York river safety intiatives agreed

Fencing designThe York Council has agreed a standard design for new riverside fencing.

The new design is likely to be used to protect the area along the River Foss between Foss Islands Road and Rowntree Wharf (rear of Walkers Yard)

Following a series of drowning incidents in early 2014 the City Council commissioned RoSPA to review the existing riverside safety measures along the Rivers Ouse and Foss in the city centre

The Council has now agreed a set of “Safety principles”

  • “SAFETY PRINCIPLES FOR CITY OF YORK COUNCIL OWNED AND MANAGED LAND
    Lifebuoys will be provided at regular intervals along the western bank of the River Ouse from Millennium Bridge to Landing Lane, Water End and on the eastern bank from Clifton Bridge to Millennium Bridge.
    Lifebuoys will be provided at regular intervals along both banks of the River Foss from Blue Bridge to the Head of Navigation at Huntington Road railway bridge.
    Lifebuoys will, where possible, be located near light columns, be accessible from the river, eg adjacent to steps and take account of flood conditions.
    River bank edges will be defined by at least one of the following:
    a) Natural vegetation or hedges
    b) Fencing or bollards and chains
    c) Changes in surface texture, curbs or paint.
    Where the riverbank has a smooth vertical wall or side, and no fencing is present, grab chains will be provided along the river Ouse between Scarborough Bridge and Blue Bridge, and in the Foss Basin.
    Where there is a build up of silt or debris this will be removed annually.
    Where the riverbank is in private ownership the Council will seek to have the land owner adopt the same standards.
    INSPECTION AND REPAIR
    The Council will inspect and repair/replace on a weekly basis
    * Lifebuoys, ropes and signage concerning use
    * General river safety signs
    * Viewing platforms, steps, post and chain fencing
    The Council will inspect, make good or remove on a yearly basis
    * Road side railings
    * Grab chains and ladders
    * Road side markings ie. yellow lines
    * Silt and debris or trees and shrubs causing obstructions
    PUBLICITY
    All of this information, together with contact details, will be provided on the Council web site”.

 

 

Latest Planning application Dringhouses and Woodthorpe Ward

 Below are the latest planning applications received by the York Council for the Dringhouses and Woodthorpe ward.

Full details can be found by clicking the application reference

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12A Tadcaster Road

Location:       12A Tadcaster Road Dringhouses York YO24 1LH

Proposal:       Proposed change of use from offices to dwelling(s) (use class C3) under Class J Part 3 Schedule 2 of Article 3 of The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995

Ref No: 14/02860/ORC

Applicant:      Mr Richard Gorwood      Consultation Expiry Date        19 January 2015 Case Officer:   Sophie Prendergast      Expected Decision Level DEL

 

Representations can be made in favour of, or in objection to, any application via the Planning on line web site.  http://planningaccess.york.gov.uk/online-applications/

NB. The Council now no longer routinely consults neighbours by letter when an application is received.

York Council refuses to publish bus reliability information

On the busesIn the latest in a long running saga the Councillor responsible for transport systems in the City (Levene) again, at the last Council meeting, refused to publish bus service reliability figures.

Cllr Levene was asked by LibDem Councillor Ann Reid “In view of the fact that successive Cabinet Members for Transport have told previous Council meetings that they were trying to get more information about bus service reliability in York, could the current Cabinet Member now say – for each of the last 6 months – what reliability was achieved on stage carriage services (quoting commercial and subsidised separately) operating in the City?”

He responded that agreements with local bus company’s pre vented the publication of such information. He would only confirm the statistics that are available on the national DoT website

  • For 2013/14, 84% of non-frequent buses (fewer than 6 per hour on a given route) ran on time (between 1 minute early and 5 minutes 59 seconds late).
  • The average excess wait time for frequent buses (6 or more buses per hour on a given route) was 0.6 minutes. Bus punctuality

Neither figure is particularly helpful as passengers know that reliability varies form route to route.

It is little short of disgraceful that quality of service information is not made available at least on those services which enjoy a £800,000 a year subsidy from taxpayers.

Nationally the government promoted the introduction of “bus punctuality” partnerships, but the transparency underpinning this initiative never found its way to York

Although most passengers will feel that their most immediate need is to know when the next bus will arrive at a particular stop they are also aware that the “real time” information reverts on many occasions to basic timetable data.

This indicates when the next bus is timetabled to arrive not when it actually will.

It would be so much more honest if the industry – like the train operating companies – published reliability information on the regular basis.

Traffic signals and car park barriers unreliable in York

Traffic signals

This year to date (1st Jan to 3rd Dec) there have been a total of 696 traffic signal faults reported to the York Council’s maintenance contractors.

This number was 678 for the same period last year.

The Council does not have a means of recording the total duration for which signals have been out of operation; however, for high priority faults in this period – which are recorded in their own indicator – 91% were resolved within 4 hours, compared to 82% for the same period last year.

Marygate car park

Barrier faults have occurred during a total of 17 days since they were introduced at the Marygate car park. Currently income from the car park is less than it was when operated on a pay and display basis.Marygate-car-park-equipment-768x1024

Income from the Marygate car park, from the start of July to the end of October, totalled £231,000 in 2014/15.

The equivalent figure for 2013/14 was £246,000.

The York Council spent £100,000 installing the barrier system at Marygate.

NB. The Council has admitted that due to faults on its automated vehicle counting systems it doesn’t know how many motorists have taken advantage of the free parking offer which is available at some car parks from Thursday to Saturday.

Overall income from car parking is, however, over £400,000 below budgeted levels.

Lack of pride bllghts Tadcaster Road entrance of cycle path

Appalling litter problem on cycle path at Tadcaster Road underpass

Appalling litter problem on cycle path at Tadcaster Road underpass

Leaves and detritus pose hazard for cyclists near Tesco

Leaves and detritus pose hazard for cyclists near Tesco

We’ve asked for a litter clean up on the York – Selby cycle track. It is badly littered with graffiti adding to the problems.

Further long Tadcaster Road the dedicated cycle track is covered in leaves representing a hazard to users.

30% abandon telephone calls to York Council

Benefits, parking charges and Council Tax top issues

The Council has revealed that it continues to face increasing demands for its services form local residents. A recent Council meeting heard that around 25,000 telephone calls were dealt with in October.

Of these around 30% were abandoned by the caller before they received a reply.

York Council Customer Services. click to download

York Council Customer Services. click to download

There is similar pressure in dealing with personal callers to West Offices.

Around 11,000 people visited during October.

Credit to the Council as it is now making its customer service performance figures available on line. Click here to see the latest update.

For the latest week published (w/e 12th December) around 4000 rang the Council with a reply obtained, on average, in 35 seconds.

There were also around 3000 visitors to West Offices

The Council does not publish the time it takes to respond to Email requests.

To reduce costs it desperately needs to encourage more people to use its “report it” internet systems. Residents are being encouraged to set up personal accounts (click here) which allow reports of issues to be made as well as payments to be processed.

The Council has promised that by April anyone using this channel to report issues will be able to see what progress the Council is making in resolving the complaint.

Currently the Council has to manually re-input any data received from customers using popular web based contact systems such as My Council

Proposed cuts to Dringhouses bus services

Westfield, Foxwood, Woodthorpe and Dringhouses areas affected

The evening and Sunday number 14 service from Foxwood Lane via Woodthorpe will be discontinued. The 13A service serving Hamilton Drive is retained subject to retendering. The Middlethorpe loop off Tadcaster Road is in jeopardy

The full changes – proposed due to “low passenger levels” – can be found here. (click for route map)

Proposed bus service cuts

Proposed bus service cuts

Services withdrawn fully: Routes

Partial reductions: Routes

Subject to further discussions with neighbouring authorities: Route

The proposals to change bus services, which are currently subsidised by City of York Council will go to a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday 6 January.

The Council is aiming to reduce bus subsidies by around £200,000. This compares to the £700,000 abortive expenditure that it incurred during the Lendal Bridge closure. The aim of the latter had been to increase bus usage.

There has been no consultation with passengers over the plan and the report makes no attempt to offer alternatives for those who do not have private transport.

In the past the Council has promoted dial a ride and similar services to provide a basic link on low use bus routes.

Unfortunately use of taxis may also prove to be expensive for older people since Labour withdrew of the tokens/taxi card alternative to having a bus pass

If approved, the service changes could be implemented from April 2015.
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£11.9 million highways resurfacing boost for York

Potholes

The government has stepped in to give York an additional £2 million a year to tackle the road maintenance backlog.

Details of the announcement can be found by clicking here

The York Council gained notoriety in 2012 by halving the amount that it invested in repairing local footpaths and roads.

They continued the policy into 2013 with a large backlog of repairs developing.

Investment only returned to 2011 levels this year.

The York Council announced its provisional resurfacing programme for 2015 a couple of weeks ago. The government announcement means that this list should now more than double in size.