Verges need major repairs following excavations

Good to see TalkTalk contractors out n the Danesfort Avenue area repairing verges today. The dry weather has made reinstatement to an acceptable standard a challenge.

But residents are less happy about delays in other verge repairs.

Reinstatements on Foxwodo Lane have been outstanding for nearly 6 months

Concrete drives on Kingsthorpe have been repaired but adjacent verges are an eyesore

Verges in Kingsway West are appalling

Another overgrown cul de sac

The cul de sacs on Kingsway West are a particular problem. Overgrown, weed infested with many bare patches

Time to tackle weeds and poor grass cutting in York

Although the long dry spell has restricted the growth of weeds on paths and gutters in York, much of the City is now looking untidy.

The Council should be well on with its first application of weed killer.

Residents have also complained about the quality of cutting on some verges and amenity areas.

Verges damaged by utility works, although reseeded in come cases, are still bare earth because of dry conditions.

Grass still growing despite dry conditions

Some amenity areas like Otterwood Lane haven’t been cut yet.

Weeds growing in gutters in Queenswood Grove. Verges are untidy

Weeds need cutting back and verges edging on Kingsthrorpe

 

 

Acomb Front Street improvements – report published

More flower tubs are promised

The Council is set to consider the latest report on the future of Acomb Front Street on 3rd July.

The area has had a boost in recent months with fewer empty properties and plans announced that would see several empty upper floors brought into residential use.

Nevertheless, the long-term future of the shopping area remains unpredictable, so investment of up to £100,000 is to be welcomed. Some of the fund will be spent in Haxby.

Back alleys need better refuse storage and cleaning

Part of the money is to be spent on bolstering existing activities with the aim of increasing “footfall”. These include additional grants to the ADAM arts festival and an improved Acomb Alive Christmas lights display.

Additional planters are planned for Front Street as are better signposts (wayfinding)

The Friends of Acomb Green have been allocated £5000 for “recycling area improvements” in the car park although it is unclear precisely what this would involve. (The bins could do with repainting although overfull containers, and litter drift, have been the main sources of complaint).

The Council could make a start by cleaning its noticeboards on a regular basis

A further £23,000 of the budget will be allocated later in the year.

The project has moved forward only slowly over the last 3 years.

The results of our survey undertaken in 2017 revealed that residents had clear priorities for the improvement of the area.

Residents priorities for Front Street 2017

Top of the list was the need for a level pedestrian surface across the whole of the precinct.

Achieving this would have required negotiations with the forecourt owners.

Little progress seems to have been made although consultants are now to be appointed to produce an economic masterplan for the area. They are expected to report in December 2018.

York bus services back in the firing line?

New Rougier Street bus shelter

The York Council, as part of a “Clean Air Day”, is claiming that users of 75 cars could be accommodated on one double decker. Maybe so, but if they choose to wait at the new bus shelter on Rougier Street they will find that the real time information about bus services has disappeared.

Failure to roll out the electronic information screens to more stops has been a failing of the Council.

There are none at bus stops on Tadcaster Road which accommodate the, otherwise successful, inter city services.

Busy stops in the Acomb area have never had them.

They may be needed more and more as, following a good year in 2017 with high passenger numbers and record-breaking approval ratings in surveys, the service quality seems to be falling away again. This is mainly down to reliability with some buses being dropped without warning.

Back to the “Clean Air Day” and the Councils frankly disingenuous “on line” survey. The survey purports to ask residents whether they favour the use of lower emission buses on, and within, the inner ring road.

No prizes for the likely answer to that question. Might as well ask if residents would prefer have hemlock added to the  water supply!

Generally, air quality in York has improved in recent years with cleaner vehicles making their way onto the streets. York already has some electric buses operating on Park and Ride routes. This will reach 100% shortly following a government grant decision.

The latest Euro 6 specifications substantially reduce emission levels on new diesel buses. However, Euro 6 buses cost £250,000 each meaning that upgrading just the First fleet in York would require investment of £17.5 million.

Having raised the possibility of access for only the least polluting buses by 2020, the Council singularly fails to tell residents how much a forced modernisation programme would cost and who would pay?

One of the questions implies that the change could mean a substantial increase in fares.

Another option for bus companies seeking to pay for the minimum £15,000 per bus cost of modifications to just exhaust systems, would be for them to withdraw services from less well used routes.

The Council can’t fund additional social bus services, so the consequence would be dozens, perhaps hundreds, of more cars on City streets.

Quite the reverse of what the Council hopes to achieve.

The Council needs a well thought through and costed modernisation programme for public transport in the City.  Sloganising simply clouds the decision making process.

15,000 tonnes of green waste collected by York Council last year

A new York Council report reveals that 12,649 tonnes of green (garden) waste was collected from households in the city last year. In addition 2,214 household waste sites generated a further 2.214 tonnes.

The cost of collecting the green waste was £515,000 while disposal cost £267,000.

The green waste is composted and made available free of charge for gardeners.

The Council says that if the green waste went to landfill it would cost taxpayers around £1.5 million. It would not be viable to burn the waste at the Allerton Park incinerator.

The amount of green waste collected for each York household is similar to that produced in the county as a whole. In York charges are only levied for additional bins.

Rotary Club of York launches tree-planting scheme for local babies

This from the York City Council,

“City of York Council is joining forces with the Rotary Club of York – and partners across the city – to launch a new scheme which will see thousands of trees planted across York: one for every child born in the city over the next 12 months.

Every parent registering the birth of their child through York Register Office will be offered the chance to get involved in the scheme at no cost to them. Parents will be asked to send their baby/babies’ names to www.yorkrotary.cvo.uk/tree-partnership.

A tree will then be planted on land owned by York St John University and Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust to commemorate their arrival.

Around 3,000 children are born in York each year and it’s hoped that the majority of parents will want to get involved in the scheme. The trees planted in York are part of 47,000 Rotary UK are aiming to plant across the country over the next 12 months”

Shame that the Council doesn’t manage its existing tree stock on public land with the same enthusiasm.

They also remain stubbornly aloof from the proposal that an avenue of trees be planted on rural Askham Lane to commemorate the end of WW1.. (more…)