…..but two months too late and what happened to consultation?
The following information has been provided by the Council in response to complaints about lack of consultation about the removal of cycle parking from Parliament Street. It would have been better if the information had been published a couple of months ago rather than the day after the racks disappeared!!
“The old individual cycle racks are being removed this week and will be replaced with ones on rails. Any bikes which have been left locked to a rack will be removed to the Council’s secure store.
What is happening? – The old individual cycle racks are being replaced with ones on rails where the racks are spaced wider apart that the current ones (1200mm as opposed to 800mm). As construction of the cabins for the Christmas Market will start later this week (02/12/19) the new racks will be temporarily relocated to the following locations:
- Davygate – outside Debenhams
- Davygate – outside the former French Connection shop
- Davygate – outside the former Halifax Bank
- Church Street – at the side of St Sampson’s Church
- Church Street – outside The Works
- St Andrewgate – at the Kings Square end
- Piccadilly – outside Lloyds Bank
- Parliament Street – outside Barclays Bank
- Walkway at the rear of All Saints Church
- Lendal as soon as the skips associated with the Guildhall works are removed
When are the old racks being removed? – The racks are being removed on the 29th October. Notices were placed on the affected racks a week in advance to forewarn users of their imminent removal. Any cycles which have been left locked to a rack will be removed to the Council’s secure store. Anyone wishing to reclaim a cycle should contact network.management@york.gov.uk to arrange collection.
Why is this work being done? – Following last year’s Christmas Market concerns were raised by the city centre safety advisory group about the relatively few accesses / exits from the central area and the narrowness of these accesses. In order to enable the cabins to be better laid out and to increase the number and width of the accesses / exits it has been agreed that the cycle parking will be temporarily removed for the duration of the large events which take place on Parliament Street including the Christmas Market and Food & Drink Festival.
The racks will be relocated to the above locations during the event and then reinstalled on Parliament Street as soon as possible after the event. At this stage it is not envisaged that the cycle parking will need to be relocated during the Yorkshire Fringe Festival or smaller markets. In previous years several of the racks were unavailable during large events because cabins or marquees were installed immediately next to them therefore cycle parking capacity was reduced.
By relocating the racks elsewhere in the city centre there should be no net loss of capacity during these busy events.
