York Council must seize opportunity for change

The proposals for tonight’s York Council meeting have been published

committeeThey show the opposition parties seeking to exploit the new influence given to them by York voters.
Not only are committee memberships being restructured to reflect the new balance on the Council (Labour loses its majority on these committees), but – rightly – scrutiny, planning and other major committees will now have opposition chairs.
This will place a welcome break on the powers of the residual Labour Cabinet.
However, in other respects, the proposals may seem by many to be either perverse (e.g. Cllr Merrett continuing as the Chair of the Local Plan working group) or a failure to get to grips quickly with the organisational change that the City needs.
Under the published proposals, the Labour Cabinet remains intact.
People who have failed will continue to be paid high salaries for a further 6 months of failure.
More seriously, unless an emergency motion is placed on the agenda at the last minute, there are no proposals to control the delegated powers that Cabinet members and officials have.
Poor, impulsive, decisions – often taken behind closed doors – are the root cause of the shambles that has engulfed the York Council over recent months.
By now, many residents would have expected the various parties to have reached a decision on how the City will be governed in the run up to the “all out” elections in May.
There is a parallel with the situation in 2007, when no party emerged from the local elections with an overall majority.
Then the Groups published an agreement indicating how they hoped to take the City forward.
Something similar should, by now, have been published by the new Council.
Unless such a plan emerges over the next few hours, electors may wonder why they bothered voting.

Santa’s socks

York residents are being asked to put their best foot forward and make unique Santa’s Socks which will be filled with sweets and distributed by local food banks around the city.

The Santa’s Sock project, organised by the council’s York Learning team, is encouraging people to pull their creative socks up and have fun sewing, knitting, crocheting, up-cycling, felting, embellishing, stitching or sticking the socks. They can either be made at home or residents can attend one of the free creative workshops to learn new skills and make the stockings in a group.
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New project creates a lasting legacy for York’s Normandy veterans

To mark 70 years since the D-Day landings in Normandy, Explore York Libraries and Archives is collecting memories from members of the York Normandy Veterans Association, as part of the York: Gateway to History project, which has been supported with a £1,574,200 Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant.

In June, the York Veterans joined others from across the country to gather in Normandy and attend memorial services for those lost during the Second World War. The visit brought back memories of friends and family lost, but it also sparked concern about their wartime archive collections and the legacy they leave behind.
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York Cycle Challenge Results

Hundreds of workers from across York have cycled over 102,519 miles in the York Cycle Challenge – the equivalent of cycling over four times around the world.

The three week challenge started on the 16 June and ended on 6 July, the same day as Stage Two of the Tour de France Grand Depart set off from York.

The challenge between workplaces aims to introduce as many newcomers to cycling as possible. Participants logged their cycling online and a variety of prizes were on offer for individuals and teams.
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Labour in disarray as 6 more York Councillors set to quit

Backstabbing

The Labour Party in York is currently in disarray with a total of 6 Councillors now saying that they will stand down from the Council next year, while a further two have quit the Labour Group altogether (Cllrs Jeffries – who joined the LibDems – and Watson who now sits as an Independent).

Last week 3 other Labour Councillors were not re-selected to contest their seats in Clifton.

They were replaced by a party hack from M.P. Hugh Bayley’s office and an unknown “businessman”.

Dringhouses Labour Councillor Ann Semlyen is one of those that has announced that she is quitting the York Council next May. The Fishergate based representative has endured a troubled term of office and has been blamed by many for the introduction of the controversial wide area 20 mph speed limits. The Dringhouses ward is highly marginal with the area being represented by one LibDem and two Labour Councillors at present .The fate of the other Dringhouses Labour Councillor (Hodgson) is unknown.

Labour have refused to confirm that Heworth based Dafydd “two jobs” Williams will seek to retain his seat in Westfield.

The other local representative (Burton) – who also lives on the other side of the river – has gained an unfortunate reputation as one of the least effective elected representatives that the City has ever seen.

Community hub set to grow in Acomb

City of York Council is starting new drop-in sessions as part of its support for a very successful community-led project being run from a church in Acomb.

Lidget Grove

The sessions will be held at Lidgett Grove Methodist Church which is developing into a community hub. There, council officers will offer information and advice to local people on housing issues, anti-social behaviour or housing-related debt, as well as offering advice and information to anyone wanting to get more involved in the community. These will run on Wednesday mornings between 9.30 and 11.30am from Wednesday 9 July.

 

The church’s work started by setting up a very successful Community Café inspired by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s work on loneliness: what causes it and how to combat it. In Carr the main causes of loneliness were aging, family issues, not knowing neighbours, a lack of community facilities and chances to get involved with the community. Among the solutions identified were establishing a central location where people can find information, meet others and get support and services.

In summer 2013, a community café offering company and activities started up as a pilot scheme. It was so well-supported and popular that it carried on and now runs every Wednesday from 9:30 to 11:30am.
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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

Body found in River Foss identified as Ben Clarkson

The body found in the River Foss in York on Friday 21 March 2014, has been formally identified as that of missing man Ben Clarkson.

Ben was reported missing on Sunday 2 March 2014, after failing to return home from a night out in the city centre.

Specially trained officers from North Yorkshire Police continue to support Ben’s family at this extremely difficult time.