Experts brought together to revive central development

A TASK force is being launched to help transform one of Britain’s largest brownfield sites after the search for a developer for the 1bn project was halted last year.

A team of experts is being recruited to draw up a blueprint for the development of the York Central scheme, which became a high-profile casualty of the recession in the autumn.

York Council has been working alongside the regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward, to get the project back on track, and plans have been announced to carry out the development in a series of phases.

Talks were held last week with the landowners of the site, including Network Rail and the National Museum of Science and Industry, which is the parent body of the city’s National Railway Museum.

York Council’s chief executive Kersten England said: “The council and its partners are committed to the York Central project and the meeting of the steering board was highly productive. York Central remains a very important site, not just for York, but also as an asset for the prosperity of the region. We will continue to work with Yorkshire Forward and the landowners to ensure that this regionally important site can be progressed.”

A new Urban Renaissance team, which is being funded by Yorkshire Forward, will now work with the council to develop a framework for developing the area, which will increase flexibility to respond to changing economic circumstances.

The search for a developer for the York Central scheme was halted in September last year, prompting concerns over the future of the scheme.

It had been hoped that as many as 9,000 jobs would have been created during the next 20 years under the development, which was seen as key to driving forward Yorkshire’s economy.

The regeneration of the site, which covers about 85 acres of land around York’s railway station, had been heralded as a “once in a lifetime opportunity” by York Council leader Andrew Waller.

The project had been due to run in tandem with a nearby development site which has been vacant since British Sugar’s factory closed with the loss of more than 100 jobs.

The two sites cover about 185 acres, although York Central’s developer would only have been responsible for about half of this.