IT IS 9.30am on a typically busy weekday in Colliergate. Delivery vans are parked half on, half off the narrow pavement, leaving little room for other vans and cars. Pedestrians regularly have to step into the road to get by.

“I nearly got knocked over,” says a harassed mum, pushing a young child in a buggy. “A lorry came off the pavement, down near the Post Office…” She draws an angry breath. “I live near here, and I’ve seen lots of near misses.”

James Alexander, City of York Council’s new Labour leader, is out on a fact-finding mission to gauge reaction to his plans to extend the pedestrian-only hours in the city centre.

At the moment, delivery vans are allowed in streets such as Colliergate up until 11am. Coun Alexander wants to restrict that to 10.30am. There may also be tighter restrictions on deliveries in the afternoon, although those don’t form part of the council’s initial plans.

Coun Alexander is here in Colliergate to find out what people think about the proposals.

The mum with the buggy is initially enthusiastic. “I think pedestrianising the whole area would be really good,” she says. “A lot of people get confused. I saw an old lady nearly run over.” But then she pauses. “The problem would be deliveries…”

Further down Colliergate, Coun Alexander introduces himself to Steve Rollinson, who is just coming out of the Post Office.

“Oh, I’ve seen you before!” says Mr Rollinson cheerfully. “You’re on the council!”

Coun Alexander explains his proposals to restrict the delivery hours in the city centre to before 10.30am. “At the moment, it doesn’t look as though the city is open for business until 11am,” he says.

With vans parked outside shops up and down the street, that is very true today.

Mr Rollinson, from Fossway, is enthusiastic. “It would be a lot easier if the council could do that,” he says, looking up the traffic-snarled street. “It’s bang on, is that.”

Glen and Heather Hughes, visiting from Newcastle, are equally keen. They love York and come every year. “But you’ve got to watch where you walk, and look about you all the time,” says Mrs Hughes. Her husband agrees. “I think you should shut the roads up more. Somebody is going to get knocked down.”

Retailers, naturally enough, are less keen.

In one shop on Colliergate, the owner is away. But the woman sitting behind the counter is happy to give her views.

The city centre, and Colliergate in particular, is chaotic in the morning, she accepts. “Everybody is trying to get in and out, and sometimes going the wrong way. I saw a car, he was going that way” – she gestures with her hand – “and everybody else was going that way.” She gestures in the opposite direction.

Coun Alexander senses an opportunity for a sympathetic hearing. “Do you notice, once the pedestrian hours have started, that you get more people coming into the shop?”

No, she says. “Mornings are quieter than the afternoons. And delivery vans have to come in some time, otherwise there will be nothing in the shops.”

She gestures out of the door at traffic passing in the street. There are plenty of private cars out there that shouldn’t be there at this time of day, she points out: and they make life very difficult for delivery drivers.

“The other day there was a big delivery van coming down, but there was a private car parked outside the shop. The poor van driver couldn’t get past. People were clapping him when he finally got through. Traders have got to get their stock in.”

The issue of private motorists driving ‘illegally’ in the city centre during pedestrian hours is a genuine one, Coun Alexander concedes.

Private cars are supposed to be banned from the city centre from 8am on weekdays, unless for access to a property or because the driver has mobility problems. But that is routinely flouted – almost with impunity. He’s keen on much tougher enforcement action, and talks about the possibility of high-profile “enforcement days” in partnership with the police to try to ‘change the culture’ of motorists who think it is OK to drive in the city centre.

The final stop is York’s iconic hardware store Barnitts, where Coun Alexander tries to persuade managing director Paul Thompson of the merits of restricting delivery times in the city centre so as to free it from cars and vans and make it more pleasant for shoppers.

He’s not against change for change’s sake, says Mr Thompson, and he thinks pedestrianisation of the city centre was a good thing. “When it first came in, a lot of people thought it would be the death of the city. Actually, I think it was the making of the city.”

He is all for better enforcement of traffic regulations to stop cars driving into the city centre when they shouldn’t. “I want people to be able to walk around shopping without cars knocking them over.”

But city-centre traders need to be able to take deliveries, he stresses – and, with the growth of internet shopping, they also need to bring vans in to carry stock out of the stores in the evenings.

Delivery drivers use Colliergate to reach shops in a wider area of the centre, and even to deliver to Newgate Market, he points out – so any restriction of delivery times could have a big impact. “That half an hour could make the different between them [delivery vans] making a drop or not.”

Mr Thompson thinks there may be a case for having different delivery times in different parts of the city centre: Coney Street, for example, is very different from Colliergate, he points out.

But the council shouldn’t rush into anything, he warns. “There needs to be proper consultation with retailers first. And you’ve got to do a survey of couriers.”


Traffic regulations in York city centre

Private cars are generally banned from the pedestrianised areas of York city centre from 8am to 6.30pm on weekdays.

The only private cars allowed into the city centre within these hours are those which need to get access to a city-centre property, or those driven by people with severe mobility difficulties. Access for such vehicles is administered by the City Centre Manager’s office – but the ban is routinely flouted.

Delivery vehicles are allowed access into the city centre up to 11am on weekday mornings, and from 4pm on weekday afternoons. On Saturday, traffic is banned from the city centre from 10.30am to 4.30pm, and on Sundays from noon to 4pm.

Labour wants to ban deliveries on weekdays after 10.30am, and is also considering pushing back the time when delivery vans can come into the city on weekday afternoons, to crate a longer period of pedestrianisation.


What they say ...

Ian Gillies, Conservative leader of the opposition on City of York Council
Sticking plaster solutions are not the way to tackle the problem of congestion, says Councillor Gillies.

He has called for traffic management in the city centre to be the subject of a scrutiny topic, and believes a complete review of traffic access is needed. That should include looking delivery times, he says – but also at better policing of traffic bans, disabled parking, possible pedestrianisation of more streets, and action to tackle cyclists who flout cycling bans. It also makes no sense to him to have so many cyclists parking in the middle of Parliament street: he’d like to see alternative provision elsewhere.

David Wright, boss of York courier firm DAW Logistics
Making deliveries into York city centre is already a ‘nightmare’, Mr Wright says. His firm makes a regular delivery to a major store in Coney Street at 4pm every weekday. “It’s an awful place to deliver. Pedestrians just don’t think you should be there.” But without deliveries, there would be nothing in the shops.

As a local courier, a 30-minute reduction in delivery times probably wouldn’t make that much difference to him. But it could have a real impact on national courier firms that stopped at York as part of a larger run. “If the time is going to be more restricted, it will make the job very difficult for them. People will say we’re not delivering to York any more, because it is too much of a pain.”

Superintendent Lisa Winward, York police commander
Vehicles driving into the centre of York when they are not supposed to be there is an issue, Supt Winward accepts. But police have to prioritise – and every officer standing on Coney Street to watch out for cars and other vehicles flouting the traffic ban is an officer who is not doing something else.

Nevertheless, she says she would be happy for her officers to work in partnership with the city council on action days to target traffic breaking the ban. “I would be more than happy to support such an operation.”

Susie Cawood, head of York and North Yorkshire Chamber of commerce
Reducing delivery times in the city centre, by for example banning deliveries after 10.30am, is a “great idea”, says Mrs Cawood. “It would open up the day for shoppers in the city centre, and make it much longer. It would say ‘we’re open for business. Anything that enhances the experience of residents and visitors to the city centre has to be applauded.”