Green Lane garage area gets clean up

After many months of complaining, we were pleased to see that the little Green Lane garage area was tidied up a few weeks ago.

Little Green Lane garage area cleaned

Unfortunately, since the clean up, some builders waste has been left in the area and we are still waiting to hear when the housing department plan to resurface the access road and forecourt.

Elsewhere other long standing issues also remain to be resolved.

Material dumped in the Dijon Avenue garage area 6 months ago is still there and perimeter weeds – having fallen back during the winter – will start to grow again shortly

Dijon Ave dumping

Dijon Avenue weeds

……and another black mark for local housing officials who refuse to allow residents access to public noticeboards in the Kingsway area (below). They have been inaccessible for over 2 years now, forcing charities and community groups to post notices on the outside glass of the boards.

It’s an issue that could be easily solved by giving local Councillors a set of keys for the frames.

Unused noticeboards in Kingsway area

We report all issues for the Council’s attention using the “fix my street” https://www.fixmystreet.com/ web site

Cleaner York report published

York Council looks like it will soon get to grips with improving cleanliness standards in the City.

Manual sweeping in the Acomb ward click to enlarge

A report, to be considered on 25^th January, makes several recommendations, although the most significant may be that the management of street cleaning will be devolved to local Ward Committees.

The report does, however, say that the funds available for cleaning will be reduced.

The report says, “Cleansing will take place with a minimum frequency of quarterly and a maximum of daily, depending on the location. Although in some locations there will be a reduction in the frequency of visits by a large mechanical road sweeper the new schedules will allow the vehicle to be driven more slowly which will ensure improved removal of detritus. This will not only improve cleanliness standards but also remove the matter in which weeds are able to grow”.

Mechanical sweeping in the Acomb Ward click to view

The report notably fails to say what standards will apply to sub-urban shopping areas, public spaces and communal areas on estates. These are often the places which have the biggest litter problems

Litter and Poop scoop bins

The report makes a welcome proposal to increase the number of litter bins. The number of litter reports started to increase when the last Council removed several bins. (They responded by stopping the publication of statistics showing the number of complaints being received – see below).

Combined litter and poop scoop bins

The Council will also move over to combined litter/poop scoop bins. These are emptied by the same operative and end up in landfill.

Enforcement

Despite fly tipping costing the Council £69,000 to remove in 2014, only £2248 was recovered from fines. During the same year, 8 fixed penalty notices were issued for litter dropping and dog fouling.

Reporting problems

The Council is promising that its much delayed on line issue reporting system will finally become available in the summer.

It means that the current – dysfunctional – “report it “system and the outdated “Smarter York” app will be scrapped. The latter, introduced in a hurry in 2011 by a new Council administration, lacked the convenience and flexibility of commercial systems such as “Fix my Street”. The Smarter York app is currently costing the Council over £12,000 a year to maintain with use having dwindled to less than 4 a week.

We will see; but the Councils promise to soft launch the system, before promoting its use, is a welcome step forward.

The Council is also promising to launch a “One Planet” App which will allow residents to advertise surplus items for “exchange”. We assume that they mean what effectively would be a version of Freecycle. The system would also “receive alerts regarding which type of waste to present on which week and a scanning facility to indicate if an item is recyclable based on York’s collection policy”.

Performance indicators

Attached to the report is a welcome glimpse of the performance indicators “lost to view” a few years ago.

They aren’t complete but their publication is a welcome step forward by the current coalition administration (see below)

: Performance indicators

Drainage issues reported to York Council

Local Councillor Andrew Waller audited the effectiveness of drainage systems over the weekend.

The wet weather has revealed several problems all of which have been reported to the Council.

Poor drainage on Askham Lane near bus stop

Blocked gulley at entrance to Gladstone Street

Blocked gully near Green Lane roundabout

Broken drain cover St Stephens Square

Cornlands Road near bus stops

Windsor Garth

Poor drainage and damaged gully Danesfort Avenue

Windsor Garth flooding

In total Andrew has reported over a dozen locations in the Westfield area where ponding or flooding is a problem

Residents can report issues with drainage, as well as other problems such as faulty street lights, at https://www.fixmystreet.com/

Poor weather and neglect taking its toll on public service standards in west York

Bramham Grove carriageway needs patching

Damage to a telecoms cabinet on Bramham Road

"Fags ends" accummulating outside the shops on Bramham Road

“Fags ends” accumulating outside the shops on Bramham Road

…….and detritus at the former entrance to Lowfields School on Dijon Avenue. Reported 2 months ago but no action by the Council yet

A lot of detritus on the footpath at the entrance to The Wandle

Garage areas still a problem. Now we have dumping on The Kingsway West area.

Garage areas still a problem. Now we have dumping in the Kingsway West area.

Detritus , leaves and litter on the Grange Lane cycle path entrance

Dumping at Acomb Car Park recycling point

Fridge dumped in Chapelfields

Can banks on Acomb Car Park full. Cnas being hung on skip

Can banks on Acomb Car Park full. Cans being hung on skip

Leaf detritus on little Green Lane in Acomb – was reported 3 weeks ago!!

Similar leaf fall on The Green, Acomb

All these issues have been reported for action using https://www.fixmystreet.com/

More Councils signing up to “Fix My Street” and What do they Know”

The Harrogate Council has become the latest to purchase the class leading software which gives local residents access to vital Freedom of Information files as well as an easy, and monitored way, of reporting issues.

Their approach contrasts with the attitude of the York Council which persists with an “on line” issue reporting system which is just not “fit for purpose”

York should cut its losses and follow Harrogate’s lead.

Details here

Fix My Street

What Do They Know

Meanwhile the York Council’s proposals reqarding the future of its “on line” reporting systems have been removed from its “Forward Programme“.

Instead, the controversial new system is due to be debated under a generic “Cleaner City” report in the New Year. The latter report has also been delayed by 2 months but is currently due to be considered on 25th January.

Time to check out your nearest salt bin

The York Council has a useful – but little publicised – map available “on line”. Go to http://localview.york.gov.uk/Sites/TranStreetCare/#

It shows the location of many local services including individual street lighting columns (with their I/D number and type) plus litter bins and poop scoop bins. It also shows which roads and footpaths have been adopted for maintenance purposes.

At this time of year the map can be used to locate salt bins while also displaying the route that the gritting lorries follow.

You can get daily updates on twitter from the gritting teams https://twitter.com/yorkgritter

The map indicates how many volunteer “snow wardens” there are in the area. There are seven in the Westfield ward

Volunteer snow wardens are residents who give up some of their time to clear snow during bad weather. There are 211 registered volunteers across York. The Council provides volunteers with:

training
high-visibility vests
snow-clearing kits
insurance
grit

We know that some of the local salt bins have been filled with litter.

If one needs attention please report it at https://www.fixmystreet.com/

Castle car park potholes filled in but major resurfacing still needed

Pothole filled in on Castle Car park

Some of the potholes on the Castle car park have been filled in. The whole car park still needs resurfacing.

Graffiti gone from second set of flood gates on North Street

Graffiti removed from one set of flood gates on North Street (but not wall)

Graffiti on second set of flood gates on North Street

Graffiti on first set of flood gates on North Street

But graffiti still on other set of gates

Riverside Walk Graffiti

…..and on Hotel wall

Weeds still growing on Ouse Bridge

Our longest outstanding issue remains the weed growth on Ouse Bridge. First reported (this year) on 27th August

Weeds still growing on Riverside Walk

and weeds continue to thrive on the banks of the Ouse

All issues have been reported using the “Fix My Street” website

Kingsway West road surfaced

We reported the hammerhead in Kingsway West as being in need of resurfacing a couple of weeks ago using Fix My Street.

Good to report that some repairs have now been undertaken, although the whole of the hammerhead needs attention.

So how good are street level public services in York?

Well you’ll not find out from looking at the stats presented to the Council’s Executive committee

Graffiti 2nd September

Those reported on 27th August contain performance measures for only a minority of street level services.

click to enlarge

Many residents would expect that the volume of issues raised on each of the core activity areas of the Local Authority (see left) would be routinely reported to the Councils Executive together with stats showing the speed of response, the results of quality checks and customer satisfaction measures.

In August performance states were only provide for:

Graffiti removal where the Council claimed to have dealt with issues “in less than 3 days” (quicker for obscene graffiti)

Graffiti 26th September

% of roads in poor condition (No results since 2013/14)
YCC % telephone calls answered in 20 secs (45%)

Even in these cases the validity of the claimed performance must be open to doubt.

We reported graffiti on the flood gates on North Street on 2nd September.

25 days later it was still there.

We had similar problems when reporting broken glass in School Street and nettles overhanging a footpath in Bellhouse Way

Residents can report issues using “Fix My Street” they can record progress made in remedying issues on an interactive map (click here)

Carrfield – Teal Drive snicket improvement requested

We’ve asked the Council to tidy up the Carrfield – Teal Drive snicket.

Using the Fix My Street “app” we’ve asked that litter and weeds be removed, grass cut and that the cycle barriers are repainted

Barriers need paintng

Grass needs cutting

Weeds and litter need removing