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York Council slow to answer Freedom of Information requests

FOI
The York Council is struggling to reach statutory response time targets for responding to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

The number of such requests increased following the change in policy implemented by the new Council – elected in May 2011 – which saw more decisions taken behind closed doors and background information withheld from residents.

The local media have also struggled to get answers to legitimate questions

The Information Commissioner had to be called in force the Council to reveal information about bus services

A guide to FOI can be found here.https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/

The Council admits,

“Between April 2012 and March 2013, 239 FoI responses have taken more than (the deadline of)20 days

Of the 239, on some occasions, extensions to the deadline have been negotiated with those requesting information. In other cases, the complexity of a request has contributed to a delay.

The Council also accepts that some were delayed because of the volume of requests received at particular times.

A review is currently underway to consider how the FOI process could be improved”.

We have some sympathy with the York Council which, in 2009, became one of the first in the country to routinely publish its responses to FOI requests on its web site.

It is also true that some commercial interests clog the system with repeat requests for information about contracts and lists of ratepayers that they believe they can exploit on a commission basis.

But taxpayers do have a legal right to information and the processes need to be speeded up.

The number of FOI requests is likely to increase further as the Council is now reducing the frequency that it publishes quality of public service statistics

“York Council breached Freedom of Information law” – Information Commissioner’s decision

The Information Commissioners Office has ruled that the York Council breached Freedom of information legislation when it refused to reveal how many “All York” bus tickets’ had been sold in the City.

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The decision notice will be published on the Commissioners web site shortly.

The case dates back 12 months to a time when the York Council announced that it was planning to subsidise a new bus ticket which would allow passengers to travel on services provided by more than one operator.

The Council allocated £20,000 of taxpayers money to fund the launch and then agreed to resource the backroom apportionment work involved in distributing fare income to bus operators.

The option was labelled an “All York” ticket. They were priced at £5 for an adult.

The Council were subsequently asked to indicate how many of the tickets had actually being sold?

The Council declined to disclose the information on the grounds that it was “commercially confidential”.

However, the Information Commissioner has now confirmed that the aggregated sales figures cannot be regarded as confidential as they don’t reveal the number of sales made by each bus company.

He has ordered the Council to release the sales figures.

The decision notice reads,

“The Commissioners decision is that the City of York Council has failed to demonstrate that section 41(1) of the Freedom of Information Act is engaged.

The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation –

• Disclose the information to the complainant”

Former Council Leader Steve Galloway, who raised the issue last year, commented,

“The mistake concerned one of several outstanding issues that bus passengers in York have with the Council.

The most serious of these is a failure to publish, on a regular basis, reliability information on local bus services.

Hopefully the Council will now side with passengers in their quest for timely information about bus service operations in the City”.

York Council shows £2 million shortfall in transport investment

Park and ride buses

A meeting on Thursday will be told that the York Council invested only £4.5 million of its £6.8 million transport budget during the last financial year.

This represents the worst percentage outturn performance for over a decade and will be a major embarrassment to a Council which is currently seeking additional transport funding to address congestion concerns on the A1237 and elsewhere in the City.

The credibility of the Labour Council’s “priority programme” Get York Moving has also been damaged by the performance.

Most of the shortfall came on projects to provide new park and ride sites and improve bus services in the City.

It means that the completion date for these schemes will slip by at least 12 months.

£395,000 was budgeted to be spent on schemes aimed at improving road safety. Only £202,000 of the budget was spent. Most of it went on a 20 mph speed limit scheme in the Bishopthorpe Road area.

On parking, the report says that “implementation of the ‘pay on exit’ car parking scheme at Marygate car park was delayed as the scheme that was initially proposed (using ANPR cameras) could not be progressed due to recent changes in legislation. It is now proposed to install barriers and new ticket machines at Marygate car park to replace the existing ‘pay and display’ system in 2013/14, which should be operational in late 2013”.

The scheme will cost £100,000 to implement amidst concerns that maintenance of the equipment could cost more than any additional revenue generated by the system

NB. The Council recently had to admit that its plans to provide new homes for the elderly were also running 3 years behind schedule.

Dampness leads to A19 being closed near Fulford!

flooding in York

It seems likely that there will be minor flooding in parts of York over the next 24 hours. However the threat is not as great as seen earlier in the year.

The A19 near Fulford is reported to be closed.

Upstream river levels have dropped dramatically over the last few hours.

The shopping centres will be unaffected.

Bus services are not operating today (New Years Day)

As always the best guide is the web cam on Kings Staith http://www.farsondigitalwatercams.com/live-webcams/north/Ouse/York/# . If the no entry sign is still above the waterline then there should not be any serious flooding.

We’ll provide updates if things deteriorate

The Environment Agencies web site also now has an improved graphical representation of flood threats (above) It can be accessed here: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/142151.aspx

You can check the position at monitoring sites across the County here for the Ouse catchment area http://tinyurl.com/Ouse-catchment

Team opportunist threatens Acomb

Over 18 months after first being elected to represent the interests of residents and traders in the Front Street area of Acomb, Cllr Stephen Burton has broken his silence and tabled a Council resolution.

He wants next Thursday’s York Council meeting to establish a “Team Acomb”.

Burton: unlikely flag bearer for economic regeneration in Acomb

With a team of traders and residents already established some 6 months ago, this hardly seems like a revolutionary proposal. Just ill timed and a seemingly embarrassing attempt to clamber on board a bandwagon which was almost over the hill and out of sight.

The motion singularly fails to admit that:

• the Councils closure of local facilities like the Acomb Council branch office and Beckfield recycling centre,

• the abandonment of litter and salt bins,

• tinkering with bus services,

• leaving footpath and roads in disrepair and

• the installation of sub standard lighting

have all played a major role in the decline of the Front Street area.

Likely to be of more practical interest, will be the answer to a question tabled by Liberal Democrat Councillor Ann Reid, In an attempt to get a commitment to invest in the regeneration of the Acomb side of the City, she asks the Councils Leader,

“What proportion of retail and office space is currently empty in each of the City’s sub-urban wards and how does this compare to the City Centre? How much of the “Innovation & Delivery Fund” and the “Economic Infrastructure Fund” does the Cabinet Leader intend to allocate to regeneration initiatives in sub-urban employment centres such as Acomb Front Street?”

The answer to that will tell us a lot about how serious Labour are about helping Acomb.

Cllr Burton comes across as a simple, straight forward sort of person. He would be wise not to fall into the trap of acting as a shield for those who attempt to “spin” their way out of responsibility.

NB. We understand that the traders group hope to organise Acomb’s first street market at Easter.

York floods update

York City centre flood monitor click to enlarge

The Ouse is now reaching peak levels and is expected to fall gradually over the next 24 hours.

The Foss is already returning to more normal levels.

In both cases the levels seen early today were close to the highest ever recorded (12 years ago). It was a closer call for the York community than the Council seemed to be prepared to admit on Tuesday.

Useful web site list

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York Council Tax rise confirmed

Labour have gone ahead with their threat to increase Council Tax rates by 2.9%. A further rise of over 2% is forecast for April 2013. They turned down the offer of a £1.8 million subsidy from the government to freeze tax levels

We know that many residents still don’t fully appreciate what is going to hit them over the next few weeks and months. Our guess is that anger will grow as the following sequence of events take place:

• February: Acomb Council branch office closes

• March: Higher Council Tax bill arrives. Many find that they will have to pay over £30 a year more.

• April: Car parking charges up 18% for residents. ResPark charges up. Issue of refuse collection sacks in terraced areas stops. Beckfield Lane recycling centre closes. Number 4 ftr bus services axed. Disabled people attending specialised work placements told that they may be transferred to the private sector. Unemployment increases as organisations like Future Prospects are forced to reduce their activities.

• May: Potholes in roads and footpaths are still unfilled following winter damage. Only a handful of roads are put on resurfacing list. Elderly seeking Council help with home care are told that the bar has been raised. Council will now only act if their needs are judged to be “substantial”. Around 200 elderly people lose existing home care service. However the Council finds money to provide “free” WiFi in City Centre.

• June: Complaints about stray dogs and footpath fouling increase following a reduction in dog warden numbers. Residents expecting more CCTV, security improvements, car parking lay-bys etc, told that Ward Committee funding averages less than £10,000 per ward. 20% of litter and “poop scoop” bins removed.

• Summer: Reduced spending, on crime prevention, results in more burglaries and vandalism. Enforcement of alcohol sales to minors scaled back. More anti social behaviour evident. Voluntary bodies and charities struggle with reduced grants. Some flounder. Litter on streets increases following a reduction in street sweeping. New refuse collection rounds bring chaos. Collection is on different days each fortnight. Cuts to parks and open spaces budget means York fails in “Britain in Bloom” contest. Fly tipping up since Beckfield Lane centre closed.

• Autumn: Number of cyclists involved in accidents increases. The Council faces increased insurance claims from pedestrians who have fallen on uneven footpaths. Enforcement of under age sales of fireworks is scaled back. It is a noisy October. Gulleys haven’t been cleaned for at least 6 months. Heavy rain brings flooding to several streets.

• Winter: The number of streets gritted is reduced. Salt bins, left out all year, are found to have been vandalised. Those remaining are filled only 3 times before the budget runs out. Salvation Army forced to reduce services for “rough sleepers” as grant runs out. Street environment budget also used up. No money available to deal with damage to verges, graffiti and dumping.

• Spring 2013: Charities, sports clubs, scouts and charities told that they will lose their discretionary rate relief. Parish Councils told that provision to avoid “double taxation” is being discontinued. Green bin garden waste collection stopped. Residents told to compost waste in garden. Privatisation of waste collection announced.

York’s debt per head is at an all time high. Opposition Councillors point out that it is now the equivalent of the external debt of Fiji (and twice that of Greenland).