That was the week that was in west York in pictures

The results of a public opinion survey conducted by local Councillors in the Chapelfields estate were published. One issue raised by residents was lack of progress on repairing the local bus shelter.

…by Thursday, following work by Cllr Andrew Waller, the Bramham Road bus shelter had been repaired.

Andrew had also reported full recycling bins in the Acomb car park

…and a damaged street sign on Front Street

The recent poor weather has brought several problems. Earlier in the week we reported several problems with detritus and overgrown hedges with particular issues on snickets in The Reeves, Thoresby Road and Tennent Road

The surface of the snicket linking Thoresby Road and Cornlands Road is uneven. We have asked for it to be repaired

Broken glass on the Tithe Close footpath was reported for action

Sadly still no action by the Council to trim back the overgrown hedge on Askham Lane

York Council officials stubborn support for Windmill Lane playing fields development

Only days after residents and political candidates from all parties staged a demo in favour of conserving the  playing fields off Windmill Lane, York Council officials have again recommended that the area be developed.

In April, the Council’s planning committee deferred a decision on an application to build 70 dwellings on the playing fields.

The application was heard at committee on 20th April 2017 who deferred it ” in order to provide clarification on the methodology used to establish that there was no shortfall in open space provision within the area, secure clarification on the suitability of the location of the alternative provision and secure evidence of how the existing pitches have been offered to local sports teams”.

Now a new report, due to be considered by the planning committee on 15th June, once again contains a recommendation for approval.

Critically, Sport England have not objected to the proposals but acknowledge that they are “finely balanced”

Both David Lloyd Leisure and the City of York Hockey Club have raised objections.

If approved the plan will be referred to the Secretary of State who would have the opportunity to call it in for public inquiry.

We continue to believe that applications like this are, at best, premature and should not be considered until the draft Local Plan has been subject to a public examination.

Ironically whoever is elected to represent the area in today’s Council by election poll will have little opportunity to influence the planning decision which is only 7 days away.

 

 

Mixed news in Foxwood as vandals strike

After some delay, the Council have done a good job in clearing the dumping from the Foxwood Park. Accent Housing are going to provide a skip for use by their tenants on a 6 monthly basis . Unfortunately there is still no word on when the Council skip service will recommence

Broken bottle on Foxwood park footpath. Broken glass can be a danger to both children and animals. Please report any problems that you see to the Council ycc@york.gov.uk

We’ve asked for the pedestrian crossing markings on Bellhouse Way to be refreshed

Unfortunately several of the trees recently planted on the Thanet Road sports area field were vandalised over the weekend. The trees were planted following a volunteer led fund raising campaign. We hope that some can be saved. The Police are being advised about the incident.

Extraordinary response from City of York Council to FOI request

Readers will recall that a few weeks ago we published a list of inquiries that York Councillors had recorded with the City of York Council.

The list (left) indicated how many inquiries individual Councillors had recorded during the 2015/16 year.

We submitted an Freedom of Information request asking for the up to date figures for the 2016/17 year.

The Council has now responded saying,

“This information is exempt under section 44 of the FOIA because it is considered that due to the forthcoming general election, it could affect public support for a particular party.

Should you wish to submit a new request for this information following the election, the council would be happy to consider this”.

Given that none of the York Councillors are candidates in the General Election we do wonder how voting intentions might be influenced by the publication of a factual list?

Perhaps the electors in the Hull Road and Micklegate Council by elections deserve to know how hard they might expect their new Councillors to work for them?

 

 

York to be badly hit by “Dementia Tax”

The Tories plan to force sick elderly people to sell their homes to pay for care cost will affect York residents more than any other City in the country.

Figures released today suggest that, because of relatively high local house prices, 99% of those accessing care services would lose ownership of their homes.

Under the Tory plans, revealed when they published their General Election manifesto last week, the homes would be sold to pay off any care cost debt, when a patient died.

Tim Farron, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, has launched a national movement calling on people, irrespective of their party affiliation, to stop the Conservatives’ planned Dementia Tax.

It comes alongside Liberal Democrat research that reveals that across England, 9 out 10 homes could be eligible for sale to meet Theresa May’s Dementia Tax.

Tim Farron is writing to key organisations about the campaign, including David Cameron as President of Alzheimer’s Research UK.

Writing to the leaders of leading health and older peoples’ charities, Tim Farron said:

“The measure of a Government is how they treat the most vulnerable in our society.  I don’t think that the Conservatives are unaware of the impact of their plans but they chose to ignore the human cost.

“Every elderly person that needs care should receive it in the best place for them and not be fearful of those mounting, limitless costs. I am determined that we ensure that Theresa May drops the so-called ‘Dementia Tax’ and implement a cap on the cost of care.

“Caring for our elderly must be above party politics and that is why I want to urge anyone who opposes the Conservatives’ plans to come together to stop it.

“We must resist this plan and challenge would-be Conservative MPs to reject and stop it.

“As a first step, I am urging people to sign up at dementiatax.org.uk  to help. I hope you will urge the supporters of your organisation to do the same. Together we can stop the so-called ‘Dementia’ Tax

Points

  • Across England, 9 out 10 homes could be eligible for sale to meet Theresa May’s Dementia Tax.  
  • This includes:
    • in the South East in Oxford, 98% homes could be liable
    • in London, Richmond upon Thames, only 7 out of 476 homes sold would be exempt
    • in the North West, Stockport, 92% of homes could be liable
    • This year to date only 1 home sold out of 356 in Theresa May’s local authority would be exempt
    • In the poorest 10 local authority areas, an estimated 50% of homes could be liable to meet the ‘dementia tax’
    • For instance;
    • The local authority with the lowest average salary (Blackpool), where 52% of homes could be liable

click to sign

That was the week that was in west York in pictures 30th April 2017

An upgraded CCTV camera has been installed near the shops on Chapelfields. We hope that it  -, together with increased high visibility police patrols – will reduce crime levels in the area. We’re also told that – after repairs to the doors – all the garages in The Wandle block have been let.

Still high levels of fly tipping in west York. These are some of the numerous cases that we have reported

Good to see that the parking bay lines have now been repainted. We’ve reported the full – and damaged – litter bin

The growing season is upon us and several hedges are now obstructing footpaths. Particularity disappointing was the failure by the Council to take prompt action to remove the self seeded bushes on Askham Lane which block the view from the bus shelter.

Still a mystery over why the road was closed on Friday. Most of the speed tables in the Windsor Garth area are breaking up.
Shame more information is not posted by the Council on local noticeboards. What’s there is out of date and pretty untidy

New 40 mph speed signs have been erected covering the section of Wetherby Road to the by pass. Residents hope that the buffer will reduce speeds in the built up area. The Vehicle Activated Speed signs on the road are both working. A very quick check revealed that about 10% of motorists still activate the 30 mph limit reminder

Council admits set back to parking space availability web page

The York Council has admitted that its plans, to reintroduce web site information on the availability of car parking spaces, has run into more problems.

It is over 3 years since the service was discontinued. The Council had previously promised that accurate information would be available from the end of March but this deadline passed without the upgrade being completed.

Sources within the Council say that plans to install new loop counters in the surface of car parks – near entrances and exits – have had to be abandoned. Apparently the state of repair of the bitmac surfaces was too poor to allow the installation to take place (which will probably not come as a surprise to users of the Castle car park).

Blossom Street VMS

Now we understand that the Council hopes to utilise video camera based detection technology to get the system working again. This technology is currently being installed for traffic signal detection across the City.

The Council web site – as well as misrepresenting the number of parking spaces available – also lists car parks which closed some years ago.

On a more positive note, the Council has confirmed that all variable message signs in the City centre are now working with the exception of the sign on Fishergate (which is awaiting a spare part).