Comments on: King’s Square petition: council debate

By: YorkStories

YorkStories — Sun, 15 Dec 2013 19:49:27 +0000

I’ve gone back over the text above and added in next to the councillor names their party, and below that the time on the video they begin speaking. I’ve also added in the two speakers I missed out and a few more quotes/notes.

By: YorkStories

YorkStories — Sun, 15 Dec 2013 19:03:30 +0000

I wasn’t part of the group and have never met Michelle and discussed it with her in person, but have read all the interviews etc and also some of the Facebook postings on this. As I understand it any ‘misrepresenting’ was a result of not knowing, to begin with, the exact situation regarding what was being removed and replaced. I think you’re referring to the ‘1970s cobbles’. To be fair, I’ve been interested in this since the consultation in February, if not before, and had read a lot of info, and it was only relatively recently that it was made clear to any of us the correct info regarding the square’s cart tracks and setts. Once the group realised the facts I believe the petition was reworded? Michelle can clarify if she wants to of course. So any ‘half-truths and misinformation’ were a result of the council’s failure to provide enough information, perhaps.

I don’t think one woman sitting on the street quietly collecting signatures has any duty to the public regarding ‘transparency’ – but the local authority spending other people’s money does?

Whether the feel of the place has suffered clearly depends on what you valued about it before, and whether that has been removed. As Cllr Semlyen says above, it is to some extent a matter of different tastes. And whether something has ‘meaning’, is again very personal.

Agree with you on the last sentence. And on the positive side, these things maybe make us all think more about what we value and why. And maybe all of us, if we do care about these changes, need to look out for future consultations and make our views known at an earlier stage.

I tried to advertise the King’s Square consultation on here, but clearly I failed too to get the info out to enough people.

By: YorkStories

YorkStories — Sun, 15 Dec 2013 18:45:47 +0000

Increasingly I think it’s maybe better if changes are ad hoc and small scale rather than a ‘vision’ imposed? Seems to suit York better? Glad you mentioned Library Square though – that does seem to work well? Looks good?

Apparently it has been a Labour or LibDem or ‘no overall control’ council for years, since 1995 at least. I find party politics somewhat tedious and strange. Think that come 2015 I’ll be forgetting any party loyalty/voting habit I had before (Labour) and more interested in the individuals standing as councillors and how they come across, who seems like a ‘good person’ doing their best. And on how well they understand York, and, in particular, its heritage.

With reference to the video above, have to say that Cllr Healey’s views were probably closest to mine (already expressed at length on these pages), though he’s a Conservative. Can’t ever imagine voting Conservative, but who knows, by 2015 …

By: YorkStories

YorkStories — Sun, 15 Dec 2013 18:14:05 +0000

I too noticed the repeated mentions of no improvement projects having happened for years/since 1991. I wondered if it was similar to the view of York promoted by the council leader a while back to a journalist from the Economist, that nothing much happened in York until this Labour council took office, ie self-promotion and putting a certain spin on things.

I’m trying to think what these improvement schemes 20 years or so ago would have been. Parliament Street ‘improvements’ perhaps – that now non-spouting fountain and the now demolished ‘Splash Palace’, the not very successful trees and the extremely wonky paving which is much worse than King’s Square? Or perhaps the over-fussy and ‘cheap’ paving on Coney St mentioned by James Alexander.

An awful lot of money wasted on these ‘improvements’.

By: YorkStories

YorkStories — Sun, 15 Dec 2013 18:00:43 +0000

Hi Mick – I’ve gone back through it in a less rushed fashion and found the earlier reference to this, now included above. Cllr Healey said: ‘You’ve spent half a million pounds, and the debt on that, the interest, is £45,000 a year for 25 years.’

Can’t add anything. Might swear …

By: NKC

NKC — Sun, 15 Dec 2013 16:15:37 +0000

I was tempted to sign Michelle’s petition, since I agreed with her premise that King’s Square didn’t require the complete overhaul. That was, until I realised her troop was misrepresenting the entire position based on half-truths and misinformation about the “historic” nature of the site and the “cultural damaged” the project would have on it, much like the Daily Mail article.

I haven’t enjoyed the lack of transparency from either side of this “debate”, and it does York no good. Especially when it’s too little too late.

And truthfully, I don’t think the “feel” of the place has suffered as a result of this. The open bit of the square looks almost exactly the same, and it’s unlikely any tourists will be put off by the new track.

It’s a shame that it was such a waste, because King’s Square only needed a little doing to fix the problems.