Monk Stray – License decision

Monk Stray

Monk Stray


The Council’s licensing committee has turned down a proposal, from the York Councils Labour Cabinet, for a general license which would have allowed camping and entertainment activities on Monk Stray.

A 1 day licence for a Tour de France event has been granted but with numerous restrictions.

Labour could appeal against the decision to the Magistrates Court but would find itself in the invidious position of appealing against the views of one of its own committees!

Perhaps significantly, on this occasion, the Licensing panel was made up of 2 Tory plus 1 Labour Councillor.

Spring clean this week in Foxwood Park

Throughout the first week of the spring volunteers have helped to tidy Clifton and Rawcliffe.

During week two (24-30 March) of the spring clean will be focused on the Dringhouses and Woodthorpe ward plus the Foxwood park.

Litter in hedgerow Acomb Wood Meadow

Litter in hedgerow Acomb Wood Meadow

The first task of the week will take place on Tuesday from 10am-12noon when a team from The Chase Residents’ Association will be painting play equipment in Nelsons Lane Play area.

On Wednesday from 10am–12:30pm a team from Bootham School will be planting wildflower bulbs and trimming the hedges within the Chapman’s Pond site.

They will then move to Foxwood Park to plant bulbs and tidy up the hedge between 2:15pm -4:30pm.

Thursday will see Friends of Acomb Wood planting trees and litter picking within Acomb Wood. Volunteers who would like to help are asked to meet at 2pm at the Acomb Wood Drive/Quaker Wood Pub entrance.

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York’s public conveniences’ refurbishment set to start

Work on a £663,000 refurbishment of York’s public conveniences starts on Monday

The contractor Healthmatic will take over the refurbishment and maintenance of facilities in the city centre and Acomb to both improve cleanliness and disabled access, while making required savings of £75,000.

Work at the Union Terrace car and coach park will start on Monday 24 March, and temporary facilities will be installed next door, with no charge for entry during refurbishment.

Acomb toilets

Acomb toilets

At Nunnery Lane car park, work will start on Monday 31 March. The men’s facilities will remain open and the night-time toilet and accessible toilet will be temporarily available for women, again with no charge for entry during refurbishment. Both projects will complete in early May.

Upgrading will take place at the public toilets on Acomb’s Front Street, Coppergate, Exhibition Square, Tanner Row and those at the car parks on Nunnery Lane and St George’s Field. Besides improvements to the Silver Street toilets which already includes a Changing Place disabled facility, an additional Changing Place will be built as part of the refurbishment at Union Terrace car park’s toilets.

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Good response to “improve our neighbourhood” petition

A steady stream of petition forms, from most parts of the Westfield area, are arriving.

Petitioners are asking for the Council to deal with several long standing issues in the neighbourhood including the need to repair local roads.

Over 20 issues (see sample below) have been highlighted by residents. These have been passed on to the Council using  the “My Council” web app.

York Housing Association have agreed to remove this dumping from the Haddon Close snicket "within the next few days"

York Housing Association have agreed to remove this dumping from the Haddon Close snicket “within the next few days”

Litter, detritus and vandalism on the Walton Place to Grange Lane snicket has been reported.

Litter, detritus and vandalism on the Walton Place to Grange Lane snicket has been reported.

Foxwood Park and Acomb Wood volunteers weekend details – 26th and 27th March

Local volunteers will carry out a ‘spring clean’ of the city during March and April.

Volunteers in action in the Foxwood Park earlier in the year

Volunteers in action in the Foxwood Park earlier in the year

The spring clean will consist of various tasks, such as litter clearance, edging off grass verges, cutting back over grown vegetation and fence repairs.

From 24 – 30 March the team will be focusing on the Dringhouses and Woodthorpe ward, where they will be looking to make a difference to Chapman’s Pond and Foxwood Park making site improvements with help from Bootham School and local groups on March 26.

The Friends of Acomb Wood invite people to help plant new trees on March 27.

Volunteers are being called upon to help spruce up Nelsons Lane play are on March 25.

York residents will also have the opportunity to nominate communal spaces for the team to spruce up and help make a smarter York.

This can be done by going to https://www.york.gov.uk/springclean and adding a new request. Residents and businesses can also volunteer to carry out tasks in their local area.

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Air quality in York

Lorry smoke

The Council has published some air quality measurement statistics which can be downloaded from here.

The results are from some of the Councils nitrogen dioxide diffusion tube monitors including those located on Leeman Road and Clifton Green.

The results are largely inconclusive and tend to demonstrate that prevailing weather conditions are the main factor influencing air quality.

The Council says that corrected results for 2013 are currently being processed and will be available in April.

The annual average air quality objective set by the Government for nitrogen dioxide is 21ppb

Now dumping added to Foxwood empty home blight

A traffic sign and bin bags have been dumped outside 9 Bradley Drive.

9 Bradley Drive

9 Bradley Drive

The property has been empty for about 6 years. The Council was on the brink of gaining possession of the problem property – whose owner has absconded – in 2011 but the initiative was abandoned by the new Labour Council.

Two years later they did restart proceedings but little progress has been made and the building remains a target for vandals.

The Council has failed to improve the eyesore.

Positive response to Bellwood estate concerns

Landlords promise quick action

Dumping

Dumping

Access Housing, who manage Foxwood’s Bellhouse estate, have promised quick action to deal with residents concerns.

We reported yesterday about growing concerns about litter, dumping, overgrown hedges and other issues which are blighting the estate.

Now Access have promised that there will be a tidy up starting on Wednesday (12th March).

A part time caretaker is being engaged to undertake this type of work.

Contractors will be brought in the cut back hedges and smarten up the planted areas. It is hoped that the verges will also be edged.

Action is promised to improve the play area on Linnet Way.

The estate manager for the area is Jo Caveney. She holds a fortnightly surgery for residents and can be contacted on 0345 678 0573 (Email: joanne.caveney@accentgroup.org )