Art Gallery/Museums admission charges – compromise proposed

art gallery 19880sIt looks like the Council and York Museums Trust will agree a compromise on admission charges next week.

A report to an Executive meeting offers a number of changes to the original plan and could give residents a 50% reduction on costs if they are a regular visitor.

  1. The YMT Card (giving unlimited access) will cost just £10 for YorkCard holders (compared to £20 for a non-resident). Children up to 16 will be free
  2. Continued free access will be provided for York residents during the Residents‟ Festival and for other special occasions and events determined by YMT
  3. Those YorkCard holders who would have qualified for a discounted YMT card under (17-24 year olds and those on particular benefits) will now be entitled to a free YMT card.

In return for this provision, the Council will reimburse YMT £5 for each free YMT card issued with a target of 4,000 cards p.a. (Customers who have already bought an Access Card will be reimbursed by YMT)

 In addition, YMT have offered to make available free tickets to YMT‟s venues to vulnerable and hard to reach groups who would not otherwise make use of the museums and gallery.

Examples of the groups include:

  • People with mental health issues and their befrienders
  • Young carers
  • Residents of older person‟s homes and their carers

The deal means that many York residents would still pay an entrance fee of £7-50 for a casual visit. That’s a lot if accompanied by friends and family from outside the City, but not as much as may be charged in some other countries.

It is a shame that some way of merging the Yorkcard and Museums card could not be found.

In the end the Museums Trust and the Libraries (who issue the Yorkcard) may both be losers.

Christmas children’s carousel petition tops 2000 signatures

York Christmas Carousel

York Christmas Carousel

A petition, asking for York’s traditional Christmas Carousel ride to be retained in St Sampsons Square, has gained the support of over 2000 people.

It will be formally handed over to the York Council on Friday at 2:00pm (West Offices).

The new “Make it York” (MIT) organisation has been criticised for trying to force the ride to move onto an alternative – less accessible – site at the Eye of York.

 It emerged today that senior managers at MIY have not been prepared to enter into discussions with the ride operator Warringtons over the alternative location.

 It is understood that a “take it or leave” option was put forward in August but that there has been no subsequent negotiation

An electronic version of the petition can still be signed. Click here to access it.

NB A response to a Freedom Of Information probe into the objectives set for the – wholly Council owned – “Make it York” organisation is expected to be published later this week.

Community Stadium “set up” costs hit £3.9 million

Over £963,000 spent to date on new athletics facilities at the University

The City of York Council has spent £3.875 million since 2008 trying to get the new Community Stadium off the ground.

Of this, £2.1 million has already been spent on project costs.

As expected the bill for the new athletics facility at the University is set to top £1 million.

Most of the expenditure has been capitalised – meaning that it may be deducted from the £15 million Section 106 monies already paid to the Council by the developers of the adjacent Vanguard development.

Still the figures are a matter of concern as no building works have actually yet started and a final contract decision is not now due to be made until January 2016.

The figures – revealed in a response to a Freedom of Information request – include £506,168 spent on “Interim training/match facilities” The precise make up of this expenditure has not yet been provided.

The information has been released at a time when one of the core tenants for the community facilities being provided at Monks Cross has withdrawn. St John’s say that their new sports development on Haxby Road – where the Knight Rugby Team now train – meets al their sporting needs.

The Council have remained tight lipped about how much rental they hope to gain, from the lease of community facilities sapce, to organisations like the NHS and the Libraries social enterprise company.

Without this income the running costs of the stadium could fall on taxpayers.

Community Stadium costs to 18th Aug 2015

Arts Council gives York Museums Trust £1.23m each year

Details of the latest assessment made by the Arts Council of England on the Museums Trust have been revealed in a sheaf of correspondence released under Freedom of Information legislation.

click to access

click to access

The Arts Council assessment rates the organisation as “strong” or “outstanding” judged against a series of goals.

In addition to the Arts Council funding, the approved core subsidy (agreed by the then Labour led) Council was:

2014/15 (actual)

Revenue funding – £1,105,366

Capital funding – £1,250,000

2015/16 (commitment)

Revenue funding – £605,366.40

Capital funding-  £850,000

The correspondence reveals some confusion about an allocation of £500,000 in the Council’s capital budget. Although badged in February’s papers as for the “Museums Trust” it turned out the money was intended for completion of the remodelling of Exhibition Square. The Trust had hoped to hijack the funding to improve the gardens behind the Gallery.

The papers also reveal that the numbers using York Cards to gain admission to Trust buildings recently (the Art Gallery was closed during the period under review) were:

Castle Museum 01/04/14 to 31/05/15

Adults – 18,169

Child – 7,362

Young Person – 370

Yorkshire Museum 01/04/14 to 31/05/15

Adults – 10,337

Child – 6,512

Young Person – 98

The information provides some insight into how the Trust balances its books.  It may however reinforce the campaign for greater transparency in the working of Yorks growing army of QUANGOs (Museums, Libraries, “Make it York”, Theatre Royal, CYC Ltd etc.)

The paper also reveals that the Council doles out “VIP” invitations to events like the opening of the new Art Gallery. Traditionally Councillors have paid for any tickets received for events where there is – for others –an admission charge. Over the last few years  some Councillors have been slow to make hospitality declarations on their register of interests, although Labour raised the lower limit for such declarations to £50 per event three years ago.

Some of the correspondence will make a sobering read though for @nayre who is variously referred to in the correspondence as Cllr Nayre and Cllr Ayres (close relation of Pam no doubt)

Well Know poet

Well known poet

Well know Councillor

Well know Councillor

 

Carousel petition gathers 500 signatures in one week

Members of the public ride a carousel adjacent to the 'St Nicholas Fair' Christmas market in the city centre of York, Northern England on December 3, 2014. AFP PHOTO / OLI SCARFF (Photo credit should read OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images)

A petition, in support of retaining children’s rides in St Sampson’s Square at Christmas, has attracted 500 signatures. 

This petition will be available to sign for another week.

The paper based petition, which can be signed at the Carousel, supplements the Epetition which can be found on the Councils web site, and which will be available for another 3 weeks.

It is hoped it will persuade the Council and “Make It York” to change their plans to allocate the children’s site to another – alcohol based – “festive attraction”.

Community Stadium – still unanswered questions

As we predicted several months ago, the new Community Stadium will not open until 2017 at the earliest.

An update report (click) has been published by the Council. It will be considered next Thursday.

Community Stadium costs funding specification

The Council has confirmed that there have been no changes to the specification, costings and funding sources agreed by the, then Labour dominated, Council in September 2014 (see above).

The demolition of the existing stadium and Waterworld building is to be fast tracked – as is an extension to the Park and Ride site – at a cost of £2 million. The Council intends to undertake some advanced design work on steel work and piling.

The Council have announced – for the fifth time – that the Yearsley pool has been “saved” although they remain coy about the source of any ongoing subsidy that will be required.

Perhaps surprisingly they continue to claim that the £12 million replacement for Waterworld will go ahead despite growing evidence that demand for public  swimming provision is the City has now been fully satisfied.

A contract for the stadium scheme is now expected to be awarded in January 2016. In the meantime the Council will attempt to negotiate away covenants on the use of the land – thought to have been inserted by a previous owner (work which should have been done three years ago)

Worryingly it appears that some of the proposed tenants for premises in the stadium complex have not yet signed up.

The Council are still forecasting a 12 to 14 month construction time table for the Stadium (Feb 2016 – April 2017). We doubt very much that a stadium of this size and complexity can be built, fitted out and – critically – get an appropriate safety certificate in that timescale.

 It would be a major achievement to have it ready for the beginning of the 2017/18 football season (August 2017).

So a scheme that was in 2010 to be fully funded from S106 contributions from the adjacent Vanguard development, now looks set to cost taxpayers £8 million.

The hard work in finding funding for the stadium had been done by the time that Labour took control of the Council in May 2011. They dithered over the specification for the stadium for over a year before finally securing outline planning permission for the retail enabler.  

A bizarre design/build/operate contract was then drawn up which fell foul of European procurement rules, adding two years to the process

Planning permission for the new stadium and commercial complex was finally granted only in April this year and it was June before the Secretary of State indicated that he would not ”call in” the scheme.Community Stadium Nov 2014

There is a lot of evidence that some Labour Councillors simply didn’t understand the risks that were being taken. Indeed yesterday one of their politicians took to the media to announce – completely erroneously – that the scheme would now cost £41 million (not £37m).

Unfortunately – for taxpayers – there is no way back to the 2010 scheme which would have seen a stadium, athletics facility and some community space built within a £15 million cost envelope. It would have been completed  in 2014 at the latest.

Now we will have to wait another 5 months before the final costs are known and confirmation provided that all the proposed tenants have all signed on the dotted line

Summer events programme for young people shining in York

Shine logo

 Children, young people and their families are enjoying a summer of fun holiday activities, with an amazing 29,900 activity places available as part of the council co-ordinated Shine programme.

Shine is an exciting programme of events aimed at five to 18 year olds which runs thanks to a large number of organisers including the council, sports organisations, independent activity providers and local attractions. Many of the activities are free and booking in advance is not always necessary, offering a boredom-free summer throughout the city!

This year Shine includes over 190 different activities throughout the summer, offering all the favourite arts, sports, play sessions, parks and libraries activities.

  • Some of the more unusual events include designing a remote controlled robot or a joystick game and those with a sense of adventure can enjoy activities such as kayaking, outdoor climbing, wild camping and bushcraft skills.
  • Theatre, art, mosaics, dance, sewing and junk drumming with Trashbang are some of the arts activities helping to develop young creative skills, whilst sports activities from Total Sports,
  • York Knights Foundation and City of York Athletics are keeping fitness levels up throughout the summer.
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Applications welcomed for Barbican Concessionary Days

York based groups, clubs and community organisations are being invited to apply for a concessionary day’s hire of York Barbican.

Barbican

City of York Council is offering the concessionary days as part of its lease agreement with the Barbican’s operators, SMG and is particularly interested in hearing from organisations who would like to take up one of the three bookings available over 2016 to 2017.

The proposed events should be open and accessible to all and appeal to a wide cross section of York’s community. Each suggestion will be assessed against a number of criteria to ensure that fair consideration is given to all submissions. Events coming up soon include a York Irish Culture Night on 19 September and a collaborative performance with a York choir of over 100 voices, a full orchestra, a visiting choir from Los Angeles and a multi-award winning composer which takes place next summer as a European premier.
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