THE visionary behind York’s New City Beautiful masterplan has backed The Press campaign to get York Moving.

However, Professor Alan Simpson warned York needs to get moving with its adoption of a city strategy before it is likely to succeed in getting funding.

The urban design expert whose New City Beautiful blueprint for the city was put to City of York Council’s executive earlier this month, urged the city to decide its overall strategy before it could expect to receive public funding for specific projects.

The New City Beautiful masterplan outlines a car-free York with more trees, more parks, and a “great street”, as well as revamped riverside areas and better linked bar walls.

Prof Simpson said the Access York scheme was an essential component of the New City Beautiful masterplan and the connections from the outer ring road to the inner city were central to the working of the whole plan.

He said: “It’s very important and it was a very central part of the New City Beautiful report for York.”

But he urged York’s businesses and politicians to work together to quickly agree on the broader vision for the city to put it in the position to make a successful bid for the scheme.

“Cities bid for enormous amounts of money to do things often without a clear plan as to how they are going to do it. One of the reasons I was asked to produce this document.

“Cities that do succeed in these bids would have had some kind of strategy in place that puts the whole thing into context.”

He said Park&Ride was not the only ingredient, but sat alongside the “great street” and York Central and the other parts of the broader strategy for the city.

He said in particular the city should have a complete idea of how its route system will work, and bid for the Park&Ride detail as part of an overall strategy.