Time to come clean on the costs of redundancy at the York Council

Angry mob - whole truth

The York Council has shed a lot of staff over the last few years.

The redundancy terms – and payments made – to an individual are understandably considered to be private matters.

But the expectation was that the responsible Council committee would receive a public overview report detailing the total cost to the public purse.

A report to a meeting taking place on 22nd June is remarkably lacking in candour.

Councillors had been told on 8th June that they could expect a “4 month overview” on redundancies. It seems that the information has not been made available or is to be considered in private.

That is a shame and an issue that Councillors should challenge the new Council Leader over.

There remains a suspicion that the York Council has lost too many experienced staff over recent years and this lack of understanding – and capacity – is at least partly responsible for the decline in public service standards in the City.

Residents still have time to save money on their gas and electricity bills

City of York Council is reminding residents that they have until Monday 18 May to sign up the Big Community Energy Switch, where they could potentially save on average £243 on their gas and electricity bills.

The council’s partner iChoosr do all the hard work which makes it simple, safe and hassle-free for residents to consider switching their energy tariffs.

There are four easy steps:
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York looking a lot different this morning

Residents who went to bed last night knowing only the General Election outcome, will blink when they read the York Council poll results this morning

Labour have had their worst election result since the unitary authority was formed in 1997.

end behind closed door

Half the Labour Cabinet have lost their seats including the prime architects of the “behind closed doors” decision making processes introduced 4 years ago. Cllrs Tracey Simpson Laing, Dave Merrett and Lindsey Cunningham have followed James Alexander out of the door.

The new Council is well and truly balanced with Labour scraping back with 15 seats to the Tories 14 and LibDem 12. There are also 4 Greens and 2 Independents on the Council. Significantly the Tories got the largest number of votes (but not by many) while the LibDems share, at 24%, was three time the national average achieved by the party

The new Council needs to take time to make sure that it comes up with a decision making structure that is open, considered and sensitive to resident’s views.

The Council will have to decide how much time to spend calling the previous, secretive, Council to account. Labour and their allies halted plans for an inquiry into the Lendal Bridge/Coppergate shambles, secrecy still prevails on failed social care projects, delays to major schemes like the community stadium were never properly explained, while the £185,000 loss on the “Grand Departy” was swept under the carpet.

The Council will need to consider carefully how much time to spend looking under dirty floor-coverings.

“Labour” is a toxic term for many residents when used in the local government context in York. The three Labour Councillors who left that Group, in protest at the mismanagement, all lost their seats yesterday. They will have the consolation that fewer errors were made by the Council in the period since last October when they took their courageous step.

New personalities are needed to lead the Council.

The Council will also need to review its senior officer team in the light of the decision of the Chief Executive to accept a new post elsewhere.

While many may feel that something like the old committee system would satisfy these objectives, there will be opposition to what they may term “turning back the clocks”.

It will be the first test for the newly elected Councillors.

Consensus government does by definition require compromise.

Six to fix May 2015

York Council hoarding 110,000 square metres of vacant and derelict land

New figures obtained under Freedom of Information legislation suggest that the York Council has been slow to exploit the full potential of the  “brownfield” derelict land that it owns.

Vacant land register April 2015

The list includes the former park and ride car park on Tadcaster Road which current houses a little used pay and display car park.

Residents had already highlighted the vacant plot to the rear of the Acomb Library which has originally been intend to house a replacement Acomb Council office together with some much needed affordable homes. The project was dropped by the new Labour Council in 2011 and the site has remained derelict ever since.

Now officials have suggested that the project may be revived although there has been absolutely no consultation on any proposals.

Most  of the vacant land is at the former Lowfields and Manor school sites. The Council has also courted unpopularity at Lowfields by refusing to keep local residents up to date on its development plans.

Also on the list is Oliver House which has been empty for over 2 years and for which offers of over £3 million have been received.

The Labour Council leadership decided to delay its sale until after the elections.

In total the Council owns 110,877 square metres of unused land.

Release of some of the land would go some way towards reducing housing pressures in the City while helping those who are campaigning to preserve the City’s Green Belt.

 

York Council falls down league tables

A freedom of Information response has confirmed what many residents suspected. They are paying higher taxes than they would in many other City’s, and less is being invested in public services than 5 years ago.

Despite claims to the contrary, government grants to the city – relative to other unitary authorities – have been stable for 5 years..,

The main change is in Council Tax levels. When Labour took office in 2011 York had the second lowest Council Tax level in the country.

The Council now only ranks 14th lowest.

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click to enlarge

No decision on Oliver House sale before June

…as York Council slides further into debt

According to The Press the York Council leadership has now said that the tenders received for the sale of Oliver House will not be considered until a new Council “Cabinet” has its first meeting in June.

Oliver House York

The former elderly person’s home has been empty for over 2 years.

We reported last week that an unexpectedly high £3.2 million bid, which would see 30 specialist older persons apartments provided on the site, had been deferred by the Council Leader.

Now it turns out that the sale will be delayed until the new Council, being elected on 7th May, has had time to sort out its new committees.

How long the offers will remain on the table remains to be seen.

Council debts spiralling

The full impact of the Councils financial management polices is becoming clearer. A freedom of information response has revealed a spiralling mountain of debt.

Capital debts - click to enlarge

Capital debts – click to enlarge

The response reveals that, since the Liberal Democrats lost control of the Council in May 2011, the Council has been borrowing heavily.  

The debt charges (interest payments) are partly responsible for the cuts that Labour are making to front line services.

Part of the debt increase was due to a transfer of historic housing debt to the City but this was coupled with a decision to allow all rents collected to be retained and used to service the interest payments.

The present Council also has several major projects in the pipeline which could add to the debt burden.

They include the conversion of the Guildhall into a media centre (£9 million) as well as funding a bridge into the York central site (£11 million).

The Council will also have to find several million to fund a replacement elderly care building programme following the abandonment of the care village project last month.

There is no excuse for any further delay in selling Oliver House to the highest bidder.

Legally, the Council has no other option

New figures paint different picture of York Council finances.

With the final budget of the present York Council now being implemented, it is possible to get an accurate picture of how its financial position has changed since 2011.

Finance stats

A response to a Freedom of Information request reveals that taken together government grant income and Business Rates income has fallen by an average of 2% a year.

 This is very different from the headline grapping 47% cut figure being peddled by the Labour Leadership.

After taking Council Tax income into account, the actual reduction in expenditure on public services in the City over the last 5 years has been 3.5%.

The expenditure per head of population (probably the best measure of a Councils efficiency) has fallen from £626.39 in 2011/12 (the last budget set by the outgoing LibDem administration) to £585.41 in the latest Labour budget.

This is a 6.5% fall over 5 years.

Of course the figure disguises where investment was prioritised. Hence the ongoing criticism of Labour’s vanity project obsession – such as digital media centres, arts barges –  not to mention huge amounts wasted on aborted projects like the Lendal bridge trial and the elderly care village)

Next week we’ll look at York’s relative performance when compared with other Local Authorities and the – much criticised – borrowing polices of the Council.

Indecision grips Council on “no brainer”

The Council Leader failed to take a decision today on which tender to accept for the sale of Oliver House, which has been empty for 2 years..

24 bids were received for the site with the highest being for £3.2 million. 

The income is desperately needed by the York Council to plug major gaps in its budget.

It may be that Labour Councillors are now trying to appease their Green party coalition partners who bizarrely suggested last week that the Council should accept the lowest bid offered for the property.

The full list of bidders and offers is reproduced below.

It would be unlawful for the Council to accept a bid which was more than £2 million below the highest offer received.

Oliver House bid appraisal March 2015 click to enlarge

Oliver House bid appraisal March 2015 click to enlarge

More York Council Audit reports published

Waterworld subsidy among those to be investigated further.

Waterworld - closed by the York Council last Novemebr

Waterworld – closed by the York Council last November

The subsidy requested by Waterworld contractor Greenwich Leisure is among a number of reports published today

The auditors brief is described as;

, “Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) ran the Waterworld leisure centre on behalf of the council before it was demolished as part of the larger project to build a new community stadium. Each month GLL submitted monthly accounts which showed both the income and expenditure for Waterworld with the council re-imbursing GLL for the losses incurred during the month. This agreement lasted between April and November 2014 until Waterworld closed.

The purpose of the audit was to confirm the council is paying the correct amount of money to GLL although there were no concerns that the figures paid to GLL were not representative of the costs of providing Waterworld. The audit reviewed the following areas:

  • A sample of large value invoices in order to confirm that expenditure related to Waterworld, the period in question, the amount was correct and the invoice had been authorised.
  • The cashing up process in order to confirm that all income was banked in full.
  • The monthly transaction sheets sent by GLL to support the subsidy payments made by the council were accurate, complete and had been reviewed by staff at the council”.

Greenwich are involved in the contract for the new Community Stadium.

A full list of audits completed is (click to view):-

Audit report on York Council highways repair priorities published.

Auditors find discrepancies and order process changes

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click to enlarge

An internal audit into how the York Council allocates its highway repair budgets has been published. The auditors have apparently failed to ask when, and by whom, the repair criteria formulae was last changed.

The report questions how decisions were taken which led to two – unnamed but apparently low priority roads – being included in this (financial) years repair programme.

The names of the roads will no doubt be revealed at the meeting.

The report is critical of the Cabinet member (Levene) involved who held one of Labours now notorious “behind closed doors” meetings to determine a draft programme.

The report details the scoring system used and the weightings given to complaints and petitions.

It acknowledges though that the poorest roads usually get the highest priority for limited funds whichever ward they fall within.

The actual score for each scheme (and those just below the cut off line) were not included in the final (public) report when it was published and debated on 20th March 2014.

Behind closed doors logo

In total the auditors recommend 5 changes to current processes.

It will be interesting to see what the Cabinet member involved will say at the meeting on 25th March when these criticisms are put to him. He will probably advance the “Constantine the Great” defence – “its always gone on , I was just doing what previous office holders did”.

We understand that a separate allegation of conflict/bullying involving a Cabinet member and a Council official has been dropped because of lack of evidence.

NB. Labour are cutting highways maintenance repair funding by £300,000 in April.