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Lowfields – Labour refuse to consult local residents on future of site

Behind closed doors logoLabour Councillors continued to obstruct attempts to get at the truth behind the Lowfields Care village fiasco when the Council held a review meeting last night.

Despite revelations yesterday that senior Councillors have known for at least a year that the planned scheme was “unaffordable”, the Labour Council leadership continues to be in a  state of denial.

Meeting minutes revealed that official had blamed “gold plated” building standards for the failure of the project. They had been reluctant to admit the failures because it “could have affected the credibility of the Councils flagship rewiring project”.

The plan had been to keep the mistakes under wraps until after the Council election in May.  But sustained questioning by Opposition Councillors, coupled with the need to respond to Freedom of Information requests, finally forced the public admission last month.

They now hope to sell the site (a valuation of £2 million has been put on it) but appear to have already decided that 100 homes will be built there.

Other than the normal planning application consultation, residents will have no opportunity to influence this decision.

The present Council now only has about 6 weeks to run. Hopefully a more enlightened regime will take over after May 7th.

Only then is the real truth about the fiasco – which is set to cost taxpayers around £1 million – likely to emerge.

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All existing York Council Elderly Persons Homes set to close before 2019

£2 million price tag put on Lowfields site – Future of playing fields unclear.

Labours plans to abandon the super care home project mean that 7 existing elderly persons homes will close:

  • Grove House,
  • Haxby Hall,
  • Morrell House,
  • Oakhaven,
  • Windsor House,
  • Willow House and
  • Woolnough House.

All will close by March 2019.  The first will close its doors next year.

The Council expects many of the occupants to move into homes provided by the “independent sector”

Houses will be built on most of the vacated sites.

It is proposed that the Lowfields site be used for the provision of “over 100 new homes” including “downsizing” homes to rent and buy for older people as well as “starter homes to rent and buy so that younger families can get on to the housing ladder”.  

The Council says that a capital receipt of “at least £2m” for the land will also be realised, confirming that any redevelopment will be by the private sector.

Whether the playing fields are included in this purchase price is unclear

Oakhaven

Oakhaven

It is proposed that the “facilities for older people originally envisaged as part of the Community Village on the Lowfields site be, instead, provided at a newly built Extra Care and Health Hub which is expected to replace the Oakhaven OPH on “Front Street” (sic)”.

The Council says it

“will be on making best use of the existing stock of Extra Care Housing in the city.  There are five dedicated sheltered housing with ‘extra care’ services in York containing 205 units of accommodation.

Four of these are Council managed schemes – Marjorie Waite Court, Gale Farm Court, Barstow House and Glen Lodge, whilst the fifth (Auden House) is managed by York Housing Association. All homes in these schemes are to rent”.

The Council claims that many of those occupying places in these homes don’t need “extra care” facilities and hints that they may be moved out to make way for those judged to have higher needs!

They say, “We will work with exiting residents to keep disruption to a minimum”

The report concludes,

“York is also under-supplied with Extra Care Housing given the city’s demographics and the anticipated growth in the numbers of over 75s expected over the next decade.

Analysis suggests that there will be need for 490 units of Extra Care accommodation by 2020, rising to 645 in 2030, based upon nation benchmarks. There is a need for both Extra Care to rent and Extra Care to buy; currently just one third of the provision in York is to buy despite 81% of York’s older residents owning their own home.

The independent sector is beginning to address this need. For example, McCarthy & Stone are currently building 28 new sheltered homes to buy at Smithson Court on Top Lane in Copmanthorpe. Elsewhere in Yorkshire they are beginning to build and provide their Extra Care offer – called Assisted Living – and we would expect that they will continue to provide new accommodation as the market demands”.

With the overcrowding in York NHS hospitals reaching crisis point over the last few months, partly as a result of a lack of availability of the right kind of care places for the elderly in the City, the prospect of another 4 years elapsing before the issues are resolved is deeply worrying.

After 5 years of talk, muddle, delay and confusion, Labour abandon plan for Lowfields Elderly Care Village

£1 million wasted on aborted project?

Acomb care village site - project abandoned

Acomb care village site – project abandoned

Labour have today admitted that they have failed to deliver a new modern facility – aimed at older people – on the site of the former Lowfields school.

The Council report can be read by clicking here

Talks with potential contractors have been abandoned and the future of the site has been thrown into the air again.

The site had been “marketed” jointly with the Burnholme school site on the other side of the City (which may still go ahead)

Residents in the west of the City were hoping to see the equivalent of the Hartrigg Oaks facility, which Rowntree Housing manage on the other side to the City, built in Acomb. The Lowfields site was considered to be ideal because it is within walking distance of all major services and facilities. It is close to a frequent buss service.

Although the retirement village was agreed in 2010 by the last LibDem administration, the project was derailed when Labour took office in 2011. They tried unsuccessfully to develop the scheme as a Council run home…. believed to be a condition which a local government union imposed when funding Labours last election campaign.

“In house” provision proved to be unaffordable with build figures of over £20 million leaked to the media in 2012.

The project then went the same way as the Community Stadium plan, with additional requirements being heaped onto potential developers making the whole scheme unviable.

Instead of admitting failure 2 years ago, Labour continued with a doomed “procurement process” until today’s’ announcement brought the sorry saga to an end

The project was 5 years behind schedule and is probably a bigger example of mismanagement than even the Lendal Bridge fiasco.

 Clearly one big question is how much has been spent (staff time, “soft marketing”, plans, procurement etc.) so far on the Lowfields project?

Some sources put the figure at over £1 million.

The U turn will cause consternation in elderly care facilities across the City. Some were destined to close when occupiers moved to the brand new state of the art village.

Now it seems that some may be modernised with suggestions that there could be a new facility and health hub at Oakhaven.

The Council has promised to work with current providers to provide improved facilities especially for dementia sufferers.   A  £2.5m extension to Glen Lodge may be built for dementia care. 

The level of care at Auden House is to be “improved”.

Labour have said that they want to build houses and flats on the Lowfields school site.

Our view is that local residents should be consulted and that the Council should remember that, while the care village had widespread support, alternative building plans were viewed with suspicion by the local community.

Obviously all this will be overtaken by the elections in May when most people expect Labour to be ousted from the leadership of the York Council.

Liberal Democrats still believe in the principle of establishing a quiet, caring, environment for older people in Acomb.

We would look to make the Lowfields site available to providers with the experience and drive to move the project forward again.

The tragedy unfolds – year by year guide to failure (click for details)

  1. 2011 May – Developers offer to build care village at Lowfields
  2. 2011 Aug – “Future of care homes homes” consultation starts
  3. 2012 Jan – Council plans to build on Lowfields playing fields, according to leaked documents
  4. 2012 April – Council announce 2014 opening date for Lowfields care village
  5. 2012 May – “Private sector to run Lowfields care village” Council announces
  6. 2012 Dec – Council announce delays to Lowfields Care Village. 2014 opening date abandoned
  7. 2013 May – Lowfields care village opening slips to 2016; huge cost increase
  8. 2013 Nov – “Dementia Support” promised for Lowfields Care Village.
  9. 2014 July – Secrecy descends on school site plans
  10. 2014 Dec – Labour Cabinet member accused of “dithering” on Lowfield project
  11. 2015 Jan – “In light of continuing care crisis in NHS”, Scrutiny Committee chair forced to submit Freedom of Information request
  12. 2015 Feb 23rd – Council announces it is abandoning the Lowfields care village project

York Stars perform for exclusively for care home residents

A young people’s theatre group has devised, written, produced and performed a short play for residents of the city’s care homes.

The York Stars, a small, local theatre company specialising in community-based productions, was one of four organisations to receive a grant through the Community Play fund. The £90,000 fund was set up to provide fun, stimulating play opportunities, activities and events for children and young people, as well as their parents and carers, within the local community. The programme was managed by Your Consortium on behalf of the council.

Around 20 young people were involved in the project, which got under way at Easter. They put together their own performance, entitled The volcano in Ashraino, writing and directing the play themselves, before embarking on a tour of four residential care homes during the autumn of 2014. They performed at Oakhaven, Willow House, Red Lodge and Dower Court, for almost 60 residents in all.

To view a review of the scheme click

To find out more about the projects being funded through City of York Council’s Community Play fund click here 

List of salt bins in York that won’t be filled this winter – Westfield area

Abandoned salt bins in Westfield Ward - click to enlarge

Nearly 60% of salt bins currently out on the streets of Westfield won’t be filled this winter. For map see http://tinyurl.com/empty-salt-bin-map

The list of bins that will be abandoned, according to Labour’s plan, include several critical ones including the bins at the top of the Hotham Drive/Parker Avenue hill and others at Chancery Court & Vyner House on Front Street, an area which has many elderly residents.

As reported recently (see http://tinyurl.com/salt-bin-inquiry-Oct-12 ) Labours controversial decision has been called in and will be reviewed at a meeting next Monday.

Residents can register to speak at the meeting

A complete list of bins that WILL be filled (by ward) is as follows
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