More and more residents contacting the York Council as Smarter York “App” fails

Lunched amidst a blaze of publicity 18 months ago an “App”, that was supposed to transform the way that residents communicate with the Council, has flopped.

Council Leaders in London looking for an "App" 2 years ago.

Council Leaders in London looking for an “App” 2 years ago.

The Smarter York mobile phone “App” allowed residents to report an incident – including a photo – straight into the Councils contact handing system. The “App” cost £8000 to develop.

It ran into problems with the Data Protection Act in October of last year

Now figures released by the Council have revealed that only 200 reports were made using the “App” between April and September 2013.

That is only 0.07% of the total number of contacts from York residents.

Last year 321 residents used the system during the equivalent period.

Many of the reports are understood to have been made by Council staff during the course of their normal duties.

During the same 6 month period, other residents used the following channels to contact the Council.

  • Telephone 183,385 (2012 – 140,851)
  • Personal visit 60,841 (36,528)
  • Email: 32,106 (22,034)
  • “Do it on line” (council web site) – 7848 (7778)

The figures show a 37% increase in the number of customers contacting the York Council this year.

This will be deeply worrying for the Council, Leadership who anticipated that changing customer preferences would see a big shift to using electronic means to contact the Council.

Electronic transactions cost a fraction of the expense incurred in dealing with personal callers.

The whole business case for the new Council HQ was based on assumption that heavy investment in state of the art IT facilities would reduce day to day running costs for the Council.

This appears, so far, not to be the case.

The period covered was a time when residents were besieging the Council with complaints about revised bin emptying arrangements and new traffic restrictions in the City centre.

Meanwhile the Smarter York App needs to be upgraded to cover more public service areas.

In that respect at least, it has fallen far behind proprietary web based reporting tools such as “My Council”  and “Fix my Street”.

Save money by switching energy supplier – York “bulk buy” scheme

York residents are being offered a FREE service which could lead to big savings on their gas and electricity bills.

electricity-meter

City of York Council has partnered with energy switching expert’s iChoosr to make it easy and simple for residents to consider switching their energy tariffs.

Supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York’s Citizens Advice Bureaux and Age UK York – the Save Money by Switching Energy campaign launches on 10 December and will enable York residents to register to assisted scheme with just four easy steps and help reduce their energy bills by switching their providers.

Step 1) Anyone who pays a household energy bill and who is interested in saving money by switching energy suppliers can register for FREE from the 10 December. Registration is easy but they will need a copy of their recent energy bill to complete the process.

Step 2) Registration closes on the 17 February 2014 and then the council’s switching partner iChoosr will gather everyone who has registered together and invite energy companies to offer their best prices for energy to everyone in the scheme.

Step3) Residents will receive tailored details on the new tariff offer secured by the scheme from 28 February 2014. They will also see exactly how much money they could potentially save by switching if they accept the offer.

Step 4) At this stage residents can choose to accept the offer or not. There is no obligation to accept and there are no fees or charges if they don’t switch. They simply get a new offer that could potentially save them money on their energy bills.

Similar switching schemes run by other councils have seen yearly savings of between £60 – £200 per household. The council also piloted a similar scheme earlier in the year and this helped over 300 people consider switching. On average those that did switch were set to save £140 from the scheme.

The council’s switching partner iChoosr will gather registered users together and invite energy companies to offer their best prices for energy to everyone in the scheme. This is all done independently by iChoosr.

Those who sign up can receive a personalised offer with details on the new tariff secured by the scheme and will see exactly how much money they could potentially save by switching if you accept the offer

To find out more or to register click here . If residents do not have access online please visit City of York Council’s customer service centre at West Offices or call us on 01904 551550.

York residents expected to observe Labour Councils rules

Labour Councillors not expected to respect resident’s views!

A meeting tomorrow will lay down new rules which will have to be observed by taxpayers wishing to speak at Council and committee meetings in York.

Hitherto this has been a facility used sparingly by most residents who – in the age of sophisticated electronic communications – expect to have an easier route through which to channel their opinions.

Nevertheless some choose to attend meetings and speak.

Now they will be limited in what they can say.

Most of the restrictions are common sense. Slagging off people in a public forum – which may be broadcast on the web – is not very edifying and probably does little to improve the quality of decision taking.

On the other hand, preventing people making “party political points” is treading a fine line, particularly when the arbiter will be a politician sitting in the meeting chair.

Residents will also have to ensure what they say is “factually correct“.

Council Leader on "meet the people" Tour. Budget consultation starts

Council Leader on “meet the people” Tour.
Budget consultation starts

Perhaps the audit committee should also be taking the same trouble to review how the present Council is using its resources to promote the Labour party and its spokespeople.

The latest example is a Leaders report being presented to Council on Thursday which manages to be highly party political, factually incomplete and borderline offensive.

Yet this has been published using Council resources with opposition members only having a tightly regulated opportunity to repudiate the comments.

When Labour were in opposition they even objected to the words “Liberal Democrats” being included in any Council papers. Now reports read like party political manifestos with apparently no attempt being made to regulate out “half truths”.

Worse the Councils communications department has reverted to the role they performed during the last period of Labour rule (which ended in 2003).

They actively quote, and promote, leading Councillors; a practice banned during the period when the Council was led by the Liberal Democrats.

Between 2003 and 2011 political parties were expected to write, fund and issue their own media releases

Call to stop community centre cuts

Foxwood Community Centre

Foxwood Community Centre

Liberal Democrats are calling on Labour run City of York Council to cancel planned cuts to community centre grants.

 

In recent weeks Foxwood, Chapelfields and Oaken Grove centres have all warned they could face closure or be forced to scale back activities as they are set to lose their grants from York Council.

 

At next week’s Full Council meeting the Lib Dem Group Leader, Cllr Keith Aspden, will challenge the Labour Cabinet to address these concerns.

 

He is calling for the second year of planned funding cuts, due to be rubber-stamped in February for Labour’s 2014/15 Budget, to be scrapped.

 
(more…)

Highways maintenance cuts for York revealed.

The Council has revealed how it plans to spend £2.6 million on highways and footpath resurfacing over the next financial year.

road works

The provisional expenditure is down on the £3.4 million being invested during the current year.

That in turn was well down on the budget agreed by the last Liberal Democrat administration which held power until 2011 and which regularly invested over £5 million a year in the highways network.

Carriageway surfaces are now breaking up and the repairs backlog is growing.

In the Westfield ward footpaths in parts of three streets are due to receive attention next year. Roads affected are Cornlands Road, Wetherby Road, and Green Lane. However there are no plans to resurface any roads (carriageways) in the area.

Behind closed doors logo

A full list of streets where repairs are planned can be downloaded by clicking here

A final Council highways budget for next year will be announced in March.

The decision, on which roads to resurface, was taken in another “behind closed doors” meeting. There was no consultation with residents on the options.

York Council Strasbourg invasion

The York Council is now apparently claiming that its Deputy Leader was representing the City on 28th November when she extolled the virtues of “residents petitions” to an unsuspecting Strasbourg gathering.

It followed on from another visit by the same Councillor to the same venue 4 weeks earlier when another Congress of Local and Regional Authorities meeting took place.

At a time when most Euro MEPs are trying to extricate themselves from a, hugely expensive ,twin venue  meeting schedule (Strasbourg and Brussels)  York’s new affection for Strasbourg looks ill timed.

The Congress organisers film their debates allowing taxpayers to judge whether their money has been well spent. (Another watching paint drying experience, so skip to 1:30 on video).

 

Oliver House – Council on brink of making correct decision!

After nearly two years of indecision, the York Council is being recommended next week to put Oliver House (the former elderly person’s home at the end of Priory Street) on the open market.

Oliver House York

The building has been empty since the home was closed in April 2012.

The prime site is expected to bring in substantial offers from residential developers. The Council has budgeted to receive £450,000 from the sale of the site.

In reality the sale is likely to produce a much higher figure.

Any new homes provided there would reduce the pressure to build on greenfield land and would provide the Council with a useful capital receipt. It would help to offset the huge increase in debts accumulated by the present Labour administration.

The Council had been dithering over proposals to lease Oliver House to voluntary groups which are currently located in Holgate Villas. The Council spent £15,000 on a feasibility study for the conversion of the building. It revealed that the costs of converting the building could be as much as £1 million.

click to enlarge

click to enlarge


Additionally it has been costing the Council £30,000 a year to keep the building empty.

Local residents – led by Liberal Democrats – had expressed increasing concerns about the buildings future

Many pointed out that the voluntary groups involved did not need a prime site location and that it would make more sense for the Council to ensure that they had alternative rented accommodation available.
There is still a lot of unoccupied office space in the City.

It was hoped that suitable buildings might be identified in sub-urban locations which were in need of regeneration. Acomb, for example, has never recovered from the Councils decision to close its office in the Front Street area.

However, it now seems that the Council is restricting its office search to the city centre. Two possible locations are being evaluated

The office building is likely to include other uses and will be dubbed a “Health and Social Care Hub”. The Council is looking to replace it in 2 or 3 years time with a purpose designed facility. The NHS will make a financial contribution to this new “one stop shop” style centre.

The costs of the commercial office lease are expected to be covered by the rents paid by the tenants.

A bridge too near?

The promised report on Labour plans for a new £10 million bridge near Wilton Rise has now been published.

It turns out that £1.5 million of this will be spent on consultant’s fees.

Housing numbers. click to enlarge

Housing numbers. click to enlarge

The report claims that the costs of the bridge would be repaid “from the additional income in Business Rates and Council Tax generated by the new developments” (on the York central site).

It then goes on to claim that 1083 new homes will be provided. That is a surprise because the draft Local Plan published by Labour in April assumed only 438 homes would be constructed on this site.

However, the housing numbers included in the Labour draft Local Plan have already been undermined with actual planning applications submitted, and approved, over the last 6 months being in every case higher than the Plan estimate
.
Therefore a much higher housing figure is a legitimate target for the York central site.

The present coalition government policy does encourage development and allows local authorities to retain and invest, for 6 years, additional Council Tax monies generated by new homes (New Homes Bonus).

Business Rates have also been “localised”. So an increase in income from additional commercial buildings would increase the amount that the Council receives from Business Rates. However government grants, which seek to equalise Council income between “prosperous” and less well off areas, could be reduced.

No business case of any sort has been provided for the meeting next week.

In addition to the homes, the “plan” talks about “building 93,000 sq m of office space with ancillary bar, restaurant, retail and leisure uses” in 2015.

A further 35,000 sq m would be built in 2019 in the form on a commercial area “in front of the station” and would include a new hotel although most would be more offices.

Of course, any incremental development in the City provides similar increases in Council income plus more jobs and homes.

Residents might have expected any income to be earmarked to pay for repairs to the public services in the City which have deteriorated so badly over the last 3 years.

Public consultation results - York central access options

Public consultation results – York central access options

Incredibly, the Council is being asked to earmark the £10 million without a development “Masterplan” being in place.

As a result no planning permission exists for the development.

The absence of a business plan is the major problem at present. It remains unclear how the site clean up will be funded (it is heavily polluted) nor is there any guarantee that other transport infrastructure needs can be financed.

From the information, that has been made available, it does seem that the Councils investment will not be underwritten in any way.

It is therefore a very high risk venture.

There is no proposal to form a joint development company which would allow Council Taxpayers to share in the success of any development (to offset the substantial risk)

The legal restrictions – which apply across Europe – on subsidising private companies are not explored in the paper.

Like the sale of the Haymarket car park on Hungate – for around 50% of its current open market value – the Council is being both naïve and reckless with taxpayers money. The promised offices and hotel on Hungate have yet to move forward and so have provided no economic stimulus for the City.

The “Bridge to Nowhere” could well be a similar embarrassment.

With the national economy improving, and some local developers reflecting the more buoyant approach in the City, less risky ways to kick start important developments like York Central should be considered.

Council to increase charges by £154,000 with car parking rates still to be announced

The York Council has published a list of proposed increases in the charges that it makes for some services.

Bulky household waste collections will now cost £36.75 for a maximum of 10 items.

Removal of fridges will cost £21.

Wealthy to dominate tennis again?

Wealthy to dominate tennis again?

The increases could further worsen the problems with dumping that have been multiplying since the Beckfield Lane recycling centre closed last year.

Room hire at the central Library will cost a whopping £69 an hour while a 30 person capacity room at Acomb Library will cost £52.50 per hour (£34.60 for non profit making organisations).

Tennis will cost £7-40 per hour and bowls £4.20.

A full sized allotment (200 – 450 sq yards) will cost £104 a year with effect from January

There are massive increases in charges for the Guildhall. A Saturday morning hire will cost £225 (currently £170).

Council budget meetings poorly attended

Council budget meetings poorly attended

Hire charges for a small committee room are up by 25% to £25 an hour.

Other charges – including the significant car parking rates which bring in £7.4million a year for the Council – will be decided in January.

There has been no consultation with residents on charges and they are pointedly omitted from the budget discussions taking place around the City.

Not surprisingly, these meetings have been very poorly attended.

A full list of proposed charges can be found here.

Several days out in Dusseldorf, Seoul, Rio, Shanghai, Chicago, New York, Paris, Nice, Cape Town, etc

Seoul

Seoul

The York Council has now published a list of foreign travel trips made by members and officials in the period from May 2011 to June 2013.

The list ends before the latest round of Tour De France related trips to Paris.

The full list can be downloaded from here.

NB. Some of the travel and hotel costs were covered by third party sponsorship