Bricknell Avenue grass verge protection

John Fareham and John Abbott have arranged for further protection to be put in place for Bricknell Avenue grass verges. A small amount of our community funding will go on paying for the transportation of rocks in storage in Cropton Park and their installation at the run-off area at the Fairfax Avenue lights and at the turning point further down. We have also made arrangements with the officers for grass seed to be sown around the rocks when they are in place and when the risks of road users making further ruts in the carriageway have been attended to. The Council’s attempts to economise include a new rule that no money can be spent without first authorising it via the purchase-order system, which means that it could be a week or two before the rocks are in place, but when that happens ruts at these points in the central reservation will be a thing of the past.

Slingsby Close pavement resurfacing

John Fareham and John Abbott have secured the partial resurfacing of Slingsby Close pavements. Naturally we take the regular and adequate maintenance of pavements more seriously than certain elements of the corporate centre do – our budget proposals, for example, have often proposed more funding for carriageway repairs than the proposals of others. Noticing the state of parts of Slingsby Close pavements, we referred the matter to the officers who concurred with us that something needed to be done. The work has of course now been carried out but we will take any further steps necessary to ensure the state of your pavements is consistent with public safety should problems with the state of your pavements arise again.

Fairfax Avenue grass verges

John Fareham and John Abbott are working to resolve problems with road users driving across grass verges on Fairfax Avenue. When the bollards were originally installed the corporate centre disregarded our clear advice that the layout of the bollards needed to take on board precisely this possibility. The verges now have the ruts in them to prove that we were right in the first place about needing to prevent drivers from cutting across the grass to get at the shops. We have therefore made the problem clear to the officers and will continue to press for action to fix something the corporate centre should have got right in the first place.

Bricknell Avenue traffic vibration

John Fareham and John Abbott report that work has been carried out by Council workmen to reduce vibration caused by traffic to some houses on Bricknell Avenue. As local residents have seen, a compressor device was brought to Bricknell Avenue and used to compress part of the carriageway where surface irregularities were causing properties to shake when heavy traffic passed over them. Local residents have contacted us to report a marked and, we hope, welcome reduction in the level of vibration but we are aware that there may be further problems elsewhere on the Avenue and we will continue to press for action until we are sure all the problems that were causing properties to shake have been resolved.

Latest on YPI floodlights

John Fareham and John Abbott report that an Official Caution has been served against the YPI for leaving its floodlights on too long. The caution relates specifically to the all weather pitch’s floodlights being on in breach of the Enforcement Notice between 24th and 30th November. The manager of the YPI said that the floodlights are now controlled from a locked cabinet inside the boiler room and the external switch has been boxed in so those playing on the grounds cannot fiddle with the switches. Both we and the officers hope this will prevent any other occurrences of extra time with the lights on. There is a separate issue with the lighting on the all-weather tennis courts – the planning conditions relating to this are being checked so that those lights can also be switched off at the appropriate times.

Slingsby Close turning circle

John Fareham and John Abbott are working to secure double yellow lines to keep Slingsby Close’s turning circle clear. After representations from local residents to the effect that this measure was needed, we contacted the officers about the possibility of a Traffic Regulation Order to keep the turning circle clear of parked cars. The corporate centre’s response was to say this was possible if it could be funded out of our community initiatives funding. Leaving aside how well or badly Bricknell Ward does out of the allocation of such funds in accordance with criteria set by the corporate centre, or whether this could have been handled more simply when there were locally devolved highways budgets, we take the view that, as it was the Council that set out Slingsby Close and set the diameter of its turning circle when Bricknell Estate was first built, it should be the corporate centre and not the ward members who pick up the tab for any TRO that may be required. We will of course continue to press this point until we get a result.