click to update
Auto toilet
It was yet another victim of the mismanagement of the Council agenda by the current administration.
A report on the issue, made to the Council Cabinet on 3rd December, was incredibly short on detail.
It emerges that the new loos will use a coin entry system on the door. There will be no free urinals*. The cost of a visit will be 40p with no change given. Apparently Euros and other foreign coins will not be accepted (not too bright a policy for a City which attracts a large number of tourists each year).
The contractors will be responsible for cash collection and security arrangements. In additional they will be paid £62,000 a year by the Council.
New York trial
The Council says that, “All needles and other debris on the self cleaning units are washed into a sump and removed as required”.
The Council says that existing staff will be transferred to the new contractors under TUPE regulations. Quite how that stacks up with the self cleaning strategy remains to be seen.
While auto toilets are commonplace in other parts of the world, in the UK they have generally been regarded with some suspicion following some examples of people being locked in them for extended periods of time.
Continental solution
The biggest problem would be deciding where such modern structures could be fitted into the historic streetscape of an historic city.
“Modernising” the existing toilets will cost taxpayers over £600,000.
*Under s87 Public Health Act 1936, the Council has the power to provide public conveniences and may charge such fees for the use of such conveniences, other than urinals, as it thinks fit.
The council’s main offices at West Offices and Hazel Court will be closed as usual on the Christmas period bank holidays – Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. The offices will close an hour early, at 4pm, on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.
There will be plenty of opportunity to keep fit and healthy over the festive period at Energise and Yearsley Pool. Energise is open over Christmas except for the usual bank holidays, closing at 1:30pm Christmas Eve. It will be closed on 1 and 2 January, closing at 1:30pm on New Year’s Eve. Yearsley Pool closes at 4pm on Christmas Eve and opens on Sunday 29 December. It will close on New Year’s Eve at 4:30pm until Thursday 2 January.
All libraries will close over Christmas and New Year. York Explore will close for Christmas at 4pm on Sunday 22 December with all other libraries at their usual closing time on Saturday 21 December. All libraries will be open as usual from Thursday 2 January, except York Explore which will re-opens at 9am on Friday 3 January.
Out-of-hours and emergency contact numbers can be found at http://www.york.gov.uk/ or by calling 01904 551550. Alternatively, please follow @cityofyork on Twitter or @yorkgritter for up-to-date information.
City of York Council tenants who require emergency repairs out of office hours should call 01904 630405.
The Emergency Duty Team for Social Care can be contacted outside office hours only by telephone: 0845 034 9417, or by email: edt@northyorks.gov.uk.
For all other emergencies call 01904 625751.
Questions are submitted in writing at least a week before the meeting is scheduled to take place, providing plenty of time for answers to be researched. Until 2011, both questions and written answers were circulated at the beginning of meetings allowing Councillors to ask “follow up” questions.
That protocol was abandoned in 2011 when the new Labour administration decided to circulate answers several days after the meeting had taken place. Effectively this removed any possibility of challenge through supplementary questions.
The management of York Council meetings has deteriorated to the point where questions re rarely reached these days anyway. 70% of the items on the Council agenda were not reached at its last meeting. Business was simply voted through without discussion.
The lack of scrutiny provides unscrupulous Cabinet members with an opportunity to avoid answering difficult questions.
At the meeting on 12th December Cllr Merrett was asked the following question.
“On the Lendal Bridge/Coppergate restrictions could the Cabinet Member confirm the following figures:
This expecting a short factual answer will have been disappointed. None of the requested numbers were provided.
The reply read
“Data is being ‘harvested’ for vehicle travel times across the city and far more detailed information will be published when this data becomes available in the new year.
Travel time data for radial arterial routes for Park and Ride has already been published and this clearly demonstrates that that the restriction has not led to the ‘dire effect on traffic’ nor the gridlock as anticipated by some.
Traffic flow data for these radial routes reinforces this – the flows are very similar comparing this year to last year.
Buses using the bridge are showing significant reductions in travel times – with average travel times Clarence Street to Rougier Street reducing by 4 to 5 minutes and 2 to 3 minutes in the reverse direction.
Improvements in vehicle flow have been observed at the Station Frontage, Lendal Arch Gyratory, Museum Street, St Leonards Place, Bootham, Gillygate, Clarence Street and Lord Mayors Walk.
Water End has seen an increase in traffic volume (as was predicted) although Clifton Green is generally coping well with the additional traffic, albeit with some late afternoon pressures at the junction. Signal adjustment has been undertaken and the situation continues to be closely monitored on a day to day basis via CCTV.
Skeldergate Bridge, Walmgate Bar and Foss Islands Road have seen increases in traffic (as was predicted) and some increase in the level of delay.
The traffic control centre continues to actively manage the traffic to help minimise the impact.
e) The numbers of accidents reported on roads in the City centre comparing the last 3 months with the equivalent period in 2012
There is a lag of 3 to 4 months between an accident being reported to the police and it being available for analysis on our accident database. People have 28 days to report injury accidents and the data then requires inputting and validating by the police and the council. Data for Sep, Oct, Nov 2013 will become available in the new year.
For information the total number of accidents on roads within the city centre (inner ring road boundary) for 2012 are:
IRR – 01/09/2012 to 30/11/2012 (all times of day)
Fatal = 0
Serious = 1
Slight = 28
IRR – 01/09/2012 to 30/11/2012 (between 10:30 – 17:00 hrs)
Fatal = 0
Serious = 0
Slight = 12”
As a result of the evasion, the requested information is likely to be the subject of a Freedom of Information request.
click to access
8 months after they were supposed to be available for residents to access, the cameras which provide real time information on congestion levels, on key roads in York, are now working.
The inability of the Councils new camera control computer systems, to provide the kind of access that other Council have done routinely for the last 10 years, has been a source of embarrassment in the City.
Links are now also available for mobile devices.
Somewhat belatedly, the York Council has decided to apply for European funding to help revive and extend the successful Kingsway Project which pioneered anti poverty activities in York towards the end of the last decade.
The Council is seeking £1.2 million from Europe with a matching amount likely to come from local resources.
The main neighbourhoods, which might benefit, include the Heworth, Hull Road, Guildhall, and Westfield Wards
The decision was taken today. As usual it was taken behind closed doors and without any meaningful consultation with local residents.
The Kingsway Project was a victim of Labour’s 2011 Council election victory. Shortly after their success they jettisoned Ward Committee budgeting which led to the Westfield area losing £50,000 a year in locally determined investment.
The report (which contains a lot of jargon) can be read here.
These are the public opinion survey results for West York updated as at 20th December 2013.
| Traffic congestion getting worse? | Agree | 91% |
| Disagree | 2% | |
| Unde | 7% | |
| Lendal Bridge closure a success | Agree | 7% |
| Disagree | 80% | |
| Unde | 13% | |
| Lendal bridge – lift access restrictions | Agree | 87% |
| Disagree | 5% | |
| Unde | 8% | |
| No justification for building in Green Belt | Agree | 90% |
| Disagree | 3% | |
| Unde | 7% | |
| Public service standards are deteriorating | Agree | 89% |
| Disagree | 2% | |
| Unde | 9% | |
| I am opposed to city wide 20 mph speed limit | Agree | 81% |
| Disagree | 7% | |
| Unde | 12% |
The Council is also conducting an “on line” poll on the Lendal Bridge “trial”
It can be accessed by clicking here.
Approved plan for Hob Moor site click to enlarge
The controversial house building plans for the former Our Lady’s school site on Windsor Garth were approved by the Planning Committee last night. It appears though that the scheme may now be referred to the Secretary of State for his views.
Although the revised plans were an improvement on those originally submitted, it remains a very dense development which will add further pressures to public services in the area.
No provision has been made to provide additional parking spaces for those vehicles which will be displaced from the access road.
Astonishingly no restrictions were imposed by the committee on the use of tracked plant outside the line of the existing railings, opening up the possibility that – in wet conditions – parts of the Moor adjacent to the site might be subject to severe damage.
Although most of the existing metal railings area now being retained – allowing the existing trees and bushes to remain in place as a visual screen – on the north side of the site a new wooden fence will be installed.
No reason has been given for replacing the railings with this inferior fence, which is likely to provide less security for both residents and the Moor.
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The Council have now published an updated report on their web site assessing the impact of the Lendal Bridge closure.
Traffic on Lendal bridge after closure
Any hopes that the information would be objective and impartial are quickly dispelled as the report resorts to sloganising “York remains very much open for business” whatever that is supposed to mean.
The figures for Park and Ride show small increases in the number of passengers (following a trend evident for the last 6 years over which passenger growth on the services has been sustained each year).
Some services show small reductions in journey times since the Lendal Bridge restrictions were introduced. Others – like the link to the Designer Centre – show increases in journey times.
This rather confirms what is so obvious to many – that traffic congestion, on alternative routes to Lendal, is continuing to increase.
No information is provided on normal “stage carriage” bus services.
There was a 10% increase in traffic volumes on Clifton bridge when comparing November 2013 with the same month last year. Increased traffic volumes on Foss Islands Road are also evident.
The report makes no attempt to assess increases in journey times or costs for drivers. There is no information about pollution levels
The Council has also updated the tables showing the number of Penalty Charge Notices issued to drivers on Lendal Bridge and in Coppergate.
The numbers fined on Coppergate doubled to 595 during the St Nicholas Fayre week.
The number issued on Lendal Bridge is still regularly in excess of 2500 a week.
70% of the tickets issued are to visitors to the City
| Lendal: | |
| 02-08 Sept (4 days enforcement, commenced Wednesday | 1675 |
| 09-15 Sept 2015 (6 days enforcement, because of the Skyride event) | 2015 |
| 16-23 Sept (5 days enforcement, cameras updating) | 1766 |
| 23 – 29 September 2,762 PCNs issued (6 days enforcement) | 2762 |
| 30 Sep – 6 October 1,885 PCNs issued (5 days enforcement) | 1885 |
| 7 – 13 October 2,487 PCNs issued (5 days enforcement) | 2487 |
| 14 – 20 October 3,640 PCNs issued | 3640 |
| 21 – 27 October 3,879 PCNs issued | 3879 |
| 28 Oct – 3 November 4,098PCNs issued | 4098 |
| 4 – 10 November 1,921 PCNs issued | 1921 |
| 11 – 17 November 3,172 PCNs issued | 3172 |
| 18 – 24 November 2,801 PCNs issued | 2801 |
| 25 Nov – 2 December 2,553 PCNs issued | 2553 |
| Coppergate: | |
| 15-18 August (4 days enforcement, commenced Wednesday) | 1085 |
| 19-25 August | 1741 |
| 26-01 Sept | 880 |
| 02-08 Septd | 850 |
| 09-15 Sept (6 days enforcement, because of the Skyride event) | 841 |
| 16-22 Sept (5 days enforcement, cameras updating and gas works commenced) | 324 |
| 23 – 29 September 405 PCNs issued (6 days enforcement) | 405 |
| 30 Sep – 6 October 345 PCNs issued (5 days enforcement) | 345 |
| 7 – 13 October 593 PCNs issued (5 days enforcement) | 593 |
| 14 – 20 October 869 PCNs issued | 869 |
| 21 – 27 October 755 PCNs issued (6 days enforcement) | 755 |
| 28 Oct – 3 November 416PCNs issued | 416 |
| 4 Nov – 10 November 146 PCNs issued # | 146 |
| 11 – 17 November 240 PCNs issued # | 240 |
| 18 – 24 November 251 PCNs issued # | 251 |
| 25 Nov – 2 December 595 PCNs issued | 595 |
– Of all PCNs reviewed, up to Monday 8 December 2013, there was a 30:70 split on YO and non-YO postcodes.
# – only one camera operational.
