridiculous. Perhaps she was taking a prompt from her partner – one Patrick Kelly – who resides deep in the mire that is the Labour Party in York?

But full marks to the Council Leader for Tweeting like a new pontiff that it was wrong to reduce the price of beer while ignoring the poor.

JA tweet on beer prices
As perfect a reverse summersault as you are likely to see in the political world.

Last year the same pontiff made a heartfelt plea for beleaguered local pubs saying that the high cost of beer was forcing them towards bankruptcy.

(Not to mention the beer and skittles strategy which has seen the Labour Council squander hundreds of thousands of pounds on fairy lights, bonfires, parties and foreign travel!!!).

Low paid get budget boost – LibDem promise delivered

Anyone with income below £10,000 will not pay income tax from next April.

£700 tax cut for poor

2.7 million extra will not be paying income tax and 24.5 million will be paying £700 less tax than under Labour.

The higher tax rate at 45% is still more than was applied during most of the term of office of the last Labour government

The budget includes a boost for house buyers and is better news for house builders.

A summary of today’s budget changes can be found be clicking here.

York Council doesn’t know how many of its properties are under occupied.

With changes to Housing Benefit regulations only days away, the York Council has admitted that it doesn’t know how many of its Council houses are under – occupied (have one or more spare bedrooms).

In response to a Freedom of Information request it has only been able to say that, on the North Yorkshire Home Choice register, there are 839 tenants who may be affected by the change. 546 have two or more empty rooms.

However, these figures include some who are renting privately and who have never qualified for an empty bedroom subsidy.

The figures exclude those, such as pensioners, who are not affected by the changes.

“All York” bus ticket sales revealed to be only 10,000 a quarter.

The Council have admitted that the initial sales of use any operator “all York” tickets totalled only 10,000 after the first quarter.

£25,000 of Council taxpayers money was used to publicise the facility. The £5 a day ticket has therefore enjoyed a 50% subsidy from taxpayers.

Around 16 million bus journeys are made in York each year.

Labour Councillors had gone to ridiculous lengths to prevent the sales figure being made public.

We understand that “All York” ticket sales have now dropped off.

The principle of having a “go anywhere, use any bus operator” ticket has wide support.

However the system, introduced by Labour, was clearly not thought through. They should have waited until a “smart card” option was available.

weight watchers bus

We now understand that “a ride around for £1 deal on bus transport for all young people of York” may also be launched shortly. We hope that this project has been more thoroughly audited to ensure that no additional burden falls on taxpayers

NB. The Council has yet to announce whether it will be bidding for government support from the “Green Bus Fund”. Bids have to be with the DpT by 26th March 2013.

The fund subsidises the introduction of low and zero emission buses.