Residents will wake up this morning to discover that the York central development has passed another milestone. It now has the necessary planning permissions to permit a start to be made on site.
A Public Inquiry will still be held to determine whether Leeman Road near the Railway Museum can be stopped up.
Overall the development should provide a welcome boost for jobs and homes in the City.
The Council has, however, failed to recognise the importance of “first impressions” and the practicalities of accessing the site by various modes of transport.
Accesses to the York Central site are unwelcoming
The proposed one way system through the Leeman Road tunnel is ridiculous. It means more congestion and a cycle ride which will be both awkward and – in wet weather – unnecessarily unpleasant.
The access from Wilton Rise is hopeless for all but the fittest cyclists and is totally inaccessible for the disabled. The promised new cycle bridge from Chancery Rise should have been incorporated in the latest planning application but no Councillor seems to have had the guts to highlight the issue.
So off to a bad start then.
Lets hope the developers come up with some solutions to these issues before the new properties are occupied.
Illustrative York Central Masterplan approved in 2019
Most attention is currently focusing on a reserved matter planning application for the site which is due to be considered by the Council shortly.
There are several controversial aspects to that plan not least some of the transport proposals. Pedestrians have objected to the loss of the route in front of the Railway Museum, while a plan to restrict access through the Leeman Road tunnel (Marble Arch) has been widely vilified.
Existing footbridge
One area that has had little scrutiny is the southern access to the site.
Currently this comprises a footbridge over the railway line at the top of Wilton Rise. It is inaccessible for disabled people and very awkward for cyclists. A proposal for a parallel access general traffic route into the site via Chancery Rise was discounted 2 year ago leaving the fate of the footbridge still to be determined.
Now the Council is being recommended to hand back the Chancery Rise site to Network Rail . They will use it to accommodate activities displaced from the York Central main development site.
Provision for cyclists is crude
A report to a meeting next week says that £6.2 million is needed to fund the southern access. That is a substantial investment in a project which has not yet been subject to public consultation or a planning application.
Papers for the meeting which considered an outline masterplan in 2019 contained little detail of the proposal (although at that time the whole of Wilton Rise was included within the development site boundary). Wilton Rise is an unadopted highway
The current retained matters planning application pointedly has a boundary which excludes consideration of issues relating to the southern access. Nor is any mention made of any ramp within the application area which would be necessary to gain access to the foot/cycle bridge or of reserved links to the new infrastructure and spine road.
The man concerns though will be about what happens on the Wilton Rise side of the railway line.
If the Chancery Rise land is taken out of the options list, then the only possible footbridge access would be from Wilton Rise or the Cleveland Street area.
Such an access would require substantial ramping and could conflict with the indicative master plan agreed less than a year ago.
The Council needs to be more clear about its plans and hoped for milestones on the southern access.
The preferred option for an access bridge into the York Central site will cost between £33 & £43 million. The route will pass next the Millennium Green, but efforts are being made to minimise its impact.
The new route will effectively provide a by-pass for the Salisbury Terrace/Leeman Road housing area.
The compromise is described in a Council report published today following a period of consultation.
The report is good news for campaigners in the Holgate Road/ Wilton Rise community. They were set to be hit hardest by an access route using Chancery Rise. The Labour council bought the land that this route would have used in 2013 but offered little consultation with nearby residents. Quite how much this blunder has cost taxpayers is unclear at this stage.
So, fare around £3.7 million has been spent on planning work for York central plus site purchase of this £2.3 has come from York taxpayers. Now taxpayers are to be asked for a further £1.9 million to take the project forward.
In addition, the Council is being asked to find 3200,000 towards the costs of an expansion of the Railway Museum. The Museum hopes to invest around £50 million in their project
Following a “Master Planning” exercise for the site, a planning application is expected to be determined in Oct 2018
Consultation on access routes for York Central startedin the last decade (see below)
Residents preferred access option location (Water End) remains the same!
Public consultation – York central access options 2007
