York Council set to plunge further into debt

It looks like the York Council will be borrowing more money next year.

Hopes that the new administration would avoid using the £9 million reserved to subsidise the York Central project have been dashed and £900,000 remains in the budget for works to the Guildhall. £15.714 million is earmarked for expenditure on the community stadium project.

How the debts are forecast to increase

Over £40 million of expenditure is being slipped from the current year into 2016/17 according to papers which will be discussed next week

The additional expenditure means that around 13% of the Council taxes that York residents pay will in future be soaked up by capital and interest repayments.

In total Councillors are being asked to add £5.5 million to the City’s debt burden next week.

A full list of expenditure proposals can be viewed by clicking here

click

York Council releases latest – more comprehensive – performance stats

Unemployment low, forecast 12% increase in crime levels, poor housing management performance,

The latest performance figures from the York Council provide a lot more information about public service standards in the City. It is a welcome improvement from the “dark ages” between 2011 and 2015 when little was revealed and Freedom of Information requests flourished

Environment KPIs click to access

The Council is reporting a big over-spend on the costs of looking after children from broken homes. Car parking income is already £282,000 below budgeted levels, and the Council has, of course, received no income from ANPR enforcement on Coppergate.

One worrying trend is on crime where “significant increases are forecast in the violent crime, criminal damage and burglary of non-dwellings”. With elections for the role of Police and Crime Commissioner coming up in May, candidates can expect to be questioned closely on their plans to reverse crime trends in the City.

As you would expect, performance in other areas varies. No one expects perfection – just a solid response to any evidence of declining standards.

The only department that still hasn’t adjusted to the new, more open, culture appears to be the Housing department. The Housing Revenue Account looks like it will underspend by £480,000 this year – yet many estate regeneration projects remain on the shelf.

Housing KPIs click

Housing KPIs lack information about contact volumes, complaint levels. repair numbers and customer satisfaction levels. There is no exception reporting. No “longest outstanding issue” figures are provided.

Housing have also produced a new “business plan” which singularly fails to identify any administrative savings despite a heavy investment in technology. The lamentable condition of many estates – particularly communal spaces and in garage areas – together with growing issues like the lack of off street car parking, is largely ignored.

The Council’s Executive when it meets next week should send the housing documents back for a rethink.

Detailed KPIs can be found behind these links:

York Council plans 3% Council Tax increase

Details are emerging this evening of the Council’s budget plans for 2016/17.

Council Tax will increase by 3%, of which 2% will be ring-fenced to help with social care costs.

Council house rents will be reduced by 1% (in line with central government instructions). This will mean cuts in repairs budgets, although the housing account is showing a £20 million accumulated surplus.

The Council is to spend £234,000 more to fund “additional Community Safety Hub officers” to cover additional enforcement around dog fouling, street drinking, licensing infringement and noise enforcement plus ” a reactive service for street services to deal with fly-tipping, graffiti, litter and weeds” which would be a welcome step forward.

Another welcome improvement will be an investment of an additional £100,000 to help tackle mental health issues, while the completion of the Local Plan will cost another £350,000 and an update of the strategic flood risk assessment will cost £60,000.

An extra £74,000 will be used to increase Councillors pay.

Some of the more eye-catching cuts include:

£350,000 cut in bus subsidies. Number 20 service to be scrapped.
£1.1 million cut in adult social care provision
£1.3 million cut in education support (schools are funded directly by the government)
Reductions in public garden and tree maintenance
Handing over allotment management to users
Theatre Royal (revenue) grants scrapped.
Less on Public Health (drugs, alcohol, smoking, dentistry and sexual health)
Fewer health checks

Many residents will be looking at the Council capital investment plans to see whether the excesses of the last administration – which doubled the debt per head of population figure in the City – have been reversed.

“On Line” survey asks what York Police tax should be

With crime levels increasing in parts of York, a consultation survey has begun.

It asks whether the police tax should be increased by 1.99% next year.

Recently the government announced that there would be no reduction in the grant that it gives to Police forces.

The survey can be completed by clicking here

The Crime Commissioners Office only hints at how any extra money raise could be spent although residents have an opportunity to “write in” comments.

There are elections for a new Police and Crime Commissioner on 5th May 2016

More information is available here. The last PCC elections produced the lowest elector turnout ever recorded (15%).

York Council budget and newspaper

The York Council is also conducting a survey of residents views on its new budget. It can be completed here “on line“

The Council is delivering another “Our City” newspaper with a survey form enclosed.

However, they are not giving residents an opportunity to give a verdict on the likely local increase in Council Tax (expected to be 3.99%)

The Council newspaper – which costs residents around £40,000 a year – also has a section devoted to “local news” which appears to be aimed at encouraging participation in how Ward Committee funds are spent.

click to access

Click to access

Have your say on York Council budget

The Council has issued a media release saying,

“City of York Council’s Executive is facing some tough decisions in 2016-17. Below outlines why these difficult choices need to be made and why residents’ views are so important.

To help shape the 2016-17 Budget proposals, the council is inviting residents to have their say through a consultation by Wednesday 20 January:

· Online at www.york.gov.uk/consultations/

· By post to FREEPOST RTEG-TYYU-KLTZ, Budget consultation, City of York Council, West Offices, Station Rise, York, YO1 6GA

· By hand at West Offices or libraries/Explore Centres”.

On line consultation questionaire https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/YorkBudget

The Council of course omits to mention many options that many residents might like to take.

You noticeably won’t be able to vote for a pay freeze for Councillors or to reduce their support costs,
There’s no option to stop the “Our City” newspaper.
Quangos like “Make it York” are off the options list.

Not can you vote to save money through the lower debt (interest) charges which would come if the subsidy was reduced for big investment schemes like the:

New swimming pool at Monks Cross
Access bridge to the York Central development or
Development of the Guildhall site.

There isn’t even a “write in” option for those feeling inventive!

You can say whether you prefer a tax rise to service cuts but you aren’t offered a choice on how much any increase might be!

NB It is likely that the cap in increases will be around 3.9% most of which will be ring-fenced for elderly care.

The Council justifies its stance by saying, “This year’s budget proposals will seek to ensure the council’s priorities continue to be delivered, whilst also ensuring the council’s financial position is managed effectively.
(more…)

Father Christmas set to bring York Councillors 21% pay increase.

An independent panel is recommending to next weeks York Council meeting that Councillors get whopping pay increases.

York Councillors proposed pay increases. About half the Council members are eligible for SRA payments.

If accepted, the rises would far outstrip the increase in pay seen by Council staff over the last 6 years.

In 2008 the Council agreed to tie members allowance rates to average Council staff wage increases, although members decided to forgo an increase during the depth of the recession.

Most Councillors were elected expecting an inflation lift of around 3%. However some, under the recommendations, would get an increase in responsibility allowances of as much as 148%.

The top salary earner would be the Council Leader who would be paid £34,668 a year. There would be no requirement for members to be full time Councillors (several members of the present Council also hold down well paid outside jobs). There is no requirement for Councillors to record the number of hours that they devote to their duties each week (although many do work very hard for their local communities)

The rationale used by the independent panel is that high wage rates are necessary to attract good quality candidates. However, at the May 2015 polls, electors had a record number of candidates to choose from.

There is little evidence to suggest that higher pay attracts better qualified candidates.

The Council does not have to accept the recommendations which, if implemented in full, would add £84,000 (15%) to the members annual wage bill.

Nor do individual Councillors have to accept a pay increase. In the past some have turned down increases and have continued to claim the amount applicable when they were last elected.

The debate comes at a time when the Council is struggling to find additional funding for elderly care as well as a bill for several hundred thousand pounds for changes to the Council Tax Support system.

One option would be for the Council to agree a total budget allocation in line with the 3.2% wage increase received by local government employees over the last 6 years,

Any further increase could be delayed until after the next local elections when, no doubt, a ballot paper full of high calibre candidates would be available for selection in all wards!

Delay over Community Centre funding plans

One of the key policies of the new coalition Council was the restoration of grants to Council owned Community Centres.

Foxwood Community Centre

The centres (Foxwood, Chapelfields, Bell Farm, Heworth and Burton Stone/Clifton) lost their grants under the last Labour administration and there were fears that some would close.

In July the new Council identified £70,000 to help underpin the centres. The voluntary groups currently running the centres have managed to kept them open until now.

The Council had been expected to allocate the total budget to individual centres on 14^th September but unexplained delays have dogged the process since then.

Now it appears that the Councils Environment Executive member (Andrew Waller) has been debarred from making the decision which had been scheduled to be taken in November.

Instead Deputy Council Leader Keith Aspden will agree the allocations on 3^rd December.

The is still hoped is that enough money will be made available to allow a part time caretaker to be appointed at both the Foxwood and Chapelfields centres.

York Council facing £1.2 million over-spend

Concerns that NHS could land City taxpayers with £3 million bill

A report being considered by the Council next week reveals that it may overspend this year’s budget by £1.25 million. This is relatively small in percentage terms compared to previous years.

The forecast comes as the expenditure against budget for the period to September is revealed.

It is possible that a “Better Care Fund” budget, shared with the NHS, and intended to support adult social care services, may be raided to help fund a deficit run up by the Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group.

This could leave a £3 million hole in the Council’s budgeted income.

The government is also consulting on reducing the Public Health budget for this year by £1/2 million.

The biggest pressures on the Council’s budget though comes from the large number of children in foster care.

The report says,

“The number of Children Looked After is unlikely to reduce in the foreseeable future, and York’s unit cost is already the lowest of all 150 Local Authorities nationally”.

The report also reveals:

The income from car parking was £91,000 below expectations. “The largest year on year % reduction was from Marygate car park (15%) where Pay on Exit is being trialed. This has been partly due to technical issues impacting on income levels”. (Incredibly the Council has separately announced that it will consider extending barrier operation to other car parks when it meets on 28^th Jan 2016)
A forecast income of £100,000 from fines levied by the use of ANPR cameras on Coppergate – inserted into the budget by the last Labour administration – has not been realised as the cameras have remained switched off. However, some Councillors are thought to be in favour of switching them back on again – watch this space!
The Council’s housing account is still forecast to have a surplus of £16.6 million at the end of the year.

York Council’s debts still a cause for concern

The latest finance figures released by the York Council show that over 13% of the annual Council Tax paid by York residents is being used to pay interest charges on the Councils borrowings.

This equates to payments of £20.25 per person per year.

The worrying trend is in the net debts level of the Council.

This is forecast to increase from £245 million this year to £285 million in 2018.

This figure which is concerning and reflects the fact that the present Council has yet to scrap some of the more extreme commitments that it inherited from the last Labour administration (e.g. the new swimming pool at Monks Cross, the “in house” development of the Guildhall annex site and the “bridge to nowhere” access for the York central site).

Ring Road improvements falter but York Council set to borrow £24 million

A report to a Council meeting later this week details how an £80 million Council investment programme will be funded.

The Council will again borrow heavily to fund schemes which include:

Borrowing costs click to enlarge

Expansion of Fulford school (£5.8m)
Schools maintenance (£4m)
Older persons accommodation (£0.5m)
Museums plus art gallery gardens (0.85m)
LED street lighting replacement (£1.3m)
Provision of 20 new Council houses (£8.9m) and modernisation (£2.3m)
Local Transport Plan (£4.6m)
Community Stadium (£20.7m of which £6.4m will come from taxpayers)*

*It seems highly unlikely that this money will be spent in the current financial year as the contract is not now expected to be let until the spring.

The Council will invest in better play grounds and more solar powered litter bins.

The programme also includes a (mostly unallocated) £15m sum in the “economic investment fund”. This is understood still to include major contributions towards a bridge into the York Central site and funding for a Digital Media Centre.

A1237 northern by pass improvements delayed?

The 5 year rolling programme – which includes projects which are both directly and indirectly funded – does not identify any money for improvements to the northern by pass.

The West Yorkshire “Combined Authority” agreed last November to include a £37.6m allocation in their forward programme for the project.

Following the announcement by the government of an allocation of £1 billion for the “West Yorkshire Plus Transport fund”, the York Council was asked to commit £500,000 a year in its revenue budget to progress the ring road project.

The expectation was that the £37 million investment would be used to upgrade those roundabouts – such as the one on the Haxby Road – which currently cause bottlenecks on the A1237.

According to the Combined Authorities programme formal approval for improvements at the first junction was due to be given this month (August) with a start on site in March 2016.

No explanation for the delays has been provided in the report to York Councillors.

The government funding allocation must be used by 2021.

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