Full marks to First York who responded within an hour to our complaints about reliability on the number 4 bus route. A senior manager readily accepted that improvements had to be made.

He suggested, though, that these might not take effect until the autumn.

The idea of appointing conductors – to reduce boarding, and hence journey, times – was rejected on cost grounds. First do, however, want to introduce cashless ticketing as quickly as possible. (Hopefully it will be a more reliable system than the pensioners pass card readers which are currently in use).

The Council are keen to deal with complaints about overhanging trees interfering with the double deckers currently used on the route. We’ve mentioned Foxwood Lane and Tadcaster Road. Please let us know about any other problem locations.

First also say, that the buses which are painted all over with advertising, form part of a national contract. It will be some time before this can be renegotiated.

The key for us though is to see more proactive management of the service. First have confirmed that the vehicles are tracked by GPS so there is no reason why there should be the kind of bunching that we saw earlier in the week (see http://youtu.be/-myCQ-BiOwQ)

A new Area Service Delivery Manager responsible for York and Doncaster has recently been recruited by First.

We believe that improvements can be achieved by returning to a single deck style vehicle. We accept that the design will be different from that of the ftr.

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City of York Council is offering businesses in the city the chance to have a free consultation on making their working environments as healthy as possible.

York Well at Work is a new scheme being run by the council’s Sport and Active Leisure team and they’re looking for businesses to take part in their pilot programme.

As part of the free health consultation the team will offer advice on how companies can improve their work environment for staff and help set up wellbeing initiatives such as staff running groups and mental health workshops. (more…)

11 extreme speeders are facing up to the consequences of their foolhardy and dangerous actions after being handed a total of £3,745 in fines and costs and banned from driving for a combined total of 174 days.

13 drivers and riders were summonsed to appear at Selby Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 16 August 2012 after being caught by North Yorkshire Police’s mobile safety camera at speeds ranging from 72mph in a 40mph zone to 132mph in a 70mph zone. (more…)

Provisional results for York school sixth forms show that 28% of entries were awarded an A*/A grades, which maintain the very high standards of previous years and are again higher than the national figure.

Over 78% of entries were given a top grade of A*, A, B or C.

The demise of the ftr – although welcomed by some – has proved to be bad news for the Number 4 bus service. The old style double deckers, pushed into use on the service, have proved to be unsuitable for what is the busiest route in the City.

Gone is the air conditioning while space for wheelchairs and pushchairs is often cronically inadequate.

Some advertising paint jobs (such as “Chocolate York”) completely obscure the vehicles. So if a bus painted like this leapfrogs a stop, waiting passengers can only guess whether there were any empty seats.

The higher double deckers bang against overhanging tree branches frightening children and prompting fears that windows will shatter.

But it is reliability that has suffered most. All too frequently these days two number 4’s will follow within a few yards of each other. This effectively reduces what should be a 10 minute frequency service to a 20 minute one.

On Thursday this week buses had been running in tandem all day. A check on reliability at teatime revealed only 1 bus ran from Foxwood to Acomb between 4:10pm and 5:25pm (there should have been 7).

Then something large came into sight (for what happened next see the video at http://youtu.be/-myCQ-BiOwQ).

One passenger reported that it had taken 90 minutes to get from the University to Foxwood. (It should have taken 45 minutes maximum)

The cause is easy to see. The ftr had a conductor (host) who took fares when the vehicle was between stops. Now, in common with most other York services, the driver takes the fares. At a busy bus stop – and the are many on the number 4 route – this can take around 3 minutes. Inevitably the bus behind will catch up and run in tandem at least until the next timing point.

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The Council has announced how the £120,000 taken from the local Ward Committee schemes budget is to be used.

The Council says, “15 organisations were successful in bidding for the grant funding and will deliver a range of activity programmes targeting different communities across the city. Each project will focus on one of the four council objectives of healthy communities, engaged communities, inclusive communities and prosperous communities.

£120,650 has been made available for projects taking place from September this year to March 2013. Each of the community themes has one major project with a value up to £15,000 and a series of smaller grants will fund small-scale, flexible work.

These grants form an overall programme of work, which is a venture between City of York Council and Your Consortium, aimed at providing voluntary and community sector support across the city.

Peasholme Charity, Gateway Action, York and District Citizens Advice Bureau and York Racial Equality Network secured grants for large projects, while York Unifying and Multicultural Initiative, York Mind, Stretch, Family Matters York, NYBEP, Age UK, Older Citizens Advocacy York, Inspired Youth, York Bike Rescue and Millers Yard have been awarded funding for smaller-scale projects”.

The Council has not said how much each project will get not have the detailed objectives of the projects been revealed.

It is unclear whether any of the money will benefit residents living in the Dringhouses and Woodthorpe community.

For the first time for nearly 20 years, residents were not consulted about their priorities for the use of this budget. A pretty poor example of “engaged communities” most will probably think.

Conservators working on the restoration of the Great East Window at York Minster have completed the conservation of half of the panels in the stunning medieval window depicting the story of the Apocalypse.

York Minster’s Great East Window contains the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in Britain, and was designed by one of the stained glass master John Thornton of Coventry. Started in 1405 and completed in 1408, the main part of the window depicts the Apocalypse, and is recognised around the world as being some of the finest medieval stained glass still in existence. The restoration of half of the Apocalypse panels is now complete thanks to the tireless work of the York Glaziers Trust.

“This is a significant landmark in the restoration project, as each of the 108 panels require painstaking research, documentation, examination, conservation and repair of the many thousands of components that make up this incredible glass masterpiece,” says Sarah Brown, Director of York Glaziers Trust. “Each panel is a work of art in its own right, each piece painted with the skills of a Van Eyck or a Vermeer, with an amazing delicacy that can now be fully appreciated as we look at the panels up close.”

The window is being restored as part of the five year York Minster Revealed project, generously supported by a £10.5 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), due for completion in 2016. However, visitors to York Minster will not have to wait until 2016 to see some of the completed restoration work, as a number of the panels will go on display later this year when a new state-of-the-art exhibition space, known as The Orb, is installed in York Minster’s East End. (more…)

North Yorkshire Police will be carrying out mobile safety camera enforcement on the following roads between Wednesday 15 August and Tuesday 21 August 2012.

•A64 Seamer by-pass Scarborough
•A64 Seamer Road, Scarborough
•A64 Between Barton-le-Willows and Jinnah
•A64 Between Barton Hill and Whitwell Hill
•A64 west-bound Bowbridge Farm Tadcaster
•A64 east-bound Bowbridge Farm Tadcaster
•Brayton Lane, Brayton, Selby
•Barff Lane, Brayton, Selby
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City of York Council will be carrying out essential work as part of phased repairs to the riverbank between Clifton and Scarborough Bridges, next week (20 August), lasting for approximately ten-weeks.

The work will involve repairing 420m of existing riverbank between the bridges, which has been damaged by river erosion and the growth of self-set trees, which are destroying the existing structure. Total failure of the embankment structure could damage the National Cycle Route 65 (running along the bank top) and a nearby public sewer serving the whole of Clifton.

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Parking restrictions on Poppleton Road

click to enlarge

Additional parking restrictions are to be introduced on Poppleton Road. The decision to advertise the proposals was taken at another behind closed doors decision making session at the end of July.

Residents will have only a few weeks to register their objections.

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