Government boost for ailing York highways

City of York Council is getting a £5.592 million grant from the government to be spent on road maintenance. It would effectively double this years resurfacing and repair budget, although the phasing of the grant hasn’t been confirmed.

York residents say the worse public service in the City is road repairs

When the Council published its repairs budget a few weeks ago it attracted criticism as many paths and carriageways – although uneven and potentially hazardous – were omitted from the programme.

The new money should allow the Council to begin to restore the highways network to standards last seen in the previous decade.

How quickly additional resurfacing capacity can be made available by the Council and its contractors remains to be seen.

We hope that the focus will be on large scale patching and complete carriageway resurfacing schemes, avoiding the prospect of hastily filled potholes reappearing when bad weather returns.

So which roads and paths will be resurfaced this year in York?

Highways programme published

Tadcaster Road will be resurfaced

Somewhat later this year, the York Council has published its highways maintenance programme. The list reveals that the Council has cut its repairs budget by £100,000 compared to last year.

In total the Council will invest £12.3 million this year.

Not all will be spent on roads and paths as the budget also covers repairs to the City Walls (£626,000), replacement street lighting columns (£578,000) and drainage/gulley works (£1.7 million).

Most of the budget has been allocated to structural maintenance works.

£700,000 will be spent just filling in potholes as they appear.

The report gives no details of how the £500,000 repairs budget, delegated to wards last year, is being spent.

The details of the allocations – and which streets are affected – can be viewed via these links

Footpaths

Major carriageway works

Patching

School Street misses out on the resurfacing list again

The programme is likely to disappoint some residents. They may have hoped that the new Council would get to grips with the, now huge, backlog in highway resurfacing work needed in the City.

But it seems that many residential roads and paths will not get the attention that they need.

In the Westfield ward only two streets will be resurfaced. A second section of Gale Lane will be resurfaced as will the roundabout at the junction of Askham Lane and Ridgeway.

Badly worn footpaths like this on the odd numbered side of Askham Lane, in Walton Place, on Ridgeway, and on Otterwood Lane, together with the carriageways on Foxwood Lane and School Street, don’t get a mention.

Another hazardous road that didn’t make the cut

There is better news in Dringhouses with a large £1/2 million allocation is included for the resurfacing of Tadcaster Road while several streets in Woodthorpe* will be repaired. Work has already started on resurfacing part of Moor Lane.

The budget allocation predated the current health crisis. Like most of the Council’s expenditure commitments it is likely to be subject to review in the light of falling revenues.

Paradoxically, the current crisis has served to re-emphasise the importance of keeping basic highway surfaces in a condition which does not pose a threat to the safety of vulnerable users like pedestrians and cyclists.

We will be pressing for the details of the “ward resurfacing programme” to be released for scrutiny.

Streets identified for “micro patching” include; Lowick (£8,700), Troutbeck (£7,000), Woodthorpe School Entrance (£2,400), Overdale (£6,200), Glenridding (£15,000), Windermere (£6,200), Brambledene (£27,000), Dringfield Close (£6,500), Wains Road (£40,000), &
Lockwood Street (£6,000)

Now pothole woes hit Woodthorpe

Glenridding
Woodthorpe Green footpath needs resurfacing

Complacent York highways maintenance report rapped

Potholes on the increase

A curiously complacent report on how the York Council has conducted its highways maintenance duties over the last year has just been published.

The reports list a series of successes.

However, it pointedly fails to admit that;

Potholes now pose a significant risk for road users and have done for several months
Promised resurfacing schemes simply didn’t happen with residents being left in the dark about the delays
Broadband network installation works have left verges and paths in a shoddy condition
Cable works have damaged verges and footpaths

A new executive member has now assumed responsibility for highways (Cllr Dew). His appointment was part of the general “merry go round” of changes initiated by local Conservatives.

It is to be hoped he won’t be duped into thinking that all is well with highway maintenance in the City of York.

NB. The resurfacing programme for the new 2018/19 financial year still hasn’t been published by the Council. In previous years residents were able to see what was planned before the year started.

York road repairs list “missing in action”

The York Council has issued a media release claiming to list the streets that will benefit from this years highway resurfacing programme.

The list is a supplement to the base programme which was agreed in March. It will add £2 million worth of work and bring expenditure back up to the level inherited by the Labour Council, in 2011. During the last 2 years the highways resurfacing budget had lost nearly £4 million in much needed investment.

Footpath and verge repair needed in Little Green Lane in Acomb

Interested residents who would like to know whether their roads is included on the list will be disappointed.

The list is missing from the Couincils web site!

It is the latest in a series of irregularities which has seen

a report on Lendal bridge supressed,
“key” decisions reclassified to prevent an all party public debate,
an attempt to sabotage the independent report writing protocol,
misuse of taxpayer funded equipment to promote party political objectives,
misuse of the Councils media team to promote a “decision” (free parking) which hadn’t even been taken together with
the publication of incomplete/inaccurate information about the Local Plan.

The base highways resurfacing programme was first published last November and confirmed at a meeting held in March.

A copy can be read here.

Vehicle damage claims up 67% in York

Call for Lendal Bridge fine income to be used to repair roads

The number of claims for compensation following damage to vehicles caused by poorly maintained roads in York dramatically increased last year.

Damaged speed humps. Already dangerous for cyclists.

The change followed a decision by the Labour controlled Council to reduce expenditure on highways maintenance by over £2 million.

The number of claims received, for incidents over recent years, has been

2011 – 75
2012 – 52
2013 – 87

There are now calls for the Council to agree, at its budget meeting next week, to increase the amount it spends on maintenance back to the £5.5 million figure which was being invested each year by the previous, LibDem controlled authority.

Pressure is also growing for the £1.3 million – taken in fines from motorists on Lendal Bridge and in Coppergate – to be used to address the backlog in resurfacing works.

Highways maintenance cuts for York revealed.

The Council has revealed how it plans to spend £2.6 million on highways and footpath resurfacing over the next financial year.

The provisional expenditure is down on the £3.4 million being invested during the current year.

That in turn was well down on the budget agreed by the last Liberal Democrat administration which held power until 2011 and which regularly invested over £5 million a year in the highways network.

Carriageway surfaces are now breaking up and the repairs backlog is growing.

In the Westfield ward footpaths in parts of three streets are due to receive attention next year. Roads affected are Cornlands Road, Wetherby Road, and Green Lane. However there are no plans to resurface any roads (carriageways) in the area.

A full list of streets where repairs are planned can be downloaded by clicking here

A final Council highways budget for next year will be announced in March.

The decision, on which roads to resurface, was taken in another “behind closed doors” meeting. There was no consultation with residents on the options.