Themes covered by engagement
We discussed a variety of 'themes' as part of Our City Centre York conversations relating to the 'open brief', including:
- every space matters
- a varied high street
- markets
- events, experiences and investment in public spaces
- embracing our riversides
- heritage and our modern city
- family friendly city centre
- evening Economy
- making tourism work for York
- city living
- arriving in the city centre
- a city for all
- technology
- carbon and climate
Each theme brings about 'key questions', which the Our City Center York Vision will aim to address.
Every space matters
Inevitably, the impact of COVID-19 has resulted in empty buildings and spaces throughout our city centre. The sharp rise in online shopping is predicted to continue beyond the pandemic, so it’s important to take this economic trend into account when planning the reinvigoration of our city centre in the short and longer term.
On a more optimistic note, the success of York:Spark – the community space located in Piccadilly and home to small independent businesses, including street food, bars, retail, co-working spaces and entertainment – has created an appetite for similar independent and pop up locations around the city. While the development does have detractors, there are many respondents who believe it offers something different and positive for York, a place for entrepreneurs and changes Piccadilly for the better. There is also an opportunity to occupy vacant properties above new shops now adorning the high streets, providing more space to live, work and play in the city centre.
When asked in the My City Centre survey, residents’ preferred uses for converted empty spaces in York to be retail start-ups (71%), creative spaces (58%), homes (42%) and leisure (41%), which provides a balanced mix of exciting new opportunities for our city centre. Similarly, comments on social media showed support for up and coming retailers. Residents felt that there was a need for more ‘independent boutiques’ and ‘everyday’ shops, which would help to provide a more varied retail offer.
Key question
- How can we encourage temporary and pop up uses of empty buildings and spaces to provide opportunities for retail start-ups and creative spaces?
A varied high street
A varied and vibrant high street should provide everything needed to enjoy living in and visiting York’s city centre, from retail and shopping opportunities to health and wellbeing, banking and places for communities to meet and play.
When asked about their current needs from York’s city centre, 34% of survey respondents said they do not feel it meets their needs during the day. A shortage of shops was the main reason cited. When asked what they would like to do in the city centre in future, the top answer was to have access to a better and wider range of shops, particularly independents, which is consistent with our resident engagement around making the best use of empty buildings and spaces. A specific example of this was an overwhelming majority of survey respondents (93%) citing that they would like to see areas like Coney Street and Davygate used for smaller, independent retailers.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, 32% of respondents also said they expect to use the city centre less than they did before the pandemic. Key reasons for this are concerns about the number of people in the city centre, and the ‘fact’ lots of shops in the city centre have closed. During the pandemic many York residents changed their habits to shopping locally or online.
Key question
- How can we encourage residents to return to the city centre and support smaller, independent retailers?
Markets
Marketplaces in a city centre can act as a vibrant hub of activity for residents and tourists alike. Our engagement highlighted valued suggestions for the city centre, such as indoor craft markets, artisan stalls and more street food vans, as well as looking to other market-led cities and towns such as Shrewsbury and Leeds for ideas and improved infrastructure.
It was also suggested for the current market to be moved back to Parliament Street to improve footfall and increase trade for market stallholders.
Key question
- How do we make sure markets thrive at the heart of york’s city centre, and serve the diverse audiences that visit it?
Events, experiences and investment in public spaces
Events are an important part in York’s calendar for residents, visitors and the local economy. The My City Centre vision aims to broaden the range of events hosted in the city to appeal to more audiences and communities, while spreading them out across locations to make sure the benefits of increased footfall can be felt all across the city. This includes the option for free events for residents, improving our outdoor infrastructure and extending our summer calendar of events.
The Museum Gardens was by far the most popular public space amongst residents engaged with, and the most highly rated for events, with 80% rating it as excellent or good. 71% also said theatre, arts events and festivals added value and benefits for residents and the wider city. Despite this, less than a third of York residents had ever visited Bloom!, the Mediale arts festival or the White Rose festival.
Key Question
- How can we create and support a diverse events calendar that appeals to both residents and visitors across all areas of the city?
Embracing our riversides
Our riversides are a cultural asset to York’s city centre and help to attract over 7 million visitors each year. Despite its appeal, currently our riverside area is underused, which presents lots of exciting opportunities for improvement, such as floating art installations and riverside walks. It’s also important to note that any activity surrounding riversides also needs to be managed effectively to ensure it remains a safe leisure space for residents and visitors of all ages and abilities to enjoy.
York riverfront was the image that residents felt best represented modern York, chosen by 49%. 53% of residents feel that activity along the river would make the city centre a more attractive place to live.
Key question
- How can we maximise the safe use of our riverside to continue attracting residents and visitors into the city centre?
Heritage and our modern city
As a medieval city, there is a delicate balance to be found between maintaining our history and moving with the social and economic times we live in. The My City Centre vision aims to retain York’s historical charm, while creating new and interesting spaces that add to our cultural appeal, focusing on our future as much as our past.
The highest proportion of our residents (55%) feel that the best way to improve York’s heritage assets is to change the way we use space around them.
Key question
- How can we adapt and maintain city centre function while maintaining our historical assets that attract residents and visitors into the city centre?
Family friendly city centre
It’s an ongoing ambition for York city centre to be a family friendly location for residents and visitors during the day and into the evenings. Currently, a lack of play opportunities and welcoming environments for children, like Spurriergate Centre (which is currently closed), limit our appeal to younger families. This was consistent with social media engagement and the My City Centre Voices video with York Mumbler. There are however opportunities to improve the quality and number of family locations across the city centre, with ideas such as table tennis, skateboarding, soft play and events for younger individuals to be considered.
Currently, 63% of residents we engaged with feel welcome and safe in the city centre during the daytime, but this falls to only 35% in the evening. The primary reason for this is the amount of drunken behaviour, frequently attributed to groups travelling into York for the sole purpose of drinking, often starting at lunchtime on Saturdays. This is one of the main reasons residents felt York is not always family friendly, with one resident describing it as “a hostile environment for children”.
Only 30% of residents had taken their family for a day out in the city centre in the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, a lower proportion than any other activity, and only 23% planned to visit the city centre in the evening to attend a family-friendly event. However, only 28% said that more family-friendly spaces and activities would make them more likely to visit the city centre more often in the evening.
A lack of suitable toilet facilities was also referenced as a barrier for families visiting the city centre, particularly those with young children.
In addition, Emily Pickard (York Mumbler) also ran a poll on the York Mumbler group asking the question whether ‘York city centre was family friendly’. Over 600 people responded to the poll. A large number of respondents (81%) didn’t think York city centre was family-friendly.
Key questions
- How can we identify and fulfil more family friendly opportunities and facilities to encourage residents to engage with the city centre more as a family?
- How can we improve awareness of our existing family friendly activities, facilities and spaces to residents and visitors?
Evening economy
The way we spend our free time in the working week has changed since the pandemic. 32% of residents expected to be using the city centre less than they did before the pandemic due to increased home working. 41% also said they planned to have less evenings out to pubs and bars in the next 12 months compared to life before COVID-19.
Only 18% of York residents visit the city centre most often during the evening, both during the week and at weekends. When asked what would make residents more likely to visit the city centre more often in the evenings, the top answers were markets and shops open during the evening (49%), more free events (48%) and different or more varied events (47%). The Footstreets hours extension was an important factor for 41% of respondents.
This feedback provides us with exciting opportunities to create a broader range of evening activity beyond drinking and eating, utilising museums and art gallery spaces, hosting concerts and extending retail hours for evening shoppers, to name a few.
Engagement also showed that residents are concerned about the number of drinkers frequenting the city centre on an evening and the antisocial behaviour issues associated, with some suggesting enhanced security, particularly for large groups visiting the city, often for stag and hen parties.
Key questions
- How can we create and support more evening activity in the city centre to attract residents?
- How can we ensure large parties visiting to drink can enjoy the city safely without causing disruption to other visitors and residents?
Making tourism work for York
Tourism brings important income into our city and generates hundreds of jobs for our residents. Recent figures show that York received 8.4 million visits in 2018, bringing an economic value of £765 million. The sharp reduction in visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly impacted our local economy which continues to recover as lockdown measures are lifted.
Recognising the importance of tourism to our city, engagement highlighted a concern that York residents perceive that the city centre primarily caters for people visiting for a night out (80%) and people visiting for a day out (77%) Only 36% felt that jobs in the hotel, hospitality and tourism sector add value and benefits for residents in the wider city. This is consistent with previous years’ engagement where the city was thought of by residents as putting tourists ‘first’.
When asked what the most important community issue was, residents were most likely to mention the influx of visitors to York on a weekend to drink, and the need to get the balance right between catering for tourists while ensuring York remains an inclusive and safe space for residents. This is consistent with the feedback shared around our current evening economy.
The My City Centre vision will look to improve the experience for residents visiting the city centre, including events like our popular Residents Weekend or more regular concessions for local attractions and trips to the theatre, for example. There’s also an opportunity to streamline tourism footfall and flow throughout busy areas of the city centre for ease of access for residents, which could also include preferential parking rates for affordability.
Key questions
- How can we balance the needs of residents and tourists so both groups can enjoy regular access to the city centre?
- How do we attract tourists who come to enjoy the city for reasons other than drinking and celebrations?
City living
City-centre living is desirable for many, with a number of survey respondents saying they’d like to see more affordable accommodation built in and around the city centre. When asked what services the city centre needed more of to make it a more attractive place to live, the highest proportion said parks and open spaces (62%), closely followed by free to use activities (61%). This engagement provides lots of new ideas that could add to the vibrant atmosphere for residents, from community barbecues to events in green and open spaces, as well as the opportunity to shop for local produce at neighbouring shops and markets.
The sharp increase in student accommodation close to the city centre was also referenced, with the shared perception that students have an unfair advantage to live in the city centre with all of the new student properties being built, while other younger residents cannot due to cost and availability of suitable rental properties.
Key questions
- How can we encourage diversity and a sense of community for all who live in the city centre?
- How do we improve the attractiveness of living in the city centre with the current limit on green space and our heritage assets?
Arriving in the city centre
Resident access to the city centre needs to balance the needs and safety of a multitude of groups with varying circumstances, from commuters, cyclists and disabled users to residents who live outside of the city centre who are unable to travel in by foot or bike.
When arriving in the city centre, walking is the preferred mode of travel (47%), followed by car (23%) and then cycling (15%). Residents told us that cost is the primary barrier to using public transport to access the city centre (42%) and not feeling safe is the main barrier to cycling (37%), as well as the lack of secure cycle parking.
One of the main things residents want to be able to do in future is to walk around the city centre feeling relaxed and safe – various factors are currently impacting on this ability including traffic, cyclists, and large groups who are often intoxicated.
More affordable parking was frequently requested during engagement, with the perception that inflated prices accommodate tourists but deter residents from driving into York’s city centre. This was also a view shared with those working in the city centre and therefore footing the expense of needing to travel into the centre daily in the week. Contrary to this request, a high volume of cars accessing the city centre was listed as a concern for residents, who would like to see this significantly decrease to improve safety when walking and in a bid to reach the city’s climate goals.
Access to the city centre will be addressed in further depth as part of the City Centre Strategic Access and Parking Review. The open brief and emerging ideas from this review will also be published and engaged over ahead of recommendations to Executive.
Key question
- How do we balance the need for different access routes for all modes of transport into the city centre for our residents and businesses?
A city for all
There are a diverse range of communities in York, some of which find access to the city centre more difficult than others. Opening up the city centre for all communities and removing barriers where they exist will better meet the needs of our residents, while improving the social, cultural and economic vibrancy of the city. The needs of all of the communities living in and visiting our city may be conflicting, so the My City Centre vision will look to deliver the best outcomes for all. This includes the physical accessibility of key spaces around the city, as well as reviewing and adding to our infrastructure to adhere to Dementia Friendly standards and our continued ambition to become an Age Friendly city.
Engagement also highlighted possible improvements to the affordability of the city centre for all income groups. As mentioned in Arriving in the city centre, cost is the biggest barrier to using to public transport to access the city centre. Cost of transport/parking and cost of going out were also listed as barriers to using the city centre more frequently in the evening. Engagement suggested more free events would make 47% more likely to visit the city centre more often in the evening.
On living in the city centre, affordable housing was raised as one of the “other” responses to the following questions: “While new planning laws will limit our powers to influence development of empty buildings in the city centre, what type of use would you like to see empty space converted into?”, “What services would the city centre need more of to make it a more attractive place to live?”, “What is the most important community issue for you?”. 19% of survey respondents also said would like affordable homes to be built in the city centre, and 55% would like a mix of housing including affordable homes.
Key questions
- How do we balance the need of York’s communities to allow ease and safety of access through the city centre?
- How do we ensure York is an affordable place to visit and live in for all income groups?
Technology
The main ways digital/technology could improve residents’ experience of the city centre include real time information about transport (65%), the promotion of events and things to do (57%) and telling stories of our heritage (37%).
Key question
- How do we improve our digital presence to provide our residents with information and culture about our city centre?
Carbon and climate
As a city, York has ambitious climate targets. In 2019, we announced a Climate Emergency and have since set an ambition for the city to be a net-zero carbon city by 2030. We recognise the threat of climate change at both a global and local scale, and we're committed to delivering bold, local climate action to deliver economic and social benefits, including new green jobs, economic savings and market opportunities. This will be a consideration throughout all the themes considered and discussed in My City Centre engagement.
When asked in the My City Centre survey, just over half would like the council to focus on cycle routes and cycle parking (55%) and bus improvements (54%) in order to meet its climate goals.
The My City Centre vision must also reflect the climate ambitions and options set out by York residents. In a recent Our Big Conversation survey, a large number of residents (56%) agreed that the council should employ carbon offsetting in order to achieve zero carbon by 2030.
In addition, local residents were also asked ‘what objectives should be the most important parts of the city’s Climate Change Strategy?’ 74% of those surveyed felt that an ‘efficient and affordable transport system’ should be an objective. 43% of respondents felt that the ‘creation of new employment/investment opportunities’ should also be an objective.
Also see
Our City Centre York
Delivering a new vision for York’s city centre