York getting a little busier?

Few more on Spurriergate today
Museum Gardens – with social distancing well organised by Museum staff – was popular today
Marygate car park close to capacity today apart from the completely useless coned off area. Not being used by anyone for social distancing. Meanwhile, at the other end of the Scarborough bridge cycle link to the station, cyclists wanting access the exit towards Holgate Road, have to dismount and walk through the congested portico or bus stop areas.
Cycle parking still poor in York. These were chained to railings today. They had enforcement notices attached but, given the large sums of taxpayers money being thrown at some peoples idea of “sustainable transport”, installing a few extra parking frames (Sheffield stands) wouldn’t be amiss.
The York Council offices are still closed. The gates are padlocked. Given the new government advice about “getting back to work” there should now be a road-map leading to the reopening of services where customers need personal contact.
No information, forward plans or meeting agendas on Council, noticeboards. This one, outside West Offices, simply says that meetings are cancelled “until 30th May”.
No noticeboards at all now outside the Guildhall. Although the building itself is closed for refurbishment, the noticeboards, previously displayed there, provided an easy, accessible location where residents could read about what the Council planned to consider. (Very few people routinely walk past the small noticeboard outside West Offices)

Better Parliament Street cycle parking info from Council

…..but two months too late and what happened to consultation?

The following information has been provided by the Council in response to complaints about lack of consultation about the removal of cycle parking from Parliament Street. It would have been better if the information had been published a couple of months ago rather than the day after the racks disappeared!!

“The old individual cycle racks are being removed this week and will be replaced with ones on rails. Any bikes which have been left locked to a rack will be removed to the Council’s secure store.

What is happening? – The old individual cycle racks are being replaced with ones on rails where the racks are spaced wider apart that the current ones (1200mm as opposed to 800mm).  As construction of the cabins for the Christmas Market will start later this week (02/12/19) the new racks will be temporarily relocated to the following locations:

  • Davygate – outside Debenhams
  • Davygate – outside the former French Connection shop
  • Davygate – outside the former Halifax Bank
  • Church Street – at the side of St Sampson’s Church
  • Church Street – outside The Works
  • St Andrewgate – at the Kings Square end
  • Piccadilly – outside Lloyds Bank
  • Parliament Street – outside Barclays Bank
  • Walkway at the rear of All Saints Church
  • Lendal as soon as the skips associated with the Guildhall works are removed

When are the old racks being removed? – The racks are being removed on the 29th October.  Notices were placed on the affected racks a week in advance to forewarn users of their imminent removal.  Any cycles which have been left locked to a rack will be removed to the Council’s secure store.  Anyone wishing to reclaim a cycle should contact network.management@york.gov.uk to arrange collection.

Why is this work being done? – Following last year’s Christmas Market concerns were raised by the city centre safety advisory group about the relatively few accesses / exits from the central area and the narrowness of these accesses.  In order to enable the cabins to be better laid out and to increase the number and width of the accesses / exits it has been agreed that the cycle parking will be temporarily removed for the duration of the large events which take place on Parliament Street including the Christmas Market and Food & Drink Festival. 

The racks will be relocated to the above locations during the event and then reinstalled on Parliament Street as soon as possible after the event. At this stage it is not envisaged that the cycle parking will need to be relocated during the Yorkshire Fringe Festival or smaller markets.  In previous years several of the racks were unavailable during large events because cabins or marquees were installed immediately next to them therefore cycle parking capacity was reduced. 

By relocating the racks elsewhere in the city centre there should be no net loss of capacity during these busy events.

BID funds more cycle parking spaces in central York

cycle-rack-esplanade-york

The York Business Improvement District (BID) team is reminding residents that additional cycle parking facilities were provided earlier in the year. Funded by the BID, the security hoops can be found at the following locations

# Blake Street

# High Petergate

# Spark: York Piccadilly

# Lord Mayors Walk

#Esplanade

#Deangate

#St Maurice’s Road

#George Street

#Castlegate Area

The overall capacity of city centre cycle parking was increased by 10%. Along with this the BID brought seven new signposts showing a map of the cities cycle routes and all the available cycle parking.

Each of the cycle racks features information and maps detailing cycle routes and parking around the city centre.

York BID’s Street Rangers also play a role in ensuring that as much bike parking is available as possible, by monitoring bikes that have been abandoned throughout all of the city’s cycle parking facilities.

“There is a high demand for dedicated cycle racks, so we regularly look out for bikes that have been left for long periods of time, and work with City of York Council to remove those that go unclaimed,”

Tags are attached to any bicycle that appears to have been abandoned, and if it not moved after a month, it is taken away for storage for a further month, before any unclaimed bikes are recycled and sold. 

A cycling map can be downloaded from this link (click)

Last few days to have your say on city centre bike racks

Residents have just a few more days to give their views on potential sites for new cycle racks in the city centre.

City of York Council have worked ‘in tandem’ with York BID to identify 18 potential new sites for cycle racks.

Residents and other regular users of the city centre have until Wednesday 28 February to give their views at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/CYCNewCycleParking
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Improvements in Front Street

Railings painted and weeds removed at the Acomb toilets. Vast improvement.

The cycle hoops on Front Street are to be repainted this week. They will not be available for use in the evening while the work takes place.

The improvement is the first of many instigated by the Westfield Ward Committee and follows the publication of the results of a residents survey in which support for  refurbishment schemes got a high level of residents support.

The repainting programme will move on over the next few weeks to other parts of the area including the Tedder Road park.

Separately, BT has agreed to repair the damaged telephone kiosks on Front Street. The company says that, subject to consultation, the kiosks which are a target for vandals, may be removed altogether next year.

More City centre cycle parking

The amount of parking spaces for bikes in the city centre has increased to over 1,000.

cycle racks

Throughout 2013 the council has added space for an extra 150 bikes within the city centre, which has been done by adding new cycle racks and extending some existing racks. This has grown the number of spaces by 18 per-cent compared to the beginning of the year.

The new spaces are located on:

  • · Goodramgate
  • · Piccadilly
  • · King Street
  • · North Street
  • · Nunnery Lane car park
  • · Micklegate
  • · Lendal (outside the Post Office)

The existing racks that have been extended are:

  • · Library Square
  • · Castle Museum
  • · Lendal (outside Zizzi’s)
  • · Esplanade
  • · Castle Car Park

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