Lib Dems reveal York Council budget plans

Council Tax would be frozen and £3million of service cuts would be reversed under budget plans revealed by York’s Liberal Democrat Group.

The proposals, which will be tabled at City of York Council’s budget meeting on Thursday, would see a new £500,000 community fund created for residents to spend locally plus extra investment to boost recycling and tackle climate change.

LibDem budget plan would eliminate poor road surfaces in York

The Lib Dem plans would see the controversial £3.3million ‘Reinvigorate York’ scheme – which funded the unpopular King’s Square revamp – cancelled and a reduction in funding on a new multi-million pound council IT project. Labour’s new £70,000-a-year ‘Head of Transformation’ would also face the axe and the number of Cabinet Members would be reduced.

Main Points of the Lib Dem amendment:

Accept the government’s grant to freeze council tax for all households in York.
Reverse £3million of Labour’s cuts to areas including community centres, youth services, children’s centres, social care, support to carers, grants to voluntary groups, litter and salt bins, road gully cleaning and road repairs.
Keep the ‘Minster Badge’ discounted parking scheme for residents which Labour plan to scrap.
Set-up a new £500,000 community fund for residents to spend on local priorities under a revamped Ward Committee system.
Cut borrowing for schemes such as ‘Reinvigorate York’, Labour’s new 5-year £6.1million IT project, and the proposed ‘Digital and Media Hub’.
Make savings by scrapping Labour’s ‘Delivery and Innovation Fund’ and ‘Economic Infrastructure Fund’, reducing Cabinet Members by two, and removing the Assistant Director of Transformation and Change post.
Extra investment to boost recycling by reviewing facilities at Towthorpe and in the west of York, introduce a new scheme to cut overall council carbon emissions over the next 10 years, and reinstate winter green bin collections.
Reduce cuts to youth and children’s services in 2014/15 and restate a commitment to stop Labour’s plans to close children’s centres after 2015.

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York Council Tax bill by Email?

The Council says that it can save £30,000 if residents agree to receive their Council Tax bills by Email.

To sign up for e-billing, all residents have to do is have their last council tax bill to hand and go to the council’s website at http://www.york.gov.uk/ and

◦Scroll to Do it Online
◦Select Apply for it
◦Scroll to Council Tax
◦Select Council Tax e-billing

York Council budget choices – Parties refine proposals

It is becoming clearer what each individual party group will propose when the York Council budget is decided on Thursday.

Both Liberal Democrats and Tories look likely to back a freeze on Council Tax levels.

Labour though are likely to overrule this as they still have a small majority on the Council.

The real interest will be that this could be the first glimpse of what may be in store for the City after the 2015 Council elections.

2014 Budget choices Click to enlarge

Labour is likely to lose its overall majority then, so some of the changes in priorities will probably become a reality in little over 12 months time.

The main differences between the parties are likely to revolve around how much money they believe the council should borrow.

Interest payments have spiralled over the last 3 years so the postponement of some “vanity project” capital schemes will be on the cards.

Last minute attempts to halt the roll out of 20 mph signs and more ANPR “spy” cameras are likely.

Both opposition parties are likely to call for the immediate reopening of Lendal Bridge.

The LibDems will seek to have the £1.3million, gained through camera fines, used to bring road surfaces back to an acceptable condition.

We will update the list as and when the details of budget amendments become public.

Government scheme to see £1 million reduction in York Business Rates

£1000 a year benefit for York businesses

List of qualifying business types. click to enlarge

The Government announced in its Autumn Statement on 5th December 2013 that it will provide relief of up to ￡1,000 to all occupied retail properties with a rateable value of ￡50,000 or less in each of the years 2014-15 and 2015-16.

Potentially as many as 1700 York businesses could benefit

The purpose of this new relief is to support the ‘high street’ which has been affected by changes in consumer spending preferences such as online shopping. The relief is temporary for two years from April 2014.

A wide range of businesses could qualify for the reduction (see list right)

Areas like Front Street in Acomb are likely to benefit from the scheme.

It will be necessary for any business wishing to claim this relief to make an application to the council and complete a state aid declaration form.

“Get street level services right” say York budget campaigners

When the York Council meets on Thursday to set its budget, Liberal Democrats will be demanding that it “gets back to basics”.

The Council needs to switch its resources to ensure that the public services, used by residents each day, are up to standard.

It will mean postponing some of the Council Labour Leaderships “vanity projects”

These are some of the issues that we have reported this week.

Illuminated bollard missing

Damaged verge

Damaged verges

Blocked drains in Chapelfields

Litter bins missing

Gutters not swept for months

Bring back November green bin emptying say LibDems

Liberal Democrat Councillors will try to bring back the emptying of green waste bins during November at next weeks Council budget meeting.

Labour decided last year to scrap all collections between October and April as one of their economy cuts.

Many gardeners pointed out that November was often a month when a lot of green waste was generated.

Meanwhile Labour are now trying to sell extra green bins to residents with large gardens.

Despite the growing interest in food self sufficiency, the York Council now restricts free collections to just one bin per property.

Many gardeners are thought to have disposed of surplus green waste through their grey bins, partly accounting for the increase in the proportion of York’s rubbish going to landfill (and the financial penalties that result for taxpayers).

The Council statement reads.

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York Council set to underspend budget allocated to help poor

Local Assistance Scheme only half forecast

It looks like the York Council will underspend its budget for welfare payments during the current financial year.

click to enlarge

The budget was delegated to the Council by the government replacing – in part – the Social Welfare fund.

It is intended to make emergency payments to less well off people who encounter unexpected expenses.

The York scheme is called the York Financial Assistance Scheme (YFAS). Its explanatory booklet says that the YFAS can be used to help with, for example:

• Expenses and household items to help you move out of residential care or stay in your home

• Rent or council tax payments

• Financial assistance in an emergency.

By the end of January nearly half of the Council’s £315,000 YFAS budget had not been committed.

A total of 1062 payments had been authorised with the authority saying that 176 of them were made to people aged under 25.

Given that the budget is not being fully spent this year, it is surprising that the Council announced last week that it will to add another £100,000 to the payments that it intends to make next year

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Meanwhile many fears about Council Tax income are proving to be unfounded.

The York Council had collected 85% of monies due by the end of December. The same percentage as in 2012.

However the number in arrears with their Council Tax payments had increased from 5556 in 2012 to 7040 in 2013.

Of these 2601 were receiving Council Tax support (formerly known as “benefit”)

Perhaps surprisingly the numbers who had been referred to bailiffs had fallen from 3996 to 2902

The Council is budgeting next year to collect an additional £1/4 million through “further improvement of collection performance”.

Vehicle damage claims up 67% in York

Call for Lendal Bridge fine income to be used to repair roads

The number of claims for compensation following damage to vehicles caused by poorly maintained roads in York dramatically increased last year.

Damaged speed humps. Already dangerous for cyclists.

The change followed a decision by the Labour controlled Council to reduce expenditure on highways maintenance by over £2 million.

The number of claims received, for incidents over recent years, has been

2011 – 75
2012 – 52
2013 – 87

There are now calls for the Council to agree, at its budget meeting next week, to increase the amount it spends on maintenance back to the £5.5 million figure which was being invested each year by the previous, LibDem controlled authority.

Pressure is also growing for the £1.3 million – taken in fines from motorists on Lendal Bridge and in Coppergate – to be used to address the backlog in resurfacing works.

York Council cuts: West Bank park next to be jettisoned?

The Council is to consider handing over control and management of the West Bank Park to a residents group.

A largely impenetrable report is to be considered on 24^th February which will recommend that the Council seeks grant funding from an organisation known as NESTA*.

This will “support changes to parks management and maintenance systems – including potential changes to maintenance regimes, restructuring contracts and maximising the productivity of particular landscapes”.

The NESTA project gives the example of holding concerts in the parks as a way of increasing income.

The report later talks of

”exploring what community use and income generating possibilities 14 New Lane offers, either in its current form, or if rebuilt and extended, and using this to fund the future care and development of the whole site”.

This is pretty much now standard “Labour speak” for the withdrawal of Council funding, with residents left to pick up the burden.

A similar project led to the semi privatisation of the Libraries Service.

The newly independent “social enterprise” York Library service now finds that its Council funding is being cut by £200,000 over the next 2 years raising fears that several smaller facilities could close.

Parks – including West Bank – are also set for cuts in this years budget with £122,000 being lopped off.

Parks will be left unlocked with minimal maintenance “unless local groups step in to help”.

York has few formal parks and West Bank is the only one in the Acomb area.

It seems that a laudable initiative from some local residents – who wanted to set up a heritage centre at 14 New Lane to explain the history of the site – is now being used as a smokescreen to cover major changes to the use of the park.

There has ben no consultation with most residents who live in the area and who use the parks facilities.

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*NESTA is short for the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts. It has apparently obtained access to National Lottery funding. It is viewed with suspicion by some residents who see it as a cover for the advance of the techno bureaucrat movement. Senior Council managers are understood to be involved with the organisation.

Council set to ditch community centres.

The York Council will spend £175,000 over the next year bringing York’s four community centres into “a good state of repair”.

This will be followed by a “community asset transfer”.

What this means is that the volunteer committees, who run the centres, will be expected to raise funding not only for day to day activities but also for the repair and maintenance of all aspects of the buildings.

Typical community centres, like the ones at Foxwood and Chapelfields, have running costs of between £25,000 – £50,000 a year.

In the past the bill for part of these costs have been picked up by the Council.

This year it has reduced its grants to the centres by £70,000.

2014/15 will be the final year that the centres will get the remaining £70,000 grant.

After that the Centres will be on their own.

It means that, unless volunteers can be found to take on the additional financial burden, the Centres will close (or, more likely, simply be sold to the highest bidder)
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Meanwhile we are told that the Council intends to privatise its building cleaning contracts. How this will affect the community centres, and for how long, remains to be seen.

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