West Yorkshire combined authority – Transport chair to net £29,000 pa!

Those celebrating the first meeting of this authority – which includes York albeit with limited powers – may wonder about openness and accountability.

Labour leaders 2 west Yorks combined authority

The shadow authority last met in March

But very little information has been published about the new authority – which the Labour Leadership claims will donate over £40 million towards solving some of York’s transport problems.

The papers for the first meeting (taking place tomorrow) have now been published.

Residents will have no time to read the background to what could be far reaching decisions.

WYCA

The highly paid Labour Council Leaders – incongruously photographed with head protection (above) presumably in case they meet up with angry Council Taxpayers – will have to be content with their £30,000 local authority pay.

York will have no vote on “budget and levy setting” which will be done by the West Yorkshire Authorities.

But the papers reveal that other Councillors who are “co-opted” onto the “Transport Committee” stand to get as much as £29,000 on top of what they are paid by their Local Authority.

It is likely that the members of the Authorities sub committees will all be Labour Councillors – the need for political balance having been jettisoned.

The names of the Councillors nominated have not been released ahead of the meeting.

No doubt the potential chair of the Transport Committee will be viewing the meeting in the same way that many watch for the results of the Friday evening Euro millions draw.

So how much income will the Tour de France bring into York?

After months of prevarication the York Council has revealed how much of its £1.6 million investment it hopes to recoup from camping, sales and other sponsorship.

The Council Leader said that a business plan had been drawn up earlier in the year; “my expectations on income would have been circa £175,000 directly to the council”.

In a moments panic, he later claimed that the estimate might have to be reduced because of the decision to restrict the opening hours of the camp site on Monk Stray!

Quite how much the Council was planning to charge Monk Stray campers will now be a matter of some local interest.

He went on to say that “our main objectives are to ensure local businesses benefit hugely”.

Some hospitality businesses are already doing hugely well out of taxpayer funded events!

A seemingly endless stream of no expense spared events has been taking place over the last few days.

They culminated in an exclusive dinner last night in Ripon Cathedral which was attended by 2000 people.

Tour De France launch dinner in Ripon Cathedral

Tour De France launch dinner in Ripon Cathedral

NB. Unfortunately the York Council’s Chief Executive failed to attend last nights important Council meeting. Had she been there, she might have been able to advise a floundering Labour Cabinet, on the steps necessary to control expenditure on the “Grand Départ’ before they get totally out of control.

Highways getting worse in York

A meeting next week will hear the – not unsurprising – news that the majority of York’s highways and footpaths are declining in standard.

11% of unclassified roads (the vast majority of the City’s network) are now in urgent need of repair.

click to enlarge

click to enlarge


Only on its classified network does the City compare well to some other Yorkshire authorities.

As reported recently (see right) the Council has belatedly realised the implications of the work backlog which started to build in 2012 when the Council imposed a 37% cut in maintenance budgets.

It is estimated that there is now a £32 million back log in work.

Worn highway surface Hamilton Drive West

Worn highway surface Hamilton Drive West

The Council is now saying that it will reveal in April an additional list of streets that it hopes to resurface in the run up to next years local elections.

A list of the roads and paths currently on the list to be resurfaced before March 2015 can be found here

NB. In Westfield, the footpaths in parts of Green Lane, Wetherby Road and Cornlands Road are due to be resurfaced.

York Council mobile phones

mobile-phones

The York Council has revealed that it rents nearly 2000 mobile phones and other mobile devices for use by its workforce.

Mostly these are Nokia 113, Samsung Galaxy Young and Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini models.

It has now decided to implement a management system for them called air watch

The Council has fewer than 4000 employees with 3500 registered for IT helpdesk support.

The relatively high ratio of corporate phones to employee numbers has not been the subject of any recent review by the Councils audit committee.

York Councils “new” litter policy

The Council is to introduce what they describe as a “new” policy on litter. Details click here

Litter and rubbish in little Green Lane garage area

Litter and rubbish in little Green Lane garage area

In reality most of the policy is little different from that which was implemented over a decade ago.

Mechanisation has increased the areas that can be swept – particularly in the City centre – but in sub-urban areas litter has been a growing problem since bins were removed a couple of years ago.

The “policy” makes no mention of dog fouling – again a problem that has been on the increase since the Dog Wardens were cut. More joint use litter/poop scoop bins are, however, promised.

Other essential street level posts have been cut leaving York’s front line dangerously undermanned.

The effective, and much missed, Street Environment Officers have now gone to be replaced by an,  improbably named, “Smarter York Officer”.

Once again the emphasis is on forcing residents to undertake work previously done by the Council.

Cornlands Road snicket covered in detritus and litter

Cornlands Road snicket covered in detritus and litter

“Spring cleans” are promised but not in areas like the Cornlands estate where standards are now very poor.

The “cabinet” member taking decisions (the irredeemably inept “leftie” Levene) apparently hasn’t asked for any statistics to be included in the plan.

Residents will want to be sure that their taxes are being spent wisely.

They expect to see performance measures, clear targets and a real on the ground improvement plan.

Sadly   that is not part of the agenda for York’s Labour Council.

Potholes blight York roads

Despite a relatively mild winter, the number of potholes appearing on local roads continues to increase.

In the main this is a result of major cuts to maintenance investment implemented by the new Labour administration when they took office in 2011.

City of York Council

Road repairs expenditure

Year

Pothole reports

Resurfacing

Basic maintenance

Total

2012/13

2492

£1,570,000

£616,700

£2,186,700

2011/12

1566

£2,134,000

£877,200

£3,011,200

2010/11

2860

£1,706,000

£1,008,000

£2,714,000

2009/10

966

£1,604,000

£1,096,000

£2,700,000

 

The York Council will in 2014/15 return to its pre 2011 levels of investment, but for many roads the change will come too late. A poorly maintained highway costs much more to repair than one that has had some routine maintenance.

Potholes on Askham Lane

Potholes on Askham Lane

Pothole on Beagle Ridge Drive

Pothole on Beagle Ridge Drive

We believe that the Council should use the £1.3 million, that it has raised by fining drivers on Lendal and Coppergate, on dealing with the repairs backlog.

Scrapping Minster badge “would threaten evening economy”

parking-charges-car-park-ticket-machine-149887544

The Labour leadership have been asked to clarify their policy on evening charges following their decision on Thursday to scrap resident’s car parking discounts.

As well as providing a reduced fee during the day, the Minster badge entitles residents to park for free at City centre car parks after 6:00pm.

Those without badges are charged £2.

The Minster badge is being replaced by a “frequent user” card but this will cost £20 and will be available to anyone.

The Council have also been criticised for not extending the discounts available to small/low emission vehicles in the City.

York Council “chair fairy” reaches Eco Depot

eco depot chairs

The York Councils apparently insatiable appetite for new furniture has taken a new twist.

Just 5 years after the new “eco” depot was opened at Hazel Court the Council has decided to buy a completely new set of chairs.

The move follows the purchase of new desks and other equipment for the building.

The Council was criticised before its move into West Offices for buying completely new furniture at a cost of over £2.4 million.

Amongst the purchases were 2405 new chairs.

NB. On Thursday the Council announced that it was sacking 240 of its staff.

Poles cost York Council £238,000. Farage visit expected.

The York Council had a final opportunity at its budget meeting yesterday to put a halt to unnecessary expenditure on new 20 mph signs

Dijon Avenue Green Lane junction small 3

Since Labour took office, they have introduced 20 mph speed limit signs on an additional 11 miles of roads in South Bank and another 44 miles in west York.

947, 20 mph signs, have so far been installed with a further 1752 still to be put up – mainly in east York

Where the roads revert to a 30 mph limit, new signs  have also to be installed.

So far 280 additional 30 mph signs have been installed with a further 587 still to be fitted.

So far the Council has spent over £52,000 on signs, paid out £40,000 in fixing costs with management costs accounting for a whopping £120,000 (planning, project management, professional fees).

Adding in miscellaneous expenditure, the total comes to £238,000.

A further £350,000 has yet to be committed to the programme which will roll out next in east York.

It is that money that the Council could and should, have saved at its budget meeting yesterday. Unfortunately it appears that the option slipped by.

The programme should have been suspended for at least a year to allow the effects, that the new limits so far introduced have had, to be assessed.

In other parts of the country the introduction of 20 mph limits has coincided with an increase in accident levels.

NB Last week a Labour Councillor said that people shouldn’t be consulted on the introduction of 20 mph speed limits.