Agenda and draft minutes

Residents had the opportunity to talk to Cllr Healey; Cllr Gillies; Cllr Steward; Stuart Stamper, Halcrow Design Consultants; Tony Clarke, Transport Programme Manager; Richard Wood, Assistant Director for Strategic Planning and Transport: Barry Otley, Treemendous; Julie Hood, Neighbourhood Management Officer in an informal setting.

Cllr Gillies welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced the Officers. 

He explained that planning permission and funding has been obtained for the work to go ahead, this meeting is for consultation on the highway works and to make sure residents had opportunities to ask any questions they may have.

Following the recent government approval to support funding for the “Access York” plans, Tony Clarke, City Strategy Capital Programme Manager will give an update

Tony Clarke, City Strategy Capital Programme Manager, presented information on the Park and Ride proposals. 

This is a £22m project with a proposal for two new park & ride sites, the A59 including an upgrade to the roundabout and Askham Bar. The consultation period will run through February with construction in early 2013.

The proposal is for a bus lane from Plantation Drive to Cranbrook Avenue, an upgrade to the junction at Water End and bus lanes from Holgate Park to Acomb Road and a bus stop for the park & ride at Holgate Park.  This will increase traffic flow for buses.

A leaflet has been distributed in Poppleton containing information about the upgraded roundabout, traffic signals at Station Road.  When the work is completed it is anticipated that the queue levels will reduce.

The diameter of the roundabout will be doubled, so will be similar to the size of the A19 roundabout.  There will be two lanes on the circulation, a subway for pedestrians and cyclists and speed reduction levels will be put on the A59.

The timeline for works include highway layout consultation in February 2012 with the design complete in spring 2012.  The tender process will follow in summer 2012 with the construction of the bus priority lane in autumn 2012 and the main site construction in 2013 and the opening in spring 2014.

The highways works consultation is underway, comments should be submitted before March 3^rd.  The designs will then be revised based on the comments received and the final design will be presented at the April Decision Session for approval.

There are two websites for more information

www.york.gov.uk/askhambar

 www.york.gov.uk/poppletonbar

or email accessyork@york.gov.uk

The following questions were raised:

Q.      Traffic from Harrogate has to turn right to exit; as the scheme is costing £22m would it be cost effective to include a slip road under the A59 to eliminate the need to turn right?

A.      People will be coming from different directions and unfortunately this would not achievable  within the funding we have secured. It is a good suggestion which we can look at.

Q.      How much is the subway costing, there are not many cyclists and pedestrians so it might not be used much?

A.      150 people (cyclists and pedestrians) travel across it daily.  Part of the wider transport strategy is to encourage more sustainable transport, encouraging people to leave their cars at home.  There are many residents living close by who may choose to walk to the park and ride, we need to ensure their safety.  The subway will cost between £500,000 and £750,000.

Q.      Cars back up now and there is the potential for this to become worse, are there any plans to address this?

A.      We are opne to suggestions as to how this could be eased.

Q.      Will traffic leave the roundabout at a higher speed than they do now?

A.      No, the capacity of the roundabout will be increased by widening it so traffic will leave more efficiently and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.