All residents in West York should have received a consultation leaflet on plans for a wide area 20 mph speed limit. They came in a plastic envelope with a leaflet about the Local Plan (about which more later this week) and “Local Link”.

Anyone who has propelled the”pack” in the general direction of the recycling bin may get another by telephoning the Council on York 551550.

The leaflet, after a few ritual attempts to blame the government for introducing 20 mph limits (actually it is entirely up to local Councils to decide), tells residents that they have until 21st June to “object” to the new limits.

The implication is that, if you don’t record an objection, then you must favour the new limit. Inertia and barriers to responses (they require written submissions) aren’t the only problems with the councils approach.

The leaflets are singularly short on facts.

• First and most obviously there is no mention of the £600,000 cost of the project.

• Secondly the Council are not making available the results of the speed checks that they have undertaken on many of the roads in the area. (We know most cul de sacs not surprisingly already have very low average speeds)

• And finally there is no information about accident levels (again we know that accident rates on the roads that may get a 20 mph limit are much lower than for other roads in and around the City).

We advise everyone to Email 20mph@york.gov.uk and register a formal objection to “The York Speed Limit (amendment) (No 11/4) Order 2013”.

Below are some reasons that could be quoted in support of an objection.

1. The west of York has generally got a good road safety record and already has 20 mph speed limits at appropriate locations (e.g. outside schools).

2. Average speeds, in most of the roads to be covered by the 20 mph limit, are already below 30 mph and the Council’s claim, that the new signs would reduce speeds by 3 mph, would therefore make little practical difference.

3. Accident rates in York (Killed and Seriously Injured casualties – KSI) have reduced dramatically over the last 6 years. Available resources should be focused on continuing the Councils successful accident prevention programme which is partly responsible for this improvement.

4. The impact of 20 mph speed limits on accident rates is not yet fully understood. In some City’s, such as Portsmouth, the introduction of a wide area 20 mph speed limit has led to an increase in the number of KSI accidents.

5. The Police have said that they do not have the resources to enforce a wide area 20 mph speed limit. The Police and Crime Commissioner has confirmed that mobile safety camera vans will not be used to enforce such a limit. It follows that drivers will continue to drive at a speed that they consider appropriate for the conditions on a particular day.

6. Police speed limit enforcement resources should continue to be focused at accident black spots.

Despite the success of Saturdays event, we understand that the York Council is refusing to fund future fairs of this sort.

The Friends of Hob moor are asking if there are sufficienty volunteers to make the event self supporting next year.

You can visit their web site by clicking here.

The York Council has announced that next weeks “Cabinet” meeting (5:30pm, Tuesday 4th June West Offices) will be “webcast”.

It appears that anyone registering to speak will not be given the option of having the web cam switched off. They will also be publicly named.

It seems extraordinary that the Council should go ahead with such a trial without introducing a code covering the use of recorded images.

Nor is there any record of the costs that the introduction of such a system could incur.

Mysteriously the agenda for the Cabinet meeting scheduled for the 4th June disappeared from the Councils web site over the weekend. STOP PRESS update – agenda now back on Council web site

This may be connected with complaints that the Council broke the law by not publish all background reports when it discussed the Local Plan on 30th April and subsequently failed to provide a copy of a relevant report to a member of the Council when requested to do so (click here to see a copy of the regulations. Para 5 is relevant)

The agenda for next Tuesday meeting is as follows
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Over 15 of the region’s most talented artists display personal works inspired by York Minster. The artists include Jake Attree, whose work has been exhibited in London, New York and Germany. The auction starts on the 27 May and culminates in an auction on the 7 June, purchase your ticket for the auction by clicking on Book Now!

The exhibition brings together a range of artists, both professional and amateur, and from a wide variety of backgrounds, including worshippers and staff from the Minster itself. They are united by a sense of a connection with the Minster and its surroundings and by their wish to support the York Minster Fund in its work.

The Fund was established in 1967 in order to save the central tower from collapse, and has continued since then to raise money for the essential and ongoing need for restoration and preservation of this ancient building.

On the evening of 7 June at 7.30pm, the paintings will be auctioned in the North Transept to raise money for the conservation and restoration of York Minster.

Exhibition included in your admission ticket. Auction 7 June 7.30pm, £5 Book now

Bus passengers in England are set to benefit from cleaner, greener bus journeys thanks to the 4th round of the Green Bus Fund announced today by LibDem Local Transport Minister Norman Baker.

The £12 million funding for 213 new low carbon buses will deliver better services for passengers while also cutting carbon and delivering economic growth.

Electric bus trial started in 2010

9 low emission buses will be seen around the City as a result of a major grant from the governments Green Bus fund.

They are expected to be powered by electricity.

We understand that one of the vehicles will replace the ubiquitous “Uni bus” plying its trade to the Heslington area, while others will service the new Derwenthorpe development and the new Park and Ride site at Poppleton.

The buses were first trialed in York in 2010 (see left) by the then LibDem led Council.

The Labour Councillor responsible for transport said at a Council meeting in March that he didn’t know whether a bid to the Green Bus fund had been submitted.

Fortunately it turns out that local bus operators (TransDev and First) had indeed submitted bids.

The bids are part of a £12 million programme. York does relatively well out of the allocations which are announced today

The Green Bus Fund aims to cut greenhouse gas emission levels and encourage bus operators and local councils to make the switch to more environmentally-friendly buses. In total 4 rounds of the fund, worth £87 million, will have delivered more than 1200 new low carbon buses in England, saving around 28,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.

The government is paying up to half the cost difference between the buses and their standard diesel equivalent.

The Council has belatedly published its strategy for managing the needs of the Traveller community in the City.

The report will be discussed at a meeting being held on 4th June.

The Council is now deeply mired in controversy over the way that it allocated land for new caravan pitches at 3 sites around the City and for the “Showman’s” layover site near Knapton.

Two of the sites are on land confirmed as Green Belt in 2011. The expectation is that landowners will take the opportunity, of the land being removed from the Green Belt, to propose more potentially lucrative uses for it (retail or residential).

This will mean that the Council will have failed in its quest to find traveller pitches which meet its own estimates of demand (last updated in 2008).

Like the secret ARUP report, which Labour Councillors claim justifies the need for an additional 22,000 homes in the City, the supporting papers for the Local Plan do not include up to date assessments of demand for either gypsy or showman’s sites.

The Council report says that Gypsies and Travellers are one of the largest distinct ethnic groups in York and their traditions and history can be traced across hundreds of years in the City. There are approximately 350 families in York, living on traveller sites, in housing and in caravans on the roadside.

The report suggest a range of actions that need to be taken

It notably fails to suggest ways in which mutual respect and tolerance between this minority and the general community can be improved.

There is a lot to be commended in the Councils list of proposed actions.

Had the strategy been published 6 months ago, it might have helped to set the scene for the difficult planning decisions which lie ahead.

Instead the Council’s immature political blundering means that it has been launched into a potentially hostile atmosphere.

York police are appealing for witnesses after a pedestrian was hit by a car at Monks Cross.

The pedestrian, a 67-year-old local man, sustained a knee injury when he was struck by a light blue car in the pick up area outside Asda at around 10am on Saturday 18 May 2013.
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Young people can make the most of this half-term and all future bus trips by travelling for less in York with a new All York Young Person’s Day ticket.

The new ticket, launching tomorrow (25 May) means young people between the ages of 11-16 can now enjoy a day’s travel on participating bus companies throughout the city for only £2.30. The ticket will be valid from 9am on weekdays and all day on weekends and bank holidays.

The first ‘All York’ bus tickets for adults were launched last July. However the success of the ticket has been criticised as the York Council has refused to say how many – if any – York residents have actually purchased the ticket.

Tickets are valid on services run by:

· Arriva Yorkshire

· Coastliner (including Transdev York)

· ConnexionsBuses ( Harrogate Coach Travel)

· East Yorkshire Motor Services

· Eddie Brown

· First

· Reliance

· Stephenson’s

· Utopia

For more information visit www.york.gov.uk/allyork

click to enlarge

The Council is claiming that consultation leaflets on the proposed introduction of a 20 mph speed limit are new being delivered in west York.

However they are only being sent to the 13,000 homes that will have the limit applied to the highway outside their front doors.

This is a desperate attempt to bias the response. More people are likely to say they want low vehicle speeds outside their homes. Even then, most are likely to regard the £600,000 cost of the project as outrageous (the Council accepts that only a 3% reduction in vehicles speeds may result while the police have said that they will not enforce the new limit)

But it is an issue affecting nearly 25,000 homes or around 50,000 residents.

Everyone deserves to have a say.

You can Email your views to the Councillor responsible cllr.dmerrett@york.gov.uk with a request that they be drawn to the attention the meeting that will make a final decision on the proposals.

The majority of comments on the Councils pro 20 mph Facebook site are hostile to the proposed limit https://www.facebook.com/York20mph

Our survey in the Westfield Ward revealed that 85% of residents are opposed to a Citywide 20 mph speed limit.

North Yorkshire Police is joining forces with City of York Council, Bell Farm Management committee and the North Yorkshire and York Community Payback Team to spring clean

Residents are invited to come and take part in a litter pick in the Bull Ring and South Beck areas on 25th May as part of the Smarter York spring clean scheme.

For more information please visit www.york.gov.uk/smarteryork or follow@SmarterYork on Twitter. Residents can nominate an area they think is in need of a spring clean by calling 01904 551551 or emailing ycc@york.gov.uk or download the Smarter York mobile phone application from all app stores.

Litter pickers, refuse sacks and high visibility vests are available to volunteers on the day.