18th Feb 2008

Greens' fair budget for sustainable living

York Green councillors have revealed some details of their budget amendment for the council meeting this Thursday.

These changes will boost sustainable travel and improve the council's response to climate change.

On Sustainable Transport, Greens would -

• Reinstate the 'smart travel' budget to promote green travel options and help people to plan journeys.
• Create a specific post of Cycling & Walking Officer within transport planning to push forward the city's cycling strategy and bid for funds for York as a Cycling Demonstration Town.
• 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.
• Earmark funding for advance the recommendations of the Traffic Congestion Scrutiny report, which may include modelling of congestion charging and low emission zones for the city.

On Waste and Energy -

• Greens would set aside additional money to provide recycling collection services for all newly occupied flats in the city and for the Energy Efficiency Office to help citizens tackle the insulation needs of older privately owned properties.

Where's the money to come from?
To pay for these measures the Greens would adopt the £40,000 saving identified in the recent consultation from standardising the time when pensioners can use free bus passes at 9:30am instead of 9am and would 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) A further £30,000 would be raised by axing the council contribution to york-england.com which is no longer focussed on York, but on Scarborough and Selby.

ResPark reduction
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.

Cllr. Dave Taylor said, "York residents have been ripped off when it comes to ResPark. The doubling of the charge amounted to a tax on city centre living and then the money taken from residents was not used for what was promised."

No to costly PFI deals.
The Greens support measures proposed by the ruling group to address flooding, energy efficiency in council buildings, and greater recycling, but oppose plans to use costly PFI partnerships with private companies to maintain our roads 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, 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."

York Green Party - Basement, 22a Fishergate, York YO10 4AB. Tel/fax 01904 636239