Labour plan to abandon community centres in York

The latest in a long list of poor decisions by the Labour Council could see four community centres in York close.

The provisional budget for next year sees all the community centres (Chapelfields , Foxwood , Tang Hall , and Bell Farm) lose their Council grants.

Typically a community centre costs around  £50,000 a  year to run with most income generated from hiring rooms.

The Council are to cut their financial support entirely leaving some of the centres with a 5 figure budget deficit.

Already the community centre caretakers have been issued with redundancy notices (although they are likely to be redeployed within the Council).

The Council says that it wishes to see the buildings transferred into the ownership of a voluntary committee with a community asset transfer by April 2015

This seems to be what has prompted the Tang Hall centre to announce that it is changing the legal status of its voluntary committee.

The voluntary committees undertake a thankless task and deserve Council support.

The Foxwood and Chapelfields centres depend  entirely on the resources of  local residents to continue, while Tang Hall was only kept going when Labour Councillors were parachuted into key roles.

Burton Stone community centre future unclear

Burton Stone community centre future unclear

Burton Stone is a larger building and its future is much more unclear.

Without caretakers, the buildings will be closed to general callers reducing their use as a focal point for neighbourhood communications. One Community Centre (Tang Hall) has already leased office space to an outside organisation.

All the Community Centres are located in what the Council regards as “deprived areas” .

The Council hopes to save £180,000 through the cuts. Most of this will come from the Burton Stone centre.

NB. The Council is planning to spend £1.6 million hosting just one day of the Tour De France cycle race.

Click here to download a full list of proposed cuts (see ref Can 12)

Grange Lane play area petition – decision next Wednesday

The 251 signature petition which asked for a dog proof fence, poop scoop and litter bins to be provided at the Grange Lane playground will be discussed next Wednesday.

Grange Lane petition. click to enlarge

Grange Lane petition. click to enlarge

Residents collected the petition following problems with dog fouling around the play equipment.

Officials say that there is no money to pay for a fence and, of course, Labour Councillors voted last year to substantially reduce the numbers of litter and dog bins in the City.

It is possible that an existing bin might be re-positioned closer to the playground.

The cost of the fence is put at £7,200. Officials say that the scheme should be one of those funded from the estate improvement budget.

However this totals only £9,500 and must address all the needs of the Chapelfields area.

Some might think that a small reduction in the £1.4 million that the Council is going to spend – in a single day – on the start event for a stage of the Tour de France, might be more usefully be spent addressing safety and environmental problems like these.

Residents may attend and speak on the proposals at the meeting which is taking place at West Offices on Toft Green on Wednesday 9th October starting at 4:00pm.

You must register to speak before the meeting. The deadline for registering is 5pm on Tuesday 8th October 2013. Telephone – (01904) 552062 Laura Bootland.

Written representations must be made by 5pm on Monday 7th October 2013. They should be E-mailed to laura.bootland@york.gov.uk

Council admit error and apologise for failure to collect medical waste

The Council have admitted that they should have collected the medical waste put outside a property in the Holgate area last week.

They say that their records have now been updated.

They have also apologised for the delays in answering calls to the Councils switchboard.

We understand that they are experiencing unprecedented levels of complaints mostly arising out of the waste collection shambles.

Dlevene twitter 17th Sept 2013

Meanwhile Councillor Levene, who is responsible for waste collection, has “tweeted” to York Liberal Democrats claiming that the non collection of recycling on Chapelfields Road yesterday was “explained on the Council web site”.

In reality neither neither Chapelfields Road nor recycling is mentioned on the web site.

In a separate development, some residents trying to use the “report it on line” system to report a missed bin have not been able to do so. It appears that the database has not been updated for the new collection rounds.

This rather suggests that management simply don’t know what is happening on York’s waste collection rounds?

Both the Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council are understood to have in Belgium when the crisis peaked at the beginning of the week.

Council jettison more Acomb services

We understand that the Council is planning to stop the weekly housing benefit advice sessions that they had been running at the Chapelfields Community centre.

Acomb Council Office - closed in February 2012.

Acomb Council Office – closed in February 2012.

The service was one of those introduced to replace the “face to face” adv ice service which was lost when the Council’s Acomb Office closed 18 months ago.

Each Thursday morning the Council promised a “Housing advice, Council Tax Support and Housing Benefits service: 9am – 12 noon”

It was one of five advice points were established last year, but now only the one at the Gateway centre (the most popular) will continue in Acomb.

Ironically this building is within 50 yards of the former Acomb Office.

Originally the intention had been to locate advice, and headquarter estate managers and community workers, at the Acomb Explore Library but this plan was scrapped when Labour took control of the Council in 2011.

Now Acomb residents face a long trek to the Council HQ in Toft Green. A telephone link may continue to be available at the Community Centre, but as many callers know, such services are inaccessible for some. We understand that the estate manager will still be present at the centre on Thursday mornings

NB. Callers to the main Council switchboard this week are reporting delays of up to 10 minutes before connection.