Sporting Memories links with York City Knights

York City Knights RLFC is the latest partner to join City of York Council and the Sporting Memories Network in an initiative to help increase awareness of dementia in the community.

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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Traffic arrangements for Sky Ride York

On Sunday 14 September Sky Ride York will take to the city’s historic streets in partnership with City of York Council, British Cycling and Sky.

Due to the size and scale of the event there will be a number of temporary traffic and transport changes to ensure the safety of everyone taking part.

The last similar event caused some serious traffic problems in the City.

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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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Stadium will cost Council Taxpayers £1 million a year.

Huntington project administration costs hit £6 million

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.Stadium Project

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.

The report talks about a developer paying £12 million for land on which to construct 6000 square metres of retail and commercial space.

This space would be used for

  • Retail units totalling 4245 sq m
  • Two restaurants totalling 110 sq m
  • A digital cinema with bar totalling 1652 sq m

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

Increased cost of Community Stadium is bad news for taxpayers

Future of Waterworld and Yearsley pools under threat

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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.

Community Stadium

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 forsafe 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

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).

Yearsley 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

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.

Energise

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.

What next?

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..

Whether a July 2016 opening date is realistic remains to be seen.

Woodlands play area almost ready for reopening

Woodlands playground refurbished

Woodlands playground refurbished

Hedges next to cycle path being trimmed back

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.

 

York party bill could cost taxpayers over £100,000

Sparse crowd for  Grand Departy

Sparse crowd for Grand Departy

The York Council is resisting attempts to discover the true cost of the Tour de France party (“Departy”) that it held at the Huntington Stadium.

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.

Foxwood Community Centre

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.

Page 1 click to enlarge

Page 1 click to enlarge

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.

Page 2 click to enlarge

Page 2 click to enlarge

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 problems mount on York’s open spaces and playgrounds

Litter still  covers the Cornlands playground

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

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.