Lendal Bridge – cameras still working?

Camera

Claims have been made that the use of the ANPR cameras, to enforce traffic restrictions on Lendal Bridge and Coppergate, has been suspended.

The Council would have had little choice but to do this as, if having received independent advice that their use was unlawful, the Council could have faced maladministration claims from any drivers who received PCNs.

The Council have refused to say whether PCNs have been issued over the last 2 days using ANPR evidence.

The Council have, however, said that the traffic order has not been revoked and the signage is still visible. That means that a uniformed police officer could, in theory, try to enforce the restrictions.

The traffic adjudicator yesterday also highlighted other flaws in the Councils management of the restrictions, so any PCN would be likely to be rescinded on appeal.

The Council Leader has now belatedly decided to blame Council officials for the fiasco.

He has asked the Chief Executive to undertake an internal review the matter, describing the Councils actions as “not to a standard that I would expect”.

Given that the Chief Executive and Council Leader work hand in hand on a daily basis this particular piece of political camouflage is unlikely to fool anyone.

It is reminiscent of the comments made in Labour party Emails earlier in the year when they sought to distance themselves from the unpopular plans

An all party scrutiny committee should – meeting in public – undertake a proper review of what went wrong on a project that has seen  the City being ridiculed across the whole country.

In the meantime the Lendal bridge trial should be suspended. The cameras in Coppergate should be switched off at least until they can be proven to be lawful. Enforcement of restrictions there should once again rest with the police.

Meanwhile the Lib Dem Leader says that the Council has “lost control of events”  

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York Council Labour members refuse to debate reopening Lendal Bridge

Labour Councillors have refused to debate reopening Lendal Bridge at tonight’s York Council meeting.

Lendal bridge noticeInstead they narrowly voted to refer any decision to the Labour Cabinet.

No discussion on the LibDem motion was allowed by the Lord Mayor, as filibustering tactics were used by Labour to prevent opposition Councillors from putting the case for the ANPR cameras to be switched off immediately.

It is now likely to be at least another 2 months before the issue is resolved, although suspicions are growing that Labour have already decided, privately, to make the access restrictions permanent.

 

 

York crunch meeting on Lendal Bridge restrictions

York’s Lendal Bridge could be reopened* by the weekend if Liberal Democrat calls are supported at a crunch meeting on Thursday.

Lendal bridge after its clsure

Labour run City of York Council’s controversial six month trial closure was due to end in February, but they have extended the restrictions until May as they are yet to make a decision on whether the bridge should stay closed.

 

Figures released by the Council last week revealed that 53,000 motorists have now been fined for crossing Lendal Bridge, congestion in areas such as Foss Islands Road and Clifton Bridge has worsened, and most Park & Ride journey times in the city have increased.

Cllr Ann Reid, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Transport, will move a motion at Thursday’s Full Council meeting calling on the closure restrictions to be lifted. She commented:
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80% of Lendal Bridge fines issued to visitors

A freedom of information response from the York Council has revealed that the vast majority of fines issued to drivers using Lendal Bridge are to vehicles registered outside the York area.

Lendal Bridge signs

Around 80% of the PCNs issued arrive on visitors doormats.

As hinted at by some correspondents on this web site, the Council has been unable to sustain the fines if appeals are lodged and then pursued as far as a tribunal.

11,578 (24%) of PCNs issued have attracted appeals

The Council says that 8087 (17%) of PCNs “have been cancelled following representations and for other reasons”.

The figures confirm that the signage used to indicate the restrictions on bridge access are hopelessly inadequate.

They will help to underpin the motion to next weeks York Council meeting from Cllr Ann Reid who will ask for the ANPR cameras to be switched off immediately.

The full motion reads:
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Lendal Bridge – more stats creep out. Transport boss heads for Orkney

Lendal Bridge

Lendal Bridge

Following yesterdays Lendal Bridge story – in which we revealed that the York Council had failed to live up to its promise to publish monthly monitoring reports – the statistics for period 6 (February) have now appeared on their web site.

A total of 53,605 drivers had been fined for crossing Lendal Bridge during restricted hours by the end of February.

In addition 15,907 fines had been issued on Coppergate.

The full figures can be downloaded from here

Meanwhile other monitoring data can be found by clicking here.

Most Park and Ride journeys are taking longer with the number 2 service for Rawcliffe via Leeman Road the worst affected showing an increase in journey time of around 2 minutes.

Traffic volumes are up on Clifton Bridge, Foss Islands Road, Shipton Road and Malton Road.

Not surprisingly, Clifton Bridge is worst affected (+167 vehicle movements)

Meanwhile the media are reporting that Daren Richardson, who has been the Director of Planning and Transport for the York Council for the last 18 months, is quitting the City and heading for Orkney.

It is unclear whether he hopes to take any of York’s bridges with him!

Lendal Bridge – the saga continues

According to information released by the Council yesterday a decision on the future of the access restrictions on Lendal Bridge will be taken at a meeting being held on 6th May.

However many items on the Councils Forward Programme of decision debates are subsequently put back – some indefinitely.

The Council’s web site has been very “flaky” over the last few weeks with many residents complaining about difficulty in accessing the background papers for meetings with some pages simply “freezing” for long periods of time.

Lendal Bridge in 1868, five years after it was first opened. To pay for the costs of constructing the bridge, a toll of two pence per (horse drawn) vehicle was charged until 1894. A £60 charge was reintroduced by York’s Labour Council in August 2014

Lendal Bridge in 1868, five years after it was first opened. To pay for the costs of constructing the bridge, a toll of two pence per (horse drawn) vehicle was charged until 1894. A £60 charge was reintroduced by York’s Labour Council in August 2014

The Council has so far failed to supply the month 6 progress report on their web site. This was information that they promised to regularly update.

Some may think that this suggests that some “cleansing” of the data is already underway.

Nor has the Council published the results of its survey of residents opinion  or details of the “public opinion poll” which they announced earlier in the month

The first debate and vote on the future of Lendal bridge will come at the Council meeting taking place on Thursday 27th March. The Liberal Democrats will propose that the ANPR cameras are switched off immediately.

They will also be pressing Cllr Merrett to answer the questions that he evaded at the Council meeting held in December.

The questions ask for information on,

“a)  The number of appeals lodged each week since the beginning of August against PCNs issued for contraventions of traffic restrictions on Coppergate and Lendal Bridge

b)  The number of appeals which have been successful each week

c)  The total revenue that the Council has received so far from PCNs following the introduction of the new restrictions on  Coppergate and Lendal Bridge

d)  The weekly changes to journey times (all modes of transport) on each arterial road and on each section of the inner ring road since the introduction of the new traffic restrictions

e)  The numbers of accidents reported on roads in the City centre comparing the last 6 months with the equivalent period in 2012/13

a)  The latest air quality monitoring reports for key sites in and close to the City centre, including the Leeman Road area, and comparing these with last year?”

Lib Dems call for Lendal Bridge to reopen

Simon Hughes MP and Cllr Keith Aspden

Simon Hughes MP and Cllr Keith Aspden

 

York Liberal Democrats will formally call for Lendal Bridge to reopen at a council meeting later this month.

The council’s six month trial closure was due to end on the 27th February, but Labour have extended the restrictions indefinitely as they are yet to make a decision on whether the bridge should reopen.

Since the closure started in August over 45,000 motorists have been fined for crossing the bridge and the trial has been attacked by businesses, residents and tourist groups. The latest figures show that traffic levels on Foss Islands Road and Water End at Clifton Bridge have increased while the trial has failed to improve overall bus times or air quality.

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LibDems force Council to reopen Lendal Bridge

Watch out for confused drivers!

Watch out for confused drivers!

The Council has announced that the ANPR cameras on Lendal bridge will be switched off on Saturday.

They are also covering up the signs advertising the restrictions.

The arrangement is to allow a “Trades Union march” through the City centre.

The march coincides with the arrival in the City of the Liberal Democrat spring conference (Hooray!).

Hitherto the Council has said that it could not suspend the restrictions or switch off the ANPR cameras as this would “confuse motorists”.

It appears that the Labour Council in York remains under the control of the Trade Unions despite claims to the contrary after their conference last week.

Details of the route of the march can be found here.

Marchers/shoppers should be on the look out for large numbers of confused drivers.

City centre visitor numbers show small increase in February

increase-footfall-retail

Continuing mild weather, and a recovering economy, boosted visitor numbers in York City centre by 3% during February compared to the same month in 2013.

Although the increase is less than is being experienced in similar High Streets elsewhere in the country, no doubt tourism chiefs will point to the success of special events such as the Viking Festival as part of the explanation for the reversal in fortunes.

The modest increase is unlikely to be enough to deflect criticism from the unpopular Lendal bridge closure which continues to dog the reputation of York City centre.

Huge increases in car parking charges – which are scheduled to be introduced later in the spring when York residents will lose their “Minster badge” discounts – are another cause for apprehension.

The first Saturday in March saw 38,882 visitors recorded on the Parliament Street footfall cameras.

This compared to 50,054 on the equivalent Saturday last year.

The full footfall figures can be seen by clicking here.

Lendal Bridge

As we predicted when the “trial” started the Council intends to continue the restrictions on access to Lendal Bridge for an indefinite period.

There is no item in the Councils forward programme of meeting topics so a decision before June is unlikely.

The latest figures on the Council web site show that most Park and Ride bus services are talking longer to complete their journeys. No data has been produced for other bus services.

No information on bus passenger numbers has been published although total passenger journeys in 2013 showed a further reduction on 2012.

The number of shoppers in the City centre has reduced

Other road users – particularly those living near the city centre – have found journey times doubling.

Meanwhile over 60,000 motorists have been fined on Lendal and Coppergate. Many of these have been visitors who have vowed never to return to the City.

Labour Councillors have now stepped up their campaign of misinformation.

They say that there were forecasts of gridlock. Few said this because (between 10:00am and 4:30pm) there is spare capacity on most of the highways network in York for most of the week.

Some predicted traffic chaos in some circumstances such as poor weather conditions. In a generally mild winter, they were proved right.

Labour have claimed that the LibDems included in their 2011 Local Transport Plan proposals to close Lendal bridge. Actually the reference was to a trial closure of Ouse Bridge (which has many more bus services using it and which does not form part of the ring road). But this would only have happened after proper consultation.

Labour claim that “traffic congestion will increase three fold in 10 years“.

But their transport spokesman made the same claims a decade ago and, of course, it hasn’t happened. Drivers have found different ways of getting to their destinations and at different times of the day.

They don’t rush lemming like to the nearest traffic jam.

Congestion levels in York have been fairly stable now since 1998.

It would be a strange Council that argued that “something has to be done“, then promptly decided on a course of action that actually makes things worse for the majority of travellers.

Reopen Lendal Bridge Now!