The Police have published a list of the numbers of motorists caught exceeding the speed limit during the second week in April.

In total 169 cases were recorded in York by the police mobile camera van.

Of these 151 were dealt with by the offer of a speed awareness course, a further 16 attracted an “on the spot” £60 fine plus 3 penalty points while 2 offenders, who were driving well over the speed limit, face a court appearance.

The roads with the poorest records were:

• York Road, Haxby

• Beckfield Lane

• Greenshaw Drive, Haxby

• Main Street, Askham Richard

• Temple Lane Copmanthorpe

In total 1458 speeding violations were recorded across York and North Yorkshire during the week.

The data can be downloaded by clicking here

Following our earlier story, the Council have now provided (slightly) more detailed maps of where they are looking to provide more Gypsy caravan pitches as well as the proposed layover site for show people (e.g. fairground equipment).

The sites are shown hatched on the plans below. The Council are keen to point out that not all the land will necessarily be used for this purpose.

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Having argued against even having a public meeting to discuss their controversial plan to impose a 20 mph speed limit on roads in west York (and later the rest of the City), the Labour Council have now issued a media release which says

“To view proposals of how 20mph might best be implemented in the West of York as well as Bishopthorpe, Copmanthorpe and Bishophill, please visit http://www.york20mph.org/

In addition to this, plans will also be available at York Explore Library Learning Centre, local libraries in the West of York, and Energise sports centre.

Council staff will also be on hand to speak to residents at Acomb Front Street throughout April/May.

Following these events a letter will be sent to all households on the affected streets with a local plan of proposals and an explanation on how to make formal representations to the council.

The signed-only 20mph speed limits are designed to be largely self-enforcing and aim to support, strengthen and work alongside the many existing traffic calmed 20mph zones that are already in place in many residential streets and around schools in the West of the city.

Following consideration of resident’s representations their comments will be fed back to a decision session for consideration before the introduction of the proposed 20mph limits. The planned introduction is set to be in place in spring/summer 2013 and will ensure that the majority of residential roads and neighbourhoods will have a lower speed limit to help reduce speeds where people live”.

Only problem is that anyone accessing http://www.york20mph.org/ will find only the usual array of juvenile artwork and shallow arguments. Still no sign of the revised detailed proposals promised months ago.

We continue to believe that every household in West York should be consulted. Excluding those living in existing 20 mph zones – as well as the small numbers living on streets which will retain a 30 mph limit – would potentially bias the results of any survey.

A public meeting, which includes an item on the 20 mph limit, will take place at Dringhouses Primary School on Thursday, May 2. The meeting starts at 7:30pm

City of York Council has received reports from local residents saying that they have been ‘cold-called’ by people selling mattresses.

These approaches have reportedly taken the form of telephone calls to make an appointment to visit them at home, or door-to-door calls. One resident was even stopped in the street by a van driver attempting to sell one of the mattresses.

Trading Standards is advising residents to exercise caution if approached by a seller offering such items.

It is not an offence to sell goods door-to-door. But anyone with concerns about approaches that have been made to them to buy goods and who would like further advice on their rights, or who would like to report an incident, is urged to contact Trading Standards via the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 08454 04 05 06.

The first interactive public arts event at City of York Council’s new West Offices will be setting out its stall with an exchange of creative ideas in a market run by artist John Newling with York St John University fine arts students, plus a public talk by the artist.

The nine market stalls will be open on Thursday 2 and Friday 3 May from 10am to 4pm in the approach to West Offices’ new Customer Centre entrance off Toft Green. The market is a pilot project aimed at laying the foundations for similar events in the future, and complements the council’s citywide ideas internet platform GeniUS! which invites people to share ideas to improve life in York.

Also on 2 May at West Offices, from 11:45am – 1pm, John Newling will give an illustrated talk called ‘Common Values’. This major lecture will be a rare opportunity to hear the artist talk about his work over a period of 30 years, his more recent research in York and the ideas behind the ‘Market of Hidden Labours’.

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The controversial proposal to increase the size of the City was steamrollered through a working group meeting last night (Monday).

Opposition Councillors said that they had no confidence in the chair of the meeting (Cllr Merrett) who had failed to involve other members in drawing up the 1000 page report.

Now the plan has been scheduled for discussion at the (single party) “Cabinet” meeting on Tuesday 30th April.

The agenda for the meeting (click here) was published before the working group meeting had even started!!!

So no opposition is being tolerated.

One aspect of the Councils announcement – that it hoped to see an additional 22,000 homes constructed in the City during the next 15 years – which raised concerns was the effect that such growth would have on transport.

We have been fortunate that traffic levels have been stable in the City for the last 5 years.

Modest improvements to some of the A1237 roundabouts have eased congestion while the Council has invested to encourage people to use buses and cycles when ever possible.

Many of these policies are to be continued in the new plan, but hopes that congestion will ease have been crushed as the Council now admits that growth in traffic of around 2.5% per annum can be expected as a result of the building boom.

It goes on to say that this will mean a substantial increase in congestion levels on most major roads in the urban area.

Dualling of part of the northern by pass (Wetherby Road to Haxby Road) will not start for at least 10 years. It pointedly fails to identify how the £200 million bill for such an upgrade would be funded.

Labours strategy seems to be to reduce still further car parking provision in the City Centre, introduce more road closures and even introduce parking charges at out of City centre retail centres.

Their intention is to force cars off the roads of York.

All in all to looks like a profoundly inadequate approach to catering for a 25% increase in the City’s size.

Good to report that the Council is doing something that might get residents approval.

They say that they “will be joining forces with York and North Yorkshire Probation Trust’s Community Payback team and local residents next month to carry out a city wide spring clean of York.
The council will be working with offenders performing Community Payback, who will be undertaking several ‘spring clean’ tasks throughout the month, such as painting over graffiti, fixing broken fencing, picking litter and clearing overgrown areas.

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City of York Council will be carrying out essential road resurfacing works on Mill Lane, Acaster Malbis throughout the week of 22 April.

The work will start on Monday 22 April and will last up to a week, with work taking place between the hours of 8am-5pm Monday-Friday.

In order to carry out these works safely a temporary road closure of Mill Lane will be necessary whilst works are taking place.

With improved weather on the cards for this weekend, police are advising residents to secure their property while enjoying the outdoors.

Warmer weather means more people will be out in the garden and are likely to risk leaving doors, windows and outbuildings open.

Sneak-in burglaries increase during the spring and summer months and police are urging residents to keep opportunist thieves at bay by remembering to lock doors and windows at all times.

For detailed crime prevention advice, including a security self assessment, click here

You can also download here the Polices free “Securing your home iBook” for lots more advice or their free mobile phone “app” by clicking here

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