Andy D'Agorne

York Green councillors have revealed some details of their budget amendment for the council meeting on Thursday, which they say would boost sustainable travel and enhance the councils response to climate change. The Greens would reinstate the 'smart travel' budget to promote green travel options and help individuals to plan journeys. They would create a specific transport planning post of Cycling and Walking Officer with a remit to work on bids for funds such as Cycling Demonstration Town as well as taking forward the city's cycling strategy. They would establish a Cycle Forum to enable the council to take account of the views of a cross section of the city's cyclists and they would block a planned 20 - 25 % increase in the charges for child cycle training in local schools. They would also earmark funding for taking forward the recommendations of the Traffic Congestion Scrutiny report which might include modelling of congestion charging and low emission zone options for the city. They would also set aside some additional money to provide a recycling collection service from Day 1 for all newly occupied flats in the city and for partnership working with the energy efficiency office to tackle insulation needs of older privately owned properties.  

 To pay for these measures the Greens would scrap the use of recruitment consultants saving £20,000pa and gain an extra £40,000 by including residents in 10p per hour increase in parking charges at standard stay car parks (due to be raised by 20p per hour for visitors, the first increase since 2004/05) and a further £30,000 would be raised by axing the council contribution to york.england.com . However the Greens would remove the proposed 2.3% increase in respark permit charges for the first car and cut the cost of a visitors permit from £1 to 50p. They would also bring in an annual charge for councillors free parking passes, although the councillors would be able to claim an element of this back when they were using their car on council business.

The Greens support measures proposed by the ruling group to address flooding, energy efficiency in council buildings and greater recycling but oppose the plans to use PFI partnerships with the private sector to maintain the Highways and build new waste treatment plants.   Cllr Andy D'Agorne for the Greens said "The budget situation is tight and is going to get tighter once we start paying for the waste plant, but we believe these measures are essential to tackle climate change, while at the same time trying to enhance the quality of life for people living in the City of York."  

Well this  should be on the local party site soon, but until then, here is a pretty map and analysis of how we fared in the local elections.

CIty_of_York_Results_-percent_and_maps_2007.pdf

North Yorkshire is one of the authorities shortlisted for consideration to become a unitary, taking over the powers currently held by the district councils of Scarborough, Rydale, Harrogate, Hambledon,Richmondshire Craven and Selby etc. So would this make for more efficient straightforward local government or make it more remote and less accountable? Here's a financial analysis of the implications from a Yorkshire Green:  

Accountant shows New Unitary Authority will massively increase Council Tax Bills

An accountant and expert in Local Government finance has claimed that the savings claimed for the new unitary authority are all "smoke and mirrors".

The figures were produced by NYCC in their bid to be a unitary authority. In a detailed analysis of the figures published by North Yorkshire County Council. Mr Leslie Rowe MBA FCCA an accountant from Richmond in North Yorkshire revealed glaring omissions from the Council's figures.

Mr Rowe commented "Rather than a saving, I believe the new unitary authority will increase costs by £100m, adding £443 to every council tax bill in North Yorkshire. The figures produced by NYCC just do not add up. They fail to take fully into account the huge redundancy costs for the 4,600 district council employees, as well as the new computer systems and training needed to produce unitary council tax and other commitments. The bid was made in January 2007 and despite anomalies in the figures, the Government has given them the go ahead to move to the consultation stage. Mr Rowe comments "This Government is well known for under-estimating the costs of projects such as the Millennium Dome, the 2012 Olympics and a national I.D. card system. It is no surprise that they failed to see the glaring omissions in the NYCC bid. Unless of course, they are turning a blind eye to these omissions in order to further their own political objectives of reducing local democracy in North Yorkshire?"

Mr Rowe's analysis is based on the NYCC submission entitled "A New Council for North Yorkshire" which runs to 118 pages. Buried within that are the figures NYCC claim will show a saving. Mr Rowe's analysis of those figures is as follows:

1. None of the figures quoted have detailed costings attached, so may only be "wishful thinking" at best. If NYCC believe these figures to be correct, they should provide the costings behind them.

2. The first saving that NYCC claim is £2.7m a year on reducing the number of chief executives from eight to one. That would make the average pay of a chief executive in the District Councils £386,000, an over estimate of about £300,000. This also ignores the much bigger salaries and support staff that will be have to be provided for the new chief executive and heads of department of the bigger unitary authority. In reality, any saving made will be marginal at best.

3. Central and corporate services £3.4million. These include finance, legal & democratic services, HR and training, property and asset management functions and ICT. Rather than significant savings being made in the delivery of these services, there will have to be significant new systems and training needed to cope with the increased powers of the unitary authority, such as Council Tax bills. These new systems and training will cost at least £50m and cause considerable disruption, swallowing up any savings on current expenditure and a whole lot more.

4. Integrated service functions £7.5million. The assumption that the management of all the functions currently provided within District Councils would move to a unified service delivery model without considerable additional cost is naïve at best. The efficiency benefits of centralising back office processes would again be swallowed up by new system costs and a deterioration of the direct customer access currently offered by more local district councils is inevitable.

5. Organisational related costs and overheads £0.4million. Certain specific costs are associated with the eight existing authorities for being in business, for example, external audit fees. The Council admits that the costs incurred by one council will be higher than any of the eight individual authorities. Accommodation costs, IT costs and other support costs, even for a reduced overall workforce will be higher, as new accommodation will have to be found or built in Northallerton. In addition the cost implications of the community engagement proposals have to be added. Selling off historic district council offices and other assets to property speculators may make savings, but this would blight the centres of many of our towns and destroy local communities and businesses.

6. NYCC claim other unspecified savings such as:

* major procurement exercises;

* adopting flexible working practice based upon the use of new technologies with associated rationalisation of office accommodation;

* reviewing the scope to streamline back-office processes through e-government and customer relationship management software; and

* efficiencies from merging related front-line services (for example, nursing and social care staff).

These can all be achieved under the current structure and are irrelevant to any argument for a unified authority.

7. There is no guarantee that the unitary authority will be more cost effective than Districts in relation to caseload based services and front-line delivery. For example, the cost of council tax collection is likely to increase, not decrease, as a new unified system will have to be developed.

8. It is the height of cynicism for NYCC to claim that there will be additional non-cashable savings as professional staff and managers will need to invest less time in partnership working arrangements. A whole new raft of partnerships is to be established with Parish Councils and Community Forums, far in excess of the number of partnerships with Districts Councils that are being abolished!

9. NYCC recognises that there will be significant transitional costs incurred in creating a unitary council in North Yorkshire. All of these costs have not been properly identified, and are severely under-estimated.

Transitional costs are estimated by NYCC to be £13.5million incurred over a period running from Year 0 (2008-09) to Year 3 (2011-12). But redundancy costs alone for the 4,600 staff employed by the district councils are likely to exceed £50m (based on the average salary in the public sector and an average 26 weeks redundancy payment - these figures are available). Early recruitment to the management team of the new unitary authority, and the considerable costs of project work and new systems for unified service delivery will also have to be factored in. I estimate that total transitional costs will not be less than £100m.

10. Rather than efficiency savings of approximately £14million per annum,

 there will be net increased costs of at least £100m which will equate to an increase, on the Council's own figures of approximately £443 per council tax payer. This is in addition to the 6% additional cost of the unitary authority to the residents of Hambleton District that is already admitted by NYCC.

So, rather than reduce costs, it is claimed that the new unitary authority will massively increase costs and will result in an inferior service, as well as reducing democracy for the people of North Yorkshire. Citizens of North Yorkshire are urged by Mr Rowe to express their dissatisfaction by sending an e-mail to structures@communities.gsi.gov.uk as soon as possible."

ENDS

Promoted by Leslie Rowe, 73 Richmond Road, Brompton on Swale, Richmond, North Yorks. DL10 7HF on behalf of himself.

POWER Report backs Votes at 16

10.46.24am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 27th Feb 2006

The long-awaited report of the POWER Commission has been published today - and it backs lowering the voting age to 16. The Isle of Man has recently lowered the age to 16 and Gordon Brown has said he supports the idea. It has been Green Party Policy for many years.

The POWER Commission was independent of all parties and funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a charity which takes a close interest in democracy. The Commission was chaired by Baroness Helena Kennedy.

In recommending a lower voting age, the Commission says that the move will help to connect young people with democracy. The Commission stresses that there is not a lack of interest in politics, simply a lack of faith that ordinary people have the power to change things.

The Votes at 16 Campaign has welcomed the report and urged the Government to take action on lowering the voting age. As someone who works in a college, it is obvious to me that if we want young people to engage with politics they need to be able to vote at 16, building on citizenship in schools and before they become cynical and disinterested in politics

You can read the POWER Commission report by going to http://www.powerinquiry.org/ 

I hadnt heard of this event either, until I was invited to join the great and the good of our city at the Lord Mayor's Breakfast this week. However you need to know that the Indian Film industry is bigger than Hollywood, and their equivalent of the Oscars will be given out at the Sheffield Arena this year, with a worldwide audience of over 350 million!

Previous years events have been hosted in Singapore, Dubai, Amsterdam etc. A consortium of five Yorkshire cities will be in the spotlight this June, with a fringe festival and lots of business opportunities to make trading links with the fast growing Indian economy. The cities are Hull, York, Bradford, Leeds and Sheffield. Bradford is no stranger to events such as a Mela, but for the first time one will be held in Hull. York will be hosting a glitzy fashion show close to or in one of our key historic buildings.

And what about the breakfast? Well being veggie, I passed on the bacon or sausage buttie and opted to follow Radio York presenter Elli Fiorentini in having fruit salad and Longley Farm yoghurt. When we get the first Green Lord Mayor we will introduce Quorn sausages and 'cheating bacon' on brown bread to go with the muesli and fresh fruit! And of course we will ditch those aweful coffee machines in the committee rooms that use a sachet of plastic every time you have a drink to end up swelling our landfill sites. (reminds me must start taking a flask again)