Latest news with #PaulCarey
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Woman attacked and robbed in York
A WOMAN has been attacked and robbed at a property in York. North Yorkshire Police say that in the early hours of Thursday (July 24) some time between 1am and 2.30am a man hit a woman in the face and then left a property in Fetter Lane off Skeldergate in the city centre, after stealing her phone, passport and £2,000 worth of South Korean currency. Recommended reading: 'The situation is now critical' - mass protest in York Fire at York skatepark started deliberately Vandal wanted by police after incident in North Yorkshire town A force spokesman said: "We believe the man was known to the woman prior to the incident. "If you have any information which could help our investigation, please get in touch, but especially if you have received a large amount of South Korean currency through exchange, personally or via a business. "Please email if you can help." Alternatively, you can call North Yorkshire Police on 101 and ask for Paul Carey, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or via their quote reference 12250136569 when passing on information.


Glasgow Times
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Glasgow Times
Parking fines generate millions for Glasgow City Council
The eye-watering figure, uncovered by the Glasgow Times through a Freedom of Information request, shows that tickets totalling £25,314,060 were paid by motorists since 2020. The money going into the council's coffers has steadily increased year on year, with the £1.9 million brought in during 2020/21 soaring to a staggering £8.9 million in 2024/25. A sum of just over £3.1m was collected in 2021/22, with just under £4.9m stumped up by drivers the following financial year. This figure rose again in 2023/24 to £6.3m. The figures for 2020/21 include periods of lockdown imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic while the numbers for 2024/25 reflect the increase to the penalty notice charge from £60 to £100, introduced on September 4 2024. The money was generated by council wardens issuing almost 700,000 penalty charge notices across the city since 2020. Again, the data uncovered through the FOI request, shows that more tickets have been dished out by the council in each consecutive 12 month period. The 46,703 issued in 2020/21 rose to 109,297 the following year, before increasing again to 145,081 in 2022/23. Wardens then slapped drivers with 183,957 tickets in 2023/24 before issuing 204,001 fines in 2024/25. In Glasgow, parking penalties, officially known as Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs), are generally £100, but this is reduced to £50 if paid within the first 14 days. These fines apply to violations of any parking regulations, including bus lane restrictions. If a fine remains unpaid for 28 days or after an appeal is rejected, a charge certificate may be issued, increasing the penalty by 50 per cent of the original charge. Anniesland and Drumchapel councillor Paul Carey BEM says the cash brought in through the enforcement process should improve the city's roads. Paul Carey (Image: Supplied) He added: 'This is a massive amount of money and legally has to be reinvested directly into transport infrastructure. 'A sum of £25m could certainly go a long way to making Glasgow a better place to drive." Parking fines have cost Glasgow drivers £25m (Image: NQ) Motorists in Glasgow also now face a £100 fine for parking on pavements after the introduction of controversial new rules earlier this year designed to protect pedestrians, people in wheelchairs and those pushing buggies from being forced onto roads by vehicles left on kerbs. Drivers hit with fines are also currently unable to appeal them through the council's website after a provider's servers were impacted by an attempted cyber attack. READ NEXT: Parking charges to be extended to 10pm in all city zones A statement on Glasgow City Council's website says: 'Experts have investigated a cyber security incident which has affected [[Glasgow City Council]] services. 'Although the incident has disrupted council services, the loss of some web-based services was caused by the isolation of the affected servers, rather than the cyber incident itself. As a result there is currently a fault with our online appeals form. We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible. 'Wherever possible, the council put in place alternative ways to access services on a temporary basis and, in parallel, began safely restoring the affected services. 'Many of the highest priority services are now back online, with temporary workarounds in place for others. A recovery plan is in place to restore each of the affected services, with all but a handful of applications, which are dependent on external support, expected back online by mid-August. 'The council is sorry for the continued inconvenience this will cause customers. Parking appeals can be made by email.' A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said parking enforcement is vital to make sure the system is not abused. They added: 'On-street parking schemes are only introduced where it is clear there is a need to manage parking in those places. 'On-street parking schemes help to address the difficulties parking can cause in communities and improve road safety, particularly for pedestrians. 'Parking zones ensure there is a turnover in pay-as-you-go spaces and also provide easier access to streets for vehicles from the emergency and cleansing services. 'Residents are prioritised with our parking schemes and this helps to ensure residents can park close to home. 'Enforcement is essential to the effective operation of a parking zone, which helps to protect the use of the parking zone for permit holders and free-up spaces for pay-as-you-go parking. 'In line with the relevant road traffic legislation, all revenue raised by on-street parking charges must support the operation of the parking system and the wider roads and transportation system.'


The Herald Scotland
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Glasgow's rubbish-bin millions: where has the money gone?
The council's response was that budgets were under pressure, which they are, and that the collection of garden waste isn't one of their statutory duties, which it isn't, and that the money raised from the permits would be spent on vital services. They also said people weren't being forced to use the brown bins or pay for the permits because they could compost waste in their gardens or take it to a recycling centre. And they said the whole thing would help to minimise the impact of climate change as well. Did this reassure the folk of the Winget estate? Of course it didn't. Fifty quid to pick up your rubbish in Bearsden is probably no big deal; you may have a big garden where you can compost your rubbish, or a car to take it to the dump. The Winget estate in the east end is a different case: there's more deprivation, money's tighter, and not everyone's got a car. Ms Ayre argued there should be a reduced fee for the elderly or vulnerable, which is a good point, but the real problem is that a £50 charge for pick-up has a disproportionately negative effect in deprived areas. You can see it already with the charges for bulky items, which have led to more rubbish getting dumped in communities that have more than their fair share of problems already. Back at the start, the bins rebellion, small though it was, seemed to be having some effect: at the beginning of last year, under 20% of the properties eligible to get the permit had applied for it. But the council always said they thought applications would increase when the summer came and hedges and grass need cutting and so it has proved. In fact, we now know, thanks to The Glasgow Times, that in its first year - October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024 - the scheme brought in £2,031,600, and then £2,283,150 in the 12 months after that. Over £4million from brown-bin permits. A lot of money. Read more 'Get it up ye Sturgeon!' The new front in the trans war A question for my fellow voters: what the hell is wrong with you? Signs of trouble ahead for Glasgow's precious historic buildings The question now is: what's it being spent on? The council is sticking to the same general line: that the funds raised will be reinvested in council services; they say £2million per year from the permits had been approved as one of the options to balance their budget – in other words, they need this money to plug the gap. However, the Drumchapel and Anniesland councillor Paul Carey has been demanding more information. Glaswegians who are paying for the permits, he says, deserve to know what the money is being spent on. Where, specifically, is the money going? Mr Carey asks a perfectly fair question, and one that goes to the heart of the issues we're talking about here. He says many areas of the city are crying out for investment and we can see it for ourselves. Litter's worse, fly-tipping's worse, graffiti's worse, the state of many of our buildings is woeful, and the condition of the streets themselves has deteriorated. There's a crisis of cleanliness that needs focus and needs money. To be fair to the council, it did announce in February that it's investing more in frontline cleansing services: £7million on more staff to deal with fly-tipping, littering and weeds, nightshift workers to clean the city centre and local high streets, and more staff to carry out deep cleans. The council said their staff would be working round the clock to keep the streets clean because 'a cleaner Glasgow is a better Glasgow'. More money has been invested in cleansing (Image: Newsquest) Cheesy slogan aside, the extra money is good news, although the council is seeking to fix a problem that to some extent is self-inflicted, by which I mean not enough bins, fewer collections, poor street cleaning, and ongoing staff issues. I have spoken to people who work in cleansing several times and the thing they tell you is there isn't enough staff to do all the jobs that need done. The council made things worse by cutting staff then taking on agency staff to plug the gaps, which is more expensive. And to top it all, we now have the charges for pick-up including the permits for brown bins, which raises money but also leads to more fly-tipping and rubbish on the streets. The obvious solution, assuming the council isn't going to listen to the likes of Ann [[Ayr]]e and back down over the permits, is to use the money that's raised on cleansing specifically. They should do this, firstly, because it would help to mitigate the problem collection charges help to cause in the first place. And they should do it, secondly, because £7m, welcome though it is, is not enough. Admittedly, this is not a problem entirely of the council's making – the Scottish Government has cut their budgets and ringfenced the money they do get for government priorities – but realism about the scale of the problem is also required. £7m? It's just the start. So perhaps the council could listen to Mr Carey and provide a breakdown of where the millions raised from the permits has gone because then we can suggest where the money should be going instead. One idea: tackle the disproportionate effects of the cleansing crisis by setting the cash aside for the least well-off parts of Glasgow. Ann Ayre thinks rubbish collection should be part of council tax. I agree. There's also the reality that charging extra to pick up waste makes the crisis of waste worse. But if we've lost that argument, and it looks like we have, the least we can do get a positive out of it. Bottom line: the money that comes from rubbish should be spent on reducing it.


Glasgow Times
23-07-2025
- Business
- Glasgow Times
How much did Glasgow City Council make from brown bin permits?
Data from a Freedom of Information request has revealed that 86,295 households across the city have paid the £50 charge to have their garden waste collected. Over the last two years, the local authority has pocketed £4,314,750 while paying out just £12,800 to residents who claimed for refunds. Now a Glasgow councillor is calling for more transparency over where the cash has gone since the charge was brought into effect in 2023. Drumchapel and Anniesland councillor Paul Carey BEM says that people are right to demand to know where their money has been invested. Paul Carey BEM (Image: supplied) He exclusively told the Glasgow Times: 'We were told when the permits were being rolled out that money generated would be reinvested in communities, so the question is what specifically has been done and where are future monies going? 'This was a new revenue stream, and we were told that the benefits would be seen across the city. This is a sizeable sum of money and Glaswegians who are paying this permit charge deserve to know exactly what has it been spent on? 'We're not just talking pennies this is a total that could make a huge difference to a lot of struggling services and tired community centres in many areas. There are so many parts of the city crying out for investment, so the council ought to be providing a breakdown of where it has gone. People want, and are right to expect, value for the money.' Bosses at Glasgow City Council sparked anger when they decided to introduce the charge across the city 21 months ago. The data shows that its first year, from October 1 to September 30 2024, the scheme brought in £2,031,600. The following 12 months it generated £2,283,150. Local authorities in Renfrewshire and Inverclyde also decided to hit households in the pocket for the kerbside collection of their garden refuse, but at a 20 per cent lower charge of £40 per address. READ NEXT: Shock Glasgow brown bin permit uptake is revealed by probe We previously told how residents in Whitburn Street in Carntyne were calling on local authority bosses to introduce a reduced rate for the elderly and vulnerable unable to afford the one-off fee. Ann Ayre, chair of the area's Winget Residents' Association, told the Glasgow Times that her members had decided to take a stand against the move – and called on senior citizens across the city to follow suit. Ann Ayre (Image: NQ) Ann said: 'A lot of pensioners don't have the cash to fork out for something that should be covered by their council tax. 'We need a payment plan to spread the cost, or better still axe the permit altogether. This is a charge on top of our council tax that, in my mind, can't be justified. People are struggling right now through a cost-of-living crisis, paying to have your grass cuttings taken away is unacceptable, especially at a time when some households are having to decide between energy bills or eating.' A one-off payment of £50 currently applies per brown bin, so if a household has two, the total cost is £100. Permits are provided within 21 days of purchase A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: 'As with all such schemes, the funds raised will be reinvested in council services. The council approved £2million per year from brown bin permit income as one of its budget options to balance the budget a couple of years ago. 'The council has to come up with a list of budget options every year, including income generating and cost-reducing options that are approved as part of the budget.' Councillor Carey added: 'The council's response to the question of where the money has specifically gone is just not transparent. 'It is time this money was ring-fenced and allocated to the type of community projects people care about instead of going into some budget black hole


BBC News
17-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Building purchase gives Callington youth group a 'secure future'
A Cornwall youth club is celebrating after it raised enough money to buy the building it calls Youth Project Group has bought the former Lloyds Bank building in Fore Street after securing grants from organisations, including the town and county group's chairman Paul Carey said the purchase gave the club "a secure future and an opportunity to do a lot more for the young people".The club has planned a celebration ceremony on Friday in which the key to The Vault, as the youth centre is known, will be presented to one of the young members. In April, Mr Carey said the group had managed to raise £130,000 in grants but had been short of £100,000 until it was awarded further grant funding in May, which enabled the purchase of the added the club regularly had 30 to 35 young people attend drop-in sessions three times a week and buying the building had been "a relief" as it ensured the club could continue.