York gets more government money to improve transport

sectors_transport

City of York Council has been awarded an additional £100,000 from the Department of Transport, towards the city’s i-Travel York initiative.

Many residents will hope that the funding is used to repair faulty “real time” information systems indicating the Variable Message Signs on the City’s arterial routes as well as the car park availability information which has disappeared from the Council’s web site.

One of only nine local authorities to receive the funding, York successfully won the financial backing following a bid in November 2013 to deliver the government’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund project ).

This council’s i-Travel York initiative was launched in 2011, made possible by £4.6 million of government funding which the council successfully bid for in 2011.

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£200,000 for Tour de France pothole programme

The Council has revealed that it is spending £200,000 filling potholes and resurfacing the roads over which Tour de France competitors will ride in July.

Vesper Drive residents pitch to have their cul de sac resurfaced

Vesper Drive residents pitch to have their cul de sac resurfaced

Competition for the funding is hotting up with some residents (right) spotting an opportunity to get much needed road repairs completed.

The Council has now cancelled the meeting which was to have considered how the supplementary highways resurfacing budget will be spent. No explanation has been given and no new date, for a replacement meeting, has been offered!

Meanwhile the Council has said, in response to a Freedom of Information request, that it still plans to accommodate 800 caravans and 2000 tents on Monk Stray over the tour weekend (5th/6th July).

There is some concern that the “slimmed down” City of York Council has agreed to a programme which is does not have the resources to organise properly.

Only a handful of Councillors have been briefed on the detail of what is happening (or not happening)

Cllr Merrett sacked from transport role

Dave Merrett has been sacked from his transport responsibilities in York.

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

He has been heavily criticised for poor execution of traffic restrictions on Lendal Bridge and more recently for an email exchange, about the controversial introduction of wide area 20 mph speed limits, in which he abused Opposition Councillors.

He will retain his Cabinet pay as he takes over responsibility for environmental services. He will also be responsible for York’s Local Plan – another shambolic situation.

He is replaced by Cllr Levene who recently was forced to announce a budget overspend on ice clearance last year despite having had the mildest winter on record!

Tracey Simpson Laing is also demoted losing responsibility for health matters.

The Council Leader has said the changes have been made as he “didn’t want to lose control of the Council in the 2015 local election to a LibDem/Tory coalition” (!)

Merrett 20 mph private Emails published

Minster FM have published details of private Emails exchanged by Labour Councillors over plans to introduce 20 mph speed limits across York.

In the Emails he tries to inflame opinion by calling for letters to be sent to the local paper – and to be posted on its web site – labelling opposition Councillors as “Ludites”.

It appears that the Emails were sent using Council facilities which breaches regulations forbidding the use of equipment, paid for by taxpayers, for political purposes.

The Emails reveal that the main road trial 20 mph limits have been ineffective, that accident levels in other City’s which introduced wide area 20 mph levels have increased and that there is a lot of opposition to the idea in York.

In released pre publication officer reports to Cllr Semleyn – a paid 20’s plenty organiser – he urges her to mobilise support.

The revelations are bound to increase pressure on Cllr Merrett to resign from his Cabinet post.

Labour highways maintenance scam revealed.

Labour are planning a “surprise” announcement next month, when they will “reveal” that they will spend an additional £2 million on highways resurfacing during the next financial year.

Highways expenditure Click to enlarge

Highways expenditure Click to enlarge

The announcement will be in response to the pressure, put on them by residents and the Liberal Democrats, who have criticised the cuts made in road and footpath repairs budgets over the last 2 years.

In total, £4 million has been cut from the repairs budget in an attempt to find funding for schemes like the repaving of Kings Square and the, largely unnecessary, £1 million street lamppost replacement programme.

Now Labour – for one year only – hope to return the budget to the £5.5 million level that they inherited from the last LibDem administration.

However, they intend to pay for the programme by borrowing more money. Already residents are facing over £1 million a year extra in interest payments – making Council Tax rises inevitable.

The figures also reveal that investment on de-icing roads and footpaths has fallen by more than half since Labour took over. Fortunately we have – so far – had a mild winter but we may not be so lucky in future years.

Free City centre car parking on Saturday

Car park Richard iii

All council owned car parks are offering free parking all day and evening on Saturday 1 February 2014.

Thirteen car parks will be free to use for residents and visitors to help them enjoy York’s vast city centre offering.

The car parks that will be free to use on Saturday 1 February are: Bishopthorpe Road, Bootham Row, Castle, Castle Mills, Esplanade, Foss Bank, Haymarket, Marygate, Monkbar, Nunnery Lane, Piccadilly, St George’s Field and Union Terrace.

The initiative aims to counter the decline in shopper numbers in the City centre following the closure of Lendal Bridge.

The Council is already forecasting that it will be £200,000 under budget for car parking income this year.

Government announces more vehicle recharging points for York

Eight new rapid chargers for electric vehicles are to be installed  in York, following an announcement from the Department for Transport today that an additional £244,500 funding is to be made available to support a national ‘ultra low emission vehicle’ campaign.

car recharging point

The new points can charge an electric car in around 20-minutes and will be located at Park&Ride sites and convenient locations across the city including the new Sports Village.

This means that electric vehicle drivers can travel around Yorkshire and be confident of being able to charge up their batteries quickly and at low cost. Electric vehicles can run for as little as two pence per mile and pay nothing for road tax.

The take up of electric powered vehicles in York has been slow.

More about existing electric vehicle charging points in York at itravelyork.com

City centre paving consultation

The York Council is delivering a leaflet to all households outlining its plans for resurfacing works in the City centre.

Exhibition Square plans

Exhibition Square plans

They are right to do so but, in pointing to improvements planned for Exhibition Square, Blake Street and Fossgate, they lamentably fail to answer the question that will be on every taxpayer’s lips.

How much will these paving schemes cost?

There is little new in the leaflet.  The Labour Council changed the Council’s forward programme in 2011 putting the modernisation of Kings Square ahead of the Fossgate pedestrianisation scheme which had been set to go ahead in 2012.

Next in line were to have been improvements to Duncombe Place, which could have provided a large and useful pedestrian precinct.

But the Councils increasing financial problems meant that progress would inevitably have slowed.

Residents might usefully have been asked when completing the “on line” survey whether they want any of these schemes to go ahead or whether the money might be better spent repairing the roads in sub-urban areas?

The danger in the Councils approach is that the improvement of the City centre may become politically toxic.

Against a background of plans for a further £1 million cut in road maintenance in sub-urban areas, residents are likely to demand of Council candidates – at the next local elections in 2015 – a commitment to improving public service standards in residential areas.

The City centre may find that its share of available resources is reduced.

More problems for York real time traffic information site

Click to visit site

Click to visit site

The much publicised, and very expensive, ITravel web site – launched at the beginning of the year by the York Council – is still plagued by gremlins.

 

It was heavily criticised for not providing the kind of real time traffic congestion camera input which has been widely available elsewhere for over a decade.

The responsible Councillor promised in October that this feature would be available within days.

But now the interactive map has crashed altogether and does not provide any information at all about car parks, road works etc.

It is an embarrassing “fail” for the City in the busy run up to Christmas and may have contributed to the sometimes chaotic traffic scenes which arose during the St Nicholas Fayre period.

Many private cars were seen using Lendal Bridge during restricted hours over the weekend suggesting that some may pay more for their Christmas shopping trip than they were anticipating.

York £83 million transport bid

The government is consulting on a plan to establish a West Yorkshire and York “Super Council”.

The plan could “unlock” a £1 billion transport investment fund for the region as the coalition government pursues a policy of devolution. York might expect to get between £5 and £10 million a year from the devolved transport budget.

The York Council hopes to get £83.5 million in total for major infrastructure from a new “pot”.
Nortern by pass congestion

Of this, £37.6 million would be spent on the northern by pass (not enough for dualling. Would just mean larger roundabouts).

York would be contributing up to £4 million a year into this “pot”. This is additional unbudgeted expenditure and would mean an increase in Council Tax levels and/or the introduction of new/additional charges

The report being considered tomorrow singularly fails to address the financial disadvantages of “pooling” transport income streams. Even the scale of the risk remains unclear.

Under the current proposals, drawn up by Labour Local Authority Leaders, York would not be a full member of the new authority and would not have voting rights.

The key question to be answered therefore is whether the new arrangements will be better for the people of York?

Or are they just a way of underpinning a “high growth” approach to the future of the City? That’s the 25% increase in size during the next 15 years advocated in the Local Plan published by Labour in April.

A West Riding, Labour, dominated super Council would not automatically be any more sensitive to the needs of a City like York than would the present decision taker who is bunkered in Whitehall.

The Authority would be ruled by a Quango. There is no mechanism for giving residents a say in the running of the new “Council”.

With local elections only 16 months away, there is a worrying absence of broad consensus across the political spectrum on whether, and on what terms, participation in the “Super Council” should be pursued.

Views must be sent to the government collaborate@communities.gsi.gov.uk by 2nd January 2014.