With thousands of residents and tourists expected to visit York next week for the annual Illuminating York festival, extra Park & Rides services are being provided to allow easier access in and out of the city centre.

The internationally renowned digital arts and lighting festival takes places between Wednesday 31 October and Saturday 3 November.

During the festival, the Rawcliffe Barr number 2 Park & Ride Service (Green Line) will be operating extra late evening journeys between Museum Street and Rawcliffe Bar.

Buses will depart at half-hourly intervals from Museum Street between 8pm and 10.30pm.

For more information about the festival, please visit the illuminatingyork.org.uk/ or www.itravelyork.info/events/illuminating-york

Closing dates looms for eXtra factor

City of York Council is reminding residents that they don’t have long left to nominate their unsung local authority hero.

With the largest and most diverse workforce in the city, the council’s eXtra factor awards help highlight and celebrate the hard work and dedication of its employees – be they architect or archeologist, care worker or cleaner, librarian or leisure centre worker, planner or plumber, warden or waste operative.

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Council promises, that a long awaited report on bus services in the City would shed some light on reliability issues, have once again been broken.

The report was originally to have been considered at a meeting in September.

The impending report was used in August as an excuse for not publishing the information gathered by the Councils “Mystery Travellers”. They check on the reliability of local bus services.

We were told that this information would be included in the report.

The report will compare buses in York with those elsewhere in the world

Eventually the report was put back to a meeting which the Councils forward plan said would be considered between “01/10/12 and 31/10/12”.

Although this date is still shown in the current Council forward plan, with only 2 days left to go in the month, that now seems highly unlikely. http://tinyurl.com/Bus-Imp-York

No explanation for the delay has been forthcoming.

The next meeting on transport policy is not scheduled to take place until 19th November.

We think that the York Council Cabinet members responsible should show more respect for bus service passengers in the City!

An investigation by the Information Commissioner has concluded that the York Council has breached data protection legislation by publishing resident’s identities on a public web site.

The problem arose when in March 2012 the Council launched what it described as a unique way of reporting – using an Iphone – issues such as graffiti and dumping. The system allowed a photo of an issue to be sent to the Council.

It turned out that, far from being unique, the “App” was simply a copy of a “Keep Britain Tidy” system which has been adopted by many other Councils. Elsewhere it is known as “love clean streets” and can also be used to report “potholes” and other problems (click here http://www.lovecleanstreets.org/Reports/LiveMap)

The system – which is basically a sound idea – cost around £8000 to implement in York but unfortunately the need to preserve the privacy of user’s details wasn’t recognised.

When this was pointed out to the Council Leader at a Council meeting in July he declined to take any action. (click here http://stevegalloway.mycouncillor.org.uk/2012/07/27/boris-johnson-blamed-for-york-council-confidentiality-lapse/)

The lack of action by the Council prompted a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office in August.

At that time the Council Leader in response to media enquiries said, “I am sure the system we have set up complies with all necessary regulations”.

click to enlarge

Now the information Commissioner has decided that residents must be told that any information that they provide could be published on a publicly accessible web site. Users have the option to use a pseudonym to preserve their privacy.

The Commissioners office has decided not to take any further legal action against the authority on the basis that the “App” signing on system will be refined to protect the privacy of users.

All this should have been done months ago of course, but we are pleased to see that the Smarter York reporting system has now been updated.

How web site information has changed

NB. A Freedom of information request in August revealed that about 50 cases a month were being reported using the new App (click here http://www.york.gov.uk/content/foi/988224/Y5953_-_attachment.pdf)

Unfortunately the other major complaint about the system – that members of the public do not receive any feedback telling them what has been done about issues reported – has yet to be addressed by the Council. We think that users should be offered the opportunity to have an Email confirmation when – for example – litter that they have reported has been removed.

City of York Council has arranged for an artisan producers’ group to join forces with the traders of Newgate market to offer a new shopping experience this half term.

On Monday October 29, the group of artisan arts, crafts and fashion producers called Artsmix, will set out their stalls alongside traders from Newgate Market on Parliament Street for a bumper edition of the Monday market which will include jewellery makers, soap producers and frame makers.

For this exclusive event, the market will kick off at 10am and finish at 8pm, giving people the chance to stay in town longer, have a meal and start their Christmas shopping in style.

Acomb Traders have drawn together to establish the city’s latest trader association in response to concerns from residents.

They want to see the area boosted to bring it back to the economic levels that other parts of the City currently enjoy.

A mix of businesses met last week to start the ‘Acomb Alive’ campaign to bring more commerce to the area, improve co-operation between local businesses, and to put on events to promote shopping in the Front Street area.

Fly posting on empty shops in Acomb

The meeting was chaired by former council leader Andrew Waller, and Sue Hunter, from Floral Elegance, Front Street who had both set up the meeting.

Sue Hunter said; “It was a very positive meeting, and the support of traders for an Acomb Traders Association is encouraging to work together for the benefit of all. We hope that local residents will see what we are doing and give us their support. Some traders have been here for decades showing their commitment to Acomb, but there are concerns about high rents, and the knock on effect that this has on business rates.”

Guest speakers at the meeting were Trevor Fenwick, Chairman of Gillygate Traders, and David Cox from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) who had been Chairman of Fossgate Traders for 6 years. Joint promotion of the area by pooling advertising was supported as a means promoting the area, and sharing expertise on the best deals for energy and other supplies would be taken forward at future meetings. Traders agreed that being part of the national FSB campaign for ‘keeping trade local’ would be helpful.

The number of independent traders in the area means that many decisions can be made locally which will enable the delivery of improvements.

It was agreed that there would be a big tidy up in the first week of December to encourage improvements in the appearance of shops and their displays in the run up to Christmas. There will be events early next year to bring activity to the whole Front Street area.

Problems relating to recent changes in the bus routes were raised as this has disrupted the even distribution of customers into a bunching effect as people leading to over demand at one time, and these will be taken up with the council and bus companies.

The next meeting will be on November 20th at 5;30-6:30om at the Acomb Gateway Centre (former Acomb Primary School on Front Street).

The Lord Mayor of York, Cllr Keith Hyman will be joining the River Foss Society in a litter picking session this weekend.

On Saturday 27 October the Lord Mayor will help residents and the society as they carry out the last litter pick of the year.

The Lord Mayor said: “York’s two rivers are an extremely important part of the city. The River Foss Society does a great job in helping to maintain the river Foss, and I’m proud to lend a hand in keeping our city clean.”

June Card from the River Foss Society said: “Using equipment provided by City of York Council, teams of volunteers from the society will be scavenging the lower reaches of the River Foss, both by land and from the water in the council’s river cleaning boat – a good example of how, in these straitened times, the council and volunteers can work together for the benefit of our city.”

Residents and Visitors are invited to a special open day at the Mansion House, giving them the chance to meet the Civic Party.

The doors of the Mansion House will open from 11am-3pm on Tuesday 30 October for the first ‘At Home’ of the civic year, with everyone invited to join the Lord Mayor in his historic Georgian home.

Local charity Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Association (PSP) will also be at the event, raising awareness of the condition and providing refreshments for a small charge. PSP is a rare and progressive condition in which increasing numbers of brain cells become damaged over time.

The Lord Mayor said: “I’m looking forward to welcoming people to the Mansion House, and even better if we can raise some money for a good cause at the same time.”

Also at the event the Sheriff’s Lady will perform the traditional passing over of the ‘staff of office’ to the Lady Mayoress. The ‘staff of office’, a silver tipped ebony cane, is originally given to the Sheriff’s Lady on Lord Mayor’s Day which she is at liberty to use on the Sheriff to keep him in order, before being passed on to the Lady Mayoress on the first ‘At Home’ for the remainder of the civic year.

The Annual General Meeting of York Central Liberal Democrats is taking place on Thursday 8th November 2012, commencing at 7:00pm.

If any member has not yet received their agenda, they should contact the Constituency Secretary immediately.