Andy D'Agorne

NUJ members working on the York Press are set to take five days of strike action next week after a failure by management to make an acceptable pay-offer.

The action will affect The Press, the company's main paper in the city, as well as other Newsquest titles including the Gazette & Herald. The strike will run from Thursday 22 May until Monday 26 May, meaning that the council meeting that will decide whether Labour take over control of the city from the Lib Dems will not be covered by NUJ journalists from the Press.

The decision to stage the walkout was taken at a meeting of NUJ members on 8 May, following eight months of negotiations that have failed to result in a deal on pay. The company has made a below-inflation offer of three per cent, which has been rejected by the union's members at the York titles.

There is particular anger that management will not match pay-offers given to journalists at other Newsquest centres. Chapel reps say the below-inflation pay-offer comes against a background of increased workloads, understaffing and attacks on members' pensions.

Joint Father of Chapel Sam Southgate said: "NUJ members at Newsquest York are frustrated and infuriated in equal measure. This dispute is a result of management intransigence getting in the way of securing a reasonable deal.

"We've been patient throughout eight months of negotiations and have put forward a number of proposals to solve the dispute. We offered to bring in NUJ national officials and suggested going to ACAS for arbitration. At every turn we have been rebuffed and management is refusing to budge.

"Newsquest still has time to avoid this dispute by returning to the table for genuine and meaningful negotiations.

"Journalists at The Press and the Gazette & Herald want to get on with reporting news to the local community. It's a real shame that management's failure to move on pay has forced them into taking this action." For latest details on the dispute see http://www.nuj.org.uk/index.html

The Greens will respect requests from the journalists affected not to send press releases to the Press during the dispute but to provide the information to other local media and the NUJ. I have asked other party leaders to do likewise.

Workplace parking charging has been proposed by Nottingham City Council from 2010  - Under the system permitted by the Transport Act 2000 the council would require all employers in the city (except emergency services and medical centres) to register if they have more than 10 parking spaces for employees. An annual charge of £185pa per space would be payable and this would gradually increase to over £300 by 2016 PLUS uprating for inflation on top. For full details see http://open.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/comm/download3.asp?dltype=inline&filename=33020/WPLapp1.pdf The funds from the levy would go towards improvements to Nottingham's tram system. Congestion charging will take longer to implement - they think 2016 in Nottingham. The beauty of this system is that it targets commuters rather than other road users such as visitors, shoppers etc and is most appropriate in places with a buoyant local economy, high wage levels and a good public transport network in need of enhancement or public subsidy. By exempting the smallest car parks it keeps to admin costs down and protects small new businesses. 

My only reservation for this system would be the risk of tipping the more footloose employers into relocating - there might have to be provision to negotiate with key major local employers or have a transitional arrangement whereby the largest employers pay a lump sum in the first year, less than the per space charge. It is of course open to employers (and the scheme intention) to pass on the cost directly to the employees driving to work, but there could be a win- win solution if the employer offered discounted travel passes for those giving up their space - removing the spaces could give the option for expansion of the business or landscaping. The scheme does of course also depend on the existence of on road parking restrictions or respark schemes around the businesses to prevent problems of empty car parks and cluttered side streets. Its certainly something York and the 'Leeds City Region' of which we are a part should be watching closely.

Despite early suggestions that York was not likely to be eligible because it already has relatively high levels (for the UK) of cycling, we have been shortlisted to get government funding in the second wave of 'Cycling Demonstration Towns'. A presentation and grilling later in the month by DfT officials will determine whether or not we are successful in attracting more funding to make that step change in cycling provision that could see the city becoming more cycle friendly and safer for cyclists.

Sadly last Thursday, a 17 year old student Ruby Milnes was killed as she cycled along the Sustrans 65 route at the point where it crosses an access route to the racecourse. Any witnesses are urged to contact the police: http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/yorknews/display.var.2262009.0.cyclist_death_witness_plea.php She was killed in the collision with a lorry delivering temporary toilets to the site for the race meeting this week. I passed the spot on my way home later in the evening and thought it a bit unusual for there to be a police car there but assumed it had been escorting the large load.

This highlights how accidents can happen in the most unexpected situations,plus the importance of separating vulnerable road users and raising driver awareness of cyclists. Ironically one contributory factor may have been that the racecourse have in the past year kept the gates closed for much of the time, so that cyclists have come to expect the road to be unused by vehicle traffic except on racedays.

 Letter Ive sent to The Press (published 14/5/08)

Dear Sir,

The review of the footstreets policy is timely, as York is shortlisted for national cycle demonstration town status. In order to win through, we need to demonstrate that York has other policies that are effectively moving us towards more sustainable transport in which cycling as well as walking can be a major contributor.   Cycling down Gillygate or the dual carriageway section of Tower St/ Fishergate is an unpleasant and dangerous experience, particularly during the daytime. We do need to tackle this problem, but providing a clearly designated cross city cycle route that operates 24/7 through the city centre would be safer for all concerned and more attractive to many not currently using cycles. Allowing for clearly signed two way cycle traffic on a spine network including Parliament St - Daveygate - Blake St, with a connection to Goodramgate could cater for most cross city movements. This would mean that there would be less reason for cyclists to want to use Coney St, which is congested with delivery vehicles or people for much of the day.   In the light of the recent tragic cycle accident near the racecourse, anything that helps keep cycles and lorries apart has to be a good thing. Cycling is good for fitness and the environment. The recent removal of the ban on cycling in the centre of Cambridge shows that opening up certain footstreets to cycles can be made to work safely with consideration and careful design.Extend the footstreets, cut the speed limit to 10mph or 20mph but dont disadvantage cycles that are part of the solution when used responsibly. 

Adrian Ramsey has taken a step closer to being the first Green MP with the size of the Green group on Norwich council overtaking the Lib Dems as the official opposition. As one of our youngest councillors and leader of the group, Adrian is distinguished at Green Party conference as the clean shaven young man in a dark suit - The local Norwich had one headline when he was selected, referring to his bid for Charles Clarke's seat "MP or PM?"

The political make-up of Norwich City Council is now:

Labour: 15 seats.
Green Party: 13 seats
LibDems: 6 seats
Conservatives: 5 seats

Norwich City Council is in no overall control. Labour is expected to 
continue running a minority administration with the Green Party as the 
main opposition group.

Finishing the night with an increased number of City Council seats 
from 10 to 13, Norwich Green Party has leapfrogged the Liberal 
Democrats to become the official opposition on Norwich City Hall, just 
2 seats away from the ruling Labour Party.  At the same time, the 
Greens have beaten Labour on local election vote share across the 
Norwich South Parliamentary constituency by approximately 2000 votes.  
For the first time, the Norwich Greens also won more votes than Labour 
across the entire city.

A trip to Sheffield with my bike on the train on Thursday gave me the chance to help the local party that I first joined in 1990 - a far more efficient election machine now, with two councillors and a push to get the third of the 'set' for central ward. The ward now has massive modern appartment blocks for the thousands of students, so business at the polling station that I was covering was very slow - more like one person every ten minutes, but then it did pick up a bit with some students and young mothers about 11am. The bike proved not to be so crucial as the whole operation of collecting numbers and identifying supporters to go out and 'remind to vote' was organised so efficiently for each polling station. In the past we have had to keep ferrying the returns back to one central 'committee room'. However I did use my bike later in the day to visit a few of the polling stations more as a 'tourist' might do and went out from one to do some 'knocking up' before leaving for the train home to York. 

The main concern and talk of the day was about an incident a couple of days prior to the election when the Green Party agent spotted a handful of postal votes being collected in a taxi. This was reported to the police with the registration number, that turned out to be the taxi belonging to the Labour candidate in Central ward. For the press report, see www.thestar.co.uk for Tuesday 29th Apr 2008. The consequence was an unpleasant verbal exchange when Green and Labour campaigners met outside a polling station.

I felt the effort was however worth it, with our third councillor getting elected in Sheffield ousting the Labour candidate by a narrow margin of 48 votes, to join Bernard Little who also got in on a narrow majority when I last went to help out in Sheffield. This means Sheffield has now overtaken York in terms of the number of Green councillors although they have lost the balance of power in the swing that saw the Lib Dems regain overall control of the city.