Agenda item

Item: Bus travel consultation – Guy Wallbanks and Shimin Ruan

·      Interested in people’s thoughts, experiences, can fill in survey, email comments, leaflet and info available.

·      Cycle route map also available

·      Research about women’s bus travel and safety

·      Bus shelters – too dark/ too wet

·      What put people off from using buses

·      What makes buses more accessible

·      Asking women to share their experiences

Resident asked if this is part of the Bus Forum

Response – manager attends those meetings and will be reporting all comments to CYC and top issues to the bus companies

Council bus service improvement plan is about making the improvements people want to see happen.

Resident asked about Clarence Gardens – what are next steps? 200 people responded, could have working group?

Response –  will be contacting local groups and active people. Those who filled in survey could give email address for updates. Next steps will be about involvement, experts, experiences (other examples etc)

Resident asked about bus shelters and the contract – would they be replaced and removed, as if bus shelters disappear, communities would be without.

Response – JC Decaux has the contract for bus shelters. They were contracted and responsible for maintaining bus shelters and used them for advertising. That contract ended recently and the contract went out to tender and now a different company has won the contract.

Resident asked about corporate magnets and will flimsy existing bus shelters be retained, as feels community needs more bus shelters and more rain shelters.

Response – CYC used to provide the bus shelters, then JC Decaux took over (the contract). They had to replace and fix any broken shelters and they owned all the shelters. This will now be a new contract with a new company, there could be new shelters.

Resident – how to get a new shelter put in or an extra shelter

Response – CYC review of all existing bus stops and shelters, including CYC-provided bus shelters and stops. All shelters will now be included in the general contract. We will look into this more and follow it up and pursue an update and resolution.

Resident – Thanked the council for Huntington Road disabled bus access. Asked for electronic bus signs (that list the next bus) on stops without shelters. Also asked how electronic bus service info signs are prioritised

Response – CYC and the bus services monitor and report info. The most-used stops tend to get shelter. Then, in general, city centre is prioritised for electronic signs and then higher-usage stops come next. They also consult with Bus Forum and Park and Ride services with real-time displays.

Resident - Closure of Huntington Rd and Haxby Rd is a rat-run – turn right and can’t see, had an accident, and near the flowerpots on Stanley Street. What are you doing about this?

Response – we know this is an ongoing concern. We were elected in May 2023 and we know residents have shared this concern with us. We can raise it again and see what we can do such as take pictures, look at it, consider household removal van issues and turn corners. There’s also the traffic department under enormous pressure.

Resident – St John’s Street has resident parking permit. News about ‘ re-introducing paper permits?’ People have been parking on their street and sometimes the parking warden comes by, sometimes issues a few tickets. But despite this, residents still feel that people are parking there who shouldn’t be.

Response – Resident parking scheme is currently all-digital, with the exception of people who have difficulty using computers. Can’t know if cars outside house have permit or not. Cllrs said they opposed it then and are trying to sort it now. There will be changes to the res parking process and the software. With parking issues, the wardens receive many calls to check – we are looking into parking warden response time and visitor permit process.

Resident asked: Do we challenge parking ourselves? We really need a visible permit in the car.

Response – various obstacles exist to this – GDPR, listing people’s addresses, personal details of where people live. We are still trying to resolve this and seek a solution though.

Resident asked a question about Monkbar car park and Electric Vehicle charging points

Response – The delay is because the firm still need to get their permits. It’s messy with weeds and debris. It still might be a while until it’ll be sorted. No timeline yet, we as Cllrs have just been told it is ‘iminent’

Resident asked about parking meters and sones in the Groves and mentioned there are people without the parking app. They also raised concerns about increases in parking charges.

Response – with cash parking meters, there are issues with theft, vandalism, then manual collection of the parking meters which adds significant staff resource. Card parking meters need people to have a bank account or credit/debit card, which not everyone has either. Most of the parking meters are ‘headless’ across the city. Some of these are half-owned due to land and ownership, but it’s been a while now since the top-halves were removed. All CYC parking will be discussed in the Budget. The Transport team and strategy is based on what charges ‘should be’, not just increasing them for inflation. As a result, some (charges) have gone up a lot, some have only gone up a little. Cheaper parking rates on the outskirts links to the council encouraging active travel. Lower prices incentivises use of cars. Council parking is being standardised to be easier to use.

Resident asked if short-term parking could be free to support local shops for example £1.20 an hour climbed to £4.80 an hour could harm local shops. Resident felt that the Groves was not mentioned in recent parking report.

Response – we raised this. The Groves will be considered along with all the other parking areas across the city. The £4.80 charge results that the bus is cheaper than car. The Minster badge resident discount badge increase to 30% (had previously only been 10%) and can buy online for £45 for 2 years. This is to off-set the impact to local residents. Happy to have a public meeting and see impact of this parking data from telephone lines parking and bus operators’ data in terms of the numbers of people driving/taking the bus.

Resident asked about parking wards and their office hours of patrol and response, e.g. Sunday church services require pay £10 parking?

Response – additional session and resource allocated to problem areas. Resident parking hotline is available.

Councillors thanked everyone for their attendance at the meeting, for their efforts and for coming. They asked if there are any other questions

Resident asked about the gates at Bootham car park opening and closing

Response – aware of the issues, thank you, looking into it.

Resident asked about drug taking in the Groves and solution of cutting shrubs, copses and bushes

Response – make sure to report those incidents to council especially needles/drug paraphernalia.

Resident asked about Rights of Way on cycle routes

         Response – written agreement, more info available on iTravel York website.