Carlton Tavern – planning rerun recommendations published

Officials are recommending that permission be given for the Carlton Tavern pub to be demolished and replaced with a care home.

A planning committee meeting taking place on 13th December will vote again on the issue following threats of a legal challenge to a decision to approve the proposal taken at its October meeting.

At that time the committee chair had to use his casting vote to determine the application.

The officer report now clarifies their interpretation of national and European guidance.

Over 150 objections to the plan have been recorded.

Sparks occupied Council Piccadilly site without permission

Containers being installed on 4th September

Tenancy agreement only signed on 9th November – 2 months after shipping containers arrived.

A response to a Freedom of Information request, recorded with the City of York Council on 15th November, has revealed irregularities with the lease for the site on which the containers were installed at the beginning of September.

It has emerged that the operator Sparks had, and still has, no lease for the site.

A “tenancy at will” was signed as recently as 9th November 2017.

In effect the company was able to park their assets on Council land for 2 months without permission or payment.

In November 2016 the Council’s Executive had agreed to lease 17/21 Piccadilly for the storage container village. The development was to start trading in May 2017 and the lease would expire in June 2020. The Council agreed to stump up £40,000 to cover the cost of providing water, electric and gas supply.

The Council was to have had a representative on the Sparks Board to look after its financial interests.

The Council expected to receive a basic rent plus a 30% share of “profits” (sic). The minutes of the meeting were clear that a lease (and hence rent payments) had to be in place to underwrite any Council investment.

A year later and the development has not been completed. No lease is in place. The Council has received no rent payments. No business rates have been paid on the site.

Risk warning Nov 2016

The containers have yet to be fitted out.

However, it has also emerged that the Council has already spent £31,500 (of the £40,000 budget) on facilitating the development.

Sparks has said that the earliest the container village could open is in March 2018. That would leave just 2 years for the Council to recover its investment.

The development has been described as an ugly eyesore made worse by its proximity to several sensitive historic buildings

Later this week a Councillor will be asked to extend the area to be covered by the lease to Sparks.  The area has most recently been used for car parking.

No additional payment is being sought from the developer for the extra land.

Planning applications for the Westfield Ward

The have been no new planning applications validated for the Westfield Ward for over 3 weeks.

However, Council officials have approved, using delegated powers, plans to build an additional house in the garden of 21 Stirrup Close. The application attracted several objections mainly because of concerns about inadequate “on street” parking provision.

York Council set to become City’s largest PRIVATE landlord

Lowfields Green – “pack em in” approach to housing development?

Not content with being the largest provider of affordable (Council House) accommodation in the City, the York Council is now considering entering the private rented market.

Under plans to be discussed next week, it would set up a company that would develop homes on land currently owned by the authority. They hope to reinvest the profits from rents, and some house sales, into further developments.

In recent times, Council land has generally been developed by Housing Associations who have rented the properties at little more than the rents charged to Council tenants.

This approach is set to change with the Council now saying it will enter the private rental market.

Private rents in the City are typically three times higher than Council house rents.  Private rent levels in the city have increased by 17% during the last 5 years.

Any private rented properties managed by the Council would not be subject to “Right to Buy” legislation (and hence discounts).

Individual developments would still have to include a planning requirement for at least 20% affordable units. It is possible that the housing revenue account (mainly income from Council House rents) will be used to purchase homes to expand further  the number of affordable units available.

The sites that the Council hopes to develop through a new QUANGO are located at these sites:

  • Former Askham Bar Park and Ride
  • Former Burnholme College
  • Castle Piccadilly,
  • “City Centre car parks”,
  • Former Clifton Without School,
  • Hospital Fields Road/Ordnance Lane,
  • Former Lowfield School,
  • Former Manor School,
  • Tang Hall Library,
  • Woolnough House.

The plan to develop land in the city centre, which is currently used for car parking, may come as a shock. The Council has yet to confirm what its long term policy is on parking space numbers in the city centre, but any reduction is likely to be opposed by beleaguered traders. It is possible that the intention is to add one or two floors above existing car parks. That is an idea that has been floated in the past with mixed reactions.

The inclusion of the other sites may be premature. Particularly so in the case of Lowfields, where a recently submitted planning application has yet to been determined.

Taxpayers face an early blow if the plan is approved.

Investment/return profile

Upfront costs of £450,000 have been identified.  This will mostly be spent on staff.

Ongoing staffing costs of £225,000 a year in the development company are predicted, while forecasts suggest that development costs will not be fully offset by sales income for up to 8 years.

All in all, this is a risky and complex project for the Council to be considering. There will be unease that it is biting off more than it can chew with delays on providing homes the most likely consequence.

  1. In the last couple of years the numbers of new homes built in York has exceeded 1000 – well above draft Local Plan requirements.

Bishopthorpe 1, Westfield 0

2.9 miles from Lowfields to replacement football pitch

The Council is to consider next week a  plan to spend £400,000 providing new football pitches for a team based in Bishopthorpe.

Good luck to “Bishopthorpe White Rose Football Club”. We wish them success.

However the Councils claim that this project will replace the football pitches, on which they hope to build, at Lowfields is complete “tosh”

The Tadcaster Road site (behind the London Bridge Service Station) is 3 miles from Lowfields. There is simply no way that Lowfields residents – old or new – would regard Sim Balk Lane as a convenient alternative for any kind of local leisure facility.

The truth of the matter is that the Bishopthorpe Football Club’s needs have grown over the years and they have (rightly) approached the Council for help. It is a coincidence that the Lowfields project came along at the same time.

The Council is being duplicitous in linking the two projects.

If a section Section 106 contribution towards sports facilities is available, then the £400,000 should be spent in the Westfield area. Last year, when the Executive first hatched its plan, they were talking about providing the current users of the pitches (Woodthorpe Wanderers) with new facilities. That idea seems to have been quietly forgotten.

Better still, the Council should leave the existing Lowfields pitches alone. Such a decision would be in line with the decision taken at the last Executive meeting which agreed to review open space provision in the City.

The plot hatched by Council officials is aimed at persuading Sport England to remove their blocking objection to the current Lowfields Planning application.

The Executive is also due to consider borrowing around £9 million to build houses on the Lowfields site(!) More about this later.

 

Planning applications – Gremlins on Council planning portal

It looks like last weekends update of the Council “planning portal” has gone badly wrong. The site should list all planning applications received (validated) by the Council during the preceding week.

Since the weekend (when the site was down for “maintenance”) the applications for the weeks commencing 13th and 20th November have disappeared. Some have reappeared on the current weeks list (27th Nov).

Taking the Westfield Ward as an example the site suggests that no applications have been “validated” since 7th November.

The issue is important because residents wishing to object (or support) particular planning applications have only a limited time to record their views. That time is being eroded.

The matter has been raised with senior Councillors and officials at the Council but the Authority has yet to make a statement about what has gone wrong and what is being done to remedy the failure.

 

Citywide review of green and recreation space provision

At last nights the City of York’s Executive call-in meeting regarding the sale of Willow Lodge, the Liberal Democrats called for a review of green and recreational space provision across York.

It was announced during the call-in, that the highest bidder for the sale of Willow Lodge had reduced their offer for the purchase of the land. The decision will need to come back to the Executive for a future report, after assessment of the commercial bids.  This report would itself be subject to the same possibilities of a call-in.

In a separate vote, Liberal Democrats Councillors called on Council Officers to undertake a review of green and recreational space, when considering future decision on developing Council land.

Cllr Andrew Waller added:

“There is a growing interest in public open space, whether it is playing fields or small recreational sites, which provide a break in the urban development of York.  All residents in York should feel that they are being considered when decisions are taken on developing Council land.

Carlton Tavern – re-run of planning meeting expected on 13th December

It looks like there will be a re-run of the debate and vote on the future of the Carlton Tavern. The Planning Committee (on the casting vote of the Chairman) agreed last month that the pub be demolished to make way for an elderly care home.

Various sources on social media are now claiming that the Council will look again at the proposal following threats of a Judicial Review by a national amenity society.

Council officials have, apparently, agreed to further clarify the planning advice that they gave the committee.

Quite whether this will make any difference remains to be seen. It is at least a possibility that different Councillors may attend the meeting making it possible that a different conclusion will be reached.

We will see.

It seems that the Council is caught between a rock and a hard place.

Now Drainage Board highlights Lowfields playing field development issues

click to view complete letter

According to the “Save Lowfields Playing Field Action Groups Facebook page the Ainsty Internal Drainage Board is unhappy with the Council’s plans to develop the playing field.

The Drainage Board comments come a few days after Sport England recorded a formal (holding) objection to the plans. Sport England say that the Council proposed alternative football pitch location (Sim Balk Lane) is unconvincing with any facility there likely to be used mainly by Bishopthorpe.

Lowfields Green – a candidate for the least imaginative architecture award?

Concerns about water run off rates, from what is currently a self draining grassed field, are not unexpected.

A glace at the Council unimaginative serried rows of new houses (see left) as well as offering little streetscape relief, have minimal green space provision.

Sport England objection

Hard surfaces increase water run off rates and neighbouring properties could be adversley affected.

Hopefully the Council will now withdraw its proposals and come with something that not only increases the availability of homes in the area but also addresses some endemic failings.

Not least amongst these are the lack of open space and sports pitches in the Westfield ward.

One of the consequences of poor leisure and other public services is that life expectancy in the area is significantly below the Citywide average

 

Castle/Piccadilly redevelopment – more meetings

New river walkways and public spaces, new uses for Castle car park, and alternative parking are among the exciting ideas to regenerate Castle Gateway being shared over the next month.

Guided walks across the weekend will introduce the range of ideas to regenerate the huge area of the city ― taking in Piccadilly, Fossgate, Castle, Eye of York and much more – at a special launch event taking place this weekend.

Planners have generated the ideas based on what people said during the first stage of My Castle Gateway, a unique and bold new consultation approach introduced earlier this year. You can also view and feed back all the ideas online at www.york.gov.uk/CastleGatewayIdeas .

City of York Council has joined forces with local engagement experts My Future York to run a series of guided walks, interactive events and online discussions to explore what people want to see and do in the area.

Instead of producing a single masterplan, the Castle Gateway team has created a series of options to allow York’s residents and businesses to keep shaping the future.

However, the consultation process has been criticised for being too ponderous and lacking any sense of urgency. Decisions on the sites are needed urgently to avoid piecemeal development and seize the opportunity to regenerate an area which has been run down for too long.
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