Monkbar to close for overnight resurfacing on Sunday

Following the completion of the traffic signal renewal at the junction of Monkbar, Lord Mayor’s Walk and St Maurice’s Road, City of York Council will be resurfacing the junction from Sunday 10 May.

To minimise disruption work will take place overnight from 7.30pm – 5am and is expected to take five nights to complete, weather dependant. The work includes resurfacing the road and adding markings.

All crews carrying out the works will be operating under strict social distancing guidance due to the current Coronavirus restrictions. All but essential maintenance has been paused during the outbreak of Coronavirus.

We have worked with trade unions and our supply chain to develop new ways of working during the pandemic. This ensures that works on the road can happen in a safe way for front line operatives and the public, whilst roads are quieter than normal.

This follows guidance from the Department of Transport, which has asked council’s to continue with normal highway maintenance as much as possible.

To minimise disruption the resurfacing work will be carried out in two phases as follows:

  • Phase 1 (Sun 10 May – Tue 12 May): Jewbury/St Maurice’s Road and Goodramgate Closed with traffic on Lord Mayor’s Walk and Monkgate down to a single lane operating under lane closures and temporary lights. Jewbury/St Maurice’s Road will be turned in to a 2-way road allowing access and egress to and from the hotels and Cloisters Walk only (no through traffic). Access and egress will only be granted to St Maurice’s Road/Jewbury from the direction of Layerthorpe/Foss Islands Road/Peasholme Green. The slip road on Foss Bank to Jewbury will also be closed.
  • Phase 2 (Wed 13 May – Thu 14 May): All roads will remain open with traffic on Lord Mayor’s Walk and Monkgate down to a single lane.

The roads will need to be closed during the resurfacing work on phase 1. Clearly signed diversion routes will be in place for through traffic. The closure is to ensure that adequate health and safety is maintained for local residents, the travelling public and the contractors undertaking the work.

Emergency services will be permitted through the works in any situation. A one way system will be in place on pavements to ensure that people can effectively distance themselves from other footway users.

All on street parking in the working area and within close proximity to the works will be suspended including a small section of on street parking on Lord Mayors Walk during work times.

During phase 1, Bus services 12 and 14 will be diverted via Layerthorpe, Eboracum Way and Heworth Green meaning Monkgate will not be served. Buses from the direction of Haxby to York/Foxwood will not be affected.

For more information visit www.york.gov.uk/monkbar

So which roads and paths will be resurfaced this year in York?

Highways programme published

Tadcaster Road will be resurfaced

Somewhat later this year, the York Council has published its highways maintenance programme. The list reveals that the Council has cut its repairs budget by £100,000 compared to last year.

In total the Council will invest £12.3 million this year.

Not all will be spent on roads and paths as the budget also covers repairs to the City Walls (£626,000), replacement street lighting columns (£578,000) and drainage/gulley works (£1.7 million).

Most of the budget has been allocated to structural maintenance works.

£700,000 will be spent just filling in potholes as they appear.

The report gives no details of how the £500,000 repairs budget, delegated to wards last year,  is being spent.

The details of the allocations – and which streets are affected – can be viewed via these links

Footpaths

Major carriageway works

Patching

School Street misses out on the resurfacing list again

The programme is likely to disappoint some residents. They may have hoped that the new Council would get to grips with the, now huge, backlog in highway resurfacing work needed in the City.

But it seems that many residential roads and paths will not get the attention that they need.

In the Westfield ward only two streets will be resurfaced. A second section of Gale Lane will  be resurfaced as will the roundabout at the junction of Askham Lane and Ridgeway.

Badly worn footpaths like this on the odd numbered side of Askham Lane, in Walton Place, on Ridgeway, and on Otterwood Lane, together with the carriageways on Foxwood Lane and School Street, don’t get a mention.

Another hazardous road that didn’t make the cut

There is better news in Dringhouses with a large £1/2 million allocation is included for the resurfacing of Tadcaster Road while several streets in Woodthorpe* will be repaired. Work has already started on resurfacing part of Moor Lane.

The budget allocation predated the current health crisis. Like most of the Council’s expenditure commitments it is likely to be subject to review in the light of falling revenues.

Paradoxically, the current crisis has served to re-emphasise the importance of keeping basic highway surfaces in a condition which does not pose a threat to the safety of vulnerable users like pedestrians and cyclists.

We will be pressing for the details of the “ward resurfacing programme” to be released for scrutiny.

  • Streets identified for “micro patching” include; Lowick (£8,700), Troutbeck (£7,000), Woodthorpe School Entrance (£2,400), Overdale (£6,200), Glenridding (£15,000), Windermere (£6,200), Brambledene (£27,000), Dringfield Close (£6,500), Wains Road (£40,000), &
    Lockwood Street (£6,000)

Mixed picture on public services standards in York but some impressive progress

The lower tree branches that were impeding the cycle path on Thanet Road were trimmed back yesterday. Less than 24 hours from a report being made to action being taken. Impressive.
Grassed area opposite Foxwood shops clear of litter for the first time in over a year. Partly down to dedicated cleansing operative who is doing a sound job in this area.
Extension to Lincoln Court independent living flats completed. Suggests that much missed children’s play area could be reinstated when builders leave?
Slower progress on the Centre of Excellence for disabled children on Ascot Way. The project was never likely to meet its June target completion date even before the health crisis intervened.
Weeds are already overgrowing the little Green Lane garage area. This was problem last year. We expected that the garage owned site would be added to this years treatment list although there is no sign of “die back” yet. A builders skip has also appeared on the site.
We’ve reported the potholes that have appeared ion Windsor Garth

Good work by Highways England

Highways England removed the carcass of the dead badger from the A64 yesterday. The response was very swift.

The dead badger removed from the A64. There is a continuing debate about where responsibility rests for cleansing the cycle path along the A64 and on into York. Currently there is a lot detritus on it in places which restricts its width.
On Moor Lane in Dringhouses, the Council has removed the cats eyes from the highway prior to resurfacing on Sunday. The surface dressing process – which arrests wear on the road surface -, will involve one way working so some delays can be expected. Alternative routes are unlikely to be busy.
The Council have agreed to cut back the branches from the tree that is blocking the Thanet Road cycle path. They say they will do so when labour becomes available.
The York Council has promised to repair a section of carriageway on Bradley Lane near Rufforth

Road repairs let down in York

The York Council has announced that 3 carriageways in the City will be resurfaced starting next week.

They are;

  • *Moor Lane: initial works will take place on Tuesday 28 April, between 6pm to 9pm, weather permitting. The works will consist of removing all existing road studs in preparation for resurfacing works. The resurfacing works will take place on Sunday 3 May between 9.30am to 11am.
  • A1237 – A59 roundabout to B1224 roundabout: initial works will take place on Tuesday 28 April, between 7pm to 9pm, weather permitting. The works will consist of removing all existing road studs in preparation for resurfacing works. The resurfacing works will take place on Sunday 3 May 2pm to 4.30pm.
  • Wigginton Road (section 1) – Railway line to A1237: The resurfacing works will take place on Sunday 3 May between 7am and 9am.

The Council has still not announced its full highways repair programme for the forthcoming 11 months.  The Council is now in breach of its own code of conduct. It recently agreed click to make available programme and performance information in a transparent way.

While the current health crisis may have delayed some aspects of the Councils work, there is no excuse for the lack of any communication with stakeholders.

Last year the programme was published in March although those documents have still not been listed on the  Councils Open Data site (which includes only the 2018 list).

The Council has also removed programme details from its – constantly updated – GIS mapping system.

At the same time the Council’s “report it on line” system is proving to be unreliable. Intermittently it is preventing a “flag” being dropped onto its GIS map indicating the location of potholes and, health related, cleansing issues. The issue is being followed up by a local Councillor. It is important to restrict the use of alternative communication channels – such as telephone and email – as Council resources need to be concentrated on the coronavirus response.

An FOI will be submitted to obtain the highways list. It would be better if officials/Councillors simply offered a progress report.

*Assumed to be Moor Lane Dringhouses

Council agrees to fill in pothole

The York Council has agreed to fill in a pothole on Askham Bryan Lane. Initially the Council refused to address the issue but have now promised routine action.

The Council will have an additional team filling in potholes this year so it is still worth reporting any that represent a hazard for road users in general and cyclists in particular.

The good and the bad of decision making at the York Council

The present administration at the York Council was elected on a raft of manifesto promises which included a commitment to improved street level public service standards as well as to more open decision making.

They rightly aimed to achieve this by delegating more decisions so that they could be taken at community level.

In practice ward Councillors were given more neighbourhood responsibilities supported by an enhanced budget.

Additional funding was made available for general improvements. The Housing Estate improvement budget processes were also changed in an attempt to give those areas that did not have a residents association a share of the available resources.

Although progress in delivering schemes which were identified in the summer has been painfully slow, at least some attempt has been made to provide more transparency. The latest list of approved schemes can be downloaded (link). It lacks update information on implementation progress but it is better than was provided by the last Council.

Decisions are now being publicised on a regular basis. The latest was agreed at the end of February (click)

Latest approvals

Its a great shame though that that the new delegated budget – totalling £1 million – and intended for highway, cycle and footpaths improvements has not produced any tangible results. The condition of several local highways is now very poor, yet the budget remains unused.

The Council today published what purported to be a delegated decision (which has apparently been approved by a senior manager) detailing  how the budget will be used. However anyone viewing the Council web site would still be unable to see a list of the roads which might benefit. It simply says that the schemes  are located in the Fulford and Derwent Wards.

There are poorly maintained road surfaces across the City

This really isn’t good enough.

Road requiring attention were identified by local residents over 6 months ago.   That is long enough to allow for resurfacing to be arranged. 

We are now within 3 weeks of the end of the financial year.

Road repairs backlog building in York

Residents will have a lot of sympathy with local highways inspectors who have the unenviable task of allocation very limited resources to road repairs. Poor weather has increased the number of potholes appearing over recent weeks. The poor state of highway surfaces is a reflection of inadequate investment in maintenance by the York Council for nearly a decade.

An additional pothole filling team is promised to be in place from April. Their arrival can’t come soon enough, at least in west York.

The Councils on line “report it” system now monitors highway defect reports. It is possible to see which reports have been read by officials. Several, reported over the last month, are recorded as “solved”. In reality the problems remain. The potholes have simply been judged not to be deep enough to warrant filling.

That is potentially bad news for cyclists.

Councillors receive very little in the way of monthly performance reports on highways activities, so its impossible to know whether the condition of roads and footpaths is getting worse or improving. The number of reports and complaints received is not routinely published.

Complaints about damage to verges, like parking on footpaths, go largely unmonitored. In summer it is a similar situation with highway obstructions like over grown hedges and weeds.

We hope for better in the future.

Askham Lane carriageway, near A1237 roundabout, will not be repaired
  • No action at Foxwood Lane roundabout
  • No action on Huntsmans Walk
  • No action on Thoresby Road
  • No action Askham Lane
  • No Action Vincent Way
  • No action The Gallops
  • Action promised on St Stephens Road footpaths
  • Action promised on Spurr Court road
We’ve asked for detritus to be swept from the gutters in Otterwood Lane
The thorn hedge on the snicket to the rear on St Josephs Court (Cornlands Road) needs to be cut back before it becomes a hazard for pedestrians
The Acomb car park recycling area is tidier than it has been on some occasions in the past. Someone is still fly tipping in the area though.

Bus stop blocked by building works

The bus stop on Ascot Way, which has already been moved once to facilitate building works at the new disabled centre, is currently unusable

It is unclear how long the stop will be out of use, although the final plans for the development show the bus stop returning to its original location

Centre Of Excellence for Disabled Children 26th February 2020

Meanwhile the disabled centre building is getting its first layer of insulation. We remain sceptical about whether it will be completed by the promised date in May.