Tories to retain Crime Commissioner role
Modest increase in vote share for LibDems.
Labour static
Final result
1 in 4 eligible electors voted in yesterdays PFCC poll.
In York, 35,890 (24.16%) voted.
Of these, 69% went to a polling station and 31% voted by post
To celebrate Europe Day on Sunday May 9th, York for Europe is publishing a new trail “York in Europe, Europe in York”.
York has always been in the heart of Europe. Whilst Roman Eboracum and Viking Jorvik are all around us, many more countries of Europe have their markers in the city to the present day.
The trail explores York’s wide European heritage – through buildings, businesses, communities, individual stories and belongings.
The trail starts with three key points of York’s European connections, which merit a special visit in themselves: the old trading rivers of the Ouse and Foss, the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, and the National Railway Museum which exhibits our historic and modern rail links across the Channel.
The trail then moves on to highlight 19 individual European countries present in York today, from Italy to Iceland, France to Finland, Portugal to Poland, Sweden to Slovakia and Norway to the Netherlands – allowing of course for the changes of country names and borders over time. The compilers of the trail offer an “apology” to York’s Romans and Vikings: since they are already visible everywhere, they are side-lined a little to allow the limelight onto other countries. However, they are still there in some remarkable personal items they left behind.
Sketch maps of the trail as well as a list of the countries in the trail with their numbered sites are attached.
York for Europe hopes that York people will enjoy a different way of looking at their city with perhaps some surprises, that our fellow European residents in York will find their longer history here, and that tourists from mainland Europe will have fun finding out if a bit of their country is built into York.
To access the trail guide go to
www.yorkeuropean.uk (click)
The Council has taken a step forward towards delivering the £28 million apartment block scheduled to be built on the former Castle Mills car park site.
A report approved yesterday says,
“In October 2020 the council’s Executive approved the delivery strategy for the Castle Gateway regeneration. As part of this decision, approval was granted to undertake a procurement exercise to appoint a construction contractor to build Castle Mills on a two stage tender process.
The first stage of the process is to secure a construction contractor to develop the current RIBA Stage 3 design prepared by BDP to RIBA Stage 4 on Pre-Construction Service Contract Agreement (PSCA) and provide a tender price for undertaking the construction based on that stage 4 design.
The Council received three strong bids following an invite to tender through an open market process, which were assessed and scored on both price and quality, with Wates being the successful bidder. The council will now enter in to the PSCA stage of the contract”.
The officials concerned are keen to point out that the decision does not commit the Council to proceeding with the whole of the Castle Gateway scheme which has been costed at £55 million.
Of this, current plans are for the Council to borrow £45 million.
The City of York Council is seeking bids from organisations wishing to access funding from the £220m UK Community Renewal Fund.
City of York Council has been chosen by the Government as the lead authority for the York area and is inviting bids which will support communities, local businesses, create new jobs and support people into employment.
As a lead authority, the council is responsible for receiving bids, selecting the bids that will be sent to the Government for consideration and paying grants to successful projects as well as managing their performance.
The fund has been designed to help support local areas to pilot innovative new approaches and programmes that unleash their potential
Projects proposals are encouraged from all areas of York and should align with local priorities. Proposals should also align with the programme themes:
The Government has introduced the fund as it prepares for the launch of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in 2022, which will replace EU Structural and Investment Funds.
Successful Community Renewal Fund bids will be for 2021-22 only and projects must be completed by the end of March 2022.
Applicants should note that York is not classed as one of the Government’s 100 ‘priority places’ across the UK. As such, The City of York Council is particularly interested in project proposals that are ambitious, offering fresh ideas.
The deadline for submitting applications is 16 May. The City of York Council will then produce a shortlist of projects for submission to the Government.
The UK Community Renewal Fund Prospectus provides more information on the fund, including assessment criteria.
Further information can be found here.
Councillor Andrew Waller, Executive Member for Economy and Strategic Planning said:
We’re not entirely convinced that the Councils “Castle Gateway” plans, which would see the car park grassed over, are quite as urgent as some might wish residents to believe.
The economic impact of losing so many conveniently located car parking spaces has never been properly evaluated (whether a replacement multi storey is built on St Georges Field or not).
Any assumptions made were clearly pre pandemic. Some reassessment is surely needed before millions more of taxpayers money is committed.
The Council have, however, now published a schematic which shows what some apparently want to see done in the area.
The Council has issued the following media release
City of York Council has shared the emerging plans for new public space in one of York’s most historic and important areas – and wants residents to keep shaping the proposals.
The draft sketch from designers BDP imagines how the area could meet residents ambitions for the public space to replace Castle Car Park, while still meeting the current and future needs of the museum, the courts and the Coppergate Centre.
It shows how people could move around, a mix of soft and hard surfaces, a location for events, how to open up the river Foss, and how water and family-friendly play spaces can be created.
The council has worked with local partners My Future York to put residents’ views at the heart of plans to transform the car park, Eye of York and the wider area.
The extensive My Castle Gateway engagement has provided a public brief for the community space and connected residents to the designers BDP as they bring those ideas to life. Anyone can catch up with the story so far in this blog on the My Castle Gateway website.
This feedback will then allow detailed proposals and options to be developed and shared with the public through the spring, with a planning application to be submitted in the summer.
Residents are invited to join the conversation on social media or through the next phase of My Castle Gateway events. Visit the blog and get involved on Twitter and Facebook.
The My Castle Gateway public engagement has already led to bold plans being put forward to transform the area, including creating community and business space on Piccadilly, new walkways and cycle-routes, and a bridge over the Foss.
The public realm work is moving ahead after the council secured planning permission for a multi-storey car park and public space on St George’s Field, and a residential development and pedestrian and cycle bridge over the Foss at Castle Mills.
The council is committed to providing parking to replace the closure of Castle Car Park, and will retain Blue Badge parking on Tower Street. Work has been delayed on the multi-storey car park in order to better understand the impact of COVID and carry out further engagement with blue badge holders within the development of the Local Transport Plan.
Councillor Nigel Ayre, Executive Member for Finance and Performance, said:
We want the Castle area to be a place all our residents love to spend time, to interpret its history and make fantastic memories.
“Our commitment to quality public engagement has allowed us to deliver where decades of other proposals failed.
“These are ideas in response to what residents have told us. And they ask even more important questions, like whether the mix of uses is right, and whether the Eye of York should stay as it is or become an open air museum or exhibition space?
“We want residents to help answer those questions so please take a look and get involved in the conversation.”
Poppleton Community Railway Nursery will be staging their annual plant sale in the Foxwood Community Centre car park on Friday 21st May.
The event will take place between 10:30am and 1:00pm.
The Foxwood Residents Association will also be running their “everyone a winner” tombola
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| The York Civic Trust is promoting a new group which aims to articulate the needs and aspirations of users of York’s biggest transport system. Walking! We wish them well. We have recorded on many occasions that green footpaths, particularly in sub-urban areas, have been neglected over recent years. Many have been heavily used for exercise during the lockdown period, Some now badly need repairs to infrastructure like stiles while work to remedy boggy and flooded sections is also needed. Even well used bitmaced paths like The Mount are overdue for resurfacing The Trust says in an email to its members, “Formed last year, WalkYork is a project that has been developed by Dr Roger Pierce, an active member of the Trust’s Transport Advisory Group, who identified a real need for a devoted online presence to promote and represent walkers in York. Free to join, becoming a WalkYork member provides access to news of city-wide schemes and proposed changes impacting pedestrians who have not previously been consulted about major changes impacting them. Bringing together views, the group can give a voice to individual concerns and suggestions, helping to negotiate improvements and influence Council decisions. The larger the membership the more influential they can be!” |
You can find out more about WalkYork, and how to join, on their website.
A raft of changes to transport and travel in York will be discussed at a meeting taking place on 11th May. The changes include
Officials claim that there have been no accidents involving the hire scooters since they were introduced to York last year. No information is provided on reliability or the scooters vulnerability to vandalism.
Very recently e-bikes have been added to the hire options available.
Officials are now proposing to extend their availability to areas outside the outer ring road. Initially these will include Haxby, Wigginton and Poppleton.
The Government is set to end the COVID-19 bus support grants in July 2021. They may be extended in certain circumstances.
Councillors are set to reject an opportunity to introduce bus franchising into the City. In effect this option allows the Council to seek tenders to run bus services on specific routes or zones. It offers an opportunity to influence fare levels and frequencies and avoids competition. However, it could be a very expensive option
In York, which (pre virus) had a generally well used bus service, several routes already operate on a contract basis. These include the popular park and ride services and those to and from the University.
Seven bus companies currently operate in York. The largest in First.
Instead of extended franchise working, the authority seems likely to opt for what is known as an “enhanced partnership”.
By October, Councils must publish a Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP), setting out how bus services will be improved in the local area.
The Council is set to turn down a request for a Res Parking zone to be set up in the Slingsby Grove/Royal Chase area. Residents turned the idea down in a recent poll.
A scheme will be introduced in the St Edwards Close area where the majority of residents supported the idea.
After several months of silence, a report has been produced on the progress being made in further automating real time traffic management systems in the City.
Called the “Smart Transport Evolution Programme” (STEP), the government funded initiative, would see a newly deployed real-time traffic model used in the City.
It will forecast road conditions 5-60 minutes ahead and could produce alerts allowing Network Monitoring Officers to make pre-emptive traffic interventions.
The Council says that the £2.8 million system would give them the “the ability to forecast near-future traffic conditions and make pre-emotive traffic interventions which will improve the overall efficiency of the road network, resulting in a greater ability to prioritise road space for users in line with the Council’s Road User Hierarchy.
This can include improved bus service schedule adherence, “with an ability to resolve issues that affect public transport services at an earlier point in time”
The system “allows York to prepare for advances in urban travel such as Connected and Autonomous Vehicles”.
“The programme will shortly be delivering a Green Light Optimal Speed Advisory trial to the A59 and A1079, a service that sends real-time and future traffic signals conditions into smart phones and cars with advice on the most efficient speed to travel safely at to get through on green”
Providing travellers with up-to-date information about what conditions they can expect to encounter on journeys should be an important part of any future travel strategy.
We therefore wish the project well.
The inability of the Council to provide even parking space availability feeds into sat. nav. systems, web sites and street signs does, however, give some cause for concern.
It looks like the proposal to change traffic signal priorities at the Gillygate/Bootham/St Leonard’s Place junction will be abandoned.
Some York Councillors had apparently favoured introducing additional delays on traffic flows through the junction as part of a signal renewal programme.
The revised arrangement – although improving pedestrian facilities – could have resulted in a 40% increase in travel times with some journeys being diverted onto already busy alternative routes.
There would also have been a consequential increase in air pollution levels on streets like Gillygate because of standing traffic. Bus journey times would have increased.
A public consultation exercise was undertaken to test residents’ reactions to the plan. Despite some leading questions being included in the on-line survey, most respondents (58%) have come out against major changes.
Although the junction is far from ideal for all road users, it currently reflects the compromises that come if you wish to conserve the historic features of a City like York.
A report will be considered next week.
The responses to the consultation do reveal a growing chasm between the views of people who live within walking distance of the City centre and those who use personal transport to travel to the facilities that are located there.
There is a lack of empathy between the two groups which suggests that finding a consensus on a new transport plan for the City (click) may prove to be illusive.
