Big programme of footpath and road repairs announced in York

The York Council has announced which roads and footpaths will be resurfaced this year. The programme is the biggest for several years with, in total, £8,091,500 is due to be invested.

This represents an increase of 27% over the previous years budget

Around 100 individual roads are listed for resurfacing.

In the Westfield area, the programme includes £1/4 million for work on the following roads and footpaths

Askham Lane (part) Carriageway Westfield £59,000
Morrell Court Carriageway Westfield £8,000
Severus Street Carriageway Westfield £46,000
Slessor Road Carriageway Westfield £5,000
Acomb Wood Drive Footpath Westfield £12,000
Bellhouse Way Footpath Westfield £60,000
Foxwood Lane (part) Footpath Westfield £8,500
Houndsway Footpath Westfield £10,000
Osprey Close Footpath Westfield £3,000
Pheasant Drive Footpath Westfield £14,000
Redcoat Way Footpath Westfield £4,000
Reynard Court Footpath Westfield £2,000
Stirrup Close Footpath Westfield £18,500
The Gallops Footpath Westfield £31,000

The full programme can be viewed by clicking here

 

Stunner – £250,000 price tag for resurfacing Foxwood shops forecourts!

In response to petitions from local Councillors, York Council officials have reported on proposals to improve the Front Street and Foxwood shopping areas.
Weeds still growing on Foxwood Lane shops forecourt 1400 1st Jan 2016

Foxwood Lane shops

The petitions had pointed at poor maintenance standards, with weeds and litter a constant problem.

The main criticism though was about the surface of the roads and footpaths some of which are badly rutted and uneven.

A meeting on the 13th October will hear that highways officials have examined the roads and paths in both areas and have ordered that potholes be filled in on sections which are a part of the adopted public highway.

Officials say that they have limited powers to require the owners of the private shop forecourts to undertake safety work.

They report that they have “undertaken additional inspections following receipt of the petitions and have identified any areas where the condition of the footway is approaching or exceeding intervention levels, works have been programmed and delivered where these have been identified within the adopted highway. Letters requesting works from frontagers have been issued to address any similar areas within the unadopted areas”.

Pavement Front Street 1

Front Street

Acomb Front Street to let

Regeneration needed

The report goes on to say that any further uplift works must form part of a larger regeneration project. They recommend that this option be referred to the responsible Executive member with a further report.

However, they also say that

“further improvements will require significant works to reinvigorate the two areas, initial estimates could be in the region of £500,000 for Acomb Front Street and £125,000 for Foxwood.

Additional complications arise with both locations where an additional financial burden would fall to the frontagers who would be expected to contribute significant sums of a similar magnitude to facilitate improvements of the adopted and unadopted areas”.

While we have long believed that a major investment is needed to regenerate the large, complex  and neglected Front Street area, the suggestion that £1/4 million needs to be spent resurfacing the Foxwood shops forecourts is ridiculous.

What is needed is an overlay of flexible surfacing – similar perhaps to that used by the Council in Library Square – plus repainting or renewal of street furniture such as the cycle rack and bins.

We hope that Councillors won’t be hoodwinked by this very obvious example of “shroud waving”.

60% of York residents say road maintenance is “poor”

With the York Council’s ruling Executive due to discuss it’s first quarter performance later today, a new survey has revealed that many residents are unhappy with public service standards in the City.

West York survey results July/Aug 2016

West York survey results July/Aug 2016

Road repairs (60% rated “poor”) and footpath  repairs (57%)  top the list of woes, but there is also criticism of litter bin provision and car parking arrangements in some sub-urban estates.

Best rated service was recycling (92% rated good or satisfactory), with refuse collection also rated positively (89%).

The Council’s investment in new street lighting seems to be impressing people  with 87% now rating it as good or satisfactory.

However there is little evidence that the Council’s proclaimed priority – investing in street level service quality – is having a positive effect.

Dissatisfaction with roads and footpaths is at an all time high.

Councillors today will be given a different set of figures to consider. Their “key performance indicators” are not included on the Executive agenda but can be accessed via the”open data”  web site.

This is in itself a step forward from previous years when data was often hidden from residents.

Transport KPIs August 2016 click to access

Transport KPIs August 2016 click to access

However a closer look at the stats reveals that, not only are most quarter one figures unavailable, but also many of the out-turn figures for 2015/16 haven’t been updated.

No improvement targets are identified.

Quite what “performance”  – other than a bland anecdotal commentary – Councillors will therefore be considering later today is a mystery.

The York Council must now put more emphasis on customer satisfaction. Publishing the results of quarterly residents “talkabout” panel views would be a start.

The key message though, as the Council begins to construct its budget priorities for next year, is that  residents want to see more invested in repairing our roads and footpaths. 

 

Government’s derisory pothole repair allocation for York

The government has announced that York will be given £120,000 to fill in potholes that have arisen during the floods and winter weather experienced over recent months

click to access interactive map

click to access interactive map

The allocation has been described as derisory as it is less that the £180,000 cut from maintenance funding over the last 2 years.

The Dpt estimates that 2,264 potholes in the City can be filled in using their allocation.

ROUNDABOUT RESURFACING AT GALE LANE/CORNLANDS ROAD JUNCTION

DSCF5603The Westfield Lib Dem team has been pressing council officers to have the road resurfaced at the Cornlands Road/Gale Lane roundabout.

This is now happening on 9th November.

There has been some delay to the timescale that the team had been first told about, and we are inveIMG_0219stigating what has gone one in this case.

However, the issue, which  had also been raised by the local Cornlands and Lowfields Residents Association looks like coming to a conclusion, and the surface made safe for car users, and in particular cyclists.

On the day of the road repairs traffic will be diverted along Gale Lane and Askham Lane.

Road and footpath condition in York – questions asked

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

The York Council has been asked to reveal how many reports of problems with defective roads and footpaths it is receiving each month. The request for the publication of information comes in the wake of a Freedom of Information response which revealed that the Council believed that “5% of roads in the City require resurfacing”.

The new Council announced that it was increasing the amount available for maintenance by around £1 million this year.  So far no list of streets that might benefit has been published.

The background to the initiative is the absence of performance information which should be (but isn’t)  routinely published by the Council. Even scrutiny committees seem reluctant to monitor the number of defects that are being reported and the length of time taken to address issues.

This applies across a wide range of public services in the City.

What is clear is that the cuts on highways expenditure agreed by the last Labour Council have had a major impact on service quality.

£6 million highways repairs programme agreed at another behind closed doors meeting in York

The York council leadership is apparently immune to irony.

Today they have published a programme of road repairs and resurfacing for the forthcoming year. The decision was apparently taken yesterday and published today.

Behind closed doors logo

Despite the critical audit report on the process used to determine priorities (and the criticisms about lack of transparency) it appears that an officer has already decided the list. No agenda or prior notice of the intention to make a decision was published by the Council.

This is even less open than the process used in previous years where an agenda for a Cabinet member decision session was published in advance of the meeting.

The report fails to provide details of the “scores” attributed to each road’s condition and doesn’t indicate which roads were just below the threshold.

A total if nearly £6 million is being spent, although a major chunk of this (over £1.8 million) is being allocated to  street lighting replacements (mainly fitting LED units).

The full list of schemes can be found by clicking here

Highway programme - click to download full list

Highway programme – click to download full list

Audit report on York Council highways repair priorities published.

Auditors find discrepancies and order process changes

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

An internal audit into how the York Council allocates its highway repair budgets has been published. The auditors have apparently failed to ask when, and by whom, the repair criteria formulae was last changed.

The report questions how decisions were taken which led to two – unnamed but apparently low priority roads – being included in this (financial) years repair programme.

The names of the roads will no doubt be revealed at the meeting.

The report is critical of the Cabinet member (Levene) involved who held one of Labours now notorious “behind closed doors” meetings to determine a draft programme.

The report details the scoring system used and the weightings given to complaints and petitions.

It acknowledges though that the poorest roads usually get the highest priority for limited funds whichever ward they fall within.

The actual score for each scheme (and those just below the cut off line) were not included in the final (public) report when it was published and debated on 20th March 2014.

Behind closed doors logo

In total the auditors recommend 5 changes to current processes.

It will be interesting to see what the Cabinet member involved will say at the meeting on 25th March when these criticisms are put to him. He will probably advance the “Constantine the Great” defence – “its always gone on , I was just doing what previous office holders did”.

We understand that a separate allegation of conflict/bullying involving a Cabinet member and a Council official has been dropped because of lack of evidence.

NB. Labour are cutting highways maintenance repair funding by £300,000 in April.