236 residents have now signed the Beckfield Lane Recycling Centre Epetition on the Councils web site.
That is the largest ever number of supporters for a petition collected in this way.
Over 2600 have also signed the paper petition which is being handed in to the Council tonight.
Thanks to everyone for their support.
http://tinyurl.com/Save-the-recycling-centre
click to enlarge
“Bin and recycling container orders
Over winter we were unable to deliver some of the recycling containers and wheeled bins that residents requested.
If you ordered a container between 9 December 2011 and 31 March 2012, and have not yet received it, you will receive your replacement bins/recycling containers after 2 April.
Please note that we received a large number of requests during this time, so we expect to complete all of these outstanding deliveries by 8 June.
When will I receive my container?
We will work through the outstanding requests in areas as shown in the table below. We have a dedicated vehicle and crew delivering containers during this time.
If you requested a container between 9 December and 31 March please check which area you live in. We will deliver in that area during the 2 weeks shown
If you don’t receive your container(s) in the first week we will deliver it in the second week
This is the most efficient way of working through all outstanding requests and making sure everyone gets their container(s) as soon as possible.
Please note that we will be delivering containers Monday to Friday during the weeks listed in the table.
We are unable to answer individual enquiries about when containers will be delivered, but will work as quickly as possible to deliver your container(s).
Please let us know if you no longer need a container which has been requested.
Thank you for your continued patience with this.
If you order a new/replacement container after 2 April we will make every effort to deliver this before your next scheduled collection date”.
However residents living in terraced properties still won’t be getting their free delivery of refuse sacks. Many are signing the on line petition asking for the service to be reinstated.
http://tinyurl.com/Save-our-sacks-York
Others have vowed to request the provision of a wheeled bin. If a lot of residents do this – and they are entitled to the free provision of a waste container – then the council budget is likely to drift into a crisis again.
Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for City Strategy, Cllr Keith Hyman has today criticised City of York Council’s Labour Cabinet recent decision to make the 22 FTR conductors redundant as a result of the decision to replace the FTR ‘superbuses’ with more single and double-deckers.
Cllr Hyman said “Although the FTR buses divided opinion in York, I don’t think anybody thought the conductors were doing a bad job. Many residents have told me that in their experience the conductors were courteous, helpful and prevented rowdy behaviour at the back of buses. James Alexander talks a lot about employment in York but this decision shows that he prefers a cheap headline to safeguarding the jobs of hard-working local people.”
The Liberal Democrat Group is now calling on Cllr James Alexander, York’s Labour Leader to keep conductors on double-deckers using his £1 million delivery and innovation fund.
The York Council Leader has rather proudly announced the launch of an “app” for smart phones.
In a media release he urges residents to go to the web site www.smarteryork.com.
Fat chance. That web address doesn’t even exist!
In a spirit of helpfulness we can tell residents that the actual web site address is http://www.smarteryork.org.uk
Whether the cost of developing this new reporting tool can be justified is another matter. The top priority for the Council should be to stop environmental vandalism (Graffiti, fly-tipping etc) in the first place. A quick and efficient clean up is also necessary, but there is little evidence to suggest that York residents are failing to do this using “old fashioned” communications methods such as the telephone, Email or via the Councils web site.
Still, Iphone at the ready, we’ll be trying the new system out over the next few weeks.
NB. This hiccup comes a few days after residents started receiving their Council Tax bills. The explanatory leaflet issued with the demand assured residents that the Councils gross expenditure for the forthcoming year would be a world record beating “£354,937,000,000”.
The equivalent expenditure agreed by the LIbDem Council for 11/12 was, a quite parsimonious, £341,644,000!
The Queen will be visiting York on Thursday 5th April. Extreme delays are forecast, in the City centre and near Micklegate, from 10:00am onwards. Early journeys are advised.
First buses will be operating a revised service level over the Easter Period:
Good Friday, 6th April – A Sunday service will operate on main network services. Park and Ride services 2, 3, 7, 8 & 9 will operate a Monday-Friday timetable.
Easter Saturday, 7th April – Normal Saturday service
Easter Sunday, 8th April – Normal Sunday service
Easter Monday, 9th April – A Sunday service will operate on main network services. Park and Ride services 2, 3, 7, 8 & 9 will operate a Monday-Friday timetable.
Tuesday 10th April – Normal service resumes
It looks like Labour Councillors – with the backing of Lord Mayor and Acomb Ward Councillor David Horton -will try to block any move for a vote on the future of the Beckfield Lane recyling centre at the Council meeting on Thursday.
They may argue that they need more time – and revised financial figures – before they can consider keeping the center open.
It seems likely that the Liberal Democrat motion to keep the centre open will be referred to the Councils “Cabinet” in the first instance. The most likely date for the Cabinet meeting is 15th May.
However, as this is after the Council’s provisional date for closing the centre (16th April), residents will want to be assurred that the centre will remain in operation until the Council has had the opportunity to properly debate its future.
Over 210 people have now signed the “on line” petition which has until 14th April to run.
http://tinyurl.com/Save-the-recycling-centre
Former Coucnil Leader Andrew Waller joins Richard Hill in collecting signatures on the petition
North Yorkshire Police will be carrying out mobile safety camera enforcement on the following roads between Wednesday 28 March and Tuesday 3 April 2012.
•B1257 Newgate Bank, Hawnby
•A19 Crathorne
•A170 Scawton Moor
•Station Road, Thirsk
•B6271 Great Langton
•B1264 Low Worsall
•Guisborough Road, Great Ayton
•B1257 Great Broughton
•Northallerton Road, Brompton,
•Station Road, Thirsk,
•B6271, Great Langton,
•A61, Carlton Road, Carlton Miniott
•A6108, North Stainley
•A629, Low Bradley
•A65, Settle by-pass
•A62, west-bound, Crosshills
•A629, Skipton by-pass
•A59, Beamsley Hill
•A56, Thornton-in-Craven
•A65 Clapham
•A65 Settle by-pass
•A65, Hellifield
•A65 Coniston Cold
The mobile safety cameras will be in operation at the above sites at various times during the dates stated. Cameras will not be in use on the above routes all day, every day.
click to enlarge
The Council have revealed some of their plans for the £28 million infrastructure fund set up in its budget. £20 million of this is money which will be borrowed increasing the annual interest burden on taxpayers by around £1.8 million (or equivalent to a 4% tax increase).
Against that background, residents might have hoped that the money would be invested to either reduce the council’s costs or to increase its income.
But in reality neither is likely to be the case. It is planning to spend £430,000 employing 2 new officers to administer the fund over the next 5 years.
Apart from tarting up City centre bus stops (at a cost of £2.5 million), the Council expects taxpayers to stump up for a City centre WiFi network and spend more on broadband provision. Both are projects that the telecoms companies should lead on with most customers expecting to have to pay for such services.
There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that migrant businesses would choose York as a base because “free” WiFi access is available on Coney Street!
The Council remains obsessed by spinning a populist line. It celebrates the demise of the ftr project (and 20 conductor jobs) and the closure of its branch office in Acomb. It tries to hide the 56% reduction in highways maintenance expenditure and pretends that the outrage, over the closure of the Beckfield Lane recycling centre, is some sort of inevitable consequence of the national economic situation.
Having pandered to the populist notion that the Clifton Green junction was a model of free flowing traffic prior to the introduction of the cycle lane, Labour now finds that it must either jettison its election promise to scrap the lane or it must ignore the advice of the emergency services – and the majority of consultees – and introduce a system markedly more dangerous than exists there now.
Will Councillors accept liability for any increase in accident numbers at a remodelled junction? We don’t think so.
What next in the populist stakes?
Well moving the market onto Parliament Street has been a clarion call for many years. Costs, and frankly the view that such a public space could be more imaginatively used – have inhibited such a change in the past.
But like a school boy with £5 to spend in a sweet shop, it may be a case of lets find some thing to spend £28 million on.
The Council – apparently without any sense of irony – have issued the following media statement:
“Spring is upon us and this means longer opening hours at City of York Council’s Household Waste Recycling centres.
From April 1 the sites will stay open later, to allow residents to use the lighter evenings to dispose of large amounts of recycling, garden waste and other rubbish.
Cllr Dafydd Williams, Cabinet member for Communities and Neighbourhoods said “As the evenings become longer the opening times have been extended to allow residents to make full use of the recycling facilities available. The sites are also open over the Easter weekend too.”
The sites provide a wide range of recycling facilities for household materials including all types of electricals, old textiles, shoes, clothing, wood, metal, garden waste, cardboard as well as plastic bottles, glass, cans and paper. Full details of what you can recycle at each site is available at www.york.gov.uk/waste
Opening times from 1 April until 30 September are as follows:
• Hazel Court: Monday to Saturday 8.30am to 7.00pm, Sundays 8.30am to 4.00pm
• Towthorpe/Strensall:- daily 8.30am to 7.00pm
• Beckfield Lane: Monday to Friday 5.00pm to 7.00pm, Saturday and Sunday: 10.00am to 2.00pm. (1st April – 16th April only!!!!)
• All sites will be open as usual on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday.
Meanwhile a total of 2189 residnets have now signed the petition asking for the Beckfield Lane tiip to remain open. These include 580 from residents living in the Westfield Ward which Cllr Wiliams (see above) is supposed to represent. 727 live in the Acomb Ward where the 2 Labour Councillors have also yet to declare whether they will support keeping Beckfield Lane open.
NB. The next distribution of free compost will take place at Yorwaste’s Harewood Whin site, on Tinker Lane, off Wetherby Road on:
• Sunday 1 April
• Sunday 6 May
• Sunday 3 June
• Sunday 8 July
• Sunday 5 August
• Sunday 2 September
• Sunday 7 October
The compost will be available from 9.30am until 2.30pm each day and residents are asked to bring a shovel and bags or containers to take the compost home in.
