Deaths and test results
Three more positive test results announced today bringing the cumulative total to 964. Government distribution map suggest that there is no concentration in any particular neighbourhood.
No information issued by the authorities on whether there is any link between recent cases, although numbers are higher now than they were four weeks ago.
No more hospital deaths announced today.
The York Council will discuss next week whether to continue a trial which is aimed at removing ice from some cycle paths. A report says that a two tractors operated last winter brushing snow and ice for a small number of off road cycle tracks .
None of these were in the Acomb, Westfield or rural areas.
Only a small part of the Tadcaster Road cycle path was treated. “The routes were approximately 18km & 25km long and started and finished at Hazel Court James Street (see map). The service completed 59 runs in total using 9000 litres of pathway KA, the structure friendly non-corrosive solution, and 12000 litres of Probrine, effectively a salt water brine mix”.
The cost of doing the work was £47,000.
According to the report, the City of York Council Cycle Officer says feedback from cyclists can be summarised as “the trial is a vast improvement and that they’d like it extending to other parts of the network which were not included in the trial”.
The winter was (again) relatively mild without sustained periods of sub zero temperatures.
Cyclists in the suburbs and villages will view this report with some scepticism. Once again there seems to have been no objective attempt made to identify the needs of longer distance and leisure cyclists in west York.
Too many off road paths are impeded by weeds, thorn bushes and detritus. Several are now badly rutted. No regular maintenance inspections take place.
The York Council must start taking the needs of all cyclist seriously. Otherwise it will be guilty of posturing.
It should start by increasing the number of inspections that it undertakes.
It should also agree a routine maintenance programme covering sweeping, weed treatment and hedge cutting on off road paths.
It must also acknowledge that periodically it will have to renew notices and refresh white lines. At the moment many of these have just faded away.
