Our streets and public spaces support many different needs.
They are places to:
- live, work and enjoy
- settings for businesses and events
- routes for everyday journeys
- an essential part of the city’s heritage and identity
Since its founding in the first century, how we use and move about our city and its public spaces has been constantly evolving.
Reimagining York gives us an opportunity to ensure that the city continues to be a thriving place for decades to come.
Using funding from York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority (YNYCA), we're progressing 3 connected pieces of work, to deliver a joined-up approach to how we move around and use different parts of the city.
Find out about:
- key parts to the Reimagining York programme
- the current phase of Reimagining York
- background shaping Reimagining York
Key parts to Reimagining York
We have received funding from the YNYCA Mayoral Investment Fund to develop three key areas, these make up the Reimagining York programme.
The programme will deliver 3 key outputs:
- A Movement and Place Plan: will consider the appropriate balance of transport and use of public spaces to define how our streets and transport networks should function across the whole of York, from our villages and rural areas to our suburbs and city centre.
- Improving Our Public Spaces: develop a framework for the city centre’s public spaces as well as concept proposals to improve Parliament Street and other key public spaces in or close to the city centre.
- A new Highways Design Guide: to provide developers and City of York Council with clear guidelines for designing and delivering new streets and public spaces, and inform changes to existing highways.
The 3 parts of the project are at different stages, but they are closely connected.
Reimagining York will provide an early opportunity to apply emerging 'Movement and Place' principles to some of York’s most important public spaces.
In turn, the practical work on these spaces will help inform the city-wide Movement and Place Plan.
The Highways Design Guide will ultimately become part of our planning policy to ensure a consistent 'York-focussed' approach is taken to design principles. Revisiting the old Highway Design Guide gives us an opportunity to take into consideration changes to national guidance in recent years.
Current phase of Reimagining York
We’ve learnt a lot from our everyday work across the city as well as several significant public consultations in recent years. We know that residents and businesses would like to see real change, and Reimagining York is our opportunity to take everything you’ve told us, and put it in to practice.
After we have completed the initial phase, we'll bring our proposals back to residents and businesses for public engagement.
Background shaping Reimagining York
York’s new Local Transport Strategy was adopted in 2024 and established the ambition for a healthier, more sustainable and better-connected city. It recognises that transport affects much more than individual journeys. Based on feedback from consultation with thousands of local people, businesses, organisations and groups, it established principles that will shape and influence public space, air quality, health, heritage, accessibility, social inclusion and the local economy.
The Our City Centre Vision is a 10-year strategic vision for the centre of York. This was developed after listening to your views as residents, businesses and visitors through the My City Centre and Our City Centre engagement between 2021 and 2023.
The Highway Design Guide sets out our approach to development within York. However, it's currently suspended, due to changes to national and local policies and guidance.
A number of strategies have also been developed since our earlier engagement that will help inform the Reimagining York programme:
- Climate Change Strategy
- Health and Wellbeing Strategy
- Economic Strategy
- Council Plan
- Adopted Local Plan, and plans for a new Local Plan