Global Road Safety Week: York joins national forum to raise profile of road safety

Road safety experts from City of York Council are joining fellow officers to raise the profile of road safety among children during Global Road Safety Week (GRSW) between 4-10 May.

Road safety kiss ground

Parents, teachers and other interested parties are being invited to submit questions for a series of online forums covering child road safety issues, which will be held on the Road Safety GB website during the weeklong event.

The four forums are free of charge and cover children as pedestrians, as cyclists, travelling in cars, and how to set up and run a Junior Road Safety Officer scheme, and will be held daily on Tuesday 5 to Friday 8 May inclusive, between 12 – 1pm.

Trish Hirst and Lynne Thomas, both road safety officers from City of York Council, will be joining the London Borough of Hackney Council for the first forum on Tuesday 5 May to discuss ‘children and cycling’.

Questions can be submitted in advance or during the forum itself, and the panel of road safety expert facilitators will answer in ‘real time’ during the forum.

Trish Hirst, Road Safety Manager at City of York Council, said: “York is one of the top cycling cities in the UK, so we are proud to take part in this national forum to offer advice on children cycling. In recent years we’ve seen a huge increase in young people cycling, which is fantastic, but it’s also just as important that we provide practical information and advice too. We hope this forum will help many people and we encourage everyone to tune in!”

Road safety professionals and other stakeholders are being encouraged to alert schools and other groups in their local areas, in order to give teachers, parents and others the opportunity to participate in the forums.

The forums are part of a comprehensive suite of initiatives here in the UK in support of GRSW 2015. Other initiatives include:

  • A series of child road safety resources – including activity sheets, maps and country profilers – which are available free to download.
  • A series of simple ‘how to’ guides to help educators and others teach basic road safety to children. The guides cover children as pedestrians, cyclists, travelling in cars and on public transport, and setting up a Junior Road Safety Officer scheme.
  • A database of road safety professionals with expertise with regard to child road safety, who are willing to provide advice and support to people in other parts of the world.

Find out more about road safety in York by visiting www.itravelyork.info .

The full online forum programme is as follows:

  • Tuesday 5 May – Children and cycling (featuring City of York Council officers)
  • Wednesday 6 May – Setting up and running a Junior Road Safety Officer scheme
  • Thursday 7 May – In-car safety for children
  • Friday 8 May – Children as pedestrians

Find out more at: www.roadsafetygb.org.uk/pages/roadsafetyweek/rsw-forums.html

Plea for disabled parking space in Foxwood

A disabled resident is still waiting for a disabled parking space to be marked out, on a parking area in Spurr Court in the Foxwood estate, 6 months after requesting assistance

Parking area in Spurr Court

Parking area in Spurr Court

Council sign has been criticised as "meaningless"

Council sign has been criticised as “meaningless”

There is space for about 8 vehicles in the parking area but they quickly fill up at weekends.

This leaves a local disabled person having, on occasions, to walk over 1/2 mile from the nearest available parking spot

Liberal Democrat candidates in the Council elections on May 7th have agreed to ask for a “disabled only” bay to be marked out as a matter of priority.

The affected resident lives in one of 3 bungalows in the area which does not have a carriageway either to the front or rear of the property.

 

Community Stadium planning delay hits swimming pool management

With the official planning decision notice still predictably delayed, the Community Stadium development contract cannot yet be signed.

This means that potential contractor GLL cannot take over the running of leisure facilities like Energise in Acomb.

 GLL were the managers of the Huntington Stadium and the adjacent Waterworld facility, but both closed about 6 months ago.

We understand that staff at the successful Energise leisure centre have been told that a proposed 1st June handover date has now been shelved.

Uncertain future for popular Energise leisure centre

Uncertain future for popular Energise leisure centre

There never seemed any real possibility that the Secretary of State would decide whether or not to call in the Community Stadium plans before the General Election.

 June seemed the earliest likely decision date but even that could be optimistic if the election result is not – as appears likely to be the case – clear cut.

The July 2016 opening date for the stadium continues to look very optimistic.

The project is running over 2 years behind schedule mainly as a result of a decision by some Labour Councillors to privatise all the City’s leisure facilities into one contract.

This led to the closure of Waterworld and a threat to future of the Yearsley Pool.

It also added £8 million to the taxpayers bill for the project.

Latest planning application for the Westfield Ward

Below are the latest planning applications received by the York Council for the Acomb ward.

Full details can be found by clicking the application reference

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Location:       2 Barkston Close York YO26 5AX

Proposal:       Single storey front extension to existing side projection

Ref No: 15/00667/FUL

Applicant:      Mr A Sutcliffe  Contact Mr Mike Punchard     Consultation Expiry Date        18 May 2015 Case Officer:   Elizabeth Potter        Expected Decision Level DEL

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Representations can be made in favour of, or in objection to, any application via the Planning on line web site.  http://planningaccess.york.gov.uk/online-applications/

The Council now no longer routinely consults neighbours by letter when an application is received