York Council cuts: West Bank park next to be jettisoned?

West Bank parkThe Council is to consider handing over control and management of the West Bank Park to a residents group.

A largely impenetrable report is to be considered on 24th February which will recommend that the Council seeks grant funding from an organisation known as NESTA*.

This  will  “support changes to parks management and maintenance systems – including potential changes to maintenance regimes, restructuring contracts and maximising the productivity of particular landscapes”.

The NESTA project gives the example of holding concerts in the parks as a way of increasing income.

The report later talks of

”exploring what community use and income generating possibilities 14 New Lane offers, either in its current form, or if rebuilt and extended, and using this  to fund the future care and development of the whole site”.

This is pretty much now standard  “Labour speak” for the withdrawal of Council funding, with residents left to pick up the burden.

A similar project led to the semi privatisation of the Libraries Service.

The newly independent “social enterprise” York Library service now finds that its Council funding is being cut by £200,000 over the next 2 years raising fears that several smaller facilities could close.

Parks – including West Bank – are also set for cuts in this years budget with £122,000 being lopped off.

Parks will be left unlocked with minimal maintenance “unless local groups step in to help”.

York has few formal parks and West Bank is the only one in the Acomb area.

It seems that a laudable initiative from some local residents – who wanted to set up a heritage centre at 14 New Lane to explain the history of the site – is now being used as a smokescreen to cover major changes to the use of the park.

There has ben no consultation with most residents who live in the area and who use the parks facilities.

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*NESTA is short for the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts. It has apparently obtained access to National Lottery funding.  It is viewed with suspicion by some residents who see it as a cover for the advance of the techno bureaucrat movement. Senior Council managers are understood to be involved with the organisation.

Glass houses

Labour on public bodies

The national furore about a Labour peer being ousted – at the end of her term of office – from a role as head of OFSTED is likely to produce a “pots and kettles” response in York.

As reported a few months ago, the Chair of York Labour party was appointed to an influential local QUANGO last year.

Indeed the York Labour Party has a long history of trying to pack public bodies – including school governorships and NHS committees – with its supporters.

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Meanwhile when public service vacancies are advertised, there remains a suspicion that the process is window dressing.

We reported in December that a (volunteer) Chair for a new company which will “promote York” was being sought. The post was advertised over the holiday period – more or less guaranteeing a poor response.

The Council has now announced that the present Chair of Visit York has been appointed to the post.

The Council have failed to reveal how many applications there were for the position.

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Some taxpayers are now questioning the involvement that some York Council officials may have in shadowy “networking” organisations. In this case it is not the ubiquitous Freemasons, but rather, supposedly, educational organisations like “NESTA”  and  “Common Purpose”.

NESTA is run by the former head of policy in the Blair government. It is a charity ostensibly committed to developing technology based approaches to what they term “civic coding”. They recently recruited a couple of millionaire business people to become Trustees.

Common Purpose  provides leadership training courses.  It raised some eyebrows when implying that durable strategies, “leading beyond authority”,  could be implemented at local and national government level which transcended periods of democratic political change.

Both organisations have an elitist feel

Personalities associated with Common Purpose have been actively associated with the campaign for press freedom, perhaps explaining why media interest remains detached.

Of course, such bodies are nothing new.  During the last Labour government they tended to flourish in the public sector. That their operators have now apparently moved into the private and charitable sectors means that they may still be regarded as an income sinecure.

As always, participation by public sector officials in outside organisations, should be judged on how much value the average person in the street might expect to derive from them.  

If public expenditure is involved, then such benefits need to be quantified publicly and subject to independent scrutiny.