An invitation is being issued to residents and local councillors to come along and find out more about the temporary campsite to be located on land near Maple Grove and the Millennium Bridge.
Anyone interested is invited to a drop-in session on Monday 23 June, from 6pm til 7pm at the Maple Grove entrance to the Millennium Bridge open space.
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Askham Bar cycle parking in use
The new Askham Bar park and ride site on Tadcaster Road has proved to be popular with drivers.
Many have transferred from the, now closed, site adjacent to Tesco – making the most of the additional spaces now available.
At 11:00am today a small queue of bus passengers had formed.
However work on the site has still not been completed.
Official estimates say that it could be another 2 weeks before all the work is done.
Well used car park at Askham Bar
Still the Council were right to bring the site into service as soon as practical. It has reduced the number of vehicles on Tadcaster Road and buses are taking advantage of the reduced congestion to run into the City centre more quickly.
The situation at the other new site at Poppleton Bar couldn’t be a bigger contrast.
Fewer than 100 vehicles were using the car park there this morning.
A substantial amount of work needs to be done both on the car park and on the nearby highway network.
Askham Bar bus waiting area
Unfortunately, by then, damage to the park and ride site’s reputation may be beyond repair.
Buses continue to be mired in a web of temporary traffic lights and lane restrictions.
Electric bus at Poppleton Bar
Ironically one of the major improvements yet to be commissioned is the cycle underpass on the A1237. This was to be used to encourage cyclists to pedal to the park and ride site before boarding a bus to complete their journey.
Council concert organiser displays sense of humour
As we revealed yesterday, the Tour de France concert, scheduled for the 4th July, is being snubbed by York residents.
Now the Council has halved the cost of a family ticket – down from £100 to £50.
The offer also includes a ticket to the Grand Depart event at the Racecourse and will run until Monday 16th June.
What residents who have already paid the full price for tickets will think of this discount remains to be seen.
The concert features a group called “Loveable Rogues”
Tickets are on sale now from http://www.ticketline.co.uk/ and http://www.exeriencetherace.com/, and will be available from Visit York on Museum Street in York city centre by Friday (13th June) of this week
The Council has declined to say how many tickets for the event have been sold to date.
Meanwhile it looks like Bradley Wiggins – expected to be one of the main attractions for those attending the Tour de France start – may not now be competing this year
More and more events are joining in York and the UK’s first ever Fête du Tour to celebrate the Tour de France’s imminent arrival. The Fête du Tour (festival of the Tour) is a long-standing French tradition which involves communities along the route celebrating and building the excitement.
On Saturday, York city centre will have lots of French, cycling and yellow-themed activities to help residents and visitors get into the spirit of the Tour.
The fun takes place from 10am to 4pm and will include members of Riding Lights Theatre who will be performing on a rotating stage, powered by bikes, whilst dressed in French costume and accompanied by an organist.
Visitors to the city centre can also pose as Sir Bradley Wiggins with the help of a cut out and mask.
Information tents will have details about the Tour de France in York and the Made in Yorkshire market will be taking place from 29 May to 1 June, offering delicious treats for your Fête du Tour picnics and parties.
There will also be the opportunity to purchase York’s ‘Experience the Race’ merchandise.
York’s city centre will be dressed with yellow bunting in Parliament Street, St Sampson’s Square and Coney Street to bring a truly festive spirit to the centre of York.
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The meeting held by the Council last night heard confirmation that camping and caravanning plans for Monk Stray had been abandoned.
The Council is now trying to find alternative sites (or refunds) for those visitors who had already booked places at the venue.
However the one day spectator hub event will go ahead and the Council is seeking planning permission to remove 8 metres of hedge-line (and install a gate and access road) to facilitate entry.
The Cabinet member with responsibility for the shambles (Cllr Crisp) has been noticeably quiet leaving Council officials to make the public announcement.
Huntington Stadium
Huntington Stadium
Meanwhile residents only have until 5th June to record any objections to the plans to hold a 10,000 capacity concert at Huntington Stadium.
It is not yet clear whether the Council has changed the conditions – and not least the capacity – attached to Huntington Stadium’s safety certificate
Monk Stray
The Caravan Club have now officially told the local media that they w ill not be organising camping facilities on Monk Stray at the time of the Tour de France
As we predicted earlier in the week, the Club have pulled out of the event following local opposition.
The York Council has not responded officially to the news but they have arranged another public meeting at which they will presumably explain their actions to aggrieved local residents.
This will take place on Tuesday 27 May at Christ Church, Stockton Lane, Heworth Without from 6-8pm
City of York Council is encouraging residents and visitors to plan ahead for the weekend of 5 and 6 July when the world’s largest “free”* sporting event, the Tour de France comes to York.
Stage two of Le Grand Depart will see riders setting off from York Racecourse at approximately 11am. The peloton will then traverse the city’s historic streets, taking in landmarks such as Clifford’s Tower and the York Minster.
Residents and tourists are advised that the route will be closed from 4.30am on Sunday 6 July until approximately 1.30pm, or as soon as possible after the race has left York. During the time that the roads are closed their will be no access for vehicles to properties either adjacent to or on the race route itself. This will also include streets connected to the route that can not be accessed from elsewhere.
Anyone who is planning to travel on Sunday 6 July will need to ensure that they have parked their vehicle in an area where they can access the remaining open road network.
No vehicles will be allowed to drive on or across the race route after road closures are in place. Residents are also advised to pass this information to anyone intending to visit them during the weekend.
Roads closed along the route include:
Start: York Racecourse
The York Council has yet to confirm whether the A1237 northern by pass (western section) will be closed for all the restriction hours and what, if any, road closures will apply on the Saturday.
It also remains unclear whether all of the road works, in the area near the new Park and Ride site at Poppleton, will have been completed.
For further information about the Tour de France in York, please visit www.york.gov.uk/tourdefrance . To get help on travelling around York in advance, or on the day, use the online i-Travel York journey planner at http://www.itravelyork.info/ or follow the Goole Maps link (right)
*York taxpayers are being charged £1.6 million for the event.
York Council is using a “planning loophole” from the 1960s to host camping on Monk Stray for July’s Tour De France just weeks after its original proposals for the site were rejected.
Monk Stray
In March Labour run York Council was forced to scale back its plans for Monk Stray. Nearly 300 residents had opposed proposals to stage events serving alcohol on the Stray on 14 days in any year. The council’s cross-party Licensing Committee decided to grant a one day only licence for July’s Tour De France and said that there could be no camping allowed on the licensable area as part of this.
However, council officers have confirmed that a deal has now been agreed withthe Caravan Club to manage camping on the site for the Tour De France. Planning legislation from the 1960s allows the Caravan Club to organise the camping without a planning application. York Council has also submitted a planning application for a new gate to access Monk Stray (from Stockton Lane) after the authority was told that it could not use an access gate on a nearby private road.
Local residents have consistently raised concerns over plans to turn Monk Stray into a ‘Spectator Hub’ for July’s Grand Départ amid worries over access to the site, parking, traffic, noise, litter, surface water and anti-social behaviour.
Russell Watson
‘People’s Tenor’ Russell Watson, X Factor favourites Rough Copy and Union J, and Kian Egan of Westlife-fame are among the line-up for a star-studded concert that will kick off a weekend of ‘Grand Départy’ celebrations in York.
Planned for the evening of Friday July 4, the Grand Départy Concert will take place at York’s Huntington Stadium.
The size of the event has raised some serious questions about potential congestion, safety and security problems.
The Council has not yet started consultation with affected local residents and businesses in the Huntington area
The diverse line-up also includes York-based singer songwriter Alistair Griffin; British pop star Eylar Fox; The Loveable Rogues; 1980s bands Altered Images, Brother Beyond and the Blow Monkeys; and vocal harmony group The Overtones.
10,000 tickets are available for the event and demand is expected to be high. Priced at £29.50 for general admission, £35 for VIP seated tickets or £100 for a family ticket (for four people), they will be on sale from http://www.ticketline.co.uk/ from Friday 16 May.
The concert is just one element of an action-packed Grand Départy weekend planned for 4, 5 and 6 July. A host of other events and attractions will be taking place at locations across the city, including street theatre and live music.
Those who want to be at the heart of the action throughout the course of the weekend should head to City of York Council’s three Spectator Hubs at Monk Stray, the Designer Outlet and Millennium Bridge, where there will be family entertainment, big screens, refreshments, merchandise and much more.
For more information about the Spectator Hubs, visit: http://www.experiencetherace.com/
An new programme which outlines some of the many cycling opportunities and events in York this year will be launched by members of York’s cycling fraternity and cycling residents on Tuesday 29 April.
Brochures have been distributed through schools and can be picked up from leisure centres and libraries. Further information and a copy of the brochure to download is available from www.york.gov.uk/cycling
The programme is a fun, friendly and exciting series of cycling and fitness activities for the whole family and forms an important part of York’s local cycling legacy which aims to increase participation in cycling. Details can now be found in a new brochure, produced by City of York Council.
The programme includes a wide variety of different opportunities, many of which are free, for residents to get on their bike and set the wheels rolling. These include local family rides, led rides for novices, older adults and those living with a disability or medical condition and the popular one-day York Sky Ride event in September.
The brochure has a useful calendar of cycling activities and includes much loved 2 wheeled events such as the annual York Festival of Cycling, Heart of York Ride and cycling taster events. It also includes introductions to local cycling groups such as the Breeze network Bike Belles groups for women cyclists, Clifton Cycling Club and the Wednesday Wheelers Cycling Group. Fantastic new cycling facilities – York Sport Village Closed Circuit Cycle Track and Rawcliffe Off Road Cycle Pump Track – are also detailed as safe, exhilarating places to cycle.
York has signed up to, and is the lead partner on, the regional Tour de France Grand Départ Legacy for cycling, Cycle Yorkshire. Yorkshire is already a great place to cycle and has a long cycling heritage with participation being above the national average and York being named as one of the best cycling cities in the county. This is a great base from which to start but Cycle Yorkshire recognises that there is still a lot of work to do. The 10 year strategy has five themes – get more people cycling, make choosing cycling easier, more events to take part in, greater awareness of cycling and cyclists and a thriving network of cycling businesses and social enterprises – all to encourage more people to cycle more often.