The results of a survey undertaken in the Lowfields part of he Westfield Ward have revealed the depth of opposition to the Councils current plans for the sports pitch
4 out of 5 respondents are asking the Council to scale down their plans.
Most also want restrictions on building activity hours on the site.
09.30am
FREE
An international Stone Carving Festival, celebrating the ancient craft and showcasing the skills of stonemasons and carvers from across the UK and Europe, will take place in Dean’s Park this summer.
The festival will see the park transformed into a tented village with the Mason’s Marquee forming the centre-piece and hub for expert craftspeople to carve designs based on the theme ‘All creatures great and small’.
Festival-goers will be able to see world-class stonemasons and carvers at work, try their hand at stone carving and enjoy food and drink supplied by some of York’s finest producers. Music will be provided by York’s community of buskers and a range of craft based activities will also be available for children and families.
The event will close on Sunday 19 August with a stone auction at 3.30pm, giving visitors the chance to bid for some of the newly carved stone. Funds raised from the auction will be reinvested in caring for the cathedral.
The festival runs from 8am to 6pm on Saturday 18 August and from 8am to 5pm on Sunday 19 August.
The York Minster Stone Carving Festival runs for four days and includes a Stoneyard Open Day on Friday 17 August.
Work has started on repairing Askham Lane.
The works at Askham Lane will start on Monday 20 August, between the hours of 9.15am and 5pm, and are estimated to finish on Friday 24 August.
In order to carry out these works safely, temporary road closures will need to be put in place. For the Askham Lane works this will include a temporary road closure from the junction of Askham Grove to the Ridgeway roundabout.
At times the junctions of Askham Grove and Grange Lane will also be closed.
Some disruption is expected although it is hoped to finish the work before the new school term starts.
Up to date details can be found here https://roadworks.org/
Askham Lane
Also on Askham Lane, the Council have begun to tackle the perennial problems of weeds overgrowing the bus shelter.
Site has been unused since 2007
The residents group opposing plans to build on the Lowfields sports pitches have warned Planning Committee Councillors that they should not take part in Thursday’s debate on the plans, if they have previously expressed a view on the development.
The Council is the landowner, developer and planning authority for the application. Any Councillor who had previously been present at any discussions about the future of the land, and the scale of any development, could be considered to have “pre-judged” the application.
Their impartiality would be in question, and could lead to any recommendation being invalidated.
The group say that any decision should be referred for consideration by an independent inspector.
Meanwhile, the residents group have lobbied Councillors setting out the reasons why they believe only the brownfield side of the site should be built on (see below).
The Planning Committee meeting takes place on Thursday 16th August starting at 4:30pm. It will be “web cast” (click to view)
The deluge that engulfed the City yesterday evening produced surface water flooding problems in many areas.
The Council says it is working hard to remedy problems. It asks residents to report issues to FRM@york.gov.uk or call the customer centre on 01904 551550.
These are couple that we reported yesterday.
Tudor Road
Gale Lane
Plans to replace the Fordland’s care home with a new building – to be run by Octopus Healthcare – have been thrown into confusion after a judge ruled that the planning permission is invalid.
As the existing care home (now empty) had operated on the site for many years, the case revolved around whether the planning committee was correctly advised on the level of unmet demand for care beds in the area.
Officials say there is an estimated shortfall of 663 residential and extra care places for over 75’s by 2020 and a 1,490 shortfall by 2030.
Residents who opposed the new building felt that it was overbearing.
In is rather novel in York for objections to elderly persons accommodation to cause a row. Usually it is specialist student accommodation plans that raise peoples wrath.
The £10 million investment in the site would have provided 64 beds and created 64 full and part time jobs,
It is possible that the applicant may now simply reapply for permission with the correct care bed demand figures being reported to the committee.
However the planning opening date of mid 2019 now seems optimistic.
Just turn up.
Car parking space availability signs still not working
The Council has about 20 signs on arterial roads which, until about 5 years ago, showed how many empty parking spaces there were at each car park.
Such facilities became commonplace on City streets more than a decade ago. They’re still to be found at many tourist destinations.
The FOI response has also revealed that the counters which allow the number of spaces to be identified, will only be reactivate on three of the signs before the end of the financial year.
The Council – after promising that its on line service, which also gives a guide to finding space, would be updated – has now been decommissioned. The number of spaces shown has been incorrect for several years.
Users are now referred to the iTravel web site which contains only a list of car parks (and without an indication of the number of spaces at each).
Commercial sites like https://en.parkopedia.co.uk/ are much better.
There were also hopes that space availability would be linked to GPS systems to allow “Sat Nav” users to optimise their routes. Now it seems that driving round the inner ring road will continue to be the only way of finding a space.
That’s bad news for a Council leadership that claims to be trying to reduce pollution levels in the City centre, by cutting out unnecessary travel. Its also bad news fro some City centre traders who sell goods that require a purchaser to have access to their own transport.
Weed killing operation on paths and in gutters has been criticised as poor this year.
Clearly it is a big problem in snickets.
The latest change in weather (damper) may make this more obvious.
We understand that, following complaints from Cllr Sheena Jackson, the Foxwood area will be retreated this week.
