Free compost giveaway on Sunday for York residents
In partnership with Yorwaste Ltd free compost is being made available again.
Bring your own bag, container and shover (it is not pre-bagged) and help yourself to some free soil improver for your garden or allotment.
When: On the first Sunday of every month from March until October: 6 October
Time: 9:30am until 2:30pm or while stocks last
Where: Harewood Whin waste site, Tinker Lane, Wetherby Road, Rufforth, York, Yo23 3RR
Walk to School Week is taking place from 7 -11 October.
27 schools will by vying for the coveted Jack Archer trophy which will be on offer to the school that gets the most pupils walking, cycling and scooting.
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Jack Archer Trophy the council will be matching Age UK’s prize of £200, giving the winning school £400 to spend on sports equipment. The runners up will receive £200 for sports equipment and third place will win hi-viz jackets for their class.
On Wednesday 9 October there will be a bonus prize given to the school with the most people who ride a scooter to school. The prize is a Scooter Pod for the school which is worth £300.
Walking to school has many benefits, helping both the environment and health. Children who walk to school are proven to be more alert in lessons, parents too at work. A 15 minute walk will provide a child with a quarter of the 60 minutes of recommended daily exercise.
To find out more about changing the way you travel in York go to http://www.itravelyork.co.uk/
A series of inclusive Sky Ride Local rides will be taking place in York thanks to a partnership between British Cycling and Sky.
Rides will take place on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 October from 3pm until 5pm on the 1km purpose built cycling track at the York Sport Village on Hull Road
Get Cycling will have a fleet of adapted bikes for people to test out so everyone can take part.
Children aged 8 and above and adults can ride their own bikes, or use one of the adapted bikes.
Children aged under 8 are welcome to use tow bikes, trailers and frame seats. All riders are required to wear a helmet.
To sign up for one of the free, fun Sky Rides go to www.goskyride.com/York
5,500 cyclists took to the streets of York on September 14 for the first ever Sky Ride.
The seemingly endless series of faults on York’s traffic lights and signalised pedestrian crossings will be questioned at the Council meeting on 10th October.
London solution
Residents were particularly concerned when the pelican crossing on Front Street was faulty for several days last week.
The Council has not published any reliability statistics on traffic lights for over 2 years.
The response time targets for the Council’s maintenance contractor have also not been published
Cllr Ann Reid will ask the transport chief
“How many faults have been reported on traffic signals in York so far this year and what is the total time that signals have been out of service? How does this compare to the equivalent period last year?”
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NB. The continued unavailability of traffic camera real time information on the Councils web site will also be highlighted at the meeting.
It is 6 months since the Council opened its new £300,000 CCTV control centre and put traffic camera icons on its web based congestion map.
In July the Council accepted that the move had been premature although the North Yorkshire Council has had similar camera access available for many years. Assurances were given that the links would go live shortly.
3 months later and the links still aren’t working.
Liberal Democrat Councillors have therefore tabled a question asking, “Why is the feed from the traffic cameras to the “itravel” York web site map still not working despite the assurances given at the July Council meeting? “
A list of all the questions submitted for the meeting can be read here: http://democracy.york.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=32384
Westview Close
Yorkshire Post and York Press readers will today be wondering why a Westfield Labour Councillor was given a platform to sound off about a housing development which he obviously thought was in his ward.
As we reported several weeks ago, a planning Inspector has overturned a Council decision and has allowed a small 8 home development to be built on Westview Close.
Westview Close is actually located in the Rural West ward, adjacent to the Civil Service Sports field.
It is about 1 mile away from the Westfield Ward.
It appears that the media have provoked “local” Westfield ward Councillor Dafydd Williams to condemn the decision amidst a confused diatribe about the need to establish a “Green Belt” boundary.
We have news for him. There is a Green Belt boundary and it is protected by the government.
All that has changed over the last year, is that Labour have proposed taking greenfield sites, like the Civil Service Sports field, out of the Green Belt.
Questions tabled for the Council meeting on 10th October will finally reveal the scale of fine income that the Council is now getting from drivers who use Lendal Bridge and Coppergate during restricted hours.
Unconfirmed figures, leaked by the Council, suggest that over 1000 drivers a WEEK are still using Lendal Bridge during restricted hours.
If everyone who received a penalty notice paid £60 then it would add a whopping £3 million to Council coffers plus income from Coppergate.
A private briefing to journalists accepts the 1000 figure but says that many drivers will successfully appeal while others will quickly stomp up the £30 discounted rate.
Questions on Lendal Bridge and Coppergate tabled for Council meeting on 10th October click to enlarge
Officials admit that bus reliability has not changed much since the Lendal Bridge closure while traffic congestion is much as expected.
The briefing comes from the same team that has yet to answer questions tabled during a “twitter debate” in August. They promised then to answer all submitted questions and add them to the Councils web site.
They have singularly failed to do so.
So embarrassed are Council Leaders, with the scale of the contraventions, that they are floating the idea of an amnesty for first offenders.
A kind of yellow card system.
But there will be nowhere to hide on 10th October.
Not only will the scale of the PR disaster become apparent but the impact on City centre trade will be revealed.
A question to the Council Leader, from Liberal Democrat Group Leader Keith Aspden, asks for daily numbers from the Councils City centre footfall cameras since the beginning of August.
The improving economic situation suggests that there should be a major increase compared to last year.
We will see
A list of all the questions submitted for the meeting can be seen here.
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For our latest advice on protecting your cycle click on – http://t.co/VLsDUw0xYT Togther we can STOP CRIME
— NYP York North (@snayorknorth) October 3, 2013
The Council is reporting that,
on Thursday 3rd October the following areas did not have their waste collected as scheduled:
Haxby (Green waste)
Compton Terrace
York Road (part)
Hilbra Avenue
Farmstead Rise
Rosecombe Way
Milford Mews
Please present your bin again by 7am on Friday 4th October and we will return to collect your waste.
Join us Monday 7 Oct for Silver Song Box. Pensioners will receive 20% off their Acomb Explore Cafe orders. pic.twitter.com/ObfnakQ8RB
— Acomb Explore (@acombexplore) October 3, 2013
Coalition government awards Councils £2.4m for new green buses
York will get seven new green buses and a pilot scheme to convert a diesel bus to electric propulsion.
Norman Baker MP
Councils across England are gearing up to roll out a fleet of new low carbon buses and retrofit some of their existing models, after the government handed out fresh funding to reduce air pollution.
Liberal Democrat Transport Minister Norman Baker yesterday awarded £2.4m funding to help eight towns, cities, districts and counties improve their bus fleets, including York
York will receive funding for seven green buses and a trial to convert a diesel bus to electric.
Commenting on the fresh funding, Baker said cleaner and more efficient buses benefited both the economy and environment.
“This money will improve air quality in towns and cities across England and cut carbon, which is good for all of us wherever we live,” he said in a statement.
“Schemes like these are a cost-effective way of landing real benefits for the public and the environment.”