It is good to see the new Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) publishing on line the details of her decision meetings including the background papers (http://tinyurl.com/PCC-meeting-28th-Nov-2012). The meetings, the first of which takes place in Knaresborough tomorrow, will apparently be open for residents to attend.

Whether residents will be able to make representations at the meetings remains to be seen, although hopefully the system will allow in future for emailed comments to be sent in advance of any decisions being taken.

The secretive City of York Council could take a leaf out of the Commissioners book.

One of the first decisions the PCC will take concerns the use of mobile speed (safety) cameras. http://tinyurl.com/Speed-cameras-North-Yorkshire. The cameras were introduced about 18 months ago following representation from the then LibDem controlled Council. The aim was to address issues at known accident black spots. The likely location of the cameras were announced on the Police web site 7 days in advance.

The trial has been a success with Police officers reporting “a reduction in collisions at identified sites where excess or inappropriate speed was considered to be a contributory factor”

Camera operators noted “a significant change in driver behaviour when revisiting sites, this is borne out by a reduction in high and medium speed offences at a number of locations”

Now the Chief Constable is recommending that the number of mobile speed cameras be increased to three with a significant increase in operational and backroom staffing.

Given the size of North Yorkshire, having two vans might have been understandable but the report quotes anticipated revenue from fines which will alarm some.

o Year 1 £225k

o Year 3 £447k
The income would be spent on road safety schemes but nevertheless the original objective of the project (to provide a deterrent to ultra speeders) is in danger of being lost.

It is unclear whether the Police will continue to publish in advance details of the sites that they will be monitoring.

It raises once again the prospect of the cameras being used in York to enforce Labour’s ridiculous City-wide 20 mph speed limit. After all, could a politically elected Police Commissioner – in the run up to a General Election – resist pressure to enforce all speed limits in the area?

Other items on the PCCs agenda include:

• Approval to commence ordering of vehicles for the 2013/14 Transport Capital Rolling Programme prior to budget setting

• Introduction of a computer triage system to monitor Registered Sex Offenders

• Employment Monitoring and Diversity Oversight Document

• Service Standards – Q2 2012/13

• Strategic Policing Requirement

• Performance report

The Coalition Government has today announced that York will get £1,186,356 to deliver 15 hours a week free early years education for the poorest two-year olds by 2014.

(more…)

Not content with a spring holiday in Cannes, members of the York Council Cabinet are now set to buy themselves a pleasure boat.

£100,000 is being reserved to fund a project which would see a redundant barge converted into a floating arts centre.

While many might question whether there is a shortage of arts venues in the City (many secondary schools now have performance space, as do the Higher Education establishments), what must be beyond argument is that anything in York City centre that can float is likely to do so (if only temporarily).

It is difficult to think of a more vulnerable location than a barge given the impact that climate change is having on flooding patterns in the city. Many houseboats have already been cut off for over 3 weeks this autumn and one narrow-boat sank in September; hardly the basis for a dependable entertainment venue.

If there is a need for more space, then the soon to be vacated Guildhall annex or the Bonding Warehouse are more likely venues. The latter at least – although likely to be inaccessible for a couple of weeks a year – won’t sink!

The proposal is that a venue will be created from a reclaimed river barge and will “integrate a café bar with performance and exhibition space as well as retail and workshop activities”. The cost of the renovation project is put at £275,000.

The Council report fails to indentify the income streams necessary to sustain what would be, potentially, a very expensive venue to run and maintain (the last – non floating – arts centre in the City went bust 20 years go)

The money is coming from the “Economic Infrastructure Fund”. Already £12.12 million of this has been spent with most of it being borrowed.

The repayments on the additional debt have already added nearly £1 million a year to the amount that Council Taxpayers will have to find.

It seems that huge increases in the fees for Council services are planned, together with cuts to public services, to help to pay for the new debts.

NB. The Council is also considering using £338,000 from the fund to increase Council wages to the minimum “living wage”.

573 Council employees would have their pay increased to £7-45p an hour. Most are cleaners and mid day supervisors in schools.

This would mean borrowing money to fund ongoing day to day expenditure.

That is halfway down the greasy pole to bankruptcy and a proposal that the District Auditor should be taking an interest in.

click to enlarge

York twinned with Cannes. Improvement in fireworks expected

Just when we thought that it couldn’t get any worse, a report has been published confirming what we – tongue in cheek – forecast last week.

The York Council is to spend £25,000 on trip to an estate agents festival in Cannes.

It forms part of the £150,000 cost of a delegation and exhibition stand which will be badged “Leeds City Region” (LCR).

The LCR has previously been represented at the annual event although no objective analysis has been provided of the benefits that have accrued from participation.

Ironically York’s major competitors for available international investment are likely to include Leeds.

York’s attractions are unique. There is a good case for the City helping property professionals to sell the advantages of the City.

But this needs to be done in a targeted way. Broad brush marketing at international events like Le Marché International des Professionnels de l’immobilier (http://www.mipim.com/en/mipim/exhibit/) is a waste of our rapidly diminishing financial reserves.

http://tinyurl.com/Drunken-Sailors-hit-York

Fulford Road likely to close shortly.

Roads in North Yorkshire closed click here – http://www.northyorks.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=21331

The River Ouse remains below the peak that it acheived in September.

Rainfall is expected to reduce later today.

You can check the position at monitoring sites across the County here for the Ouse catchment area http://tinyurl.com/Ouse-catchment

City of York Council’s award-winning leisure centre Energise has been shortlisted for the second year running for the national ‘best performer’ award for work being carried out in Sports and Leisure Facility Management. Five other leisure centres in the UK have been nominated.

The final results will be announced at the National Association of Public Service Excellence (APSE) 2012 Performance Network Awards annual ceremony on Thursday 6 December, which takes place in Blackpool each year.

The River Ouse level is fairly stable and below the peak reached in September.

Huntington Road is open.

Upstream river levels now also seem to be peaking although more overnight rain is forecast.

Peak levels in York on the Ouse are expected early tomorrow.

Energise on Cornlands Road are advertising, “Plenty of places left for the next Pilates level 1 course starting 5th December. 6 week course every Wednesday. Why not give it a go.

Pilates is a body conditioning routine that may help build flexibility, muscle strength and endurance in the legs, abdominals, arms, hips, and back”

There is flooding in the Huntington/New Earswick area where the River Foss is 2.73 metres above normal levels. Huntington Road is closed at the railway bridge. Skeldergate is also closed.

Substantial rainfall is expected during today.

Currently other local rivers are below the peak that they reached in September. However, there are widespread flood warnings in place in the area.

Click to enlarge

The Environment Agencies web site also now has an improved graphical representation of flood threats (above) It can be accessed here: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/142151.aspx

You can check the position at monitoring sites across the County here for the Ouse catchment area http://tinyurl.com/Ouse-catchment

You can register to receive flood warnings from the Environment Agency here https://fwd.environment-agency.gov.uk/app/olr/home

River Ouse web cam 09:00 26th Nov 2012 clcik to enlarge

Check out the current river level position on this Kings Staith web cam http://www.farsondigitalwatercams.com/live-webcams/north/Ouse/York/# As a rule of thumb, provided the no entry sign remains visible, there should only be relatively minor flooding in York.,

These are the direct links to the environment Agencies water level monitoring stations for York. They give the current river levels and compare them to historical records. Levels are all now in the area where some flooding is possible and the Agency is forecasting further rises in the levels later today.

http://tinyurl.com/Holgate-beck-level

http://tinyurl.com/York-City-centre-river-level

http://tinyurl.com/Foss-Barrier-river-level

http://tinyurl.com/New-Earswick-river-level

http://tinyurl.com/Skelton-river-levels

The York Council’s £1million street lighting replacement project has plunged parts of the City into darkness.

In some streets the numbers of lampposts have been reduced, in others street lights have been abandoned while in some streets – although the lights have been replaced – large unilluminated areas have been created.

There have been complaints about Lendal Bridge, Spurr Court, Burgess Walk, Gale Lane and – particularly – Front Street.

In the latter (see movie at http://tinyurl.com/Front-Street-gloom) sections of the footpath are no longer lit raising fears about road safety and crime.

The specifications for the new lights were never discussed in public raising concerns that the programme is in effect a cost cutting exercise.

When the project was launched by a Labour Councillor he claimed that it was the biggest street lighting project since “Victorian times”.

Some may feel that a return to gas lights would produce better illumination in some streets.