Andy D'Agorne

Its that time of year again when everyone wants to know why the council hasnt done more to make the roads and pavements safe. 'The worst weather in 20 years' is the latest excuse - well it could well be the longest continuous spell below freezing after a significant snow fall I suppose. What is particularly annoying is the fact that even once the main roads have been gritted and there has been no new snow the pavements, cycle routes and side roads outside the city centre are left to become sheet ice. As a so called 'cycle city' it really isnt good enough to completely ignore cycle and walking routes until local councillors and residents complain in sufficient numbers, but that seems to be the current situation. Added insult is caused by the fact that a large proportion of grit bin locations were deleted two years ago to save money because they werent used (on account of the mild winters). In Fishergate we agreed to use ward funding to retain one in Danesmead at the point where there is an incline on the only road out of the estate. We have also funded an extra one at the end of Maple Grove after we were told it was not possible to add the nearby cycle route to the primary gritting route list.  This has been used to good effect in the last fortnight after residents found the frozen road and paths ignored in spite of complaints to the council.

Having elderly visitors, and discovering how treacherous it was underfoot getting from the bus stop to our house, I spent a couple of hours with a shovel removing the ice. That did make it safe for a couple of days but now it has snowed again so the whole process of compaction, melting, and refreezing starts again. What is more the fresh snow will hide some patches of ice underneath them now so it is going to be even more of a game of roulette getting to the shops.  

Its been rather quiet on this blog of late because I have been on a 'trip of a lifetime' to Cuba in the 50th year since the revolution, taking part in the International Choir Festival in Santiago de Cuba as a member of Sheffield Socialist Choir. As well as being a cultural exchange and an opportunity to experience first hand life in a country that has held out against capitalism and US domination for 50 years, we visited schools and hospitals taking donations and equipment. The US economic blockade that is still in place means that most links are now with Latin America - oil from Venezula is exchanged for doctors and medical expertise from their excellent health training and research. All indiginous plants in Cuba are being analysed for their medical potential and infant mortality rates are now the lowest in Latin America.

We also took donated musical instruments to the Music school in Santiago and met with members of one of the choirs there to exchange songs. Our prime performance on the Saturday night in Sala Dolores will go down in history as one where an English choir kept going in spite of adversity.... Shortly after beginning our set the whole concert hall with 250 audience was plunged into darkness - there are no windows in the building and no emergency exit lights! After a minute or two of confusion we said we would continue our performance as long as a torch was shone onto our conductor held by our tour guide! We then performed a somewhat menacing song (from Haiti about slavery) in total darkness before the lights came back on at the end of the song.

Salsa dancing and listening to bands in places like Casa de Trova and Casa Traditionales featured in our visit, along with tourist activities like swimming -pool and beach (even me!), visiting the Museum of the Revolution, Moncada Barracks and going in a 1950's Chevvie for a tour of Havana. Food for a vegetarian is somewhat limited so fish was part of my diet on a regular basis. The transport arrangements were fascinating- converted 1950s lorries and bendy-buses to transport the masses plus cycle rickshaws, tuc-tucs, horse and trap, etc. Lots of the old cars operate as unofficial taxis and everyone other than self drive hire is required by law to give lifts to people who wait on street corners - motorcyclists carry a spare helmet at there now seems to be strict wearing of motorcycle helmets. Bikes of course are different, mostly carrying two people without helmets, one riding 'side-saddle' on the rear rack or the crossbar! 

Meeting up with other choirs and visiting the university and hospitals did mean that we got to talk to some Cubans about their lives, breaking down the 'tourist'/ cadging local relationship experienced on the street. Security services were visible on the street but not overly intrusive. There are still checkpoints (with 'control' boxes) on the main highway from Santiago to Havana but we didnt see any vehicles being stopped. Each community had a 'CDR' which is the mechanism by which local people influence local and national policy - its very different from our local government and general elections, but it is a form of participatory democracy. Certainly they seem to have a system that makes the most of limited resources and shares them out fairly among the population. This sits rather uneasily with tourism being a major earner, given the vastly different lifestyle - for example all government buildings were instructed not to use air conditioning to save energy, yet hotels have it as standard (for which we were very appreciative in the 32 degrees and humid conditions!) With all that sun, it was rather disappointing to see very little in the way of photovoltaics to power all that air conditioning, even with the most modern of hotels.

On Thursday I attended a Parliamentary reception (as York's Cycle champion) in the House of Commons for representatives of the different towns and cities receiving Cycling England funding. The setting was all very grand, and it was nice to hear some positive examples of places like Cambridge and Darlington where it has been shown that cycles can safely be allowed into 'pedestrianised' shopping areas. But I was somewhat disappointed that there were no 'papers' contact lists or anything much apart from a 'networking opportunity' and a few short speeches after the tea and sandwiches. All in all it seemed a bit of a missed opportunity, although I did manage to have a longer conversation with key council officers from York about progress on the projects in the pipeline - like when will be get to see the options for Fishergate gyratory, currently a traffic nightmare that creates hazards for any cyclists and air quality dangers for local residents and the school.

Next week the police will be launching their initiative to warn about the need to use lights for winter cycling. Bizarrely, the cycle champion cant be invited to the media launch (even though I very much support it) because the council rules ('media protocol') only allow the Executive member to feature in photos - even the council leader (who does cycle, perhaps more frequently than the Executive member) has been told he is not welcome!

Cross party line up- myself (Green), Cllr Vassie (Lib Dem) and Cllr Merritt (Labour) at the 'peoples park not car park' stunt on Lawrence St on Sept 22nd. No animals or motorists were harmed, but real turf was used prior to being destined to refurbish Anna's lawn. Although a model car with a genuine freshly purchased parking ticket was parked at the corner of the parking lot there was no encounter with any parking wardens who might have checked that the ticket was still current!

Not even one irrate motorist can be reported and Messrs Vassie and Cossham safely leafletted numerous drivers waiting opposite in the queue for the lights. Anna turned up and did a bit of juggling before networking with anyone who was not yet aware of her book 'Cutting your car use' or had somehow failed to get a 20's plenty sticker from her already. The lady in the green jumper in the photo from Radio York found plenty of people willing to explain, live on air, what it was all about.

The man from the York Press stayed for an uncommonly long time, waiting for something really newsworthy to happen, declining offers of croissants and coffee. Eventually he had to make do with an improvement in the lighting conditions as the bright sun/shade turned into flatter lighting of a cloudy sky The York in Transition website may by now have on it a video clip of me explaining why it was such a 'good thing' and clips from the other people there on the day. Meanwhile on Fossgate the traders campaigning for it to be made traffic free finally got their way, for the day at least with only pedestrians and cyclists being allowed to use it. Not quite the same as closing Lendal Bridge for the day as Cllr Vassie had proposed, but Rome wasnt built in a day (and Fossgate isnt a bus or emergency service route!) Next year York is going to be hosting the Car free cities conference, so we need to get planning now as to how the success of this year can be followed with even more people going car free for the day.     

On Sept 10th (or this week if they have a postal vote) residents of Heworth ward have a choice of six parties to represent them on City of York council. On past performance two out of every three will not take part in this decision. Of those that do many are thinking of switching their vote as a protest at the MP's expenses scandal. Our first past the post system means that Labour is trying to convince people that they have to carry on voting Labour to 'stop the Tories' (who were second last time), the Lib Dems have been trying to convince people that they are the only party opposed to development on the Green Belt (when as the ruling party it is the Lib Dems who will make the decision!) Tories are just appealing to their core vote on the usual law and order, cut waste and keep council tax down ticket. Greens have highlighted a range of issues, notably the problems of traffic speeds where we actually agree with Labour on the need for area wide 20mph in residential streets. The Lib Dems have done a survey with the options carefully chosen misrepresenting the 20's plenty approach so that they can demonstrate support for 20mph 'only where accidents show there is a risk from speeding vehicles' (evidently its is more dangerous to be hit by a car at 30mph on some roads than on others!!) So far the Greens havent been mentioned by the other parties (as they evidently dont want to draw attention to our chances as the 3rd placed party last time, well ahead of the Lib Dems)

The only window posters on display so far are Green Party ones, so most supporters of other parties dont appear to want to admit to their support! Well see what happens on Sept 10th!