York council election manifestos compared

4. Housing and Health

There has been a small reduction in the Council housing stock in recent years. This is the resulted from the central government policy which saw discounts increased for “Right to Buy”.

In response the Council has started to build new Council houses and has announced ambitious – by recent standards – plans to build over 600 additional homes. It has also started to buy homes on the open market to add to the rented housing pool.

On homelessness, hyperbole rules in the manifestos. All, of course, will end it. While the numbers on the housing waiting list has been stable, the numbers of rough sleepers has fluctuated. Labour support the Manchester/Finland model (where keys to a home are given to rough sleepers without any behaviour, substance abuse or mental health treatment conditions (That’ll go down well with the neighbours)

meanwhile the coalition is building on sub-urban playing fields and has made little attempt to find replacement open spaces, sports facilities or parks. Partly as a result of this, the City has an obesity problem. Life expectancy in some poorer wards is now relatively low.

Hopefully the new Council will realise that the is more to creating a home than simply bricks and mortar.

NB: Only 1 of the 202 Council candidates – who have declared where they live – is a Council tenant.

Council election manifestos compared

3. Environment

A rare outbreak of unanimity on the 4 parties environment policies. All promise to make York “carbon neutral” by 2030. The temptation to break ranks and go for a 2029 date must have been strong.

Most are keen on clean air zones but, like the carbon commitment, are very light on what this would actually mean for residents as they go about their daily lives. The key opportunity to declare the York Central “teardrop” site a ultra low emission zone seems to have passed all the parties by.

The LibDems seem to have ditched their commitment to the introduction of a “salvage and reuse” facility with only the Greens offering a “reuse shop”

All parties commit to fortnightly bin emptying. None are specific on how recycling rates might be increased. (Central government is mandating separate food waste collections)

Surface water drainage problems are only mentioned in passing although the Tories promise an “annual gully cleaning schedule”

New Scarborough Bridge foot/cycle path opens to the public today

Foot/cycle bridge opens today

York’s new Scarborough Bridge will open to the public today (Thursday 18 April) with work on the £4.4m scheme continuing on site for several )more weeks.

The new accessible bridge has been delivered in partnership by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority through its £60m CityConnect programme aimed at encouraging more people to cycle and walk, City of York Council, and York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Enterprise Partnership (YNYER EP).

It is aimed at boosting access for people travelling by bike or on foot between the train and the city centre.

Although the bridge will be open to the public from 3pm on Thursday, work will continue to complete the new steps to the riverside paths and sections of the ramps. 

The river crossing will remain open to the public throughout these works, but with some minor width restrictions at times, as well as temporary lighting and a temporary handrail.

Improvement works include, on the southern side, a new path on the top of the embankment, which will mean people can travel directly between York Station and the new bridge, providing a traffic free scenic route to the city centre.  The new bridge will now be accessible even when the River Ouse is in flood. 

The £4.4m project has been funded by a £1.9m grant through the Combined Authority’s CityConnect programme, a £1.5m Local Growth Fund secured by YNYER EP and £1m of City of York Council funds. 

Scarborough Bridge has been closed to the public since the end of January to allow for ongoing construction works, including the old footbridge being lifted out by rail crane to make way for the new, wider and more accessible shared use bridge. 

More than 3,000 people crossed the old footbridge daily, despite access issues and this number is expected to rise considerably one the scheme has been completed.   

At 65-metres long the new bridge is three times as wide at 3.7metres, increasing access to more people.  It had to be lifted into place in four separate parts due to its size.

The new bridge is constructed of weathering steel – the same as Gateshead’s famour statue, The Angel of the North.

The reopening of the bridge has been delayed by a month due to the need for extra piling works in the railway embankments as well as dense fog during one of the weekends a section of the new bridge was due to be lifted in.

For more information about the Scarborough Bridge scheme visit www.york.gov.uk/scarboroughbridge

Council election manifestos compared

2. Crime, economy and education

All parties are keen to drive up wage levels. None can say how a local authority might achieve this worthy aim. Labour make the bogus claim that wage rates are falling in the City (they aren’t, although overtime earnings reduced last year).

Some see the way ahead being for the Council to give a monopoly to local suppliers for goods and services. What the knock-on effect on Council Tax levels would be is anyone’s guess.

Labour want to slow the York Central project taking it out of the hands of “developers”. Quite where they would get the investment for a pure public sector approach is also anyone’s guess.

There are clear choices on a Tourism Tax. Such a Tax could not be introduced unilaterally. It would either require central government facilitation or a voluntary agreement (chickens/Christmas anyone?).

The Council has little influence these days on local schools, which are funded directly by central government and have their own independent governing arrangements. Similarly, the Council has little direct influence on policing activities. It could however be stricter with its licensing rules.

York Council election manifesto promises

How do the party election manifestos compare in York?

  1. Financial management

Now that all the parties have published their election manifestos for the Council polls – due on 2nd May – we’ll be looking to see what each party is offering.

Usually it is not so much what the party leaders say they will do that attracts interest.Rather it is the issues that they are silent on which cause the most anxiety.

There is a certain lack of candour on financial strategy in all four documents.

Residents urged to plan ahead for Tour de Yorkshire

The Tour de Yorkshire will once again return to the regions roads from 2-5 May.

The first stage, taking riders on a fast and flat route from Doncaster to Selby passes through several villages on the outskirts of York, including Elvington, Wheldrake and Escrick in the late afternoon on Thursday 2 May.

The A19 near Escrick will be closed to traffic when the race passes through the area.No parking will be permitted on the race route during the race period. Details of the route are available on the Tour de Yorkshire website at https://letour.yorkshire.com/tour-de-yorkshire-2019/

To ensure the safety of spectators and riders alike there will be a rolling road closure for most of the race route, this will be managed by the police. This means that the traffic will be stopped at any given point between 10 and 30 minutes ahead of the first cyclist.

When the race, and all the official and team vehicles, have passed the roads will reopen again. The last vehicle in the race group is a lorry with screens on both sides telling people watching that the roads are open again.

Typically the closure is in place for between 20 and 50 minutes depending on the severity of the stage, how far into the stage the race is and the weather.

It’s expected that the race will reach Elvington at approximately 4.46pm, Wheldrake at 4.53pm and Escrick at 5pm. The route joins the A19 at Escrick and turns off again to Stillingfleet. This will mean that the A19 will be closed whilst the race passes through the area affecting travellers.

Bus routes 18, 36, X36, 42, 45, 46, X46 and 415 will all continue to operate, but will be delayed as a result of the race. It is anticipated that the closures and additional race traffic will cause delays in the area. Motorists are advised to plan their journeys to avoid the route during the race period if possible.

For more information visit www.itravelyork.info/buses/bus-routes-and-journey-times/diversion-information

Pedestrian access will be available to polling stations throughout the period. Voters in the wards affected have been notified of the access restrictions.

More off street parking bays completed in Westfield

Most of the promised new parking bays in the Westfield area have now been completed. These are funded from a combination of the Westfield ward delegated budget and the Housing Estate Improvement Programme.

An additional 5 off street lay-by spaces are due to be provided in Tudor Road shortly. These will be funded as part of the Lowfields redevelopment project.

Windsor Garth parking lay by
New parking bay near Beverley Court now in use
Danesfort Avenue off street spaces completed
Newbury Avenue spaces in use
Thoresby Road lay-by almost completed

So how hard does your York Councillor work for you?

The York Council has published a prompt response to our annual request for information about Councillor issue raising numbers. This allows residents to see how many issues have been raised during the last 4 years by individual Councillors.

The information is published at the end of each year. All Councillors have access to the central complaints handing service at the Council. Some have claimed in the past that they choose not to use it. One or two say that they use the “report it“ on line system, although this is limited to certain types of issue.

As well as monitoring public service standards and pursing local problems, Councillors have other roles. These include attendance at a range of meetings.

Either way, York enjoys the services of some hardworking local representatives who will legitimately hope for re-election on 2nd May.

Number of issues reported by local Councillors in York

Great Foxwood Spring Clean makes progress

…but more people need to heed the “Keep Britain Tidy” message

4 volunteers from the Foxwood Residents Association collected 8 bags of rubbish from the Thanet Road Sports Area today. While some could be put down to “litter drift” many of the items had clearly simply been carelessly discarded. These included dozens of cans and bottles.

These sorts of clean ups shouldn’t be necessary. There are several litter bins in the area. Its time for the Council to be more proactive in enforcing anti littering laws. Residents were promised that mobile CCTV cameras would be deployed to litter hot-spots but this hasn’t happened.

Only 5 individuals across the whole city were issued with fixed penalty notices for littering last year

Volunteers have clean up the area near the Thanet Road cycle track

There is also too much fly-tipping of garden waste on amenity areas. The Council needs to get to grips with this while fitting more vandal resistant street furniture.

Dumped garden waste
Need metal railings in vulnerable areas