Labour highways maintenance scam revealed.

Labour are planning a “surprise” announcement next month, when they will “reveal” that they will spend an additional £2 million on highways resurfacing during the next financial year.

Highways expenditure Click to enlarge

The announcement will be in response to the pressure, put on them by residents and the Liberal Democrats, who have criticised the cuts made in road and footpath repairs budgets over the last 2 years.

In total, £4 million has been cut from the repairs budget in an attempt to find funding for schemes like the repaving of Kings Square and the, largely unnecessary, £1 million street lamppost replacement programme.

Now Labour – for one year only – hope to return the budget to the £5.5 million level that they inherited from the last LibDem administration.

However, they intend to pay for the programme by borrowing more money. Already residents are facing over £1 million a year extra in interest payments – making Council Tax rises inevitable.

The figures also reveal that investment on de-icing roads and footpaths has fallen by more than half since Labour took over. Fortunately we have – so far – had a mild winter but we may not be so lucky in future years.

We hope that roads like Vesper Drive and footpaths like those on Huntsman’s Walk will now get, long overdue, resurfacing.

York “rewiring” plan; Cliff Richard, Fred Smith Electrical or City of York Council?

The York Council has said it will spend £10 million over the next 5 years on IT equipment. Their intention is to force residents to use electronic communications to communicate with the Council.

Cliff Richard – rewired for sound

They promise (or threaten) that each local resident will have their own web page account.

The move comes following our revelation that the number contacting the Council by telephone or through a personal visit has spiralled since their move to the “West Offices”.

They have dubbed the scheme as service “rewiring” – a piece of jargon guaranteed to pass over the heads of most residents.

A report, nodded through by the Labour leadership on Tuesday, fails to make any kind of business case for the huge expenditure.

The report is riddled with management jargon and hyperbole plus much conjecture about what residents want.

Attached to the report is the 6 monthly review of service quality.

This revealed that many targets are already being missed by the Council with recycling rates reducing and the numbers using the bus service in sharp decline since Labour meddled with the services when they took office.

Confidence in the Councils ability to deal with reports and complaints has already been damaged.

The “app” launched to allow smart phone reporting of issues has flopped, some reports made using proprietary web tools were lost by the Council while frustrated residents – seeking information through Freedom of Information requests -frequently do not attract answers within legal target times.

But the main concern will be the implications for residents if the Council and its officials hide behind an electronic defensive barricade.

The plan will mean more outsourcing and local jobs will be lost as techno bureaucrats take over.

Public services will become DIY as residents are forced to fill in the gaps left by a retreating public sector.

………..and the march of more CCTV surveillance will continue in the background!

“Big Brother” fears as more invisible policemen set to come to York?

ANPR camera use to be extended

The Council has announced that it will use camera cars to enforce zig zag parking restrictions outside schools.

This is likely to be of limited value at some schools where some parents park on yellow lines, verges and block access driveways.

Use of such camera cars has been controversial in other towns and cities but the vehicle may give some comfort to schools and their immediate neighbours.

Ironically the DfT is just completing its public consultation on car parking. One of the options being considered is to limit the use of CCTV cameras near schools!

More significantly in York, Labour Councillors are now proposing to extend the use of number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras in the City.

ANPR cameras have been responsible for identifying over 50,000 drivers on Coppergate and Lendal Bridge, with fines totalling around £1 million already issued.

Clearly this potential cash cow has proved to be attractive to the Council.

It will decide later today to introduce camera enforcement of more bus lanes later this year with a target income of £50,000.

It is also budgeting to receive an additional £100,000 in 2015 from the “Further introduction of ANPR enforcement measures across the City where network congestion can be improved”.

The budget papers published by the Council make no mention of how much revenue they except to raise from the continued use of the Coppergate (or Lendal Bridge) cameras during the next financial year.

York Council house rents up 5% despite record surplus

Despite having a record high £13 million surplus on the housing account, Labour plan to increase rent levels by 5%.in April.

The Council have stubbornly refused to use the surplus to buy additional homes on the open market.

Meanwhile new figures released by the Council confirm that most of the 2333 people registered on the housing waiting list are single and are seeking one bedroomed accommodation.

856 of these are aged under 30.

Council leadership policy mistake costing average York resident £50 a year

The government has announced that how individual Councillors vote on crucial budget decisions – like Council Tax levels – will, in future, be published.

In York, such decisions are often the subject of a “recorded vote” anyway although it can be weeks before vigilant taxpayers can find the records in meeting minutes.

Meanwhile the government has again offered to underwrite the income required to freeze Council Tax levels. £779,000 has been offered to the City. The funding would continue in future years.

The Council has made poor decisions over the last 3 years when turning down this funding.

The inexperienced Labour leadership – wrongly – assumed that the subsidy would be available for 1 year only. In reality the government has built the payment into the basic grant that the City receives.

This means that York Council taxpayers are – on average – now paying over £50 a year more for local services than they would have been if the Council had accepted the central government offer.

Next year a band D council taxpayer will have to find £1,165.54 to pay for York Council services, to which will be added the costs of Fire (4% increase planned) and Police (2% increased proposed)

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The York Council is planning to give £1 million to the Leeds Council “infrastructure fund”.

In addition, around £300,000 in additional (new) Business Rates are being “pooled” with West Yorkshire Councils.

These are optional payments with no guarantee that any of the money will be invested in York.

Huge increase in York car parking charges – residents targeted for 82% hike.

York’s unique Minster badge scheme which has helped to protect York residents from high car parking charges is being scrapped by Labour.

Under the LibDems, in 2011 residents paid £1.10 per hour to park at most City centre car parks (those designated as “standard stay”).

Residents will now see that increase by a staggering 82% to £2.00.

click to enlarge

The Council is offering what they term as a frequent visitor badge.

However these will cost £20 a year to buy (and are not restricted to York Council Taxpayers).

click to see full survey results

The Councils own survey (see left) of residents, revealed that the vast majority no longer drive into the City centre frequently enough to make such a badge a worthwhile purchase.

Only those using the car parks several times a week would get any benefit and they probably already choose to buy a season ticket. (A season ticket, which allows unlimited parking for a year, costs less than £500 for a small/low emission vehicle)

The news comes at a time when traders have claimed that Saturdays no parking fee trial had been a success.

The trial will have cost the Council around £20,000 in income. First buses will also have lost income on their Park and Ride contract.

Crunch time for City centre

So its crunch time for the City centre economy. Few residents are going to pay those kind of charges when they can get free parking at out of City shopping centres.

The Council is still promising “pay on exit” barriers at the Marygate car park, but that initiative is too little too late.

Even if the Lendal Bridge closure is lifted in March, it will take a long time to restore the City’s reputation with both residents and visitors.

The number of shoppers in the City centre was continuing to fall even before the Lendal Bridge closure

The next local elections are little more than a year away now though, so there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

Labour are leaving an economic nightmare for someone to clear up.

York Council budget – Council Tax up again, jobs and services cut

The Labour leadership on the York Council have today announced a further raft of cuts to public services in the City.

More details can be found by clicking here

Alternatives to the proposals will be published by the Liberal Democrats later in the month

The madness of the York Council

Street name plates neglected click to enlarge

Ascot Way in Acomb demonstrates just how mixed up the York Council’s priorities have become.

20 mph sign installed within 5 metres of a sharp right bend.

School sign rusting away

Over £600,000 is being spent on installing 20 mph speed limit signs.

These include some in areas which are already protected by speed cushions (which make excessive speeds pretty much impractical).

Others have been installed at locations where it is impossible to exceed 20 mph anyway including short cul de sacs and near a sharp right hand bend (see photo).

Meanwhile other public services are being starved of investment. Street name plates are becoming illegible while other signs are simply rusting away.

Ironically the maintenance of speed cushions has been abandoned making them potential death traps for cyclists and a likely source of tyre and chassis damage for motorists.

Damaged speed humps. Already dangerous for cyclists.

Complaints about the York Council continue at high level

The Council have belatedly published answers to questions posed at its meeting in December. One of the questions tabled asked about complaint levels towards the end of last year and also sought information about the source of service reports.

Concerns had been raised about whether some web generated reports had found their way into the system.

The number of complaints received by the Authority is reported as

Complaints	Jun – Nov 2013
Stage 1	511
Stage 2	126
Stage 3	2
Total	639

Stage 3 complaints are the most serious. The classification means that the complainant remains dissatisfied with the response provided by the Council

The overall number of contacts with the Council (by channel) are:

	April	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Total
Total telephone calls 2012	23980	23525	22654	22654	22373	23938	140851
Total footfall 2012	5775	6167	5706	6456	5997	6427	36528
Total Emails 2012	3716	2969	3232	4570	4134	3413	22034
“do it on line” calls 2012	1230	709	1101	1606	1291	1841	7778
*Total telephone calls 2013*	*33587*	*29971*	*26320*	*34132*	*26385*	*32990*	*183385*
*Total footfall 2013*	*10415*	*9757*	*8061*	*10123*	*10259*	*12226*	*60841*
*Total Emails 2013*	*7088*	*5199*	*4474*	*5823*	*4825*	*4697*	*32106*
*“do it on line” calls 2013*	*755*	*634*	*934*	*1667*	*1471*	*2387*	*7848*

“Smarter York” App 2013 – 200 reports.

So the number of reports of public service failings being made by York residents to the Council continues to grow.

The much vaunted Smarter York mobile phone “app” has proved to be a flop. The “app” was under-developed when launched and is very limited in its scope when compared to commercial alternatives like “My Council”.

The costs of dealing with contacts made by residents are much higher than were expected when the Council moved to its new HQ.

They bring further into question the wisdom of the decision by Labour Councillors to close down local branch offices in sub-urbs like Acomb.

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Labour are planning a “surprise” announcement next month, when they will “reveal” that they will spend an additional £2 million on highways resurfacing during the next financial year.

The York Council has said it will spend £10 million over the next 5 years on IT equipment. Their intention is to force residents to use electronic communications to communicate with the Council.

ANPR camera use to be extended

Complaints

Jun – Nov 2013

Stage 1

511

Stage 2

126

Stage 3

2

Total

639