Blue Badge holders notified of arrangements for York’s Christmas Market
Blue Badge holders are being notified that the two routes into York city centre will temporarily close from 10:30am-7pm daily during the Christmas market period of 14 November to 22 December.
This will be the first such closure since the routes reopened, and access will remain open 7pm-10:30am daily.
It was agreed when these routes reopened, that at extremely busy times during major events, they would need to close temporarily. One of these times was expected to be during the Christmas markets. This formed part of the original consultation to allow Blue Badge holder access that included disabled people, businesses and residents. The closure was recommended by the city’s multi-agency Safety Advisory Group.
Taxi firms are also being contacted about this temporary change.
Cllr Kate Ravilious, Executive Member for Transport at City of York Council, said: “When we reopened these important routes, we were clear that at extremely busy times, we’d have to consider temporarily closing them. The popular Christmas markets are one such time.
“In future years we intend to find ways to enable Blue Badge holders’ access to the city centre during the Christmas market, but this requires significant forward planning with Make it York.
“We’re notifying Blue Badge holders and taxi drivers and operators well ahead of this temporary closure from Thursday 14 November to Sunday 22 December, 10:30am-7pm.
“This will be York’s first Christmas with the temporary barriers replaced with permanent barriers, now offering a safe and attractive city centre environment during a very busy period. The temporary barriers did the job but I’m not sorry to see them go.”
For more detail on the routes for Blue Badge holders, please visit www.york.gov.uk/RestoredAccess