Parking is to be suspended on a number of streets in Dringhouses on Tuesday 23 July from 9am to 3pm to enable a ‘deep clean’ to be undertaken.
The streets affected are St Helens Road, Cherry Lane and St Edwards Close.
On Thursday 11 July the City of York Council’s Planning Committee voted unanimously to refuse the application to build 516 homes on Moor Lane next to Askham Bog.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
All residents are invited to the Dringhouses & Woodthorpe Ward Committee meeting on Thursday 11 July at Woodthorpe Primary School.
There will be a drop-in from 6.30 with the main meeting starting at 7pm.
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).
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!
Parking will be temporarily suspended on Chaloners Road – from Eason View to Moor Lane – to allow for improvement works to be undertaken by the council.
During the parking suspension road markings will be re-painted, pot holes will be repaired, the carriageway will be mechanically swept and road gullies (drains) will be cleaned.
The suspension will be in force from Monday 17th to Wednesday 19th June from 9am to 3pm, though it is hoped that the suspension will not be needed for three days.
During the parking suspension road markings will be re-painted, pot holes will be repaired, the carriageway will be mechanically swept and road gullies (drains) will be cleaned.
Dringhouses residents are braced for the impact of increased traffic associated with the Rod Stewart concert taking place on the Knavesmire on Saturday 1st June.
It is hoped that measures put in place will help to avoid a repeat of the traffic chaos that accompanied the Balloon Festival in September 2018. On that occasion residential streets were often impassable due to a large amount of inconsiderate parking.
The council’s Transport team have issued the following statement to ward councillors for Dringhouses & Woodthorpe, Micklegate and Bishopthorpe wards:
“It is anticipated that 30,000 people will be attending which could lead to up to 7,500 cars parking in the car parks off Knavesmire Road, Campleshon Road, and Bishopthorpe Road. Bearing in mind the impact of the Balloon Festival last year a Traffic Management Plan similar to a busy race day arrangement, but enhanced to cover the increased number of vehicles, will be in place. Timeline:
Key Elements:
Travel advice will be provided on the itravelyork website at https://www.itravelyork.info/events/rod-stewart-concert-at-york-racecourse
Traffic levels are expected to be very high with significant delays anticipated. Residents are advised to follow the diversion signs, allow more time for their journeys and use alternative routes away from the Knavesmire area if possible.”
Local voluntary and community groups are being invited to apply for funding from the Dringhouses & Woodthorpe Ward Committee.
In recent years funding has been awarded to a range of groups who are working to make Dringhouses & Woodthorpe a better place to live. For 2019/20 the ward budget has been set at £19,585. There is a separate ward highways fund of £13,991.
Further information is available on the ward page on the council website at https://www.york.gov.uk/info/20155/wards/127/dringhouses_and_woodthorpe_ward