Lendal Bridge

As we predicted when the “trial” started the Council intends to continue the restrictions on access to Lendal Bridge for an indefinite period.

There is no item in the Councils forward programme of meeting topics so a decision before June is unlikely.

The latest figures on the Council web site show that most Park and Ride bus services are talking longer to complete their journeys. No data has been produced for other bus services.

No information on bus passenger numbers has been published although total passenger journeys in 2013 showed a further reduction on 2012.

The number of shoppers in the City centre has reduced

Other road users – particularly those living near the city centre – have found journey times doubling.

Meanwhile over 60,000 motorists have been fined on Lendal and Coppergate. Many of these have been visitors who have vowed never to return to the City.

Labour Councillors have now stepped up their campaign of misinformation.

They say that there were forecasts of gridlock. Few said this because (between 10:00am and 4:30pm) there is spare capacity on most of the highways network in York for most of the week.

Some predicted traffic chaos in some circumstances such as poor weather conditions. In a generally mild winter, they were proved right.

Labour have claimed that the LibDems included in their 2011 Local Transport Plan proposals to close Lendal bridge. Actually the reference was to a trial closure of Ouse Bridge (which has many more bus services using it and which does not form part of the ring road). But this would only have happened after proper consultation.

Labour claim that “traffic congestion will increase three fold in 10 years“.

But their transport spokesman made the same claims a decade ago and, of course, it hasn’t happened. Drivers have found different ways of getting to their destinations and at different times of the day.

They don’t rush lemming like to the nearest traffic jam.

Congestion levels in York have been fairly stable now since 1998.

It would be a strange Council that argued that “something has to be done“, then promptly decided on a course of action that actually makes things worse for the majority of travellers.

Reopen Lendal Bridge Now!

Lib Dems reveal York Council budget plans

Council Tax would be frozen and £3million of service cuts would be reversed under budget plans revealed by York’s Liberal Democrat Group.

The proposals, which will be tabled at City of York Council’s budget meeting on Thursday, would see a new £500,000 community fund created for residents to spend locally plus extra investment to boost recycling and tackle climate change.

LibDem budget plan would eliminate poor road surfaces in York

LibDem budget plan would eliminate poor road surfaces in York

The Lib Dem plans would see the controversial £3.3million ‘Reinvigorate York’ scheme – which funded the unpopular King’s Square revamp – cancelled and a reduction in funding on a new multi-million pound council IT project. Labour’s new £70,000-a-year ‘Head of Transformation’ would also face the axe and the number of Cabinet Members would be reduced.

Main Points of the Lib Dem amendment:

  • Accept the government’s grant to freeze council tax for all households in York.
  • Reverse £3million of Labour’s cuts to areas including community centres, youth services, children’s centres, social care, support to carers, grants to voluntary groups, litter and salt bins, road gully cleaning and road repairs.
  • Keep the ‘Minster Badge’ discounted parking scheme for residents which Labour plan to scrap.
  • Set-up a new £500,000 community fund for residents to spend on local priorities under a revamped Ward Committee system.
  • Cut borrowing for schemes such as ‘Reinvigorate York’, Labour’s new 5-year £6.1million IT project, and the proposed ‘Digital and Media Hub’.
  • Make savings by scrapping Labour’s ‘Delivery and Innovation Fund’ and ‘Economic Infrastructure Fund’, reducing Cabinet Members by two, and removing the Assistant Director of Transformation and Change post.
  • Extra investment to boost recycling by reviewing facilities at Towthorpe and in the west of York, introduce a new scheme to cut overall council carbon emissions over the next 10 years, and reinstate winter green bin collections.
  • Reduce cuts to youth and children’s services in 2014/15 and restate a commitment to stop Labour’s plans to close children’s centres after 2015.

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