Stunner – £250,000 price tag for resurfacing Foxwood shops forecourts!

In response to petitions from local Councillors, York Council officials have reported on proposals to improve the Front Street and Foxwood shopping areas.
Weeds still growing on Foxwood Lane shops forecourt 1400 1st Jan 2016

Foxwood Lane shops

The petitions had pointed at poor maintenance standards, with weeds and litter a constant problem.

The main criticism though was about the surface of the roads and footpaths some of which are badly rutted and uneven.

A meeting on the 13th October will hear that highways officials have examined the roads and paths in both areas and have ordered that potholes be filled in on sections which are a part of the adopted public highway.

Officials say that they have limited powers to require the owners of the private shop forecourts to undertake safety work.

They report that they have “undertaken additional inspections following receipt of the petitions and have identified any areas where the condition of the footway is approaching or exceeding intervention levels, works have been programmed and delivered where these have been identified within the adopted highway. Letters requesting works from frontagers have been issued to address any similar areas within the unadopted areas”.

Pavement Front Street 1

Front Street

Acomb Front Street to let

Regeneration needed

The report goes on to say that any further uplift works must form part of a larger regeneration project. They recommend that this option be referred to the responsible Executive member with a further report.

However, they also say that

“further improvements will require significant works to reinvigorate the two areas, initial estimates could be in the region of £500,000 for Acomb Front Street and £125,000 for Foxwood.

Additional complications arise with both locations where an additional financial burden would fall to the frontagers who would be expected to contribute significant sums of a similar magnitude to facilitate improvements of the adopted and unadopted areas”.

While we have long believed that a major investment is needed to regenerate the large, complex  and neglected Front Street area, the suggestion that £1/4 million needs to be spent resurfacing the Foxwood shops forecourts is ridiculous.

What is needed is an overlay of flexible surfacing – similar perhaps to that used by the Council in Library Square – plus repainting or renewal of street furniture such as the cycle rack and bins.

We hope that Councillors won’t be hoodwinked by this very obvious example of “shroud waving”.

Lib Dems call for an extra £500,000 to be spent on York’s estate regeneration

Liberal Democrats are calling for an extra £500,000 to be spent improving the condition of housing estates in York.

Fly tipping little Green Lane garage area

Restoring pride in Council estate environment

The extra funding will be focused on tidying-up communal areas, repairs, improvements to car parking facilities, and a re-launched programme to replace draughty windows.

The move follows concerns from council tenants, falling satisfaction levels with many estate services, and missed performance targets by Labour run City of York Council.

The proposals are part of the Liberal Democrat budget amendment, which will be debated at today’s full Council meeting.

The Lib Dems are calling for an extra £3 million to be put into frontline services such as road repairs, community centres and green bin collections.

The Lib Dem housing move is funded from the Council’s Housing Revenue Account (HRA) – a ring-fenced housing account which currently has a surplus of £15 million and is split from the main council budget. Rents are being increased by 2% from April.

Cllr Ann Reid, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Housing, commented:

Verge damage Bramham Road

Dealing with parking issues

“Residents have contacted us concerned about issues such as overgrown weeds, damaged fencing, broken streetlights, littering and dog fouling. Basic services have suffered since 2011 and show Labour’s continued neglect and under-investment in the city’s estates.
“We want to put an extra £500,000 in from the Housing Revenue Account to tackle these issues. This budget is raised from council rent and charges and is there to be used for tenants. There is a substantial surplus and instead of storing money away in reserves the council should be spending more on estate improvements.”

—————–

The Lib Dems would spend £250,000 ‘capital’ from the HRA on improvements to:

a) draughty windows and

b) improved car parking facilities (dropped kerbs/verge crossovers/matrix verge protection outside tenants homes and better car parking facilities in communal areas) and the resurfacing of some car parks.

plus £250,000 ‘revenue’ from the HRA on council house and estate regeneration including the following schemes: 

  • removal of weeds,
  • cutting back overgrown trees and hedges,
  • repairs to communal areas and signs (e.g. dog fouling, no ball games),
  • audit and repair of fencing.

The full Lib Dem amendment will be tabled and debated at Thursday’s Budget Council.

Last July, it was revealed that tenants were less satisfied with where they live and the estate services they receive from the council while key performance targets were missed: