City of York Council will be carrying out essential works next week to construct a new bus lane on Boroughbridge Road in Acomb.

Works will begin on Monday (12 November) and will involve the construction of a bus lane along the inbound side of Boroughbridge Road between Plantation Drive and Princess Drive.

The majority of the works will be carried out on weekdays between the hours of 9.15am and 4.30pm. More complex works, such as road re-surfacing may be carried outside of these hours during periods of low traffic flow with occasional weekend working if required. The duration of the work will be in the region of three months, with completion scheduled for January 2013.

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Traffic lights are to be installed at the busy junction of the A19 with the southern by pass near the Designer Outlet.

New 40 mph limits. click to enlarge

As part of the scheme the 40 mph speed limit is to be extended (see right).

A report to the York Council says, “Speed surveys found that the mean speed of northbound traffic to be just below 40mph, suggesting a reduced speed limit could be considered. They found the 85th percentile speed of the same traffic flow to be approximately 45mph indicating that there are a number of drivers who currently approach the junctions at speeds which could be considered excessive. They therefore suggest that a reduced speed limit could be introduced at the start of street lighting on the approach to the interchange from the Selby direction”

The proposal is now to be advertised and any objections raised will be considered by the Council.

An application to provide off street parking space, to serve the flats on St Stephen’s Road and Square, was first made in January 2011.

The project resulted from parking problems on the corner and the need to remove vehicles from local verges. Sight lines were also a problem.

Many other forecourt parking areas had been provided near blocks of flats in the estate and the need for planning permission came as something of a surprise. The proposed location, located to the side of 40 St Stephen’s Square, was unused.

Proposed site for parking area in St Stephens Square

The planning application was subsequently withdrawn and a fresh application was submitted in October 2011. This sought to address concerns about drainage. The surface of the parking area could have used the matrix paving system (sometimes known as grasscrete) which allows water to drain through the surface.

For some reason nothing more was heard of the project for over a year.

Now the Council has withdrawn the second planning application. No explanation has been given for the decision which has been made without any consultation with local residents.

Objection error shown on Council web site

One objection to the application is shown on the Council web site. http://tinyurl.com/St-Stephens-parking) but it turns out that this was from a couple, living in Poppleton, who were apparently seeking to comment on a completely different application.

So chaos and confusion reigns while the safety of local residents continues to be at risk because of the lack of off street parking in the area.

The project was to have been funded from the Councils estate improvement budget which is managed by the Housing Department.

In August York’s Leisure chief Cllr Sonja Crisp promised “As the birthplace of Guy Fawkes, we pledged last year that York would commemorate November 5, 2012, in style”. “We’ve been working hard with partners to ensure this happens, and it’s going to be a night to remember.”

Enthusiasm in August

She ignored warnings about previous events that had been held at the Knavesmire including one near disaster in the 1990s where a lack of security led to safety fears as almost 40,000 clambered to get into a “free” fireworks display.

It is a problem venue to manage at night with large crowds being difficult to control because of the open layout of much of the area. Unless adequate temporary lighting is installed, it can be chaotic.

Now the verdicts are coming in on yesterday’s event and it is clear that it will indeed be a night to remember for many of the 10,000 who attended. For many though it will be remembered for the wrong reasons.

Reality in November click to enlarge

On the positive side, the fireworks event at The Maze seems to have been another success. So perhaps smaller venues are the place to stage events of this sort.

Coming so soon after the Museum Gardens fiasco, questions will be asked about whether the York Council bit off more than it could chew.

The Council have bowed to public pressure, led by Liberal Democrats, and have published details of the North Yorkshire Credit Union crash and their proposed response. http://tinyurl.com/Credit-union-6th-Nov

The report confirms that the York Council is set to lose its £100,000 loan to the Credit Union while North Yorkshire will lose £200,000.

The report reveals that secret discussions aimed at getting a South Yorkshire Credit Union to open branches in York and Scarborough have been underway for several months.

The report proposes that the York Council will contribute £50,000 to the South Yorkshire organisation with a further £30,000 coming from the North Yorkshire County Council and £20,000 for Scarborough Council.

The Council are not required to give permission for a Credit Union to operate in their area so the South Yorkshire organisation is free to do so. However, as well as the £50,000 grant, the Council is offering “help in kind” – assumed to be office space at its new HQ.

At its closure, the North Yorkshire Credit Union had 5,762 members of whom 2,093 lived in York. Around £1.1 million was loaned to members, with £1.9 million invested.

The report gives no real insight into what went wrong with the Union. It quotes the reasons for the collapse as:
1. A high level of bad debts on loans made to customers
2. Relatively high overheads
3. Over dependence on a number of non-recurring grants.

Our view is that the Council needs to understand more fully what went wrong with the North Yorkshire Credit Union before it commits large sums of money to any replacement organisation. The 3 reasons for the collapse suggest major management failings which need to be remedied as conditions for any new support offered from hard pressed local taxpayers.

Otherwise the Council may be seen to be throwing good money after bad.

A Public Inquiry is essential if public confidence is to be restored.

NB. The North Yorkshire Credit Union web site has still not been updated to provide its members with any information about its collapse.

Believe it or not the Council have issued a media release saying,

” As part of the ongoing promotion of the i-Travel York programme, City of York Council is launching a competition for local primary school children to come up with a name for the i-Travel York mascot, currently known only as “i-Travel York Bee”.

The official launch of the competition will take place at Huntington Primary School on Thursday 8 November.

The bee will be at the school to meet the children and ask them to think about different methods of transport they can use to get to school.

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City of York Council’s new road safety campaign ‘Be Bright, Be Seen’, is being launched next week to reduce accidents during dark winter nights.

During the week of the 5 November the council will be selling a number of different road safety items, including high visibility rucksack covers and bike lights.

Residents can also pick up free yellow, circular, prismatic reflectors (one per person, whilst stocks last).

Items can be bought from 9 St Leonards Place between 9-11am all week. For more information visit: www.itravelyork.info/

The final chapter of York Libraries’ first Children’s Book Awards came to a close last weekend, when the overall winners were announced at a grand ceremony at York Explore Library Learning Centre.

Two leading authors joined staff and residents at the inaugural Book Awards event on Sunday 28 October.

After over 1,000 votes, the favourite picture book was You Choose by Pippa Goodhart and illustrated by Nick Sharratt (http://www.pippagoodhart.co.uk/books.htm), and the favourite story book declared as the ever-popular Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.

The awards were launched in March when children under the age of 14 were invited to nominate their favourite story and picture books of all time. Following the nominations, a short list of five in each category was announced, and children had until 16 September to vote for their favourite.

The short-list was:

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Acomb Explore Library

The Library Service have issued the following statement, “To improve the service we offer customers we will be upgrading our IT systems from 5 November to 10 November. There will be some disruption to our normal service during the updgrade.

Between Monday 5 November and 9 November:
you will not be able to place a request for a book
staff will not be able to process any books that you have previously requested
our computers will not be bookable, although access will still be available on a first come first served basis

In addition, from the 5 November we are permanently withdrawing our 24 hour telephone renewals service. Telephone renewals will still be possible by contacting any library within opening hours.

You will be able to borrow and return books as normal and use the library’s online catalogue to search for books during this period.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused during this time.

New library website and catalogue

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The Lord Mayor of York and Play Team are launching an exciting new award to recognise and celebrate the achievements of children and young people around York.

The awards are looking at how children in York have had made a postive impact to their local community. Whether they have made an actual difference or if they are inspiring other people to get more involved in local life.

There are 10 awards, which are separated into five different catergories which are Parks and Environment, Sport and Active Leisure, Arts and Culture, Libraries and Archives, and Play.
Anyone can nominate a young person who is between the ages 5-14 years old.

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