Roadworks on Fishergate and Wigginton Road to start next week

 

City of York Council will be carrying out resurfacing works from next week at Fishergate (starting 17 February) and Wigginton Road (starting 9 March).

The Fishergate works start on Monday 17 February and will take around seven nights to complete (weather permitting), working between 7.30pm till 5am, Monday to Friday only (weekend excluded).

In order to carry out these works safely the use of a temporary road closure from the junction of Kilburn Road up to, but not including, the junction of Fewster Way will be put in place.

Fulford Road and the junction of Cemetery Road will also be closed as part of the works. A clearly signed diversion route will be set out for through traffic.

Buses will be diverted during working hours as follows:

Phase 1 – Junction of Cemetery Rd & Fishergate – Services 7 and 415 – Inbound via Heslington Lane, University Rd, Heslington Rd, Kent St. Outbound via Kent Street, Heslington Rd, University Rd, Heslington Lane.

Phase 2 – Fishergate closed between Cemetery Rd and Fawcett St – Services 7 and 415 – Inbound via Cemetery Rd, Kent Street, Fawcett St. Outbound via Paragon St, Fawcett St, Kent St, Cemetery Rd.

Phase 3 – Fawcett Street closed between Kent Street and Fishergate – Services 7 and 415- normal route inbound. Outbound via Kent Street, Cemetery Rd. Services 66/N66 – inbound via Cemetery Rd, Fishergate. Outbound via normal route.

The Wigginton Road works will start Monday 9 March and will take around two weeks to complete (weather permitting), working between 8pm till 5am, Monday to Friday.

In order to carry out these works safely the use of a temporary road closure from the roundabout at A1237 to the traffic light junction at Mill Lane will be necessary. A clearly signed diversion route will be set out for through traffic.

During both schemes, site staff will be on hand to advise and assist residents about the access restrictions once the works are ongoing.

Any specific access requirements maybe arranged by speaking to the Site Traffic Management Operatives or the Engineer who will co-ordinate with residents and business requirements around ongoing construction operations.

Emergency services will be permitted at all times. Cyclists will have to dismount and use the footways.

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

To keep up-to-date with the latest road works in York visit www.york.gov.uk/roadworks or follow @York_Travel on social media.

Residents can contact Murtaza Khaliq, site supervisor, on 07880 505375, if they have any concerns during the works, particularly if this is related to noise issues.

York Council budget decision tomorrow

Street cleanliness and footpath maintenance standards have fallen in York over recent years

As we reported a few weeks ago, the York Council is set to approve a 4% rise in Council tax from April. The bulk of this will go towards the provision of services for the elderly. There are also financial pressures in children’s social care with more and more safeguarding issues being reported to the Council.

Most of the budget plans are largely uncontroversial with the Labour opposition having to resort to criticising a 2.5% inflation linked increase in crematorium charges to get some publicity.

The Councils capital programme is probably too ambitious and will store up financial problems for the future, but that will have little impact on next financial year’s budget.

It is the parlous state of street level public services which deserve the most scrutiny.

Askham Lane footpath trip hazard.

In this respect, the Council elected last May, inherited a whole basket full of issues. Inadequate maintenance over nearly a decade has seen our streets crumble, cleaning standards fall and refuse collection become unreliable.

Some of these issues are being addressed in the new budget but in the case of highway maintenance it may be a case of “too little, too late”.

The Council doesn’t appear to have the resources available this month to even fill in the burgeoning number of potholes emerging on our paths and roads. Highways inspectors aren’t willing to order repairs unless defects are over several inches deep. Frost damage quickly ensures that repeat reports come thick and fast.

According to the Councils own stats, roads and footpaths in York are amongst the worst in the region.

There is a human cost to this neglect. A woman took a tumble on Askham Lane today on a flagstone that had been misaligned for some time.

We’ll see how long it takes to get repaired but there will be a sneaking feeling that the increases in the maintenance budget will not be enough to stem the very obvious deterioration in highway standards.

York “in hock” for generations?

One of the reports least likely to be subject to detailed scrutiny, as the York Council prepares its budget for next year, is the upward trend in interest charge commitments

By 2022, the amount borrowed by the Council is set to escalate to over £178 million a year. Total debt will reach over £1/2 billion the following year.

This is by far the largest liability the Council has had since it became a unitary authority over 20 years ago.

With interest rates on borrowing by Councils now standing at around 3.5%, it means that, within the next 5 years, the proportion of the Council Tax collected in the City, and used to service debt charges, will increase for 12% this year to 23%. That figure assumes that there will be no increase in interest rates.

In practice the trend means that there will be less money available to spend on street level public services.

So, should we be worried?

At one level, no.

The forecast expenditure, although much closer to the legal borrowing limit, will still be within the ceiling in 2024.

But there is more to it than that.

It is not just principal and interest repayments which erode the flexibility available on the Councils revenue account. New services often bring additional running costs. The Council has forecast zero net expenditure on some high risk investments (e.g. the commercial office space at the Community Stadium, the “business club” being set up at the Guildhall and the Castle Mills development).  If it got any of these decision wrong, then taxpayers face a big hit.

What is the additional investment big spent on.

A list of new items being considered tomorrow (Thursday) can be found by clicking here. There are dozens of other items which have already been agreed.

So, is that the extent of the risk?

Unfortunately no. There are several investments that the Council wants to make but for which it has not yet made full financial provision. By far the largest is the York Central project.  This could add tens of millions to the programme depending on what financial backing central government decides to offer.

The dualling of the northern by pass is also still not fully funded. Such plans as have been published omit, for example, flyovers at key junctions and across the river. Both could add tens of millions to the costs.

Could we make savings?

29 Castlegate – £1/4 million repair bill

Certainly. The Council has taken on the risk at several developments which the private sector considers to be nonviable.  This started when the Council underwrote the office development at Monks Cross, a similar logic was applied to the £20 million Guildhall scheme and most recently we saw the £44 million Castle Piccadilly project brought “in house”. A similar decision was taken on the housing development at Lowfields.

This year £270,000 will be spent on repairing and remodelling 29 Castlegate – an obvious project on which to seek a commercial partner.

Successive generations will end up paying the additional annual £2.8 million interest charges on this year’s new project list unless a more prudent approach is adopted by Councillors.