York Council racks up £20,000 bill for propaganda films

Lendal Bridge video click to access

Lendal Bridge video click to access

20's plenty video click to access

20’s plenty video click to access

An astute resident, surveying the annual accounts of the York Council, has spotted bills totalling over £20,000 for videos promoting the 20’s plenty campaign and defending the decision to close Lendal Bridge.

The videos were produced by a local company but do not seem to have been subject to a formal tendering process.

At the moment, the brief given to the producers has not been published by the Council.

The videos have been available to view on You Tube for about a year but have attracted little interest.

The 20’s plenty video has been viewed on 1500 occasions while the Lendal bridge  closure – which attracted international notoriety – film has been viewed only 4500 times.

There is a fine line between information and propaganda. Soft sell tactics like these, on highly controversial issues, cross that boundary.

Balance is a serious issue when taxpayer’s money is being used to fund media initiatives.

It would not have been so bad if there had been public discussion on the need for the videos before they were ordered but that is not the way that the current Council does its business.

NB. Concerns have also been raised about payments allegedly exceeding £100,000 for a temporary head of communications (media) at the Council. It appears that the post has been occupied for around 2 years but without any competitive process. The former head of media at Council was paid less than half this figure in 2010.

York Council calls special meetings to discuss controversial plans

Lendal bridge fines and Hob Moor development proposals on the agenda for two meetings

  • The special all party meeting – which will review the Labour proposal not to notify drivers that they may be entitled to a refund of fines paid on Lendal bridge –  will take place on  Wednesday 27 August at 5pm (the agenda will be published on Monday 18 August).
  • New proposals which would see a significant change to the building plans on the former Our Lady’s school site are being discussed at a Planning Committee meeting being held on 21st August.  The proposals involve raising the height of the site to facilitate better drainage. The plans have raised concerns about the effect that they may have on Hob Moor, existing properties and roads in the area. Click here to see the papers

Lendal Bridge report “called in” for further consideration

“Congestion Commission” shelvedtraffic

The Cabinet decision on how refends should be offered to motorists fined for driving over Lendal bridge has been “called in”.

This means that an independent scrutiny committee will decide whether the Cabinets proposals should go ahead (relying on motorists to find out themselves that the refunds are available) or whether the Council should write all who have paid fines offering a refund.

The Scrutiny Management Committee is next scheduled to meet on 8th September

NB. Labour have quietly abandoned their proposal to establish an all party “congestion commission”. The proposal was due to be discussed at a meeting taking place on 9th September. It has now been withdrawn from the agenda with no new date set for its consideration

Lendal Bridge fine refunds confirmed

Lendal ManConfusion over process continues

The York Council confirmed yesterday that it will refund the fines levied on Lendal Bridge during the 6 month closure trial.

However controversy continues as the Council does not intend to proactively tell those affected that they are entitled to a refund!

Labour Councillors claim that social and commercial media will be used to alert claimants but – with as long as 12 months having elapsed since some of the fines were issued and in many cases to drivers from other parts of the UK and Europe – most are unlikely to ever hear about the need to apply for a refund.

The Council should agree to write to every driver telling them of their right to claim a rebate and how to go about doing so

The Council have withdrawn their appeal against the “unlawful” ruling on Lendal Bridge.

They are continuing to pursue an appeal on Coppergate where no fine notices have been issued since April.

 

Lendal Bridge fine refund report published

Labour say onus will be on motorists to claim

Traffic on Lendal bridge after closure

Traffic on Lendal bridge after closure

The report on if and how the York Council will refund the fines that it raised unlawfully against motorist using Lendal Bridge has been published. Click here to read it.

The Council has also issued a media release saying

Following approval at Cabinet, an announcement as to the opening of the application process will be made shortly through the council website and the council’s normal communication channels.

In order to protect the council against the risk from fraudulent claims a simple application process is currently in development and it is anticipated that this will be launched in the coming weeks.

Whilst the council appreciates that those affected by this process will wish to make their application at the earliest possible date, payments will only be made when requests are made through the official application process and contacting the council prior to the opening of the process will not be necessary or assist in any claims.

Given that many of those fined did not live in York (or even the UK) it would be scandalous if the Council did not agree to write to each telling them of their right to reclaim the fine.

Council to decide Lendal Bridge refund policy on 5th August

The York Councils Cabinet will decide whether – and on what basis – to refund fines imposed during the Lendal bridge trial when it meets on 5th August.

This will be a month after one Labour Councillor claimed on TV that the Council had already decided to make the refunds – and to withdraw its appeal against the traffic adjudicators judgement.

How quickly refunds will be made following the meeting is still anyone’s guess.

Lendal Bridge legal battle costs taxpayers £700 a week

 

Labour run York Council’s legal battle over traffic restrictions on Lendal Bridge and Coppergate has cost taxpayers £700 a week, according to figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats.

Lendal Bridge sign

 

At the end of March a Government Traffic Adjudicator ruled that the council had “no power” to issue fines on Lendal Bridge or Coppergate. Since then, York Council has been contesting the Adjudicator’s ruling on both the schemes.

However, last week the council said it was dropping the Lendal Bridge appeal and only continuing with the Coppergate challenge.

 

The Lib Dems can now reveal that so far the council has spent £11,330 on the legal battle, with the figure set to continue to rise as the Coppergate row rolls on.

The revelation comes at a time when Labour are refusing to say when their proposal to repay the fines unlawfully imposed on drivers using Lendal Bridge will be refunded.

Despite claims made on TV and in Council media releases that the Council had decided to repay the fines, it emerged at the last Council meeting that no such decision had been made.

A meeting to discuss the proposal – and a move to withdraw the Councils appeal against the traffic adjudicators decision – was promised “shortly” but has still not yet been scheduled.

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Labour save York Cabinet flops

……as Labour vote down Acomb regeneration proposal

Labour managed to get enough of their members into the Council chamber tonight to avoid the ignominy of having two Council members sacked from their Cabinet positions.

Cllrs Alexander and Merrett had been widely blamed for the failure of the Lendal Bridge trial with the latter having promised to resign if the Councils action had been proven to be unlawful.

Opposition members pointed out that the withdrawal of the Councils appeal against the traffic adjudicators judgement was an admission of guilt.

Labour were however forced to admit that no decision on refunding fines had actually been taken and their spokesman would only say that a meeting to discuss the proposals would take place “shortly”.

Both the responsible Council member (Levene) in a TV interview, and an official Council Press release issued on Tuesday, had claimed that the “Council had decided to refund the Lendal Bridge fines”.

Both those claims have now been proved to be untrue.

Cllr Levene also said that he didn’t know how much it would cost to refund the Lendal Bridge fines.

Labour went on to vote down proposals to introduce an ambitious regeneration programme for the Acomb Front Street area.

Crunch vote tomorrow on future of two Labour Councillors

The Labour councillors responsible for the botched Lendal Bridge trial will formally face calls to resign at tomorrow night’s meeting of York’s Full Council.

Quit

Council Leader James Alexander and Cllr Dave Merrett, the Cabinet Member responsible for the trial, will both face a vote to decide whether they keep their jobs.

The move is part of a Liberal Democrat motion which also calls for the 60,000 motorists fined for crossing Lendal Bridge to be repaid automatically without having to apply for a refund.

So far Labour has only said York Council will reimburse people who apply for a repayment.

The motion follows the embarrassing U-Turn last week when Labour announced that it would drop its appeal against a Government Traffic Adjudicator ruling which said the Lendal Bridge closure was unlawful.

In April Cllr Merrett said that if the trial was proved to be unlawful he would resign, telling BBC Radio York: “Yes, I accept that at the end of the day that if we’ve got it wrong to that extent that I’d have to resign”.

In April Cllr Merrett lost responsibility for Transport, but kept his Cabinet post taking control of Environmental Services.

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Lendal Bridge refunds – Council “don’t call us” statement

The Council has issued the following statement.  Refund_Stamp

It is incorrect as the Council hasn’t yet decided to offer refunds on Lendal bridge fines. At this stage it is merely a proposal from Cllr Levene.

No date has been set for the issue to be formally considered by any of the Council’s decision taking bodies.

The Council statement reads,

The Council has decided to refund people who received a fine during the trial traffic regulation of Lendal Bridge, those who appealed to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal will receive payment from the Council and need take no further action. A refund will be made in all other cases provided a request is made through the council application process. This is due to the clear level of public concern during the trial. It is hoped that this can be seen as a statement of goodwill and we are drawing a line under the matter.

In order to protect the Council against the risk from fraudulent claims a simple application process is currently in development and it is anticipated that this will be launched in the near future. An announcement as to the opening of the application process will be made through the Council website and the Council’s normal communication channels.

Whilst we appreciate that those affected by this process will wish to make their application at the earliest possible date, refunds will only be made when requests are made through the official application process and contacting the Council prior to the opening of the process will not be necessary or assist your claim.