York City Council has taken a residents first approach to improvements to a popular riverside path
Cllr Andy D’Agorne, Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Transport, will receive a report including proposals to improve the Jubilee Terrace to Scarborough Bridge riverside path.
This will be part of a report on the Active Travel Programme and will be considered at a meeting next week on Tuesday 21 March.
Last year, the council carried out extensive consultation, with in-person events held at St Barnabas church and a user survey to which 444 residents responded.
The consultation made clear that while the council had set aside £600,000 to deliver improvements to the area, it may not be possible to deliver all improvements identified by users within that budget. It said that consultation responses would be used to help the council to explore available solutions and make informed decisions about what could be done within the budget, and to apply for additional funding where necessary.
Key improvement areas for consideration included lighting, seating, security, widening or segregating the path, reducing the impacts of flooding and the maintenance of the path.
Feedback from the consultation showed that 96% of respondents support plans to improve the path, with 83% of respondents ‘strongly’ supporting.
The top three user priorities identified through the consultation are:
- making space available for different types of users (83.6% of respondents chose this as a priority)
- lighting (82.1%)
- usability during flood events (78.2%)
68.57% of respondents chose safety and security (for example, CCTV) as an area for improvement.
In relation to the top priority, consultation shows that of 2 main approaches to creating more space for different types of path users, users would prefer widening the existing route. 79.25% of respondents classed this as ‘high’ or ‘highest’ priority.
Further comments were received on topics such as:
- path maintenance
- accessibility
- resting areas
- the need to protect existing trees and green spaces
Cllr Andy D’Agorne will be asked to approve lighting and CCTV improvements to the path which can be delivered more quickly and within the existing budget.
To reflect the priorities of respondents, the council has submitted an Active Travel funding bid to the government to enable progress of the full scheme (such as widening the path and reducing flooding on the path). Subject to approval, delivery of the initial, funded improvement phase costing an estimated £210,000 will be progressed irrespective of the outcome of the active travel bid. In addition, the report recommends further investigation into areas of uncertainty, such as the flood compensation requirements and impact on trees of widening the path, to confirm costs and facilitate delivery of the further improvements.
Cllr D’Agorne, Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Transport, said: “I want to thank everyone who attended our events or responded to our consultation providing helpful feedback as we look to design and deliver the best improvements possible for this part of the city.
“Our Active Travel bid reflects the commitment, concerns and creativity of respondents and allows us to show Government the strong support for improving this path which is so important to residents.
“This update helps us to progress the project where we have funding, so we can start installing lighting and CCTV, while we await the outcome of our funding bid, which will allow us to deliver all the improvements residents have told us they want to see.”
