Month: November 2010

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Turning Circle Sir George Martin Drive

Publisher: Cllr Barry Anderson

This issue was raised at the last Adel Association Meeting. I agreed to raise the issue and set out below is the response from Highways.

“Cllr Anderson

Very disappointing, the kerb alignment reflected the desire line where vehicles had over-run the grass, not wide enough for some ! I had heard from the team on site that Buses were parking up and taking breaks in a similar position. I am not an expert on Parking Restrictions and their justification, however I consulted the guru earlier about the recommendation, his comments below in blue.

Double yellow lines in these circumstances would not be effective. This is because the drivers of the vehicles stopping in the turning circle appear to be staying with their vehicles and if a warden approached them they could simply move off. In a location fairly remote from other restrictions any enforcement would be sporadic.

Not very positive, but reluctantly the only other alternative is to look at physical deterrents.”

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Scam Alert – Water Board

Written by Publisher

Seems the scammers are out again – please can you make your friends and family aware and respond accordingly.

A man with an Irish accent aged late 20’s, short dark hair and black leather jacket tried to gain access to an older persons house recently in the Seacroft are.  He wanted to turn her “stop tap” off under the sink because he was plumbing in a neighbour’s washing Machine next door!!!!

He then tried to force his way in but was stopped by chain on door – thankfully our previous scam alerts had meant this client had kept her chain on before answering the door and she knew to call the Police.   The Police have potentially gained from prints but please can you reiterate this key message.

Please help protect people in your community by sharing this article with your friends on Facebook.

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First Bus – Service 28

Publisher: Cllr Barry Anderson

I have now received a response back from first Bus to some issues that have been raised by your Chair and some other local residents. A précis of the response is as follows:

“Metro do not take the revenue risk on anything, they could if they wanted offer Gross contracts whereby they keep the revenue and pay the operator for total costs not surprisingly they don’t do that as it would mean making up any shortfall on predicted revenue themselves.

We do have an all operator ticket in West Yorkshire its called Metro Card and offers a wide range of tickets to a substantial customer base who need the flexibility of use between operators. The Own operator tickets such as our First Day and First Week are hugely popular and represent a large portion of our revenue, people buy them, they understand them, they like them. We like them too because we keep all the revenue and there isn’t the same level of waste in admin costs surveying use and distributing revenue as there is with Metro Card. While it would be legal for us to accept each others tickets, it is illegal for us to agree the price of those tickets between us.

Simple fares project is designed to make it easy to understand the bus fare. The easiest fare would be a flat fare and this is what we were aiming to do, however when we looked at it we found that a large proportion would end up paying more and so looked at other options. The three fare option we introduced was the one with the least adverse effect 7% paid more, 7% paid less, overall to us was no increase in revenue, but for the first time the ability to market our fares.

We don’t have room in the schedule for a later last journey at the moment, I think the last time we met I showed you the loadings and described how evening trade had declined particularly last journeys, that in previous times were full, had declined dramatically over the years.”

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Turning Circle Sir George Martin Drive

Publisher: Cllr Barry Anderson

At last night’s Adel Association meeting I was asked if I would approach officers on the following basis:

One resident brought forward an issue in respect of the turning circle after the work has been done – he says that it is still getting churned up because lorries are parking there and this is causing other vehicles to have to squeeze past thereby going up on the kerb and ruining the good work that has been done.

Another resident said that sometimes there are HGVs parked there but they are dropping off supplies at the Eastmoor Secure unit and are waiting until their allocated drop off time by parking there which can’t be helped.

Most residents were non-committal on what should be done but the resident who brought it to my attention thinks double yellow lining the parking bay other than a small section for cars dropping off bottles would be the answer. Five residents agreed with the proposal for double yellow lines.

What would your thoughts be on this matter.

To read follow-up post dated 22nd November 2010. Please Click here..

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Dog Control Orders

As you may or may not be aware the Council has recently consulted on introducing Dog Control orders and a report was recently taken to the Council’s Executive Board, recommending the following:

The Project Board originally timetabled the project for delivery in 2011/12 given the potential scope and impact of some of the orders and the need for extensive public consultation. Following a request by Scrutiny Board for a quicker outcome, it was agreed that Dog Control Orders could be implemented via a two stage process in order to facilitate early delivery of some aspects of the project. Phase 1 of the project includes the following proposals:-

Dog Specified Maximum – The Council is proposing to limit the number of dogs walked by an individual to 6. Dog walking in numbers of this kind is normally done by commercial dog walking companies. This proposal is to ensure that dog walkers have full control of the dogs they walk and ensure they can pick up any faeces. This order would apply to all of the city. The National Association of Registered Petsitters (NARP) guidelines recommend a limit of four dogs. The DEFRA national guidance advises six dogs.

Dog on Leads By Direction Order – This order will allow authorised Council staff to more effectively deal with complaints about dogs which are not being kept under proper control. Such an order will be underpinned by staff guidance stipulating the circumstances when a direction would be given, for example if a dog was causing a nuisance or annoyance. This order would apply to all of the city.

Dog Exclusion Orders- This order would allow the Council to legally exclude dogs from prescribed areas. In phase one, these areas are designated identifiable children’s play areas in parks. Such an Order would reduce dog fouling and nuisance in these areas and they would have significant impact if approved. The areas in the Adel & Wharfedale Ward that are covered by the Exclusion Zone in phase 1 are the Holt Lane playground and the Cookridge Lane playground. Further areas will potentially be added in future phases once the effectiveness of Phase 1 has been evaluated.

All of these orders are enforceable in the following way- the order creates an offence which is prosecuted through the magistrates courts, with a maximum fine of £1000. There is an opportunity to discharge the offence through payment of a fixed penalty notice (FPN) to the Council. In the majority of circumstances, the fixed penalty will always be offered as a first option. Whilst there is no appeal against an FPN, the Services does receive and respond to written enquiries as if they were appeals. The enforcement of these orders will be carried out by staff that are authorised appropriately by the council and if possible, staff employed by secondary authorities.

The Scrutiny Board that I chair has recommended that the Executive Board reconsider the maximum number of dogs that can be walked at any one time be reduced to 4. The final decision on this is awaited.

I trust this keeps you up to date with matters that may be of interest to you.

Thanks

Barry

Cllr. Barry Anderson
Adel & Wharfedale Ward
http://www.barryanderson.yourcllr.com