Photomap

[UPDATE: Response added 3.11.22 - at end - from CYC about the non-feasibility of a motor traffic-free route to/from the hospital]
[Image taken 2.11.22] Denning’s Yard Access, (Crichton Avenue/Wigginton Road) York. The restrictions on sightlines, the very narrow pavement (pavement width here: #187626, #187627), the lack of protection from turning vehicles as you cross in this direction - with your back to vehicles... Yet the options for getting to/from the hospital, for example, and Crichton Avenue or the car park on the other side of this junction (62 Wigginton Road goo.gl/maps/2oUu2gv6NnqtoP7u5) are very limited. A CYC employee mentioned there was a plan to create a motor traffic-free link from the hospital to, where? Foss Islands Path? Denning's Yard? If it were Austrian/Dutch/German standards of usability this would be a game changer for everyone needed to get to/from the hospital and this end of town or areas such as Clifton/Rawcliffe/New Earswick... The rail line is a physical barrier for the communities either side. UPDATE: CYC response from 2.11.22: "We did look at several options when developing the route between Bridge Lane and the Foss Islands Path. These did include a potential route through the hospital site running parallel with the Scarborough Railway Line and joining up to the Foss Islands Path via the remaining track-bed which runs just north of the rear gardens of Murrough Wilson Place. Unfortunately this route did not prove to be feasible for numerous reasons:
The hospital wouldn’t support it for several reasons, mostly related to security (it would run down the rear of their site and would have easy escape routes for criminals, their clinical waste store is also located at the north western corner of their site immediately next to the potential route) and patient privacy ( the route would be very close to the maternity unit and children’s wards), they also didn’t want to lose either the row of trees screening the hospital from the railway line or a significant number of parking spaces. Their Nutrition and Dietetics building and some utility plant also blocked a potential route along the western boundary at the southern end.
The residents of Murrough Wilson Place had major concerns about establishing a route at the rear of their properties and the potential increases in crime or anti-social behaviour which may have resulted.
The police also had concerns about the hospital’s security, the safety of users of the route (especially during the hours of darkness) and rises in criminal activity along the route.
At about the same time that we were looking at the north-south route the hospital were putting together plans to build their multi-storey car park. We managed, through the development control process, to get the hospital to provide the route which runs parallel with Wigginton Road between Bridge Lane and the toucan crossing. The section of on-road route was provided by removing the hospital access which used to be in place between the two mini-roundabouts (see Google Streetview images from March 2010), and also by changing the eastern kerbline between Fountayne Street and Vyner Street and removing the parking bay from Wigginton Road opposite Vyner Street.
Whilst on-road facilities are less attractive than off-road alternatives we didn’t really have much option once the potential route to the rear of the hospital site was abandoned as undeliverable. Work on developing the long-awaited York Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan is starting imminently and will inevitably be looking at key strategic routes of which Wigginton Road will be one so may be able to suggest viable alternatives to our current provision. The York Cycle Campaign have already indicated that they wish to be on the LCWIP Stakeholder Advisory Panel so will be heavily involved in route identification.
The potential development of the Dennings Yard site will encroach onto some of the old rail trackbed land which Sustrans own but as a route through to the hospital has already been dismissed as unfeasible this is less of an issue and presumably discussions must have taken place between the potential developer and Sustrans about sale of the land anyway."
Other image here today and links: #187371.