Quango set to take over Council’s economic development activities

More of the York Councils decision making powers are to be handed over to an unelected body tomorrow (Tuesday) The Council’s Cabinet is being recommended to approve  the transfer of “marketing, culture, tourism and business development” activities to a company called “Make it York” (MiY).

The new company will have a budget of around  £4 million a year. Much of this will come from Tourism activities although the Council will transfer its Shambles Market (£241k),  Tourism (£232k), Science City (£100k), Economic Development (£337k) and Cultural activities (£229k) budgets into MiY control.

Made-in--York-T-Shirts

As well as tourism, the company will be responsible for an eclectic range of activities including “Christmas Lights”.

The outline business plan for the organisation can be read by clicking here

The Council’s interests on the Board of Directors will be represented by the Council Leader and Chief Executive.

Some will feel that the second Council seat should be allocated to an opposition Leader, rather than to a paid official. This might improve the chances of a  consensus emerging on priorities and could give the company a life expectancy extending beyond May 2015

The move comes in the wake of a series of decisions which have, in recent years, steadily eroded  taxpayers influence over how their money is spent.

As well as the Museums Trust, the City’s Libraries and Archives are now managed by an independent organisation. In fairness, both  these organisations have so far been relatively benign and seem to be sensitive to users views.

Strategic transport and economic development powers have been partly transferred to a “combined authority” which has its headquarters in Leeds. Feedback from this body is poor with the decision making process largely impenetrable for the average resident.  There will be big questions to be answered about York’s future in the “Leeds City Region” after the Council elections take place in May.

In the meantime, the major criticisms of “Make it York” remain its lack of accountability, transparency and its attitude to the needs of the City’s suburbs.

 It could quickly enhance its reputation by publicly backing the Front Street regeneration project.

Residents will want to see the organisation making its decisions in public and will expect it to – voluntarily – agree to respond to Freedom of Information requests.

Tour de France wash up report lacks candour

The Councils Cabinet and, later, scrutiny committee will be debating the final report on last years Tour De France event when they meet next week.

Tour De France launch dinner in Ripon Cathedral

Tour De France launch dinner in Ripon Cathedral

The report rightly highlights the positive benefits which the event produced. Not least among these were the 200,000 spectators in the City and the international publicity which the City received as well as an estimated £8 million injected into the local economy.

The latter figure is estimated and does not seek to relate benefits to the £1.8 million that the taxpayer paid for the event.

That was the largest amount that the York Council has spent on a single leisure event.  

To put it into context, a similar number of people visited the City for the “Royal Ascot at York” event held in 2005. That event cost taxpayers less than 10% of the TdF costs (with most costs relating to traffic management).

The reports are weakest in the areas which caused some local residents concern.

A much hyped claim was that merchandising, car parking and camping sales would produce a “profit” to off set costs. That simply didn’t happen.

Sparse crowd for Grand Departy

Sparse crowd for Grand Departy

Many decisions such as the location of the event “hubs” were delayed before being imposed on unwilling neighbourhoods.

Some failures – post start entertainment and big screen blackouts – could have been avoided with better planning.

But the conspiracy of silence about the £180,000 Grand Departy decision making process remains the most significant outstanding issue. Only a passing reference is made to this event in the reports.

Hopefully the Scrutiny Committee meeting on Wednesday will finally insist on answers being given to the outstanding questions about the Grand Departy. When we know the answers, a more informed decision can be made about the level of public subsidy – if any – which should be given to the proposed “Tour de Yorkshire” (TdY).

Ironically that event is scheduled to hit the City on a busy bank holiday only 3 days before the Council elections are scheduled to take place.

York residents deserve to know all the facts before Council discussions are veiled by the start of the local election “purdah” period.

Lendal Bridge “automatic fine” refund process revealed

Report published – administration to cost extra £150,000

The Council Cabinet will decide on 20th January how to implement the Councils decision to “automatically” refund those who were fined during the Lendal Bridge trial.

Lendal Man

So far 12,512 refunds have been issued by the Council.

The most likely course of action is that all 35,000 motorists, who have not yet claimed a refund, will be written to and advised of their opportunity to claim.

After that the process will be much the same as the scheme currently in operation.

The cost of sending out and managing the notification process is put at £150,000. The money will come from grant income which otherwise would have been spent on public services in the City.

In total the Council took around £1.8 million in fines from the Lendal bridge and Coppergate schemes. The Council continues to pursue a claim that the Coppergate fines were levied lawfully but their appeal has been outstanding for over 9 months now.

Additionally, over £700,000 was spent on implementing and administering the original schemes.

The Council is shying away from simply putting a cheque in the post to the registered vehicle keeper details that its agents have on file. They fear that many of the payments would not reach the right people (hire cars, parental cars, foreign tourists, deceased etc)  and Legal Counsel have said that such an option could jeopardise the Councils  Coppergate appeal.

All in all it now looks like the Lendal Bridge experiment will cost over £1 million.

That is money which could, and should, have been spent addressing road safety issues across the whole City.

Guildhall future – review meeting scheduled for 19th January

Labour’s plans to spend £9.2 million creating a “Digital Media Centre” (DMC) at the York Guildhall will be up for review on 19th January

York Guildhall

York Guildhall

The Guildhall has been largely unused for 2 years.

The Council first proposed to fund a DMC in July 2012  when “only” £1.4 million was earmarked for a partnership project. The figure has “grown like topsy” since then. The preferred site in 2012 was the Bonding Warehouse.

Labour have been pouring money into the scheme since the summer of 2013 – when they still enjoyed an overall majority on the Council. They failed to secure broad backing for their plans and a bid for Lottery Funding subsequently failed.

A hastily convened Cabinet meeting on 16th December 2014 agreed to spend another £500,000 on design work plus financial, procurement and legal support.

 Up to £100,000 is also to be spent on interim repairs to the Guildhall as it is clear that any new DMC use could not be operational for at least 3 years.

The argument for providing space for digital industries (which are a modest, but expanding, part of the local economy) is that the private sector will not fund offices where there is no guarantee of long term use. Some digital companies expand and contract the amount of space that they use on a regular basis.

Lack of a stable rental income is also the reason why the Council should not plunge further into debt to subsidise what would be a high risk venture.

It was presumably also the reason why no revenue budget for the DMC was published with the Council committee papers in December.  “Don’t know” is a poor basis on which to make an investment decision.

The original reports, which sought to forecast demand for this type of casual use, are out of date (DMZ report 2011 for Science City). There is a lot of office space available in the City not least that associated with Higher Education facilities. The workshops, established by the private sector, in partnership with the last Council, at Clifton Moor,  often have vacant spaces.

So what now?

The Council should not throw good money after bad. It needs to pause and ensure that other options are fully explored.

The Guildhall complex could be offered on the open market to see what interest is generated. It is a prime site and could accommodate a range of shopping, hotel and office uses.

The historic (listed) Guildhall itself must be properly conserved and accessible to the public. While this might inhibit some potential uses the approach can be similar to that which has seen the Assembly Rooms, De Grey Rooms and (most recently) the Theatre Royal building being successfully taken over by a local conservation charity.

Such an approach would not rule out small office space being provided which is suitable for digital media arts  use but the risk, and cost, to Council taxpayers would be reduced.

It is only when these avenues have been explored that the Council will know what viable options are available and an informed choice can then be made.

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It is unfortunate that, at a time when the DMC issue is coming to a head, the Councils involvement in the successful bid to become a UNESCO City of Media Arts is coming into question.  

The problems arise from an apparent lack of candor about the amount that the bid, and the subsequent programme of activities, will cost taxpayers. Freedom of information requests have revealed some surprisingly high consultancy fees and opaque appointment processes  while two years ago the cost of trips to south east Asia had raised eyebrows.

Time for some public accountability on this issue we think.

Yearsley Pool – decision on way forward scheduled for 12th January

A Council scrutiny committee will decide on 12th January whether to undertake a public review of Labour’s plan to withdraw the Yearsley Pool’s £250,000 a year subsidy.

Yearsley Pool

Yearsley Pool

LibDem councillors have proposed that a review begin straight away giving managers the maximum time possible to find alternative sources of income and savings prior to the summer 2016 cut off date.

The early review has the backing of the Yearsley Pool Action Group which has submitted a 4,500 signature petition supporting the retention of the pool.

Although the Council had agreed to hold talks in early 2016 about the future of the pool, these would be held in private. They would also have presumed that no ongoing subsidy would be available.

One of the factors bedevilling the process is that with Council elections in May, it is likely that the majority of existing Councillors will not be re-elected to the new authority (many have said that they are standing down).

As the decisions of the present Council cannot bind the new one, priorities are likely to change.

Both LibDem and Tory Councillors have said that they want to move resources away from prestige projects preferring instead to improve funding for basic public services. These would include existing leisure facilities.

In 2007, the last LibDem Council invested over £1 million in upgrades to the Yearsley pool. It was expected that this would  give the pool a life of over 20 years before additional investment was required. 

In January 2011, before coming to power, Labour began to question the future of the facility.

Government grant settlement for York Council announced.

Council Tax levels set to be frozen

The York Council has fared relatively well in the grant settlement announced today.

The Councils “spending power” will fall by only 0.1% against a national average of 1.8%.

The “spending power” figure combines regular central government funding with one-off grants and things like Council Tax, a proportion of business rates and other fees and charges.

The government has also confirmed that it will underwrite the costs of freezing Council Tax levels. The new Labour leadership have promised to accept the offer of support unlike their predecessors who hiked up Council Tax rates unnecessarily.

Lib Dems challenge £9.2million ‘media hub’ plans

Councillor Andrew WallerCllr Andrew Waller

Liberal Democrat councillors say plans to spend £9.2million on a ‘Digital Media Hub’ at York’s Guildhall should be reconsidered.

The proposals were rubber-stamped by the Labour Cabinet last night despite concerns raised at the meeting by Lib Dem Cllr Ian Cuthbertson. Under the plans, City of York Council will spend an initial £500,000 on the project. The overall scheme is due to cost £9.2million with cash coming from council capital funds, borrowing and the council’s ‘Economic Infrastructure Fund’. £1.7million in funding is yet to be found.

The Lib Dems say there is not enough evidence on income to justify the spending and have ‘called-in’ the decision for review. The proposal will now be reconsidered at a cross-party scrutiny meeting in January.

Cllr Andrew Waller, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Finance and Performance, commented:

“It is astonishing that the Labour Cabinet has brought forward these proposals without a proper business case which shows how the council hopes to get a return on its investment to justify the spending. There is also currently a £1.7million black hole in Labour’s plans.

“If this plan proceeds, York taxpayers will be asked to underwrite £9million of risk on the project. As well as a huge upfront capital cost the plans would greatly increase the council’s long-term borrowing commitments, a burden which has already increased under Labour.

“The report passed presents no evidence that other options for the Guildhall have been properly considered, that this is the right location for the use being proposed or that the private sector will take on any of the risk of this project.

“At a time when Labour are cutting frontline services for ordinary residents and considering moving to monthly rubbish collections, we cannot support this sort of speculative spending on vanity projects in the city-centre.”
(more…)

Guildhall future

Despite representations from Liberal Democrat and Independent Councillors at last nights Cabinet meeting, Labour decided to press ahead with their £9.2 million scheme to remodel the Guildhall complex as a “Digital Arts and Media Centre”

Guilhall entrance

Guilhall entrance

The same meeting considered plans which could see major cuts made to the quality of the environment in the City, reductions in social care regimes,  charges introduced for emptying waste bins and reduced highways maintenance standards.

The new Council leadership’s claim – that they would concentrate available resources  on basic service standards and respond positively to public priorities – now looks rather less than convincing.

The “business as usual” attitude also confirms that the Council has yet to find a governance system which truly reflects the new “balanced” make up of the Council.

The simplest way to get a broader view would be to run all draft reports through the weekly public “urgency” meetings which take place. Reports could the be refined to meet the majority view before going through the formal decision taking process.

Until that happens, it seems that all controversial items will be “called in” for further consideration. This is a laborious process which doesn’t necessary result in a change in the original decision.

Ultimately, if Labour don’t respect the majority view, then a special Council meeting could be called and the Leader of only a few weeks could be kicked out of office.

York Council plans to spend £250,000 on “Tour de Yorkshire” cycling event as

More cuts to local environment planned

It looks like Labour Councillors want to spend another £1/4 million on a 3 day cycling event next May. One of the stages of the new “Tour de Yorkshire” will finish in York with several local sprint races planned.

Taxpayers will be expected to pick up the bill, from the commercial rights owners, for a whopping £100,000 “hosting fee” for the event,.

A report which is being considered tomorrow, by the Councils Cabinet, shows no sponsorship or admittance fees aimed at offsetting the bills.

A decision will apparently be made before the Inquiry into the disastrous Grand Departy flop is completed.

Organisers were forced to admit a couple of months ago that the Huntington Stadium event – staged separately from the Tour de France start – had lost over £186,000.  An inquiry into the event was subsequently ordered by the Council’s scrutiny committee.

More Cuts

The same Council Cabinet agenda talks of major cuts to basic service standards.

Road surfaces in Queenswood Grove breaking up

Road surfaces in Queenswood Grove already breaking up

£1.3 million a year will be cut from social care budgets.

As well as the much publicised proposals to charge for green bin emptying and move to 4 weekly residual waste collections, Labour are now admitting that more cuts are planned to open space maintenance.

Volunteers will apparently be expected to maintain bowling greens, tennis courts, flower beds and undertake  rose planting. The report says that the “replacement of bedding plants with ornamental grass at 18 sites could potentially save 1,519 hours of labour”.

Ominously the report talks of York’s roads and footpaths being “better than average” suggesting that further cuts in maintenance standards are planned.

Many residents will view with incredulity any proposals which would allow a further deterioration in the standard of highways surfaces.