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York Trading Ltd

City of York Trading Ltd is a trading company owned by the City of York Council. It was established in 2011 to provide “a vehicle for the trading of a range of services to both the public and the private sector”

In effect it used surplus labour at the council to fill temporary vacancies.

The company has a Conservative Councillor as its Chair. There is also a Labour Councillor on its board.

The accounts filed at Company House reveal that the Company made a profit of £269,918 in the year ending March 2017.  A dividend of £75,000 was paid.

Following criticism about lack of transparency, the company published its board meeting minutes – without providing much financial information – regularly until March 2017. No meeting minutes have been published since then

In 2016 the Council’s Executive approved new governance arrangements for Council owned companies.

A “Shareholders Committee” would meet to look after taxpayer’s interests.

In March 2017 the Shareholders committee agreed to adopt “a pattern of meetings allowing a presentation from each company to be considered twice a year”.

According to the Councils web site it has held no further meetings since then.

So how well is City of York Trading doing?

In September 2017, York Trading received £166,816 from the York Council. They had supplied admin workers, care workers, child support workers, community workers & life guards.

By far the largest sum though was paid to them for the supply of social workers and senior social workers.

According to the Councils open data web site York Trading services haven’t been paid by the Council since then.

Sparks York – Pressure mounts on York Council Leader

It looks like Sparks York – who are responsible for the shipping container village eyesore on Piccadilly – have just managed to get their April 2017 accounts in to Company House by the 18th December deadline. They should be available to view on line next week.

Coincidentally, The Press have run a story today based on the FOI findings published a few weeks ago. Although a representative of Sparks has made a statement saying that everything will be all right in the end, and that the Council will recover its £40,000 investment in the project, there has been no statement from the Council itself.

This is strange given that the storage containers were parked of the Council owned Piccadilly site for 2 months before  a” tenancy at will” was signed.

Nor has there been any explanation of the precedence of a debenture loan taken out by Sparks in July and its effect on the Councils equity financial safety-net.

The decision to expand the area to be leased to Sparks – effectively rent free until the “village” starts trading – was made by the Leader of the Council David Carr last week.

No attempt was made to ask for an updated business plan which reflected the much-reduced period of tenure that the village will have (assuming it ever opens for business) nor were any questions asked about the company’s financial position and debts.

It could be an uncomfortable couple of months for Cllr Carr with a difficult annual budget meeting in prospect and the repercussions from his impulsive decision to sack two LibDem members of his Cabinet, coming to a head.

It is now “time up” for the investigations into the allegations arising out an information “leak” from the York Council.

Cllr Carrs decision to ask for a police investigation – into something that could never have been a criminal matter – raises serious question about his judgement.

Now he is also being implicated in the emerging West Yorkshire Combined Authority/LEP financial scandal highlighted by the Yorkshire Post at the weekend.

Incredibly the Authority seems to be flirting with the long discredited estate agent’s jamboree (Le Marché International des Professionnels de l’immobilier) which takes place in Cannes each year.

Attendance at the hugely expensive jamboree was a factor in bringing down the last Labour administration in the City.

According to one source, the West Yorkshire authority (which includes York) intend to charter their own aircraft to go to Cannes this year!

Total £17.5k fines for builders’ poor work and practices in York

 £17,670 compensation and court costs has been given to a building partnership for unprofessional and unfair trading practices which left a vulnerable York resident with a damp, leaking house extension

Trading as Ripon Building Specialists, Robert Montgomery (aged 38 of Church Street, Kirby Malzeard) and Jeremy Paul White (aged 62 of Bedale Road, Catterick Garrison, Richmond) were fined today (25 April) at York Crown Court.

Montgomery and White quoted to build an extension designed to accommodate the customer’s disabilities and an elderly relative. The quote was accepted and the customer paid a 30 per cent deposit (£6,500). Work began on 18 August 2014 and was due to finish by the end of September
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Big contracts awarded by York Council

£77,000 for Coppergate camera enforcement

The York Council has let some substantial contracts recently. One of the most controversial is likely to be to  Bramble.cc Ltd for “Parking Services back-office system monitoring of cameras and issuing of notices” for the Coppergate bus lane The companies had office is on the Embankment in London. The size of the contract – which is for one year only – suggests that fine income would have  to rise considerably if taxpayers are to avoid an unexpected bill.

Less controversial may be the award of a contract for the collection of recycling materials in the City centre. The 5 year contract is valued at £1/2 million, runs for 5 years and has been awarded to the Friends of St Nicholas Field.

£60,671 will be spent on caring for unaccompanied asylum seeking children and £362,263 refurbishing Sycamore House mental health centre,

Other recent contract awards have included:

Ranger Hut, Hull Road Vine House Construction Ltd £24,057.41
Haxby Library Demolition MGL Demolition Ltd £48,000.00
Provision of supported care for UASC Sash £60,671.00
Sycamore House Refurbishment F Parkinson Ltd £362,263.00
School Crossing Patrol Signals Tender Dynniq UK Ltd £77,394.80
Structural and visual assessments of City of York Councils Street lighting assets MPH Inspection Services Ltd £150,000.00
Support for Street lighting fault repairs (MEWP) Bouygues UK Limited £30,000.00
ReSurfacing Schemes February 2017 CEMEX UK Operations Ltd £266,011.01
Analysis Software and Licence for Non-Domestic Rates Inform CPI Ltd £45,000.00
Provision of on-line lessons from a virtual school to provide teaching for young people out of school Nisai Virtual Academy Ltd. £10,000.00
ReSurfacing Schemes March 2017 – Tender2 Cemex UK Materials Ltd £78,464.20
Carr Junior School Reroof Works – Phase 2 S Voase Builders Limited £103,376.88
Community Protection APP Support, Maintenance and Licence Multiple award (2) £35,204.00
Westfield Primary School Roofing Watershed (Roofing) Ltd £14,058.00
Lift Repairs Maintenance Contract Northern Elevator Ltd £94,788.00
“Support and Subscription for VMWare Phoenix Software Ltd £8,865.00
ICT NetApp Support Softcat plc £8,620.00
Google Maps API for Business Multiple award (2) £15,500.00
WYTF Outer Ring Road upgrade – Land Surveyor Services for the North York Outer Ring Road Junction Upgrade Project Valuation Office Agency – District Valuer £83,280.00
Citrix XenApp Software and Licences Insight Direct (UK) Ltd £53,975.00
Marjorie Waite Court Extra Care Extension – Designer Shuttleworth Picknett and Associates LLP £70,860.00
Contract to supply manpower + vehicle & including tools and equipment to carry out basic maintenance operations (minor civils works) 1st April 2017 – 31st July 2017 Multiple award (3) £50,000.00
Pre Purchase Agreement CYCProcurement £4,178,975.32
York City Centre Recycling Collection Service Friends of St Nicholas Fields £500,000.00
Fujitsu M10-1 Server Esteem Systems Plc £21,674.00
Point of Care Testing (POCT) Alere Limited £90,000.00
Trading Standards Interlink  City of York Council  £3,909.25
Coppergate: Bus Lane Enforcement parking services system Bramble.cc Limited £77,000.00
HGV Driver Certificate of Professional Competence Training Multiple award (2) £16,660.00

Most of the recent contract awards are dwarfed by those let in earlier years. The most valuable awards on the contracts register are:

Childcare Voucher Salary Sacrifice Scheme Fideliti Limited 01/04/2014 £2,400,000.00
Short Breaks Service For Adults with a Learning Disability Lifeways Community Care £2,001,990.34
York Central Financial and Commercial Consultancy KPMG LLP 01/07/2016 £2,000,000.00
Older People’s Community Support Service Age Uk York 20/12/2016 £1,765,000.00
Provision of Marketing, tourism and Business Development services Make it York Ltd 02/04/2015 £1,700,000.00
ENProcure Re-Allies Materials Framework – Distribution and supply of plumbing and heating materials Lot 2 PTS Plumbing Trade Supplies 01/04/2016 £1,614,282.00
Management & Maintenance of Public Toilets Healthmatic Ltd 01/05/2014 £1,600,000.00
An Advocacy Hub York Mind 14/10/2016 £1,500,000.00
Building Services Subcontractors – Package 1 Multiple award (5) 01/11/2016 £1,400,000.00
Provision of Local Registered Bus Services Yorkshire Coastliner Ltd 06/01/2013 £1,400,000.00

The Contracts register (most Councils) can be viewed by clicking here

 

New “trusted trader” scheme planned for York

The council and Checkatrade are looking into the possibility of a new scheme to help residents find Trading Standards-vetted traders in the York area, and to give local businesses a new seal of approval.

This is in addition to the council’s continuing partnership with Age UK York to produce a Home Services Directory. This directory of approved local traders – many offering certain specialisms or bespoke services – has been in operation for fifteen years to support vulnerable and older people. The new scheme will complement this directory by offering a wider selection of vetted traders suitable for the general public.

The decision to allow the partnership with Age UK York to strengthen and for a new partnership with Checkatrade to be explored in more detail will be made by the Executive Member at a decision session on 13 March at 4:30pm.

The potential partnership with Checkatrade aims to take out some of the hazards of hiring tradespeople. The aim is to produce an extensive list of vetted businesses and sole traders across a broad range of trades and who are judged to be reliable, legally compliant and customer-focussed by the council’s Trading Standards team.
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Smart operation will target the fear of crime in York

 Police in York have launched an operation to tackle crime and the fear of crime where it is needed the most – thanks to sophisticated data analysis.

Smart operation will target the fear of crime in YorkThe crime prevention campaign will take place in the Clifton area of the city on Wednesday 28 and Thursday 29 September, with police working alongside other agencies including trading standards and the fire service to provide reassurance and crime prevention advice to residents.

Officers have used street-level data available to the public sector which measures fear of crime, to identify specific areas which would benefit from a focused operation. They have also looked at annual trends in reported crime to determine the kinds of incidents where crime prevention advice would be effective.

During the operation, codenamed Operation Tansu, extra patrols will take place, and police will be on-hand to security mark valuable items using a dot peen property marking machine, and urging residents to sign up to the North Yorkshire Community Messaging alert service.

Similar initiatives will be taking place in other areas of York in the future.  (more…)

Residents asked to nominate exceptional York Council staff

City of York Council is asking residents to nominate members of the authority’s workforce who they think are ‘very important people’ for its annual staff recognition awards scheme.

excellence_awardsThe authority is seeking nominations for the ‘CYC VIP – Celebrating Your Contribution’ awards to help highlight the dedication, diligence and enterprise of staff serving the city across a huge range of roles.

With one of the largest workforces in the city, the council’s annual awards aim to celebrate the work of teams and individuals who have shown exceptional care, commitment or creativity – and made a positive difference to someone’s day or even their lives.
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Caution urged following spate of cases involving fake officials in York

sCAM ALERTPeople in York are being urged to guard themselves against being approached by fake officials, as some residents report that they have been telephoned about car accidents by callers claiming to be from or informed by City of York Council.

The fake calls are being investigated by trading standards officers following a number of complaints from people claiming that they have been called unexpectedly about car accidents. The callers either claim to be from the council or, in some cases, claim to have been given information about the ‘accidents’ by the council. When questioned, the callers have hung up.

Other scams across the country involving fake officials have led to significant losses for their victims. An elderly couple from the Home Counties lost £900,000 in a scam – involving a bogus trading standards officer. The pensioners, who had already been defrauded of £300,000 by so called roofers, believed their fortunes had changed when the bogus official came calling.

The ‘official’, thought to be part of the same gang as the ‘roofers’, tricked the couple out of a further £600,000 in ‘up-front fees’ with promises to recover the money. For his part in the crime, Gary Andrew Booker, aged 55 of Surrey, was jailed for three-and-a-half years, earlier this July – also Scams Awareness Month 2016.

Other recent cases include an 83-year-old woman tricked out of £30,000 to fake police officers; a women who lost £170,000 to conmen posing as trading standards officers; and a number of elderly people who were caught out by callers masquerading as NHS workers.

Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “Scammers target people in all sorts of ways, including online, over the phone or even at their own front door.

“If you suspect someone is running a scam or are worried you have been a victim of a bogus offer you can get help from the Citizens Advice consumer service.”

Advice to guard against doorstep callers:

  • · Fit and use a door security chain when you open the door.
  • · Check the identification of a caller by ringing their employer. Use the telephone number from your telephone book and not one they might supply.
  • · Do not let anyone to carry out work on your house until you get a second opinion and never agree to callers who say “we are only in the area today”.
  • · Never keep large sums of money in the house and keep purses out of sight, not near the door.
  • · Get advice from the Citizens Advice consumer service 03454 04 05 06 who can provide advice and pass details on to trading standards.
  • · Report scams or suspected scams to Action Fraud: 0300 123 2040 www.actionfraud.police.uk
  • · Tell a friend, neighbour or relative about any scams you become aware of.
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York Council meeting to debate EU referendum fall out

Three of the four motions up for debate at the York Council meeting on 21st July spring directly or indirectly form the result of the referendum.

Big City smallStrangest is one from an Independent Councillor who spectacularly mixes up cause and effect when asking the government to reduce housing targets because international (in the case meaning the EU) migration will fall in the future. 

The growth in housing numbers in York is mainly driven by economic expansion targets. Many would say that the numbers included in the Local Plan are over ambitious but would the Council have the courage to scale down its job creation forecasts?

We think not.

If 13,000 (net) new jobs are created over the next 20 years, then those who will fill them are already alive somewhere. Only a very small number – because of York’s low unemployment rate – already live in the City. That means that many more will be inward migrants either from elsewhere in this country or from overseas.

The real issue is not immigration – it is getting a balance in economic growth targets which preserves the character of the built and natural environment of the City.

Residents have an opportunity over the next few weeks to have their say on how that issue can be reconciled.

Elsewhere Labour Councillors are seeking action against racist intimidation, the Tories want more on bus information systems while the LibDem Councillors will be seeking to ensure that Yorkshire keeps its current level of government funding (at risk because of EU exit).

Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to guarantee that York will still receive millions in EU funding and that the positive contribution EU citizens living in the city make is recognised.

The Lib Dems will move a motion at next week’s Full Council saying the Government should ensure that York and Yorkshire receives investment at least equal to that planned to be provided by EU programmes. Between now and 2020, the region will directly receive £661m from European programmes to support small businesses, help residents find work, and support farmers and rural communities.

The motion says that in future negotiations, the UK’s vital trading relationship with the EU should be protected and the Government should put in place a support package to help local businesses deal with the short-term economic shock and the transition to the UK’s new relationship with the EU. The Lib Dems are also calling for the rights of the 5,000 plus EU citizens currently working and living in the city to be protected. (more…)

York Council still in a muddle over local QUANGOs

The York Council’s Executive is to consider its relationship with agent bodies and companies tomorrow.Quango list

The move comes in the wake of criticism of several bodies not least York City Trading where audits revealed that inappropriate payments had been made.  Other problems arose in relations with the York Museums Trust over charging arrangements and Make it York where apparently unilateral decisions angered residents

The organisations concerned depend on Council taxpayers for a lot of their income

One common criticism was a lack of transparency shown by the organisations (they are not subject to Freedom of Information legislation).

Concerns were also expressed that performance indicators – where published – were inappropriate or “soft”.

Campaign against secrecy started 5 years ago

Campaign against secrecy started 5 years ago

The expectation was the new Council would shake up the bodies and inject more democratic accountability.

Instead a disappointing report concentrates only on governance issues. Steps are being taken to separate executive and customer functions but little else. We will still have a bureaucratic muddle with little consistency and no new commitment to openness.

If approved without change, the Council will stand accused of ignoring many of the concerns expressed by taxpayers over the last five of years.

Important decisions affecting the City will continue to be taken “Behind Closed Doors”