The curtain of secrecy falls again at York Council

Those hoping for more transparency at the York Council under its new LibDem/Green leadership have been desperately disappointed this week.

First a failure to reform the system for granting early release resulted in a “behind closed doors” decision which could be costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Now the Council has closed down direct access to the responses that it has made to Freedom of Information requests.

For over 10 years residents were able to browse “on line” what the Council had said in response to requests.

No more.

The responses have been removed from the Council web site and users must now search a disclosure log before requesting copies of the responses.

There are hundreds of FOI and  Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) requests made each year.

York Council block direct access to information

In most cases the issue titles used on the log – which is 6 months out of date – give little clue as to what has been asked. Much less could users second guess the answers.

Instead they must make an application for access to the source document.

In most cases we would expect that researchers would simply submit a new request.

At present the “What do they know” web site is unaffected https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/select_authority

The performance of the Council in responding to FOIs is poor. There is one current example – a request for  copies of Service Level Agreements – which has been outstanding for over 4 months; well outside the performance target set by the Information Commissioner.

Ostensibly the Council has made the change to ensure that those with disabilities have the same opportunity to get information as the able bodied.

Unfortunately the Councils interpretation means that both sectors of the community will now share a common level of ignorance and inconvenience.

As a minimum the Council should put a link on its “register” to the actual documents. Web services such as “dropbox” make this very easy to do.

A parallel service for disabled uses should also be made available.

Old York, Old York so good they named it twice

The Council are preparing to have one of their periodic chats about their “image” over the next few days. The style and use of logos will be on Councillors minds as they seek to redefine the authorities corporate brand.

There are apparently 40 different logos in use by the Councils various departments. According to officials “They are often used to create an artificial distance from the council creating the impression the council doesn’t do anything”.

The Council say that it is opposed to the creation of more “logos” although it failed to stop the seminally obscure “Live Well York” campaign which is an impenetrable “What’s on” listing service.

Many residents would hope that the Councils image is defined by the quality of the public services that it provides.

Anyone driving towards York on the A64 will wonder why they are welcomed to the City with two separate signs in the space of 100 metres. The parallel York Road entry to Askham Bryan neither welcome nor seeks to repel visitors

The Council has sought to raise revenue from roadside advertising for several years. Several roundabouts are sponsored.

One of the boundary signs on the A64 is sponsored by LNER and has a neat railway logo on the reverse which few probably see.(right)

Some, like the reverse of that on the A59 approach from Green Hammerton, are more obscure

Are you being served?

It isn’t just the numbers engaging with Council webcasts (see next story) that is exciting Councillors interest.

A meeting next week is set to agonise about how to get more engagement by residents both in respect of their local community as well as on a citywide issues.

There is a cause for concern.

York Council engagement slide

Communication levels by individual Councillors seem to have gone backwards in recent years. Only the occasional political diatribe now finds its way through many letterboxes

Residents in many wards has come to expect annual surveys on local public service standards. A newsletter reporting back on progress would be delivered to homes every few months while campaigns and petitions, for local improvements, were regular events. Several web sites were set up (Facebook, Twitter, “blogs” etc) but few are updated regularly these days .

Many of these initiatives have faded in recent years. Ineffective leadership and a lack of drive seems to be the main problem.

Ward committees were set up to try to provide a better local engagement opportunity. Attendance at these (should be) quarterly meetings has never been high. This may be partly because there has been little “reporting back” on residents concerns.

Incredibly as we approach the end of the financial year, some wards have yet to allocate, much less spend, their delegated budgets. According to the list of minutes published on the Councils web site, some apparently haven’t even met for nearly two years.

Very few Councillors are routinely active on social media, although the propensity for personal abuse on some channels, may be a deterrent. There is really, though, no reason why they should not contribute each week to a “ward news” type site. Indeed the time may have come for a trial of a monthly “podcast” for each neighbourhood.

Those areas that do not have a Parish council or active Residents Association do seem to miss out.

The report on engagement to next weeks meeting is disappointing. It points to the “My Castle Gateway” consultation as a paradigm. In reality that was a ponderous exercise which – lacking a critical financial appraisal – arguably produced the wrong outcome.

A similar approach is threatened for the debate on the future of the City Centre. It would be a slow and costly process which would be likely to engage only a particular section of the local community; sometimes referred to as the “provincial, academic, socialist elite” (PASE) .

We need less hand wringing for the York Council, less navel gazing and more action.

If people see change and improvement being implemented then they may respond.

No Councillor R E Mote in York

City of York Councillors will have to continue to attend meetings in person as plans for tele conferencing have been shelved for the time being at least. Central government rules require members to be physically present at meetings if they are to exercise their vote.

It is possible that teleconferencing may be introduced for regional and national meetings.

The decision is contained in a report published yesterday which revealed that there were 63,949 “views” of webcast Council meetings in the City during the last year. That was up 28% on the previous period and includes “live” views and those later watching “on demand”.

The largest number of views was for a controversial audit meeting held on 18th September 2019 which attracted 2849.

On the other hand the numbers viewing some other meetings have been as low as 63. The budget Council meeting last week attracted only 424 viewers.

It is unclear what proportion of York residents are regular viewers. Some at least may be participants, their families and friends.

There was some scepticism when webcasting was first introduced about the value for money of the service. However, it is now regarded as a useful decision making record and is a valuable resource  for researchers.

A similar service has been introduced by several other Councils.

Archaeologists uncover more of the Guildhalls’ rich history in latest findings

Archaeological investigations have uncovered a previously unknown Roman road, currency and an abundance of Roman pottery at the site of the Guildhall as restoration work continues.

Over the last six months, York Archaeological Trust (YAT) has been working on behalf of City of York Council, to monitor and record any archaeological deposits or features that are exposed through the ongoing redevelopment and restoration work of VINCI Construction UK at the Guildhall complex.

While much of the site has, in the past, been extensively disturbed by modern drains and foundations, some significant discoveries have been made.

In the South Range area of the development, the excavation of new foundation trenches recently revealed an area of cobbled surface dated to the Roman period. Buried over 1.5m below modern street level, the surface contained an abundance of Roman pottery and a silver coin. Furthermore, the excavation of a small trench revealed that three distinct surfaces had been laid, suggesting that it remained in use for a considerable period.

The relatively rough construction of the surface may suggest that it represents a yard or lane rather than a main road, however, its location is significant. The surface is situated close to both the projected location of the Roman crossing point over the River Ouse and the junction of Roman road 2 (broadly followed by modern Coney Street) and the Via Praetoria; the road leading into the Porta Praetoria gatehouse and under modern Stonegate to the centre of the Fortress.

York flood defences will remain in place and teams on standby over the weekend

River levels have dropped dramatically over the last 12 hours and most paths and roads are now passable.

City of York Council will be keeping its temporary defences in place over the weekend as a precaution and to reassure residents, visitors and businesses that York is open for business.

The latest advice from the Environment Agency (EA) is that the River Ouse is expected to peak between 3.8 and 4.1m during the weekend. That is significantly lower that has been seen over the last 2 weeks when flood defences held successfully.

View the latest river level predictions and warnings here

The Met Office has put in place a yellow rain warning for today into the evening and early Saturday across the Pennines. There is a further rainfall band which is being monitored by Met Office for Saturday night.

Frontline teams will remain on standby over the weekend for floods and also for gritting, having worked for several weeks, 24/7, in shifts since Storm Ciara.

To-date the council has deployed over 6,000 sandbags and has around 25 pumps operating across the city.

The council is continuing to monitor the situation 24 hours a day – working closely with partners including the Environment Agency.

The council continues to work closely with the York and North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum, which includes police and fire services as well as North Yorkshire County Council, Met Office and Environment Agency.

Councillor Keith Aspden, Leader of City of York Council said:
“Although river levels are falling, there is a further rainfall expected. As a precaution we’ll be keeping our defences in place over the weekend to keep the city safe, moving and open for business

150 York pubs set to get business rates discount

The York Council is planning to reduce the Business Rates burden on 1650 retail outlets and pubs in the City.

It means for smaller businesses, occupying premises with a rateable value of less than £51,000, tax bills could be halved. As well as the basic discount, pubs will get an extra £1000 off their bills if their premises have a Rateable Value of less than £100,000.

The Council says that properties that will benefit from the relief will be occupied hereditaments with a rateable value of less than £51,000 that are wholly or mainly being used as shops, restaurants, cafes, drinking establishments, cinemas and live music venues.

A report to a meeting taking place on 9th March lists dozens of examples of the type of business which could benefit

The proposal is likely to be good news for those businesses that publicly criticised the Council for what they claimed was a lack of response to their problems during the recent floods.

It is thought that the move could also encourage new businesses to occupy empty properties in the City.

The report says, “As with the previous schemes businesses often fail to apply so the council will automatically award the discount to all the properties that can be identified as meeting the criteria. It will be the responsibility of the business to complete and return state aid forms or risk the award being rescinded”.

There is no cost to the council in providing either discount which will be fully reimbursed by Central Government through the “rates retention system”. The scheme will apply for 2020/21 only unless the government renews the funding support next year

Council Budget passed

The York Council approved the LibDem/Green budget last night

In an unconnected development, the Council is today inviting residents to sign up for FREE suicide prevention training workshops in the City

People are being encouraged to sign up for free suicide prevention training workshops in York next month as part of the #TalkSuicide campaign from local NHS and council organisations.

The Humber, Coast and Vale Health and Care Partnership is hosting two workshops in York on Tuesday, 10th March 2020 at Mariott Room, York Library, Library Square, York YO1 7DS – and members of the public are invited to attend to learn life-saving skills.

These one-hour workshops, which will run between 9.30am-10.30am and 11am-12pm, are free to attend but it is essential to register beforehand. You can register at bit.ly/talksuicideyork.

There were 6,507 registered suicides in the UK in 2018 – which amounts to one death by suicide every 80 minutes. Yorkshire and Humber had some of the highest rates of suicide in England in 2018.

The suicide prevention workshops will be group training sessions, including interactive video-based training from the Zero Suicide Alliance and discussion with people who work in suicide prevention within our local community. Free refreshments will be available.

Completing the training at the workshop will help you to:

  • Identify the signs of when someone might be suffering from suicidal thoughts.
  • Feel comfortable speaking out about suicide in a supportive manner. 
  • Signpost anyone suffering from suicidal thoughts to the correct services and support. 

The workshops are part of the Partnership’s #TalkSuicide campaign, which aims to reduce the stigma around talking about suicide by raising awareness about suicide in our communities and encouraging our people to complete suicide prevention training.

Jo Kent, Suicide Prevention Lead for the Humber, Coast and Vale Health and Care Partnership, said: “Every death by suicide is a tragedy and in Humber, Coast and Vale we are working collaboratively with the NHS, councils, voluntary organisations and other groups to prevent suicides from happening in our communities.

“The suicide prevention training is integral to this work as those who complete the training can make a real difference in their communities, simply by being better placed to identify those people who might be suicidal, and knowing what to say to them and signposting them to the most appropriate services.

“We want to train as many people as possible in our communities so if you can spare an hour on the morning of Tuesday, 10th March please register for one of the free suicide prevention training workshops taking place in York – the skills you learn could help you save someone’s life in the future.”

Can’t attend either of the York workshops? Workshops are also being held in Scarborough, Beverley, Hull, Scunthorpe and Grimsby during March. Visit talksuicide.co.uk to find out when these workshops are taking place.

You can also complete the training on the talksuicide.co.uk website, where you can also find out more about the #TalkSuicide campaign.

£500,000 grant for York communal housing group

The York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) was today asked to grant £1/2 million to the Yorspace communal housing group.  The group claimed that their £4 million scheme would create 50 jobs in the construction sector and would be built to uniquely high levels of sustainability.

A report to the decision meeting held today says “This project is a departure from what the Local Growth Fund has supported to date”

LEPs were set up to “support growth, create new jobs and businesses

Although Yorspace identify 50 new jobs in the construction sector and high insulation standards in the homes, these are far from unique outcomes.

The developer claims it will build “19 low carbon homes….constructed on the Lowfield Green site using biobased sustainable construction materials….sourced locally….and have low embodied carbon, create low energy healthy homes and produce zero waste“.  LEP officials observe that it is unclear what this actually means

The alternative of developing the land for Council housing would have produced the same outcomes. The Council has agreed that all its new build properties will be to “Passivhaus” environmental standards.

The LEPs independent appraiser identified a few weaknesses such as unclear aspects of  procurement, state aid and match funding.

Yorspace is a communal housing cooperative in which house occupiers buy a stake. Originally it was thought that the group would provide homes for the less well off but that seems to be less clear now. Their pitch now seems to be based on the use of ultra sustainable building materials

When the York Council offered to sell a plot for the 19 homes on the Lowfields site it did not impose conditions which would have required the units to be occupied by the less well off, by those on the housing waiting list or even to those currently living in York or North Yorkshire.

No groups such as “key workers” are targeted for the occupation of the units

The project has already been offered a cheap land deal at Lowfields by the York Council and hopes to attract £855,000 from Homes England. Yorspace and its partner the “Lowfield Green Housing Cooperative” currently have joint assets of around £5000. They recently ran a “crowd funding” appeal.

The LEP are clearly concerned that other house builders might regard any state subsidy as unfair. The report says,  “State Aid: The most appropriate applicant – Yorspace or the Lowfield Green Housing Co-operative – needs to be identified, then the State Aid position clarified in the light of this. This also needs to address potential objections from other housebuilders when any LEP grant is publicised”.

The LEP report concludes “In recommending provisional approval it is in recognition that this is an unusual but innovative project that needs further support and assistance and may in the end not be able to be funded”.

The York Council has not debated their approach to this latest application for a taxpayer funded subsidy.

LEP papers are published on their web site but are not easy to find. Meetings attract little advanced publicity.

The meeting report can be downloaded by clicking here

Grant application to LEP