Lendal Bridge closure poll – Council trying to manipulate public opinion?

Lendal bridge - always been busy at 5;00pm

Lendal bridge – always been busy at 5;00pm

The Council are reminding everyone that they need to complete an “on line” survey to make their views known on the Lendal Bridge “trial”.

So far the Council have refused to release details of the results from the original questionnaire which had been available on their web site since last October.

Some of the questions have now been changed, so the intention clearly is to begin again and total the responses from a new (much later) base date.

Many who have completed the old survey may not know that they now  need to update their answers.

You can access the Council form  by clicking here

It takes about 3 minutes to complete.

Meanwhile the independent survey being conducted by the Liberal Democrats in west York is still showing that 88% believe that the Lendal bridge access restrictions should be lifted.

5% want  the restrictions to continue and 7% remain undecided.

Lendal Bridge/Coppergate camera fine victims now exceed 60,000.

Lendal bridge notice60,414 drivers have been issued with penalty notices for driving on Lendal Bridge and Coppergate since new restrictions were introduced in August.

Of these 46,323 were caught by cameras on Lendal Bridge while 14,091 were photographed on Coppergate.

The numbers being caught in both locations increased towards the end of January.

The complete figures can be downloaded by clicking here.

Meanwhile the media are reporting that the Council has received £1.3 in fine income.

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Latest City centre shopper numbers – Lendal Bridge trial could go on and on and on

The Council has issued the latest City centre footfall figures.

The figures show more people visited Parliament Street during December and January this winter than in the equivalent period 12 months ago.

increase-footfall-retail

However compared to 2012, numbers are down by 9%.

The decline in shopper numbers is likely to have been influenced by the Councils decision to impose substantial car parking charge increases.

It appears that the “free” car parking day on Saturday did not produce the hoped for increases in footfall.

The numbers monitored on Saturday (1st Feb 2014) was 31,974 compared to the busiest Saturdays in the two previous years when 37,137 (2nd Feb 13) and 40,951 (28th Jan 12) people respectively were recorded on Parliament Street.

The full figures can be found here.

Meanwhile the Council leaflet, issued to residents, which talked about “Reinvigorating York” has been branded as misleading.

Claims made in the leaflet that, post the Lendal Bridge closure, “bus reliability had improved” are in conflict with the Councils own published monitoring reports.

The 4 month monitoring report (another is now due covering the period to the end of January) shows that changes to bus journey times have been insignificant although the majority are taking longer to complete their journeys.

One (the number 7 Park and Ride link to the Designer centre) showed an increase in delays of over 3 minutes during December.

The leaflet hints that the Councils Leadership does not intend to suspend the closure at the end of the 6 month trial on 28th February.

Rather, they are now intending to prolong the ”trial” until they analyse the monitoring data which has been produced.  The Council have declined to say how long this backroom analysis will take.

Meanwhile the latest survey results continue to show 79% opposed to the Lendal Bridge closure, 7% support it while 14% remain undecided.

92% say that traffic congestion in the City is getting worse.

The number of PCNs issued on Lendal Bridge and in Coppergate had reached 53,420 by the end of last year according to official figures published on the Councils web site.

City centre repaving consultation

The York Council is delivering a leaflet to all households outlining its plans for resurfacing works in the City centre.

Exhibition Square plans

Exhibition Square plans

They are right to do so but, in pointing to improvements planned for Exhibition Square, Blake Street and Fossgate, they lamentably fail to answer the question that will be on every taxpayer’s lips.

How much will these paving schemes cost?

There is little new in the leaflet.  The Labour Council changed the Council’s forward programme in 2011 putting the modernisation of Kings Square ahead of the Fossgate pedestrianisation scheme which had been set to go ahead in 2012.

Next in line were to have been improvements to Duncombe Place, which could have provided a large and useful pedestrian precinct.

But the Councils increasing financial problems meant that progress would inevitably have slowed.

Residents might usefully have been asked when completing the “on line” survey whether they want any of these schemes to go ahead or whether the money might be better spent repairing the roads in sub-urban areas?

The danger in the Councils approach is that the improvement of the City centre may become politically toxic.

Against a background of plans for a further £1 million cut in road maintenance in sub-urban areas, residents are likely to demand of Council candidates – at the next local elections in 2015 – a commitment to improving public service standards in residential areas.

The City centre may find that its share of available resources is reduced.

The art of evading difficult questions

One of the checks and balances on the power of Council Cabinets/Executives has been the requirement that their members answer question form backbench members at full Council meetings.

Questions are submitted in writing at least a week before the meeting is scheduled to take place, providing plenty of time for answers to be researched.  Until 2011, both questions and written answers were circulated at the beginning of meetings allowing Councillors to ask “follow up” questions.

That protocol was abandoned in 2011 when the new Labour administration decided to circulate answers several days after the meeting had taken place. Effectively this removed any possibility of challenge through supplementary questions.

DM half past three

The management of York Council meetings has deteriorated to the point where questions re rarely reached these days anyway. 70% of the items on the Council agenda were not reached at its last meeting. Business was simply voted through without discussion.

The lack of scrutiny provides unscrupulous Cabinet members with an opportunity to avoid answering difficult questions.

At the meeting on 12th December Cllr Merrett was asked the following question. 

“On the Lendal Bridge/Coppergate restrictions could the Cabinet Member confirm the following figures:

  1. 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
  2. The number of appeals which have been successful each week
  3. The total revenue that the Council has received so far from PCNs following the introduction of the new restrictions on  Coppergate and Lendal Bridge
  4. 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
  5. The numbers of accidents reported on roads in the City centre comparing the last 3 months with the equivalent period in 2012
  6. 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?”

This expecting a short factual answer will have been disappointed.  None of the requested numbers were provided.

The reply read

“Data is being ‘harvested’ for vehicle travel times across the city and far more detailed information will be published when this data becomes available in the new year.

Travel time data for radial arterial routes for Park and Ride has already been published and this clearly demonstrates that that the restriction has not led to the ‘dire effect on traffic’ nor the gridlock as anticipated by some.

Traffic flow data for these radial routes reinforces this – the flows are very similar comparing this year to last year.

Buses using the bridge are showing significant reductions in travel times – with average travel times Clarence Street to Rougier Street reducing by 4 to 5 minutes and 2 to 3 minutes in the reverse direction.

Improvements in vehicle flow have been observed at the Station Frontage, Lendal Arch Gyratory, Museum Street, St Leonards Place, Bootham, Gillygate, Clarence Street and Lord Mayors Walk.

Water End has seen an increase in traffic volume (as was predicted) although Clifton Green is generally coping well with the additional traffic, albeit with some late afternoon pressures at the junction. Signal adjustment has been undertaken and the situation continues to be closely monitored on a day to day basis via CCTV.

Skeldergate Bridge, Walmgate Bar and Foss Islands Road have seen increases in traffic (as was predicted) and some increase in the level of delay.

The traffic control centre continues to actively manage the traffic to help minimise the impact.

e)   The numbers of accidents reported on roads in the City centre comparing the last 3 months with the equivalent period in 2012

There is a lag of 3 to 4 months between an accident being reported to the police and it being available for analysis on our accident database. People have 28 days to report injury accidents and the data then requires inputting and validating by the police and the council. Data for Sep, Oct, Nov 2013 will become available in the new year.

For information the total number of accidents on roads within the city centre (inner ring road boundary) for 2012 are:

IRR – 01/09/2012 to 30/11/2012 (all times of day)

Fatal = 0

Serious = 1

Slight = 28

IRR – 01/09/2012 to 30/11/2012 (between 10:30 – 17:00 hrs)

Fatal = 0

Serious = 0

Slight = 12”   

As a result of the evasion, the requested information is likely to be the subject of a Freedom of Information request.

Updated public opinion survey results – Lendal Bridge closure, traffic congestion, 20 mph speed limits

These are the public opinion survey results for West York updated as at 20th December 2013.

Traffic   congestion getting worse? Agree 91%
Disagree 2%
Unde 7%
Lendal   Bridge closure a success Agree 7%
Disagree 80%
Unde 13%
Lendal   bridge – lift access restrictions Agree 87%
Disagree 5%
Unde 8%
No   justification for building in Green Belt Agree 90%
Disagree 3%
Unde 7%
Public   service standards are deteriorating Agree 89%
Disagree 2%
Unde 9%
I am opposed to city wide 20 mph speed limit Agree 81%
Disagree 7%
Unde 12%

The Council is also conducting an “on line” poll on the Lendal Bridge “trial”

It can be accessed by clicking here.

Latest Lendal Bridge report reveals 3000 drivers a week still being fined

 No significant change to Park and Ride bus service journey times as total number fined climbs to 45,000.

The Council have now published an updated report on their web site assessing the impact of the Lendal Bridge closure.

Traffic on Lendal bridge after closure

Traffic on Lendal bridge after closure

Any hopes that the information would be objective and impartial are quickly dispelled as the report resorts to sloganising “York remains very much open for business” whatever that is supposed to mean.

The figures for Park and Ride show small increases in the number of passengers (following a trend evident for the last 6 years over which passenger growth on the services has been sustained each year).

Some services show small reductions in journey times since the Lendal Bridge restrictions were introduced. Others – like the link to the Designer Centre – show increases in journey times.

This rather confirms what is so obvious to many – that traffic congestion, on alternative routes to Lendal, is continuing to increase.

No information is provided on normal “stage carriage” bus services.

There was a 10% increase in traffic volumes on Clifton bridge when comparing November 2013 with the same month last year. Increased traffic volumes on Foss Islands Road are also evident.

The report makes no attempt to assess increases in journey times or costs for drivers. There is no information about pollution levels

The Council has also updated the tables showing the number of Penalty Charge Notices issued to drivers on Lendal Bridge and in Coppergate.

The numbers fined on Coppergate doubled to 595 during the St Nicholas Fayre week.

The number issued on Lendal Bridge is still regularly in excess of 2500 a week.

70% of the tickets issued are to visitors to the City

Lendal: 
02-08 Sept (4   days enforcement, commenced Wednesday 1675
09-15 Sept   2015 (6 days enforcement, because of the Skyride event) 2015
16-23   Sept  (5 days enforcement, cameras   updating) 1766
23 – 29   September 2,762 PCNs issued (6 days enforcement) 2762
30 Sep – 6   October 1,885 PCNs issued (5 days enforcement) 1885
7 – 13   October 2,487 PCNs issued (5   days enforcement)  2487
14 – 20   October 3,640 PCNs issued  3640
21 – 27   October 3,879 PCNs issued  3879
28 Oct – 3   November 4,098PCNs issued  4098
4 – 10   November 1,921 PCNs   issued  1921
11 – 17   November 3,172 PCNs issued 3172
18 – 24   November 2,801 PCNs issued 2801
25 Nov – 2   December 2,553 PCNs issued 2553
 Coppergate: 
15-18   August  (4 days enforcement, commenced   Wednesday) 1085
19-25 August 1741
26-01 Sept 880
02-08 Septd 850
09-15   Sept  (6 days enforcement, because of   the Skyride event) 841
16-22   Sept  (5 days enforcement, cameras   updating and gas works commenced) 324
23 – 29   September 405 PCNs issued (6 days enforcement) 405
30 Sep – 6   October 345 PCNs issued (5 days enforcement) 345
7 – 13   October 593 PCNs issued (5 days enforcement) 593
14 – 20   October 869 PCNs issued 869
21 – 27   October 755 PCNs issued (6   days enforcement)  755
28 Oct – 3   November 416PCNs issued  416
4 Nov – 10   November 146 PCNs issued # 146
11 – 17   November 240 PCNs issued # 240
18 – 24   November 251 PCNs issued # 251
25 Nov – 2   December 595 PCNs issued 595

– Of all PCNs reviewed, up to Monday 8 December 2013, there was a 30:70 split on YO and non-YO postcodes.

# – only one camera operational.

Lendal Bridge – information delays

It’s a shame that it is taking the Council so long to update the Lendal Bridge information that it promised to provide on its web site each month.

Lendal bridge noticeThe November report is long overdue now.

The Labour Leader is apparently  claiming on “twitter” that bus use has increased, but then it always does in the run up to Christmas.  So lets see the numbers!

Also still being withheld are the answers to the  following questions which were tabled to Cllr Merrett at last week’s Council meeting.

Cllr Ann Reid asked, two questions

1. “On the Lendal Bridge/Coppergate restrictions could the Cabinet Member confirm the following figures:

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 3 months with the equivalent period in 2012

f)    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?”

2. “In the first three months of the closure period on Lendal Bridge, what have been the average increases in:

a)   Mileage

b)   Journey time

c)   Cost

for private car drivers who otherwise would have used the bridge?”

All we have had so far from Cllr Merrett is comments in the Press claiming that the closure was the Liberal Democrat’s idea!!!

York Council bus bid 2012

York Council bus bid 2012

He bases this extraordinary departure from reality on the basis that the Transport Plan, that was agreed in April 2011,  said that reducing traffic on Lendal Bridge was a long term objective.

……..and so it should be. But fix the alternative routes first!

Cllr Merrett’s other attempts to duck responsibility are aimed at deflecting criticism onto the government.

It is one of the better  features of current government’s policy that it does not proscribe how grants for improvements to transport systems – and other projects – are spent. That responsibility is delegated to local Councils.

It is in marked contrast to the micro management inflicted on local communities by the last Labour government.

So it is Cllr Merrett who must take personal responsibility for the timing of the new restrictions, the consultation process, as well as the way the restrictions are signed and enforced.