The Lowfield Action Group Facebook page makes it clear that residents have major concerns about the current development works in the area.
There are continuing complaints about noise, dust and working hours extending beyond those approved in the planning permission.
Communications from the Council have been minimal although another exhibition is promised prior to the main contractor starting on site. The current contractor is only undertaking clearance and layout works.
One piece of good news is that work on providing an additional 3 parking spaces on Tudor Road is due to start next week.
The Council latest planning application, which should have been determined by the end of April, it is still outstanding.
There is still no sign of a planning application for the Care Home much less the health centre and “police station”, not that they were ever likely to materialise anyway.
“Yorspace” are apparently still trying to raise funds for their “communal living” scheme while the Councils decision to sell them land at a discounted rate may yet prove to have been illegal.
Hopefully the new Council will be able to find someone competent and sensitive to local residents views when they decide who will lead on housing and planning matters for the next 4 years.
Certainly communication and supervisory systems need major improvements.
Two women sentenced following noise complaints against dogs
Two dog owners in York were ordered to pay a total of £2421.74 by York Magistrates on 7 May after failing to comply with the conditions of a noise abatement notice.
Lesley Smith (aged 62 of Hinton Avenue, Foxwood, York) received multiple complaints from neighbours in 2016 following continuous disturbances from her four dogs in the early hours of the morning.
Ms Smith’s dogs were also left outside for up to two hours on an evening, causing further noise disturbance to the neighbours despite numerous warnings, an abatement notice and a caution being issued.
City of York Council Neighbourhood Enforcement Officers carried out surveillance of a property belonging to Samantha Flower (aged 42 of Lincoln Street, Leeman Road, York), after they received multiple complaints from neighbours in 2017.
Council officers employed noise monitoring equipment and noted over 15 barks in one minute after 11pm during a visit to Miss Flower’s property in February 2019.
Appearing at York Magistrates on 7 May, Miss Flower pleaded guilty to failing to comply with the conditions of a noise abatement notice and was fined £120, ordered to pay costs of £100 as well as a surcharge of £30.
Ms Smith pleaded guilty by post to failing to comply with the conditions of a noise abatement notice and was fined £450, ordered to pay costs of £1676.94 as well as a surcharge of £45.
Not unexpectedly York Liberal Democrats have announced that they are entering into a “partnership” with the York Green Party to run the York Council. Together the two groups can command a majority of the votes on the new Council.
it was perhaps too much to expect that the new administration would have some policy announcements to underpin the “happy families” photographs. They may be right to adopt a cautious approach although there are pressing issues to be addressed not least those relating to empty property, strategic planning, financial strategy and hiccups in leisure programmes.
As a minimum we would have expected the two parties to have issued a statement indicting how the new authority would be managed. We await confirmation that they will attempt to re-introduce all party decision making committees for example.
There is also the “elephant in the room”. Lack of transparency has been a hallmark of the York Council for the last 8 years. The Council has become semi detached from people who live in the City. Assurances that this will change in the future are needed before any new officials take office on 22nd May.
Policy prospectus decidedly short on specifics. Appears that the Greens aren’t keen on a return to the committee system?
NB. The Liberal Democrat Group has not announced who its officers will be for the forthcoming year. The Leader of the Group would also expect to become Leader of the Council next week, so there is a certain amount of urgency.
A planing inspector has told the York Council to consult again on their plans to block MOD bases from being used for house building.
The planning inspectorate says that the changes – agreed earlier in the year – are major and require 6 weeks of public consultation.
The proposals mainly involved the Strensall camp where Natural England argued that redeveloping the base could adversely impact on the nearby nature reserve
In turn this meant that the Green Belt boundary would alter.
The move came as something of a surprise to the MOD who pointed out that part of the base was a previously developed brownfield site – the governments (and Councils) preferred location for housing developments.
The Inspector also wants to see the results of a consultation on new housing need figures. The figures had been scaled back following work by consultants who said that underlying housing demand figures were significantly lower than had previously been forecast.
The shock move means that the start of the “examination in public” will be put on ice again.
It is now unclear when the City can hope to have a fully approved Local Plan in place.
With the City economy now so dependent on visitors the Council and its partners needs to up its game and give some public areas a face-lift.
Graffiti on Scarborough BridgeFlood barrier work and graffiti next the Ouse. One of the first things rail travellers see as they enter the CityMissing fencing on Dam Judy Dench Walk – reported several weeks ago – still hasn’t been repairedwhile the Lendal Bridge steps need a coat of paint.Hopefully any investment in public service standards in the City centre won’t be at the expense of the suburbs. Here graffiti and detritus blight Kingsway NorthHopefully the Council will persuade more businesses to “adopt” roundabouts in the City.
Contracts
have been let to ENGI Regeneration Ltd and G Sanders Builder Ltd
The contract is to
carry out remedial works to CYC housing stock that has been identified as
having major structural damp problems.
Rising damp
The works will
include remediation of the structural damp, and will, in most of the properties
also require a new kitchen, bathroom and electrical installation.
Sundry additional
works will also be required.
The anticipated
spend with these two contracts over the initial two year period of the contract
is £1169k plus additional spend on void properties of approximately £800k over
two years.
The two contractors above being awarded based on a combination of quality and
price scores.
The Council says this
is an ongoing programme to resolve significant issues in properties. They go on
to confirm that the contract with the previous contractor was not extended due
to a failure to deliver the agreed programme.
The suspension of the
tenants choice modernisation programme was a source of friction between the tow
coalition partners during the last administration.
Improved mental health will be at the front of the minds of a city-wide partnership on Mental Health Awareness Week 13-19 May 2019.
Partners including City of York Council, York Explore, Make It York, York MIND, York Advocacy, York Travellers’ Trust, Yor Peer Support, LGBT groups, Kyra, The Haven, IDAS, York CVS and Ways to Wellbeing, will be reaching out to individuals and groups to talk about mental health, how it can be improved and the support available across the city.
LiveWellYork will be promoting events available across the city – simply look for blue star events at www.livewellyork.co.uk. This will include free interactive suicide prevention training, running as part of the #TalkSuicide. If you are looking for activities throughout the year to help improve your health and wellbeing why not check out the community activities directory.
The Talk Suicide campaign will raise awareness of free suicide prevention training. It can be completed in twenty minutes and teaches lifesaving skills, such as being able to spot when someone might be feeling suicidal; how to speak out about suicide and where to correctly signpost someone who is struggling to the correct support and services. More information at www.talksuicide.co.uk .
To support people living with mental health issues, there will be three community events held by partners during the week. Drop-in sessions will be open on Monday 13 May at West Offices (9.30am-4pm) and on Wednesday 15 May on Parliament Street (9.30am-4pm). Both will be jam-packed with information, activities and helpful staff to signpost people to extra resources and sources of good quality mental health support.
On Friday 17 May at 30 Clarence Street (10.30am-4pm) there will be a special day event with information and advice. Afternoon tea will be served made by people attending community recovery projects. There will also be crafts and activities including mindfulness taster sessions which can be booked via canse.karatas@york.gov.uk.
At all three events, green ribbons will be handed out for people to wear and to help show support for and raise awareness of mental health and its importance. These ribbons have special significance as they have been made by people who use the council’s mental health support services. The national theme of Mental Health Awareness Week is body image and there will be activities run at the three events to reflect this. We invite the people of York to wear a green awareness ribbon; lets talk about mental health and stand united against stigma.
Tim Madgwick, independent chair of York’s Mental Health Partnership said: “We know there are thousands of people living and working in York who struggle with their mental health. There are some great programmes in the city which have changed the lives of people but we also know that there are some people who feel unable speak openly or get any form of help.
“We want to be a city that listens and cares about everyone who has mental health problems. The week is about broadening the reach to people, we know the first conversation is often the hardest but weeks like these raise awareness and have the capacity to change lives.”
Sharon Houlden, corporate director of health, housing and adult social care at City of York Council, said: “1 in 4 of us1 will experience a mental health problem.
“Mental health really matters, and there is a wealth of support available so no-one need struggle alone. Events like these are so important for raising awareness and signposting people and their friends and family to how they can access good mental health support.”
The future of the bus shelters on Tudor Road, which have not had a service for over 2 years, remains uncertain.
Not surprisingly the shelters are in good condition.
Bus sign does not say the stop is unused.
Litter was cleared from near the shelter ealier in the week
There is a site, at the Gale Lane end, which could accommodate a shelter, and which does lie on the now clockwise route taken by the number 4 service.
There are no notices in the shelters (or on the bus stop signs) indicating that the bus service only serves the opposite side of the road.
Even then the alternative bus stops are a testing sprint away.
Anyone texting the bus stop identification code to the information service gets a text back saying that no service is expected within the next 4 hours.
Many people living in the Tudor Road area would prefer to see a 2-way service reintroduced.
If such a change is not imminent, the Council and bus service providers need to initiate a review of the quality of bus stop information, and shelter arrangements, that they provide in the area.
Abandoned bus shelters can be a magnet for anti-social behaviour, so some prompt action is required.
Work has started on the long awaited parking lay-by on Bramham AvenueUnfortunately Bramham Avenue is one of those streets where footpaths are now badly wornThe litter on the Dijon Avenue garage block has been removed
However some dumping remainsThe Acomb car park area was cleared of litter and fly tipping following our complaints at the weekend. Unfortunately more fly tipping has now appeared.We’ve asked for weeds on Gale Lane to be treatedand for gutters to be hand sweptBiggest disappointment is the failure by the Council to respond to reports of littering on snickets. The problem on Tithe Close has been outstanding for a couple of weeks now
Other Thoresby Road snickets also have a lot of litter.
Ageing and outdated traffic signals at the Wigginton Road and Haxby Road junction are set to be replaced next month by City of York Council, in a project partially funded by York’s bus operators.
Haxby Road – Wigginton Road junction
Works are estimated to take around six weeks to complete and will start on Sunday 19 May.
New, more reliable, traffic signals will be installed on the junction of Wigginton Road and Haxby Road. Layout changes are being made to make the junction work more efficiently, this will include realigning the outbound Haxby Road movement to make it straighter and making the pedestrian islands larger.
The new technology being installed will help to improve bus journey times and reliability on Wigginton Road and ease congestion in the area.
The new traffic signals will also be cheaper to run and more reliable. It will also enable the new systems to link direct to the council’s Traffic and Control Centre, so that the Network Monitoring Officers can manage the flow of traffic better in busy periods by adjusting traffic lights to best suit traffic conditions.
To help minimise disruption work will be carried out from 9.30am – 4pm during the week and also will take place on Saturdays and Sundays from 8am – 3pm. Temporary signals replicating, as closely as possible, the current operation of the junction will be in place throughout the works.
During the works it is anticipated that there will be significant delays when travelling through the junction.
Those using the junction are urged to plan ahead, allow more time for journeys on these routes and to consider alternatives and to use public transport where possible. Bus services will be operating as normal for the majority of the works but passengers are requested to visit www.itravelyork.info/ for more information.
Temporary pedestrian crossing points will be available at all times during the works to ensure that pedestrian facilities are available. Traffic marshals will be on site between 7am and 7pm, to help manage the traffic on site and to assist with pedestrians crossing the road.
