West Yorkshire Combined Authority – York’s share of costs benefits revealed

A Freedom of Information response has revealed the amount that York has paid into the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, as well as the claimed benefits.

Last year, York paid £21,645 as its share of the cost of the “Your next Bus” project which we commented on a few weeks ago.  The City is due to pay another £21,645 this year towards the project.

smart ticketing

smart ticketing

 It is unclear when this new bus tracking system will be operational.

The WYCA also claims to have spent £318,149 on “smart bus ticketing” in the York area.  This was funded by central government grant and should lead to the extended use of cashless payment options for bus travel.  Again it is unclear when this option will be widely available in the City.

York is also due to pay £48,486 to the WYCA this year as its share of the Leeds Region Local Enterprise Partnership costs.

Benefits are expected to include participation in an “Apprentice Hub” programme and an employer ownership pilot.

The WYCA had a (largely inherited) pension liability of over £68 million at the end of the last financial year. It currently admits a total deficit on its reserves of £33 million but has a working balance of £7.9 million. It is not known whether, under devolution proposals, York will remain a participant in the WYCA.

NB. Over £150,000 a year in “special responsibility payments” are being claimed by Councillors serving on WYCA committees although these area not highlighted in the annual figures published by the York Council. All WYCA members receive a basic allowance of £4500 a year

York first in the UK to trial new fuel savings technique

City of York Council has joined forces with Unipart Rail to become the first local authority in the UK to trial a new fuel additive, which is set to save the council up to £50,000 a year and significantly reduce toxic emissions from the council’s vehicles.

diesoLIFTThe ground-breaking scheme is being trialled on a range of vehicle types across its fleet, at no incremental cost to the council, which on average uses around 800,000 litres of diesel per annum.

Unipart Rail has selected the council for its pilot scheme which it anticipates will be rolled out across the country with other commercial vehicle operators.

DiesoLiFT™ is a unique fuel additive which works by increasing the efficiency of the diesel’s combustion, safely cleans the engine and mitigates the issues borne from water contamination in the fuel. This combination of fuel improvements reduces the amount of fuel used and the level of vehicle emissions as well as helping to reduce the incidents of fuel blockages and vehicle failures.

For City of York Council this is expected to produce significant savings of up to six per cent of the diesel usage annually across its services as well as vehicle maintenance costs.

If successful, it will also ensure the authority can help to  further reduce the amount of harmful emissions being emitted from its fleet.

Cllr Andrew Waller, Executive Member for the Environment, said: “We thank UniPart Rail for choosing York to trial this new product which we hope will not only save the council thousands of pounds, but will also help to reduce the amount of harmful emissions from our vehicles. It’s important that we can be seen to be leading the way and making this important step-change, particularly if other businesses are to follow suit.”

George Tillier, MD of Unipart Rail, commented: “We are very pleased to be working with such a forward thinking local authority such as City of York Council to trial one of our innovative products.  DiesoLiFT™ and our Fuel Efficiency Management package of services will help the council to save money and reduce the amount of harmful emissions that their vehicles emit.Testing and trial results within other transport sectors that we are also working with have provided compelling evidence which we are confident City of York Council will also experience.”

Council promises more transparency in Quango monitor as….

….Council officials trouser £9000 in Directors fees from “City of York Trading”

secret-meeting-safe-picThe York Council has said that its “Shareholder Group”, set up to monitor the performance of the new “Make it York” (MIY) Quango, will in future meet in public. The decision follows criticism of the Council for failing to establish, and publish, performance measures covering the whole of the new organisations remit.

Noticeably absent are any measures for City centre management and markets activities.

The Shareholder Group met in private on 6th July. No minutes of the meeting have yet been published. Following a Freedom of Information request, background information has been published but it is unlikely that any taxpayer would easily find it on the Councils web site (Click here)

There is no evidence that the five Councillors involved in the shareholders group have challenged MIYs controversial plans to demolish the fountain in Parliament Street or to re-site the popular children’s Christmas Carousel ride.

The next meeting of the group will apparently take place on 5th October. However the group does not yet even appear in the list of committees published by the Council.

All in all, it is time for senior Councillors to get a grip of the processes being used to ensure that the £918,000 of taxpayer’s money – handed to MIY – is being spent wisely and following proper consultation with residents.

City of York Trading (CYT)

Following the decision of the Councils Executive to ask for more information about City of York Trading it has emerged that two Council officials have been paid £9000 in connection with their Directorships of the Company. The Company is wholly owned by the York Council and mainly matches surplus resources to vacancies in the public sector.

The information emerged in response to a Freedom of Information request.

Directors at the York Council have a salary of around £100,000 a year while Assistant Directors receive about £75,000.

It is unclear who authorised the additional payments, when and for what reason?

One of the more controversial aspects of the revised constitution for CYT (and MIY) were proposals to remunerate Directors. It had been assumed that this would not apply to Council officials or Councillors, but this may not be the intention.

No declarations of interest were made in the papers prepared for the Executive meeting on 27th August.

Recently, Councillors in York have been more open in declaring their financial interests and the hospitality they have accepted. Current listings confirm that none have received remuneration from local Quangos like those that now run our libraries, theatre and museums..

Proper declarations have also been made for outside bodies such as the LGA and Yorwaste on which the Council has a shareholder interest, although there is currently no requirement to reveal the level of any remuneration received.

Community Stadium “set up” costs hit £3.9 million

Over £963,000 spent to date on new athletics facilities at the University

The City of York Council has spent £3.875 million since 2008 trying to get the new Community Stadium off the ground.

Of this, £2.1 million has already been spent on project costs.

As expected the bill for the new athletics facility at the University is set to top £1 million.

Most of the expenditure has been capitalised – meaning that it may be deducted from the £15 million Section 106 monies already paid to the Council by the developers of the adjacent Vanguard development.

Still the figures are a matter of concern as no building works have actually yet started and a final contract decision is not now due to be made until January 2016.

The figures – revealed in a response to a Freedom of Information request – include £506,168 spent on “Interim training/match facilities” The precise make up of this expenditure has not yet been provided.

The information has been released at a time when one of the core tenants for the community facilities being provided at Monks Cross has withdrawn. St John’s say that their new sports development on Haxby Road – where the Knight Rugby Team now train – meets al their sporting needs.

The Council have remained tight lipped about how much rental they hope to gain, from the lease of community facilities sapce, to organisations like the NHS and the Libraries social enterprise company.

Without this income the running costs of the stadium could fall on taxpayers.

Community Stadium costs to 18th Aug 2015

York Council Tax arrears hit £5.9 million

Council TaxAt the end of March 2015, the York Council was owed £5,968,577 in Council Tax arrears.

This was up from the £5,314,296 recorded at the end of 2010/11.

A total of 14,383 residents were in arrears.

292 residents owed more than £3000, while 6 residents owed more than £10,000.

In 2011 the latter figure had been zero.

7535 liability orders were issued last year and bailiffs dealt with 3637 cases.

The Council wrote off over £370,000 in Council Tax debts last year.

More detailed figures can be read by clicking here

York council tax single person discount – fraud checks starting

CT fraud

 City of York Council is urging customers who are registered for Single Occupancy discount on their Council Tax, but who are no longer eligible, to contact the council as soon as possible.

The authority is carrying out a review of its single occupancy customer database to ensure that it is up-to-date. The council will also carry out a residency check to find out who may no longer be eligible for discount.

Ian Floyd, the council’s director of Resources, said: “We know that most people claim council tax discounts legitimately, but there are occasions when people’s circumstances change and they forget to tell us that their discount should be cancelled.

“The authority has a legal and social responsibility to ensure that everyone in York gets value for money and to ensure that only those people who are eligible receive the discount.”

More information on the single persons discount review can be found on the council’s website at: www.york.gov.uk/SPDreview. People can also cancel their discount online.

Householders who receive a single person’s discount review form can also contact the review team by ringing 01904 820900.

 

Ring Road improvements falter but York Council set to borrow £24 million

A report to a Council meeting later this week details how an £80 million Council investment programme will be funded.

The Council will again borrow heavily to fund schemes which include:

Borrowing costs click to enlarge

Borrowing costs click to enlarge

  • Expansion of Fulford school (£5.8m)
  • Schools maintenance (£4m)
  • Older persons accommodation (£0.5m)
  • Museums plus art gallery gardens (0.85m)
  • LED street lighting replacement (£1.3m)
  • Provision of 20 new Council houses (£8.9m) and modernisation (£2.3m)
  • Local Transport Plan (£4.6m)
  • Community Stadium (£20.7m of which £6.4m will come from taxpayers)*

*It seems highly unlikely that this money will be spent in the current financial year as the contract is not now expected to be let until the spring.

The Council will invest in better play grounds and more solar powered litter bins.

The programme also includes a (mostly unallocated) £15m sum in the “economic investment fund”. This is understood still to include major contributions towards a bridge into the York Central site and funding for a Digital Media Centre.

A1237 northern by pass improvements delayed?

A1237

The 5 year rolling programme – which includes projects which are both directly and indirectly funded – does not identify any money for improvements to the northern by pass.  

The West Yorkshire “Combined Authority” agreed last November to include a £37.6m allocation in their forward programme for the project.

Following the announcement by the government of an allocation of £1 billion for the “West Yorkshire Plus Transport fund”, the York Council was asked to commit £500,000 a year in its revenue budget to progress the ring road project.

The expectation was that the £37 million investment would be used to upgrade those roundabouts – such as the one on the Haxby Road – which currently cause bottlenecks on the A1237.

According to the Combined Authorities programme formal approval for improvements at the first junction was due to be given this month (August) with a start on site in March 2016.

No explanation for the delays has been provided in the report to York Councillors.

The government funding allocation must be used by 2021.

Council set to lose £60,000 as a result of Marygate car park barrier fails

A report to a meeting next week confirms that the unreliable Marygate car park barriers are responsible for nearly half of an Marygate-car-park-equipment-768x1024estimated £136,000 short -fall in car parking revenue expected by the York Council this year.

It is just over a year ago since barriers were installed at the car park at a cost of over £100,000.  Labour Councillors who approved the change were warned that elsewhere similar (outdoor) systems had been chronically unreliable.

Now the barriers are often locked in a raised position – effectively allowing free parking.

The report identifies a potential overall overspend against budget of £1.9 million. In fairness, this is not without precedent for a first quarter financial review.

Most of the potential deficient occurs from escalating costs for fostering children.

The Council says that “the number of Children Looked After is unlikely to reduce in the foreseeable future”.

The Council Housing account is now forecast to have a surplus of £16.6 million by the end of the year!  As reported on Thursday, housing officials are currently refusing to invest any of the profit in essential estate repairs.

The performance report suggests that little progress has been made so far this year in improving public service standards.

Most of the indicators have been inherited from the last – discredited – Labour administration and in many cases are simply missing altogether (including even results for the year ending 1/4/15 in many cases)

Enviromnet Aug 2015

City of York Ltd’s services to expand – another Quango set to spread its wings?

secret decisionsThe York Council’s Executive will be presented with a progress report by City of York Council’s trading organisation, City of York Ltd (CYT Ltd), at a meeting on 27 August.

The report provides limited information on the results of services traded under the “Work With York” brand, which include the supply of casual/interim staff, and supply teachers.

The report claims that a profit of “almost £300,000” was made in 2014/15, although how much of this was made through “internal trading” (“selling” services back to the York Council), is not revealed.

Much of the work is understood to be undertaken by a pool of former Council employees who otherwise would be redundant (e.g. saving on the costs of using Agency staff to fill temporary vacancies) .

The company is wholly owned by the York Council. It is currently governed by four Executive Directors. All are senior Council officials. A non Executive Director was also appointed (a Labour Councillor).

There is now a move to appoint “external” Directors. Such appointments are likely to be made  “behind closed doors”  by a four person “Shareholders committee” which is comprised of Councillors.

This committee will also review the companies business plan – a role currently undertaken by the Council itself. It is not obliged to meet in public or publish the agenda for its meetings. The proposed  “Shareholder Agreement” is entirely silent on the issue of transparency and accountability. 

The company is able to borrow money to fund its expansion plans but it is unclear where liability would rest in the event of a financial failure.

The Executive is being asked to remove “the requirement for formal consent from the Council for a number of specific matters including: incurring material expenditure or capital liabilities exceeding £10,000, sponsoring events or supporting charitable activities, paying certain remuneration, settling claims and approving the charging policy”. 

In a media release the Council says,

(more…)

Council debts soar by over 500% in 20 years.

Each York man, woman and child now owes £1326!

A freedom of information response has revealed how the York Council has increased its borrowing over the last 20 years since it became an “all purpose” unitary authority.

An inherited debt level of £40 million had risen to £269 million by 31st March 2015.

About 10% of the Council Tax paid each year now goes on repaying principle and interest on the debts.

The figures include historic debt on Council house building.

In only four of the last 20 years has the Council repaid more than it borrowed in the same year.

The majority of the new loans taken out have occurred in years when it was under Labour party leadership.

What will be of concern to most taxpayers is that the Councils current capital programme implies that borrowing will continue to rise over the next 2 or 3 years at least.

Council debts