As well as the much-publicised delays in re-letting empty Council homes, it seems that the pandemic has also resulted in delays in modernisation plans.
The “tenants’ choice” programme (bathrooms, kitchens etc.) was to have seen 294 properties upgraded this year. The Councils contractors were confident they could achieve that number.
Perhaps not surprisingly, a larger than expected number of tenants are currently declining to have the work done. According to a Council report tenants are declining the work due to” nervousness relating to the pandemic, ill health, or their inability to be able to cope with the disturbance such works would inevitably cause”.
Rooms at the refurbished Lincoln Court sheltered housing scheme are now ready for letting. 3 former residents are understood to be among those moving back into the building.
More worrying news; work on fire safety improvements has halted. £2.2 million scheduled to be invested this year is being slipped into next year.
On a more positive note, the Councils shared ownership programme is going well. 34 properties have been acquired with several now being occupied by “key workers”. This is the project where residents identify a property available for sale which is then jointly purchased. The occupants then pay rent on part of the property while it remains in Council ownership.
Building work has started on 79 of the 140 plots at Lowfields according to the Council
Some of the 79 homes on which work has started at Lowfields, have been taken up on a shared ownership basis.
Over £7 million which was to have been invested in social housing in the City during the current year is being slipped into 21/22.
Despite growing COVID restrictions and the return to school, parts of central York were still fairly busy today.
The Food Festival has started and the first scooter being ridden in the pedestrian area was spotted.
Food festival underway
St Helens Square and Stonegate quiet
An electric scooter rider slaloms through pedestrians. Restrictions on the use of these machines are confusing. A privately owned model was earlier seen on the Hob Moor cycle track. Neither posed an obvious safety threat
We are very much in favour of giving local communities the opportunity to influence how resources are used in their area.
Delegated ward budgets, therefore, were a step in the right direction.
The Council allocated £1 million to be spent at ward level. Typically the Westfield ward (which is larger than most wards) has nearly £40,000 a year to spend.
The expectation was that there would be an opportunity for residents to put forward schemes for consideration and – as has happened in the past – for a public vote on priorities to take place.
Obviously the health pandemic may have affected the ability of some ward Councillors to fully consult on a door to door basis. We would, however, expect much more use to be made, by the Council and ward councillors in particular, of social media and noticeboards to stay in touch with local communities.
Keeping footpaths safe and accessible should be a top priority for the use of public funds
A whole raft of new schemes using this budget have been authorised today click
A list of schemes approved for 2019/20 can be found by clicking hereSeveral schemes, including action to prevent fly tipping, didn’t happen.
Planned expenditure for 2020/21 can be access here
While many of the schemes are uncontroversial, there will be some that may cause raised eyebrows. Mentoring services for young people seems to be the new catch all phrase used to access public funding.
That may be necessary, but taxpayers will legitimately want to know what are the objectives of each scheme and how success is being measured?
They will expect to be able to find out this information without fruitless searches of dozens of pages on the internet.
There was disappointment in west York earlier in the year when it emerged that they would not be getting a share of the delegated cycling and walking budget.
Contrary to the claims made in a Council report published yesterday, it appears that the owners of the SPARK Container village on Piccadilly HAVE NOT signed a new lease.
The revelation comes in a response to a Freedom of Information published today.
SPARK were controversially offered a new lease at a meeting which took place on 14th February. They had been due to vacate the site in June.
Following complaints from neighbours and against a background of non compliance with planning conditions, the Council sought to place new restrictions on how SPARK could operate the business. (see below).
It has now emerged that SPARK has settled outstanding 2020 Council debts to the value of £23,333
The development was granted a 2 year extension to its planning permission earlier in the summer.
Spark has been operating on a “tenancy at will” basis since June.
The Council says, “The Council are in discussions with Spark over the provision of the new lease following the grant of a Tenancy at Will earlier in the year, which is still in force”.
The long term future of the 17/21 Piccadilly remains unclear as the health crisis and economic recession makes early redevelopment unlikely.
It has been suggested that the site could be used as a terminus for a disabled friendly zero emission transport system which would ferry less ambulant visitors around the City centre.
This use – which might also offer residential or workshop opportunities at first floor level – could help to ease pressure on the nearby Castle car park.
This is now much less following some government funding including additional support for the loss of income from fees and charges. The Government will fund 75% of any loss
Nevertheless, the Council believes that it may have to eat into its £7 million reserves to balance the books this year. Next year may be even more challenging with Council Tax and Rates income set to fall.
A list of the pressures on the Councils budget can be read by clicking here
The Council has not tabulated the “mitigation” measures that it is taking to reduce expenditure.
There has been increased expenditure on helping the elderly and disabled. The work of volunteers has been praised by the Council.
A report being considered next week says, “The Council has remained committed to our Home First approach to managing people’s recovery, avoiding placements in residential and nursing care whenever possible. However the impact of COVID-19 and the associated lockdown has meant that more people than we had planned for have needed social care funded through the council. This together with increasing mental health referrals, the increased cost of care and the 4 more complex needs of those the council is supporting has resulted in increased pressure on the adult social care budget”.
Council slow to repair empty Council homes.
One of the largest drops in performance is in re-letting empty Council homes. This has increased from 37 days at the end of March 2020 to 59 days at the end of June 2020. Delays to repairs are still a major problems with this service and so far the Council are choosing not offer work to local tradesmen many of whom would the opportunity.
The published performance results (click) don’t provide information on key COVID measures (e.g. traffic and cycling levels).
A report on the Castle Gateway regeneration project published today says that the scheme should go ahead but it says, “there are no plans to close Castle Car Park until suitable replacement parking is available”.
Castle car park has been very busy in rent months
However, the construction of a multi-story alternative on the St George site will be shelved.
The Council’s Executive are being recommended to agree to the “recommencement of the paused procurement of a construction contractor to undertake the design and subsequent construction of the proposed apartments, pedestrian/cycle bridge and riverside park at Castle Mills”
They’re also being asked to approve the design and submission of planning applications for a “high quality public realm scheme on Castle Car Park and Eye of York” while a decision on the future of the site at 17-21 Piccadilly – currently the home of the Spark container village – will be delayed until next summer.
“Spark York who have resolved their outstanding planning issues and have a lease until early 2022″.
York Council report 24th Sept 2020
The immediate additional financial commitment for the Council will be £1.5 million. In total the project cost – which was to be funded by borrowing – was £46 million. This would generate additional interest payments of around £1 million per year which would have to come out of what is now an overcommitted revenue budget.
In effect, there will be further cuts in public service standards across the City.
It was hoped that the borrowing would be paid off through the sale of flats which would be built on the former Castle Mills car park site. However, there was still a funding deficit of £4.7 million and no resources were allocated for turning the Castle car park into “a world class open space”.
The Castle car park provides over £1 million a year in income for the Council.
The Council has already spent £2.2 million on consultation and design activities for the project.
In a separate report the Council has been warned about the risks to local public services
The report fails to put the scheme costs into the context of the overall Council capital and revenue budget position.
An oddly detached from reality section of the report claims that the “Castle Gateway masterplan is a “significant opportunity to drive the city’s response to Covid-19 due to the:
Focus on sustainable transport to create new key pedestrian and cycle routes
Reduction of vehicle journeys inside the inner ring road through the closure of Castle car park
Creation of significant new public realm
Enhanced cultural and heritage offer and the creation of a new major event space – building on the city’s unique selling points and expanding the capacity to attract responsible tourism to support the city’s economy
Regeneration and investment in rundown parts of the city Development of new city centre homes, including new affordable and council housing
Capacity to reinvigorate the economy by supporting jobs in the construction sector”
So we have the Benito Mussolini solution to unemployment emerging. Borrowing to fund massive public works contracts which – in the case of the bridge and park – will have no short-term economic benefits (other than perhaps for a handful of the green socialist, city centre dwelling, elite).
Businesses dependent on those who choose to use, because of the health crisis, personal transport when they visit the City, will lose out.
Spark queue & Peel Street car park full
We need to be careful with our commentary.
“El Duce” gained a reputation for having errant stationmasters shot if trains didn’t run on time.
The lowest risk part of the scheme maybe the construction of the blocks of flats. Maybe that could continue, even though rising unemployment, and reducing business rate income, could compromise the Council’s ability to service the planned borrowing.
On balance, the Council really should decide to pause the project for 18 months and review it when the health crisis is over.
We asked 4 weeks ago what had happened to the promised replacement for the children’s games area on Kingsway West.
The area is currently being used as a building compound. The contractor was beginning tt remove storage containers from the area today although work on Lincoln Court and the new centre for the disabled won’t be completed for a few weeks at least (it is running behind schedule with COVID partly to blame according to the Council).
A response to a Freedom of Information request was due today but the Council now says that they can’t reply before 3rd Ocotober.
The enquiry resulted from a promise made on 18th March 2019 when the Council’s Executive agreed to provide a replacement for the Kingsway West Multi User Games Area (MUGA) which has been taken out of use as part of the project to extend Lincoln Court.
The minute read; “a ii) To note that in approving Option 1 a commitment is made for alternative recreational facilities following community consultation including Sport England within Westfield Ward in mitigation for the loss of the Multi Use Games Area. The alternative facilities provided are to be agreed by Executive and will be subject to a further report and budget approval.”
18 months later and there has been no further word from the Council on how the replacement plan is going.
The contractor has started to remove storage containers from the building compound. Most external work on the new and refurbished buildings has been completed. The wire fence around the games area has been realigned.
Nice weather today but the Front Street area was noticeably quieter. Possibly the new health restrictions are beginning to have an effect.
The development on the Bowling Green site is now well advanced with some homes now occupied. Sadly with good weather comes more weed growth. A particular problem in the pedestrian area
Works to stabilise part of the York’s historic walls at Tower Two will be undertaken by City of York Council’s ancient monuments team in collaboration with York Archaeological Trust, from 7 October.
Over the last five years, the condition of Tower Two has deteriorated with cracks and bulges appearing on the external face of the tower and more recently, the condition has begun to worsen faster than expected. This section of the walls remains safe, but work is needed swiftly to stop further deterioration.
The council is responsible for caring for, and making accessible, York’s city walls, which are the most complete example of city walls in England.
