£78,000 repair bill for Travellers’ sites - Yorkshire

From the Press

REPAIRS to Travellers’ sites in York cost council chiefs more than £78,000 last year.

Figures obtained from City of York Council ’s accounts for 2011/12 have revealed the amounts spent on maintenance at the three facilities for the city’s travelling community, based in James Street, Clifton and Osbaldwick .

The expenditure for operating the sites, which have 55 pitches between them, also spilled over the authority’s total £227,000 budget for this area by £3,100, meaning there was been an overspend for the fourth year in a row.

In March, The Press revealed how more than £300,000 had been spent on fixing and maintaining the sites in the three financial years between 2008/09 and 2010/11, with the bill for brickwork, electrical, joinery and plumbing repairs and other work, as well as pest control and rubbish clearance, coming to £78,350 last year.

The largest amount spent on repairs was at James Street, which accounted for £27,717 of the total, followed by Osbaldwick (£25,985) and Clifton (£24,648).

Meanwhile, across all three sites, £48,598 was spent on electricity, £7,862 on water and £21,522 on sewerage.

The council said the 2011/12 overspend equated to only 1.4 per cent of its overall operating budget for travellers’ sites, and the expenditure reflected its duty of “supporting the housing needs of all the city’s residents”.

It took over ownership and management of the sites when the council became a unitary authority under local government reorganisation in 1996 Steve Waddington, the authority’s assistant director of housing and public protection, said rental income from those living at the sites made up three-quarters of the budget.