Artists impression of new “care village”
Dementia Care Matters will advise the council on the operating model for its two new specialist dementia care Elderly Person’s Homes at Lowfield and Burnholme, as well as supporting and training existing care home staff to ensure they can deliver specialist care in the new homes.
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The money was part of the very much reduced budget now made available to Ward Committees.
It was to have been spent on remodelling the Centre, making it potentially easier to generate additional income.
The Centre is one of 4 in the City which are under threat of closure following the decision of the Council to stop its annual support grants.
Tang Hall CC, was at the centre of a controversy earlier in the year, when all the key posts on the management committee were taken over by local Labour Councillors.
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LibDem Councillor Ann Reid outside Moor Lane Youth Centre
Damaged verge on Kingsway West
Litter Kingsway West Green Lane snicket
Green Lane potholes filled in
Windsor Garth potholes filled in
The provisional budget for next year sees all the community centres (Chapelfields , Foxwood , Tang Hall , and Bell Farm) lose their Council grants.
Typically a community centre costs around £50,000 a year to run with most income generated from hiring rooms.
The Council are to cut their financial support entirely leaving some of the centres with a 5 figure budget deficit.
Already the community centre caretakers have been issued with redundancy notices (although they are likely to be redeployed within the Council).
The Council says that it wishes to see the buildings transferred into the ownership of a voluntary committee with a community asset transfer by April 2015
This seems to be what has prompted the Tang Hall centre to announce that it is changing the legal status of its voluntary committee.
The voluntary committees undertake a thankless task and deserve Council support.
The Foxwood and Chapelfields centres depend entirely on the resources of local residents to continue, while Tang Hall was only kept going when Labour Councillors were parachuted into key roles.
Burton Stone community centre future unclear
Burton Stone is a larger building and its future is much more unclear.
Without caretakers, the buildings will be closed to general callers reducing their use as a focal point for neighbourhood communications. One Community Centre (Tang Hall) has already leased office space to an outside organisation.
All the Community Centres are located in what the Council regards as “deprived areas” .
The Council hopes to save £180,000 through the cuts. Most of this will come from the Burton Stone centre.
NB. The Council is planning to spend £1.6 million hosting just one day of the Tour De France cycle race.
Click here to download a full list of proposed cuts (see ref Can 12)
Application for the grant of a premises licence to allow for
The last date for representations is 26/11/13. Quote reference CYC 0227496a
All applications can be viewed in full at the council offices with prior notice. Contact the licensing section on 01904 552512 for an appointment to view. Representations must be made in writing in and sent to the Licensing Office, Hazel Court EcoDepot, James Street, York YO10 3DS.
Representations must relate to one or more of the 4 licensing objectives of the Act namely, prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, prevention of public nuisance and the protection of children from harm.
People across York are being invited to boost their financial know-how in a series of events designed to help people make savings, get more out of the internet and make the banks work better for them.
A series of seven Small Changes, Big Savings sessions are being held at different venues across the city during York’s Housing Week, from 14-18 October, which is looking at ways to overcome poverty.
The ‘Small Changes, Big Savings’ events held across the city will be at:
• •Acomb Explore on Monday 14 October, 9:30-11:30am •
•Bell Farm Social Hall on Tuesday 15 October, 10am-12 noon when we’ll be launching our anti loan shark charter
• •Clements Hall on 15 October 1:30-3:30pm;
• •Sanderson Court on Wednesday 16 October, 9:30-11:30am
• •Foxwood Community Centre on Thursday 17 October, 9:30-11am
• •Tang Hall on 17 October, 2-4pm
• •Burton Stone Community Centre, on Friday 18 October, 1-3pm.
York residents survey results click to enlarge
A survey completed by over 400 residents living in the west of York has revealed that highways and footpath maintenance are now the biggest cause for complaint.
73% thought that road and footpath maintenance had got worse in the City over the last 2 years.
The service was followed closely by ice clearance which 69% thought had got worse.
This is bad news for the Labour Council as the response come before the latest set of cuts to winter maintenance are implemented.
Parking provision was criticised by 65% with the large increases in parking charges introduced by the Labour Council likely to be the main influencing factor.
More than 50% of respondents also thought that litter, control of dogs, refuse collection and weed removal had got worse.
Only crime prevention fared relatively well, with 66% saying that the quality of the service was unchanged
The survey results will add pressure on the Council to support additional investment in street level public services at its meeting on Thursday.
The York Council at a meeting next week will be asked to jettison its prestige expenditure plans and return to a more sensible economic policy.
Weeds need strimming at end of Ridgeway
A motion being put forward by the Liberal Democrats condemns deteriorating roads, footpaths and increasing litter as well as plans to reduce de icing services in winter.
It says that Labour’s decision to scrap the “York Pride” maintenance programmes means that many areas are now strewn with weeds and detritus.
Carriageway failed in Vesper Drive
Recent rain highlighted the impact that Labours decision to end the routine cleaning of gullies (road drains) is already having.
Meanwhile a rather disingenuous motion from Labour Cllr Burton, seeks to justify the bill for York staging the start of just one Tour de France stage.
The cost to taxpayers is already in excess of £1.5 million and rising.
The Labour backed motion says that any income to the Council from the event should be allocate to improve basic service standards.
It fails however to say that the income from a few hot dog stands is unlikely to make much difference.
The cost of the repairs back log on the City’s roads and footpaths alone now stands at over £20 million.
The Liberal Democrat motion reads
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click to enlarge
Figures for August released today by the Council will confirm many residents experiences.
The time being taken by the Council to answer telephone calls is ridiculously high.
In some cases, residents have had to wait for 20 minutes for their call to be answered.
Many Councils routinely publish on their web site quality of service stats covering basic services such as the time taken to deal with issues. The York Council fails to do so.
In response to a Freedom of Information request, the Council has now admitted that the maximum time that telephone callers had to wait, during the week commencing 5th August, was:
Between 8:00am and 9:00am 3:52 mins (maximum waiting time for call to be answered)
9am-10am 11:30 mins
10am-11am 09:22 mins
11am-12am 08:34 mins
12am -1pm 12:32 mins
1pm -2 pm 11:56 mins
2 pm-3pm 20:22 mins
3pm -4pm 10:27 mins
4pm -5 pm 10:03 mins
5pm -5:30pm 16:21 mins
The failures have prompted calls for the switchboard to remain open for an additional hour to deal with the backlog.
It is likely that many callers will have abandoned their attempts to get through.
The figures suggest that the quality of service being provided by he Council has declined since it moved into its new “state of the art” West Office building
