Final bush and tree lopping before nesting season

Residents in west York have been completing hedge trimming work over the last few days.

Bushes which have obscured the view from the Askham Lane bus stop are being removed.

The Council has promised to cut back overhanging highway trees and the local ward committee has allocated a budget for the work. 

Elsewhere Sheena Jackson and local residents have been giving the boundary hedge in the Foxwood park a final trim (below).

Arrangements are in place for the Great British Clean up next Saturday.

Join the Foxwood Residents Association as they “walk the bounds”

 

York Council says parking signs will be fixed by end of March

At long last the Council has responded to our questions about the failure of its parking space availability policies.

Following our article published in December, which revealed that the Council’s web site was out of date and that many street signs were faulty, we asked the Council when repair work would be completed.

On line site parking space availability click to access

The on line map was a particular concern as it had not shown parking space availability for over 4 years and some of the listed car parks had actually closed.

After some delay, the Council has now said that the on line map – in line with a new mobile app – “will be updated by the end of March”.

This will include an update to the listed tariffs.

The delays in restoring the parking space availability feature (known as the Car Park Guidance System) is put down to issues with the slow roll out of the Council’s new fibre optic network. Apparently the car parking counting devices are currently being refurbished in time for the March relaunch.

The Council also confirms that all of the Variable Message Signs which can  be seen on the streets of the city were faulty.

The Council says it has

Parking space availability

“taken the novel step of working with a suppler to develop a new ‘technology package’ that can be inserted into the existing sign cases as this is a much cheaper way of renewing the VMS than simply replacing them.

The first four pre-production signs that have been used to test this approach are now operational and under test in the City, and the Heworth Green and Foss Islands Road CPGS signs are part of this group.

Work is now underway to apply this renewal technique to the five remaining City-centre ‘free text’ VMS and these will be back on street and operational by the end of March.

The remaining twenty CPGS ‘Insert’ signs (right) located in the City centre will be refurbished and brought back into use between April and August 2017″.

There are no plans to provide additional VMS signs in the City.

Finally the Council has confirmed that it is working with a number of GPS/SatNav suppliers to include real time parking space availability features on their devices. 

York Labour Councillor quits

The media are reporting that Micklegate Councillor Julie Gunnel is resigning from the City of York Council. It means that a by-election will take place in a ward which has been electorally unpredictable over the years. The other Councillors for the area currently include an Independent and a Green party representative.

The chaotic state of the Labour party nationally has seen several Councillors quit recently. In nearby Leeds, three members recently left to form an independent grouping.

Julie Gunnel had a deserved reputation as being one of the friendliest and hard working local representatives. She had the great advantage of having lived in the city all her life and owned a house in the Micklegate ward. She cites family reasons for her departure.

The by-election may take place on 4th May when local elections are scheduled in other parts of the country.

Labour’s recent election results elsewhere in the country  – coupled with a lackluster performance in the Council chamber – means that a change is on the cards.

Nationally the LibDems have a string of recent Council by-election gains to their credit.

 

UKIP canvassers out in force in Micklegate Ward

Paul Nuttall single handedly beats Euro Saxons

Bloodaxe claims he’s never heard of Paul Nuttall