‎Christmas at the Mansion House

A selection of short lectures, offered by the Centre for Lifelong Learning in collaboration with York Mansion House. “Join us in December 2012 as we explore the Christmas story and learn more about the roots of traditional music, decorations and food – all lectures cost £6 per person”.

• Saturday 15 December – 3.30-4.30pm ‘Deck the Halls with …?’ The changing face of Victorian Christmas decorations: Louise Hampson

• Saturday 15 December – 6-7pm The Annunciation to Mary and the Birth of Christ in the Qur’an: Roderic Vassie

• Sunday 16 December – 11am-12noon Guaudete! Music for a Medieval Yuletide’: Rachel Davies (harp and voice)

• Sunday 16 December – 2-3pm Sprouts and Stuffing – an edible history of Christmas: Alice Bennett

Full details can be found at http://www.york.ac.uk/lifelonglearning/xmas/

Coastliner plans to change the route of the number 20 in early January.

They say that “the revised route will involve the removal of the following sections of route:

– in Poppleton, buses will no longer serve Main Street and instead revert to running along Long Ridge Lane, as they did previously;

– at the Heslington end of the route, buses will turn short at Heslington Hall, therefore no longer serving Heslington Lane and Broadway;

In addition to the above, we would use this route change as the opportunity to alter the approach the buses take into Acomb.

Instead of approaching via Carr Lane, the route would run in via Beckfield Lane, Ostman Road and Danebury Drive in order to cover Ostman Road following First’s withdrawal of route 5 from the area”

We understand that they are making the changes because of reliability problems on what is a relatively long route.

2013 highways repair list in Ward order, click to enlarge

The provisional carriageway and footpath resurfacing programme for the next financial year has been agreed by the Council.

It continues the 60% cut in maintenance expenditure introduced by Labour when they took over the running of the Council.

The draft programme is agreed at this time of year to allow officials to plan a work programme. It follows inspections undertaken in the summer which tabulate the condition of each road. Ward Councillors have the opportunity to put forward roads for consideration for repair.

The list reveals that some wards like Derwent (Dunnington) and Heslington will not get ANY repairs next year while the largest ward (Westfield) will see only a small part of the Foxwood Lane footpath resurfaced. It means that roads that are breaking up (such as Vesper Drive) will continue to deteriorate.

Residents will hope that more money will be found for road maintenance when the Council meets in February to agree its final budget. If it doesn’t then the backlog of works will grow to the point where it becomes impossible to maintain safe surfaces catering for the needs of all road users.

Cyclists in particular are vulnerable to potholes and this may be a factor contributing to accident numbers which are beginning to creep up again in York.

Local people are being invited to pull on their boots, pick up a spade and help plant a new copse of 2,000 trees as part of the Treemendous York project, celebrating its first anniversary this week and of which City of York Council is a founder member.

The Conservation Volunteers (formerly BTCV) on behalf of Treemendous York has secured a £25,000 grant for tree planting in York and one of the sites is a council-owned riverside plot south east of the Millennium Bridge sometimes referred to as Fulford Ings.

The community tree planting event which is open to all will happen on Saturday 24 November from 10.30am – 3pm, to which everyone is welcome.

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York Cabinet income click to enlarge

Half of the members of York’s Labour Cabinet have taken on second jobs.

TSL Interests click to enlarge

Unlike the past, when the members of the Executive were expected to put in 40 hours (at least) a week on behalf of York residents, the current Cabinet appears not to be so fastidious.

Many residents were touched to learn that Council Deputy Leader Tracey Simpson Laing had opened up a coffee stall on Newgate Market earlier in the autumn. Commendably she immediately added the “interest” to the Councils public register. It was to be a 5 weeks before the Cabinet decided to invest £1.6 million in modernising the market.

TSL interest declarations made at meetings. click to enlarge

Meanwhile the Library service in York is threatened with a takeover by a “social enterprise” organisation. New Cabinet member David “leftie” Levene admits to being on the payroll of “Social Enterprise Yorkshire & the Humber”. No conflict of interest there then.

“Leftie” caused embarrassment for the Labour party in the summer when he steadfastly refused to celebrate the Queens Jubilee. He declared himself to be a member of “Republic” an anti monarchist anarchist group whose web site http://www.republic.org.uk/ says, “The monarchy is not only an unaccountable and expensive institution, unrepresentative of modern Britain, it also gives politicians almost limitless power”. Well that’s one in the eye for politicians like, err, “Leftie” then!

SC at Blackpool twitter click to enlarge

Meanwhile the unemployable Cllr Crisp forsook our ancient City’s Remembrance Day services to head for (inevitably) Blackpool. She tweeted that she was having a fabulous “coming together” at a Diwali Party. Cllr Crisp continues to have difficulty explaining why her register of interests was not kept up to date earlier in the year although she has now admitted to receiving over £500 worth of gifts and hospitality so far in 2012.

But it is Cllr Alexander who tops the hospitality and gifts league table http://tinyurl.com/JA-York-reg. So far he has raked in around £2000 worth this year alone.

Two other Councillors may care to explain just how much time they are putting in to their Council jobs in return for salaries of around £22,000? Both Councillors Merrett and William’s also record salaries received from Amey and Yorkshire Water respectively.

But full marks to Cllr Gunnell who doesn’t have another job and who has not received any gifts or hospitality.

NB. It’s just a few weeks since some Councillors were appealing to an independent remuneration panel saying that they spent 50 or 60 hours a week on their Council roles.

Fresh questions have been raised over this month’s ‘Gunpowder Plod’ fireworks event after it was revealed that the Council did not receive any rental payment from the company behind the event.

City of York Council gave organisers ‘Rat Race Adventures’ use of the Knavesmire venue for no charge. This subsidy was offered in the expectation that profit in future years, though crucially not this year, would be shared. However, it is unclear what will happen to this arrangement after the event received widespread criticism and reportedly left many visitors unhappy.

Visitors complained of two hour long queues at food stalls, a delay of an hour for the start of the fireworks display, a delayed start for the 5km race, and a bonfire which had burnt out before people arrived. In response to the criticism ‘Rat Race Adventures’ promised to donate £5,000 to charity.

Councillor Nigel Ayre, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Leisure & Culture, commented:

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Increased use of the Danesgate Community school in Fulford has been blamed for an increase in school transport costs for the York Council.

Currently around 150 children attend the school which was set up as a “referral unit” for those with behavioral problems. The reasons for the increase have not been revealed by the Council, although there is a move to get all schools to bear the pooled costs of transport to specialist units like these.

The overspend forms part of a £1 million potential end of year deficit on the Council’s Children and Young Peoples budget.

The issue will be debated at a “scrutiny” meeting which is taking place on 21st November.

Other significant budget pressures include the increasing number of children being put with foster parents.

On a more positive note, York has the lowest level of children in workless households in the region, which the Council claims is “an illustration of our comparatively strong economy creating good conditions and prospects for young people”.

North Yorkshire Police will be carrying out mobile safety camera enforcement on the following routes between Wednesday 7 November and Tuesday 13 November 2012.

•A64 east-bound Bowbridge Farm, Tadcaster
•B1228 Main Street, Elvington, York
•B1228 Dunnington Lodge, Elvington, York
•A1237 Monks Cross, York
•A64 west-bound Bowbridge Farm, Tadcaster
•A64 east-bound Bowbridge Farm, Tadcaster
•A19 Selby Road, Whitley
•Millfield Road, Chapel Haddlesey
•A64 west-bound Bowbridge Farm, Tadcaster
•A64 east-bound Bowbridge Farm, Tadcaster
•Brayton Lane, Brayton, Selby
•Barff Lane, Brayton, Selby
•A64 west-bound Bowbridge Farm, Tadcaster
•A64 Between Whitwell Hill and Barton Hill
•A64 Between Barton-le-Willows and Jinnah
•A64 Between Barton Hill and Whitwell Hill
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At the beginning of the month we said that the Council were ignoring the needs of sub-urban shopping areas, with Front Street one of the main victims.

Despite this the Labour Cabinet went ahead and allocated another £1.6 million for upgrades to the Newgate market in the City centre.

Well fancy that! Click to enlarge

With Acomb residents and traders increasingly angry about the Councils policies, it seems that Labour are finally waking up to the disquiet.

Whether traders who recently formed the “Acomb Alive” group will be impressed by the decision to hold an “information afternoon” on 8th December remains to be seen.

The absence of any funding to support a regeneration initiative may fuel scepticism as will the decision to scrap resident’s ballots on ward funding priorities and the plan to hold ward committee meetings at times when most people will be at work or school.

A Freedom of Information request has revealed that the York Council is owed £3.7 million in Council Tax debt (accumulated prior to the current year).

Debts by property value. click to enlarge

This has been accrued by 8598 residents.

Of these, 181 owe more than £3000 and 61 owe more than £5000.

4134 residents have been claiming Council Tax benefits for more than 1 year.

15,105 residents in the City currently qualify for reduced Council Tax payments.

Of these 3239 are in paid work while 3964 also receive employment or income support. 1899 are receiving job seekers allowances.