Beckfield Lane recycling centre reopens for ……………1 day

Composting bins on sale on 13th October

Composting bins on sale on 13th October

Residents will be able to visit the site on 5th October to pick up a preordered composting bin.

York Rotters can help you get composting with free advice and this sale of compost bins and other composting equipment.

Limited unreserved stock will be available to purchase on the day.

To ensure availability pre-order your equipment here by 20th September and then collect from Beckfield Lane on 5th October (no delivery option available).

Bins are subsidised by City of York Council and their sales are limited to York residents only, two ‘dalek’ bins and one ‘metal’ bin per household

Residents launch petition to retain Green Lane (Acomb) on de-icing schedule

Green Lane petition form
The York Council is planning to remove little Green Lane from its winter gritting schedules.

The section of road affected leads from the roundabout to the entrance to Hob Moor School. It is extensively used by specialist buses taking special needs children to the school.

Although on the schedule, gritters struggled to keep the access open during the severe weather conditions encountered in 2010.

Now local residents are collecting a petition aimed at restoring the street to the de –icing schedules. They also hope to persuade the Council not to reduce the number of salt bins in the area.

2 years ago the Council moved to prevent local ward committees from establishing and maintaining local salt bin networks.

Elsewhere in the local neighbourhood, residents are also planning protests about the virtual elimination of local roads from the de-icing rota. The whole of the Kingsway West and Stuart Road estates will not be on the primary salting routes in future despite many of the roads being bus routes.

Click for larger map

Click for larger map


Residents point to the £75,000 a year being spent on advertising the City at Leeds Bradford airport as one source of funding for what most regard as a basic safety requirement.

Residents have until next Monday (16th) to complete a Council on line survey although this does not include a status quo option.

A decision on the gritting routes is likely to be made at a meeting taking place on 9th October at which residents hope to hand in their petition.

NB. In the same area problems with litter drift near the shops have been reported to the Council. The Council has also been asked to intervene to ensure that the owners fill in a large pothole on the (private) shops forecourt which represents a hazard for pedestrians.

Litter near Green Lane shops

Litter near Green Lane shops

Pothole on shops forecourt

Pothole on shops forecourt

York Council waste collection changes. If your refuse bin isn’t emptied next week….. check this list!

The York Council is introducing new waste and green recycling collection timetables from next Monday (9th September).

Some households will receive recycling for the first time and others may have changes to what day of the week their rubbish, recycling or green waste is collected

About 10% of properties will see a change to their collections days.

The Council says that it has written to every affected household explaining the new collection days.

Given the past record of the York Council with communications, we are sceptical about whether everyone will have had, and understood, their communication.

A complete list of addresses (10639 of them) were sent out to ward Councillors as late as 2:00pm today Friday 6th September.

That is less than 1 working day before the new arrangements are due to be introduced.

The complete list of affected properties can be viewed by clicking here.

It is in alphabetical street order.

Alternatively, you should also be able to check out the day that your next collection is due by entering your postcode at this web location http://tinyurl.com/York-bin

Roads in the Westfield area that are affected include:

• Beagle Ridge Drive (change of week)
• Beechwood Glade (change of week)
• Cedarwood Close (change of week)
• Huntsman’s Walk (change of week)
• Maplewood Paddock (change of week)
• Thornwood Covert (change of week)

The Council says, “It is important to continue to ensure that your rubbish, recycling and garden waste are presented before 7am on the day of collection”.

Gas levels near Newbury Avenue to be investigated

The City of York Council’s environmental protection unit has completed its investigation of the former refuse tips off Foxwood Lane (comprising Acorn Rugby Club, the playing fields off Foxwood Lane and Hob Moor) last year.

In late August / early September 2012, soil and water samples were collected from across the site and sent for laboratory analysis. The waste material buried onsite was found to contain ash and clinker, brick fragments, glass, ceramics, fabric, coal, metal and timber.

Monitoring wells were also installed around the edges of the site to enable the Council to monitor ground gas.

The Council said, “The laboratory analysis results confirmed that the majority of the soil and water samples were uncontaminated. Some elevated levels of contaminants were detected – but a detailed risk assessment has confirmed that these levels do not pose a risk to people, animals or the environment.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Ground gas was monitored on a monthly basis between September 2012 and March 2013. The ground gas concentrations and flows were found to be low in most monitoring wells. Although elevated levels of methane and carbon dioxide were found on part of Hob Moor (to the rear of Newbury Avenue) and we intend to investigate this area further.

Please note that the site has not been determined as contaminated land (under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990), but further investigation is required in the vicinity of Newbury Avenue”.

The environmental protection unit has now confirmed that it has received a government grant of £35,000 to undertake an additional investigation in the vicinity of Newbury Avenue.

The investigation will involve installing gas monitoring wells in a number of gardens and monitoring the external airbricks of eight properties. They will test the gas levels every two weeks for up to six months, to assess whether the gas levels pose a risk to people, property or the environment.

Residents are being notified of the plans this Friday (6 September). A drop-in session is being held at the Gateway Centre between 10am and 12pm on Monday (9 September) to answer resident’s queries.

The answers to frequently asked questions can be found by clicking here.

Ironically the worst affected area appears to be the site selected by the Council on which to build a block of 9 new Council flats!

Council spending £1/4 million each year clearing fly tipping

Dumping and litter on Tithe Close snicket1400 hours 23rd Aug 2013

The York Council has admitted that it is costing taxpayers £250,000 a year to clear fly tipping in the City.

7 people are employed full time on the task.

They use 3 specialist vehicles.

The Council was heavily criticised last year when it closed the recycling centre in Beckfield Lane.

Residents forecast that fly tipping would increase.

The Council claimed then that the closure would “save” £40,000 a year.

Other contributory factors to the problem with fly tipping can be traced to the decision to stop the provision of mobile skips in some neighbourhoods.

Many litter bins have also been removed, while this winter there will be no green bin collections over a period of nearly 6 months.

The Council has also claimed that it no longer gets any income from the sale of materials returned to Hazel Court for recycling.

Labour pull plug on “York in Bloom”

York in bloom poster

The media are reporting that York has pulled out of the Britain in Bloom competition.

The responsible Councillor (Crisp) is quoted as saying that the City is “taking a breather from the event“.

The decision to pull out has not however been discussed by the Council and was unknown to the many hundreds of volunteers who have been preparing individual entries for the competition.

In 2011 the Council Leader was quoted, when trying to justify a £1000 travel bill incurred by a delegation- led by Cllr Crisp – to the Britain in Bloom national awards ceremony in Scotland.

He said then that Britain in Bloom success had “boosted York’s reputation”.

He went on to say:

“Events such as this have possible economic benefits in creating collaboration between different councils, which can produce more significant savings in the future.

“Such political attacks will not deter the cabinet from doing our job properly by increasing our influence, and this will inevitably cost a modest amount”
Ironically, The City’s good showing in 2-011 was down to the hard work of the previous LibDem administration that had gradually restored the City’s reputation for flora displays.

The announcement of the pull out comes only days after the council said that it was to spend £75,000 a year advertising the City at the Leeds-Bradford airport.

Work on a £500,000 project to relay paving stones in Kings Square also starts next week.

Cllr Crisp was unable to say how much pulling out of the Britain in Bloom contest had saved the City but tourist chiefs said it was another blow to the City centre economy.

Another blow to York Pride

Any hopes that the Labour Council would finally get on top of public service standards in the City have been dealt a fatal blow over the last few weeks.

The number of complaints about street level service problems are escalating.

The Council’s on line “report it” system is proving to be more and more unreliable.

The Council has admitted that between 3rd September 2012 and 1st July 2013, they received 727 complaints.

Of these 402 were found to be justified.

Meanwhile, in little over an hour, the following problems were reported in parts of the Westfield ward.

Dumping and litter on Tithe Close snicket reported on 23rd August. Partly blamed on cancelation of skip programme in the Cornlands area

Dumping and litter on Tithe Close snicket reported on 23rd August. Partly blamed on cancelation of skip programme in the Cornlands area


Weeds growing through footpath in St Stephens Square

Weeds growing through footpath in St Stephens Square

Weed growth on Otterwood Lane. Reported 23rd August 2013

Weed growth on Otterwood Lane. Reported 23rd August 2013