Coronavirus York updates – 8th April 2020

Advice for cyclists

Some good advice taken from the Minsterfm web site. https://www.minsterfm.com/news/local/3078679/coronavirus—wednesday-8th-april-live-local-updates/

One family group of cyclists was seen wobbling down the A1237 today. Parallel routes are safer!

NORTH YORKSHIRE POLICE ISSUES ADVICE TO NOVICE CYCLISTS

Police are sharing safety advice for cyclists as more people take to two wheels for their form of daily exercise.

Despite quieter roads, police are warning cyclists they still need to take safety seriously, as well as observing new rules to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Government measures allow “one form of exercise a day, for example a run, walk, or cycle – alone or with members of your household”.

The government goes on to say: “When doing this you must minimise the time you are out of your home and stay at least two metres away from anyone else that isn’t from your household.”

Major Collision Investigation Sergeant Kirsten Aldridge said:

“While North Yorkshire roads are quieter, there are still lots of things cyclists need to be mindful of.

“Firstly, quieter roads have led to some drivers dramatically exceeding the speed limit. While we’re trying to enforce this as widely as possible, it puts cyclists and pedestrians at significant risk.

“Secondly, the government measures make it clear that cyclists need to practice social distancing and should only ride alone or with people from the same household. Please remember that, as our officers are out on patrol ensuring people follow these rules.

“Finally, we’d remind drivers that they should always expect the unexpected around each corner, especially at the moment, and pass cyclists at a minimum distance of 1.5 metres when it is safe to do so.”

North Yorkshire Police has also noticed that many new cyclists are taking to the road, including families with children who have started cycling as their one-a-day form of exercise.

The force is sharing the following seven safety tips with novices:

- Plan your journey in advance and advise someone of where you are going and when you intend to return, especially if you are cycling in a remote location.
- If you are riding as a family with young children, consider riding routes with dedicated cycle paths to ensure the safety of young children and pedestrians. Please remember that if you are cycling on the roads that vehicles such as HGVs, are still regularly travelling routes in order to move much-needed supplies. Large vehicles might scare and unbalance young children on bicycles when overtaking them.
- Ensure that your bicycle is road-worthy. If it has been unused for a while, ensure that the mechanisms such as brakes and gears are working and that tyres are pumped up before starting any ride. Brake failure can cause a serious collision.
- Think about your positioning in the road and whether you can be seen by other road users. Wearing reflective clothing and ensuring that your bike is fitted with lights and/ or reflective discs helps with visibility. Assuming a position towards the centre of the lane where possible maximises the rider’s line of vision and means that other road users have a clear view of you.
- If you are riding with protection around your face ensure that this does not restrict your head movement and that you are able to look around freely without restriction so that safety checks can be carried out.
- If you’re riding with your family, help motorists overtake you with the safe distance of 1.5 metres, promoted by our Close Pass campaign, by filtering down to single file.
- Effectively communicate with other road users, by using hand signals when turning left or right. Try to make eye contact with other road users and pedestrians to ensure that they have seen you.

Sgt Aldridge added: “As long as people follow the government’s rules about how they exercise and observe social distancing while they do it, we want to give people the knowledge they need to ride safely.

“North Yorkshire is a beautiful county with a strong cycling scene and 6,000 miles of roads. That’s plenty of road for everyone if all road users stick to the law, take sensible precautions and look out for one another.”

Takeaway deliveries in west York on Google Maps

Google maps https://www.google.com/maps/ is now listing takeaways that do home deliveries.

Download the app from https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/google-maps/id585027354

In west York they list Buongiorno (tel. 07985 797754), Bengal Lounge (tel. 01904 796666), Taverna Yamas (tel. 07960 920979), Woodthorpe Spice (tel. 01904 700070), Salsa Pizza (01904 788888), Pizza Hut (01904 606222), Tea on the Green (01904 789380) and several others.

Not sure how up to date it is.

More deaths from coronavirus at York Hospital

A total of 19 patients with confirmed coronavirus have now died at York Hospital, following a further three fatalities.

Grass cutting and weed control

This service continues.

The Council are maintaining the public highway, which includes highway verges and pavements to keep them in a safe and accessible condition, because:

• If the grass gets too long it will grow onto pavements causing slip/trip hazards and cause sight line issues at junctions

• if weeds grow on pavements they will become unsafe to walk on

• it will cause longer term damage to pavement surfaces, causing the breakup of the surface

• If we don’t keep the weeds under control at the beginning of the year this will put greater pressures on the service for the whole year.

All frontline staff, whether gardening or street cleaning are working alone to ensure social distancing.

NB. Please also keep boundary hedges/tree cut trimmed back from public footpaths

Food deliveries

The Council says that “Staff and volunteers of our community hubs and in the customer centre are continuing to work incredibly hard to support residents who need it. We have attached a document (who we are helping) which sets out who is deemed to be ‘extremely clinically vulnerable’ and the types of support we are offering them and others in communities across the city.

The extremely clinically vulnerable above are supported by food parcels from community hubs.Government guidance on this group and how to protect and work with them Click

In terms of wider support for residents who have asked for help with food:

Those who are generally able and financially secure but who are not able to shop are given a list of food delivery businesses and/or link them to the COVID-19 Mutual Aid facebook groups *

Older or disabled residents who need help with shopping and are financially secure are referred to specialist voluntary organisations such as Age UK, Good Gym
The medically shielded are delivered the Government-provided food which the council supplements especially for those with special dietary needs eg diabetics or coeliacs
People eligible for Food Bank vouchers are sent a delivery from the food bank where appropriate
People struggling for other reasons ie anxiety, caring responsibilities, mobility etc are delivered a Council-sourced food box put together at the hubs.

In addition, parents of children eligible for Free School Meals are given vouchers.

As well as this support volunteers are helping to check on people’s wellbeing by calling individuals to check they are ok and also chat to them for a while to help them feel they aren’t alone.

Vulnerable people who can ask City of York Council for help on COVID19help@york.gov.uk or 01904 551550.Anyone can ask for help from COVID19help@york.gov.uk if they don’t currently get help from CYC or the NHS, or have any help from family or friends”.

*NB. The Council have still not published a list of shops undertaking home deliveries despite many requests.

Morrisons

Morrisons now providing an “essentials” telephone ordering/doorstep delivery service for the vulnerable

Yorwaste

Yorwaste has become the latest employer to deploy theuir workfioece in support of street level public services.

Business grants

The Council started to make payments to local businesses on Monday. They will be working over Easter to complete the process. They are also making checks to weed out any fraudulent claims.

We have started making payments, with several million pounds worth of grants processed today. This is an entirely new process and we have a duty to quality assure every payment and protect York businesses grants from potential fraud. We have had 2,500 applications so far and need to run each one through the government’s anti-fraud software before we can process payments; this is to verify bank account details of organisations which have never had a financial relationship with us before. We’ve started contacting businesses as part of that process and appreciate your patience with us whilst we carry this out. Please remember we will only ask you to verify your details and would never ask you to make payments.

Support for children and young people

Kooth (www.kooth.com) is commissioned by TEWV to offer mental health and well -being support to young people in York and North Yorkshire aged 11-18 years. The service provides young people with:

An opportunity to access support services anonymously
Access to BACP accredited counsellors via online chat
Access on to online articles and magazines written by counsellors
An opportunity for young people to write their own articles and to share their story
Young people can set their own personal goals and are supported by the counsellors online
Young people can access the support service from any internet device, 365 days a year.

Contacts

If you have significant concern regarding a vulnerable pupil please contact MASH: 01904 551900, out of hours: 0845 0349417
If parents have questions regarding childcare, i.e. OOSC/PVI please direct them to: FIS@york.gov.uk

House building

To The Council says it is working to avoid delays to the council’s ambitious housing projects which might incur costs or slow the delivery of much-needed homes.

Lowfield Green

Following a 48-hour pause on construction at Lowfield Green (to complete a thorough risk assessment) a new site working procedure has been drawn up which allows construction of the 140 new homes to continue. The new way of working also keeps building contractor Wates’s employees and their self-employed contractors safely on site.

Ordnance Lane

Momentum around resident engagement has kept going! A workshop for residents on intergenerational living moved online to involve 19 residents and officers. It used a combination of pre-recorded presentations and a live panel with local residents taking centre stage.

Weed killing contract list – York Council checking which areas need to be included

Weeds on back lanes will be cut promises Council

The York Council is looking to appoint a new contractor to undertake its weed killing programme this year. The authority was heavily criticised last summer when many areas became overwhelmed with weed growth. It later turned out that’s many roads and other hard surfaced areas had been missed of the contract list.

Now the Council is saying that all “adopted public highways” will be treated at least three times this year. Depending on the weather, there is a possibility of a fourth application of weed killer.

Treatments should start in March or April.

A map of adopted highways is available to view

A map of adopted highways can be found here

Unfortunately, many hard-surfaced snickets, leisure paths, garage forecourts, play areas and school boundaries do not form part of the adopted network (although they are council owned land). Many of the worst affected areas last year fell into this latter category.

Now local Councillors are being asked to carefully check that the treatment lists for their wards are complete. Residents might be wise to let their local representatives know of any problem locations.

The contract will include the test use of non-chemical methods of weed control.

The Council says it will use additional resources to inspect the results of weed treatment.

“A percentage of streets in each ward will be inspected following each treatment and the City of York Council expect to see evidence of die back of the majority of weeds in each street inspected within 10 days and any re‑treatment necessary to achieve this standard shall be at the Suppliers expense, within 14 days of receiving written instruction from the Contract Manager and the Supplier must bear all costs of any such re‑treatment”.

This does look to be a positive response from the Council. Hopefully the anomalies on the treatment list can be sorted out and a diligent contractor appointed to undertake the work.

Weed spraying inspection lists obtained by York Councillor

Osbaldwick Councillor Mark Warters has obtained a copy of the schedules used to check on the progress being made with weed control spraying in York this summer.

They reveal that only a small proportion of roads were checked by local officials. A substantial payment has been made to the contractors based on this evidence.

Surprisingly those that were checked apparently showed signs of weed “die back”. This contrasts with some of the photographic evidence accumulated by local residents.

The list confirms that many streets and surrounding areas were not included on the spraying lists.

The main issue now relates to how next years weed control programme will be managed.

Contrasting views on the effectiveness of weed control programmes in the Westfield area

How will York tackle weed growth in the future?

The long awaited report, into the collapse of weed control activities in the City this summer, has now been published.

Key routes into the City were disfigured

The report lists several actions which might be undertaken to prevent a repetition of the problems.

It was clear as long ago as June that something was seriously amiss with the Council contract.

A contract has been let which had omitted several key roads like the A59, as well as many back lanes and paths. Gutters and paths rapidly become overgrown. In some cases, because of restricted sight lines or trip hazards, there was an unnecessary risk to public safety.

Amongst the worst affected were major entry points into the City which gave visitors an early impression of neglect (It became clear later, that former trunk roads were amongst these omitted from the contract)

The Councils reaction to the problems was highly complacent. It was two months before they admitted that the list of streets to be treated by the contractor was out of date. They blamed the weather (too much rain) and turned a blind eye to the fact that the “quad bike” contractors were missing out large areas altogether. Treatment, where undertaken, proved to be ineffective.

It was Septembers before the failings were finally acknowledged. Contractors were asked to add a blue dye to the chemical so it would be clear which areas they had treated.

To this day, residents continue to search for the illusive blue dye trail.

Another problem was the choice of weed killer. Glyphosate, which is a contact weed killer, has no residual effect, so it only kills weeds present at the time of application. It is an industry standard product, but it failed to act on deep rooted weeds. Alternatives were available but not used.

The Council claims to have “deployed additional resource to focus on removing detritus which collects in kerb lines, particularly on the offside of traffic islands where sweeping is more difficult and less effective. The detritus build up is greater when weeds are present”.

The report doesn’t analyse how the Council came to issue an incorrect contract specification, doesn’t reveal the results of supervisory checks on the contractor, offers no update on the September recovery programme and fails to review “difficult to reach” locations such as bridge parapets, snickets, back lanes and garage forecourts.

The contract required certain outputs to be achieved. These included a 98% weed free appearance on treated areas.

No KPIs are quoted.

The Council has however listed 10 initiatives (see right) that it could take to improve the appearance and safety of the City.

All, and more, will be required next year if the reputation of the City is not to be further damaged.

Weed control contract details revealed

A local Councillor has obtained details of the weed control contract that the York Council has with a Harrogate company.

Many complaints have been lodged about the poor appearance of streets in and around York this summer.

The contract includes a list of all the streets that should be treated Click here to download. It also specifies the quality standards that should be achieved.

Although it is a long list, it appears that local Councillors weren’t given any chance to check that it was complete before the contract was tendered early in the spring.

While some weeds have been cleared from the gutters near the A59 junction with Station Road, the nearby underpass has not been treated

The contractor is required to treat car parking areas, back lanes, the City Walls and underpasses on the A1237. Paths should be treated up to the adjacent boundary wall.

One potential area of concern is responsibilities on trunk roads with the A59 a particular issue.

A copy of the contract can be downloaded by clicking here.

Residents have resorted to applying weed killer themselves to one traffic island. They will monitor how quickly the weeds are killed. Elsewhere on Station Road, Poppleton, and on the traffic islands nearby, there is little evidence of treatment by the Council’s contractors.

We hope that Councillors and residents will check their local neighbourhoods and report any weeds that have not been treated.

Before next summer, there should be a review of routes and working practices on this contract.

The Council should make this, and other street level public service contract specifications, available on their “open data” web site.

York Council using hi tech equipment to improve service stadards?

New road sweeper

Weed killing by quad bike

After a poor few years there are signs that some of the street level public services provided by the York Council are beginning to improve.

Last year saw parts of the City engulfed in weeds.

This year a quad bike is already zipping round the area applying weed killer to paths and gutters.

Blocked drainage gulley in Hammerton Close

Litter and detritus is also another major problem as these photos show.

We hope that the new specialist street sweeping machines (above left) will soon make an impact…and that the Council has thought through how it will cleanse difficult to access areas.

We hope that the York Council will also make its street cleansing – and weed control – timetables available on their web site. Taxpayers should know how often they can expect their streets to be swept

Detritus at Grange Lane cycle path entrance

Detritus in Chapelfields Road garage area

Litter in Walton Place snicket

York commentary archive site