As the winds swirl through the autumn leaves and the afternoons darken into night earlier and earlier, tuck up with our newsletter. The weather didn’t dampen the spirits on our third annual ride in conjunction with charity EMpowered People with 30 people joining in. And although in-person tickets for our AGM and talk on radical traffic planning in Ghent are sold out, you still have a chance to grab an online seat. Read updates on consultations past and present, find out how to have your say about The Groves, and learn of our overarching concern about how the Council is running the consultation process.
Letter to the COP26 Governments
York Cycle Campaign have proudly signed the European Cyclists’ Federation’s (ECF) joint letter to governments at COP26 calling on them to boost cycling levels to tackle climate change. Road transport accounts for 37% of CO₂ emissions within the York LA area, and have remained at the same level over the past decade and half even though other emissions have dropped. You can find out more, and what the letter is calling on the world’s governments to do on our website.
Cycle to Freedom: a grand day out
Some 30 people on a wide range of cycles turned out for our third annual ride with the fantastic charity EMpowered People. They pedalled 28km along the quiet roads to Acaster Selby in the morning, followed by a 12km loop of the city in the afternoon. Despite the rather damp conditions, everyone enjoyed the experience.
Local councillors Claire Douglas and Rachel Melly joined us for the day and many people volunteered to be support riders – thank you!
Roll up, roll up to our AGM: Ghentifying York
We’ve sold out of live tickets to hear Filip Watteeuw, Deputy Mayor of Ghent, explain why and how he carried out a plan to ban cars from the city centre and limit vehicle movement elsewhere. But fear not, online tickets are still available from the Eventbrite site.
Join us to learn more about what Ghentification might mean, and whether it could successfully be applied here in York.
Starts at 7pm on Wednesday 24th November so book that ticket now!
Concern over consultation process
We’re troubled by the way in which City of York Council is conducting consultations and have written a letter to the council to raise these concerns. In particular we believe that the consultation process needs to be transparent, and to give equal opportunity for all stakeholders to engage. We’ve discovered that recent consultations, including the ones for Tadcaster Road and Coppergate, have been informed by prior engagement with selected stakeholders. We don’t believe this is fair or appropriate and we are meeting with the council this month to discuss how the process might be changed.
Updates
Navigation Road
The Navigation Road LTN has now been implemented, placing a one-way except cycles filter after the multi-storey car-park. Unfortunately other originally proposed features such as the improvements to joining Foss Islands Road aren’t yet in place.
A number of members have reported regularly witnessing cars ignoring the one-way and nipping through. We’ll feed this back to the council. And please continue to share your experiences with us, and we’ll endeavour to collate feedback and pass on to council officers. You can also give feedback directly to the council at navigationroad.improvements@york.gov.uk.
Tadcaster Road proposals
The Council received over 500 responses to the consultation, and the officers will be making some design revisions as a result, although these are unlikely to address all the points we raised. The final layout will be brought to another Executive Member for Transport Decision Session for approval.
York Outer Ring Road Dualling plans
The consultation resulted in over 3,500 comments from residents and stakeholders of whom 79% supported the proposals, although there are concerns about facilities for pedestrians and cyclists in some locations, as well as the noise and environmental impacts of the scheme. The design is undergoing a few more tweaks and then will probably be submitted for a planning application.
Current Consultations
The Groves: Have Your Say
York Council is seeking views on the trial of The Groves low traffic neighbourhood. Please have your say in promoting better air quality and less, slower traffic by responding to the consultation which closes on 14th November.
Coppergate Contraflow
In response to the consultation on the Coppergate contraflow, we put forward a proposal based on what the scheme could, and should, look like if designed following guidelines from the DfT. This included maintaining and formalising the contraflow, widening the footpath and allocating more space to cycling. The consultation has now closed but you can read the Campaign’s response and how we got to this proposal on our website.
Chocolate Works consultation
In our response to the planning application, we’re asking for the walk/cycle path between the river and Bishopthorpe Road to be widened to meet LTN1/20 guidelines. Also, for the access to the development to prioritise pedestrians and cyclists as per LTN1/20. We’ll also have a few things to say about increased cycle parking for the development!
Tower St/Clifford St consultation
We’ve collated the thoughts that members shared on Facebook – thank you! And we’ve provided a whole host of LTN1/20 compliant design suggestions to the consultants. Now let’s wait and see…
Cycle Parking in York City Centre
On 11th October, Martin Herbert met with Greg Morgan, the Active Travel Transport Planner for City of York Council, to discuss changes to cycle parking in Parliament Street and its surroundings. The main goal was to discuss moving some of the current parking for the Christmas Fair and other events. You can read more in Martin’s report.
Book review: Cycling In and Around York
Radu Chirvasuta has kindly reviewed ‘Bike Rides In and Around York’ by David P Mitchell for us. His informative review is very positive about the book and outlines clearly what you can expect if you buy it. An impetus to get out and about cycling in the vicinity.
Looking Fresh
Eagle eyed members will have noticed we’ve rolled out our new logo across the website and our social media: a big thanks to Steve at SGWGD for updating the design, which will also be on our latest set of pamphlets and contact cards
Welcome Pryers
welcomed Pryers Solicitors as a corporate supporter. Pryers say they support our work to make the roads around York safer, both because of their experience helping people injured on local roads, but also because many of Pryers’ staff and their families are keen cyclists so use the roads regularly.
We’ll also be working with Pryers during Road Safety Week (15-21 November) to raise awareness of collision blackspots around York.
York Cycle Campaign 