York waits 102 years for an electric bus then 35 arrive at the same time!

Hard on the heels of last week’s announcement that York’s first battery powered double decker bus had been brought into service, today the government has announced funding for a further 24 vehicles.

The government says “it is determined to clean up air in towns and cities across the country, and today’s investment in green buses comes after our air quality plan was published last month”.

The investment will mean that the whole of York’s Park and Ride fleet will eventually be converted to electric operation.

18 new double deckers and six new larger single deckers will join the 11 existing electric buses next year

Department of Transport announcement today

The deal is thought to involve the bus operator (First) paying for 50% of the costs of the new fleet. In essence, the deal gets over the difficulty that the Council experienced in getting tenders for a clean Park and Ride fleet when it sought to let a new contract last year.

The potential tenderers quoted the whole life costs of electric vehicles as being unaffordable.

It is likely to be around 2 years before all the buses are actually operating in the City.

York’s first battery powered buses were introduced in 1915 when Liberal Herbert Asquith was Prime Minister (!).

£600 fines for illegal waste disposal in west York

Two people from York have been fined a total of £600 after pleading guilty to running an unregulated waste business without the relevant licences, and illegally dumping the waste they collected.

Broad Lane

At York Magistrates Court on 23 August 2017, Leigh Garside, aged 26 of Roache Avenue, York was fined £450 and was ordered to pay £250 in costs and a court surcharge of £45.

Paige Greenwood, aged 24 of Heathside, York was fined £150 and told to pay £200 in costs and a £30 court surcharge.

Both failed to turn up to an earlier hearing which resulted in a warrant being issued for their arrest.

On 29 December 2016, two residents responded to a Facebook post by Paige Greenwood offering to remove waste from their properties. She arranged for her partner Leigh Garside to remove the waste in a white unmarked van and was paid £10 on both occasions.

Investigating a complaint about fly tipping on Broad Lane, Upper Poppleton, officers found labels on waste boxes giving the address of one of the residents who had paid for the collection.

On 27January 2017, notices were served on Mr Garside to produce copies of his waste carrier’s licence and evidence of lawful disposal of waste that he had collected in the last two years. He couldn’t do either.

Ms Greenwood admitted posting messages on Facebook but hadn’t ensured that Mr Garside was a registered waste carrier, while Mr Garside admitted to dumping waste in Broad Lane, Upper Poppleton, to carrying waste without a licence and failing to produce information about waste and other environmental offences.

Mr Garside told investigators that he was unaware of the requirements and that he dumped the waste on a pile already there thinking that it wouldn’t make any difference.

Andrew Waller, executive councillor with responsibility for the environment, said:
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Flooding in York – where to find information

The government produces maps which show which streets in the City are subject to surface water flooding risks.

Of course, as we saw this morning, other areas can be vulnerable if the capacity of drains is exceeded (and/or they are blocked).

You can access the information here: https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/long-term-flood-risk

Real time flooding maps can be found via this link https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/map

Real time river level gauges can be found here http://www.gaugemap.co.uk/#!Map

The York Council’s surface water management plan can be downloaded from this link http://www.york.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/11055/surface_water_management_plan.pdf

Westfield ward committee improvements – list published

The Council, has published a list of projects that will be funded from the Westfield ward delegated budget this year. Most other wards have announced similar lists. The Westfield list can be found by clicking here

Although covering 30 months of funding, the list does include schemes which have not yet got off the ground.

Amongst them are plans for diversionary activities in the beleaguered Chapelfields area.

Allocations include

  • £6,841 funding to tackle anti-social behaviour across the ward.  Out of that fund, £376 was allocated to pay for CCTV maintenance on Bramham Road between September 2017 to September 2018.
  • £1500  was transferred to tackle anti-social behaviour in the Chapelfields area.
  • £3,521 funding to tackle anti-social behaviour in the Chapelfields area

The Chapelfields programe is described as “a multi-agency team involving police, LAT and Public Health as well as local community groups who will seek to address anti-social behaviour through targeted diversionary activities for local children and young people. This will link to the Communities that Care programme which is being developed by the local police”.  £500 has been paid for Urbie sessions (a community youth activity bus project) in a local church car park. Further visits are expected in September

Residents have written to the Council asking for an update on the progress with these projects and a similar initiative at the Kingsway West MUGA which although allocated £2000 in the budget, also does not seem to have started yet.

We wish the authorities well in their attempts to defuse the situation.

Westfield survey priorities at 18th August 2017 (excluding Foxwood)

The results of the Ward Committees ballot, which sought residents priorities on use of its delegated budget, have not been published yet.

However the results of a similar door to door survey conducted by local Councillors are available.

So far over 1540 forms have been returned.

They show strong support for five projects.

These include funding for leisure activities for younger people and security improvements. 

 

 

“Good gym” makes difference in Foxwood Park

Volunteers from “Good Gym” joined local residents yesterday evening in a crash clean up of the perimeter of part of the Foxwood Park.

Good gym is an excellent idea. Rather than pay to use equipment and lift weights in an indoor gym, volunteers use the energy to help the local community.

Their web site is https://www.goodgym.org/areas/york

Good gym volunteers get to work

Good turn out in Foxwood Park last night

Removing a difficult stump

Neil and Sheena tackle broken tree branches

That was the week that was in west York in picture

Local Councillors Sue Hunter and Sheena Jackson led a litter pick at Chesney’s Field. There is a question mark about the future of the park as the Council have allocated £40,000 to spend on fencing and other “improvements”. There is a drop in exhibition at the Acorn Rugby club on Tuesday (4:00pm – 6:00pm) at which plans can be viewed.

Fire damaged a wheat field on Acomb Moor

Sheena is arranging for some damaged trees at the Foxwood park to be trimmed

Sheena and Sue also helped to clean up the Tedder Road play area. Some of the equipment there does need to be refreshed

Great display of flowers greets Yorkshire in Bloom judges as they visit Acomb

Sue joined local resident Andrea Cropper to give the steps on Acomb Green a good clean

We said farewell to the payphone on Acomb Wood Drive. Several will be removed as the inevitable consequence of blanket mobile phone usage.

Sue joined a new group which is meeting at Sanderson House each Thursday morning. Local residents are invited to drop in

A large number of people came to the health walk on Friday – next one on Friday 25 August leaving Foxwood Community Centre Bellhouse Way York YO24 3HY at 10.30am

Unfortunately there have been some instances of vandalism to report this week. The Police have started “Operation Liberate” to coincide with the start of the school holidays. The operation will focus on targeting and decreasing anti-social behaviour across the city of York throughout the summer period. The police say, “Should you witness any anti-social behaviour occurring or are a victim of anti-social behaviour, then please contact us ASAP”

The Foxwood Residents Association had another successful meeting on Thursday

We reported the snickets in The Reeves as being in need of resurfacing

& the week ended with the return of the Acomb market – which was well attended again – while the Foxwood in Bloom contest was also judged

Residents invited to talk rubbish as York council reviews recycling sites

City of York Council wants to know more about how residents use recycling banks across the city, and how they want to use them in the future.

The council is reviewing around 50 sites which contain banks for recycling between one and 12 different materials.  These are mainly situated in car parks, streets and other public areas of the city.

Residents are asked to fill in a short online survey to influence the review, which will look at the number of the sites, where they are located, the range of materials which can be recycled, and their general appearance.

Residents have until Wednesday 9 August to fill in the survey, which they can access from consultation page of council’s website https://www.york.gov.uk/consultations

Councillor Andrew Waller, executive member for the environment, said:

Recycling bins in Acomb car park

“We want to improve our recycling rates further in York, and want to modernise the ‘bring banks’ network as it is looking tired in places, and some gaps have appeared in parts of the city where landowners have asked for them to be removed.

“We are receiving requests all the time for new materials such as cartons to be included and so want to respond to support residents.

We are encouraging residents to engage with the council to fill in the survey so that we can provide the right recycling banks in the right places.”

In 2016/17, the recycling sites collected an estimated 800 tonnes of materials, and cost the council around £75,000.

The city’s two Household Waste Recycling Centres are not part of this review.

Threat to future of Chesneys Field amenity area?

Reports are coming in that the York Council is in private discussions about leasing off the Chesneys Field amenity area,

Chesney’s Field

It is claimed that they hope to re-home the Woodthorpe Wanderers football team there when they evict that organisation as part of a controversial plan to build on the sports pitches at Lowfields.

Hitherto, it had been understood that any plans to build on the Lowfields playing field would be subject to the provision of additional sports pitches elsewhere in the area.

However, as the pitches at Chesneys Field have been rented out on a seasonal basis for over 25 years, to both football and rugby teams, it seems unlikely that site would meet the criteria set by bodies such as Sport England and the National Playing Fields Association.

Any attempt to limit public access to Chesneys Field is likely to be strongly resisted by residents.

The Foxwood Residents Association has invested heavily in the field. It is the only substantial area of publicly accessible open space available since railings were erected by the Rugby Club around the adjacent Thanet Road sports area.

Chesney’s Field Interpretation board unveiled last year

Following the upgrade made to the play equipment on Chesneys Field, residents have supervised tree and bulb planting, the installation of seats and an interpretation board. Litter is regularly cleared from the area by volunteers.

The investment made to improve the area has mainly been through residents own fundraising activities and co-operation with partners

The amenity area is generally well used against a background of under-provision of green space and play facilities in much of the Westfield area.

The issue is likely to be raised at a meeting of the Foxwood Residents Association which is taking place on Wednesday.

NB: We also understand that the Rugby Club may seek to revive the idea of erecting a stand and other facilities next to one of their pitches on the other side of the road. Residents will be watching any such proposal carefully and will insist on compensatory, publicly accessible, amenity land being made available if any is lost through development on the Thanet Road area.