York’s rugby league fans are being encouraged to support the project by sharing their memories at the York City Knights’ ‘End of an Era’ game on Sunday 7 September at 3pm, officially their final league game of the season and their last at Huntington Stadium.
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The last similar event caused some serious traffic problems in the City.
The traffic free route, starting at Clifford’s Tower will see cyclists follow the riverside cycle path before they cross Millennium Bridge taking them past Rowntree Park where the annual Festival of Cycling will be taking place. Riders can then continue along Terry Avenue and Skeldergate before turning left and crossing over Lendal Bridge. They will then ride past the iconic York Minster and weave through the city centre before reaching the hub at Clifford’s Tower.
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More details of the changes to the Huntington Community Stadium project have emerged. The papers reveal the administration and project team costs for the project have increased from £3.5 million to £6 million.
The Council will borrow a total of £8 million, meaning that local taxpayers will have to find £720,000 a year in debt charges. In addition the Council will contribute £323,000 towards the annual running costs.
This space would be used for
There are numerous risks identified for the project.
The land was originally acquired by the Ryedale Council for leisure purposes. There may be at least a chance that the original owners will seek a share of any enhanced value resulting from commercial development.
Equally the inclusion of – yet more – out of City centre retail development will be controversial.
This is the issue most likely to delay the granting of planning permission and could result in the application being “called in” by central government. In turn, this would impact on the target start (April 2015) and completion (July 2016) dates.
The Council don’t rule out a Judicial Review – a process initiated by opponents of change and which added, in the last decade, nearly 2 years to the timetable for modernising the Barbican auditorium.
A 15 month construction commissioning timetable looks highly ambitious anyway.
Less obvious risks may arise. Not least the ubiquitous Great Crested Newts who mounted a strong resistance to being evicted from the neighbouring John Lewis site.
The report confirms that
GLL will be responsible for the overall management of the site and the direct management of the Community Hub, leisure facilities and associated assets. This will be controlled by an overarching lease and management contract for a 13 year period with a 5 year extension option.
As part of the procurement process, GLL have appointed York City Football Club (YCFC) as a sub-contractor to operate the stadium area. YCFC will work with CGC (York Racecourse hospitality company).
The proposal will involve changes to the existing parking and access arrangements. This will see the re-routing of Kathryn Avenue around the stadium, creating a pedestrian only and fan zone, strengthening links with the Vanguard retail scheme
The report also says that “All community hub tenants will enter into lease agreements with CYC for the use of the facilities. All leases have been set at appropriate commercial rates”.
The report includes a table showing how costs have increased over the last couple of years
| Component | Approved March 2012(£Ms) | Approved Nov 2012(£Ms) | Proposed Sept 2014(£Ms) |
| Community Stadium | 14.2 | 14.8 | 16 |
| Leisure Complex | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| External works | 1.5 | 1.45 | 3 |
| NSLC sub total | 15.7 | 15.25 | 31 |
| Other facilities / Project costs & contingencies | 3.5 | 3.95 | 6 |
| Total | 19.2 | 19.2 | 37 |
| Commercial Development Costs (externally funded) | – | – | 10 |
| Gross Total Cost | 19.2 | 19.2 | 47 |
Labour are circulating a glossy brochure ahead of the publication of a report on the future of leisure provision in the City. Private briefings to staff and media have raised serious issues about the future of swimming and other facilities in the City.
The project will now cost £37 million in total with Greenwich Leisure (who have operated Waterworld for the last 3 years) taking on responsibility for all major sporting and swimming facilities in the City.
Greenwich Leisure are a CIC although the level of local York engagement – if any – in their management decisions and structure has yet to be announced.
The project will cost taxpayers £8 million more than originally budgeted. It had been expected that a 6000 seater stadium and replacement athletics track could be built for the £12 million contribution from the John Lewis development. The Council would have contributed only the value of the Huntington Stadium site (conservatively assessed as £4.1 million). The Football Foundation would have put in the £2 million that it had loaned against the value of a redeveloped Bootham Crescent.
Later Labour said that they would spend the £4 million contingency included in the Councils budget for the project. This had been included as a potential loan which would be repaid from stadium income.
Now Labour are stating that they will borrow an additional £4 million bringing the taxpayers contribution up to £8 million in total, with the stadium capacity increased to 8000 (it costs roughly £1 million for every additional bank of 1000 seats).
It is highly unlikely that such an additional burden could be passed on to the Football and Rugby clubs with details of their rental agreements not having yet been revealed.
At a time when the campaign for” safe standing” – backed by the Liberal Democrats is gaining momentum – local fans will be bemused that the design does not appear to provide for rail seats (although this modification could still be made)
Council taxpayers will be responsible for the debt repayment charges on the amount borrowed which will be around £600,000 a year. It is far from clear where this money will come from although some additional “commercial elements” have been designed into the scheme.
Given the controversy about out of city centre shopping, this raises doubts about how long the planning process might take and with it the ability of any contractor to meet a July 2016 opening date.
Waterworld and its associated gym will close in December.
A new pool and gym will be designed into the stadium. However it will be more conventional than Waterworld with only a small “fun” pool included.
Waterworld is only 20 years old and with that kind of life one wonders how durable such facilities now are? (The Barbican pool lasted for 40 years, Yearsley is over 100 years old)
Since the opening of the Sports Village on Hull Road, the Council has met national standards for the provision of swimming pools. There is insufficient demand to pay for an additional swimming pool (which is why Labour quietly dropped their plans for a city centre pool).
Under Labours plans, the opening of the new pool at Huntington will mean the end of the Council subsidy (around £250k pa) for the Yearsley pool. The unique 50 yard pool has fought off two previous attempts by Labour to close it although ironically in early 2011 – following a £1 million refit undertaken by the then LibDem controlled Council – Labour invented a bogus “closure” rumour and campaigned against something that was not going to happen. A new boiler was fitted at the pool meaning that the steam heat supply from the Nestle site could not attract disproportionately high charges.
Yearsley Pool
Labour have now performed a 180 degree policy about turn.
The only chance for the pool would be for users to acquire the site and run it independently as a community asset. However it is highly unlikely that that increased admission charges could make up the financial deficit – more so as it would have to complete with three other modern pools in the City not to mention those at several independent sports clubs, hotels and schools.
Its only hope would be for Nestle to relent and allow a profitable gym to be added although this might involve them losing some car parking space.
The management of Energise – the sports facility on Cornlands Road – seems less threatened by the take over plans.
The centre is very popular and no doubt Greenwich Leisure will want to keep it that way. However standardisation of charges and facilities, together with focusing some types of provision at just one site, may prove to be a challenge in the future.
No guarantees are being offered on admission charges although heavy competition from the private sector may help to keep them down.
The Stadium project is running over two years behind timetable. The publication of a report, for decision by the Councils Cabinet on 9th September, is belated but welcome.
Residents will be looking very carefully at the business plan for the new facility as the Council – which will remain the freeholder – does not want to risk having to step in to recover a failing project a few years down the line (as happened in Huddersfield a few years ago).
The changes to the retail component of the project do raise planning issues that may take some time to resolve, jeopardising the construction start date..
Woodlands playground refurbished
Hedges next to cycle path being trimmed back
Workers were today putting the finishing touches to the refurbished Woodlands play area on Teal Drive/Bellhouse Way.
Hedges area being cut and all the safety surfaces have been renewed.
Children are likely to attend an “opening” later in the week.
Full marks to Rowntrees for talking to the local Residents Association about the future of the playground which had been locked closed for over 12 months.
Responding to a survey organised by Liberal Democrat Andrew Waller last month, 88% of residents said that they wanted the Woodlands play area to be open at least at weekends.
NB. Part of the overgrown hedge blocking the cycle path has also now been cut back.
The Residents Association have arranged for 3 picnic tables to be provided next to the Foxwood Lane play area.
We have asked for the swing to be repaired
LibDem_News. VIDEO: Lib Dems want safe standing return – BBC http://t.co/Wi4tW1GbYa
— libdem_news (@LibDem_News) August 22, 2014
Sparse crowd for Grand Departy
It has invoked a littler known clause in the Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation which allows it to withhold information if a report on the issue is due to be considered by a Council committee.
It invoked the same legislation a couple of years ago to delay the publication of bus service reliability statistics in the City (although the subsequently report, when it did appear 6 months later, actually gave very little new information on the issue).
The Council has, however, confirmed that the budget for the event was a whopping £220,000 and that they hoped to generate income of £260,000.
It appears that the income figures were based on selling around 10,000 tickets at a face value of £25.
The Council have refused to say how much income was generated for ticket sales although this figure must be known by now. The responsible Councillor (Crisp) also refused to answer questions posed at the last Council meeting about the event.
In the end only a thousand or so spectators turned up, hence the concern that taxpayers will have a large bill to pick up.
There was no public discussion of the advisability of holding such an event or of the risks that taxpayers might face.
If the promised report is not published on 1st September then the matter can be referred to the Information Commissioner. The Commissioner has been ruling against the York Council on an increasing number of occasions during the last couple of years and some enforcement action may now be in prospect.
Interestingly there is no entry on the Councils forward plan covering a review of the Departy or indeed any other aspect of the Tour de France programme
NB. A FOI request about library services in York was recently refused on the grounds that the service is now run by an independent company. Other services like the Museums Trust have also been taken out of the reach of FOI requests over the years with several other partnership bodies in a grey area.
We believe that any body which relies for a significant part of its income from the York Council taxpayer, should voluntarily apply FOI protocols to the information that it holds.
The committee which runs the Foxwood Community Centre is urging residents to attend a meeting on Wednesday 3rd September which could determine the future of the Centre.
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The Centre lost its Council grant this year – part of a range of cuts to leisure provision in the City imposed by the Labour leadership.
Consequently the Centre can no longer afford to employ a caretaker.
In turn this means a big increase in the workload for a handful of volunteer committee members.
Responding to a survey on the Foxwood are,a 88% of residents said that they thought that the York Council should continue to support the centre. This may become an option again following next May’s Council elections when a change in political control – and policies – is anticipated.
However, in the interim, a difficult 9 months is in prospect for the Community Centre.
The Centre has issued a newsletter to potential volunteers but is keen for anyone with an hour or two to spare each week to attend the meeting. The Centre serves a wider area than just Foxwood with volunteers for Woodthorpe, Acomb Park and the Acomb side of the City generally, being invited to get involved.
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Details of activities taking place at the Centre – together with booking arrangements – can be found on their web site
There is some good news, with York Cares having agreed to rejuvenate the play area at the Centre, together with the Foxwood Park, when they undertake their “Big Challenge” in the neighbourhood during early October. Details here
The door to door survey has also revealed mixed feeling about the future of the play area to the rear of the Community Centre.
It is only now open when the re is an event taking place. There currently aren’t sufficient volunteers available to keep it in good condition so it may be that it will have to become a communal garden or allotments.
Details of the options are expected to be on display at the centre in early September.
Litter still covers the Cornlands playground
Several local playgrounds and open spaces are covering in litter.
The problems have increased since the start of the school holidays but the root cause was the councils decision to remove many litter bins 12 months ago.
We have reported the Cornlands Park, Chesney’s field, the Westfield Place field and the Grange Lane play area this week.
Grange Lane playground – Equipment repaired but litter everywhere
At Grange Lane the play equipment is now all in working order but the area has been spoiled by litter and dumping.
In our view each of these – and one or two other locations – should each have at least one litter bin.