No consultation on Acomb Library upgrade plans

We reported a few weeks ago that Council owned land to the rear of Acomb Library – and which had been hijacked for use as a building compound – was now available once again  for its original purpose.

The and had been purchased by the Council over 10 years ago to establish a “one stop shop” for public services as part of a plan to expand the library site. The need for a local Council base became more urgent when the Acomb Housing Office was subsequently closed in 2013.

Nothing much happened on the site until the new Liberal Democrat led Council announced a plan to invest £4 million in the library sites at Acomb and Clifton. That was two years ago. Things once again have fallen silent in the interim.

It appears though, from a progress report being considered by the Council next week, that plans for the site have already been drawn up.

York Council Acomb Library expansion update report April 2021

No public consultation has taken place and the Front Street survey – which ended a few days ago – failed to offer any options for the library site.

The original aspiration was for housing estate managers, the police, the NHS and neighbourhood workers to have a base at the new building. It remains to be seen whether this concept will be pursued.

In the interim the Council has constructed a new small housing office as part of the Lincoln Court redevelopment.

The land to the rear of Chancery Court (not Council owned) would have been landscaped as part of the project.

It was hoped that many more residents would make use of the Front Street facility as a result of the new investment. It would become a natural “hub” for the local community.

Apparently, the early plans for the site have been costed at £3 million. They are currently being scaled back to something “more affordable”.

The recently opened new library at Burnholme cost £4.6 million.

The Council needs to engage with potential users of facilities like these before plans are firmed up.

Council is being hypocritical over tree planting plans

The York Council is urging residents to plant at least one additional tree in their garden, allotment “or park”.

Well, last autumn – following consultation with the Council – volunteers did just that in Dickson park in the Foxwood area.

Dickson Park

Four months later, a Council early morning “hit squad” arrived and chopped down eight of the trees.

The local residents association is up in arms over the action.

They point out, in a formal complaint to the Council (to which there has, so far, been no response), that two of the trees that were removed had been memorialised as a mark of respect to relatives who had passed.

Residents are asking for the two trees to be reinstated immediately with the other six to be replaced following further consultation on siting, species etc.

Rather too much posturing going on in parts of the York Council these days we think!

The Council’s media release reads.

“York’s Tree Canopy to expand for next 30 years.

City of York Council’s Climate Change Policy and Scrutiny Committee have proposed to expand York’s tree canopy to achieve 13% coverage by 2050, approximately increasing tree population by 10,000/year.

A report will be taken to a Decision Session for the Executive Member for Environment and Climate Change on 5 May 2021. It proposes to Increase York’s tree cover from the current 10.76% of total area to13% (national average) by 2050, as the council creates a greener, cleaner city for its residents and visitors.

This expansion will be around 22-27 hectares each year which equates to an area of over 30 football pitches. Alternatively, the city would be well on its way to reaching this expansion target if every household in York which had space, either in a garden, allotment or park, planted just one tree.

The target would result in more carbon dioxide (CO2) being removed from the atmosphere and stored in the trees. This absorbing of the harmful pollutant across the city is equivalent to around 1% of the regions total CO2 emissions between 2020-2050.

Achieving 21 hectares of tree planting every year in York would result in the annual removal of 1-2% of the estimated regional emissions in 2038, after most of our carbon-neutral initiatives have been implemented. This would increase to remove 8-15% of remaining emissions in 2050.

This initiative forms one of the many priorities which will contribute to the city’s Climate Change Strategy which will be published this Autumn, and is one of the many tactics being implemented to achieve city-wide carbon neutrality by 2030.

Cllr Paula Widdowson, Executive Member for Climate Change said;

“To become a carbon neutral city we need to make the most of every tool at our disposal and I’m pleased to see that the expansion of our city’s Tree Canopy will help us catch up to the national average and contribute to our goal to make our city’s carbon emissions net-zero by 2030.

“The ever changing landscape of York offers us the opportunity to reduce the CO2 in our atmosphere as well as to create a healthier and happier environment that we can all enjoy. Increasing the biodiversity of our city is a key priority in our response to the Climate Emergency and this also contributes to our management of flood risks, use of public space and creation of green jobs across the city.”

As a member of the White Rose Forest Partnership, a local authority joint venture hosted by Kirklees Council, City of York Council is working to:

  • increase tree coverage across York
  • improve access to green space for citizens
  • enhance wildlife habitats and biodiversity
  • address climate change through carbon sequestration (or absorption) “

Council struggling with refuse collection

It looks like the Council is struggling to provide a reliable waste collection service again.

Their web site reveals multiple failures this week. One of the reasons given is vehicle unreliability with an aging fleet partly to blame. Such a shame that replacement vehicles were not ordered on time.

Garden waste collection unreliable this week

Double yellow lines coming to a street near you?

The Foxwood Residents Association say on their Facebook site that they have responded to a notice placed on a lamppost which advertised plans for double yellow lines on Askham Croft.

They uncovered some maps (below) which give residents more details of what is planned in the Westfield Ward.

Proposals affect Askham Croft, Gale Lane, Askham Lane, Ridgeway and Grange Lane

It may be that these plans are relatively uncontroversial.

However, it appears that dozens of other changes to parking restrictions affecting the whole City have also been tabled. We doubt whether local communities will read the lamppost notices in their areas and so may be unaware that they only have until the middle of May to register any observations.

We think that, as a minimum, the Council should alert residents to the proposals using their social media channels.

They should also publish a plain English version together with a map on their web site.

Click the graphic below to download a (not very user friendly) list.

More tech jobs for York

Bosch subsidiary, ETAS Ltd, has reached an agreement with the UK Government to significantly expand the activities of the embedded software centre of excellence in York.

ETAS Ltd, the UK arm of the global software engineering company specialising in solutions to drive the development of embedded systems for the automotive industry, will make a significant investment to expand the centre of excellence. This move represents a vote of confidence in the current climate for the automotive sector.

The newly expanded centre will develop the middleware that will power future generations of advanced autonomous and highly automated driving to be delivered at scale for mass production and allow the world to realise the ambition of accident-free driving. It will also help deliver on the Government’s net zero and levelling up ambitions by securing highly skilled technology jobs in the North of England.

ETAS Ltd has doubled in size in the last five years and today’s announcement will help to further strengthen the automotive cluster in the region.

The current York location has been part of ETAS Ltd since 2003 and is currently responsible for the development of real-time operating systems and basic software for the automotive industry. To date more than 1 billion copies of the ETAS York operating system have been deployed and are driving on the roads globally.

The council has been leading the way with its Smart Transport initiatives since 2018 with the Eboracum Research Project. Traffic signal plans where automatically updated using live on-board vehicle journey times and the findings where warmly received by the transport industry.

The work continues with the Smart Transport Evolution Programme which began in September 2019 and has so far welcomed a real-time city-wide traffic model which uses many live data feeds to forecast 5-60 minutes ahead and produce alerts for traffic control operatives or drivers.

The programme will shortly be delivering Green Light Optimal Speed Advisory, a service that sends real-time and future traffic signals conditions into smart phones and cars and advice of the most efficient speed to travel safely to get through on green.

All this has been made possible by upgrades to the City’s smart infrastructure and puts York in a great place for the adoption of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. 

Good news for key workers seeking a home

But media story on Council house sales was misleading

The York Council is offering first refusal to key workers on one of its housing development sites (see box).

They are right to do so.

The eight homes can be reserved by key workers who meet the Government criteria (the definition of which is drawn fairly wide) and who are eligible for the Help To Buy scheme.

The advertising blurb is misleading of course.

There will be no “abundant outside space” at Lowfields as the adjacent playing fields are also being built on. Such open space as is planned, is unlikely to be landscaped for several years as sections of the development, including public service buildings, elderly persons accommodation, communal housing, and playgrounds, have yet to leave the drawing board.

The development has however avoided some of the eccentricities seen elsewhere in the Council’s house building programme.

At Duncombe, and in Burnholme, car parking is restricted to fewer spaces than there are properties, with the Council urging people to use a “cargo bike” to get the weekly shop in!

The change in shopping habits, with more people now shopping on-line, hasn’t been recognised with no delivery lockers included in design specifications.

Similarly, at Lowfields ,the option for purchasers to have a living boundary hedge (rather than a close boarded fence) is still is not on offer.

Still success looks likely against the background of a very buoyant housing market in the city at present. Sales should provide the income necessary to cross subsidise the Council house building element of the programme.

What may irk the Council is misleading stories like the one that appeared in the commercial media on Friday which highlighted that “right to buy” (RTB) sales exceeded the provision of new Council houses last year.

That has been the position virtually every year for half a century with successive governments maintaining the RTB policy.

The only disagreement between the Tories and Labour has been on the level of discounts to be offered.

Against the background caused by the pandemic, there will in any event be some delays in building replacements.

It is only relatively recently, that central government even allowed local authorities to reinvest the sales income to provide replacement properties for rent. The Council started purchasing replacements on the open market as recently as 10 years ago, although even this was resisted by some York Councillors.

We don’t believe that local authorities should be restricted in how much of their RTB receipts they can use to provide replacement homes.

Within the last few days, the government has announced further changes. In future, 40% of right to buy income can be used to provide replacement homes while receipts must be spent within 5 years (rather than 3) .

 But the current Council deserves credit for getting the Council house building programme going again.

Providing good quality homes to rent with high insulation values, and hence lower running costs, is a significant step forward

Such progress should be recognised by the media, commentators, and pressure groups.

Spring day in west York

Cherry blossom is making a prefect backdrop as more shops and sporting activities get going again in York’s Westfield neighbourhood.

Sunday morning football leagues are being completed.

This seasons Saturday fixtures in the York and District Football League were abandoned several months ago because of COVID restrictions.

It is anticipated that Rugby League matches – including those involving the local York Acorn side which plays in the NCL Premier Division – will be scheduled and will welcome back some spectators when restrictions are further eased on 17th May.

The Acomb Cricket Club is currently playing with no spectators. They won their fixture yesterday against Driffield. They are scheduled to play an attractive Premier League home fixture against the Yorkshire Academy on 29th May, by which time some restrictions on spectator numbers may have been eased.

Less welcome has been the increase in litter which has been seen since economic activity increased. There has been a rise in the number of volunteer litter pickers helping during the lockdown. Hopefully this effort will continue (although it shouldn’t really be necessary!)

Road repairs programme for York finally published – mixed news.

The programme of repairs to York’s highways network, that will take place during 2021/22, has finally been published. The programme is usually agreed in February. Work has already started on some of the listed schemes.

There is some mixed news in the report which was approved at a “behind closed doors” meeting apparently held on 23rd April.

The highways maintenance programme (which includes not just carriageway and footpath repairs but also drainage, street lighting, City Walls, flood alleviation etc,)  is one of the services which most interest residents, the programme has been delegated for officer determination for some years. Thus, the reports are not subject to scrutiny and alternative ways of allocated the budget are not publicly debated.

One key sentence in the report sums up the dilemma faced by the Council.

“Notwithstanding previous levels of investment the current funding levels are not sufficient to keep all our assets in their current condition”.

In effect, the Council has decided to focus resurfacing works on busy roads. Most side roads are being left to crumble.

Some work scheduled for 20/21, including the whole of the micro patching programme in Woodthorpe, has been delayed into the current financial year.

There is some good news.

Several long term problem locations in west York, including parts of Foxwood Lane, Askham Lane near the  A1237 intersection,  The Green, Bradley Lane near Rufforth, the low numbered end of Gale Lane and Thanet Road are scheduled to be resurfaced this year.

But there is no allocation for repairs on School Street and the surrounding area behind the Front Street shops, nor at many other sub-urban locations.

No footpaths in the Westfield area will be resurfaced.

There is no mention in the programme of the repairs needed to off-road cycle track infrastructure nor is there any listing of how the £1 million delegated “ward budgets” will be spent.

 £877,000 of the latter budget, due to be invested last year, is being carried over into the current year. At the very least residents should be given the opportunity to influence how that section of the budget is spent.

All in all its seems that the decline in maintenance standards is set to continue for another year.

Worse things happened in..

The media seems to be stoking up a campaign against York Council Leader Keith Aspden. Comments from both Tory and Labour activists have gained prominent publicity.

All are based on the premise that allegation of bullying, made by the Council s last Chief Executive, are true.

In reality, no evidence was submitted which would have justified the Councils auditors (Masers) repeating the claims in their recent “Public Interest Report”.

The PIR is due to be considered at a public Council meeting on 4th May. 

Those who know Keith Aspden will confirm that he is not a “bully”. He can be assertive, and is persistent, but that is what you would expect, and hope for, from a Council Leader.

He may be criticised for being too politically introverted. Avoiding conflict – and surrounding oneself with sycophants – is a mistake that many leaders make.

But it does not make them incompetent.

So what about the glass houses brigade?

It was the Tories who appointed the last Council Chief Executive. They have a vested interest in defending their champion and averting attention from the costly shambles that arose in 2018. Any criticisms are likely to be judged against the background of graft and cronyism which is currently undermining the credibility of the national government.

It is a government that has also singularly failed to implement its policy which would have seen a ceiling put on severance payments in the public sector.

Labour are no better.FOI response Redundancies table 2 When they were last in control of the Council (2011-2015), they handed out £8.2 million in payoffs to 546 “redundant” staff.  Click for details More significantly they were responsible for 41 “compromise agreements”. These are legal means which prevent former employees from publicly pursuing – or commenting on – the terms under which they left the Council. Anyone following the inquiries into the way that Unions like the GMB conduct their equalities policies will be less than impressed by the strictures of the left.

So Keith Aspden should carry on with the good work he and his colleagues have done during what has been a very difficult year because of the Coronavirus pandemic.

But there must be changes.

It seems from the Masers report, that officer advice to the decision makers was wanting in several respects. It may be that a third-party intervention is needed so that new more transparent processes, and the public scrutiny that goes with them, can be introduced..

The Council needs to abandon its closed doors decision making processes. Yes, protect the privacy of individuals, but find a way of at least allowing real time scrutiny of any discretionary decisions.

And we live in a time where the use of social media is commonplace.

The Leader of the Council does not have a Twitter account. It, together with Facebook and individual web sites,* are now more important than ever as a means of communication.

Some soul searching is required. 

*NB. Keith Aspden abandoned his web site in October 2020 telling his followers that regular updates could be found on a centralised LibDem site . Only one item (library re-openings) has been posted there during the last 3 months.

There is a similar lack of communication from Councillors representing most other wards in York

Easier to be transparent! Auditors criticise York Council

Its over a year since the York Councils last Chief Executive – Mary Weastell – retired. It was thought to be the end of what had been an awkward relationship.

An auditor’s report from Mazers, issued yesterday, criticises the process used to approve the terms of the early retirement.

We said over a year ago that details of settlements (anonymised to protect the privacy of individuals) should be published.

That still does not happen in York.

What happened after the May 2019 elections is the subject to varied interpretations.

However, very soon after the poll Mary Weastall went absent on sick leave.

It appears that negotiations about her future then extended over a 12 month period.

There were (unsubstantiated) allegations of bullying while the Council said that it wanted to reduce ongoing costs by doing away with the post of Chief Executive.

In turn this attracted what is known as a public interest report from the Councils external auditors. In essence taxpayers had claimed that an estimated £400,000 (actual £377,115) pay off given to the departing Chief Executive was excessive.  Most of the money went on pension contributions.

The auditors are critical of Keith Aspden for not declaring a personal interest at the (private) meeting which determined the payment to be made to the former Chief Executive. They confirm that this was not a pecuniary interest as Councillors have access to public liability insurance cover.

(Mazers fall short of their own standards when quoting from a 2017, supposedly independent investigators report, which subsequently turned out to be far from “independent”. It was considered at a public meeting – at Cllr Aspden’s request – on 3rd January 2019. They also omit to mention that the bogus investigation cost taxpayers over £100,000 and Cllr Aspden £20,000 himself)

The auditors confirm that the former Chief Executive was kept on full pay throughout her sick leave absence. Her contract provided only for 6 months on full pay followed by 6 months on half pay. The difference amounts to £18,165.

The auditors also say that of the £377,115  “exit package” only £286,452 was statutory. The Council had a choice about whether to pay the remaining £90,663 which was labelled as “redundancy” and “ex gratia”.

The auditors recommend,

  1. The Council should adopt and apply appropriate standards for business case preparation in relation to exit and pension discretions to improve information supporting decisions.
  2. Decision notes should be maintained that document the factors that explain the case for the use of public funds under the scheme of delegation such as where payments exceed contractual entitlements.
  3. The Council should review the design of its governance policies and procedures to manage conflicts of interest (including self-interest threats). This should include updating the Council’s constitution and scheme of delegation.
  4. The Council should ensure all Members fully understand the requirements of the Code of Conduct in relation to declaration of interests.
  5. The Council should review its policies and procedures to reflect Government guidance in the use of non-disclosure agreements.

The Council has said that it accepts the recommendations and will act to changes its procedures.

We will see.