There was a disappointing amount of litter lying around in some neighbourhoods today. We’ve reported over 20 issues to the Council
As well as litter, these included weed growth, hedges blocking footpaths and dumping.
Litter was particularly bad on Chesney’s Field while a hedge overgrowing from Hob Moor is now obstructing Kingsway West.
We are told that the Council will be making a statement about the failed weed control contract within the next few days.
York Council “doesn’t know” clean up costs
A York Councillor has been told, in a response to a Freedom of Information request, that it doesn’t know what the cost of clearing fly tipping in the City is.
The Councillor claims that new charges and access restrictions to the City’s recycling centres are resulting in more fly tipping.
There are certainly issues to be addressed in both east and west York.
First has reversed its plan to charge £2 for the trip from Front Street to Chapelfields. The price hike from £1 was widely criticised. Although a short distance, the service is well used by those with heavy shopping to carry. The gradient can be a problem for some.
The new fare will be £1-20p
A similar situation exists in other parts of the CVity including Foxwood, although there, the short hop fare to Acomb has yet to be revised.
We have generally been supportive of the improvements that First have made to their services over recent years.
However, changes to short journey fares seem to be have been driven more by administrative convenience than passenger needs.
NB. Over 50% of bus journeys are made by pensioners using their free passes.
Below are the latest planning applications received by the York Council for the Westfield ward.
Full details can be found by clicking the application reference
—-
1 Vesper Drive York YO24 3HT
Various pruning works to trees protected by Tree Preservation Order no.18
Ref. No: 19/01710/TPO
—
Watermeadows Ltd 19 York Road Acomb York YO24 4LW
Condition 3 of 18/02006/FUL
Ref. No: AOD/19/00285
——
Representations can be made in favour of, or in objection to, any application via the Planning on line web site. http://planningaccess.york.gov.uk/online-applications/
NB. The Council now no longer routinely consults neighbours by letter when an application is received
They are:
The plans are broadly to be welcomed.
Over the last 8 years the number of locally determined improvement schemes has declined while those that have been approved have faced unacceptable delays in implementation.
One set of new parking laybys in the Westfield area took over 4 years to plan and construct.
A report to the Councils executive meeting this week, paints a confused picture of what is wrong with the current “ward committee” process and what might replace it.
Councillor dominated “Ward teams” will stand in for residents associations where the latter do not exist.
£250,000 has been allocated to wards for them to spend making local communities “safer”. Although joint working with the police is proposed, the major issue – an institutional reluctance to expand the use of technology solutions such as CCTV – remains. So, the most that residents will likely see will be “target hardening” style initiatives.
Two additional staff members are to be employed helping to administer ward committee improvements. Last year £157,000 of ward budget was not spent. This is put down to process delays.
£500,000 is being allocated for local highways improvements (road and footpaths). A further £500,000 is allocated for “walking and cycling” improvements. The irony, that better highways maintenance is the best way of encouraging safe walking and cycling, appears to be lost on the report authors.
The £1 million simply should be added to the road and footpath resurfacing budget.
The budget is classified as “capital” meaning that it must be spent on an asset with a long lifespan. That would seem to rule out a crash programme aimed at removing the trees, hedges and weeds which obstruct many existing foot and cycle paths.
The idea of recognising and responding to local concerns is the right one though.
Poor highway maintenance is invariably the most criticised local public service in residents satisfaction polls.
The Council plans to introduce a “6 stage” process in allocating the estate improvement budget. As the main criticisms of the existing process is that it is cumbersome and slow, the introduction of additional bureaucratic stages is unlikely to be welcomed.
The report talks of the provision of parking lay-by taking up to 24 months to complete. In the past, the use of contractors had cut this target time down to less than 4 months. Councils should return to the old procedure where Residents Associations/Parish Councils took responsibility for drawing up improvement lists.
Finally, the report talks of using a mechanistic formulae for assessing the “social value” of each project. As a way of spending scarce public resources this is a discredited approach. The value of projects can best be determined by door to door surveys thus giving residents a chance to directly influence their neighbourhood.
The report does not propose any PFIs to monitor progress on any of these programmes.
It does, however, require decisions to be made in public and with a public record. Regular “on line” updates are proposed (although these have been promised in the past but have never been produced in a timely or accessible way)
There are no proposals which would provide better support for Residents Associations. The Council recently refused to even publicise RA activities on its web site.
How much locally?
The Council has published a list indicating the amounts that will be available to spend in each ward. In Westfield (one of the largest wards) during the present financial year that totals £55,878
With highways (£63,830) and safer communities fund (£17,181). That figure increases to nearly £120,000 over 4 years.
To put that into context a 4 space parking bay costs around £10,000, while the resurfacing of Stonegate is costing £1/2 million this year.
Part of the additional funding is coming from the NHS
The “current timeline for the centre is for the main build to be completed by January 2020 with opening scheduled for May 2020”.
A council report says that, during quarter 1 within the Lincoln Court Scheme, the work to relocate all Lincoln Court tenants into alternative accommodation was completed successfully, this has then allowed Sewell’s to take possession of the site, undertake site set up and begin enabling works.
This has included a full invasive asbestos survey and works to build an access road and car parking for sub-contractors accessed via the Hob Moor primary academy site.
All the remaining window replacement works have been completed in this quarter as has the demolition of the single storey extension in preparation for works to begin for the new build extension.
The Council says that “the Centre of Excellence and Lincoln Court project teams have worked together to communicate with residents neighbouring the site and also to keep Ward Councillors updated on project progress. £750k budget has been transferred from 2019/20 into 2020/21”
There is still no update provided on the promised replacement children’s games area will be provided
A planning application, which would have seen the residential accommodation above the Premier shop on Gale Lane converted into 5 letting rooms, has been withdrawn.
The proposal was criticised by some residents who feared that 5 separate, unrelated, tenants would generate additional parking problems in the area. There are already issues with inadequate parking on St Stephens Road.
Other criticisms related to the lack of waste bin space and the absence of any cycle storage.
The owners may be permitted to use the first floor accommodation for single family use.
