Council spending £1/4 million each year clearing fly tipping

The York Council has admitted that it is costing taxpayers £250,000 a year to clear fly tipping in the City.

7 people are employed full time on the task.

They use 3 specialist vehicles.

The Council was heavily criticised last year when it closed the recycling centre in Beckfield Lane.

Residents forecast that fly tipping would increase.

The Council claimed then that the closure would “save” £40,000 a year.

Other contributory factors to the problem with fly tipping can be traced to the decision to stop the provision of mobile skips in some neighbourhoods.

Many litter bins have also been removed, while this winter there will be no green bin collections over a period of nearly 6 months.

The Council has also claimed that it no longer gets any income from the sale of materials returned to Hazel Court for recycling.

Another blow to York Pride

Any hopes that the Labour Council would finally get on top of public service standards in the City have been dealt a fatal blow over the last few weeks.

The number of complaints about street level service problems are escalating.

The Council’s on line “report it” system is proving to be more and more unreliable.

The Council has admitted that between 3rd September 2012 and 1st July 2013, they received 727 complaints.

Of these 402 were found to be justified.

Meanwhile, in little over an hour, the following problems were reported in parts of the Westfield ward.

Dumping and litter on Tithe Close snicket reported on 23rd August. Partly blamed on cancelation of skip programme in the Cornlands area

Weeds growing through footpath in St Stephens Square

Weed growth on Otterwood Lane. Reported 23rd August 2013

Controversial plans to outsource libraries approved

York’s libraries will be taken out of Council control after a controversial Labour decision was rubber-stamped last night.

Last month the Labour Cabinet approved plans for a ‘community benefit society’ to operate York’s libraries and archives from next April, despite the concerns raised by staff and opposition councillors. The changes come at the same time as a £450,000 budget cut to the service, a reduction in library staff, and falling visitor numbers.

Liberal Democrat Councillors Nigel Ayre, Ann Reid and Lynn Jeffries called-in the decision for further review, but Labour used their majority on the cross-party Corporate and Scrutiny Management Committee to force through the change by 5 votes to 4 last night. At the meeting Cllr Ayre said there were still significant unanswered questions in the financial plans and the business case had not been made public.

Speaking at the meeting Cllr Nigel Ayre, Liberal Democrat Councillor for Heworth Without, commented:
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“Sherlock” star Una Stubbs solves puzzle in York

York achivists have helped actress Una Stubbs discover that her grandmother once lived in the York workhouse – and can help others looking to trace ancestors.

Una Stubbs with Sherlock

The team, skilled in extracting data from some 800 years of documents conserved in the City Archive, helped Una identify that the woman she knew as strong-minded independent Annie Robinson, gave birth to an illegitimate son in the Huntington Road workhouse in 1903. At the time she was using the name Annie Horsfall. after the family that had informally adopted her as she, herself was born illegitimate.

Una uncovered the information during filming for an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? which airs today (24 July) on BBC 1. With the help of the archivists she was able to trace Annie back to her home in The Groves area of York using documents dating back over 150 years. They revealed a hidden family history of hard work, determination and difficulty.

Filming for the show took place at City of York Council’s Archives last November and the discoveries kept a secret until now. The Archives temporarily closed in February this year in preparation for the building phase of the £1.6m Heritage Lottery Funded ‘Gateway to History’ project. The project will see the Archives provided with a new state-of-the-art home at the York Explore Library Learning Centre, and give more people access to the city’s history than ever before.

People inspired by the programme or interested in genealogy can drop into York Explore seven days a week to talk to staff about where to get started with their own family history.

Bookings are also being taken for two free sessions in September which introduce beginners to tracing their family history using the internet. Contact archives@york.gov.uk for details.

Time for a tidy up?

With the temperatures now on the decline for a little while at least, we’ve been reporting the problems that some public services have been having.

You can report issues such as graffiti, litter and fly tipping from your mobile phone using the Councils system

Litter at Gale Lane junction

Weed growth in Milner Street

Litter in Acomb Car Park

There are alternative systems.

Perhaps the best is a “My Council” app.

This allows a large range of issues to be raised with the York (and other) Councils. Click here for details. Issues can be reported either “on line” of via a mobile phone app in “real time”

The well established “fix my street” web site also promises that they will have an app available shortly. In the meantime you can report issues by clicking here

Both systems seem to be more user friendly than the York Councils labyrinthine internal “report it” system

Rubbish skips this weekend Saturday 29th June

Although the Council has cut back on the number of amenity skips it provides, several residents associations continue to run programmes aimed at making it easier for tenants to get rid of unwanted items.

The skips are only in place for a few minutes and residents must ensure that they put any rubbish into the skips and do not leave it on the path or highway.

1 Bramham Rd 08:30 09:30 Outside Community House

2 Saxon Place 10:30 11:30

3 North Lane 12:30 13:30

4 Barfield Rd 08:30 09:30

5 Fossway 10:30 11:30

6 Lindsey Ave 12:30 13:30 124-142

7 Don Ave 08:30 09:30

8 Bramham Rd 08:30 09:30 Grange Lane Junction

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Rubbish skips this weekend

Rubbish skips this weekend
Although the Council has cut back on the number of amenity skips it provides, several residents associations continue to run programmes aimed at making it easier for tenants to get rid of unwanted items.
The skips are only in place for a few minutes and residents must ensure that they put any rubbish into the skips and do not leave it on the path or highway.

Saturday 22.6.13
2 Viking Rd 10:30 11:30
3 Cambridge St 12:30 13:30 Suffolk House
6 Dale St 12:30 13:30
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Foxwood Residents Association AGM on Wednesday

click to enlarge

York residents unhappy with Council’s ice and snow clearance policies

30 days hath September, April, June and November all the rest have 31 save February which has 28 and January which has 80 (and rising)

Damaged salt bin Cornlands Road

Residents responding to a survey carried out in the Westfield ward, have criticised the York Councils winter maintenance performance.

57% were disappointed with icy weather arrangements.

An overwhelming 97% felt that the Council should top up all salt bins at the beginning of winter.

This winter – for the first time- the Council only filled some of the local salt bins and had to be forced by public opinion to fill the rest around the middle of January.

Unfortunately the bins had been left out over the summer period and many had been damaged. Lids were missing from some of them while many of the rest had become informal litter bins.

We believe that the Council should recover all the bins this summer and repair them.

Then they should make sure that they are out on the streets again, and full, before the icy winter weather starts.

York Council Customer Centre at “West Offices” opens tomorrow (Monday)

City of York Council’s brand new purpose-built Customer Centre will open its doors to the public at 10am on Monday 25 March, bringing all customer services together in one place for residents to access. The public entrance is on Toft Green.

Residents will be able to get information, advice and support from a range of services, including:
• Benefits
• Council Tax
• Business and training
• Education and learning
• Environment and waste
• Planning and building control
• Housing
• Parking and concessionary travel

Residents will also be able to talk to advisors from other city services such as Future Prospects, the South Yorkshire Credit Union, with the Citizens Advice Bureau joining the centre in the near future.

Customer entrance

It is unclear which other public services (health, police etc) will be accessible at the offices. One of the original objectives of the move was to provide a “one stop shop” facility for residents.

The Council’s customer centre opening hours will be 8:30-17:00 from Monday-Friday.