Call for volunteers to help shift wood-chip “mountain” in Foxwood

The Foxwood Residents Association is asking for help with a community garden project at the Foxwood Community centre which will see a large amount of wood chippings spread on flower beds. The move is intended to discourage week growth next season when the Association will be entering the “Yorkshire in Bloom” contest.

Some  of the chippings will be spread on a new woodland path

Anyone with some time to spare helping spread the chippings should ring Sue on York 794111

Sue and Neil with the wood-chip “mountain”

Woodland walk taking shape

Council aims to make £3 million profit by building and selling houses on Lowfields playing fields

Lowfields playing field development – decisions expected on Thursday

Lowfields Green – Controversial development to be debated on Thursday

Despite no planning permission having been granted for the proposed development of the playing fields at Lowfields, the York Councils Executive will debate on Thursday how construction work will be funded.

We have already commented on the bizarre claim that a new football pitch, being established near Bishopthorpe, will in some way compensate for the loss of pitches at Lowfields.

December 2016 report extract

Another report on the Executive agenda addresses how the Council can fund its Lowfields plan. It intends to use a new Housing Development Company (HDC) to undertake the work.

The report refers to a previous meeting in December 2016 (right)  when the decision was taken to sell off the site for £4.5 million. At that time the Executive also decided to ask for reports on how health facilities, a police depot and football facilities could be provided. Of these, only the report on football pitches has been forthcoming.

The new report claims that in July 2017 “66% of people who provided feedback gave support the plans”. The report fails to mention that the Council consultation didn’t offer the opportunity for residents to object to the development of the playing field. Most of the favourable comments – as they are with the current planning application – came from people living outside the area who were lobbied to support the “communal build” section of the development (which will not be located on the playing field).

The report makes other contentious claims.

It says using the Councils HDC will reduce the time that builders will be on site.  The Council has no control over how long self-builders, the community builders, the Health centre, the care home and police builders will be on site. None of these uses is included in the detailed planning application.

The Councils claim of a 30-month development period is therefore highly optimistic.

They hope to start building towards the end of 2018.

The report also lauds the “6,434 sq. metres of public open space” being provided.

Currently there is 33,150 metres of usable green space on the site. The new design includes a, so called, “pocket park” which is little more than a wide grass verge while the usable part of the “village green“ is little bigger that the existing green space at the junction of Lowfields Drive and Dijon Avenue

However, the main concern for most taxpayers will be the plan to borrow an additional £9 million to fund building work. The Council already has a total debt of over £357m (including £139m historic council housing debt).

Around 13% of residents Council Tax payments are used to pay interest charges. This is set to increase to 14% next year.

The development (houses and infrastructure) will cost £25 million.

The Council hopes to sell houses for £28 million, making a £3 million profit.

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.

Future of Windsor House site being discussed

Proposal for Centre of Excellence for Disabled Children

Windsor House

A report is being discussed next week which is expected to result in confirmation of plans to close the Windsor House elderly persons home on Ascot Way. The proposal was first discussed in September and now Council officials are reporting back on the discussions that they have had with residents, their relations and staff.

5 residents have recently moved out leaving 17 to find new homes. The Council says that there is currently a good supply of alternative accommodation options available including Glen Lodge.

The care home has 33 staff in total, the majority of who work part time.

The main criticism of the closure relates to timing. Promised modern elderly care facilities on the west of the City will not be available for 2 or 3 years.

Lincoln Court

Hedges blocked view and light from Lincoln Court flats in the summer

Considerable concerns have been expressed by residents of the adjacent Lincoln Court sheltered development.

These self-contained flats which include some communal space, are not included in the closure plans. However, the building has been allowed to deteriorate recently. Window frames are rotten, while an ongoing criticism has been about poor management of parking facilities.  Some boundary hedges weren’t cut in the summer, effectively isolated the elderly residents from the rest of the community.

York must do better in the way that it treats its tenants at Lincoln Court. They need to be given

assurances about the future of their flats as well as a date when modernisation works will commence.

The future of the Windsor Garth site

The Council has unveiled what seems to be a caring and imagination use for the Ascot Way site when the existing buildings have been demolished.

The report describes a possible state of the art facility for disabled children

 

“Should Windsor House close, the site could be redeveloped as the location for the Centre of Excellence for Disabled Children and their Families, for housing or sold.”

Just as society doesn’t always treat the elderly as well as it should, the same could be said of people with disabilities. The principle of the proposed facility would therefore be welcome.

However, there are two significant issues to be addressed before any further development is considered in this neighbourhood.

Traffic congestion and lack of off street parking are now major problems.

They have worsened since 66 additional homes were built on the Hob Stones site and were exacerbated by the Council decision not to let the garages in Newbury Avenue pending the redevelopment of that site. The two issues are linked with inadequate “on street” parking space making access difficult even for the bus service.

There have been calls to introduce a “one way” system or even reopen the second access from Kingsway West.

Whatever the solution may be, one must be found before any development takes place which could further increase vehicle movements in the area.

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.

 

Front Street greengrocer fined and banned

Ordered to pay £9,600 for hygiene and waste offences

 A greengrocer has been ordered to pay a total £9,624.32 having been found guilty of 12 food hygiene and waste disposal offences at his shop.

On 3 November 2017, York Magistrates Court found Gary Anderson (aged 54) of Northfield Lane, Riccall, guilty in his absence of a number of offences relating to food hygiene, environmental health and waste disposal at his shop on Front Street, Acomb.

These included not acting to prevent a rat infestation, presenting food not fit for human consumption, displaying an incorrect food hygiene rating and failing to dispose of waste correctly.

At the hearing on 3 November, a warrant was issued for his arrest and he was taken into custody yesterday (23 November 2017).

At Friday’s hearing, York Magistrates imposed £300 fines for each of four offences to which Anderson had pleaded guilty. The Magistrates also imposed £400 fines for each of eight offences which Anderson was found guilty of at trial. While recognising that Anderson had spent a day in custody, he was also ordered to pay a court surcharge of £170.

The Magistrates deemed the one day’s detention Anderson had spent in the court cells served for having missed the trial on 3 November. The fines totalled £4,4000.

A Hygiene Prohibition Order was also made preventing Anderson from participating in the management of any food business for an unlimited period.

The Magistrates told Anderson: “It is reasonable the public should not have to foot the costs of the investigation and order you pay the full prosecution costs.” These totalled £5,054.32.

The Magistrates added: “This is a very serious breach of the regulations, putting the public at risk. You were clearly given advice and chose to disregard it and continued doing so for many months”

The shop has since closed.

Advice on food hygiene is available at www.york.gov.uk/FoodSafetyStandards or by calling (01904) 551525. Please report incorrect waste disposal by calling (01904) 551551.