Residents enjoy Woodthorpe Fun Day

Residents from the Woodthorpe area and beyond enjoyed an afternoon in the sunshine at the annual Fun Day held on the Green on Sunday 14th July.

The musical entertainment was capped off by the Grand Old Uke of York and the Entertainment Company.

Local councillors from the Dringhouses & Woodthorpe and Westfield wards were on hand to chat to residents, and local groups such as the Friends of Acomb Wood and Friends of Chapmans Pond signed up new members.

Vandals strike on Tadcaster Road

Vandals have caused criminal damage in the Tadcaster Road area of Dringhouses in recent days.

The perspex cover on the community noticeboard at the junction with Mayfield Grove has been smashed. This comes soon after the cover on the noticeboard on the Revival estate was smashed. Both are to be repaired, with the costs to be covered from the ward budget.

Damaged noticeboard

The newly-refurbished playground on Nelsons Lane has been attacked by graffiti ‘artists’. Some of it is offensive and of a sexual nature. The council’s cleaning team have been asked to clean it off. The Chase Residents Association is to consider reinstating an opening and locking up rota for the playground, given that it is being abused by some people.

Criminal damage

Cllr Stephen Fenton has informed the Police, who have confirmed that they are aware that older children are frequenting the area and intimidating the younger children, and that this is one of their current ‘hot spot’ areas.

The playground recently benefited from a £32k investment

Moor Lane housing application – planning officers recommend refusal

City of York Council planning officers are recommending that the application to build 516 homes on Green Belt land off Moor Lane in Woodthorpe is refused.

The recommendation will be considered at a meeting of the council’s Planning Committee on Thursday 11 July at 4.30pm at West Offices. Members of the committee will decide whether or not to accept the officer recommendation for refusal. Members of the public can attend the meeting in person and it will also be webcast.

The planning officer’s report recommending refusal is published on the council’s website HERE

The report concludes that the proposal by reason of its location within the Green Belt would constitute inappropriate development in the Green Belt as set out in Section 13 of the National Planning Policy Framework.

It notes that the proposal would result in a detrimental impact on the rural landscape, harm to the Askham Bog Site of Special Scientific Interest, impacts on education provision in the city and potential for significant impacts on  the transport network and highway safety.

It states that the benefits put forward by the applicant  do not either individually or cumulatively clearly outweigh the totality of this harm and therefore do not amount to very special circumstances necessary to justify the  proposal for the purposes of the National Planning Policy Framework.

On Tuesday 9 July at 10.15am Planning Committee members will visit the new Askham Bar Park & Ride site (west / railway side) from where they will view the application site and Askham Bog. Residents are welcome to attend the visit if they wish.

Ultra Fibre Optic to bypass Middlethorpe Grove

City if York Council has confirmed that TalkTalk will not be able to install Ultra Fibre Optic cable on Middlethorpe Grove until September 2021 at the earliest.

Within legislation the council can protect recently resurfaced roads and footpaths, such as those on Middlethorpe Grove, with what is referred to as a Section 58 notice. It serves a two-fold purpose – to prevent the street from being dug up within a short period after being resurfaced or reconstructed, and to avoid repetitive disruption of traffic by works being carried out in the street.

Footpaths, driveways and road surfaces on Middlethorpe Grove have all been recently renewed

Local authorities do have a degree of discretion in how they enforce Section 58, for example they can waive protection if the street only has a month or two before the period was about to expire. Middlethorpe Grove has a ‘live’ Section 58 in place until September 2021. The council was not willing to waive the Section 58 on Middlethorpe Grove so soon after the work had been done, though it did provide notice to TalkTalk in advance that they would need to build ahead of the impending refurbishment schemes or risk a ‘lock out’ of these areas.

We understand that TalkTalk chose not to build ahead of the refurbishment and therefore cannot proceed with work to install UFO on Middlethorpe Grove at the present time.

What we don’t yet know is when (and if) TalkTalk will return to do the installation work after September 2021.

Grass verge reinstatement – residents and visitors asked to park responsibly

Residents and visitors on the Middlethorpe estate, off Tadcaster Road, are being asked to park responsibly to give grass verges chance to recover after Ultra Fibre Optic cable laying.

Contractors have been praised by many residents for their helpful and tidy approach, and where verges have been dug up they have been filled and grass seed has been put down.

A minority of residents and visitors however are parking on the verge directly on top of re-laid sections. There are particular issues on Lycett Road (pictured below after a visitor to a nearby house chose to park on freshly laid grass seed).

Damaged verge on Lycett Road

Some residents have suggested that the verges could be protected by either plastic bollards or home-made bamboo-and-string. It is to be hoped that if residents do put in place temporary measures to protect the verge they are not subject to enforcement action by the council!