Foss Islands Road tidy up hope

We reported a few weeks ago that we hoped to persuade the York Council to get to grips with outstanding maintenance issues on Foss Islands Road. The main problem related to lack of care for the cultivated areas lying between the public highway and the private shops boundary.

We said at the time that we were confident that it was a Council responsibility to cut back and maintain the area between the public footpath and the carriageway.

The Council have now confirmed that this is the case.

Officials have suggested that this area is either wild flowered or reseeded and cut as with other roadside verges 10 times a year. Any remedial work will take place in the spring. The Council will however be giving it a general cut back early in the new year.

Unfortunately no one is admitting liability for maintaining the area outside the public footpath although it seems likely that the frontagers will have some responsibilities.

This busy part of the City is seen by hundreds of thousands of people each year.

It is clearly on view from the iconic City Walls.

It should be kept in a tidy condition.

Plea to sort out Foss Island Road maintenance problems

We reported earlier in the year that the verge and planted areas on Foss Islands Road needed to be cut back. They were overgrown with nettles, thistles and other weeds.

We expected that this issue would have been sorted by now but a visit today revealed that the problems continue. This is particularly disappointing in an area which is visible from the City Walls and which a large number of people see each week.

We have now formally approached the Council to determine who is responsible for maintenance and to what standards.

Traffic signals faulty for 804 hours during last 6 months in York

The York Council has admitted that traffic signal faults have more than doubled in the period between April and October 2013.

299 faults were reported with a total “downtime” of 804 hours.

This compares to a total of 790 hours (573 faults) during the whole of the last financial year.

The Council blames serious cabling faults caused by damaged and flooded ducts.

The information was obtained by Cllr Ann Reid who took up the issue at last weeks York Council meeting

However, recent problems seem to have extended the capacity of the repair and maintenance contractors and motorists will be looking for a long term improvement.

Yesterday there was near grid lock conditions in the Foss Islands Road area following the failure of two sets of lights.