The Foxwood Residents Association will be meeting on Wednesday.
The meeting is open to any Foxwood resident.
Background papers can be downloaded by clicking this link
What’s on in York: Foxwood Residents Meeting
What’s on in York: Acomb library anniversary event
Gale Lane – partial closure this week. Number 4 bus service affected
Monday 18th – Friday 22nd November
Gale Lane (St Stephens Road to Cornlands Road) closed between the hours of 09:15 – 17:00 for carriageway maintenance works.
Service 4 – The service will operate to southern end of Green Lane, turn around roundabout and return through Acomb via Green Lane, Front Street, Gale Lane, resuming normal route at Cornlands Road.
Stops not served: both stops on Tudor Road.
The number 24 bus service will also be re-routed.
What’s on in York: Foxwood OPEN centre
Community “Hubs” set to expand in York
Councillors will consider next week a report outlining the achievements of several “community hubs” that were established in the City in 2017.
The hubs are located at Sanderson Court Community House, Foxwood Community Centre, Red Tower and Tang Hall Community Centre. There were similar initiatives in Clifton and Bell Farm.
More recently the Westfield school has announced it is opening a Hub and similar ventures have been promoted by JRHT and local churches.
The aim of the Hubs was primarily to promote financial inclusion. The project also delivered job fairs, volunteer development programmes and training and support for residents.
The project claims that the numbers attending a Hub are in the order of 200 a week. It is known that some residents attend more than one Hub. The Hubs are mainly serviced by, hardworking, volunteers.
The project claims to have served 9,000 meals, shared 5,460kg of food from supermarkets and redistributed up to 6 crates of apples and pears a week made available through “Abundance York”.
The CAB says it has directed 200 clients to an additional £210,000 worth of benefits.
The report sets out a bewildering proposal for “accreditation” for new centres. It seems to be a bureaucratic approach to an issue which requires flexibility. We doubt that this part of the plan will be welcomed by many of the volunteers.
The Council could also usefully provide a list of Hubs – with opening hours and facilities available – on their web site. Better use of social media to promote the initiative would be welcomed by many.
The report doesn’t give many clues as to what proportion of the target group has participated. It also singularly fails to mention that the City’s poorest area (Windsor Garth) has no Hub although there is a school building nearby.
Nevertheless, in a modest way – and particularly by providing a safety net for those suffering food poverty – the Hubs have proved to be a success and deserve continuing Council support.
Ironically the amount being spent on the Hubs is still less in total than was routinely provided to support Community Centres prior to the Labour Councils grant cuts introduced 8 years ago.
Public services improving in York this week
The York Council has had a good week in providing public services. 100% refuse collection success today with the only significant missed collections, earlier in the week, down to “blocked accesses”. Their web page detailing service standards achieved can be accessed by clicking here
Elsewhere the fallen leaves that we reported on Bellhouse Way have been cleared from the paths
Improvement to Chesney’s Field football pitch
Council making progress in dealing with issues in Foxwood
Winter bring its usual problems.
Residents urged to check local salt bins
As we wait for the inevitable icy weather residents are being urged to check that their local salt bins are full and free of litter.
Salt bin locations are plotted on the Street View services map Click here to access. Look under “street care” then “salt bins funded by CYC”. Councillors should have completed their pre-winter checks by now, but some may have been missed.
Another recurrent problem that will arise, as wetter weather becomes more frequent, is damage to grass verges. This is sometimes caused by poor parking but also is prevalent on street corners where large vehicles leave the carriageway.
Some wards make use of a delegated budget to provide off street “eco grid” style parking lay-bys.
Others use the option of hardening vulnerable areas like road junctions. Again matrix surfacing conserves green space and good drainage while protecting verges from damage.
Stile collapses
We’d reported on several occasions that the stile access from Foxwood Lane onto Acomb Moor was unstable. It has now collapsed (wood rot).
Hopefully the field owners and local Councillors will get it fixed. There si no grazing on the moor at present so security is not compromised.
A decision on the Public Right of Way route, which uses the stile, will be made by the York Council in February.
