City centre access review by York Council

The Council’s Executive agreed last week to reinstate the access restriction times of 8:00am to 6:00pm on Coppergate (although they will apply 7 days a week).

It remains unclear whether spy cameras will be deployed again to enforce restrictions.

The Council report says, “York has one of the largest pedestrian zones in Europe, which creates a safer and more attractive city centre for residents, businesses, shoppers and visitors.”

City of York Council carried out a review of its city centre pedestrian zone in 2012, which identified a number of improvements to help reduce city centre through traffic and ensure pedestrians continued to have safe access.

Building on this review, further proposals outlined at the time are now being put forward for consideration to simplify restrictions in the pedestrian zone further and create a better understanding of the traffic regulations in this area (e.g. loading and unloading times),

These include:

Extending loading and unloading times either side of the pedestrian zone to 7am (previously 8am) to 10.30am and 5pm to 7pm (previously 6pm). This will give delivery drivers more time and greater priority over general traffic.
Unify the access restrictions outside the pedestrian and loading only hours (as above). This will ensure drivers have more clarity on restriction timings whilst aiming to help reducing the volume of traffic in the city centre in the early evening and through the night.
Extend the road closure at the Nessgate / Spurriergate into the evening or through the night. Also investigate extending the period of time when the bollards are in place, to either reopen at some point during the evening or in the early hours of the morning.
Review the Blue Badge and Green Permit holders access in the pedestrian zone and reviewing the Piccadilly / Pavement / Stonebow vehicle access and enforcement.
Investigating vehicle access and enforcement on Piccadilly / Pavement / Stonebow / Fossgate / St. Saviourgate. These recommendations would tie in with the outcome of the Coppergate proposals, which will improve driver compliance with the regulations and reduce general traffic on key public transport routes through the city centre.

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City-wide traffic signal replacement scheme for York

York’s ageing traffic signals are set for a complete overhaul – the largest scheme the city has seen in over 20-years.

Overdue really as we have been reporting increasing problems with traffic light reliability over the last 3 years.

A report will be taken to a Transport and Planning Decision Session on Thursday 12 November to ask the Executive Member to give the green light to implement a new five-year replacement roll-out.

The last major overhaul of York’s traffic signals was in the mid 1990s with the introduction of the city’s new Urban Traffic Control system (UTC), which controls the city’s transport network.

Over the years, City of York Council’s priority has been to repair immediate maintenance issues, to ensure that the safety and general reliability of the city’s signals requirements are met.

As such, signals have only been replaced on an ad-hoc basis as isolated schemes, or as part of larger improvement projects, such as the works on Boroughbridge Road for the new Poppleton Bar Park&Ride service. However, a recent detailed ‘condition survey’ which inspected the age and condition of every traffic signal in the city found some to be in poor or end of life condition.

This highlighted that there is a need for significant investment and to address this, the authority is proposing to take a new approach.

The council is proposing to replace approximately half of the 122 traffic signals and 54 pedestrian crossings in the city over a five-year rolling programme with modern equipment.

Work has already been undertaken at numerous traffic signal sites across the city, and the rollout will help to further address the backlog of maintenance and ensure the signals continue to operate at the level required.
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York organisations promote York Refugee Appeal

Community, faith, and academic groups met councillors and officers at City of York Council earlier this week to discuss York’s response to the refugee crisis.

The meeting was called to promote the York Refugee Appeal, a fund launched last month as part of the preparations being made in York to welcome Syrian refugees to the city.The meeting heard from representatives of various community and voluntary groups, and from partners from the housing, faith and academic sectors who are all working together to offer a co-ordinated response to the refugee crisis.

York’s response follows the Prime Minister’s recent announcement that the UK will accept up to 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next five years. Local authorities are waiting for more detail on what funding the government will provide for the resettlement scheme, but in the meantime the council is helping to create links across the city in order to be in an effective position to respond.

Cllr Chris Steward, Leader of City of York Council said: “York has a proud history of welcoming people to the city and it is great to once again see the generosity of many in York coming together to see how we can help.”

Cllr Keith Aspden, Deputy Leader of City of York Council and chair of yesterday’s meeting, said: “I’m pleased that as a city we have so many partner organisations working together to ensure that we are in a good position to be able to offer a warm welcome to Syrian refugees. The meeting highlighted that many donations have already been given in support, and I’d like to thank residents for their generosity.”

Residents who wish to make financial donations can visit the Two Ridings Community Foundation website, www.trcf.org.uk where further information is available on how to make donations online, by text or by cheque.

Other support is welcome and residents can visit the council webpagewww.york.gov.uk/refugeesupport for more details. This includes information about donating clothing and household items, for which the Student Centre at the University of York have kindly offered to act as a local collection point.

Young people develop their coding skills

Over 80 young people from in and around York attended the first Code Club event hosted by City of York Council on Wednesday 28 October as part of a drive to increase awareness and improve access to coding in York.

The council’s Digital York Team in association with Code Club UK ran York’s first Code Club event to help young people learn to code.

Throughout the day young people learnt to build robots, remote control cars using Raspberry Pis, try some 3D printing and met with a successful York app developer. They were also given the chance to win tickets to the X Factor Live Finals, tablets and many other prizes as part of a competition.

The aim of coding is not only to teach children how to programme a computer but also build skills in problem solving and logic as well as develop skills that can be used in other activities, hobbies and careers.
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New Executive Headteacher for both Joseph Rowntree and Canon Lee Schools

The governing bodies of Joseph Rowntree School and Canon Lee School have agreed to appoint Richard Crane as the new Executive Headteacher of both schools, as it is a requirement for all schools to have a permanent substantive Headteacher.

Current Acting Headteacher Frances Johnston will continue to play a vital role as Associate Headteacher in the leadership of Canon Lee School.
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Electric bus award nomination for York service

City of York Council along with partners First York and Optare have been shortlisted for an award at the prestigious UK Bus Awards.

The nomination is for the Environment category and notes the work that the council, First York and Optare have completed by creating and running a fully electric Park&Ride service from the newly built site at Poppleton, which was opened in June 2014.

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Christmas Market at Foxwood Community Centre

Salisbury Terrace closure 10th -12th November

Carriageway Large Patching Works

Diversion – click to enlarge

City of York Council is to carry out patching repairs to the carriageway on Salisbury Terrace in the week beginning 9^th November. The programmed start date for the work is 10^th November. The works are programmed to take approximately 2 days to complete, working weekdays only between 09:00 and 16:00. The areas affected are shown on the plan on the reverse of this letter.

In order to carry out these works safely, the road will be closed to all vehicles. There will be a diversion route in place each day until the works have been completed, at which time the road will be reopened to traffic.

Buses will not be able to service this area – an alternative route will be arranged by the bus companies.

Due to the nature of the works and the size and quantity of machinery required to carry out the works, it will not always be possible for residents to gain vehicular access to their properties.

Parking on Salisbury Terrace will be suspended for the duration of the works

Pedestrian access will be available at all times where possible. Cyclists will have to dismount and use the footways when travelling through the affected areas.

Further information contact 01904 551890

Ward Committee grant application form published

The Council has recently published a grant application form for use by local voluntary Groups seeking help from a Ward Committee.

In some wards, decisions on allocations have apparently already been made but with little evidence that proper consultation was undertaken or that there was transparency in the decision process.

Click to download

September decisions
October decisions

In LibDem represented areas like Westfield, the funding available to the Ward Committees is expected to be spent on tangible improvements to the local environment.

Suggestions already received from residents include:

improving vehicle parking ,
enhancing public spaces,
providing (and servicing)
additional litter, poop scoop & salt bins, plus
more public seating,
street lights,
hard landscaping/paving &
better play equipment

We are still awaiting details of how the funds, announced in July (see below), will be allocated at a local level.

In wards like Westfield around £52,000 is available to spend before 31st March 2015

click to enlarge

Latest York Council newspaper sets new record for dullness

The Council has published another “Our City” newspaper.

It is a dull read and it even manages to use most of its front page up with an article on the Council “budget” which says absolutely nothing – other than that there will be one next year!

The articles have all appear to have been recycled from social media and the commercial press.

Once again the Council has broken its own ten year old protocol which requires that any leaflets that it may produce, must show the cost of production and distribution.

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