That was the week that was in west York

Thanks to the work of volunteers aided by the community payback team the garden at the Foxwood Community Centre is now looking amazing.

garden8 Garden 4 CC garden 2

The next Foxwood Residents Association meeting on Thursday will give those attending a chance to see the work that has been done

Meanwhile the prize winners in the Foxwood Residents Association annual flower basket competition have been announced.

Elsewhere local Westfield Ward Councillors have been out and about reporting issues

Dumping behind Beaconsfield Street off School Street

Dumping on Beaconsfield St back lane.

Epicormic leaf growth on some tree trunks like this on Gale Lane is causing visibility problems

Blocked gulley on Gale Lane. Several have been reported for cleaning by Cllr Andrew Waller

Success for Cllr Sheena Jackson who has had the damaged bollard at the entrance to Fir Heath Close repaired

More dumping on the Bachelor Hill snicket

York Council road works web site “useless”

The York Council has been criticised for not keeping its web site up to date.

Residents wanting to check when local roads may be closed for resurfacing and repair will find that information for 2016 has not yet been updated.

York Council’s road works web site

The web site promises that

Roadwork schemes which are planned for 2016 will be listed below, per ward, once the annual funding and plans are agreed. Where available: clickable reference numbers show the location of the road works on a map clickable street names show further information

However 4 months into the financial year – and with resurfacing works already underway – no information has been provided.

The lack of information has been criticised by local Councillors who were investigating the mysterious appearance of a sign on Windsor Garth indicating a road closure to accommodate much needed resurfacing work.

Carriageways and footpaths in the area have been badly damaged by vehicles accessing the Hob Stones development.

A start on resurfacing work has been expected next week but this seems highly unlikely in view of the most recent planning delays

Windsor Garth roads need repairs

That was the week that was in west York

Cllr Andrew Waller has been out and about reporting problems with dumping.

Dumping Acomb car park

Dumping Front St bus stop

Litter Askham Lane bus stop

Sacks out early in back lane

Consultations are starting this weekend in the Milner Street/Gladstone Street area about whether residents would prefer to go over to the use of grey bins in preference to sacks.

Blocked drain Thanet Road

Blocked gully in Tudor Road

Meanwhile Cllr Sheena Jackson has been out and about in the Foxwood area. She has reported several blocked gully’s (above). Sheena is also conducting a survey of local teenagers to find out what new leisure activities they would like to see provided in the area.

Weeds on Kir Cres

Overgrown traffic island on Gale Lane

Weeds in Dijon Ave garage area

Meanwhile the Council’s weed killing programme looks to be increasingly ineffective. One of our longest outstanding issues is poor management of garage areas like the one in Dijon Avenue, but the overgrown traffic build out in Gale Lane is also a recurring issue

Action taken on unauthorised estate agent lamppost signs & other issues

We’ve reported unauthorised house agent signs on lampposts in the Green Lane area. We don’t think that local etate agents who pay Business Rates to the York Council – will be too happy with this trick.

Unauthorised lamppost advertising

Elsewhere we’ve reported blocked gullies and uneven footpaths in Tudor Road

Blocked gully in Tudor Road

Uneven footpaths in Tudor Road

Cllr Andrew Waller has reported several problems with dumping and damaged gullies this week

Broken gully cover Middleton Road

Dumping in snicket

Meanwhile Cllr Sheena Jackson has followed up complaints about excessive weed growth in some areas

Weeds on Spindle Close snicket

Success as hedge trimmed from footpath but that graffiti!

Following action by Cllr Sheena Jackson, the hedge has been cut back from the footpath at the junction of Osprey Close and Acomb Wood Drive.

Acomb Wood Drive/Osprey Close hedge cut

Sheena is also following up issues with holes which have been dug near the children’s play area on Chesney’s Field (Foxwood Lane). They are a potential hazard.

Hole on Chesney’s Field

Cllr Andrew Waller has reported another instance of dumping on Bramham Road.

Dumping on Bramham Road

Meanwhile visitors accessing the City from the Selby – York cycle track get their usual colourful welcome. We’ve reported a plague of graffiti which dominates all the bridgeworks on the route.

Graffiti on cycle path brdige

Anarchists love graffiti

Graffiti anarchists hate Communists (and spell checkers)

Graffiti anarchists also hate Communists (and, apparently, spell checkers)

Extra car parking space in Foxwood to be discussed tomorrow (Wednesday)

Residents living in the Foxwood area are being consulted by the Residents Association on plans to provide additional car parking spaces in the Spurr Court, Bellhouse Way & Oldman Court area.

Four options for spending the estate improvement budget this year have been worked up by Council officials (see below)

The meeting to discuss the options is taking place on Wednesday 20th July starting at 7:00pm. The meeting will take place at the Foxwood Community Centre on Bellhouse Way.

Parking options on Foxwood

Westfield Councillors taking action on weeds, drains and more

The Council has started its second application of weed killer. They seem to be fighting a losing battle in some areas. Many residents are now clearing areas near their homes

In the Front Street area local Councillor Sue Hunter has been helping tidy up the paved areas

Cllr Sue Hunter helps to clean up paving on the Front Street link road

Front Street link road clean up completed

Meanwhile, in Foxwood, Cllr Sheena Jackson has reported several gulleys where weeds are taking root.

Weeds growing quickly in many areas now

Cllr Sheena Jackson supporting the Police security marking initiative at Foxwood shops earlier in the week

Damaged and dumped recycling containers have been reported.

Dumped recyling boxes in Foxwood

….and the bollard on Huntmans Walk has been damaged for the umpteenth time

Damaged bollard on Huntsman’s Walk

Cllr Andrew Waller is following up issues with the Council’s garden care scheme. The scheme is open to elderly and disabled people who are not able to care for their gardens themselves. It is running behind schedule this year.

Overgrown hedges in Lowfields. The Council’s garden care scheme is behind schedule

Andrew is also on the lookout for blocked drains. In the event of heavy rain these could be a source of flooding.

Blocked gulley in Tudor Road

Verges damage by vehicles – York report published

Damaged verges

The York Council recently set up a working group to consider the problem of vehicles parking on grass verges. The problem became worse between 2011 and 2015 when the – mainly ward committee funded -lay-by provision programme was suspended.

Now the provision of additional car parking is one of the top requests for the use of the newly restored local budgets.

The working group’s – somewhat long-winded interim report – has now been published. The report comes to no final conclusion.

It has been obvious for some time that verges in vulnerable locations need to be strengthened.

The relativity new matrix protection systems are ideal as they retain the green appearance of the verges and allow water to drain through yet remain undamaged when cars park on them.

They are the type of project that all Ward Committees should be getting on with quickly.

A lot of residents did contact the Council to complain about damage to verges and many of these are evidenced in an annex to the report.

Any resident driving over a verge to access an off street parking space does need to pay for a proper verge crossover. Some estate improvement grants are available to tenants who want to install one.

Otherwise the Council should construct one and bill the property owner.

Action on problems reported in the Westfield area

A tree in Cedarwood Close has been lopped by the Council following action by Cllr Sheena Jackson. Keeping trees and bushes away from the publc highway has been problematic this summer.

Tree Cedarwood Grove

Elsewhere highways staff are to inspect the trees in Burgess Walk which are overgrowing the footpath. The Council claims the trees are in private gardens and it is for the owners of the houses to lop the trees. There are increasing concerns here because of the size of some rotten branches which are falling onto public areas.

Trees on Burgess Walk

On Osprey Close a hedge in now overgrowing the footpath. The street sign has almost disappeared. This is a longstanding problem as the hedge is in “no mans land”. Apparently it was neither sold to the adjacent land owner when the estate was developed nor transferred to the Council for maintenance purposes. The hedge really needs to be removed.

Osprey Close

The second phase of the weed killing programme has started. We have mentioned several areas which need attention including Kitemere Place, Waterman Court and Walton Place.

Kitemere Place weeds

Cllr Andrew Waller has reported problems with weed growth on Waterman Court

Seems the weed growth on footpaths in Walton Place hasn’t received attention yet. We’ve asked for the weedkilling team to return

Andrew has also reported problems with dumping in the Lowfields Drive area

A team of volunteers will be out and about in the Lowfields area over the next few days surveying residents views on public service standards in the area.

Updates on issues reported to York Council

JRFH have come back to us quickly to confirm that the damaged grass areas on Wenham Road (below) form part of the adopted public highway. We have suggested that they be hard-surfaced as part of the Ward Committee programme later this year. JRFH confirm that they are a little behind with general green area maintenance activities this summer but hope to catch up with garden inspections, hedge cutting etc shortly.

Damaged verges in Wenham Road need bitmacing.

Meanwhile there has been an increase in the amount of flytipping in the area. This has been a trend since the Beckfield Lane recycling centre was closed in 2012. This is disappointing as Westfield is one of the few parts of the City to get regular visits from mobile skips The next ones are due in Rogers Court and on Bramham Road this Saturday

Bath and seat fly tipped on Foxwood Lane near ravine. CCTV footage will eb scrutinised to see if the culprits can be identified. The on the spot fine for fly tipping was recently raised to £400.

Bath and seat fly tipped on Foxwood Lane near ravine. CCTV footage will be scrutinised to see if the culprits can be identified. The “on the spot” fine for fly tipping was recently raised to £400.

Cllr Andrew Waller has also been out and about tackling issues raised by residents. These are some he found and reported

Fly tipping in Gladstone Street back lane

Rubbish in Barkston Avenue

Overgrown hedge in Chapelfields

Cornlands Road overgrown hedge

You can report issues to the Council using the following web site https://www.fixmystreet.com/

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