Will the Council answer the key Lendal Bridge questions

Potentially the biggest test this teatime for the Lendal Bridge closure.

The schools are back and we have heavy rain.

Poor weather usually adds around 10% to traffic levels in the City.

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More on Lendal Bridge

£1/2 million in fine income generated by cameras on Lendal Bridge and Coppergate. Call for “trial” bridge closure to be suspended

We have discovered that during the first week of the Lendal Bridge closure around 1000 drivers per day were caught by enforcement cameras.

Lendal bridge after its clsure

This would have generated up to £480,000 in fine revenue, had the Council not agreed to an amnesty.

However, no formal decision was taken by the Council on the amnesty, so questions still need to be answered on who took the (admittedly correct) decision to waive the income.

An independent company is processing the ANPR recognition results for the Council. They are understood to be Imperial Civil Enforcement Solutions Ltd of Northampton. No details of the payments due to the contractor have been revealed or whether such payments vary in relation to the number of penalty notices issued.

The situation on Coppergate is equally bad.

Here the times of the access restrictions were extended with minimal publicity.

Many drivers continued to observe the old hours resulting in a large number of offenders.

The Council announced only yesterday that the fines for the first two weeks of the Coppergate restrictions – which were introduced on 1st August – had also been waived.

Why this information was not made available in August remains unclear.

Now the Council has said that around 3000 potential offenders have been caught on camera since the 16th August. Although some of these may win appeals against the penalty notices, potentially the Council could receive £160,000 in fine income for just two weeks of the restrictions.

That is equivalent to £5 million a year!

What must now be clear to even the most ardent advocate of ANPR cameras, is that their use to monitor traffic restrictions of this sort needs to be properly advertised in the period up to their introduction.

Their existence and purpose must also be clearly signed on approach roads.

The Lendal trial was rushed in by the Council and its implementation has been bungled.

Like the citywide 20 mph speed limit, it is being imposed on an unwilling population.

The trial should be suspended and a proper review conducted into the problems that have occurred.

The city’s reputation is at stake and the prosperity of the central area could be irreparably damaged if a halt to the trial is not called.

No “footfall” figures – showing the number of shoppers in the central area over the last few days – are yet available, but we fear the worst.

The blunders may prove to have put the worthy cause of increased pedestrianisation in the City back by a decade.

Monk Bar traffic lights faulty, congestion on inner ring road

Click to update. Teatime expected to be busy today

Click to update. Teatime expected to be busy today

Still heavy traffic around St Leonards Place.

Don’t forget that the Council is saying that it will levy £60 fines on those misusing Lendal Bridge from today

Motorists exploit Lendal bridge fine amnesty?

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click to update

It looks like many drivers have heard about the fine amnesty on Lendal Bridge this afternoon.

Many are opting to use that route in preference to the heavily congested Bootham/Clifton Bridge link.

As a result there is standing traffic on St Leonards Place as well as on Lendal Bridge itself.

The Council is being pressed to reveal the value of the fines- levied during the first 10 days of the Lendal bridge closure – that it is cancelling.

Some estimates put the figure at over £100,000.

The Council is understood to be employing a third party to process the penalty notices and it is unclear how that contractor will now be paid for the work that it has done.

The Council says that it will levy fines for misuse from tomorrow (Wednesday)

York Council amnesty on Lendal bridge fines?

The media is reporting that the Council will waive the fines due from motorists who have used Lendal Bridge during the last 10 days.

No indication has been given of the number of penalty notices this would affect.

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The Council is saying that it will the number plate recognition cameras (ANPR) to enforce the access restrictions from tomorrow (Wednesday).

The amnesty statement has not apparently been issued by Cllr Merrett who is responsible for the closure.

No statement has been made about any amnesty for those who have fallen foul over the last month of the extended restrictions on Coppergate.

The restrictions there are also being enforced through the use of ANPR technology.

Meanwhile the City centre is very quiet today raising fears that shoppers are being discouraged by the controversy surrounding the Lendal bridge closure trial.

The Council are being asked to publish daily data from their footfall cameras.

Although most City centre traders and visitor attractions have reported a buoyant summer, the period leading up to Christmas is the most critical time of the year for City centre shops.

If shoppers shun the City centre then it could be the death knell for some small traders.

Lendal Bridge closure – Council seeks residents reaction

Lendal bridge notice

Although not very prominent on their web site, the Council have provided an opportunity for residents to feed back on their travel experiences following the Lendal Bridge closure.

You can find the form by clicking here

Meanwhile, this weekend is the first test of how peak shopping trips to the City centre are affected.

The Council has been asked to reveal how many unauthorized vehicles have used the bridge each day since the restrictions started. More signs have been put in place to try to reduce the number.

A similar request has been made for information about the number of drivers being caught on the cameras now monitoring Coppergate.

Lendal Bridge closed from tomorrow (Tuesday) – what to expect

The Lendal bridge “trial” closure starts tomorrow (Tuesday 27th August) between 10:30am – 5:00pm.

What should drivers expect?

Actually, probably not much difference to congestion levels.

The schools are still on holiday and that makes a lot of difference to traffic volumes. So there will be spare capacity on most of the road network during the day.

True, for some, journeys will be longer, with people living in the City centre particularly inconvenienced.

But the forecast gridlock is still probably some weeks away.

For a couple of weeks, it is likely that motorists will shun the City centre, putting off inessential journeys or opting for out of town shopping destinations

What could make matters worse are unpredictable road accidents, poor weather (which tends to see more people getting into their cars), road works and yet more faulty traffic lights (of which, we’ve had more than our fair share over recent weeks).

Weekend traffic patterns are very different though. Many will be watching with anxiety what happens on 31st August.

Council Lendal Bridge "success" criteria base data. click to enlarge

Council Lendal Bridge “success” criteria base data. click to enlarge

Now only a few days before the restrictions are due to be implemented, the Council has published the criteria under which it will judge how successful the closure has been.

It is clearly an afterthought.

We questioned on 27th April why no success criteria had been published.

It slowly became clear that the Council had not even thought of what objective measures it should apply.

Now some “tests” have been cobbled together without any public consultation and too late to get some of the base line public opinion data.

The Council claims to be open but they have failed to publish the public opinion data on the trial which was apparently collected “between 15th and 20th August”.

They do admit, “However the feedback collected at the information event approximately 60% (of 73 written responses) thought the bridge trial would impact them negatively and 34% though the bridge trial would impact on them beneficially”

It also looks like they will only be taking into account the views of people actually using the transport systems rather than including those who choose not to access the City centre.

Ironically the Council promise to publish the results on their web site including bus service reliability (a “stat” that they have dogmatically refused to reveal during the last 2 years).

They say that they won’t be measuring changes to air quality (Gillygate is a critical area).

They admit that any changes in cycle use and walking could be influenced by other initiatives (and the weather).

The criteria haven’t been approved at a formal Council meeting. There has been no public input into the measures chosen. There has been no opportunity to challenge the validity of the base data.

We suggest that residents keep an eye on independent real time traffic congestion maps (click here http://roadworks.org/) .

York road works map click to update

York road works map click to update

Problems will arise in the autumn when a combination of poor weather, the return of the “school run” and continuing road works on the A1237 could produce a “perfect storm” test for the closure

NB. There is little point in looking to the councils travel web site for help. Several months after a new control centre was opened, traffic monitoring cameras are still not working http://www.yorklive.info/