More secrecy as York Council tries to bury more bad news.

25 things you probably didn’t know about public services in the City

Behind closed doors logo

It appears that the Council haven’t made available to the public the answers to questions given  by Cabinet members at their meeting which took place on 27th March 2014.

In fairness the Council Leader s usually fairly prompt in proving public answers. Other cabinet members are more tardy and often evade the questions sometimes  in an attempt to score political points.

On this occasion there are some startling admissions.

These include:

  1. Since 2011, Labour have built only 1/3 of the number of houses built during the first three years of LibDem rule which started in 2003.
  2. The Council has not agreed any performance  targets for its “Smarter York”  team
  3. Residents have not been able to use the do it on line “Report it” facility to tell the Council about  potholes, faulty street lights etc since November. The Council blames a change to the  “Google maps” database.
  4. Around 30,000 calls are being received by the Councils customer contact centre each mnth. Typically 12,000 people visit the Council offices and 5000 Emails are received. During March 61% of calls were answered in 20 seconds. 11% were abandoned by the caller.
  5. The Cabinet member with      responsibility for customers      says, “Too much of the current interaction with the council remains      through traditional routes and the use of online and self services has yet      to be fully exploited” (See 4 above).
  6. Cllr Levene is looking      forward to the “next round of Focus      leaflets”
  7. The Council spends around £80,000 a year on mobile phones      for its employees.
  8. The Council spent £26,807      on new chairs for the eco depot last year. The chairs purchased by the Council have a “life” of 5 years. No payment was received for the discarded      chairs
  9. The Council received 1815 complaints from members of      the public between 1st April2013 and 21st March      2014.  The majority of the      complaints were about environmental services.
  10. The number of residents      opting to pay their Council Tax by 12      equal instalments has more than trebled (to 1618)
  11. The Council has over 70 separate “twitter” accounts      which are being managed by staff
  12. The Council still hopes to      publish a final draft of its Local      Plan by mid year with an examination in public expected in the autumn      and adoption “in 2015”.
  13. The token system for the park and ride facility at Monks Cross      hasn’t been working for “2 years”
  14. The real time car park space available information was removed      from the Councils web site last year. It is expected to be available again      “by May 2014” Click      here for an alternative
  15. The majority of electronic      Variable Message Signs (VMS)      around the City are not operational at the moment. All are expected to be      working again by October 2014 (!)
  16. There are no plans to      relocate the Food Festival and specialist markets from Parliaments Street      while works in Newgate are      underway (the permanent stall holders will be relocated into Parliament      Street while the works are undertaken)
  17. The Smarter York app is costing      taxpayers £11,000 a year. In      the 12/13 financial year there were 477 reports and in 13/14, 419 reports      using this system. The Council hopes to add additional functions to the      “App” in future.
  18. 710 households have signed      up to pay for the emptying of an additional green bin this summer
  19. The number of dog fouling reports for the last      three years show no increase: 216 in 2011, 219 in 2012, and 212 in 2013.      No FPNs for fouling were issued in 2013.
  20. The Cabinet member for      housing is not in favour of supplementing Council housing stocks by buying vacant property on the open      market. “They might require a new      boiler”. She believes that the new 2 bedroomed Council houses, being      built on Beckfield Lane, are costing only £120,000 each!
  21. No investment is planned      for sub-urban Council estate      communal areas “because they are amongst the best in the      country”!
  22. 1536 elderly and disabled      residents will be affected by Labour’s decision to scrap the Taxicard system (an alternative      to the bus pass)
  23.  The URBIE      buses, which provide mobile play facilities for children, have been      little used since Ward Committee funding was finished
  24. The Council will not      guarantee that all existing Childrens      Centres will remain open.
  25. Response times for street lighting fault reports are      claimed to have been
  • Oct 13 – 1.2 working days
  • Nov 13 – 2.6 working days
  • Dec 13 – 2.3 working days
  • Jan 14 – 3.3 working days
  • Feb 14 – 3.3 working days
  • Mar 14 – currently 1.6      working days

The most surprising thing is that this information has had to be dragged out of the Council. They have an active press department which should be advising residents about the withdrawal of services before they actually happen.

Full list of answers click here

The art of evading difficult questions

One of the checks and balances on the power of Council Cabinets/Executives has been the requirement that their members answer question form backbench members at full Council meetings.

Questions are submitted in writing at least a week before the meeting is scheduled to take place, providing plenty of time for answers to be researched.  Until 2011, both questions and written answers were circulated at the beginning of meetings allowing Councillors to ask “follow up” questions.

That protocol was abandoned in 2011 when the new Labour administration decided to circulate answers several days after the meeting had taken place. Effectively this removed any possibility of challenge through supplementary questions.

DM half past three

The management of York Council meetings has deteriorated to the point where questions re rarely reached these days anyway. 70% of the items on the Council agenda were not reached at its last meeting. Business was simply voted through without discussion.

The lack of scrutiny provides unscrupulous Cabinet members with an opportunity to avoid answering difficult questions.

At the meeting on 12th December Cllr Merrett was asked the following question. 

“On the Lendal Bridge/Coppergate restrictions could the Cabinet Member confirm the following figures:

  1. The number of appeals lodged each week since the beginning of August against PCNs issued for contraventions of traffic restrictions on Coppergate and Lendal Bridge
  2. The number of appeals which have been successful each week
  3. The total revenue that the Council has received so far from PCNs following the introduction of the new restrictions on  Coppergate and Lendal Bridge
  4. The weekly changes to journey times (all modes of transport) on each arterial road and on each section of the inner ring road since the introduction of  the new traffic restrictions
  5. The numbers of accidents reported on roads in the City centre comparing the last 3 months with the equivalent period in 2012
  6. The latest air quality monitoring reports for key sites in and close to the City centre, including the Leeman Road area, and comparing these with last year?”

This expecting a short factual answer will have been disappointed.  None of the requested numbers were provided.

The reply read

“Data is being ‘harvested’ for vehicle travel times across the city and far more detailed information will be published when this data becomes available in the new year.

Travel time data for radial arterial routes for Park and Ride has already been published and this clearly demonstrates that that the restriction has not led to the ‘dire effect on traffic’ nor the gridlock as anticipated by some.

Traffic flow data for these radial routes reinforces this – the flows are very similar comparing this year to last year.

Buses using the bridge are showing significant reductions in travel times – with average travel times Clarence Street to Rougier Street reducing by 4 to 5 minutes and 2 to 3 minutes in the reverse direction.

Improvements in vehicle flow have been observed at the Station Frontage, Lendal Arch Gyratory, Museum Street, St Leonards Place, Bootham, Gillygate, Clarence Street and Lord Mayors Walk.

Water End has seen an increase in traffic volume (as was predicted) although Clifton Green is generally coping well with the additional traffic, albeit with some late afternoon pressures at the junction. Signal adjustment has been undertaken and the situation continues to be closely monitored on a day to day basis via CCTV.

Skeldergate Bridge, Walmgate Bar and Foss Islands Road have seen increases in traffic (as was predicted) and some increase in the level of delay.

The traffic control centre continues to actively manage the traffic to help minimise the impact.

e)   The numbers of accidents reported on roads in the City centre comparing the last 3 months with the equivalent period in 2012

There is a lag of 3 to 4 months between an accident being reported to the police and it being available for analysis on our accident database. People have 28 days to report injury accidents and the data then requires inputting and validating by the police and the council. Data for Sep, Oct, Nov 2013 will become available in the new year.

For information the total number of accidents on roads within the city centre (inner ring road boundary) for 2012 are:

IRR – 01/09/2012 to 30/11/2012 (all times of day)

Fatal = 0

Serious = 1

Slight = 28

IRR – 01/09/2012 to 30/11/2012 (between 10:30 – 17:00 hrs)

Fatal = 0

Serious = 0

Slight = 12”   

As a result of the evasion, the requested information is likely to be the subject of a Freedom of Information request.