MAKE It York is celebrating its first anniversary - and three hundred business and cultural leaders gathered at the Royal York Hotel yesterday to hear how the destination management organisation has performed in the first 12 months, and what it is planning to achieve in its second year.

IT'S been one heck of a 12 months for York - and Steve Brown has given stakeholders a candid 'warts and all' account of how Make it York has helped steer the city through some choppy waters.

The destination management organisation was launched one year ago to bring together the work previously delivered by Visit York, Science City York (SCY) and City of York Council’s inward investment, business support and events and festivals teams into one new company. Its aim was to help improve the city's economic well-being.

No one had any idea then that York was to be struck by the devastating Boxing Day floods, delivering a major blow to the city centre's economy, with 200 businesses directly affected when the Ouse and Foss rivers burst their banks, and many more subsequently suffering from the knock-on impact of negative national publicity, which deterred tourists and shoppers from visiting the city in January and February.

Mr Brown said his organisation had acted swiftly to ensure flooded businesses got the support they needed, with 162 across York and North Yorkshire receiving flood recovery funding worth £487,000.

Its Visit York arm had also worked successfully to woo back tourists who were given the impression by national media coverage of the floods that York was not a place to visit, and tourism was now virtually back to normal.

He said tourism supported 20,000 jobs and was worth £600 million to the city, and Visit York had organised 100 media visits and received 450,000 customers at its visitor centre in the past year.

He conceded there had been negative headlines for Make It York, on issues such as proposals to remove the fountain in Parliament Street and the re-location of the city centre Christmas carousel (John Warrington is pictured below with his carousel at the Eye of York) and it had also faced a continuing challenge in turning around the Shambles Market. 

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But turning to the positives, he also reeled off a list of achievements for the city which Make It York had helped to make possible.

New festivals and events had been introduced, including the Great Yorkshire Fringe in July, the new Easter Festival and a much extended York St Nicholas Christmas Festival, which had all proved hugely successful.

A new Inward Investment brochure was launched last month and was currently being distributed to 2,000 potential investors in the UK and overseas, and Make it York was now launching a new website.

The UK’s first Guild of Media Arts had been formed, along with a new Media Arts Award and a new Digital Adventurers initiative for young people. A new annual Cultural Awards had also been launched, with the first event to be held on December 1 with actor Mark Addy as its patron.

Looking ahead, Mr Brown said Make It York would have ten strategic priorities in 2016, which included making a step-change in the image and performance of Shambles Market, supporting the city's new Guild of Media Arts to deliver the Mediale in 2018, working with universities and colleges to assist student recruitment and enhance the student experience in York, and providing tangible support and encouragement to the cultural sector.

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Its imperatives were making progress on the market, making proactive inward investment, making Mediale a reality, creating an 'exceptional Christmas and supporting York’s small businesses.

He revealed that Make It York was also working with York Museums Trust on a bid to bring the Tower of London ceramic poppies art installation of 2014 to the Museum Gardens next year. "It's a long shot but if it comes off it would be fantastic," he said.

Meanwhile, the audience was also given an update by Andrew Lowson, executive director of York's new ‘Business Improvement District’ (BID) He said the vote by businesses in favour of setting up a York BID showed there was a real willingness to proactively get involved in the city’s future.

"Through consultation, businesses have already stated where they want improvements and we’ll be learning from other successful UK BIDS," he said.

"We want a city centre that is competitive whilst pleasant to live in. Working collaboratively with Make it York will be crucial in making the right decisions for businesses in York."

He said the BID's four programmes were to improve the appearance and environment of the city centre, strengthen its safety and security, support events and festivals and provide support to businesses.