Sustrans, who manage the York – Selby cycle path, are consulting on the work that they they hope to undertake on the trees and bushes which are adjacent to the path.
Already some work has started on removing invasive and self seeded trees the roots of which have damaged the adjacent cycle path.
Work has already started next to the track near Riccall.
The consultation takes a deeper look at the future of the green corridor.
Invasive Himalayan balsam would be removed while an effort would be made to introduce tansy into the grassland sward to support the tansy beetle.
Near Bishopthorpe, some fruit trees may be planted.
Click for details of what is planned.The consultation closes on 1st January 2021
We think that most cycle path users will welcome this initiative from Sustrans.
We only hope that repairs to the surface of the cycle path will start quickly now.
Too many sections of the route have been made hazardous by root damage.
No news yet on when the promised improvements, to the York Council maintained section of the cycle path between Tadcaster Road and the A64, will start. Improvements were promised as part of the plan to provide a new clubhouse and pitches for Bishopthorpe FC.
The clubhouses itself – although currently mired in mud – is making progress but no start date for the promised path upgrade has been given.
Building works near Sim Balk Lanestarted over 12 months ago.
This section of track is also now subject to tree root damage.
A report on how York is fairing during the pandemic paints a mixed picture.
Unemployment numbers have soared to over 5000 with the highest percentage to be found in the Westfield ward where 540 (6.1%) are now out of work.
Front Street regeneration delays
This includes 120 young people aged between 16 and 24.
Perhaps not surprisingly, this has led to several attempts to establish new businesses in the area
There is a major disappointment for the Front Street area where the much-anticipated economic regeneration review has been delayed again. The recent lockdown is blamed.
It seems that the proposals aimed at revitalising the area will not now be available until next summer.
It is another reverse for the economically poorest part of the City, which has seen many formal and informal leisure facilities close in recent years.
Background figures tracking the trend in economic activity in the City can be founds by clicking here
Figures for the City’s “visitor economy” can be found here click
Apparently Royal Mail have now said that the pillar box on Beagle Ridge Drive, which has been out of use for about 2 months, cannot be repaired. Previously they had said that it needed a new door.
The box is the most conveniently located in the Foxwood area and its loss in the busy run up to Christmas has been a disappointment to many people.
The Post Office have not said when a replacement box will be installed.
Meanwhile we have report fly tipping next the recycling banks on the Acomb Wood Drive shopping area car park.
After several attempts, responses to Freedom of Information (FOI)requests have confirmed that the Council had not established key base line data measurements before implementing The Groves traffic ban in the summer.
Although never formalised, those favouring the changes argued that rerouting “through traffic” onto neighbouring roads would;
improve air quality
reduce traffic levels and thereby accident numbers
make the area “quieter”
encourage cycling/walking
utilise time limited central government funding grants
At the time of the decision to press ahead with the scheme (June 2020), the area had been virtually traffic free for 3 months because of the lockdown restrictions.
One of the consequences of lower economic activity has been greatly reduced pollution levels during 2020. The table below shows the current situation.
click to access latest figures
No noise measurements have been published, for streets within The Groves area, by the Council.
Aresponseto an FOI request a few months ago revealed that accident levels have been very low within The Groves area during the last 3 years.
The Council has admitted that it doesn’t have any base line air quality measurements for the streets within The Groves area. Nor, apparently, is it monitoring current pollutions levels there (although, like the rest of the City, these are likely to be very low – see above).
The Council is also being very coy about what traffic volume information it holds. Traffic flow information for 2019 – when the plans were first discussed – should, in our view, have been published.
Similar benchmark information for June 2020 (post pandemic) should also have been published to inform decisions at that time.
Such figures as have been made public concentrate on the capacity of the nearby diversionary routes.
The Council is refusing to release information about movements within the Groves area raising, at least, a suspicion that it hadn’t completed counts. It now says that it will release information in June 2021.
The most concerning aspect of this whole process has been the lack of any safety audits. The Council has promised that a stage 3 audit will be completed. But it doesn’t say when.
In the meantime the hazards – particularly for cyclists – remain and will grow as movements return to more normal patterns.
Unsegregated contraflow cycle routes represent a safety risk
We could use the FOI appeal processes to try to force the Council to publish the details it holds on internal modal travel patterns for the periods before the traffic ban was introduced.
It would have no practical effect unless backbench Councillors were prepared to challenge the system. This they don’t seem to be prepared to do.
We must just hope that some of the more perverse aspects of the scheme don’t lead to more avoidable accidents during the run up to next years review.
Still no environmental or economic impact assessment
Knapton Forest land
The Council has published a report on its plans to establish a new 50,000 tree forest on land near Knapton.
The scheme had been criticised as “impulsive” with taxpayers believing that economic and environmental assessments of the effects of losing such a large area of good quality farming land – located near to potential consumers – should have been completed first.
No such evaluations, or a cost benefit analysis, have been published in the latest papers.
The project – which does have some merits – will disappoint many Liberal Democrat voters who were promised that accessible public open space would be provided to offset the loss of green fields, to new developments, in the Westfield area.
Other open spaces and footpaths have recently also been sealed off by landowners, making informal leisure options even less accessible for many thousands of residents.
The report reveals that “£1.65 million was used in the land purchase in West York and a further £400,000 was approved for the purchase of adjacent land subject to negotiations with the current landowner (ongoing). Council also allocated £25,000 revenue funding (2020- 2021) rising to £50,000 in 2021/22 and 2022/23 to support woodland creation and this budget sits within the CSCP budget”
The Council says that it is still trying to access “external funding” to offset the costs of the project.
We will see.
No update is provided on the promise to purchase more potential woodland in “an area near to the inner ring road”.
There are many other sites in the City – already in public ownership – where more trees could be planted.
Existing tree stocks have been neglected in recent years with many “highway trees” now needing either crown reduction or crown lifting work. The Councils budget allocation for tree maintenance work has been inadequate for many years.
NB. The report lets slip that the completion of the land purchase was announced in a “LibDem media release in October”. At that time, the restrictions on revealing the site location – imposed by the Councils Executive at a formal session – had not been formally lifted. It is without precedent for a major Council decision to be formally announced by a political party in advance of the Council itself issuing a progress statement. Those concerned will no doubt be hoping that no one reports this indiscretion to the Standards Committee!
Senior councillors will receive an update on City of York Council’s preparations for the end of the Transition period scheduled to take place on 1 January 2021.
The end of the transition follows UK’s exit from the European Union on 31 January 2020. The Council continues to support businesses and residents to prepare as much as possible for the upcoming changes by ensuring they have access to information, advice and support and by linking up with relevant authorities at a local, regional and national level.
Work is ongoing to support residents with their EU settlement scheme applications and the council continues to encourage those yet to apply to do so.
The most recent figures by the Government suggest that there have been 6,650 applications to the Settlement Scheme by people living in York with 6,470 concluded applications. This is out of an estimated EU population of 7,000.
Of the concluded applications:
3,680 achieved settled status – those who had been in the UK for 5 years or more
2,690 achieved pre-settled status – for those who have lived in the UK for less than 5 years
At the meeting members will be asked to note the update on what the city is doing to prepare and request officers continue to monitor and prepare for the end of the transition period, working locally, regionally and nationally so the city continues to be as prepared as it possibly can be.
Faces closure within weeks unless bail out agree by York Council
A report to a York Council meetings shows its “Make it York” subsidiary could post a £1.2 million loss during the present financial year.
It means that the Directors of the, wholly Council owned, tourist business could be forced to wind up the organisation within the next few weeks.
The Council is being asked to step in and provide a substantial financial subsidy. The proposals include plans to;
Waive the requirement for MIY to make a revenue return to the council in 20/21 in respect of trading activity across the city centre
Defer the first two quarters rent due from MIY in 20/21 for use of premises on Museum Street and Silver Street offices
A loan facility from the council of £300k to be accessed by MIY only if necessary
provide a letter of guarantee to MIY with access to a maximum of £1m over the next 2 years should it be required.
MIY normally produces a net income to the Council of around £35,000. The company is responsible for tourist information services in the City, runs the Shambles market, organises special events like the Christmas Fair (cancelled this year) and promotes the City as a business destination.
Private sector membership of the organisation has collapsed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic with the hospitality industry being one of the hardest hit. Redundancies at MIY are expected.
The immediate hit on the Councils budget will be the loss of income from the Shambles market. This will be in the order of £474,000. That figure may grow substantially if the organisations recovery plan is not successful during the next few years.
MIY is the second tourist organisation to seek taxpayers help. The Council agreed to provide a further £55,000 subsidy for Welcome to Yorkshire at its last meeting.
It seems that the York Council intends to change the order that it considers items at its next meeting which is scheduled to take place on 17th December.
The Lord Mayor wants to reorder the agenda to allow four motions to be debated. There will be one from the each of the different political groups represented on the authority.
It seems though that this approach does not have the support of all the Group Leaders nor some Independents.
The truth of the matter is that such motions rarely lead to any real change to what happens on the streets of the City. Too often the topics for motions appear to reflect personal interests or offer an under-researched flash of kitchen table vision. Central government policies are often the butt of vitriol, but rarely do the policies that are criticised change as a result of what is said in the York Council chamber.
Too often the debates decline into to a series of grandstanding statements. There is little opportunity to find consensus.
Currently the Councils, increasingly opaque and defensive, Executive takes the key policy decisions. A full Council meeting is a rare opportunity for back benchers to question and hold to account portfolio holders.
The option of submitting written questions, with written answers circulated if they were not reached in the time available, was jettisoned by the last administration. Now all observers hear are a series of garbled questions and opaque answers.
Now is seems that the time available to do even this will be squeezed.
Part of the solution is to agree an equitable division of time for each agenda item.
As long ago as the 1970s, Group Leaders used to meet with the Lord Mayor to agree how a meeting could be run efficiently and equitably.
Perhaps it is time to reinstate that tradition?
NB. The York Council has published detailsof how its departments will be organised in future. The proposals come in the wake of the appointment of a new Chief Operating Officer.
Residents will hope that any new structure focusses on street level delivery and that the decline in some service standards can be reversed.
The real key though is to make the right appointments to key jobs.
If new personalities are appointed, then the Council can hope to get back to being a “can do” authority and would be well placed to make the most of any devolution deal which may become available
Crowds returned to shop in York City centre today on the first weekend since lockdown ended.
Streets were busy – good news for traders at what is traditionally the busiest time of the year. Many have had a tough time during 2020 so we hope that York residents will decide to shop local in the run up to Christmas
