The Council has dealt with 2 long standing issues.
The weeds growing through the footpath on Windsor Garth – near Sandown Close – have gone.
The Tithe Close snicket is also now looking tidier than it has for some months.
So good progress there then but there will be less good news to report tomorrow unfortunately.
There are currently 1444 people registered on the housing waiting list in York.
3 of these have been given an emergency classification with a further 204 in the top urgency category (Gold).
The York Council is leaving the North Yorkshire pooled “home choice” system next November (2020). It will then implement its own housing allocations policies.
There are currently 7512 Council homes in York. Around 600 a year of these become available for reletting. Since 2014, 522 additional homes have been added to the pool although this has been offset by 324 “right to buy” sales.
The Council hopes to build an additional 600 new homes across York over the next few years.
One major issue facing York is the demand for elderly persons accommodation. York has an estimated shortage of independent living and extra care properties which is forecast to be over 1100 independent living properties and almost 500 extra care properties by 2039.
68% of York’s’ housing is owner occupied. Average house prices have risen by 25% over the last 4 years to £235,000. That is nearly 9 times the average wage. In the same period rents on private 2 bed properties have risen by 11.5% to £725 a month.
For those living on benefits, there is a major gulf between income and monthly private sector rents.
Unfortunately, the Council has no influence on the terms of “Right to Buy” sales, so must try to bridge the gap with new build.
A resident has written to us about rowdy behaviour in the City Centre this weekend.
Its an issue that has grown in recent years and one that will tarnish the City’s image unless addressed by the authorities.
Firm action is now required.
Next Saturday seeks a local derby football match in the City. That may put additional pressures on policing resources.
The timing of the match doesn’t look to be particularly enlightened.
It’s been difficult weather conditions for York Council staff attempting to clear the back log of this years leaf-fall.
Residents should use https://www.york.gov.uk/reportproblems to report outstanding issues
A report on highway maintenance in the City reveals that the value of the current back log of maintenance is approximately one hundred and twelve million (£112 million) based on the current condition and cost of repairs.
The figure confirms what many residents had feared. The condition of York’s roads and footpaths is continuing to decline
A separate annex reveals that, in most parts of the City, between 3% and 10% of carriageways are rated as “structurally impaired”. These are “very poor”, the lowest condition rating.
The percentage of roads classified as “very poor” has increased in every ward in the City during the last 3 years.
The figures also confirm that the City’s roads have not recovered from the draconian maintenance cuts imposed by the then Labour administration in 2012.
More recently the new LibDem/Green led Council has substantially increased the resources allocated to highway maintenance.
The figure also includes a delegated budget to be determined at ward level. There is little evidence that this money has so far been invested*.
The report says that from 1st April 2019 until 26th November 2019, the council has completed “16,646.3 m² of pothole repairs, this equates to 520 m² per week, this is 29.71 m² per day, per gang”.
This can be compared with the same period in 2018 when the council completed “7,586.4 m² of pothole repairs, this equates to 237 m² per week, with training etc. that was 18.9 m² per gang, per day”
Some of the parties vying for votes at the General Election are promising to fill in all potholes. Government funding has been consistently low in recent years.
We doubt that central government appreciates the scale of the backlog in maintenance work which currently exists
*Each ward also has a share of a £500,000 fund earmarked for improvements for “cyclists and pedestrians”. So far suggestions from residents for the use of this fund – for example to reduce ponding problems on routes across amenity areas – have produced little positive response from officials
Its not just the transport systems that have been under pressure in York this weekend.
People have been pointing to issues with street cleansing in the City centre. Can’t be easy for Council staff and the BID team to keep on top of the problems with such high volumes of pedestrians around (not to mention the security zones).
Even in suburban areas we’ve been finding examples of full bins and badly littered streets. All have been reported for Council attention.
There has been a lot of congestion in York over the last week or so. With many visitors coming for the Christmas markets and the “Winter Wonderland” the influx is potentially good news for the local economy.
But transport systems have capacity limits and these were reached at times with the Designer Centre car parks effectively full and Park and Ride services compromised.
Queues at the hospital car park have caused delays on bus services while even cyclists have found it difficult to find vacant City centre cycle racks.
Add in the arrival of General Election campaigners eager to be filmed with a backdrop of crowds of people and the new security barriers, which hinder movement in areas like St Helen’s Square, and things have turned decidedly awkward even for pedestrians.
So, what’s to be done?
We have criticised the Council before about its failure to utilise modern technology to ease travel woes. The real time parking space availability map was removed from their web site last year.
Many of the parking space availability signs which can be seen on arterial roads didn’t work for a long time.
A promised link through GPS to car navigation systems – which would help to direct vehicles to car parks where there were spaces – has not materialised.
As a result, vehicles still circle the City looking for spaces, which sometimes don’t exist, adding to congestion and pollution levels.
The York Council needs to raise its game.
On busy days, it should be tweeting updates on at least an hourly basis. Variable message signs on approach roads should be similarly updated. Local Radio has a part to play.
It would be relatively easy to add a CCTV link displaying the conditions at key locations to the Council web site. North Yorkshire already do this (albeit mainly to provide information on road conditions)
Modern problems need modern solutions.
Sadly at the moment there seems to be little sign of urgency at West Offices on the need to further improve traffic management in the City.
We understand that responsibility for implementing the new graffiti removal process has been reassigned within the York Council.
Those reporting incidents “on line” CLICK receive an immediate reference number which makes any necessary follow up easier.
The jury is still out on the effectiveness of the Council new graffiti policy although the responsible executive member does not seem to have taken any action to highlight concerns to the police, while the Council still no longer routinely takes action to apply anti graffiti coatings at vulnerable locations.
Contractors were out today removing nettle growth from the side of the Foxwood Lane footpath.
The nettles had been a nuisance during the late summer period although not, this year, as bad as in some previous years.
Mechanical treatment – often by local farmers – is usually an efficient and economical way of controlling weeds and cutting back hedges.
Meanwhile a Freedom of Information request has revealed that this year weed control contractors have only been paid part of the £37,020.89 value of the contract. The response says that £18,498.70 has so far been paid during the current year.
The response does reveal the amounts paid to specialist weed control contractors over the last 9 years.
Interestingly the York Council, in the Spring, accepted a tender the value of which was only half that submitted in 2011.
It was later discovered that the list of streets to be treated was incomplete.
There have been chronic problems with weed control during the summer and, as we reported a few days ago, many streets still require attention.
