Potholes blight York roads

Despite a relatively mild winter, the number of potholes appearing on local roads continues to increase.

In the main this is a result of major cuts to maintenance investment implemented by the new Labour administration when they took office in 2011.

City of York Council

Road repairs expenditure

Year

Pothole reports

Resurfacing

Basic maintenance

Total

2012/13

2492

£1,570,000

£616,700

£2,186,700

2011/12

1566

£2,134,000

£877,200

£3,011,200

2010/11

2860

£1,706,000

£1,008,000

£2,714,000

2009/10

966

£1,604,000

£1,096,000

£2,700,000

 

The York Council will in 2014/15 return to its pre 2011 levels of investment, but for many roads the change will come too late. A poorly maintained highway costs much more to repair than one that has had some routine maintenance.

Potholes on Askham Lane

Potholes on Askham Lane

Pothole on Beagle Ridge Drive

Pothole on Beagle Ridge Drive

We believe that the Council should use the £1.3 million, that it has raised by fining drivers on Lendal and Coppergate, on dealing with the repairs backlog.

York Council “chair fairy” reaches Eco Depot

eco depot chairs

The York Councils apparently insatiable appetite for new furniture has taken a new twist.

Just 5 years after the new “eco” depot was opened at Hazel Court the Council has decided to buy a completely new set of chairs.

The move follows the purchase of new desks and other equipment for the building.

The Council was criticised before its move into West Offices for buying completely new furniture at a cost of over £2.4 million.

Amongst the purchases were 2405 new chairs.

NB. On Thursday the Council announced that it was sacking 240 of its staff.

“Get street level services right” say York budget campaigners

When the York Council meets on Thursday to set its budget, Liberal Democrats will be demanding that it “gets back to basics”.

The Council needs to switch its resources to ensure that the public services, used by residents each day, are up to standard.

It will mean postponing some of the Council Labour Leaderships “vanity projects”

These are some of the issues that we have reported this week.

Illuminated bollard missing

Illuminated bollard missing

Damaged verge

Damaged verge

Damaged verges

Damaged verges

Blocked drains in Chapelfields

Blocked drains in Chapelfields

Litter bins missing

Litter bins missing

Gutters not swept for months

Gutters not swept for months

Vehicle damage claims up 67% in York

Call for Lendal Bridge fine income to be used to repair roads

The number of claims for compensation following damage to vehicles caused by poorly maintained roads in York dramatically increased last year.

Damaged speed humps. Already dangerous for cyclists.

Damaged speed humps. Already dangerous for cyclists.

The change followed a decision by the Labour controlled Council to reduce expenditure on highways maintenance by over £2 million.

The number of claims received, for incidents over recent years, has been

  •  2011 – 75
  • 2012 – 52
  • 2013 – 87

There are now calls for the Council to agree, at its budget meeting next week, to increase the amount it spends on maintenance back to the £5.5 million figure which was being invested each year by the previous, LibDem controlled authority.

Pressure is also growing for the £1.3 million – taken in fines from motorists on Lendal Bridge and in Coppergate – to be used to address the backlog in resurfacing works.

Labour highways maintenance scam revealed.

Labour are planning a “surprise” announcement next month, when they will “reveal” that they will spend an additional £2 million on highways resurfacing during the next financial year.

Highways expenditure Click to enlarge

Highways expenditure Click to enlarge

The announcement will be in response to the pressure, put on them by residents and the Liberal Democrats, who have criticised the cuts made in road and footpath repairs budgets over the last 2 years.

In total, £4 million has been cut from the repairs budget in an attempt to find funding for schemes like the repaving of Kings Square and the, largely unnecessary, £1 million street lamppost replacement programme.

Now Labour – for one year only – hope to return the budget to the £5.5 million level that they inherited from the last LibDem administration.

However, they intend to pay for the programme by borrowing more money. Already residents are facing over £1 million a year extra in interest payments – making Council Tax rises inevitable.

The figures also reveal that investment on de-icing roads and footpaths has fallen by more than half since Labour took over. Fortunately we have – so far – had a mild winter but we may not be so lucky in future years.

We hope that roads like Vesper Drive and footpaths like those on Huntsman’s Walk will now get, long overdue, resurfacing.

Council leadership policy mistake costing average York resident £50 a year

The government has announced that how individual Councillors vote on crucial budget decisions – like Council Tax levels – will, in future, be published.

In York, such decisions are often the subject of a “recorded vote” anyway although it can be weeks before vigilant taxpayers can find the records in meeting minutes.

Meanwhile the government has again offered to underwrite the income required to freeze Council Tax levels. £779,000 has been offered to the City. The funding would continue in future years.

The Council has made poor decisions over the last 3 years when turning down this funding.Council tax

The inexperienced Labour leadership – wrongly – assumed that the subsidy would be available for 1 year only. In reality the government has built the payment into the basic grant that the City receives.

This means that York Council taxpayers are – on average – now paying over £50 a year more for local services than they would have been if the Council had accepted the central government offer.

Next year a band D council taxpayer will have to find  £1,165.54 to pay for York Council services, to which will be added the costs of Fire (4% increase planned) and Police (2% increased proposed)

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The York Council is planning to give £1 million to the Leeds Council “infrastructure fund”.

In addition, around £300,000 in additional (new) Business Rates are being “pooled” with West Yorkshire Councils.

These are optional payments with no guarantee that any of the money will be invested in York.

 

 

Huge increase in York car parking charges – residents targeted for 82% hike.

York’s unique Minster badge scheme which has helped to protect York residents from high car parking charges is being scrapped by Labour.

Under the LibDems, in 2011 residents paid £1.10 per hour to park at most City centre car parks (those designated as “standard stay”).

Residents will now see that increase by a staggering 82% to £2.00.

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

The Council is offering what they term as a frequent visitor badge.

However these will cost £20 a year to buy (and are not restricted to York Council Taxpayers).

click to see full survey results

click to see full survey results

The Councils own survey (see left) of residents, revealed that the vast majority no longer drive into the City centre frequently enough to make such a badge a worthwhile purchase.

Only those using the car parks several times a week would get any benefit and they probably already choose to buy a season ticket. (A season ticket, which allows unlimited parking for a year, costs less than £500 for a small/low emission vehicle)

The news comes at a time when traders have claimed that Saturdays no parking fee trial had been a success.

The trial will have cost the Council around £20,000 in income. First buses will also have lost income on their Park and Ride contract.

Crunch time for City centre

So its crunch time for the City centre economy. Few residents are going to pay those kind of charges when they can get free parking at out of City shopping centres.

The Council is still promising “pay on exit” barriers at the Marygate car park, but that initiative is too little too late.

Even if the Lendal Bridge closure is lifted in March, it will take a long time to restore the City’s reputation with both residents and visitors.

The number of shoppers in the City centre was continuing to fall even before the Lendal Bridge closure

The next local elections are little more than a year away now though,  so there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

Labour are leaving an economic nightmare for someone to clear up.

Narrow vote but £70,000 “non job” gets York Council “go ahead”

Labour Councillors today voted through (by 3 votes to 2) the appointment of a new £70,000 a year “Interim Assistant Director Transformation and Change”

You did waht

The post has been described as a “non-job” with vague objectives

A variety of questions were asked by opposition Councillors, including why just an internal advert, about the pool of people who could apply, about constituency of recruitment across the council and why if they could save money from a Children’s Services post did they need even more than the £500k set aside for transformation.

The post will be recruited internally. Only existing Council staff will be able to apply.

Two other posts are also to be advertised. An Assistant Directors for School Improvement and Highways/Waste will be advertised externally.

Unlike other Council meetings this committee’s debates are not transmitted over the web. Nor is an audio recording made available for residents.

Apparently some agricultural language was used by one of the participants!