Issue details

The public realm improvement strategy will seek to deliver on the outcomes of the Our City Centre vision, which was developed through an extensive stakeholder and public consultation exercise.

Community consultation for this phase of the project will be a continuation of the ‘My’ approach, which will provide further opportunity for the public to help inform the brief, test ideas and explore challenges together. The ‘My’ approach places the public and other important voices at the heart of the process to answer some of the biggest challenges facing the city. This approach has been adopted for other regeneration projects, generating high levels of engagement which has provided a wealth of ideas to inform the projects and improve public support for the schemes.

Whilst the boundary of the project covers only the city centre, the project will generate interest across the city and the consultation process will reflect this to ensure residents of all wards are consulted.

Accessibility of the city centre is a key focus of the public realm improvement strategy. There have already been two accessibility improvement studies undertaken for the city centre, the methodologies for which included consultation with disabled people and representative groups. These studies will be key reference documents for informing the public realm improvement strategy, and further consultation with a particular focus on accessibility will be included as part of the consultation process.

Key stakeholders and partners will be consulted through a Task and Finish Group. The consultation strategy will also include targeted discussions and consultation with focus and representative groups, including engaging and working together with representatives within the Arts, helping to secure culture and creativity in the heart of York, now and in the future.