Your vote is vital

A WEEK is supposed to be a long time in politics. So why is it that, in four years, so little seems to have changed in York? The issues dominating the May 1999 York council election will sound wearily familiar to anyone who has been following the election campaign this time around.

Traffic congestion, crime, education and York's Green Belt were pre-occupying us all then - and surprise, surprise, the same priorities dominate the agenda today.

You can't really blame local politicians. These are, after all, the bread and butter issues of local government that are never going to go away.

In a city such as York, with its narrow streets and historic buildings, traffic is always going to be a problem.

There will always be a demand for more housing - and what parent is ever going to be satisfied with the quality of the education being given to their child?

Local politicians, naturally, will continue to argue about their achievements. Four years ago in York, Labour clung to power by a narrow margin and, with the Tories' help, has just about hung on ever since. Labour's, therefore, is the record that counts.

The opposition Liberal Democrats will point to Labour's ditching of its manifesto pledge from four years ago to provide a computer in the home of every primary school child and the failure to meet its target of cutting crime by ten per cent (though in the context of nationally rising crime statistics last year, who can really blame City of York Council or even North Yorkshire Police for that?)

Labour, meanwhile, will claim it has achieved its target of ensuring a pre-school place for every three-year-old, and that it has made real progress on providing job opportunities for school leavers and reducing traffic congestion (though try telling that to anyone stuck in traffic at rush hour on a Friday evening).

Despite the claims and counter claims, the truth is that on many of these issues, local councils - constrained by Government targets, spending limits and the need to balance public opposition to raising council taxes against the demand for ever more services - can really do little more than tinker around the edges.

Nevertheless, next week's election matters. The Liberal Democrats are desperate to end 20 years of Labour rule in York - and with 24 seats to Labour's 25, have a real chance of doing so.

Labour, meanwhile, are equally desperate to show that under their new leader Dave Merrett they are enjoying a new lease of life - and will feel he deserves a chance to show what he can do.

For the Tories, meanwhile, the election promises a chance to consolidate their position as the group that holds the balance of power.

Next week's election is important for other reasons, however.

It may not seem so to those of us who are quietly getting on with our busy, daily lives, but it's not true that nothing has changed in York since four years ago. The city is very different.

Take house prices, for a start. Nobody can blame local politicians for the spiralling cost of buying a home.

But the rise in property prices seen over the past two years in particular threatens to change the very nature of York.

There is a real danger that local people doing ordinary jobs and those providing vital services - nurses, teachers, street cleaners - could find themselves being priced out of the city.

We may not be able to blame politicians for house prices: but we can expect them to look for solutions to the lack of affordable housing.

Then there are the massive opportunities afforded by Hungate and York Central. Hungate - a £100m scheme to build more than 700 homes plus shops and businesses on ten acres between Stonebow and the River Foss - is essentially little more than a 'dry run' for the much larger York Central: a huge acreage of rusting railway sidings and forgotten industrial buildings right in the heart of York that is almost as big as the entire city centre.

In theory, York Central could provide up to 3,000 of the 5,200 new homes York is expected to need by2025 - so taking pressure off the city's green belt. What happens to it will shape the future of this city for decades to come.

Proposals for York Central go before city planners for the first time today: but already, the tensions are beginning to show.

Only yesterday, Labour leader Dave Merrett warned there could be no certainty the site would be developed at all. Liberal Democrat leader Steve Galloway countered it was a 'jewel of an opportunity' that must not be missed.

Whatever your viewpoint, it's an issue that matters: and one the council must get to grips with quickly. In many ways, the stakes for York have never been higher.

The parties contesting York's 53 council seats have already set out their manifestos (see panel). The battle lines are drawn.

The people of York, so recently asked to take part - through the Without Walls debate - in the process of coming up with a vision for the way the city should be in future, have probably never been better informed.

For the politicians in whose hands their fate lies, the next week could be very long indeed.

What the parties stand for:

Labour

Transport: possible upgrade of northern stretch of A1237 ring road to improve traffic flow; investigate possibility of trams and people movers

Environment: named council officers responsible for street-level services such as road sweeping. Doorstep recycling to be extended to 75 per cent of city

Housing: 50 per cent affordable housing in new developments

Crime: to press for more police resources for York

Liberal Democrats

Transport: improvements to northern section of outer ring road, plus 'working towards' rail stations at Haxby and Strensall with others to follow

Housing: Council help for housing associations to buy empty properties as social housing

Environment: extend kerbside recycling to whole of York; pilot garden waste project; clean up and repair streets, rivers and roads

Crime: extending links to Safer York Partnership; extending leisure facilities for young people to reduce anti-social behaviour

Conservatives

Ten key pledges, including: maintaining city centre car parking at its current level, opposition to the Coppergate development, improving rural bus services, calling for more police presence on the streets and looking for savings to put more money into front-line services.

Greens

Transport: push for improved bus services and earlier opening of Haxby, Strensall, Copmanthorpe and York Hospital railway stations.

Housing: in favour of 50 per cent of all new housing being affordable. Against building on green belt.

Environment; Against Coppergate II. In favour of a 'zero waste' strategy for York

Crime: combine crime-tackling initiatives with 'restorative justice'; more resources into young people's leisure facilities

Socialist Alliance

Standing on an anti-war platform, but also wants affordable homes for all, protection of the environment, and public services replacing Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs).

The party also opposes new shops near Clifford's Tower, is pushing for the compulsory purchase of Bootham Crescent and wants to end the "campaign" against asylum seekers.

Updated: 10:43 Thursday, April 24, 2003