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
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
Lovely day in West York but Council slow to clear fly tipping
New path helps walkers as damaged fence at Acomb Green reported
That was the week that was – 14th April 2017
That was the week that was in west York in pictures 30th April 2017
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).
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).