We were pleased to here that the JoRo housing team have agreed to trim back hedges from Bellhouse Way near their Woodlands estate. The path there is obstructed as it is further round near The Gallops, although the problem there involves a more hazardous thorn hedge.
Some of the hedges to the rear of Foxwood Lane are also obstructing footpaths.
The Council will be dealing with these issues
Residents from the Huntington and Heworth areas have added their voices to the criticisms of the Council’s performance in keeping local streets clean and tidy. Although, like Woodthorpe on the west of the City, some streets in Huntington appear to have been well swept, they are outnumbered by those where even basic weed clearance has not taken place this summer.
One again it is the main entry roads into the City which are most neglected. It presents a poor image for visitors
Gale Lane blocked footway gully
The recent surface water flooding which we saw a few weeks ago is being addressed by the Council. In a report to be considered next week, they say that their Flood Risk Management Team is currently investigating the consequences of the 13th August 2018 storm which affected the city. More than 40mm of rain fell on the city in just over 15 minutes, Rainfall rates more than 120mm/hour were recorded.
The problems seemed to be exacerbated by blocked gullies. This was a problem on some roads where footpath gullies were obstructed.
A policy adopted by the then Labour controlled Council 5 years ago meant that gullies were cleaned only upon report. Due to this reactive cleanse policy in recent years, approximately 53% of drains have been found to be blocked upon attendance.
The Council says the revised gulley cleansing policy aims to proactively cleanse all gullies on the gritting network annually and all other assets are reactively cleansed following reports of issues. “There are more than 43,000 gullies in the CYC area and approximately half of these are on the gritting network”.
The Council has allocated funding, in the period up to 2020, which will allow the whole network to be surveyed, the development of an improved asset register and an effective proactive cleanse of each asset to be carried out. Over the whole programme, which started in 2015, the added investment will have ensured that in the region of 23,000 gullies were left in a free running state that were previously not draining effectively.
Additional gullies cleansed, and data recorded
| 2015/16 | 8,000 |
| 2016/17 | 15,074 |
| 2017/18 | 12,810 |
| 2018/19 | 2,468 (to date) |
However, more than 900 ‘non-runner’ assets have been identified where the gulley cleansing process could not ensure free drainage and significant engineering works (digging out) are required to improve them. None of the current defects were found to be in a location where property flooding could occur as a direct consequence of severe rainfall.
Separately the meeting will consider an update report from the Environment Agency on tacking river flooding issues across the City. The Agency is doing well in keeping residents briefed on the work that they are doing. They have now started a web site which builds on their communications plan tick here This complements the information “hub” that they established on Wellington Row.
Generally, the update says that work to improve flood defences is proceeding in line with the agreed timetable
The heavy rain in the City has subsided today but several rivers are still showing increasing levels. We recommend that residents check the river gauges regularly and in particular those located upstream of the City. There is still a lot of water to flow through.
Click here for the river gauge real time map
Click here for the latest flood alerts and flooding maps
Drivers faced another hazard yesterday as a large pothole developed on the A59 road works on the south bound side of Skip Bridge. The carriageway is single file, over the bridge, there at the moment. Some delays may be expected,.
Several Councillors including – Andrew Waller – toured their wards yesterday to identify areas where gullies might be blocked. Some surface water flooding was identified by Andrew in Osprey Close (run off from agricultural land), Westfield Place, Cornlands Road, St Stephens Rd., St Stephens Square and Gale Lane, Any blocked gullies have been reported for attention.
There are still too many blocked drainage gullies in parts of York. This mornings rain demonstrated the scale of the problem with flooding at the bottom of Hamilton Drive East a particular hazard. There were similar if less spectacular problems on Nigel Grove and Foxwood Lane. All have been reported for attention
