The council has published details of the footpaths, cycle routes and carriageways that it plans to resurface in July, August and September.
There is more than a little irony in some of the choices. Bishopthorpe Road – part of which is currently closed to traffic – will be resurfaced. Tadcaster Road is mentioned although this work has effectively been completed.
£408,000 is to be spent on the National Cycle Route 65. The local part of this route links Selby via York to north of Skelton. The section from Naburn to Riccall has been criticised as being virtually impassable for ordinary road bikes because fo tree root damage. It is understood, however, that this is not the section that will be reconstructed. (NB. A section of Terry Avenue is likely to be badly affected by flood prevention works over the next 2 years)
The closure of Tudor Road for 2/3 weeks means that the number 4 bus service will be further diverted (it recently was rerouted via Ridgeway) .
We understand that the diversion will be
Sat 13th – Sun 28th Jun
Tudor Rd closed at Gale Lane end during sewer connection works for new housing development.
Suggested diversion for service 4 Gale Lane, Front Street, Green Lane both ways then to Acomb Green terminus. Inbound Ridgeway, Askham Lane, right into Gale Lane then right into Cornlands Road
City of York Council has been indicatively allocated £173,000 to support and maintain the growth in walking and cycling seen across the city during lockdown.
The Government’s Emergency Active Travel Fund is designed to support walking and cycling as a long-term method for commuting, as the country emerges from the pandemic. To receive any allocation from the fund, the Council has to demonstrate ‘swift and meaningful plans’ to support cyclists and pedestrians in York.
This funding is the first of two phases, with the second being conditional on demonstrating how we are able to adapt the city’s infrastructure to support more active travel, and how quickly these additional measures can be delivered. City of York Council has submitted a programme of actions to support walking and cycling at key locations as alternatives to travel by bus or car.
The Council says that it is allocating the funding to the following measures:
Extensions to existing Park and Pedal facilities at the Park & Ride sites, alongside a new cycle route from Rawcliffe Park & Ride site along Shipton Road
Enhanced cycle lanes on Bootham
Improved cycle parking in the city centre
Extensions to the footstreets area
Temporary footway widening at pinch points near shops
Alterations to signal timings to reduce pedestrian queuing at city centre traffic lights.
There is no mention of any action to remove the overgrowth obstructions on foot and cycle paths which have made social distancing all but impossible particularly in sub-urban areas
Many paths in west York are now obstructed
The Council says that the funding will also allow The Groves’s neighbourhood traffic reduction 18-month trial to move ahead more quickly. Details of the location of the closures to prevent through-traffic are subject to a council Decision Session on 22 June, when local residents can comment on proposals and all consultation feedback will be reviewed.
This scheme has nothing to do with the COVID crisis. Some Councillors were advocating the scheme over a year ago. It looks like the Council are trying to slip it through with minimal consultation although the congestion impact figures still haven’t been published.
This work will be co-ordinated with the council’s Economic Recovery Strategy, which will be delivered over the next few months. The strategy focuses on prioritising active travel, working with bus and rail operators to ensure people can continue to use public transport with confidence and creating a more people-focussed city centre. These measures will be delivered at pace to best accelerate the recovery of the economy, allowing businesses to open safely through June, whilst protecting residents’ safety.
Council report 1st June 2020 Page 1Council report 1st June 2020 Page 2
The Council has finally published the report which it says supports the decision to keep the southbound lane of the Bishopthorpe Road closed for at least another 2 months. The report became public yesterday (6th June) , some six days after it was tabled for a “behind closed doors” decision meeting.
It reveals that there is a lot of opposition to the Councils policy including a 1600 signature “on line” petition.
Both it and email representations were ignored by the Council.
No consideration was given to changing the hours or scale of the closure and no consideration was given to implementing a shorter diversion route.
There is no evidence that stakeholders – including traders and those living on the diversion route – were consulted about options.
The report talks about additional stores opening next week “resulting in increasing queue lengths”. It omits to point out that these are located on the west side of the road where properties have a forecourt.
Resurfacing works on Nunnery Lane will take place from Monday 15 June for seven nights, working between 7.30pm and 5am Monday to Friday only. This will mean an additional diversion for drivers, including buses, of around 1.5 miles via City centre streets.
With almost breath taking arrogance, the York Council has issued a statement saying that the closure of the southbound lane at Bishopthorpe Road shops will continue for another 2 months.
There has been no debate about other options and a large petition – which asked for the road to be reopened – has been ignored.
No report on the success or otherwise of what the Council describes as a “trial” has been published.
One of the earliest criticisms of the scheme was that the Council had failed to identify how the success or otherwise of the project would actually be judged. It simply referred, rather loftily, to social distancing and government policy.
In reality, the array of bollards has made little difference to social distancing while the contraflow bike lane has introduced another, unwelcome, hazard for cyclists. There has been no consideration of opening up parallel routes (Darborough Street/Cherry Street & St Benedict’s Road) which would at least have provided a much shorter diversion
Bishopthorpe Road lane closure. Petition calls for lane to be reopened.
Nor has the opportunity been taken, during a relatively quiet period, to test an off peak pedestrianisation of the shops area between 10:30am and 4:00pm. Such a scheme would also have aligned with the governments policies while also providing much more room for social distancing. The impacts both economic and on transportation would have provided some real food for thought.
Too late now though, as imminent road works in the Nunnery Lane area are set to cause even bigger traffic congestion problems with the bus services one likely early victim. Works on the nearby South Bank flood alleviation scheme (subject to a planning committee decisionnext week) will further add to transport woes in the area.
Not content with increasing pollution levels on Scarcroft Road the new diversion via the City centre will add over a mile to some journeys.
The Council says that residents can Email them with their views. The address is Bishrd@york.gov.uk
We doubt that many will bother. Rather the pressure for the Council to adopt an open and inclusive approach to decision making will mount. The Council leadership needs to move out of its bunker mentality and start to re-engage with the local community.
We saw in 2015 what happened when a particularly stubborn administration tried to force the Lendal Bridge closure on an unwilling population.
The same will happen again unless polices and attitudes change and change quickly.
Two of the 12 will be electric vehicles. These vehicles cost approximately 2.5 times more than their conventional counterparts but are cheaper to run. They have range limitations.
There is only 1 supplier of these types of vehicle in the country and they say that January 2021 is the earliest that delivery can be expected.
The 12 vehicles will cost £3 million in total.
A further order is expected to be approved later in the summer bringing the total investment to over £6.6 million
Much of the Councils waste management fleet is well beyond its normal lifespan. This has resulted in unreliability with missed collections a feature of the last 18 months of operation. The COVID crisis has simply magnified the problems.
The Council has never satisfactorily explained why it did not continue its annual vehicle replacement programme to ensure that overall reliability levels remained acceptable.
It appears that indecision – prompted perhaps by a hope that more electric options would become available – led to unacceptable delays in placing orders.
The Councils internal scrutiny and audit processes should have revealed the risks associated with such inaction.
Sadly that process didn’t seem to work.
Quite what quality of service residents can look forward to over the remainder of this year remains unclear.
As schools and shops will begin a phased reopening in June, bus operators, rail operators and City of York Council are making changes to ensure that safe travel options are available for residents.
More buses and trains will be operating and appropriate health and safety measures will be in place to ensure that social distancing guidelines can be adhered to, which may mean reduced capacity on board.
To help support essential journeys, on peak times, please plan ahead and travel outside of the busiest times, particularly first thing in the morning.
Changes on board
Bus operators are putting in place new safety measures to protect staff and customers. These include reducing the number of available seats on board each bus, encouraging the wearing of face coverings, ensuring alighting passengers are clear of the bus before anyone else boards and keeping a safe distance when boarding.
Please be patient and observe all the safety measures when travelling. You should not leave your house if you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, including a high temperature, a new, continuous cough and loss or change to your sense of smell or taste. There’s lots more information on how to travel safely available online.
Customer safety information will be displayed at bus stops. When queueing please maintain a 2 metre distance between yourself and other passengers. Additional measures may be put in place at stops to manage social distancing
To help prevent unnecessary contact, please use cashless payment methods, such as contactless debit cards, smartcards or M-ticket apps wherever possible. To help support essential journeys on peak time buses, normal concessionary travel rules will apply from Monday 1 June.
Bus passes will be accepted for concessionary travel only after 9am on weekdays and at any time on weekends, with the exception of blind persons who are permitted to travel at any time of day in York.
Bus operators and the council are working to update timetables as quickly as possible. Please note that due to the short notice nature of these service changes, some timetables on journey planning websites, apps and real-time information screens may not be updated immediately. Please visit bus operator websites for the latest timetable information.
Park & Ride:
Services 2A, 7 and 9 (Rawcliffe Bar, Designer Outlet and Monks Cross) will run every 10 minutes at peak times, 15 minutes during the day and every hour during the evening. A half hourly service will be provided on Sundays
Last Park & Ride buses from the city centre will depart at 10:15pm (service 2A), 22:45 (service 7), 8:05pm (service 9, Mon-Sat) or 7pm (service 9, Sundays)
The Designer Outlet car park remains closed until further notice- service 7 is using the same stop as service 415 (on the roundabout)
Services 3, 8 and 59 (Askham Bar, Grimston Bar and Poppleton Bar P&R) will remain suspended until further notice
Further information about Park and Ride can be found online. You can also find information about how to support social distancing by using Park & Pedal from Monks Cross or Rawcliffe Bar:
A summary of all bus service changes is also available. Rail service levels are gradually being increased. Please use contactless card payments wherever possible and note that most rail services now require seat reservations before travelling. For the latest updates visit train company websites:
The Council is using social media to promote cycling as a way to get to work when the lock-down ends. Many workplaces, offices and shops are expected to reopen during the next fortnight, putting added pressure on a compromised public transport system.
Cycling – particularly at this time of year – may be an option for some people.
But there is little evidence that the Council is addressing everyday barriers to cycling
These days foot-pads aren’t the biggest threat.
The contraflow cycle lane installed on Bishopthorpe Road is an unnecessary hazard. Inexperienced cyclists trying to use it may indeed be intimidated, making them more likely to use other transport modes. (There is an alternative, quiet, route via Vine Street)
Meanwhile on the Tadcaster Road cycle path “social distancing” signs have appeared near the railway bridge. Fair enough, if a problem has been identified. Clearly more families are now walking or cycling to the Askham Bog nature reserve although social distancing on that site is also problematic.
Social distancing signs
Yet scarcely 300 metres further along the cycle path, its width is now reduced to less than 1 metre. Overhanging branches and weed growth are to blame (the weeds are actually now breaking up the bitmac surface) ..
A relatively easy issue to deal with but, despite reports to the Council, no work has been undertaken.
Cycle track obstructed.
Better news further down Tadcaster Road with highway resurfacing works now ahead of schedule. The smoother carriageway surface is much safer for users of 2 wheeled transport.
Tadcaster Road resurfacing due to be completed by 12th June
UPDATE – Just as we published we got the following response from SUSTRANs
Yes, we are aware of the problem with this path either side of the York / Selby boundary and at time of heightened usage of all of our traffic-free routes around York due to the coronavirus lockdown.
We’ve done some initial estimating of cost for the whole section that needs resurfacing, which comes to £446,000 approx. – a sum that Sustrans on its own cannot afford as I’m pleased to see you recognise
However, Selby DC (copied in) also have this on their radar and have indicated a strong willingness to work with ourselves and City of York to find the necessary funding.
I’m in discussion with land management / estates colleagues within Sustrans to identify how much we may be able to contribute, and therefore how much is needed from LA partners / other funding sources.
The fact you’ve now raised this with relevant City of York councillor’s is very helpful. We’ll continue to bring all parties together to come up a with funding package that can deliver the necessary improvement as soon as possible.
We’ve suggested to SUSTRANs that they launch a crowd funding appeal to raise money for resurfacing parts of the York – Selby cycle path.
The path is very uneven in places as a result of tree root damage. At one location, the roots have now broken through the bitmac surfacing increasing the hazards for cyclists and walkers.
Roots are now breaking through cycle track
SUSTRANS describe themselves as the custodians of thenational cycle network. It is possible to make a donation towards their work via their web page but we think that a more focused campaign is needed if the York cycle path is to be properly funded.
The path has been heavily used during the health crisis with large number taking the opportunity to take some exercise in what is a relatively safe space. Many young children are getting their first taste of cycling on the track. It is the latter group for whom the surface represents a particular hazard.
SUSTRANs have yet to respond but we have had a prompt reply from Cllr John Galvin who represents that Bishopthorpe ward, in which part of the track is located. He has pledged his support for the appeal.
Any work would need to incorporate the use of root shields to ensure that any new surface continues to be useable for the foreseeable future.
Uneven path surfaces deter use
Many of the problems occur in the section between Naburn and Riccall. We hope that the Government and local Councils will back the SUSTRANs charity if they launch a crowdfunding appeal.
Hopefully some donations will come from the hundreds of new users who are currently enjoying the facility.
NB. It appears that no application was made for support from the York Council’s £500,000 cycling budget which was delegated to be spent by local ward Councillors.
With the York Council now back dealing with potholes, we’ve taken the opportunity to report 3 more problem streets.
These are on Herman Walk near Martin Cheeseman Court.Particularly hazardous pothole (for cyclists) on School Street, although the whole carriageway really needs resurfacingNearby Howe Street is not much better
