After seemingly years of inactivity, the Council has made good progress in installing new, off street, parking spaces over the last few weeks. The funding for the bays was made available from delegated ward budgets and the “housing estate improvement programme”. More work is needed, but hopefully the new budgets, which will be available from Monday, will allow more speedy progress to be made over the next year.
The York Council has announced that it will help to fund 3 projects which support the governments initiative to help “High Streets”.
Two of the projects are located in the Westfield ward
The York BID will get an additional £27,300 for York City Centre Cleaning
The Friends of Acomb Green will get £4,500 for a Community Clean Up Day
Acomb Alive gets a £1,200 boost which is to be used for improving seat furniture.
The Council says that it is supporting the extension of existing grant beneficiaries as there “wasn’t time to seek fresh bids before the governments deadline”.
Saturday March 30th
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
£4.50
Join English Touring Opera for Paradise Planet, a children’s opera suitable for age 7+ years.
Paradise Planet is English Touring Opera’s latest opera for children. Paradise Planet is a collection of ocean stories for families and children. This world of musical mayhem follows the adventures of humans who live on the waves, and the animals that live beneath them. This interactive opera celebrates the awesome power of the ocean – but things are not all as they seem and the animals are in danger. As the stories collide it’s up to us to save this magical world.
This interactive performance uses song, live musicians and sound-design wizardry to show children that they have the power to change the world.
Written by artists Hanbury & Groves, the opera is performed by a cast of 4 professional singers. The musical ensemble is cello, clarinet and keyboard. Q&A and meet the cast after the performance
Tickets cost £4.50. Book by calling 01904 55261.
A series of checks on taxis and private hire vehicles in York has been carried out in a multi-agency operation to ensure the vehicles are providing a safe service to passengers.
Officers from partners including City of York Council, Leeds City Council, North Yorkshire Police and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) supported the operations.
The operation ran throughout the evening and into the morning of Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 March. A total of 21 private hire vehicles and hackney carriages which were operating in the city were stopped and checked. Vehicles licensed by York, Leeds, Bradford, Kirklees and Wakefield were inspected.
All vehicles underwent full mechanical examinations for defects by the DVSA at the council’s MOT test centre at Hazel Court or at the roadside. Checks were also made to ensure that the drivers were properly licensed, insured and that the vehicles they were driving were safe to carry customers on the roads.
As a result, three vehicles were ordered off the road by the DVSA and/or suspended by council enforcement officers due to the faults found including:
A further 14 drivers were advised to repair minor vehicle defects and several others were also warned by licensing enforcement officers about breaches of taxi licensing rules. Two York private hire drivers were issued with formal written warnings for breach of licence condition.
Anyone with concerns about the conduct of drivers or the condition of their vehicles should email public.protection@york.gov.uk so that the council can investigate.
A year ago, the Council said that it would need to invest £4.3 million in the CEDC. They later revised their budgets and agreed to borrow an additional £330,000 to fund the centre.
A £4.7 million contract was awarded in February to Sewell’s. It was said to cover work at both Windsor House and Lincoln Court.
Now papers released yesterday suggest that there may be a significant increase in the costs for the project. Officials are expected to make a case for extra investment at a meeting taking place on 18th June. A note in the Councils Forward Programme says, “A value engineered exercise has been undertaken and further funds are required to ensure there is an adequate contingency. This needs to be done within this timeframe in order to meet the requirements of external health funding”.
The meeting will take place after the local elections in May so it is anyone’s guess what will now happen to the project.
A cost drift has also occurred on the Lincoln Court side of the project. Earlier this month officials admitted that the cost had soared from £1.9 million to £4.8 million.
The Lincoln Court project is still mired in controversy. The planning approval is being referred to the Secretary of State for consideration for calling in. The move stems from objections from local sports organisations and residents who want to see the existing all-weather play area moved to Thanet Road. The play area would be lost under the Council’s current proposals.
There are also concerns about access arrangements for the buildings both during building works and afterwards. A case has been made for a private (pedestrian) access to be made available to the adjacent school car park. So far, the Council has turned a blind eye to the suggestion, reinforcing concerns about traffic congestion and parking problems on Ascot Way
Both the CEDC and Lincoln Court modernisation have attracted widespread local support. It is a change that lack of attention to detail and poor consultation arrangements seem to be hindering progress.
The election takes place on Thursday 2 May 2019 with polling hours between 7am and 10pm, with the count taking place on the morning of Friday 3 May 2019.
Residents who are not currently registered to vote are encouraged to visit www.gov.uk/register-to-vote or call 01904 551007. All applications must be made by 12 April 2019.
Those who wish to arrange a postal vote can find further information at www.york.gov.uk or by contacting Electoral Services on 01904 551007 or electoral.services@york.gov.uk. Completed applications for a postal vote must be received by 5pm on 15 April 2019. Postal votes will be sent out first class on 16 April 2019.
Any elector who wishes to arrange a proxy vote must have their application received by 5pm on 24 April.
We’ll be taking a look at the candidates, and the policies that they are supporting, in a series of articles over the next few weeks.
This follows the submission of important evidence to the independent inspectors, who have been appointed by the Government to examine the plan.
This includes the modifications to remove housing site allocations (Queen Elizabeth Barracks, Strensall and Land at Howard Road, Strensall), which would remove 550 dwellings from the submitted plans housing supply.
This follows a recent visitor survey commissioned by City of York Council, supported by Natural England, which highlighted that there would be significant effects on the integrity of the Strensall Common, a protected site, if the proposed housing sites adjacent to the Common remain in the Local Plan.
A report detailing these recent modifications was approved by Executive at a meeting on Wednesday 7 March.
In addition to this, proposed minor modifications have also been submitted to formally revise the Objectively Assessed Housing Need (OAN) to 790 dwellings in York per annum. Minor amendments to the greenbelt boundary have also been proposed, in order to take into account recent changes such as planning decisions in York and the removal of the Strensall Barracks sites.
It is hoped that by submitting this evidence to the inspectors, progress can be made to take the Local Plan through the examination stages and determine whether it is sound.
Regular updates will be provided on the Local Plan submission webpage at: www.york.gov.uk/localplanexamination
York will be home to one of the biggest fleets of double deck electric buses thanks to investment by First York and funding secured by City of York Council from Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV)
Today (25 March), City of York Council, First York and bus manufacturer Optare announced that 21 new double deck electric vehicles will arrive in York in October 2019. The zero-emission and fully electric buses each have the capacity to carry 99 passengers and have a range of over 150 miles from one overnight charge, which means that they don’t need to be recharged during the day. Alongside this, First York is also upgrading its charging infrastructure, and the state-of-the-art vehicles will feature audio visual next stop technology, USB charging points and will carry new-look Park & Ride branding.
York Park & Ride, an operating partnership between City of York Council and First York, supports over four million journeys every year and is one of the UK’s most successful Park & Ride services. 12 electric single deck Optare buses have been operating on two out of the six Park & Ride sites for the last five years; helping to improve air quality and reduce congestion in the city. Individual car use and the congestion caused is a big contributor to air pollution in York, but each bus can take up to 75 cars off the congested streets in York.
Marc Bichtemann, Managing Director of First York, said: “We’re proud to be the operator of one of the biggest fleets of double deck electric buses outside of London, as we continue to work with City of York Council to improve air quality in York.
“Today’s announcement showcases the benefits of partnership working in practice and we remain committed to investing in our bus services in York, as we share the same vision. By working together, local authorities and bus operators can make a real impact on congestion and air quality, provide better services for our customers, support local economies more effectively and, ultimately, help to increase passenger numbers.
“At First York, we are striving to make things better for the customer by making bus travel simple, speeding up bus boarding times, reducing journey times, using data to make better operational decisions and developing a customer relationship as opposed to a transactional one.”
For further information, visit www.itravelyork.info/park-and-ride.
The most recent independent survey conducted by “Transport Focus” found that 89% were satisfied with their overall journey experience.
85% thought that the journey time was reasonable while 77% said the buses were punctual.
62% of fare paying passengers said he service was good value for money (down from 79% the previous year)
Most of the respondents used First services. First compared favourably with many other operators across the country.
Bus drivers behaviour was widely praised.
The survey results bear out similar findings from a door to door survey undertaken by local councillors last year.
The detailed results are:
