Contractors jumping gun as Newbury Ave development starts before parking bay completed?

Building contractors have moved  onto the Newbury Avenue building site before a promised parking bay has been brought into use. The contract is worth £730,000 and will see 5 bungalows built on the site.

The Council had originally insisted that the 4 space bay be provided before work started on demolishing the garages. They later hurriedly changed the condition to say the bays must be provided before construction work started.

The intention was that the bays would provide some relief for local residents forced to park “on street” when  20 or so vehicles are displaced from the garages.

That hasn’t happened and work has only just started on the bays.

Official’s had blamed a slow response from a utility company that had been asked to move one of its boxes.

Sadly the other parking bays promised for the beleaguered estate have also not  been provided.

Local Councillors had allocated funding from their delegated estate improvement and ward committee budgets. They surveyed residents opinions on suitable sites a couple of months ago and received the thumbs up for locations near Beverley Court and Kempton Close.

But no feedback on the plans  has subsequently been given to residents.

With only 6 weeks until the end of the financial year, there is now doubt whether the Windsor Garth and Danesfort Avenue spaces will actually be provided.

Newbury Avenue building contractor now on site

Parking lay-by work not yet competed.

Demolition of Newbury Avenue garages set to add to parking problems in Kingsway area

Residents only have until 11th April to record any objections to plans to demolish the 28 garages on Newbury Avenue. 

There is a lot of concern that the planning application, to build 5 bungalows on the site, has been submitted before work on providing alternative, off street, car parking in area has even started.

Although the bungalow proposal has received more support that the original plan to build a block of flats on the site, parking problems have increased in the intervening 2 years.

As long ago as 2012 the Council stopped letting the garages when they became vacant. Some were used for temporary shortage, but several have remained empty.

There is a long waiting list of people wanting to rent garages in the area.

These underused garages, together with the pressures put on spaces by visitors to the new Hob Stone development, has led to a campaign by local residents to get more off-street parking (Email Hob.Moor@btinternet.com).

Last year, local Councillors identified at least 8 possible sites.

These included one on Kingsway West with the rest being on Windsor Garth and Ascot Way. The plan was to use matrix surfacing so the spaces continued to look like they were still part of the green areas (the technique has already been used successfully on other plots in the estate).

The spaces were to have been partly funded by the “Ward Committee” who have a delegated budget of around £50,000 a year. Initially it was hoped that lay-bys would be provided in 2016 but this didn’t happen.

A report to a recent meeting has now confirmed that none of the 2017/18 financial year laybys will be completed before November 2018 at the earliest.

To add to transport pressures on the estate, the Council is also considering major redevelopment plans for the Lincoln Court/Windsor House site which could further add to parking and congestion problems on estate roads.

Inadequate parking provision has led to access problems for larger vehicles and the bus service.

The planning application gives details of a  contamination survey that have been completed on the site together within internal layout plans for the bungalows.

Objectors to the planning application – who can ask that the planning committee impose a Section 106 agreement requiring the developer to fund 28 alternative parking spaces before any work commences – should be Emailed to the Council at planning.comments@york.gov.uk quoting reference 18/00410/GRG3  before 11th April.