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York Council under fire over Taxicard cut

Liberal Democrat councillors and the York Blind and Partially Sighted Society have criticised the removal of a taxi service for vulnerable residents in the city.

Labour run City of York Council removed the Taxicard scheme at the beginning of April as part of its 2014/15 Budget despite opposition from the Lib Dem Group. The card enabled residents with serious mobility impairments, who often cannot use buses, to travel in licensed taxis for free or reduced rates using a smart card system. In total, 1,536 people were in possession of a Taxicard.

York Council has offered bus passes to those affected. However, residents have contacted Lib Dem councillors saying that the bus passes are no good to them as they can not use buses.

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York crime update

Mobile safety camera routes week commencing 30 April 2014

Below are the enforcement locations for North Yorkshire Police’s mobile safety cameras for week commencing Wednesday 30 April 2014.

The safety cameras are now more visible then ever before with each of the three vehicles bearing the same hi-vis livery as North Yorkshire Police’s marked vehicle fleet.

Disabled busker racially abused in York city centre

York police are appealing for witnesses after a disabled man was racially abused in the city centre.

The victim, an eastern European man aged in his mid to late 20’s who has no legs, was sitting on his skateboard busking on Coney Street when he was approached by a man at around 12pm on Saturday 26 April 2014.

Poster campaign alerts drivers to cycle safety

A poster and billboard campaign has begun across North Yorkshire urging motorists to drive with the safety of pedal and motor cyclists in mind.

The county council, along with North Yorkshire Police, have launched a new ‘Think! Bike campaign with posters and hoardings displayed in urban areas and along popular cycling and motorbike routes. The first billboard went up in Harrogate this week.

With more cyclists expected to take to the county’s roads in the run-up to the Tour de France, the county council’s road safety team in partnership with the police are running a cyclist and biker awareness campaign aimed at motorists in an attempt to reduce the number of casualties. The purpose is to get motorists to drive with consideration for other road users, especially before turning or changing direction.

More secrecy as York Council tries to bury more bad news.

25 things you probably didn’t know about public services in the City

It appears that the Council haven’t made available to the public the answers to questions given by Cabinet members at their meeting which took place on 27^th March 2014.

In fairness the Council Leader s usually fairly prompt in proving public answers. Other cabinet members are more tardy and often evade the questions sometimes in an attempt to score political points.

On this occasion there are some startling admissions.

These include:

Since 2011, Labour have built only 1/3 of the number of houses built during the first three years of LibDem rule which started in 2003.
The Council has not agreed any performance targets for its “Smarter York” team
Residents have not been able to use the do it on line “Report it” facility to tell the Council about potholes, faulty street lights etc since November. The Council blames a change to the “Google maps” database.
Around 30,000 calls are being received by the Councils customer contact centre each mnth. Typically 12,000 people visit the Council offices and 5000 Emails are received. During March 61% of calls were answered in 20 seconds. 11% were abandoned by the caller.
The Cabinet member with responsibility for customers says, “Too much of the current interaction with the council remains through traditional routes and the use of online and self services has yet to be fully exploited” (See 4 above).
Cllr Levene is looking forward to the “next round of Focus leaflets”
The Council spends around £80,000 a year on mobile phones for its employees.
The Council spent £26,807 on new chairs for the eco depot last year. The chairs purchased by the Council have a “life” of 5 years. No payment was received for the discarded chairs
The Council received 1815 complaints from members of the public between 1^st April2013 and 21^st March 2014. The majority of the complaints were about environmental services.
The number of residents opting to pay their Council Tax by 12 equal instalments has more than trebled (to 1618)
The Council has over 70 separate “twitter” accounts which are being managed by staff
The Council still hopes to publish a final draft of its Local Plan by mid year with an examination in public expected in the autumn and adoption “in 2015”.
The token system for the park and ride facility at Monks Cross hasn’t been working for “2 years”
The real time car park space available information was removed from the Councils web site last year. It is expected to be available again “by May 2014” Click here for an alternative
The majority of electronic Variable Message Signs (VMS) around the City are not operational at the moment. All are expected to be working again by October 2014 (!)
There are no plans to relocate the Food Festival and specialist markets from Parliaments Street while works in Newgate are underway (the permanent stall holders will be relocated into Parliament Street while the works are undertaken)
The Smarter York app is costing taxpayers £11,000 a year. In the 12/13 financial year there were 477 reports and in 13/14, 419 reports using this system. The Council hopes to add additional functions to the “App” in future.
710 households have signed up to pay for the emptying of an additional green bin this summer
The number of dog fouling reports for the last three years show no increase: 216 in 2011, 219 in 2012, and 212 in 2013. No FPNs for fouling were issued in 2013.
The Cabinet member for housing is not in favour of supplementing Council housing stocks by buying vacant property on the open market. “They might require a new boiler”. She believes that the new 2 bedroomed Council houses, being built on Beckfield Lane, are costing only £120,000 each!
No investment is planned for sub-urban Council estate communal areas “because they are amongst the best in the country”!
1536 elderly and disabled residents will be affected by Labour’s decision to scrap the Taxicard system (an alternative to the bus pass)
The URBIE buses, which provide mobile play facilities for children, have been little used since Ward Committee funding was finished
The Council will not guarantee that all existing Childrens Centres will remain open.
Response times for street lighting fault reports are claimed to have been

Oct 13 – 1.2 working days
Nov 13 – 2.6 working days
Dec 13 – 2.3 working days
Jan 14 – 3.3 working days
Feb 14 – 3.3 working days
Mar 14 – currently 1.6 working days

The most surprising thing is that this information has had to be dragged out of the Council. They have an active press department which should be advising residents about the withdrawal of services before they actually happen.

Full list of answers click here

Overnight road closures for Poppleton P and R site

City of York Council will be carrying out overnight works in the area surrounding the A59 in preparation for the new Poppleton Bar Park & Ride site.

The works will take place in two phases from Monday 31 March until Thursday 17 April and from Tuesday 6 May until Friday 23 May.

To allow the council to undertake overnight works temporary traffic signals or, in the second phase, overnight closures will be in place. The working hours will take place generally between 7pm until 6am, although some operations will be shorter than this.
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York’s public conveniences’ refurbishment set to start

Work on a £663,000 refurbishment of York’s public conveniences starts on Monday

The contractor Healthmatic will take over the refurbishment and maintenance of facilities in the city centre and Acomb to both improve cleanliness and disabled access, while making required savings of £75,000.

Work at the Union Terrace car and coach park will start on Monday 24 March, and temporary facilities will be installed next door, with no charge for entry during refurbishment.

Acomb toilets

At Nunnery Lane car park, work will start on Monday 31 March. The men’s facilities will remain open and the night-time toilet and accessible toilet will be temporarily available for women, again with no charge for entry during refurbishment. Both projects will complete in early May.

Upgrading will take place at the public toilets on Acomb’s Front Street, Coppergate, Exhibition Square, Tanner Row and those at the car parks on Nunnery Lane and St George’s Field. Besides improvements to the Silver Street toilets which already includes a Changing Place disabled facility, an additional Changing Place will be built as part of the refurbishment at Union Terrace car park’s toilets.

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Dial and Ride seeks more passengers from Acomb

York’s Dial & Ride service has helped thousands of elderly and disabled residents travel from their door to their destination for over 20-years

Established in the late 1980s, the flexible bus service helps residents who cannot use conventional bus services, or who require extra assistance at either end of their journey, with door-to-door transport to the city centre or major supermarkets.

Dial & Ride is operated by York Wheels, a voluntary sector service.. York Wheels has a team of 32 volunteers who work for the organisation from one to five days a week

Passengers can book in advance by telephoning 01904 551441 during office opening times (weekdays from 9am until 12 noon), but a message can be left outside of these times.

To book the Dial & Ride service, residents follow these four simple steps:

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Lendal Bridge closure could be open to legal challenge

Labour’s controversial decision to close Lendal Bridge may be open to legal challenge according to opposition councillors.

With the Council showing reluctance to admit how much is being raised in fines, arising from the use of ANPR cameras installed on Lendal bridge and Coppergate, a new threat to the controversial project is emerging.

Liberal Democrat Councillors have revealed that the decision to close the city-centre bridge was taken before an assessment of the impact it would have on disabled residents was completed.

City of York Council’s own guidelines say that ‘Community Impact Assessments’ (CIAs) should be done at the development stage of any policy and before any decision is taken. However, the CIA on the closure of Lendal Bridge was only completed on the 12th September – a full two weeks after the closure started and months after the decision was originally taken in May.

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Crunch decision on Newbury Avenue garage demolition

The Council’s “Cabinet” will decided tomorrow (Tuesday) whether to demolish the garage block in Newbury Avenue and replace it with a block of 9 flats.

Residents are likely to make representations on the controversial plan.

There are major concerns about the impact that the scheme will have on disabled residents who rely on the garage area for access.

Parking problems in the area would also increase.

If approved, the scheme would still require planning permission.

The site did not feature as a housing site in the Local Plan which was announced by Labour 4 weeks ago.

Meanwhile The Press has published details of a public meeting which has apparently been scheduled to discuss the design of Council houses which “will be built on the former Beckfield Lane recycling centre site”.

The article says that a “drop in” event will take place on Wednesday at Carr Junior School from 4:30pm to 8:00pm.

This demonstrates the arrogance of the present Council Leadership.

Beckfield Lane recycling centre

A decision in principle whether to build 30 new homes on the site is not due to be taken until Tuesday evening’s “Cabinet” meeting!

Yet it appears that the housing scheme has already been designed!

So much for democracy and resident involvement.

The meeting is also being asked to delegate power to a Labour Councillor to vary the sites that the planned 60 Council houses could be built on.

The Council has refused to name the other sites which have been considered. We do know that two of them were also garage blocks in the Kingsway West area.

If the delegation is agreed, then the only notice that residents might get of any change would be when a planning application was submitted.

However, as the Council no longer issues routine consultation letters to any neighbours affected by a planning application, they would only have to put a notice on a lamppost to fulfill their legal responsibilities

NB. A list of planning applications received for the Westfield Ward is published each week on this web site.

Residents object as garage site in Newbury Avenue is set to have 9 apartments built on it.

Labour Councillors will meet on Tuesday 7th May to discuss a proposal to build flats on the garage area at Newbury Avenue.

There are similar proposals for Chaloners Road and Hewley Avenue.

Some of the homes will be built at sites at Fenwick Street; Beckfield Lane (former recycling centre) and York Road, Haxby.

In total between 60 and 70 Council homes will be constructed.

Ironically none of the garage sites sites were identified for housing in the Local Plan published by the Council only 10 days ago!!

Residents in Newbury Avenue were alerted to the threat by the Liberal Democrat Focus team who undertook a door to door survey on the issue a couple of weeks ago.

See table for resident’s responses.

Newbury Avenue resident’s survey results . click to enlarge

Despite the opposition it is likely that Labour will go ahead with their plans.

We know that at least one resident, with disabled dependants, will be adversely affected.

Two of the garages are currently used to store equipment needed to maintain the estate.

With parking space at a premium in the area, the Council have yet to indicate where they think that the displaced vehicles will go.

We understand that the Council has only written to the residents, who currently rent the garages, in the last few days.

No consultation with the local community or residents association was undertaken by the Council.

All in all a pretty shabby way of treating a local community in our view.

A quicker way of providing more homes to rent quickly, would have been for the Council to purchase empty property on the open market.
Alternatively they could have done a deal with one of the house builders who already have planning permission to build homes at places like the Terry’s, Nestle South, Germany Beck and the old Sugar Works on Boroughbridge Road.
Such an approach would have the advantage of “kick starting” housing developments that are effectively “stalled”.

Search Results for: "Disabled centre" ...

Mobile safety camera routes week commencing 30 April 2014

Disabled busker racially abused in York city centre

Poster campaign alerts drivers to cycle safety

25 things you probably didn’t know about public services in the City

To book the Dial & Ride service, residents follow these four simple steps:

Nearly 3000 residents have been issued with “blue badges” in York.