York traffic signal reliability questioned

The seemingly endless series of faults on York’s traffic lights and signalised pedestrian crossings will be questioned at the Council meeting on 10th October.

London solution

Residents were particularly concerned when the pelican crossing on Front Street was faulty for several days last week.

The Council has not published any reliability statistics on traffic lights for over 2 years.

The response time targets for the Council’s maintenance contractor have also not been published

Cllr Ann Reid will ask the transport chief

“How many faults have been reported on traffic signals in York so far this year and what is the total time that signals have been out of service? How does this compare to the equivalent period last year?”
————————————
NB. The continued unavailability of traffic camera real time information on the Councils web site will also be highlighted at the meeting.

It is 6 months since the Council opened its new £300,000 CCTV control centre and put traffic camera icons on its web based congestion map.

In July the Council accepted that the move had been premature although the North Yorkshire Council has had similar camera access available for many years. Assurances were given that the links would go live shortly.

3 months later and the links still aren’t working.

Liberal Democrat Councillors have therefore tabled a question asking, “Why is the feed from the traffic cameras to the “itravel” York web site map still not working despite the assurances given at the July Council meeting? “

A list of all the questions submitted for the meeting can be read here: http://democracy.york.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=32384

Derisory response to Councils road gritting consultation – residents alternatives not published by Council

Only 285 residents responded to the Councils consultation on their future road gritting plans.

This represents only 0.14% of the population and is as clear an indication as possible that York residents are not prepared to answer “loaded” questions.

Only 146 responses were judged by the Council to be “valid” suggesting that many residents had simply told the Council to rethink it priorities.

Petitions, which have been submitted to the Council, have not even been recorded as having been received, while the views of Residents Associations have also been suppressed.

Although officials are recommending that some bus routes – which were scheduled not to be gritted this winter – are returned to the de-icing schedules, local residents pleas that the self help salt bin network be sustained, look set to be ignored at the decision meeting which is scheduled to take place on 9th October .

Many of the salt bins were installed by Ward committees as a result of requests by residents.

Amongst the roads reprieved in the proposals are Bellhouse Way, Ryecroft Avenue and Acomb Wood Drive which may now continue to be gritted. Click to see map

Revised gritting proposals click to see larger map

However the Dringthorpe estate, the whole of the Kingsway (West) estate, the little Moor Lane approach to Hob Moor school, Danesfort Avenue, St Stephens Road, and part of Chapelfields will not be gritted.

The Council have now admitted that the reduced number of gritting rounds will save only £20,000 a year.

This would compare to the £100,000 that the Council is planning to spend on an” Arts Barge” or the £600,000 reserved to sign new 20 mph speed limits.

Residents may attend and speak on the proposals at the meeting which is taking place at West Offices on Toft Green on Wednesday 9th October at 4:00pm..

You must register to speak before the meeting. The deadline for registering is 5pm on Tuesday 8th October 2013. Telephone – (01904) 552062 Laura Bootland.

Written representations must be made by 5pm on Monday 7th October 2013. They should be E-mailed to laura.bootland@york.gov.uk

Residents in the Middleton Road area are known to be collecting a petition this week which asks the Council to reverse the planned cuts on safety grounds.

40 residents in the Foxwood area – backed by the local Residents Association – have already submitted a petition asking for the existing network of salt bins to be retained.

First call meetings to explain new bus timetables

To ensure customers are fully aware of the proposed timetable changes, First is planning to hold the following three public drop in sessions this week at venues where some of the bigger network changes are taking place:

Haxby – Wednesday 25 September, 2.30pm-5.30pm, Haxby & Wigginton Methodist Church Hall

Acomb – Thursday 26 September – 9am-12noon, Acomb Parish Church Hall

City Centre -Thursday 26 September – 2pm-5pm, City of York Council West Offices

They say, “Further drop in sessions will take place over the next few months as First looks to make further customer-orientated network changes”.

The following internet link will take you to a full list of the service changes. http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/york/travel_news/service_updates/?item=9391&conf=0

The offer is likely to be welcomed as the precise working arrangements for the “Acomb bus hub“, and the frequency of the new service on Hamilton Drive, have raised question marks with some users?

Changes to Stonebow bus stops

click for larger map

The Council is implementing changes to bus stop arrangements in the Pavement/Stonebow area.

The park and ride bus stop is being relocated to Stonebow to reduce footpath congestion, while the entrance to Whip-ma-Whop-ma-Gate is being narrowed.

The background report says,

“The proposed alteration of the Whip-ma-Whop- ma-Gate junction will reduce the carriageway width to allow just a single exit lane. Whilst this is considered adequate to deal with traffic flows, and will bring about a number of safety improvements, there is a risk of some criticism over this change”.

No consultation with residents has taken place and he decision was taken “behind closed doors”

Friday 13th – Looking unlucky for York Council as traffic congestion and un-emptied bin problems mount

The Council’s web site crashed for a short time as problems with traffic congestion and un-emptied waste bins mount.

Click to update

A combination of the Lendal Bridge closure, poor weather and high traffic volumes is causing mounting delays on the northern by pass and the inner ring road.

Further congestion is expected tomorrow as the City hosts the “skyride”.

Meanwhile the backlog in emptying waste bins shows little sign of subsiding. There is talk of working on Saturday to address the backlog but how residents will be made aware of such a decision remains a mystery.

The local media have been strangely reluctant to report the scale of the problem pausing only to remind residents to put their bin out by 0700 hours – pretty much futile if the bins aren’t cleared for over 24 hours.

The Council is now saying “ on Friday 13th September some properties in the following streets did not have their garden waste collected as scheduled:

Poppleton – Streets and all streets off

• Station Road
• Longridge Lane
• Black Dykes Lane
• Main Street
• Ebor Way
• Montague Road
• Millfield Lane
• Beech Grove
• Westfield Close
• Willow Croft
• Hodgeson Lane
• The Green

Clifton – Streets and all streets off• Shipton Road
• Malton Way
• Brompton Road
• Rawcliffe Lane (part)
• Surray Way
• Filingsdale Road
• Eastholme Drive
• Northolme Drive
• Southolme Drive
• Westholme Drive
• Grasmere Grove
• Borrowdale Drive
• Westmore Drive
• Alwyne Drive
• Alwyne Grove
• Westholme Drive
• Potterdale Drive

Rawcliffe – Streets and all streets off• Bowness Drive
• Furness Drive
• Howard Drive
• Troutsdale Avenue
• Stainsdale Close
• St Marks Grove
• Bilsdale Close
• Manor Park Road
• Manor Way
• Rawcliffe Croft
• Eva Avenue
• Manor Lane
• Cobham Way
• Armstrong Way
• Conningham Avenue
• Village Street

We will return to these properties to make collections on Saturday 14th September. Please ensure that your bin is out by 7am as the crews will be returning early in the morning.

Tadcaster Road speed limit sign – Council explanation

The York Council has claimed that the new vehicle activated speed sign on Tadcaster Road will flash on whenever a vehicle approaches it WHATEVER SPEED IT IS DOING.

The matrix sign has apparently been installed by the Fire and Rescue Service and, although identical in appearance to the type of sign fitted by the Council on streets like Moor Lane, it is triggered by any approaching vehicle.

From observations it would seem also to be sensitive to vehicles travelling away from the sign on the other side of the road.

While the intention is to remind drivers of the speed limit on the road (30 mph in the case of Tadcaster Road), it does seem likely to cause confusion in some driver’s minds.

Many will expect such signs to be triggered only by those travelling in excess of the speed limit (as happens on Moor Lane).

The sign is likely to be in place for about 2 weeks.

A1237 to Beckfield Lane cycle path agreed in another ”behind closed doors” decision

The Council has decided on the layout for a cycle link on the A59.

No justification for the design detail has been published by the Council nor were the normal cross party consultations undertaken. The cost of the scheme has not been revealed.

The footway would be widened on the A59 from the by pass through to the Beckfield Lane junction. All crossing points at the junctions would be upgraded to allow them to be used by cyclists.

There would be some shared use paths accommodating both cyclists and pedestrians.

The cycle route connects to a proposed crossing of the A1237 before terminating at the new Poppleton Bar Park and Ride site.

A1237 to Beckfield Lane cycle path. click for larger map

Suddenly we are awash with “All York” bus ticket sales information

The Council has issued a statement saying that 12,000 “All York” teenagers’ bus tickets were sold during August.

For 12 months the Council and bus companies resisted providing any information on sales figures.

When eventually they were forced to publish them, it was revealed that sales of the taxpayer subsidised “All York” tickets were only 25% of forecast levels.

The young persons travel tickets were designed to provide cheaper fares for teenagers during the schools holidays.

The £1-30 a day tickets were a worthy project in principle which bus companies should have been happy to fund. The extra revenue, won by filling empty seats, would have more than covered their costs

However, the York Council chose to offer a 20p per journey taxpayers subsidy.

So that’s around £2,400 taxpayers have had to fork out in just 1 month for a scheme that has netted bus companies around £15,000.

One bus operator is claiming that the August sales represent a 500% increase over the previous year. Given that there wasn’t an ”All York” teenagers ticket available last year then that seems to be a spurious claim.

If the announcement heralds a more open approach by the Council to the provision of information about local bus services then that is to be welcomed.

We look forward to seeing details of service reliability published on a regular basis.

All York bus ticket sales figures finally released

12 months after a Freedom of Information request was lodged with the York Council, officials have finally revealed the number of “All York” bus tickets that have been sold.

This was the product launched in July 2012 which allowed passengers to purchase one £5 day ticket which could be used on any bus operating in the York area.

When launched, the Council said that it would spend £20,000 of taxpayer’s money advertising the availability of the ticket.

They would also use administrative staff to allocate, the fare revenue collected, to individual bus operators.

It was this taxpayer’s subsidy which prompted a request that the number of tickets sold be publicised. The Council declined to do so saying that it was “commercially confidential”.

It took an appeal to the Information Commissioner to force the release of the information.

In March the minutes of a Council bus consultative meeting had suggested that “All York” ticket sales were around “10,000 a quarter”.

In reality it turns out that sales are only about ¼ of that figure.

The total number of tickets sold stands at 10,425 which represents a tiny proportion of the 16 million local bus journeys made each year.

It looks like taxpayers have subsidised each ticket to the tune of £2.

Many people thought that the Council should have prioritised the introduction of a smartcard which would allow cross operator ticketing at negligible cost.

Steve Galloway – who first raised the issue – says, “There is nothing contained in the figures that threatens the commercial interests of bus companies. The very low sales do suggest though that the Council miscalculated very badly the number or passengers who would take advantage of a scheme which has proved to be an unnecessary burden on taxpayers.

I hope in future that the Council will be more open with bus users about service information.

They have been withholding facts about bus service reliability for over a year.

I would like to think that they would adopt a more positive approach to information sharing in the future”

(more…)

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.

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.

Cllr Stephen Fenton, Cllr Ashley Mason & Cllr Paula Widdowson

Dringhouses and Woodthorpe Liberal Democrats