York New City Beautiful report proposes a 'city of parks'

It is as if the countryside has reached deep into the heart of York; and what wonderful places these are for walking the dog, playing Frisbee, kicking a ball around, or going for a brisk jog.

Beautiful as they are, there is one thing they lack, according to Alan Simpson. There are not enough trees.

Being an academic, he phrases it differently. The strays are “desperately lacking in vertical contrast,” he says. But it is trees he is talking about.

Professor Simpson is the urban design expert whose team, at the behest of Yorkshire Forward and City of York Council, has produced a blueprint for the long-term future of York.

The vision contained in the New City Beautiful report is just that at the moment: a glimpse of what York could be like in 20 or 30 years. But at least the report, officially launched in York a couple of weeks ago, provides food for thought.

It suggests making much more of the city’s two rivers; developing a ‘rampart park’ around the city walls; restricting the number of cars; and creating a ‘great street’ that would run along existing medieval streets through the city centre.

Another key plank of Prof Simpson’s vision involves transforming York into a ‘city of parks’. The ancient strays would play a key part in that, together with a major tree-planting exercise.

Prof Simpson would like to see the strays and ings extended and connected to form continuous green corridors running from the outer ring road right up to the city walls.

They would, as they are now, be places to walk the dog, go for a bike ride, play ball games or enjoy a barbecue. He envisions them being covered not in manicured lawns, but in a mix of wildflowers and grasses, and lots of newly planted trees.

In a suggestion that is bold and likely to prove controversial, he also suggests that running down the centre of each extended stray could be a dedicated shuttle bus or tram route that would whisk travellers into the city centre from a ring of Park&Ride sites on the outer ring road in two or three minutes.

He is not suggesting slapping a major public highway down the middle of each stray, he stresses. The road or tramline would not need to be too big: they would be for use by public transport only – buses or trams, and perhaps bicycles, but certainly not private cars.

He envisages perhaps a fairly narrow blacktop road – similar to those in London’s Hyde Park – which would run the length of each stray, bordered on both sides by trees.

Other than the trees, there would be no kerbs or pavements: the road or tram route would merge into the stray itself, he says. Speeds would be limited to 20 or 25mph at most; but because there would be no hold-ups or traffic jams, journey times into the city centre would still be very quick.

“Journeys could be very fast without going fast,” he says. “It would take two or three minutes at most.”

Such journey times would make Park&Ride much more attractive than it is now, he believes – further relieving congestion.

The trees newly planted on the strays, meanwhile, would be part of a much wider tree-planting scheme that would transform inner York.

Beautiful as the city is, Prof Simpson says, it has less tree coverage than many other much bigger cities.

“York’s tree coverage is less than ten per cent,” he says. “Leeds is 14 to 15 per cent, Newcastle even higher at nearly 20 per cent.”

Such a lack of trees in York has implications for health, he says. Trees suck up carbon dioxide and produce fresh oxygen. Inevitably, in a busy urban city such as York where there are too many cars and not enough trees, there will be a problem with pollution. He has heard the junction of Gillygate and Lord Mayor’s Walk described as one of the most polluted in the country.

He would like to see at least 50,000 trees planted across York, in various locations across the city, including:

• On the extended ings and strays

• In the rampart park running around the city walls

• In the three new urban parks he envisages in the city centre – a civic park at the point where the Foss and Ouse join; a cultural park based around the Museum Gardens and running down to the river; and a ‘production park’ beside the Foss along Foss Islands Road

• In the ring of six ‘country parks’ dotted around the outer ring road which would effectively be green Park&Rides with lots of trees, plants and wildflowers

• Around the outer ring road itself – which should be more like a street than a motorway, he says, with more houses and shops fronting on to it, more exits and entrances, lots of trees, and a footpath and cycleway running alongside.

His vision of York as a park city, with fewer cars, more trees and green spaces interconnected by paths, more cycle routes, better use of the rivers and better public transport, is a long way off, he admits.

But it is intended to be a long-term goal. And he believes that planting trees might be a good place to start. There are about 50,000 households in York, so he is only talking about one tree per household, he says.

There could be a public subscription scheme to pay for tree-planting, with individuals or businesses who contribute say £500 towards tree-planting getting their names inscribed on a New City Beautiful plaque to commemorate their contribution.

He believes such a scheme would appeal to businesses and individuals who care about their city. “I’d certainly be up for it.”

Ultimately, the park city he envisages would give York the space it needs to breathe, and enable the city to make the most of its many advantages, he says. Apart from making it a better place to live, there would be economic advantages too: because a city that is greener and more pleasant is a city that will find it easier to attract inward investment and new jobs.

His report spells it out.

“York must improve investor confidence by enhancing the quality of the city centre as a place,” it says. “High-quality green space has strong environmental credentials, increasingly important to corporate policy, and contributes greatly to higher quality of life… Better recreational and commercial access to parks for amenity, leisure and business is essential for city development and strategic growth.”

• CITY of York Council is keen for people to give their views on the proposals contained in Professor Alan Simpson’s York New City beautiful report. Ultimately, what members of the public have to say will help determine which elements of the report feed into the city’s Local Development Framework, which will help shape the way York develops in future.

To find out more about York New City Beautiful, and to comment on it, go to york.gov.uk/consultation or phone community planning on 01904 551694 or 551673.

Report is ‘useful, timely and interesting’ says heritage director

THERE is much to welcome in Prof Simpson’s New City Beautiful report, said York Civic Trust director Peter Brown. But there is a lot to be cautious about, too. “Though I think the same could have been said of the Escher report.”

Overall, Prof Simpson’s report was ‘useful, timely and interesting’, said Mr Brown, pictured right.

“Useful, because it suggests some of the physical interventions which would lead to economic growth and development of the city. Timely, because it feeds into the emerging Local Development Framework. And interesting, because it makes much of present thinking… whilst providing a wider context from which to compare and contrast.”

The idea of making York a more beautiful city was greatly welcomed by the trust, Mr Brown said. His organisation supported removing traffic from York’s historic heart during pedestrian hours, and increasing the pedestrian area. It also backed Prof Simpson’s proposals on making more of the city’s rivers. “The city has for too long turned its back on these historic corridors.”

The ‘City as Park’ was also welcome, he said. “Neglected spaces like the area around the Foss Barrier and King’s Pool would be greatly improved. The York strays and proposed extensions offer a superb opportunity to reinforce the open parks of the city.”

The report’s proposals on the city centre were of “crucial importance for inner city development plans,” Mr Brown added.

Nevertheless, there were omissions. There was no reference in the report to Rowntree Park, no mention of York’s ancient snickelways, and no suggestions on a long-term plan for barring traffic from the city centre.

Suggestions for rest areas, cafés and performance spaces in the rampart park around the city walls should be treated with caution, meanwhile, and “could only make sense if traffic on the inner ring road was dramatically reduced”.

But Prof Simpson’s brief had been to be controversial and to suggest the unthinkable, Mr Brown said. “And in some ways he has done that.”

Barry Potter, chairman of the York Natural Environment Trust (YNET), said he had no problem with planting more trees in York, or with developing “quality urban parks”. And he could see the appeal of better open spaces and streetscapes in the city centre, he said. “This should all have been done a long, long time ago.”

But he said that underlying the whole report was the assumption that York needed to continue growing and attracting inward investment and new jobs to survive and compete.

He doesn’t necessarily accept that. Many of the new jobs created in the past had been to “meet the needs of inward migration”, he said. They were jobs that York itself didn’t have the workforce to fill, so they were taken by incomers, which put further pressure on affordable housing.

It is time, he believes, for a city such as York to think much more carefully about how many new jobs it can create and how many new homes it can build and absorb.

Otherwise the result will be that many of Prof Simpson’s new green spaces and corridors will be surrounded by ever denser belts of housing.

Prof Simpson disagrees.

“You’ve got to create inward investment and get jobs coming in,” he said. “Then everybody benefits. You cannot stand still. If you try to, you go backwards.”