Gillygate Air Quality meeting 25/07/2023

I attended this meeting with Ian McNabb and Rich Hearn. We joined residents from Gillygate, Lord Mayors Walk (LMW), Portland Street and business owners from Gillygate Guest House and Love Cheese. Two representative from York Civic Trust also attended. The meeting was led by Brendan Hopkins who has lived in Gillygate House for the last 2 years. (Brendan is a company chairman with links to property, media and horse racing)

From the council side the meeting was hosted by Cllr. Peter Kilbane.(Dep Leader) Cllrs. Kate Ravillious (Env and Climate Emergency), Tony Clarke (Guildhall Ward) and Rachel Melly (Guildhall Ward) also attended. Council staff included James Gilchrist, Director of Environment, Transport and Planning, and other officers.

The session began with Brendan Hopkins outlining the problems. Air Quality worst in Yorkshire, diesel bus emissions (retrofitting engines to reduce emissions not working), stationary traffic, phasing of lights, properties having to keep windows closed, evidence of black dust on window ledges and steps, size of lorries on the street, health hazards etc. He suggested measures including stopping diesel bus access and introducing more electric buses, removing Gillygate from SatNav maps, reducing traffic flows, a campaign to persuade motorists to switch off engines whilst idling in traffic queues and looking at the phasing of traffic lights.

This was followed by anecdotal accounts from all attendees. Health issues, tasting pollution on the doorstep, children at risk from car fumes (they are much closer to exhaust pipe emissions that adults and far more vulnerable). Elderly people advised not to leave their homes at peak traffic times. Accounts of how much traffic and congestion had increased over the last 20 years. A drawing by Rich Hearn’s 8 year old son, Seth, (No11) expressing his view of the problem and action that could be taken was circulated to much approval in the room. Rich made a well researched and passionate contribution to the meeting.

The YCT people referred to their report about the problems presented by Gillygate’s traffic. (Some of us were involved in the original presentation of that report at a photoshoot in Exhibition Square some time ago) Their report suggests reducing traffic in Gillygate through a number of well researched measures, including a ‘bus gate’ (a section of Gillygate being accessible only to buses at certain times of day), no left turn from Bootham to Gillygate and LMW to Gillygate to divert traffic away.

The councillors responded by looking forward to their Local Traffic Plan, which the previous adminstration had failed to deliver to deadline 2 years ago. They said they aimed to have a draft ready for a meeting in October. If approved there would a public consultation with the earliest final approval by Spring of 2024. The implementation of that plan would of course follow over a period of time so that legal and financial plans could be put in place.

It was also disclosed that the phasing of the traffic lights on Gillygate had been changed. It was originally set to control the volume of traffic allowed into Gillygate but had been altered at some point so that it no longer fulfils that function. James Gilchrist promised to look at the phasing again to see if it could again reduce the traffic flow to limit the number of stationary vehicles in the street. Inevitably it would mean traffic would have to be held elsewhere increasing pollution in those areas – e.g. Bootham, LMW and Clarence Street. We were also told of new regulations from central government that will allow drivers who stop in a yellow box junction (as at Bootham and LMW) to be prosecuted using camera evidence. At present only the police can enforce the yellow box rules and rarely do, if ever. That may also reduce congestion.

Buses. A request was made for negotiations between the council and bus operators to use different routes and/or increase the use of electric buses. The council said there was limited scope for enforcing change on bus operators as they were independent providers of bus services. We were told that Gillygate is in a Low Emision Zone and buses have to comply with low emission zone rules although open top buses are exempt from that legislation. Enforcement is difficult and it was largely felt that some, possibly many, vehicles do not meet the low emission standards.

We discovered government limits for NO² in the air have not been revised since the World Health Organisation suggested cutting them by half. This means that Gillygate is more than 4¹/₂ times the healthy limit, which all agreed is unacceptable. Further to those figures there are other gases and particulates that exceed healthy limits.

James Gilchrist didn’t think it was possible to remove Gillygate from SatNav routes. The systems are driven by algorithms which analyse traffic flows and base their suggested routes on those behaviours. This was challenged with anecdotes from other parts of the world.

So is there any immediate action apart from waiting for the above suggestions? The challenge was thrown open to us. Could we produce signs for display locally that encourage drivers to switch off their engines whilst queuing  – perhaps based on Seth’s drawings? An appeal to protect our children rather than an order to beat drivers over the head with legislation that no one can enforce? Something for residents and others to take up.

I felt the meeting was positive, with a good reception from officers and councillors. There is inevitable frustration things can’t be changed faster but there was a commitment to change – only time will tell how much is implemented. There was some suggestion of civil action if change is delayed. York Civic Trust and some residents asked for a monthly meeting with council representatives to monitor progress and to offer further feedback. This was agreed by Cllr Kilbane.

We’ll keep you posted.

Subsequently the Councillors have issued a story apparently as a result of our meeting.

Electric vehicles aren’t the answer for cleaner air in York, says climate boss