The sculpture, a medieval stone window in a brick surround, depicts the heritage of the city as the site is situated on the original roman road leading to the gateway to the City of York.
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Councillor Levene has now given a absolute commitment that all works connected with the Poppleton Bar park and ride site – plus associated works on the A1237 and the A59 will be completed by 31st July.
In an answer published to a question tabled at the last Council meeting he says,the contractors are scheduled to leave site by the end of the month.
The premature opening of the Poppleton Bar site has also been under fire although the numbers using the service are claimed to be similar to the figures at other Park and Ride sites immediately after their introduction.
| Month 1 trip numbers | Month 13 trip numbers | Month 25 trip numbers | |
| Grimston Bar (1994): | 3,889 | 14,525 | 21,891 |
| Designer Outlet (2000): | 9,606 | 18,495 | 21,524 |
| Monks Cross (2004) | 13,550 | 35,429 | 43,797 |
| Poppleton Bar (2014) | 9,148 (8/6/14 – 1/7/14) |
From opening, the number of cars parked at the new Poppleton Park & Ride site is between 70 – 100.
On a Saturday this increases to 200.
With many of the electric buses running empty, the Council has been criticised for unnecessarily increasing CO2 emissions.
In response to a written question the responsible cabinet member has revealed that the provision of an on site wind turbine was aborted at the last minute. He claimed,
“the electric buses charge overnight at the First Depot in York. The electricity grid is off-peak at this time and of lower carbon intensity. There was a wind turbine in the design for Poppleton Bar however the supplier went out of business a month before installation. Officers are currently exploring alternative suppliers of renewable generation equipment for Poppleton Bar which could supply sufficient power for the on-site Rapid chargers which boost the range of the electric buses”.
Labour Councillors have claimed that the decision to open the Poppleton Park and Ride site was taken by “officers” implying that they had no influence over the blunder.
Despite this 3 Labour Councillors were featured in a media photograph which covered the sites official opening.
Boroughbridge Rd southeast bound closed between A1237 & Beckfield Ln junctions 09:30hrs 16th July till 15:30hrs 22nd July due to road works.
— York Travel (@york_travel) July 10, 2014
The lane restrictions had been lifted for the Tour de France.
Now, with work at the junction dragging on, further congestion and inconvenience for drivers is expected.
The nearby Park and Ride site is also far from finished and the delays and the decision of the Council – to start bus services from the unfinished site – will be considered at the York Council meeting next week (17th).
Questions tabled include:
(xxxiv) To the Cabinet Member for Transport from Cllr Reid:
“Who took the decision, and when, to open the new Park and Ride site at Poppleton before work had been completed (the outstanding works on 9th June included car parking space, signage, traffic signals, road junction layout, layout, A1237 junction improvements etc) and when will all work connected with the Park and Ride site and associated road works be completed?”
(xxxvi) To the Cabinet Member for Transport from Cllr Reid:
“ What has been the number of vehicles parked on average each day at the new Park and Ride site at Poppleton and how many passengers have been carried by the new buses on each day since 9th June?”
The Park and Ride service was opened prematurely by the Council 3 weeks ago although essential signage, traffic signals, parking bays, landscaping and improvements to the A1237/A59 junction had not been completed.
Not surprisingly, despite the novelty of being able to ride on the City’s first electric buses, user numbers have been very low.
Most bus services are running empty.
By Saturday evening carriageway surfacing had been completed near the roundabout but lane restrictions remain in place as work to access footpaths and the cycle path has yet to be finished.
The Park and Ride site itself resembles the set of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
It will present a poor backdrop for the TV pictures of the Tour de France riders who are scheduled to pass the site next Sunday morning.
TV coverage is scheduled to be beamed world wide and was one of the main reasons given by the Council for its £1.6 million investment in the event.
The Council has failed to provide any explanation for the latest delays nor for its decision to open the Park and Ride facility before work was completed.
The failure is the latest in a sting of misadventures which saw that Council forced to abandon plans to turn Monk Stray into a camping site and which has seen very low ticket sales for their highly expensive Grand Departee concert being held at Huntington Stadium on Friday.
They have, however, now added the popular local band HUGE to the concert programme no doubt ensuring that the Council’s propaganda machine will be able to refer to a huge attendance at the event!
The York Council has been criticised by motorists for not delaying the start, on the resurfacing the carriageway near the Marble Arch bridge on Leeman Road, until the Poppleton roadworks were completed..
It has now been confirmed that the work is being undertaken at the same time as severe restrictions on the A1237 northern by pass continue to be applied.
The Council has issued a statement today saying,
“‘Businesses are open’, is the message City of York Council is emphasising whilst contractors complete overnight highways works in the north of the city.
Following the opening of the Poppleton Bar Park&Ride, the focus now moves to completing the highway works along the A59 at the junctions with Station Road, Poppleton and the York Outer Ring Road.
Contactors Belfour Beatty will continue to work at night in the area as follows:
Askham Bar cycle parking in use
The new Askham Bar park and ride site on Tadcaster Road has proved to be popular with drivers.
Many have transferred from the, now closed, site adjacent to Tesco – making the most of the additional spaces now available.
At 11:00am today a small queue of bus passengers had formed.
However work on the site has still not been completed.
Official estimates say that it could be another 2 weeks before all the work is done.
Well used car park at Askham Bar
Still the Council were right to bring the site into service as soon as practical. It has reduced the number of vehicles on Tadcaster Road and buses are taking advantage of the reduced congestion to run into the City centre more quickly.
The situation at the other new site at Poppleton Bar couldn’t be a bigger contrast.
Fewer than 100 vehicles were using the car park there this morning.
A substantial amount of work needs to be done both on the car park and on the nearby highway network.
Askham Bar bus waiting area
Unfortunately, by then, damage to the park and ride site’s reputation may be beyond repair.
Buses continue to be mired in a web of temporary traffic lights and lane restrictions.
Electric bus at Poppleton Bar
Ironically one of the major improvements yet to be commissioned is the cycle underpass on the A1237. This was to be used to encourage cyclists to pedal to the park and ride site before boarding a bus to complete their journey.
click for video
There are two aspects of the new Park and Ride services which the Labour Council Leadership will be keen to avoid discussing over the next few days
The first is the crass stupidity of launching the Poppleton Park and Ride site before road works in the area had been completed.
Another 2 or 3 weeks and the service could have been sold – to those travelling to the City from the north – as being a quicker, cheaper, congestion reducing and a more environmentally friendly way of accessing the City.
It is none of these things at present with traffic congestion as likely to delay the park and ride buses as those drivers who continue their journeys into the City by car.
This morning (off peak) the electric buses were taking over 5 minutes to exit the site and cross the A1237 junction.
Not surprisingly the buses were empty with only a handful of cars parked at the new centre.
The second policy – now relegated to the long grass – is Labours “Quality Bus Contract” plan.
When In opposition, they were keen to blame all public transport deficiencies in the City on the lack of influence that the Council had on bus fares and routing policy.
Labour’s solution was to introduce what is known as a “Statutory Quality Bus Contract”.
This, in effect, is a franchising system when bus companies bid to provide services to a contract specification set by the Council.
Labour were warned in 2009 that their plan was impossibly expensive to operate and would only get the go ahead in areas where bus use was falling.
Decisions taken in 2011 by the new Labour administration – not least scrapping the popular ftr service – meant that bus usage reversed a trend of several years and started to decline.
However, more recently, timetable changes have reversed the trend again.
In 2010, when decisions on how to take forward a trial of a bus contract system were being considered, the Council agreed to trial the use of the franchise system in part of the City.
The area selected was York north west – essentially the Poppleton/Acomb to City centre quadrant.
One of the options was to integrate the new Park and Ride services with the stage carriage services in the area, providing a more frequent service for some parts of the Boroughbridge Road/Poppleton area.
It was likely that off peak services would have benefited considerably.
After spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on the miscalculated “bus contract” adventure Labour quietly abandoned their plans some 18 months ago.
Unfortunately they now appear also to have ditched the promised integrated public transport system in north west York!
Poppleton Bar park and ride site
The Council are claiming that battery powered buses will run from the Poppleton Park and Ride site from Sunday.
If they do, then it will be due to the efforts of workers on the car park and Poppleton roundabout improvements which were still far from finished earlier today.
Battery powered buses were first proposed by the, then LibDem controlled, Council in 2010.
The introduction of seven zero emission buses on the new park and ride route now is due to a grant from the coalition government.
It is a step in the right direction.
However, there will be some concern that the new service is being introduced before works at the car park site (opposite the Wyevale garden centre) and on the A59/A1237 junction have been completed.
The new service needs to be a showpiece for the City – not just in terms of appearance, but also in providing a swift journey across a junction which has often been congested in the past.
We seem to be some days away from being able to guarantee that kind of improved visitor experience.
The new Park and Ride site at Askham Bar seems to be further advanced and should be ready for service on Sunday.
‘Businesses are open’, is the message City of York Council is emphasising whilst contractors complete overnight highways works in the North of the city.
Works to improve the area surrounding the A59/A1237 junction in preparation for the opening of the new Poppleton Bar Park&Ride site have been extended because of unforeseen circumstances.
The period of night time working is being extended due to a number of unexpected utility services and difficult ground conditions that have been encountered. The works will continue to take place overnight to minimise overall disruption during peak travel times.
Access is available to all businesses and properties during these periods but drivers may need to follow diversions.
The overnight works are taking place as follows:
A59: May 22 – June 15 2014 (not including Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays). Nightshifts controlled by temporary traffic signals. No access to A1237 from A59 during overnight works (May 22 to June 6)
A1237: May 22 – June 6 2014 (not including Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays). Nightshifts under temporary closure from Wetherby Road (B1224) to Great North Way (York Business Park).
The temporary closure will not be implemented on Bank Holiday Monday (26 May) and for the remainder of that week the road will be closed at 10pm until 6am the following morning. Outside of those dates the closure will be from 8pm until 6 am.
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Askham Bar new park and ride site layout. click to enlarge
Work at both new Park and Ride sites (Poppleton and Askham Bar) is now expected to be substantially completed by 30th May.
Some highway works at Poppleton will still be outstanding at that date.
The hope is that the sites themselves will become operational on 8th June.