Issue details

Purpose of Report: As part of central government’s Future High Street Fund £44m was set aside for High Streets Heritage Action Zone funding to be administered through Historic England. The bid criteria for this funding stream was announced in May and followed an Expression of Interest (EoI) format to determine which successful bids proceed to full business case. The deadline for EoI submissions is 12 July 2019.

Following discussions with stakeholders, interested parties and Historic England the proposal identified as most appropriate for the bid criteria was a York Conservation Trust (YCT) led project to restore Herbert House (formerly housing Jones the Bootmaker), the adjacent Lady Peckett’s Yard, and the wider Pavement streetscape. If successful the project would be match funded by YCT. There is no council funding commitment associated with the bid. Should any complimentary highway or public realm improvements be identified at business case stage then there may be the possibility of existing highway maintenance budgets being applied, but this would be considered on its merit at that time through the appropriate decision making process.

If successful the YCT funding bid will secure significant national funding in to the city - matched by a third party - to restore and bring back in to full use a hugely important existing heritage building.

The Executive Member will be asked to note the council’s support as a co-signatory to York Conservation Trust’s Expression of Interest to central government’s High Streets Heritage Action Zone Fund.

The Council aims to give the same 28 day notice of non-key decisions as it does for key decisions. However, in this instance this items will not have been on the forward plan for 28 days before the decision is taken. The date of this decision session has had to be rescheduled and this is the only available date on which this meeting could be rearranged for this item to be considered.