Weed control contractor sacked by York Council

The York Council has terminated the weed control contract which drew huge numbers of complaints during the summer months.

It became clear as early as June that something was sadly amiss.

It later turned out that many roads had been omitted from the contract.

Even those roads that were included rapidly became overgrown with weeds.

In the end local residents were forced to clear vegetation from locations where it posed a hazard. Later Council staff also joined in a clean up operation.

We only hope that any new contract includes both an input and an output specification and that it is properly supervised.

Man fined £700 for misuse of blue badge in Duncombe Place

An investigation carried out by City of York Council has uncovered and successfully prosecuted a case of Blue Badge fraud in York city centre.

Christopher Wilson (aged 46 of Fox Howe, Coulby Newham, Middlesbrough) was found misusing a family member’s Blue Badge in York.

Mr Wilson was seen by a Civil Enforcement Officer, parked on Duncombe Place, near York Minster in August 2019.

During the course of the investigation, conducted by Veritau, the council’s fraud investigation service, Mr Wilson was interviewed under caution and admitted that he was the driver of the vehicle displaying the Blue Badge.

He confirmed that the badge holder was not present at any point of the journey and was at home in Middlesbrough. Mr Wilson and his wife had driven to York that day for a social occasion and were running late for a restaurant reservation, when he decided to use the Blue Bade to park on yellow lines.

Mr Wilson was sentenced by York Magistrates on 28 January 2020 after pleading guilty by post and apologising for his actions. He received a fine and was ordered to pay court costs and victim surcharge, totaling £701.

£2 million cost for anti terror measures in York

Includes £300,000 project at York Racecourse

The Council’s Executive will be asked to approve permanent measures to better protect York’s busy city centre from hostile vehicle terror attacks when they meet on Thursday 13 February.

Executive Members will be asked to approve the installation of sliding and fixed bollards, which will replace the temporary measures that were introduced ahead of the 2019 festive period. The previous measures were introduced following police and counter terrorism advice to combat the threat of ‘vehicle as weapon attacks’, like those seen in Toronto, London and Nice. 

Executive previously gave approval for officers to start the procurement process for the permanent measures when they met in August 2019. The permanent measures will see vehicle access restricted to the city centre during footstreet hours by using a sliding bollard system. The measures will restrict access to Parliament Street, St Sampson’s Square, High Ousegate and Spurriergate, Coney Street, Davygate, St Sampson’s Square and Church Street during footstreet hours (10.30am -5pm).

To ensure there is still an appropriate level of blue badge parking in the city centre, it is also proposed that the loading bay and taxi rank on Piccadilly will be changed to blue badge parking. The change to the Traffic Regulation Order will be considered by the Executive Member for Transport at a decision session on 20 February.

The bollards will cost over £100,000 a year to maintain.

Councillor Andy D’Agorne, deputy leader and executive member for transport, said:

“However small the risk of terror attacks may be, the safety of everyone in York is our highest priority. That is why we have acted upon police and counter-terrorism unit advice to ensure appropriate measures are in place to protect residents and visitors in the city centre.”

“We are aware that permanent measures need to strike the correct balance between providing an appropriate level of security, whilst respecting York’s heritage and access for people with disabilities, which is why these measures include new provision for Blue Badge parking.”

Members will be asked to:

  • Approve the final location of the static and sliding bollards
  • Note the requirement for additional capital funding
  • Note the ongoing staffing and maintenance cost
  • Approve the procurement process for engaging with businesses to supply, install and maintain the bollards
  • Instruct officers to work with Make It York on the planning for security measures for Christmas 2020

An iron curtain descends?

It seems that the York Council will stop publishing responses to Freedom of information requests on its web site.

In 2009 the York Council became one of the first in the country to allow on line public scrutiny of the responses to information requests.

We have been critical in the past about the speed of the Councils information responses.

This came to a head in 2014 when the Information Commissioner became involved. The then Labour controlled Council introduced a new web page which offered links to all FOI responses.  The web page was immediately criticised as responses were not listed in chronological order and were grouped under, seemingly, random headings. There was no search facility.

Improvements were promised but never materialised.

Other independent web sites grew up which aimed to make getting and viewing information easier.  The best known is probably https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/

Now a report to a meeting taking place on Wednesday suggests that some officials want to make access to information even more difficult.

They intend to replace the current listings with what they term a “disclosure log”. No example of what such a log might look like are provided.

The report quotes an EU decision taken in 2016. The equivalent UK legislation became effective on 20th September 2019. It was aimed at improving accessibility for people with disabilities.

This is being interpreted by officials as preventing the publication of information on the Council web site in PDF* or Word format.

*NB.  There are many papers published on the Councils web site in PDF format including, ironically, the report being considered at Wednesday’s meeting!

Of concern, will be the implication that the FOI archive of decisions (going back 6 years) may no longer be easily accessible. This provides vital information for researchers. It also helps to avoid duplicate requests.

That, and loss of transparency on future responses, would be a major step backwards.

The report is for the “information” of the Council’s Audit and Governance” committee. They rightly should take a view on the issue but any decisions on obstructing public access to information must properly be made by the Councils Executive, following proper consultation

There is an provision in the legislation which allows an exemption for (historic) information translations where this would be an unreasonable burden on taxpayers.

The legislation does not cover third party web sites so information on https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/ should be unaffected.

Proper provision for disabled access can, and should, be made using, for example, a mirror site.

But this must not be at the expense of the amount of information released into the public domain.

Foxwood dog owner handed three control orders following multiple dog attacks

A local dog owner who failed to control his three dogs has been given multiple control orders following several attacks by his pets on other dogs in the area

Ben Cairns (aged 32 of Foxwood Lane, York) owns three American Pocket Bullies, a cross breed between an American Staffordshire Terrier and an American Pit Bull Terrier, and appeared at York Magistrates on 15 January 2020.

On four occasions during 2019, Mr Cairn’s dogs escaped from his control in the area where he lives, and attacked three small cross breeds and a Labrador cross which needed veterinary treatment. The owners suffered considerable distress too.

All the control orders have the same conditions. These include ensuring that each dog is kept under proper control at all times; securing the property and boundary where they are kept to prevent them from escaping; wearing a muzzle and collar identifying the name and address of the owner; and keeping each dog on a fixed-length lead at all time when in a public place.

While Mr Cairns has since re-homed one of his dogs, he is still its owner and will remain responsible for ensuring that the current keepers abide by the control order. Any breaches of the order will be Mr Cairns’ responsibility and could result in a £1,000 fine and, potentially, the possibility of the dogs being removed from his care.

Cllr Denise Craghill, Executive Member for Housing and Safer Neighbourhoods, said: “We will not tolerate irresponsible dog owners who do not take sufficient care to ensure their dogs are not a danger to other dogs, or cause fear to residents.

“We welcome the order issued by York Magistrates and will monitor and enforce the conditions to ensure compliance.”