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City of York Council |
Committee Minutes |
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Meeting |
Decision Session - Executive Member for Transport |
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Date |
16 September 2025 |
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Present |
Councillor Ravilious – Executive Member |
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Officers in Attendance |
Dave Atkinson – Director of Environmental and Regulatory Services David Mercer – Highway Engineering Design Manager Darren Hobson – Highway Regulation Manager |
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7. Apologies for Absence (10:03am)
There were no apologies.
8. Declarations of Interest (10:03am)
The Executive Member was asked to declare, at this point in the meeting, any disclosable pecuniary interests, or other registerable interests she might have in respect of business on the agenda, if she had not already done so in advance on the Register of Interests. None were declared.
9. Minutes (10:03am)
Resolved: That the minutes of the Decision Session held on Tuesday, 17 June 2025 be approved and signed by the Executive Member as a correct record.
10. Public Participation (10:04am)
It was reported that there had been four registrations to speak at the session under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.
Mark Venables spoke on item 6, on behalf of Poppleton Traffic Action Group, asking that the successful Bishopthorpe model be adopted in Poppleton and other villages desirous of a 20mph speed limit. He also asked that specific traffic calming measures be implemented.
Cllr Nicholls spoke on item 6, on behalf of Bishopthorpe residents. He supported options 3 and 5 of the report, with specific suggestions regarding where traffic enforcement should be used.
Joe Nasson spoke on item 6 cautioning against returning to a 30mph limit on Appleton Road and Sim Balk Lane, particularly around the Junior and Infant schools. He felt that raising to 30mph would concede that the 20mph limit was not being adhered to, and rather than raise the limit again he suggested that stronger enforcement of the present 20mph limit should be implemented.
Chris Polack spoke on item 6, on behalf of York Civic Trust in support of option 5. He welcomed the successful trial of the 20mph zone. He noted that government guidance was that there should not be “excessive reliance” on enforcement, but the report had supposed there should be “NO reliance” on enforcement at all.
11. Irwin Avenue Speed Management Scheme (10:20am)
The report was presented by Highways Engineering Design Manager. He explained that recent consultation had not achieved consensus, and recommended that the scheme in its current form should be withdrawn, but that the council consider this area for a future potential scheme.
The Executive Member thanked officers and expressed full sympathy with residents, emphasising that the council were still absolutely committed to creating safer streets for walkers, cyclists, and residents.
She noted that the points closure system suggested by residents would not work in the context of the wider area, but the current one-way system was also not working, due to restrictions on vehicle access. She agreed that both schemes provided some very localised benefits, but the transport strategy required more strategic, widespread benefit for the city.
Given this, and the lack of support for the present scheme among local residents, the council would instead look to include this area in the forthcoming movement and place plan for wider benefit, along with a zebra crossing application for Heworth Green/Malton Road which had been designed but was on hold awaiting Section 106 funding.
The Executive Member
Resolved: To approve Option 3
i. To do nothing and leave Irwin Avenue as existing.
ii. To commit to a future scheme to review the Dodsworth Avenue/Heworth Green junction.
Reason: The view of most residents was that the proposals do not address the main areas of concern and this would therefore be a waste of resource, with funds better used elsewhere.
12. Decision Report: Bishopthorpe 20mph Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (10:27am)
The report was presented by the Highway Regulation Manager. He summarised that this was a review of the existing experiment order in place across the village of Bishopthorpe.
He advised that this provided a review of the experimental 20 miles per hour (mph) speed limit currently, including residents’ views provided during a consultation period and speed survey data, undertaken before and during the experimental period.
He detailed the different options available regarding permanent speed limits for Bishopthorpe and recommended Option 3 - making the 20mph signed only speed limit permanent for most of the village, with the exception of three areas where compliance with the “signed only” limit had been poor. He acknowledged the points raised in public participation.
The Executive Member thanked officers, acknowledging the amount of work that had gone into recording speeds at various times, consulting residents and considering the different point of view.
She noted that across the City of York, an average of around five people every year lost their lives, and around 35 people suffered life-changing injuries, where speed was a significant contributing factor.
She stated that the impact of this, physically, emotionally and financially on those affected, emergency services and the city was unacceptable. She cited statistics from Wales and London evidencing that reducing speed has led to a reduction in casualties and agreed that doing so in York ensured a safer place for people to walk, cycle, and live. She noted that the transport strategy committed to “Vision Zero”; meaning eliminating all road deaths and taking action to reduce vehicle speeds constituted part of this strategy.
The Executive Member stated that the data from Bishopthorpe had indicated an overall a drop in speed since the 20mph speed limit was introduced, and there was a strong degree of support from the residents to retain that 20mph limit. She recognised that the compliance was not as good as it might be on three of the approach roads (with a top speed on Sim Balk Lane of over 90mph in September 2024 and 50mph on Church Lane, both in populated residential areas). She said that it was clear the 20mph signed only limit was working well in the bulk of the village but needed additional measures on these three approach roads to bring the speeds down.
She acknowledged the speaker from York Civic Trust who had noted that the local authority “decides and provides” rather than “predicts and provides” concluding that the council’s role was to create safe and healthy environments where people live, and she consequently intended to proceed with Option 5. She noted that there was £400,000 of Mayoral funding for speed reduction to implement additional measures to slow vehicles down.
She stated that she would also like to include consideration of the 30mph speed limit as far out as Middlethorpe, or speed reduction measures appropriate to enable people to walk and cycle along that road and cross the road to get to the bus stop.
She also noted that many other communities were requesting reduced speeds and safer roads, acknowledging the speaker from Poppleton. She confirmed that when Cllr Kilbane originally approved this trial at Bishopthorpe, he had made a commitment to look at Dunnington next as they were the next village that had asked for it, and she hoped to move forward on that now and establish a similar 20mph zone for Dunnington.
The Executive member thereby
Resolved: To approve Option 5 – to make a reduced area of the experimental Order permanent and allocate funding to undertake further work to reduce speeds on the approaches to the village.
Reason: This option introduces the reduced area as a permanent 20mph area whilst committing the Council to undertake further work to assess existing speeds, street character and measures, which supports the implementation of the wider ETRO area as a 20mph area with good levels of compliance.
Reallocated funding from the Mayoral Combined Authority budget will be required; the Executive Member noted that £400k funding was available.
Cllr K Ravilious, Executive Member
[The meeting started at 10.03 am and finished at 10.38 am].