Bus use in York down by 10% last year

Bus use click to enlarge

Over a million fewer journeys were made by bus last year in York.

This is equivalent to a 10% reduction in “stage carriage” service use. The figures are described as “provisional”.

The Council has yet to respond fully to a Freedom of Information request on bus usage in the City.

Requests for the City to publish bus reliability information are also mired in a legal wrangle.

Although Park and Ride use increased from 4.1 to 4.3 million trips, it did not offset what is the largest single year decline ever recorded in public transport use in the City.

The start of the decline can be traced back to 2011 when the Council confronted the major provider of services in the City (First) in an attempt to get the futuristic ftr taken off York’s roads.

The ftr had been popular with passengers but the dispute led to a period of conflict between the Labour run Council and bus operators.

Recent attempts to “hype” a fares reduction through the media proved to be ill judged as many users found that their journey was actually costing more.

The Council announced at its last meeting that it is scrapping the Quality Bus Partnership which has been a liaison point between bus operators, passenger representatives and the Council.

It will be replaced by another”behind closed doors” discussion group

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NB. Following on from the bad news about reduced footfall in the City, the Council report has also revealed a drop in car park use from 1.62 to 1.52 million.

They are forecasting a net shortfall of £250k (3.5%) from parking income following data from the first six months.

The decline in use followed a decision by the new Labour Council to implement a 36% increase in parking charges.

£4 million landfill tax hits York as recycling performance crashes

Council performance stats click to access full report

A Council report has revealed that the amount of waste going to landfill in the City is significantly increasing.

As a result York taxpayers face a £3,918,960 bill – up over 17% on budget forecasts.

The fall in performance comes only weeks after a change in collection arrangements brought chaos to some streets in York.

The position is likely to deteriorate further over the winter as the Council is stopping collecting green waste altogether. The winter months accounted for around 18% of this type of waste last year.

The fear is that most of this will now go to landfill.

Historic recycling rates in York. Click to enlarge

During the period when the Liberal Democrats led the council the amount of recycling and green waste sent for composting had substantially increased each year.

Now, against a background of delays on the longer term Allerton Park waste treatment project, prospects look increasingly bleak for both taxpayers and environmentalists in the City.

York Council’s £3.5 million payment to local Universities

The York Council has released details of the payments that it has made to local Universities over the last 4 years.

Click to download full list

In total, payments of around £3.5 million have been made although the vast majority of this (£3 million) was a grant to York University for the provision of a County Standard swimming pool. The scheme – part of the new “sports village” on Hull Road – was agreed after the Barbican pool closed and was paid for from the proceeds of the sale of the land there.

In total £192,519 has been paid to St Johns University. The largest payments were made to an anti bullying campaign although the University receives significant payments from taxpayers for the “Higher York” organisation.

The University of York fee payments range from £170,000 paid for the York Cares organisation (which managess voluntary projects in the City) to £850 for a speaker at a “women’s development session”.

All Council expenditure is now being closely scrutinised following the decision of the Labour Leadership to remove winter salt bins from key foopath locations in the City.

The bins cost only £50 a time to fill.

NB. At the last Council meeting the Labour Leadership revealed that it will pay £31,000 to York Athletics Club as a sweetener to move out of the Huntington Stadium. It had been intended to provide a replacement athletics facility at the sports village but Labour now propose to fund the refurbishment of the existing University athletics field.

Council frozen into inactivity on Lendal Bridge failings

We are still receiving a large number of adverse comments from visitors who have been caught out by the ANPR cameras on Lendal Bridge

A selection is reproduced below.

None of the Cabinet Councillors responsible is prepared to respond publicly to the criticisms and the local media increasingly adopt a supine approach to Labour’s excesses.

The Press haven’t even published the footfall figures, which were released last week, and which showed a 12% drop in the number of visitors in the City since the traffic restrictions were introduced.

Disillusion with the local democratic system is resulting in residents shunning the Councils activities.

-The annual “democracy week” attracted low attendances.

– Few residents attend the new ward forums

– The much vaunted (and expensive) web casting of Cabinet meetings attracts a tiny audience

– While the so called “housing week” events attracted in the main only officials and Labour members.

The Councils procession from the Guildhall to its new offices attracted City wide derision.

So it does raise the question of what residents can do, in a democracy, if their views are totally ignored by an inflexible Council leadership?

In the end, the answer will be to ensure that it never happens again.

Reintroduction of the “so called” committee system where decisions are take (at meetings open to the public) by all party groups, looks increasingly attractive.

Cabinet/Executive members have no delegated authority to act under such a system.

We will see if this option finds its way into the party manifestos for the local elections in 2015.

Sadly other options for reinvigorating the democratic system in the City (annual elections and smaller wards) have so far been rejected by the Boundary Commission

In the meantime those who have suffered through the bad planning of new traffic restrictions, who are appalled at the profligate expenditure of the Council, who oppose the ridiculous plan to increase the City’s size by 25% over the next 15 years, who fear the impact that new de-icing schedules will have on safety or who reject the idea that 20 mph is the right speed limit for all urban roads, should continue to make their views known to local Labour Councillors.

There is evidence that’s some of them are now beginning to question the style and content of the Alexander leadership.

Only 18 months to the next Council election. For some businesses though they will come too late.

Recent feedback includes these comments
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No surprises on Tour de France route – Labour Councillor on “freebie” to Paris?

There were no surprises when the route that the Tour de France will take though York was revealed today in Paris.

click for enteractive map

The route will start from the Racecourse on Sunday 6th July taking in the City centre before leaving the City via Bootham, Clifton Bridge and Boroughbridge Road and making its way to Harrogate and Sheffield.

York taxpayers are already set to get a bill for over £1.4 million for the stage two depart event.

There were no surprises either when it was revealed that another Labour Councillor jumped at the chance to visit Paris today for the, somewhat less than historic, announcement of “Le route”.

This time is it was Cllr Tracey Simpson Laing, who represents the Acomb Ward, who took the opportunity to top up her air miles.

The trip came only a couple of days after the Council decided to scrap 12 self help salt bins in the Acomb ward (see list below)

These bins would have cost £600 to fill with salt this winter.

NB. Co-incidentally, the cost of 2 airline tickets from Leeds/Bradford to Paris return is around £500. Eurostar is a bit cheaper.

The Acomb Ward salt bins being scrapped by the Council are located at:
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Jewsons awarded York Council contract

Jewsons have been awarded a 3 year contract to supply building materials to the York Council.

Nick Clegg offers York businesses growth funding

A new round of the Government’s Regional Growth Fund has opened for businesses across the country, and City of York Council is encouraging firms in York to bid for a share of the £300 million cash pot.

Nick Clegg at launch of Regional Growth Fund

The fund, which has already supported almost 300 projects and programmes across the country, is open to bids of £1 million or more for high quality private sector projects and programmes that leverage private sector investment and create sustainable jobs.

Round five of the Regional Growth Fund will close to applications on Monday 9 December, with successful bidders announced in Spring 2014. Bids will need to demonstrate the potential for creating long-term, private-sector led economic growth and employment, and also evidence a significant private sector matched funding contribution.

For further information, or for help with the application process businesses can visit https://www.gov.uk/understanding-the-regional-growth-fund#round-5-now-open-for-bids or contact Andrew Sharp or Charles Storr in City of York Council’s Economic Development Unit on 01904 555834 or 01904 555901.

Council refuses to test market on surplus land sales.

The worrying trend, where the York Council fails to put surplus assets (mainly land and property) on the open market, looks set to continue.

There were a lot of raised eyebrows last year when the Council chose to sell land at Hungate for a knock down price. They claimed that this was necessary in order to attract Hiscox insurers to the City.

The trend continued earlier this year when they decided to deal direct with a leaseholder in Redness Street while the adjacent landowner is being given first refusal of the vacated St Anthony’s House office site.

Now we understand that Oliver House may also be sold (or leased) in December without ever reaching the open market.

The Councillor responsible for these decisions was questioned at the Council meeting recently.

Oliver House

He accepted that professional valuations placed on Council assets in the past had substantially under-estimated their real value. This had become apparent on properties such as the Bonding Warehouse and the Edmund Wilson pool site when open market bids greatly exceeded expectations.

However he wouldn’t give an assurance that open market bids would be invited for all upcoming property sales.

The question asked was:

Question: In the light of the new buoyancy in the York development market place, will the Cabinet Member agree that all sales of Council property and land will be subject to a competitive process which maximises the receipt that is available for the taxpayer?”

Cllr Williams responded, “Of course the default position should be to go to the open market. However, there will always be some situations where it makes financial and economic sense not to stick to that default position and not to have a competitive process. This should be if it is felt that one organisation has a special interest in a site and would pay a premium above the going market rate to obtain the site. An example of this would be a sitting leaseholder who wishes to buy the freehold. To have a blanket policy would simply expose the council to potentially not maximising the use of assets.”

Councils have a legal duty to get the best value that they can in their financial dealings.

If they don’t then the District Auditor can be asked to investigate.

Labour add £1 million to York’s annual debt repayment levels in just 24 months

The Council has admitted that increased borrowing means that Council taxpayers are now paying £1m a year more in debt charges than in 2011.

Kings Square work

Most has been used to bolster what the Council describes as its Economic Development Fund.

£18 million has been committed to this fund already which is being used to pay for projects such as:

• Refurbishment of Kings Square

• Acquisition of an “Arts Barge”

• Tour de France start

• Newgate market refurbishment

• New City centre bus stops

Of the annual additional payments around £0.5 million goes on interest charges while £0.5 makes staged repayments of the principal.

It will take over 20 years to fully repay the borrowing

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