YoCo News (January 2023)

We gathered at St Barnabas Church to talk ‘Warm Homes’ in the most arctic of conditions. It was really great to see everyone and we hope you were all warmed by the walk home, the energy of the ideas for York Central and all that solid advice about insulation and condensation – with special and big thanks to York Community Energy who joined us.

Before moving on to talk about ‘Warm Homes – now and in the future’ we did our usual monthly news round up.

General YoCo update

In early January we delivered 3000 leaflets door-to-door focused on our Open Meeting programme. There were initially a few finger injuries but a new spatula technique was developed by Day 2, following advice by campaigning aficionados on twitter. Thanks to all who pitched in with the deliveries.

General York Central Update - Development Partner

Homes England and Network Rail are currently appointing a Master Developer (to bring both funding and development expertise) for the whole site. We understand there are five in the running and this will be whittled down and a final decision made later this year.

YoCo ideas for the York Central Strategic Board

As we reported in December, we working up a series of ideas to take to the York Central Strategic Board in May.

·       An incubator to grow our own local economy

We want to create an incubator space in the Foundry Buildings, off Leeman Road. We've been working with Spark York to learn from their experience and to help us generate an initial business plan. The idea is to grow local businesses that will ultimately bring life to the street level of the development and contribute towards the local economy.

·       A Hub for Learning, Culture and Creativity for York Central

The second idea we’ve been developing is a Learning Hub, which we’ve been working on for a while (and featured in the My York Central Big Ideas). We’re carrying on conversations with Angie Padfield from York Learning as well as York Explore.

·       Feasibility study for the co-owned neighbourhood

We also want to do a feasibility study for a preliminary co-owned neighbourhood focused on forever affordable housing, local businesses, spaces for community and growing. We are interested in relatively small amounts of funding to build a development partnership and for researching and designing the economic model.

York Central Heritage Forum

Plans have now developed for the York Central Heritage Forum – strapline: Connecting pasts with futures – Linking communities of now with the communities to come – Developing local economies where tourism builds community wealth. We’ll be launching the Forum on 25th February with an exploration of York Central’s pre-railway heritage led by Andrew Morrison, Chief Executive, York Civic Trust and member of the York Central Design Review Panel and lead for Placemaking for York's Culture and Executive Forum.  Following the launch there will be a series of events exploring different aspects of the area’s history and heritage working with the big cultural players like the National Railway Museum as well as local historians and community heritage groups. Read more here and book your place at the launch.

YoCo at (or in) Big Tent Ideas Festival

Big Tent Ideas Festival is coming to York in June. Big Tent creates spaces that bring together communities, policy makers and politicians – ideal for YoCo!  We’re currently in discussions about how we can get involved. Watch this space.

The rest of the session was dedicated to exploring ‘Warm Homes – now and in the future’. Future open meetings will look at: Heritage, Co-Housing, Open Studios, Local Food and Wilding. For the full list see: https://www.yoco.uk/events