The Council is being asked to agree that the private sector design and manage the new Lowfields Care Village.

A lot of interest was expressed in the plan which was first announced when the Council was under Liberal Democrat control in 2010. The aspiration then was to produce something like the Hartrigg Oaks development on the other side of the City which is run by the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust. (see http://tinyurl.com/Hartrigg-Oaks)

The accommodation and facilities will be designed in such a way as to encourage a two way interaction between the care village and the wider community. Care Village residents will access the wide range of services and facilities nearby (e.g. local shops, Acomb Explore Library, Energise Leisure Centre) and, likewise, while the wider community will be encouraged to access the care village site (e.g. for a community cafe, community garden/allotments).

The Council would nominate tenants for the 90 registered care beds. 25% of the homes planned for the site would be “affordable”.

Councils cost projections

A report to a Council “Cabinet” meeting on 15th May suggests that the development could pay for itself over a 25 year period. However the opportunity to run other homes like the new ones at Fordlands and Haxby Hall using independent providers seems likely to be lost.

So effectively the Council has still not identified a comprehensive, long term financial strategy for dealing with the increasing numbers of elderly people whom we will see in the City. The main reductions in costs comparing the private sector with the Council are in wage rates. Some care workers a couple of years ago got big pay rises as a result of a job evaluation exercise which in turn has led to reduced job security. However existing employees would be entitled to transfer to work for a new management contractor while retaining their existing conditions of service.

The Council sees the accommodation on the Lowfield site being for people aged 65 years+. The accommodation on site will range from completely independent living, to extra care accommodation, through to residential care, including dementia and nursing care.

Whilst many residents may not have any immediate care needs on arrival, the village accommodation would be configured for people to be able to access care as required. This would mean, for instance, that all of the accommodation would be built “care ready” with minimal work required to install care technology or aids and adaptations. All accommodation will have good access, wide doorways, en-suite facilities, and be designed in such a way that it can easily be adapted if the resident’s care needs change. All of the accommodation on site will have the option of being ‘linked up’ 24/7 to the Care Home/Centre should assistance be required.

Threat to green space at Lowfields (more…)

Visit York, the City’s Tourism Agency, are to be asked to stimulate a 5% pa increase in “tourism earnings”– together with a 2% boost in tourism jobs – in the City, under a plan released by the Council.

Visit York will be given a grant of £272,310 a year under a proposal which will be considered next week.

A service level agreement with the organisation sets out expectations on both sides.

Amongst the targets proposed are a 1% increase each year in visitor satisfaction and a requirement for 90% of members of the organisation to be satisfied with the services provided.

A 5% increase in the numbers attending the Visitor Centre is anticipated.

Business tourism is targeted to increase by 5% with at least 6 major national and/or international conferences to be held in the City each year.

http://tinyurl.com/York-Tourism-Plan

Site plan phase 1. Click to enlarge

“This flagship development will feature a varied selection of 2, 3, 4 & 5 bedroom unique contemporary designed, energy efficient, homes set in an environment of well managed, public open space and parkland areas for the benefit of the whole community”. So says the advertising pitch from developers David Wilson Homes and for once they are probably correct. Prices range from £205,000 to £430,000. Homes are also available to rent and under “shared ownership” arrangements.

A preview of the homes, and unique district heating system last Friday convinced most attending that the development will indeed rank with its predecessor New Earswick as a paradigm of innovative planning.
Meanwhile a planning application for the second wave of homes is recommended for approval at the Planning Committee which is scheduled to take place on Thursday. Outline planning permission was granted by the Secretary of State in May 2007 for the residential scheme of approximately 540 dwellings. Phase 1 of the development, accessed from Osbaldwick Village, was granted reserved matters approval in 2008 and this is the section which is currently under construction

The district heating system is provided by an Energy Centre which is located for efficient underground distribution. It will house plant, together with an underground store for the fuel (woodchips and pellets) that ‘fire’ the biomass boiler. The plant within the Centre will supply the heating and hot water needs for the whole community. This system is a key feature for delivering the low carbon component for the development. Derwenthorpe’s preferred bio fuel is woodchip. Woodchip will burn with extremely low pollution effects on the environment (compared to traditional sources like coal and oil) and can be sourced through both harvesting trees grown specifically for this purpose and recycling forestry thinning. It is anticipated that the woodchips will be sourced from a supplier in Yorkshire.

One of the house types available at Derwenthorpe

Homes have been designed and constructed to consume less heat to help save costs. Similar to the principle of a thermos flask, the new homes are extremely well insulated and the joints at windows, doors and roof details so robustly sealed that heat leaks from the inside at a significantly reduced rate compared to the average home in the UK

The Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust are providing a ‘Fibre to the Home’ (FTTH) service for all residents of Derwenthorpe. This infrastructure is state of the art and specifically designed for the development to ensure that high quality technology services such as broadband, telephone, television and radio will be accessible to all homes.

The latest planning application seeks reserved matters approval on land west of Metcalfe lane, Osbaldwick. It covers the siting, design and external appearance of the neighbourhood located in the south-west quadrant of the site and accessed from Temple Avenue.

There are 123 dwellings proposed as part of this reserved matters application, laid out around a circular outer road and internal cruciform street pattern. There are seventeen house types arranged in a mix of terraced, semi-detached and detached properties. Some of the properties have garages, which are either individual or in short runs and are to be red brick with plain clay tiles to the roof.
All properties have a parking space, whether within a garage, parking court, in-curtilage or on- street. Visitor parking spaces and two car club spaces are accommodate within the neighbourhood. Two Local Areas of Play are shown on the plans, one in the central square and one adjacent to the Sustrans cycle track.

David Wilson Homes can be found at http://tinyurl.com/Derwenthorpe-house-sales

The Joseph Rowntree Derwenthorpe web site address is http://tinyurl.com/JoRo-Derwenthorpe

More about Joseph Rowntree – an 19th century York Liberal

(more…)

Renault Fluence

We ran a story earlier in the year which urged the York Council to be more positive about the introduction of low emission taxis and hire cars into the city. See http://tinyurl.com/eco-cabs

We were pleased to see that the Council is being recommended next week to approve additions to the list of approved vehicles which can be used as taxis. They will, for the first time, include hybrid powered vehicles.

Preference for new licences will be given to those who are prepared to register a low emission vehicle.

While this is progress, it does not address the more fundamental issue of infrastructure. Without recharging points at taxi ranks it is unlikely that the plug in hybrids will find favour with drivers, while the limited range of pure battery powered vehicles would make their use impractical.

We hope that the Council will address that issue quickly. They should also ensure that low emission cabs are easilly identifiable by potential customers – so that they can choose them in preference to ordinary vehicles if they wish.

The regulations are also being changed to include the following paragraph;
“The council will be sympathetic towards the introduction of taxi buses for use in rural areas and work with possible future providers to investigate how such services may be introduced”.

There is no reason for the Council to restrict potential taxi bus use to rural areas. Off peak services in parts of the urban area also represent an opportunity for this type of service.

Unfortunately, when tenders were invited to provide such a link to part of the Heworth area last year, the Council received no response what so ever from taxi operators.

The Queen will be visiting York on Thursday 5th April. Extreme delays are forecast, in the City centre and near Micklegate, from 10:00am onwards. Early journeys are advised.

First buses will be operating a revised service level over the Easter Period:

Good Friday, 6th April – A Sunday service will operate on main network services. Park and Ride services 2, 3, 7, 8 & 9 will operate a Monday-Friday timetable.

Easter Saturday, 7th April – Normal Saturday service

Easter Sunday, 8th April – Normal Sunday service

Easter Monday, 9th April – A Sunday service will operate on main network services. Park and Ride services 2, 3, 7, 8 & 9 will operate a Monday-Friday timetable.

Tuesday 10th April – Normal service resumes

Street light removal on Front Street has been criticised by residents

We’ve had a big response recently to the “grumble sheets” which are circulated as part of our Focus newsletters.

When asked which were the most satisfactory public services provided in the area, refuse collection came out top.

This was closely followed by the bus service, rather contradicting criticisms made by some in the local media.

Street lighting also polled well although there was a lot of criticism of the Council’s decision to remove, and not replace, the 2 lampposts on Front Street near the junction with the car park entrance.
Residents were least satisfied with snow/ice clearance although this must be a hangover from last year as we have had – so far – one of the mildest winters on record.

Public Service rankings (Westfield ward)
1. Refuse collection
2. Bus service
3. Street lighting
4. Street cleaning
5. Grass cutting
6. Road surfaces
7. Policing
8. Footpath surfaces
9. Tree/hedge maintenance
10. Snow/ice clearance

We also asked residents to list their complaints about services.

The most complained about service was the amount of litter on some roads. In our experience reports of litter problems have been dealt with promptly by the Council.

Potholes in roads and footpaths have seen the biggest rise in complains over the last few months. The Council are rumoured to be considering a big cut in road maintenance activity during the next 12 months, so things may get even worse. It would be a short-sighted policy as potholes left unfilled are subject to greater frost damage – and eventually cost even more to repair.

Biggest number of complaints
1. Litter or detritus
2. Potholes on road or path
3. Overgrown hedges or trees
4. Other (resident specified)
5. Graffiti or vandalism
6. Faulty street lights

Problems with public services can be reported via this web site (see “report a problem” right)

City of York Council is reminding residents that the closing date for Yorkshire in Bloom entrants is Tuesday 31 January.

Possible entrants have until next week to take part in the Yorkshire in Bloom competition and could be someone who works in their local neighbourhood to create lasting environmental improvements or someone who just Loves Where They Live*.

Yorkshire in Bloom is part of Britain in Bloom, the largest horticultural campaign in Europe, which seeks to improve local neighbourhoods through the competition fostering a sense of civic pride and community spirit involving local organisations such as schools, voluntary groups, businesses and residents.

York in Bloom has entered the city category. Other entries so far from York include Low Moor Community Kids’ Allotment, Fulford in Bloom, Upper and Nether Poppleton in Bloom, Coppergate Centre, York St John University, Dunnington, Dringhouses and Woodthorpe Primary School and the Royal York Hotel.

Liz Levett, head of Environmental Enforcement and Parking Services, said: “This is a great way for us to celebrate and recognise our community efforts. The York in Bloom committee is happy to give help and support to individual entries. It is easy to enter – just go to the Yorkshire in Bloom website www.yorkshireinbloom.co.uk.”

The Council published the agenda for today’s Planning Committee meeting “on line” at around 10:00am this morning.

That’s 17 hours after the registration deadline for residents wishing to speak at the meeting!

There is an important item on the agenda relating to the plans to build a hotel next to the Barbican.

Officials are recommending that the application be refused. They claim the building is too big but apparently choose to forget that a hotel formed an essential part of the original Barbican development brief.

The hotel would provide vital services such as break out rooms and restaurant facilities which would help the Barbican auditorium to attract conference business to the City.

Without it the future of the Barbican would be at risk.

Still there’s little danger of any resident turning up to make representations at today’s meeting … the registration deadline is long gone!

Of course the writing was on the wall for this Labour initiative as soon as it was revealed that one of their former Councillors was to chair the “Fairness Commission”. Ruth Redfern is a former Labour MPs aide and most recently was employed by the Labour appointed QUANGO Yorkshire Forward.

Not surprising therefore that the “Commissions” interim report is so predictable and biased.

It may not be quite as bad as the “Beautiful City” report of 2010 which relied almost entirely on anecdotal comment from the usual advocates of bus stations, boat building on the Ouse and river taxis.

But it does fall into the trap of regurgitating the same stats that Councillors have struggled with for over a decade.

York is a relatively wealthy City but some of its residents are less well off than others. That is a fact, although not a particularly surprising one.

So the last council took action.

It maintained and increased the amount of investment that was made in care for the elderly and people with disabilities.

This involved an increase in expenditure in every year since 2003 – without exception.

Innovative projects like the one in Kingsway sought to address those issues faced by communities that were identified by (it has to be said) fairly crude national indicators of “deprivation”.

Deprivation in this case was effectively any neighbourhood (IMO) which had a large number of elderly people dependant on the state pension. The more success that the Council had in ensuring that people received the benefits that they were entitled to, the worse was the “deprivation” score.

But not to worry, there was an issue to be addressed and progress was made.

So now the “Fairness Commission” tells us that in order to focus more money on inequality issues, basic services such as highways maintenance should be cut back while the ward committee improvements budget should be centrally allocated (and to fewer parts of the City).

Not content with this they suggest a 6% increase in Council Tax levels and this at a time when central government is offering the City £1.8 million to freeze tax levels for another year.

That could make a lot of difference to large numbers of people in York who face genuine hardship as a result of higher energy prices and – in some cases – lower real terms income levels.

In the longer term, they are looking to eliminate the subsidy paid to the Theatre Royal and Visit York – the tourism body that helps to sustain 10,000 jobs in the City.

Some of the proposals would require national legislation – they want, for example, to introduce a “tourist tax”.

Some are bizarre – they advocate that the Council should pay staff a “living wage”. Since when were council employees amongst the poorest in society? All benefit from the minimum wage legislation anyway.

They want a “youth card” which would attract retailer discounts ( yet it is already available with YoZone card)

There are recommendations in the report that few would disagree with.

Some, although not original thinking by any means, could attract cross party support. They include proposals to:
• Put benefit advisors where they are most easily accessible to users
• Continue and expand work to reduce the living costs/bills of those in greatest need (e.g. through energy efficiency measures and tackling fuel poverty).
• Ensure economic development strategy and activity focuses on the quality and accessibility as well as the quantity of jobs, and on inclusion as well as growth.
• Deliver a programme of action that tackles barriers to work (e.g. child care).
• Encourage the creation of „green jobs‟ in sustainable industries (already started by the last Council).
• Make training and employment opportunities for young people a priority and radically expand the number of apprenticeships on offer (an initiative announced by the Coalition government last week).
• Work together with and support the voluntary sector more closely and extensively.

But a document that pretends to “help” in a budget setting process and which does not include a single figure indicating the cost of the alternative plan is one that is at best a distraction, or at worst counter-productive to addressing fundamental issues about how public services can be sustained in the future.

The Commission admits to spending over £18,000 directly on coming to their conclusions.

Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Iain Spittal said:

“North Yorkshire Police has the necessary contingency arrangements in place to ensure core services are maintained during the planned public sector strike on Wednesday 30 November.

“We are satisfied that these measures will mitigate for any police staff who choose to support the industrial action.

“Members of the public will experience a ‘business as usual’ service as far as possible, with emergency 999 calls being dealt with as swiftly and professionally as ever.

“We feel our approach best serves the overarching priority of North Yorkshire Police, which is to protect and serve our communities.”