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York Council budget set to be agreed tomorrow (Thursday)

The Council will confirm its budget for the forthcoming year at a meeting tomorrow. A tax increase of nearly 4 % is likely with only the two Tory Councillors favouring a slightly lower hike (3.5%).

Most of the tax increase will be spent on the care of the elderly.

Budget Council meetings are an opportunity for the ruling party (ies) to explain more about their plans. This year, these include, generally welcomed, extra investment in street level services including road repairs, extra litter /poop scoop bins, better tree maintenance, a review of waste collection (including plastics/food waste), additional staffing on waste collection rounds, improved city centre cleaning, more effective weed control plus more for  crime prevention.

More controversially there is a big increase in the “capital” programme which will involve borrowing more money.

Most attention at the meeting will focus on the alternative proposed by the Labour opposition. They support the planned tax increase.

As always, opposition parties enjoy the luxury of proposing polices that they won’t have to implement. So, Labour roll out again the ban on “non-essential car journeys” within the City Walls.

Packaged within their plan is £40,000 for “early evening family friendly activities in the city centre”, £30,000 for a good employer charter (including “union recognition”),  £70,000 “for substance misuse” (they probably mean reducing the problem), £75,000 for the one year funding of a  “Children’s Commissioner” and £50,000 for anti-fly tipping CCTV cameras.

Cuts would be made by reducing the (recently established) graffiti removal service, crime prevention (safer communities) work An apprenticeship post would be deleted and £100,000 spent on developing a “voluntary” tourist tax.

They want to scrap the £270,000 scheme to modernise 29 Castlegate (but don’t say what they would do with the empty property or indeed with the other half dozen or so unused properties that the Council owns in the City).

Their “big idea” is the reversal of the inflation linked 2.5% increase in crematorium charges, although they routinely increased the charges when they were last in power.

The Tory amendment is doomed as they only two of the 47 members.

But they gamely try the populist route with promises to collect dead Christmas trees, improve bus services and freeze car parking charges. Members pay would be reduced as would the number of scrutiny committees. £100,000 would be lopped from the Climate Change programme while York businesses would get the “free use” of an electric vehicle for 2 months, at a cost to taxpayers of £50,000.

5 staff would be sacked as would one executive member.

In both cases the amendments are engineered to provide an opportunity to issue leaflets saying XXX party voted against such and such a policy.

If the opposition parties had been serious about their proposals, then they could have been fed into the process before public scrutiny of the options took place.

The Mount road works restart tomorrow

Scheme to be completed in January

Works at the junction of The Mount and Scarcroft Road will resume from Monday 6 January 2020, and are expected to last for up to 4 weeks.

This follows works in October to improve the junction of The Mount, Dalton Terrace and Albemarle Road, and also the junction of The Mount and Scarcroft Road.

The roadworks took longer than planned, so City of York Council is coming back to complete the final stage to refurbish and replace the traffic signals in January. This is to avoid any disruption on the run up to and during the Christmas period. 

Works will take place Monday to Friday 9am to 4:30pm and weekends 8am to 4pm. www.york.gov.uk/TheMount

This final stage is estimated to take no more than four weeks to complete.

Traffic management will be in place at the junction during the works and motorists are expected to experience some delays while the works are underway.

They are asked to plan their journey carefully and leave additional time if passing through the area. It is not anticipated that there will be any diversions or suspensions to bus services or stops, however, to allow construction to take place the inbound bus lane will be suspended during the works.  It will be also be necessary to suspend some of the on street parking on the cobbles on The Mount during the works and this will be advertised separately.

Controlled pedestrian crossings will be provided during construction to allow pedestrians to cross the road safely.  There will be some temporary footway closures in place to allow works to be undertaken, however, full access will be retained to all businesses and properties during construction. 

For more information visit: www.york.gov.uk/TheMount 

Bad week for congestion in York

There has been a lot of congestion in York over the last week or so.  With many visitors coming for the Christmas markets and the “Winter Wonderland” the influx is potentially good news for the local economy.

But transport systems have capacity limits and these were reached at times with the Designer Centre car parks effectively full and Park and Ride services compromised.

Queues at the hospital car park have caused delays on bus services while even cyclists have found it difficult to find vacant City centre cycle racks.

Lenin addresses people waiting in a Waitrose queue?

Add in the arrival of General Election campaigners eager to be filmed with a backdrop of crowds of people and the new security barriers, which hinder movement in areas like St Helen’s Square, and things have turned decidedly awkward even for pedestrians.

So, what’s to be done?

We have criticised the Council before about its failure to utilise modern technology to ease travel woes. The real time parking space availability map was removed from their web site last year.

Many of the parking space availability signs which can be seen on arterial roads didn’t work for a long time.

On line site parking space availability web site abandoned by York Council

 A promised link through GPS to car navigation systems – which would help to direct vehicles to car parks where there were spaces – has not materialised.

As a result, vehicles still circle the City looking for spaces, which sometimes don’t exist, adding to congestion and pollution levels.

The York Council needs to raise its game.

On busy days, it should be tweeting updates on at least an hourly basis. Variable message signs on approach roads should be similarly updated. Local Radio has a part to play.

It would be relatively easy to add a CCTV link displaying the conditions at key locations to the Council web site. North Yorkshire already do this (albeit mainly to provide information on road conditions)

Modern problems need modern solutions.

Sadly at the moment there seems to be little sign of urgency at West Offices on the need to further improve traffic management in the City.

Council Plan

The York Council are set to adopt a new “Council Plan” on Thursday. Although a significant document, it is likely to attract little comment. This is partly because much of its content is anodyne and partly because it is linked to impenetrable bureaucratic processes and documentation Only 353 residents responded to the initial consultation on the document.

Council Plans are rarely a “good read”

This plan though does have one major setback. It fails to react to the decline in street level public service standards that have been seen in recent months.

The KPIs suggested are essentially those that have been carried over from previous plans. They have the merit of a good historic database making trends easier to judge and they are generally easy to collect, but they offer little for those seeking “smart” targets.

Nor has the Council addressed the issue of service level agreements. This exercise presented an opportunity to update and reissue what used to be known as “Customer Contracts” but it seems that taxpayers will remain largely in ignorance of what their payments are buying.

There are a range of day to day services which residents depend on. They therefore legitimately might expect to have access to stats which, for example, tell them

  • How many potholes are reported and how quickly they are fixed?
  • How much litter there is on our streets?
  • How many streets are 98% clear of weed growth?
  • How many reports there have been of obstructions to public paths and how quickly those obstructions are removed?
  • How many bins are not emptied as scheduled each week?
  • How reliable local bus services are?
  • How many streetlights are working?
  • Satisfaction with Council estates (communal areas)?
  • Time taken to resolve issue reports by different channels (on line, email, telephone, personal visit)?

All would give residents a clearer picture of Council performance than some of those suggested.

The Mount – roadworks start next Monday

Ageing and outdated traffic signals on The Mount are set to be replaced and pedestrian and cycle routes improved by City of York Council this month.

Ageing and outdated traffic signals on The Mount are set to be replaced and pedestrian and cycle routes improved by City of York Council this month.

Works will start on the junction of The Mount / Dalton Terrace / Albemarle Road and The Mount / Scarcroft Road on Monday 7 October and are estimated to take up to seven weeks to complete.

New, more reliable, traffic signals will be installed and improvements will be made to the pedestrian crossing to introduce a new Toucan crossing over Albemarle Road. The eastern pedestrian footway / off road cycle route will also be resurfaced.

The new technology being installed will help to improve journey times and reliability on The Mount and ease congestion in the area. 

The new traffic signals will also be cheaper to run and more reliable.  It will also enable the new systems to link direct to the council’s Traffic and Control Centre, so that the Network Monitoring Officers can manage the flow of traffic better in busy periods by adjusting traffic lights to best suit traffic conditions.

Work will be carried out weekdays between 9.30am to 4.30pm and on Saturdays and Sundays 8am to 4pm. Temporary signals replicating, as closely as possible, the current operation of the junction will be in place throughout the works.

Works will be suspended between Friday 12 and Saturday 13 October for York races.

During the works it is anticipated that there will be significant delays when travelling through the junction.  

A temporary signalised crossing will be provided during construction to allow pedestrians to cross the road safely. Pedestrian route, cycle routes and access to all businesses and properties will be retained throughout the duration of the works. 

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

Those using the route are urged to plan ahead, allow more time for journeys and to use public transport where possible. Bus services will be operating as normal for the majority of the. Visit www.itravelyork.info/ for traffic and travel information.

Traffic congestion caused by sewer repairs on The Mount

Increased congestion on The Mount today as Yorkshire Water repair a sewer pipe near the Holgate Road junction. Work is continuing.
Real time traffic congestion information can be found by clicking this link

Bishopthorpe Road/Scarcroft Road junction improvements

Ageing and outdated traffic signals at the junction of Bishopthorpe Road and Scarcroft Road are set to be replaced next month by City of York Council, as part of a scheme to help improve pedestrian access and ease congestion in the area.

The works will include replacing all the ageing traffic signal equipment, creating a new pedestrian crossing on Bishopthorpe Road, removing the small central triangular island on Bishopthorpe Road and widening/resurfacing the footway.

Works will start on Monday 9 September and are estimated to take around four weeks to complete. The hours of working will be 9.30am – 4.30pm, Monday to Friday and 8am to 4pm Saturdays and Sundays.

In order to safely construct part of the work some evening works may be required. Notification of these will be provided in advance. 

Works will be suspended between Friday 27 and Sunday 29 September due to the York Balloon Fiesta.

The new technology being installed will help to manage traffic in the area and enable the new systems to link direct to the council’s Traffic and Control Centre, so that Network Monitoring Officers can manage the flow of traffic better in busy periods.

The right turn from Scarcroft Road to Bishopthorpe Road will be closed during the works and diversion routes will be in place.

During the works it is anticipated that all bus services will operate as normal, however there will be delays when travelling through the junction. 

The junction will be operating under temporary signals during the works and motorists are expected to experience delays while the works are underway.

Blossom Street roadworks

Ageing and outdated traffic signals on the Blossom Street pedestrian crossing are set to be replaced this month by City of York Council.

Works will start on Sunday 30 June and are estimated to finish on Thursday 11 July.

Blossom Street

New, more reliable, traffic signals will be installed and improvements will be made to the pedestrian crossing outside the cinema too.

The new technology being installed will help to improve journey times and reliability on Blossom Street and ease congestion in the area. 

The new traffic signals will also be cheaper to run and more reliable.  It will also enable the new systems to link direct to the council’s Traffic and Control Centre, so that the Network Monitoring Officers can manage the flow of traffic better in busy periods by adjusting traffic lights to best suit traffic conditions.

To help minimise disruption work will be carried out from 9.30am – 4pm during the week and also will take place on Saturdays and Sundays from 8am – 4pm. Temporary signals replicating, as closely as possible, the current operation of the junction will be in place throughout the works.

To allow for the works to be undertaken safely it will be necessary, at certain times, to close lanes.  This will only be undertaken outside the peak periods to limit traffic disruption and delay. 

During the works it is anticipated that there will be significant delays when travelling through the junction.  

A temporary signalised crossing will be provided during construction to allow pedestrians to cross the road safely. Pedestrian route, cycle routes and access to all businesses and properties will be retained throughout the duration of the works. 

Those using the route are urged to plan ahead, allow more time for journeys on these routes and to consider alternatives and to use public transport where possible. Bus services will be operating as normal for the majority of the works but passengers are requested to visit www.itravelyork.info/ for more information.

Information regarding this scheme is available at www.york.gov.uk/BlossomSt  

Wigginton Road and Haxby Road junction roadworks

Ageing and outdated traffic signals at the Wigginton Road and Haxby Road junction are set to be replaced next month by City of York Council, in a project partially funded by York’s bus operators.

Haxby Road – Wigginton Road junction

Works are estimated to take around six weeks to complete and will start on Sunday 19 May.

New, more reliable, traffic signals will be installed on the junction of Wigginton Road and Haxby Road. Layout changes are being made to make the junction work more efficiently, this will include realigning the outbound Haxby Road movement to make it straighter and making the pedestrian islands larger.

The new technology being installed will help to improve bus journey times and reliability on Wigginton Road and ease congestion in the area. 

The new traffic signals will also be cheaper to run and more reliable.  It will also enable the new systems to link direct to the council’s Traffic and Control Centre, so that the Network Monitoring Officers can manage the flow of traffic better in busy periods by adjusting traffic lights to best suit traffic conditions.

To help minimise disruption work will be carried out from 9.30am – 4pm during the week and also will take place on Saturdays and Sundays from 8am – 3pm. Temporary signals replicating, as closely as possible, the current operation of the junction will be in place throughout the works.

During the works it is anticipated that there will be significant delays when travelling through the junction.   

Those using the junction are urged to plan ahead, allow more time for journeys on these routes and to consider alternatives and to use public transport where possible. Bus services will be operating as normal for the majority of the works but passengers are requested to visit www.itravelyork.info/ for more information.

Temporary pedestrian crossing points will be available at all times during the works to ensure that pedestrian facilities are available.  Traffic marshals will be on site between 7am and 7pm, to help manage the traffic on site and to assist with pedestrians crossing the road.

To find out more about the scheme visit www.york.gov.uk/HaxbyRd

10 week highway scheme – A19 Shipton Road, Skelton

City of York Council will be carrying out highways works on the A19 Shipton Road at Skelton from Tuesday 7 May until mid July.

The works are a requirement of the planning consent associated with the adjacent Barratt/David Wilson Homes development of the former Del Monte site. The works are funded by the developer through a Section 106 agreement – a requirement of the planning consent.

The 10 week scheme includes:

  • alterations to the road layout to remove the acceleration and deceleration lanes (filter lanes) to and from the Fairfields Drive junction and to create a suitable access into the former Del Monte site
  • provision of a grassed central reservation area
  • creation of vehicular crossovers though the central reservation at the Fairfields Drive junction and the new Barratt development access
  • provision of uncontrolled pedestrian crossings within the central reservation
  • amendments to bus stops and
  • reduction of the speed limit from 50mph to 40mph.

Work will be carried out in phases to minimise disruption and to maintain access into Fairfields Drive and thereon into the village throughout the main works.

The main construction work is expected to take eight weeks, with subsequent road surfacing planned for a further two weeks.

Week 1 – Temporary traffic lights will be installed (9am to 4pm) at the junction with Fairfields Drive to undertake activities such as removal of existing traffic islands. Access in to / out of Fairfields Drive will be maintained but will be managed to ensure priority is given to keeping traffic flow on the A19 and to minimise queuing.

Weeks 2–8 inclusive – The A19 will operate with narrow lanes during the main construction works, thereby maintaining the continual flow of traffic. Fairfields Drive will remain open but traffic signals may be used to control traffic for specific works at the junction.

Weeks 9 and 10 (overnight) – Resurfacing of A19 and junctions. Traffic flows along the A19 will be maintained using single lane working controlled by temporary traffic signals. Fairfields Drive will be closed during this work.

Work during weeks 1-8 will be undertaken between the hours of 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday. Night working hours will be 8pm – 6am, Monday to Friday during weeks 9 and 10.

Bus services will be maintained throughout the works, although temporary bus stops will be provided on the A19.

It is intended to reduce the speed limit on the A19 to 30mph as a temporary safety measure during the works.

As with any highways scheme, there is likely to be some inconvenience at times during the works. Everything reasonably possible will be done to keep this to a minimum. Motorists should expect delays during the works and are advised to plan their journeys accordingly. For travel information in and around York, visit www.itravelyork.info.

The works will be carried out by the council, who will be responsible for public safety and maintaining access. For more information visit www.york.gov.uk/a19skelton

Traffic signals to be upgraded at Monks Cross junction

New traffic signals will be installed at the pedestrian crossing/road junction in Monks Cross this month, ahead of the new York Stadium and Leisure Complex opening later this year.

Outdated traffic signals at the junction of Kathryn Avenue and Jockey Lane at Monks Cross are set to be replaced by City of York Council.

Works will start on Monday 29 April and are estimated to take around four weeks to complete. The hours of working will be 7.30am – 5.30pm, Monday to Friday and 9am – 3pm on Saturdays.

The new technology being installed will help to ease congestion in the area and enable the new systems to link direct to the council’s Traffic and Control Centre, so that Network Monitoring Officers can manage the flow of traffic better in busy periods.

As with any construction work, there is likely to be a certain amount of disruption. Residents are assured that everything reasonably possible will be done to keep this to a minimum.

During the works it is anticipated that all bus services will operate as normal, however there will be delays when travelling through the junction. 

Temporary crossing points will be available at all times during the works to ensure that all pedestrian crossings that are currently available are maintained.  Traffic marshals will be on site between 7am and 7pm, seven days a week to assist with pedestrians crossing the road.

Residents are urged to plan ahead, allow more time for journeys on these routes and to consider alternatives and to use public transport where possible.

Bus services will be operating as normal for the majority of the works but passengers are requested to visit www.itravelyork.info/ for more information.

For information regarding the scheme during the works visit: www.york.gov.uk/KathrynAve