St Helens Road will be closed for (what seems like) its quarterly dose of road works
This time it is repairs to the gas mains.
The road will be closed between 1st and 14th March
(& yes they will be digging up the section of road that was resurfaced last summer)
Forecasters are saying that it will get warmer next week.
With the thaw will come rain and concerns about flooding.
The worse floods in York have usually occurred when the ground has been saturated, where there has also been rapid snow melt upstream and when this has coincided with heavy rain.
We hope this doesn’t happen next week.
Meanwhile we have had some rare winter views to enjoy in and around the City over the last few days.
TWO additional hospital deaths have been announced today. One occurred yesterday and one on Tuesday.
The average daily number of deaths being recorded at the York and Scarborough hospitals was as high 5.6 as recently as 21st January.
That figure has now fallen to 2.7 and continues to decline.
128 COVID-19 patients are currently being treated by the York Hospital Trust. That represents a considerable reduction on the numbers seen last month when cases soared to over 200.
There are 16 patients in intensive care.
1863 COVID patients have been treated and discharged from the hospitals since the start of the pandemic last year.
5231 PCR tests were conducted in York during the week ending 6th February.
5.9% of the test were positive. This represents a fall compared to yesterdays figure
1526 lateral flow tests were also conducted on 10th February
TWENTY FIVE additional positive test results announced today. Brings the cumulative total to 11,488
The rate per 100k population figure has fallen to 134.85. It is still trending to go below the 100 case benchmark next week.
South Bank and Dringhouses has now fallen below the 50 case threshold (meaning it has a very low infection rate).
The highest level can be found in New Earswick where the rate has crept up to 312.9
The rate across England has now fallen below 200.
The vaccination centre is now moving on to inoculate those aged between 65 and 70.
Anyone who has not been called in and who is aged over 70 is urged to book an appointment now.
With the sale of new internal combustion powered cars scheduled to end in 9 years time, there is increasing pressure to extend the recharging network in York. Battery power (or maybe in the longer-term hydrogen fuel cells) will soon be the only option available.
The Councils budget does includes plans to invest over £5 million in making its own fleet all electric. It includes a £1.8 million infrastructure programme and says it is doing so to ensure that the Council is “carbon neutral” by 2030.
A report being considered today, says “a key element of the investment is to develop an electric charging infrastructure at the (Council) depot, satellite depots and home charging to ensure full charging capacity of all vehicles at all times can be met”.
In recent years, the Council has had a poor procurement record on vehicle renewal. The result has been a refuse collection fleet which, by last summer, had become chronically unreliable. They need to be more decisive, and realistic about delivery timescales, in the future.
The Council has already announced plans for a “HyperHubs” project to provide “next generation electric vehicle charging infrastructure at Monks Cross and Poppleton Bar Park & Ride sites”. The Monks Cross HyperHub is due to be completed by April 2021 and will include the first Ultra Rapid chargers in the City.
The Council says that design work is continuing for a third City Centre HyperHub following the decision to move the site from York Hospital “which had insurmountable access issues”. The hub is due to open in the autumn of 2021, although details of the location have not been released.
One possible site is the Piccadilly multi storey car park which has been under-used since the Council switched off the advance car park space availability systems 8 years ago. If it were designated for electric vehicles it might be possible to reopen the tunnel link from the nearby Castle Car park.
One of the ongoing issues to be addressed with charging bays is their reliability and occupancy limits. Recharging to 80% capacity takes about 30 minutes on most new electric cars. When charged up, the vehicle owner must return to the vehicle and free up the space for other users.
Home charging on the other hand is more convenient and can take place overnight if a £400 home box is fitted. That option is not available for those who park on the street.
The Council will spend another £550,000 next year in renewing lampposts. As part of the programme LED fittings will be used. These reduce power use. This offers the opportunity for recharging sockets to be included in the specification.
No such proposals have been made in York although the lamppost charging option is available in parts of London, while Oxford is trialling the provision of ducted access to adjacent properties where off street parking is impossible.
Access to lamppost sockets is available for only a limited time so, where streets have a parking deficit already, reserving parking bays for charging will only exacerbate the problems.
There is little sign of Councillors addressing these issues.
Instead many have simply said they oppose the use of personal transport in the urban area however the vehicles may be fueled.
