Time to get to grips with street public service issues in York

Poor IT systems and lack of effective action to deal with the root causes of problems

Residents will be hoping that the new Council is more successful than the last in dealing with endemic problems. High on their priority list should be a revamp of the “report it” on line system. For most issues, reported using the system, no update reports are provided.

In other cases issues are reported back to residents as “solved” when a cursory examination reveals that the problem is still outstanding

One recent case was a (bad) littering problem on the Tithe Close snicket. Reported on 29th April the IT system said it was “solved”. In reality the mound of litter has simply grown in size then.

Litter still there a week later despite the report being “closed”

The same case highlights the lack of action on the root causes of problems. This, and other snickets in the area, are subject to littering on an almost daily basis. Surveillance followed by some well publicised prosecutions, would see the problem reduced (and failure costs avoided).

Another recurrent issue is fly tipping. The Council has rightly reduced the cost of bulky waste disposal collections. It has not been advertised very well.

So this Bank Holiday we are seeing numerous examples of dumping in public areas

Mattress dumped on Little Green Lane garage area. Been there for “2 months” according to local residents

Dumping at old entrance otoLowfields school

Acomb car park – litter near recycling bins

Fly-posting funfair owner fined £2,230

A persistent fly-poster was ordered to pay fines and costs of £2,230 by York Magistrates on Tuesday 9 April 2019.

George Rowland Tucker (of Salsview Fairpark, Tudworth Road, Hatfield, Doncaster), owner of GR Tucker & Sons, a family-run funfair, pleaded guilty to 15 offences of fly posting in the City of York in October 2018.

His funfair was located at Stirling Road, Clifton Moor, York and was open from 16 – 23 October 2018. Posters advertising the event were tied to wooden boards and lamp posts and fences next to roads throughout the city in the week leading up to the event. No prior permission was sought from City of York Council to put up the posters and the business failed to take them down when warned by Council Enforcement Officers.

Council officers photographed and removed each poster and served a fixed penalty notice for each found. Mr Tucker attended an interview under caution when he was shown the evidence. He confirmed that 15 out of the 64 posters found were put up by his business. However, he failed to pay any of the fixed penalty notices and so was prosecuted.

At York Magistrates Court, Mr Tucker offered mitigation that the posters had been put up by a business rival to get him into trouble. The court issued him a fine of £1,200 with a court surcharge of £30 and costs of £1,000.

People who fix posters or advertisements without the landowners’ permission are given fixed penalty notices of £75 per sign to be paid within 14 days.

Spark container village – payments to Council revealed

In response to a Freedom of Information request, the York Council has revealed that it has received £13,333 in rent from the Spark container village on Piccadilly since they first arrived in September 2017.

This amounts to little more than £700 a month since the organisation took over the prime site.

No payments have been received by the Council from the “profit sharing” scheme agreed as part of the deal to allow shipping containers to be installed on the site. The council says it is still awaiting receipt of accounts for last year. The last accounts filed by Spark were for the year ending March 2018.

£19,856 is owed by Spark and its tenants for Business Rates. The Council says that it is taking recovery action.

The original Spark business pitch to the Council talked about a £71,000 profit each year. Part of this was to be used to repay the Council’s initial investment (which cost over £40,000) in new utility infrastructure,

The container village has been controversial from the start with long delays in meeting some planning conditions. An instruction to replace graffiti style street art with cladding on the Piccadilly frontage is still outstanding (click for background)

The contract allows for the Council to take back the site if, after 21 days, the tenants have failed to pay the rent or complied with their obligations under the Lease.

Many of the individual units have been empty over recent months.

Although warmer weather may give the containers a temporary boost in customer numbers, it is surely long overdue for the Council to test the market by advertising the site for permanent redevelopment.

York Council response to Freedom of Information request 29th April 2019

Call for action to address local issues

Problems with litter, potholes and vandalism

Hopefully the new Council, to be elected on Thursday will tackle outstanding public service issues with renewed enthusiasm.

Litter on snickets like Tithe Close is a recurring problem

Despite winter being over, there are still too many potholes on our roads. They are particularly dangerous for cyclists.

Vandalism has also reared its head again. The York Council needs to respond more quickly to damage reports.

Foxwood Lane snicket fencing damaged in March, still not secured

…and it is about time that areas which are littered on an almost weekly basis are tackled. The Council promised mobile CCTV surveillance of problem areas but there has been little evidence of improvement.

Councils, of all political persuasions, often say that their priorities are to improve basic public servce service standards. Hopefully there will be evidence of this after Thursday’s poll.

Council election manifestos compared

3. Environment

A rare outbreak of unanimity on the 4 parties environment policies. All promise to make York “carbon neutral” by 2030. The temptation to break ranks and go for a 2029 date must have been strong.

Most are keen on clean air zones but, like the carbon commitment, are very light on what this would actually mean for residents as they go about their daily lives. The key opportunity to declare the York Central “teardrop” site a ultra low emission zone seems to have passed all the parties by.

The LibDems seem to have ditched their commitment to the introduction of a “salvage and reuse” facility with only the Greens offering a “reuse shop”

All parties commit to fortnightly bin emptying. None are specific on how recycling rates might be increased. (Central government is mandating separate food waste collections)

Surface water drainage problems are only mentioned in passing although the Tories promise an “annual gully cleaning schedule”

Great Foxwood Spring Clean makes progress

…but more people need to heed the “Keep Britain Tidy” message

4 volunteers from the Foxwood Residents Association collected 8 bags of rubbish from the Thanet Road Sports Area today. While some could be put down to “litter drift” many of the items had clearly simply been carelessly discarded. These included dozens of cans and bottles.

These sorts of clean ups shouldn’t be necessary. There are several litter bins in the area. Its time for the Council to be more proactive in enforcing anti littering laws. Residents were promised that mobile CCTV cameras would be deployed to litter hot-spots but this hasn’t happened.

Only 5 individuals across the whole city were issued with fixed penalty notices for littering last year

Volunteers have clean up the area near the Thanet Road cycle track

There is also too much fly-tipping of garden waste on amenity areas. The Council needs to get to grips with this while fitting more vandal resistant street furniture.

Water under homes

York Council finally produces the figures

Over a year ago The Press published an article in which one of the City’s MPs criticised the Council for the backlog of work needed to reduce the amount of ponding under its properties.

We wondered at the time whether the figures quoted (200 affected homes) were the whole story.

It seems not.

It has taken months of correspondence to get the facts including the scale of involvement by local MPs.

So, what is now clear?

At the time of the article there were 200 outstanding complaints about water ponding under Council houses. A programme of work had been initiated in 2016 by the new coalition administration to deal with the issue. The previous Labour run Council didn’t have a programme of remedial works nor did they monitor complaints.

Tenants reported 9 instances of standing water problems in the 12 months ending March 2018.

It seems that local MPs were reporting about 2 ponding issues a year. They reported more issues with condensation (and overcrowding) but these were not connected to the standing water issue.

The number of properties affected by damp had fallen from 466 in 2013 to 176 by the end of March 2018.

We can conclude therefore that the Council does now have a programme aimed at dealing with standing water under homes. About 45 homes a year are having remedial works undertaken.

There are likely to be more properties with water standing in the foundations, at some times of the year, but the occupiers may not be aware of the issue

The number of Council homes suffering from dampness has reduced significantly.

NB. Our FOI request for details of Councillor complaints about standing water was turned down on cost grounds (the Council don’t have a customer relationship management system which allows this information to be found easily)

Plenty of issues for Council candidates to get their teeth into

The new Scarborough Bridge cycle and footpath is due to open next week. Several of the paths linking to the bridge require resurfacing

Many other roads need to be resurfaced including Lady Road near Clifton School

The cycle path on The Mount is in particularly poor condition

Damaged fencing on Dame Judy Dench Walk near the “Inn in the City”

Corroded steps leading up to Lendal Bridge need a coat of paint

What’s on in York: Great British Spring Clean continues this weekend

Great British Spring Clean completed on Chesneys Field

Foxwood Project grassed area edging completed

Foxwood Residents Association volunteers today cleared Chesney’s Field on Foxwood Lane. They came across a dumped bike and also there been some fly tipping in the boundary hedge area.

Contractors working for the Association have also finished verge edging work around the area. Further work is planned for next winter.