First York are using some of their Park and Ride “bendy” buses on stage carriage routes today including the number 4. This should increase capacity while allowing for safe social distancing. So far the plan seems to be working well.
Acomb Moor Meadow
Elsewhere, Acomb Moor Meadow has had its first cut of the season . This should make social distancing easier for the increased number of walkers that have been using fields like these for exercise during the health crisis.
A two metre wide strip has also been cut on Askham Lane (rural section) where this was practical. This should make safe distancing easier for those exercising in the area.
Less good news though on road safety. There was a bad crash on Bellhouse Way yesterday. No one was injured but some drivers and motorcyclists in west York seem to be using some roads as race tracks.
Accident on Bellhouse Way on Sunday
The police need to get on top of this problem as streets are set to become progressively busier with a proportionate increase in risk.
Although we will continue to report routine issues with local public services over the next few weeks, we don’t expect some to have any priority for the use of resources if the CV virus debilitates the Councils workforce.
Clearly the most important services are those that maintain the safety of the local community.
We’d like to see the Council appoint local coordinators so that the vulnerable have someone to turn to. We recognise that valuable resources like the local “hubs” will have to close but they need to be replaced with technology based alternatives. We look forward to hearing more about the Council’s plans
The Friday Hub at the Foxwood Community Centre has already been suspended.
Local residents groups and Councillors are actively supporting residents.
Hopefully those who are responsible for the graffiti that blights the neighbourhood, those who drop litter and those who allow their dogs to foul footpaths will now change their ways.
Full bin at Foxwood Shops
Graffiti Green Lane
Graffiti Windsor Garth
Dumped Lidl trolley Bellhouse Way
Full bin Foxwood Park
Broken glass Cornlands Road
NB. The Great British Spring Clean – which relied on volunteer litter pickers – has been postponed until the Autumn.
In September the current operator of services 3A and 12, First York, announced that they planned to withdraw service 3A (the 7-day per week evening Askham Bar Park & Ride service) and part of service 12 (specifically the section between Foxwood Lane and Alness Drive) as they were “no longer commercially viable”.
The Council agreed to subsidise the services until the end of the financial year, while seeking tenders for their continuation.
The cost of continuing the services is £24,000 for the 3A and £65,000 for the 12.
The Council is being recommendedto use part of a government funded bus service operators grant (worth £150,416 in total) to subside these two services. The Council already allocates over £700,000 a year for bus service subsidies (not including the cost of the free pensioners bus pass, which is funded from central taxation).
The Council is banking on the two services being more popular in the future and therefore requiring a lower subsidy.
It says demand for service 3A may increase when the planned paid overnight parking service at Askham Bar Park & Ride site comes into action in spring 2020 and that demand for service 12 may increase when the LNER Community Stadium (at the other end of the route) opens in 2020.
Improvements in other bus services
Through the “Funding for Local Bus Services 2020-21” scheme, the council has the opportunity to bid for £83.5k one-off funding in order to achieve one or more of the following objectives (which must deliver an increase in services and therefore the 12 and 3A services are not eligible as they currently exist):
“to improve current local bus services – for instance increasing evening or weekend frequencies, or supporting additional seasonal services in tourist areas.
“to restore lost bus routes where most needed to ensure people have access to public transport services.
“to support new bus services, or extensions to current services, to access e.g. new housing, employment opportunities, healthcare facilities etc.”
The funding must be used for the provision of local bus services- i.e. time tabled services open to any member of the public upon payment of a fare.
The funding available in York is £83.5k – equivalent to the operating costs for a single bus for approximately 8 months. It would not therefore have a major impact on service levels.
The City has submitted a bid for “a package of enhancements to routes which support York’s evening economy”
Good to see some progress in repainting cycle path markings on Bellhouse Way. They were reported a few weeks ago. Still a lot to do but some welcome progress.
It looks like a worrying 3 months for users of the number 12 (and 3a) bus service with the Council set to continue to agonise about their future.
A“behind closed doors” decision was taken to extend the current temporary contract. The report does, however, say that the cost of continuing to provide the services exceeds the available budget so a difficult decision may be faced in April.
The indecision about continuing the service comes at a time when the Council is being urged to subsidise more bus services in an attempt to counter the “climate emergency”.
If established services like these are under threat, then there is little hope that more funding will be found to provide more frequent services and fill in other gaps in the network.
Change of use of ground floor flat (sheltered accommodation) to office (use class B1), installation of external ramp and modification to existing boundary wall and railings
North Yorkshire Police is appealing for witnesses and information about an assault that occurred in Acomb, York in the early hours of Saturday 25th January 2020.
The incident happened in the street at the junction of Bellwood Drive and Bellhouse Way, Acomb, York between 12.30am and 1.30am Saturday 25 January. It involved two men and the victim, a 30 year old man, needed hospital treatment following the incident.
We are requesting the public’s assistance to help establish the full circumstances surrounding the incident.
In particular, we are appealing for information about who was present, as it is believed a number of people were in that location during the assault.
Anyone with information that could assist the investigation should contact North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2, and ask for Pc 1596 Hodge. You can also email 001596@northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk
If you wish to remain anonymous, you can pass information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Please quote the North Yorkshire Police reference number 12200015011
The Council was told this week that it needed to investment more in road maintenance. That has been obvious for over 5 years following budget cuts in the early part of this decade.
Frost is now accelerating the deterioration in places such as Foxwood Lane and Bellhouse Way.
It is important that issues are reported to the Council.
If you use the Councils “report it on line” system it will generate a reference number automatically.
This helps to identify the issue if you have to follow it up later.
The system doesn’t produce update reports for highways issues in the same way that litter, graffiti and fly tipping are automatically tracked. Progress on these types of issues can be viewed in the residents personalised issue folder after you log in.
Potholes on Foxwood Lane. Report ref; 191212-000048
