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Golf lessons in Dringhouses
Quarrying, mineral and gas extraction, and waste disposal in and around York. Consultation starts
People across York and North Yorkshire are being given the chance to have a say on planning policies covering major issues such as quarrying, mineral and gas extraction, and waste disposal.
North Yorkshire County Council, City of York Council, and the North York Moors National Park Authority, are working together to produce a Minerals and Waste Joint Plan. It will contain policies and guidelines to help take decisions on planning applications covering the period up to 2030. It will also identify suitable sites for such developments.
Council set to ditch community centres.
The York Council will spend £175,000 over the next year bringing York’s four community centres into “a good state of repair”.
This will be followed by a “community asset transfer”.
What this means is that the volunteer committees, who run the centres, will be expected to raise funding not only for day to day activities but also for the repair and maintenance of all aspects of the buildings.
Typical community centres, like the ones at Foxwood and Chapelfields, have running costs of between £25,000 – £50,000 a year.
In the past the bill for part of these costs have been picked up by the Council.
This year it has reduced its grants to the centres by £70,000.
2014/15 will be the final year that the centres will get the remaining £70,000 grant.
After that the Centres will be on their own.
It means that, unless volunteers can be found to take on the additional financial burden, the Centres will close (or, more likely, simply be sold to the highest bidder)
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Meanwhile we are told that the Council intends to privatise its building cleaning contracts. How this will affect the community centres, and for how long, remains to be seen.
Residents take action to clean up the Foxwood park
Former Council Leader Andrew Waller (right) helps with the work
About a dozen residents turned up to help with the Foxwood Park clean up organised by the Foxwood Residents Association on Saturday.
Further work is planned for later in the year.
LibDems taking action in Lowfields area
Damaged verges. We’re asking the Council to spend some of its £13 million housing profit on verge cross overs and/or lay bys
Litter drift on Lowfields amenity area reported. The fence-line of the Acomb Car park has accumulated large amounts of litter over the last 3 months.
The Council should ensure that garage areas are kept clear of rubbish and weeds. Too many of them never get any maintenance attention despite high rent levels.
The Council is being asked to intervene following fears expressed by some residents about the safety of large trees in the area. Large branches fell off during recent high winds.
Lydia Bishop death – York College fined £175,000
The York College has been fined £175,000 and ordered to pay £45,000 in court costs over the death of Lydia Bishop at its nursery.
It is unclear where the money to pay the fine, from the publicly funded College, will come from.
There has been speculation that – now that the trial has concluded – major changes to the management and governance structure at the College will take place.
The nursery has already been permanently closed.
Rubbish skips this weekend Saturday 15th February
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 Morrell Court 08:30 09:30
3 Vincent Way 12:30 13:30
4 Rogers Court 08:30 09:30
5 Corlett Court 10:30 11:30
York “rewiring” plan; Cliff Richard, Fred Smith Electrical or City of York Council?
The York Council has said it will spend £10 million over the next 5 years on IT equipment. Their intention is to force residents to use electronic communications to communicate with the Council.
Cliff Richard – rewired for sound
They promise (or threaten) that each local resident will have their own web page account.
The move comes following our revelation that the number contacting the Council by telephone or through a personal visit has spiralled since their move to the “West Offices”.
They have dubbed the scheme as service “rewiring” – a piece of jargon guaranteed to pass over the heads of most residents.
A report, nodded through by the Labour leadership on Tuesday, fails to make any kind of business case for the huge expenditure.
The report is riddled with management jargon and hyperbole plus much conjecture about what residents want.
Attached to the report is the 6 monthly review of service quality.
This revealed that many targets are already being missed by the Council with recycling rates reducing and the numbers using the bus service in sharp decline since Labour meddled with the services when they took office.
Confidence in the Councils ability to deal with reports and complaints has already been damaged.
The “app” launched to allow smart phone reporting of issues has flopped, some reports made using proprietary web tools were lost by the Council while frustrated residents – seeking information through Freedom of Information requests -frequently do not attract answers within legal target times.
But the main concern will be the implications for residents if the Council and its officials hide behind an electronic defensive barricade.
The plan will mean more outsourcing and local jobs will be lost as techno bureaucrats take over.
Public services will become DIY as residents are forced to fill in the gaps left by a retreating public sector.
………..and the march of more CCTV surveillance will continue in the background!
Flooding in York – dredge the Ouse?
River Ouse web cam Click to access latest information
A flood warning has been issued by the Environment Agency. River levels are not expected to increase to those encountered in 2012.
Detailed river levels can be found on the EA web site http://tinyurl.com/Ouse-catchment
The best indicator remains the real time CCTV camera which records river levels on Kings Staith.
There is a significant risk If the top of the no entry sign disappears under water!
The devastation caused by flooding in other parts of the country is likely to reopen the debate about whether the river Ouse should be dredged.
Although dredging might increase the river capacity (and speed) where the work could be completed there would be other implications. Not least amongst these are the fact that more water would arrive in greater volumes at vulnerable downstream locations.
Potentially this could mean more, rather than fewer, homes being flooded. There are also concerns about the impact that dredging can have on the foundations of bridges. on river banks and on wildlife habitats.
The policy introduced a few years ago – of planting near the upper reaches of rivers to help control the speed that water runs off the land – has merit, while the York Council is rightly making provision, in its forward budgets, for the improvement and maintenance of water courses.
Nevertheless the dredging arguments do now need to be revisited and we would like to see a committee set up to publicly consider all the issues involved.
Waterworld sinking?
It looks like the delays on the Community Stadium project are now beginning to hit other parts of the City’s leisure services.
The Councils Labour Cabinet are set to hand an additional £450,000 to the contractors running Waterworld next year to keep it going.
The delay in letting a comprehensive contract – to run all building based leisure facilities in the City – means that Energise will be asked to find an additional £20,000 in income while it looks like the Yearsley Pool will be required to fund savings of £100,000!
Users will be eagerly awaiting news of how these economies will be achieved.
Increased admission charges have already been announced