Wetherby Road roundabout upgrades – drivers warned about overnight closures next week

The Wetherby Road roundabout upgrade is moving a step closer to completion with resurfacing works on the roundabout and approach roads currently taking place.

When the roundabout is completed it will be the first of seven to receive wider entrances and exits as part of a £38m scheme to reduce congestion on the outer ring road.

The current resurfacing work is taking place in three phases. Phases one and two have been completed and phase three is set to start on Monday 24 September until Friday 28 September with work taking place overnight from 8pm – 5am to keep disruption to a minimum. During this time, in order to carry out the works safely, Wetherby Road will be closed from the junction of Beckfield Lane to the A1237.

A signed diversion route will be in place. In addition to this 3-way traffic lights will be in operation on the A1237 and Rufforth arm of Wetherby Road with traffic reduced to a single lane.

Further night-time resurfacing work is set to take place in November which will include overnight closures of the roundabout. Final dates and times are to be determined with the contractor and will be confirmed closer to the time.

As with any construction work, there is likely to be a certain amount of disruption and inconvenience to the public, however we will try at all times to keep any disruption to a minimum.

The York Outer Ring Road improvements programme is being funded through the West Yorkshire-plus Transport Fund, and the Leeds City Region Growth Deal – a £1 billion package of Government investment through the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to accelerate growth and create jobs across Leeds City Region.

For more information about the York Outer Ring Road improvements visit www.york.gov.uk/yorr

Recycling levels stable in York. Plans to deal with plastic waste

An interesting report to a Council committee meeting which is taking place next week reveals that around 43% of the waste generated in the City is either recycled or composted. The percentage has remained constant over the last 5 years. Around 11,000 tonnes were collected at the kerbside last year

The total weight of rubbish generated last year rose to 83,575 tonnes but is still less than the 2015 peak of 87,069 tonnes

The net cost of kerbside recycling collections is put at £1.2 million per annum

Residual waste from York is now incinerated.

Plastics

The report tackles the vexed issue of plastics recycling. It says,

“Mixed plastic is a term that covers all non-bottle plastic packaging from households. It includes rigid and flexible plastic packaging items of various polymer types and colours and excludes plastic bottles and nonpackaging items.

At the moment plastic bottles are the only plastic material officially accepted in our kerbside recycling collection. They are made of high-grade plastic material PET1 (Polyethylene Terephthalate) and HDPE2 (High Density Polyethylene) which have consistently strong recycling markets in which to sell the material. Mixed plastic, however, can be poorer quality and dirty. These factors, coupled with the instability of the recycling markets, has meant that it has previously not been possible to consider introducing mixed plastics to the existing kerbside recycling collection.

Some mixed plastic is already put into the recycling boxes by residents and we collect it. This low level of ‘contamination’ material is currently acceptable to our contractor (Yorwaste Ltd) because our recycling is mixed with other recycling, thus reducing the overall percentage of contamination.

Black plastic doesn’t reflect light, so cannot be seen and sorted by the scanners in the recycling facility and could end up contaminating other materials such as glass bottles.”

Comingling

The report also seeks to explain why it sometimes appears that items separated for recycling are all put into the same compartment in the bin lorry.

When collecting recycling some crews tip boxes of recycling into separate wheelie bins, once the wheelie bin is full it is then emptied into the relevant compartment in the refuse collection vehicle .There is a perception from some residents that comingling is taking place when it isn’t, as they just see recycling boxes being tipped into a wheelie bin and then into what they think is an ordinary refuse vehicle, not one with separate compartments. We have therefore introduced different coloured wheelie bins for tins/plastic and cardboard/paper.

The report says that some comingled recycling is transported to a processing centre at Seamer Carr.

There are only limited markets for such material and the processing cost (including transfer) for dealing with such material is c.£65 per tonne and we receive no income, we are currently comingling around 320 tonnes per month.

York Federation of Residents’ Associations folds

The York Federation of Residents’ Associations folded yesterday.

The decision was taken at a meeting which heard that it had been impossible to find a full slate of officers.

The decision doesn’t affect the many individual residents and tenants associations which operate successfully in many parts of the City.

It will, however, mean that a new process is required to allocate some centralised grant funding streams.

The Federation, which depended entirely on the efforts of volunteers, had struggled to deal with increasing regulatory requirements during recent months.

Some of its members had been critical of the lack of involvement on major policy changes being pursued by the Councils Housing Department.

NB. The Council has still not appointed a new contractor to carry on its “tenants choice” modernisation programmes